My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 463 The world is so fickle~
"Changan, still looks the same~"

"But Chang'an is no longer the Chang'an it once was..."

Stepping onto the Wei Bridge again, I could hear the sound of the turbulent waves of the Wei River and saw the magnificent outline of Chang'an City before my eyes.

Even though nothing has changed, Zhidu still can't help feeling that things have changed a lot.

——After being sent out as the commander of Yanmen and promoted to the governor of Yanmen after the Hetao-Mayi Campaign, Cang Ying Zhidu finally returned to Chang'an again.

Although it was called a job report, Zhidu knew in his heart that the court in Chang'an - or to be more precise, the current Emperor Rong - might have made new arrangements for him.

If it were three or five years ago, Zhidu would most likely have only felt happy after experiencing a series of changes from being transferred to a new post, to being promoted, and then reporting to the court.

Because Zhidu was the most powerful person at that time.

The name of the Goshawk spread throughout the entire Chang'an City.

The officials and ministers in the court, although they did not give Zhidu whatever they asked for and treated him with great courtesy, at least they gave him some face because he was the emperor's right-hand man and confidant.

From Zhang Cang, Marquis of Beiping during the reign of Emperor Taizong, to Shentu Jia, Marquis of Gu'an, and then to Zhou Yafu, Marquis of Tiao, who briefly served as prime minister during the reign of the previous emperor.

——Ever since Zhidu entered the court as an official, none of the prime ministers in the court dared not to take Zhidu seriously.

Especially during the later years of the previous emperor's reign, Liu She, Marquis of Tao, treated Zhidu as a guest of honor and almost made him his sworn brother.

If this is the case for the prime minister, there is no need to elaborate on the other ministers.

The late emperor's internal historian Chao Cuo was such an arrogant person that he looked down upon even the prime minister Shen Tujia. Even the imperial censor Tao Qing was his lackey whom he could summon and dismiss at will.
But when he met Zhidu, Chao Cuo would still raise his hands in a gentle and warm voice and call Zhidu: Zhi Zhonglang.

The older generation of ministers and officials all treated Zhi with great courtesy, and those of the same generation were even more willing to give in, regardless of whether they were right or wrong.

What, Shaofu Cenmai~
What? Wei Wei Zhi Bu Yu~
Even Gongsun Kunxie, Tingwei Zhao Yu and others showed great respect to Zhidu, and even tried to please him to some extent.

And now, just a few years have passed.

It has been just over two years since the late emperor passed away;

Liu Rong has been in power for only five years.

As for Zhidu, he had been exiled to Yanmen for less than two years.

In such a short period of time, there should not be any storms at all, given that promotions were only made every ten or twenty years in the Chang'an court, and a large-scale turnover only occurred every thirty to fifty years.

However, the fact is: when they came to the court to report on their work, the three dukes, nine ministers and twelve people of the court, and the "old buddies" and "old friends" in Zhidu's memory, had undergone earth-shaking changes.

Prime Minister Weiqi Hou Dou Ying?
Regardless of his identity as a member of the Dou family's in-laws or his label as a great scholar of the time, He Zhi had never gotten along well with him.

——It has always been a human truth firmly believed by the Legalists that relatives of the emperor’s wife are corrupt and abuse their power to bring disaster to the country.

As for the feud between Confucianism and Legalism, it had already been formed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period hundreds of years ago.

As Qin reformed and strengthened itself, Confucianism could not even find a future in the Qin court. The feud between the two schools extended to all aspects, from academic concepts to ideological values.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Zhidu nowadays dares to declare his academic camp as a "Legalist scholar", he will not only be attacked by Confucian scholars all over the world, but will at least arouse the instinctive disgust of the few officials in the court who are of Confucian origin.

Specifically speaking of the current Prime Minister Dou Ying - the two of them did not get along well back then, but neither of them could do anything about the other, so they simply stopped having any contact with each other until they died.

But now, times have changed.

The former dandy relative of the emperor's wife, the so-called 'great scholar', has transformed himself into the prime minister of the dynasty who is avoided by all ministers and treated with disrespect by all government officials!

What about Zhidu?

The salary of two thousand stones is higher than the middle two thousand stones among the nine ministers, and there is still a real two thousand stones level between them.

Not to mention that he showed off even a little in front of the prime minister, who had a salary of ten thousand stones and was the only one in the world.

In the past, Zhi could show off his power and prestige in front of most officials by relying on his status as a close minister of Emperor Taizong and a confidant of Emperor Xiaojing.

For the children of foreign relatives like Dou Ying, they could be ruthlessly humiliated in private.

Now, it was the turn of Dou Ying, the prime minister, to find fault with Zhidu.

Zhidu five years ago: Oh, Dou Ying~
He is just a playboy of a relative of the emperor's wife and is not presentable enough.

