Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 522: Millennium Chess Game
The so-called struggle in troubled times is nothing more than a chess game played by those in power.

During these two thousand years of turmoil and strange tranquility, the Chen family thought of countless ways, but they had only one goal, which was to ensure that a long-term stable and prosperous era would come to China.

So, how can we ensure the existence of a long-lasting prosperous era?
In the eyes of successive heads of the Chen family, if one wants to maintain long-term stability, one must first have a solid political system and foundation - this is what the Chen family gradually established over thousands of years of hard work.

There is no restriction except for the person sitting on the throne.

The officials of the central court were divided into three large departments and thirty-three small parts with the "three provinces and six ministries system" as the core, forming a total of thirty-six parts as the core of the ruling class.

Among them, the three ministries of the past have gradually evolved into three offices with "Zhongshutai, Shangshutai, and Menxiatai" as the core, which are responsible for the operation of Fengtian Palace and the emperor's will and re-reviewing it; secondly, there is the "Fengtian Palace Grand Secretary", an organization with no rank but a very high status. It discusses countermeasures with the emperor and implements a "hub" in a sense; finally, there is the large body of the court composed of thirty-three departments. These thirty-three departments are formed together into a standard configuration. After they are combined, they form an invisible third department-the Ministry of Officials.

The political system gradually stabilized.

And throughout the world, the technologies produced by academies of science and research institutes can continuously ensure that people’s lives are always at their peak.

These are the results of Chen's efforts over thousands of years.

Now, there is only one uncertain and unstable "unstable factor", that is the emperor sitting on the throne - is there any restriction on the emperor? Yes, but there is only one, that is Chen. However, based on the stability of most cases, Chen will not easily take action against the emperor or refute the emperor's intentions, unless he really threatens the safety of the people. In this way, the emperor has too many small opportunities to change some relatively small things.

These small things, when finally gathered together, are enough to change the course of history.

This is what Chen does not want to see.

And now, when history has once again come to such a cycle and returned to such a circle, everything seems more peaceful, and an opportunity has appeared in front of Chen - this opportunity was created by Chen himself.

So they ignored the so-called rebellion.

Chen needs an opportunity, a chance to put everything back on track as it should be.

Chen Ke slowly stood up from the courtyard with a slightly relaxed look on his face.

He turned his head, his back to the moon, and then sighed softly: "I hope that the long-lasting and unstoppable prosperity will come to this world as soon as possible."

"I can't wait."

"Chen can't wait any longer."

Three years, three years, and three years again, day by day the autumn wind blows.

Three years have passed since Ling Yun and others rebelled and proclaimed themselves emperors. During these three years, the Song Dynasty changed its emperor, but this is not important. The other so-called independent empires have also changed their emperors.

This...is also not important.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat in the courtyard, surrounded by his brothers. All of them had eager looks on their faces. They hoped that Zhu Yuanzhang could make up his mind as soon as possible.

"Brother, they can all become emperors, so why can't you? Aren't you doing better than them?"

There was a hint of reluctance on Xu Da's face. He really wanted Zhu Yuanzhang to become emperor. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he would at least be a duke. Who wouldn't be jealous?

But Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent for a long time, and only sighed faintly: "It's not the time yet."

He had a guess in his mind, but he didn't know whether it was correct, so he kept waiting. Other people must have had doubts about this guess, otherwise how could they have allowed the Song Dynasty to catch its breath for three years?
They are all waiting, waiting for the emergence of a person, or a family, or an organization.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked in the distance, his eyes struggling: "Wait! Just wait!"

"I've never lost a bet before! I definitely won't lose this time!"

When the fallen leaves in the wind brought the scent of hometown, the winter of that year had completely passed. On the first day of spring, Chen led all the family members to offer sacrifices in Guandu City. A series of magnificent auras slowly descended from the sky and then covered the entire Guandu City.

This aura is invisible and intangible. No one can see it, no one can stare at it, and no one can truly feel it. There is just a vague feeling in the heart.

Immediately afterwards, Chen announced a major news - or rather, Chen and Zhao jointly announced a major news.

The Zhao family followed the example of the Li family and announced that they would give up the throne. Then they returned to Shangdang and continued to be the Shangdang Zhao family instead of the royal family.

Moreover, Chen announced that anyone who wanted to become the emperor, or wanted to become the "Zhao" of that year, could go to Kyoto. They would discuss a solution acceptable to everyone in Kyoto and then decide on a new emperor.

In the residence

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news from his subordinates, his worries were finally slowly put to rest, but what followed was an even more helpless sigh from deep in his heart.

He understood what Chen meant and also knew what the consequences would be if he did this.

It all seems like a conspiracy, which has led the people of the world, all ambitious people in the world, step by step to this point, a point where their resources are shackled.

How long did Chen plan this?

It has been a long time, at least it started planning during the time of Zhang Annian, the Emperor Wansui in the last years of the Dayu Dynasty.

This plan has lasted too long and has become so ingrained in people's consciousness that it is impossible to extract it.

The Wansui Emperor Zhang Annian was the first move of Chen. Was it an attempt by Chen? Or was it an unintentional move? But in short, in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, whether the move of the Wansui Emperor was intentional or unintentional, it was the most critical and important move.

Because this is where it all begins.

Emperor Wansui broke the sacredness of "imperial power", and it was he himself, the emperor himself, who broke his own sacredness. Then came Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty. On that rainy night, the countless bright red blood was probably what Chen felt could be sacrificed.

