A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 278: Genealogy, we are different

March
Liu Xiu ordered that Dou Rong, the pastor of Jizhou, be appointed as the Grand Sima, Zhu Fu, the pastor of Youzhou, should be appointed as the imperial servant to lead the secretarial affairs, and Wu Han, the pastor of Yizhou, should be appointed as the general.

After this transfer, there will no longer be a state pastor in the world.

April
Liu Xiu ordered the governor of Jizhou to be changed to the governor, and appointed Taizhong doctor and Shangshu Pushebai Li as the governor of Jizhou...

June
The imperial court issued an edict: All states, counties, and townships were ordered to inspect and verify the true number of acres of cultivated land and household registrations, and severe punishment would be given if anyone concealed the information.

It was also ordered that the Sikong Prefecture take the lead, and all the government departments of the Erqianshi Prefecture should cooperate. The assessment of the Erqianshi chief officials of each government office every three years would be changed to once a year. Among them, the performance of the verification of the population of the land accounted for the vast majority. proportion.

Bai Li took his entourage and bodyguards, and a group of more than ten people on light chariots and simple horses towards Hebei. He planned to focus his goal on the west of the Taihang Mountains, so he decided to set up his own temporary headquarters in Xindu.

But he did not go directly to Xindu, but first went to the Bai Kingdom to meet the current King Bai, his second uncle Bai Shi, in order to get the support of his family, and he was very sure that he could get the support of his family. Because the policy of restraining powerful people is consistent with the general direction of the family.

Although Bai Li is already the third generation son of the Bai family, according to the Bai family's regulations, after his generation, his son will be reduced to a public clan, which means that he will be separated from the Bai family and have a separate family tree.

Because according to the classification of the Bai family, the divine seal is lost in three generations and the glory is lost in three generations. He is the second son of Bai Lin, Bai Lin is the second son of Bai Xuan, and Bai Xuan is the legitimate son of Bai Guan.

Taking the head of the family as the center, I happen to be in the third generation of Bai Guan. If Bai Xuan becomes the head of the family, then my sons can extend the generation for another generation.

However, Bai Xuan died in Luoyang before he could inherit the title of head of the family. After all, the prince is different from the head of the family. Therefore, even if King Bai now pities Bai Xuan's lineage and is willing to take the initiative to make Bai Xuan's legitimate son Bai Qi the prince, his own son will not The reason is divided into three generations.

As for his own lineage, he inherited the title of Marquis Wencheng from his father Bai Lin, and his grandfather Bai Xuan was also worshiped by someone, that is, he was granted the title of Duke Xuan near Luoyang by the emperor for the purpose of worshiping Bai Xuan.

Since Bai Xuan died of illness suddenly when the Green Forest Army was attacking Luoyang, the Green Forest Army took the strong city of Luoyang in less than a day with almost no effort.

Coupled with Bai Xuan's reputation among the people in Guanzhong and Guandong, he was worried about the Bai Kingdom, which was still a giant to the Green Forest Army at that time. Therefore, in the name of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xuan abandoned Wang Mang's imperial edict for Bai Xuan and pursued it again. Baixuan was granted the title of Duke Xuan.

After Liu Xiu ascended the throne, he followed the Xuanhan's reward system and built the Xuanguo Gong Temple five miles away from the eastern suburbs of Luoyang, because Bai Xuan's legitimate son Bai Qi inherited the throne of the Bai Kingdom, and Bai Xuan's second son Bai Lin What he inherited was the title of Marquis Wencheng.

Therefore, the sacrifice of Duke Xuan was performed by Bai Lu, the third son of Bai Xuan. Although he held the position of Duke, the food estates were really pitiful. Liu Xiu only regarded the hundreds of households around the temple of Duke Xuan as the sacrifice of Duke Xuan. The public's food town.

However, due to Bai Xuan's policies and actions for the people in Guanzhong and Dongjun, many people from Guanzhong and Dongjun who came to Luoyang would come to burn a stick of incense whenever they passed by. Therefore, the incense in Xuanguo Gong Temple is still relatively prosperous. .

In addition, after Bai Lu succeeded to the throne, in addition to the basic expenses of his family, he used most of the money he earned from food and incense to open private schools, help the surrounding red people, build bridges and pave roads, which made people around the Xuanguo Gong Temple pay attention to Duke Xuan respected him more and more.

The reason why Bai Lu is so familiar is because the Bai Kingdom has already had methods and experience in this regard. It is by using this method that the Yishizi Temple, more than ten miles northwest of Handan, has become popular in the local area without relying on the funding of the Bai Kingdom. Hundreds of years.

Chaoge, Baifu in the north of the city, Prince Bai's residence
"Foreign Minister Bai Li meets King Bai, King Bai has been here for thousands of years." Bai Li bowed respectfully to the White House.

Bai Shi stroked his white beard, and the skin on his face was wrinkled with age. He smiled and watched Bai Li's polite salute, and said to Bai Qi beside him: "This kid is the same as your father and second brother. Exactly the same, do not exceed the rules."

Bai Qi is now fifty-three years old this year, and he can be regarded as a great-grandfather outside. However, his youngest son is only ten years old this year, and his legitimate son has only been married for a year. This is because the Bai family has always followed the more reasonable custom of late marriage passed down from the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Starting from the early Han Dynasty, in order to increase the country's population as quickly as possible, the court stipulated that women could get married when they were fifteen years old, and they were counted as one population and needed to pay a poll tax.

Those who have reached the age of thirty and are still unmarried will have to pay five times the tax.