What is a great Confucian or not? Aren’t they just those corrupt Confucian scholars in Lu who were promoted to curry favor with the Queen Mother?

Not to mention being the Prince's Household Manager - even as a city magistrate with a salary of 400 dan, Dou Ying was not worthy of the position!
Five years later, Dou Ying: Oh, Zhidu~
Back then, Goshawk was a well-known figure in Chang'an.

But he is a minister of the previous emperor after all~
In this era of the emperor, the ministers are changed by the emperor. I can still be a county governor with a salary of 2,000 stones. This is because the current emperor is thinking of the late emperor.
All I can say is, things change over time.

The eagle Zhidu, who could shake Chang'an three times with just a stomp of his foot, now had to restrain all his edge in front of the dandy relative of the emperor whom he once looked down upon.

Then, like a dove of peace, he bowed respectfully and said: "I, the Guardian of Yanmen, pay my respects to the Prime Minister..."

Moreover, this contrast is not only between Zhidu and Dou Ying in the past, but also between the relationship and hierarchy between the two people now;
As for the position of prime minister, it was changed from Tao Hou Liu She, who had treated Zhidu with great courtesy, to Dou Ying, who was inevitably indifferent to Zhidu.

Furthermore, if only the prime minister had been replaced, Zhidu might not have felt so bad.

If Zhidu had only replaced the prime minister who was not so close to him and did not respect him as much, he would not have lamented that "Chang'an is no longer Chang'an".

What really made Zhidu feel unfamiliar and made him feel that Chang'an had changed a lot was the complete reshuffle of the court officials, including Dou Ying as prime minister.

——The Imperial Censor and Marquis of Jianling Wei Wan?

Of course Zhidu knew this person.

You can even say that it is very familiar.

During the reign of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, Zhidu was appointed as Zhonglang because of his bravery and integrity. At that time, Zhidu's immediate superior: Zhonglang Jiang, was Wei Wan.

But although he was his immediate superior, Zhidu had always looked down on Wei Wan, the General of the Central Army.

Firstly, unlike other Zhonglang generals who were brave, wise, fearless in battle, or both wise and brave in war, Wei Wan, the Zhonglang general, rose to the top by relying on his "skill in handling chariots".

To put it simply, it is driving skills.

Zhiduben has no discrimination against people with excellent driving skills.

After all, when the Han Dynasty was founded, there was a hero who had extremely superb driving skills. He left a significant mark in history simply by virtue of his superb driving skills.

To this day, a residential area on the north side of Hao Street outside the northern wall of Weiyang Palace is still named after the legendary car god: Xiahou Yingdi.

But Zhidu couldn't understand how a man who was good at driving a car could become the leader of all the military kings in the world: the General of the Central Army. And the reason why this man was appointed as the General of the Central Army was precisely because of the four words "the skill of driving a car".

Because of this tinted glasses, Zhidu at that time was not very respectful to Wei Wan, his immediate superior.

Especially Wei Wan, who started studying after he became the General of the Central Army.

At first, the system didn’t care.

After all, as the best soldiers and reserve officers selected from the armies of the Han Dynasty from all over the country, the Zhonglang group themselves had to learn to read and write in order to prepare for the future study of military tactics and strategies.

At the very least, you should at least understand the combat orders sent by your superiors, right?
The result was not good.

Wei Wan didn't learn anything else but the Confucianism's "Way of Benevolence and Forgiveness" and even began to practice it in his own life.

How to practice it?

When the Zhonglangs under his command made mistakes or even committed crimes, Wei Wan, as the Zhonglang Jiang, always shielded and covered them up, gave the credit to others, and took the blame himself.

It is euphemistically called: Protecting one's relatives is the gentleman's behavior.

This made Zhidu speechless.

You are a military general, why are you treating Confucian scholars as your superior?
Even if you don't want to learn the military strategies and tactics of the military strategists, you should at least choose a theory that has some backbone, right?
——Wei Wan was so good that he chose the most spineless of all the schools of thought: Confucianism;
As if he was not satisfied, he picked one of the most spineless branches within Confucianism: Guliang Chunqiu.

As time went by, Zhidu became more and more disgusted with Wei Wan;

So much so that in the end, when Zhidu reached the point where he needed to read books and study to accumulate knowledge, he had already developed an indiscriminate contempt for Confucianism.

It is no exaggeration to say that Zhidu finally determined that Legalism was the best school of thought because in the value system advocated by Legalism, Confucianism was one of the five major types of parasites and scum in the world!

Zhidu felt that the Legalists were right!
So, I began to like and study the Legalist school of thought in depth.

It can also be said that Wei Wan, Marquis of Jianling, was to blame for Zhidu's decision to take the "wrong path" of Legalism.