The night of heavy rain shaped a brand new empire, but also showed that the emperor could be killed, could be forced to abdicate and killed, and that blood would be shed. He was not a god, not a saint, and certainly not the so-called Son of Heaven.

After Emperor Wen of Sui, this situation progressed more slowly but more firmly.

It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the Chen family perhaps sensed the right opportunity, so they came up with a lot of technology and cooperated with the then Emperor Taizu of Tang, Li Shimin. Technology instantly swept across the entire Central Plains. Under such a violent impact, people's gradual shallowness towards imperial power was no longer worth mentioning and did not even attract everyone's attention.

Later, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Chen family launched the final attack on the emperor.

That is to turn the "emperor" into a "thing" that can be controlled by humans, rather than someone who is high above.

Why do you say that?
Because in the late Tang Dynasty, that is, during the Song Dynasty, and the current system of selecting emperors. Yes, selection.

Yes, the system.

When the first founding emperor of the Song Dynasty was no longer "purely defeated", but Chen gave a question to several candidates and whoever completed the question first would become the emperor, the emperor had become something that could be regulated by the institutional framework and selected artificially.

This is another move by Chen.

Step by step, the world gradually followed Chen's chess game and slowly but firmly walked on this path. No one could stop it, and no one was willing to stop it.

However, at this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was somewhat shaken.

Why did Chen feel so firmly that he would not change? Although they had never changed in the past two thousand years, as long as there was a change, they would instantly dig out their own rotten flesh like killing viruses.

In Chen's eyes, everything can be sacrificed for the people, including the next heir of Chen, the next head of Chen, and even the head of Chen.

Yes.

One of the evidences that the Chen family is not sacred is that a certain head of the Chen family behaved very well before he became the head of the family, but his true colors were revealed after he became the head of the family.

However, before this man could take advantage of Chen's power and bully others, the head of Chen family suddenly changed, and no one in the Chen family had any objection. It was as if that ambitious man disappeared from this world and was never seen again.

If Chen can even sacrifice the head of the family, what can't he do?

But Zhu Yuanzhang was still curious.

Why are they so sure? So sure that there will be absolutely no problems?

But no one could answer this question for him.

This spring, flowers are blooming and warmth comes again.

It was also in this year that Zhu Yuanzhang officially proclaimed himself emperor and established the Ming Dynasty. He then led some guards to Chang'an City together with Chen Youliang, Ling Xiao, and Liu Fa.

This magnificent and huge city carries countless memories and history.

Yes.

It was still in Chang'an City, not in Guandu.

Inside Fengtian Hall
In the magnificent palace, four candidates for emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youliang, Ling Xiao and Liu Fa, were sitting there. Chen Youliang had his eyes closed, and so did Zhu Yuanzhang. However, the two young men, Ling Xiao and Liu Fa, were looking around impatiently. Their gazes finally fell on the throne. Looking at the throne, they had excitement on their faces and were slightly out of breath.

Who doesn't want this position?

In other words, if you didn't want this position, why would you come here?

"Tap tap tap——"

Heavy footsteps sounded slowly, and then a figure walked in slowly with a somewhat peaceful look on his face.

It was the current king of the country, the head of the Chen family, Chen Ke.

Chen Ke looked at everyone, smiled slowly, and said softly: "I am very honored that you can come here."

"A new empire is about to be established. To become the ruler of this land, the requirements and conditions are also very ordinary."

"But before the empire is established, there is still a lot of preparation to be done."

He waved his hand, and several attendants carrying maps appeared behind him. Then Chen Ke walked forward slowly, looked at the feng shui map and said, "There are four of us here. It just so happens that there are foreign enemies in the southeast, northwest and northeast of the empire."

"To the north, that huge country launched an attack on the Song Dynasty, trying to take the vast sea back into their hands, and then invade the empire's Arctic islands."

"In the south, the Strait is surrounded by countless unknown forces, and they all want to use this place to strangle the empire's throat."

"In the east, when the Shang Empire discovered that the empire was in a weak period, they dispatched countless fleets in an attempt to break through the empire's defenses and descend upon this prosperous land once again."

"Many countries in the West and Central Asia no longer want to be controlled by the empire. They want to own and control the vast amount of oil resources so that they can stand at the top of the world."

"And these are the power and glory of the empire."

“It’s still the same method.”

"Whoever gets rid of his enemies first will become the next ruler of this land."

After Zhu Yuanzhang and others left, Chen Ke stood in the Fengtian Hall and sighed slowly. This was a chess move that the Chen family had planned for a thousand years, and it was also a crucial move.

There will never be a ruler in this world, but the Chen family can choose a ruler who meets their requirements and is good to the people; there will also never be an imperial clan that is forever pure in this world, but the Chen family can remain pure forever.

Turning the emperor from a symbol of supreme glory into a "position" that can be chosen is only the first step.

The next step is to change the profession of emperor again, so that he cannot have such great power - but the power cannot be too small either.

Chen never believed in the idea of ​​separation of powers, let alone the so-called triangle being the most stable - there is no such thing as stability in politics, so the so-called separation of powers is nothing but a ridiculous thing.

When a country's power is too dispersed, it is impossible for that country to remain wise and strong for a long time.

But excessive concentration of power is also a serious problem.

pity.

In this time of history, there is a family that will not be interfered with by power and that has its own power and strength.

He is Chen.

(End of this chapter)