Therefore, starting from the early Han Dynasty, women were usually married off by their families at the age of fifteen or sixteen in order to pay less taxes, so most brides across the country were fifteen or sixteen years old.

Those who are still unmarried in their twenties or even thirties are women from wealthy families or wealthy businessmen whose families can afford the excess head tax.

As for the Bai family, most of the Bai family members did not marry and have children until they were in their twenties, and most of the wives they married were women in their twenties. This is why the wives of the Bai family members were mostly women from wealthy families and wealthy businessmen.

Bai Li also relaxed after hearing Bai Shi's joke, because since his father went to Luoyang, he has lived in Luoyang all year round as an official, and when he was studying in Bai Kingdom, he rarely saw Bai Shi.

At that time, Bai Shi, as the eldest son assisting Bai Gongguan, was so busy that he had no time to pay attention to Bai Li. Bai Li only met when Liu Xiu escorted Bai Xuan's coffin, and when Bai Xuan was buried. But after all, they were from the same family. The closeness of blood and the similar face to his father made Bai Li quickly relax and quickly find a feeling of closeness.

"Bai Li has met his second grandfather and his eldest uncle." Bai Li saluted again.

Bai Qi looked at Bai Li with the concern of a junior and asked, "How is your father's health recently? When he was in Hebei, he followed the emperor all the time and suffered from diseases all the time. I'm really worried."

Bai Li said respectfully: "Uncle, since my father resigned from the official position, he has devoted himself to taking care of his health in the house. In recent years, his health has gradually gotten better. With the famous doctors sent from China, the hidden diseases in the early years have now been nursed back to good health. Pretty much the same.

When I came from Luoyang, my father specially asked me to come and visit my second grandfather, my eldest uncle, and all the ancestors and uncles of the clan, to express his longing for you and the Bai Kingdom. "

"Oh, for the sake of the family, I have suffered so much for my second brother. I have to stay in Luoyang from now on. It is very difficult to even go back to visit my country. When you go back, you must personally convey our thoughts to your father. The family has always I’m thinking of them, and your third uncle by the way. When you leave, bring something to them.”

Bai Li saluted and thanked Bai Qi for the gift on behalf of Bai Lin and Bai Lu.

Bai Li then chatted with the two of them about the mission the emperor sent him to Hebei.

"The powerful must be suppressed, otherwise it won't work!" Bai Shi set the tone for them.

Both of them looked at him, and Bai Shi continued: "Although on the surface, I, the Bai family, am the leader and representative of the great families in the world, we cannot forget that our nature is to serve the people.

What is the people? The people not only represent the powerful and powerful families, but also include the ordinary people and slaves.

Some people say that I, the Bai family, are all raising slaves and maids. This is wrong. Take these attendants and attendants in the house as an example. They are all children of the family or have signed contracts with the Bai family.

But our contract is not a contract of sale, but an agreement between the two parties. Bai buys his time, and he gets money and safety.

For other slaves of the powerful, because they are not registered with the government, they are killed at will by the powerful, and the powerful will not face any punishment.

As for the sons and so-called 'servants' of my Bai family, even if they are the heirs, they cannot be punished arbitrarily and without reason, and they need to be handed over to the family court for processing.

And they were all naturalized in the White House and can be checked. Killing them at will will be punished by criminal law. This is the difference between us and those powerful families. "

As I get older and talk too much, my mouth becomes dry. After drinking water, Bai Shi continued:
"Because we are fundamentally different from them, we are not from the same group as them, but now the people are not wise enough, and powerful families are the absolute controllers of the world's power.

Therefore, we have to work with them, and in order to protect the people from them, we must master a power stronger than them and exist longer than them, so that the desperate people can have some respite.

From a very early age, we have decided to do benevolent and righteous things in the forest of the big clans. That is why we chose to become the leaders of the big clans in the Hedong area in the late years of Xin Mang. That is why your grandfather Xuan Guogong followed Wang Mang wholeheartedly. To implement a New Deal that does not belong to this era.

And those big clans also need us to speak out for them, and the emperor also needs us to dissuade the barbaric growth of the big clans. This is the reason why we can exist, and this is why we have our current status.

Nowadays, powerful people have become a serious problem for the emperor, and those wealthy families also believe that there are enough positions in the upper class, and there is no need for more powerful people to come up, so they use the status of the imperial court to implement the Bai family's policies.

Not only can it reduce the emperor's fear of me, the Bai family, but it will also not cause us to lose the support of the big family. Isn't it the best of both worlds? "

After listening to the explanation from the most authoritative person in the Bai Kingdom, Bai Li knew that what he did did not conflict with the family's actions, but he still needed to control the appropriateness.

A good reputation is gained by oneself, and a bad reputation is lost to the imperial court and powerful families. This not only saves oneself, but also brings benefits to the people. As for the imperial court's reputation that is so bad that it cannot be used, then it is not a matter of changing the imperial court and changing it. Emperor.

Isn't this the basic operation of those wealthy and powerful people?
He remembered that there was a book in the library of the academy. The author was an ancestor of the Bai family. He served as a governor of Qingzhou and finally took the position of Tingwei. He was a relatively famous and honest official in the Han Dynasty.

After resigning and returning to China, he wrote about his understanding of the official career, which he summarized: To be a corrupt official, you need to be a traitor. If you don't do it, you can't be a corrupt official. To be an honest official, you need to be a traitor. If you don't do it, you can't catch a corrupt official.

(End of this chapter)