Just like Zhidu could not coexist peacefully with Dou Ying, Zhidu and Wei Wan were not close either.

But unlike Dou Ying’s arrogance, Wei Wan is a person with a really good personality and is a really honest person.

Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Zhidu would have any friction with Wei Wan, who had already been granted the title of Marquis of Jianling and was the Imperial Censor of the current dynasty.

To be precise, it is almost impossible for anyone to have friction with Wei Wan.

Prime Minister Dou Ying and Imperial Censor Wei Wan, one did not get along with Zhi, and the other was a stranger to Zhi;

The remaining Grand Marshal Han Anguo could not be considered an "old friend" of Zhidu either.

——The only time Zhidu and Han Anguo dealt with each other was when the late emperor was still alive.

To be precise, it was after the death of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen that Prince Xiao of Liang went to the court to mourn and began to be interested in the position of crown prince.

As an aide to King Xiao of Liang, Liu Wu, Han Anguo naturally devoted all his energy to providing advice to the king.

As the late emperor's confidant, Zhidu naturally tried his best to stop it both openly and secretly. He monitored the movements of King Xiao and his entourage while trying to trip up and trouble him.

At that time, Zhidu and Han Anguo each served their own master, so it was inevitable that they would come into direct conflict with each other.

So the situation was: when Zhidu left Chang'an, the three dukes (two dukes) in the court, even if they were not his own people, were at least friends with whom he could talk.

Now, after just over two years, Zhidu returned to Chang'an again. Sitting in the positions of the Three Dukes were two "enemies" who had conflicts with Zhidu in the past, as well as a censor who was of Confucian origin and with whom he had never been enemies but could never have made friends.

The situation of the nine ministers below was not much better.

Although Zhou Ren, the doctor-in-chief, and Zhidu were both confidants of the late emperor, compared with Zhidu who served Taizong first and then the late emperor, Zhou Ren was more pure - he entered the prince's palace when he entered the officialdom and was loyal to the emperor all his life.

Although he is currently working for the current Emperor Rong, he is also an extremely special one in the court.

Moreover, she was a descendant of Zhou Dynasty. In order to "continue the dynasty's survival" and "continue the previous dynasty's incense", the Han Dynasty specially erected a chastity arch for her and conferred her the title of Marquis of Rufen.

It was somewhat high-minded of Zhidu to approach Zhou Ren.

Liu Piqiang, the Minister of the Imperial Clan, was one of the Nine Ministers, but he never really took charge of affairs - he even rarely stayed in Chang'an, but mostly in Chu.

Dou Pengzu, the Marquis of Nanpi, the Grand Coachman - like Dou Ying, a dandy relative of the emperor;
Also belonging to the category of "dandy relative", is the new chief marquis: Kurikara.

The remaining few people, including the Prefect of the Guards Zhi Buyi, the Minister of Agriculture Shi Fen, and the Minister of the Treasury Gongsun Hunxie, were all well-known good guys.

It’s just that the “good guy” here does not refer to character, but political inclination.

What kind of person can be recognized as a good guy in the court of Chang'an?
The answer is: Don't offend anyone, but don't make friends with anyone either. The main feature is to be enthusiastic, polite, and know nothing about anything; to understand, but sorry.

These people, you can say they are no threat to you.

But on the other hand, they cannot help you pose a threat to others, or help you eliminate the threats posed to you by others.

To put it more bluntly, just don't expect anything from them.

Counting them one by one on fingers, in the end, the only ones left were Zhidu's younger brother: Dali (Tingwei) Zhao Yu, and the current Liu Rong's confidant in the Prince's Palace: Taichang Ji An.

There is no need to say much about Ji An - Zhi Du and he are neither in the same circle nor have the same personality.

At the level of academic camps, one is a Legalist and the other is a Huang-Lao. Although they are not in absolute hostility like Confucianism-Legalism or Confucianism-Mohism, their relationship is at most neither hostile nor close.

Furthermore, Ji An was still a newcomer and a young man to the Han Dynasty.

However, Zhidu was an old minister who had been prominent in the court since the time of Emperor Taizong.

As an old and fallen minister, Zhidu was actually not very willing to deal with a prominent young man in his status as an inferior.

The last remaining younger brother, Zhao Yu, was from the same school of Legalism as Zhidu, so they were naturally close.

But Zhidu knew in his heart that even his younger brother Zhao Yu, the only one he could count on, was not completely reliable.

——Legalists have always only focused on results, not processes;
When it comes to people, it just depends on whether it is useful.

Obviously, although Zhidu is not completely useless to the Legalists, his effect is still limited.

On the other hand, Zhao Yu, as the only minister in the court who came from the Legalist school, has become a representative figure of the Legalists and even a leader of the new generation!
If Zhidu really came to him, he might even put on airs and treat Zhidu like a younger brother...

(End of this chapter)