Chapter 811 "On the Aristocratic Family"!
"good!"
"OK!"
In the Taiwu Hall of the Imperial Palace, Xiao Yan walked around quickly, cheering loudly. Everyone could hear the joy in his heart. He suddenly turned around and praised Luo Xianzhi, "Lingxiu, you are really talented. This is a brilliant plan that your father never thought of. I think you are fully capable of becoming a person like your father."
A slight smile appeared on Luo Xianzhi's lips. The emperor liked to compare him with his father, but this was the trend of the time, especially when fathers and sons successively served as prime ministers. Although Luo Xianzhi was not the prime minister now, everyone knew that if this situation continued, he would be the prime minister sooner or later.
He accepted all the emperor's praise, wielding the clan's legacy as both a stick and a sweet treat. This was truly his specialty, and with this move, he was able to leave a name in history.
Xiao Yan was still in extreme joy. He now felt that summoning Luo Xianzhi from Gusu to Jianye was the best move. "With this move, we can control the nobles to some extent. As long as the power of the nobles continues to decline, the strength of our Daliang court will increase."
Luo Xianzhi's sensitivity to politics instantly enabled him to grasp that there was something very wrong in Xiao Yan's words. He was shocked and realized that the emperor had begun to seek quick success and instant benefits.
Most of the kings in this world have this problem, or it can be said that most people have this problem, that is, they must see the results of their work within a short period of time, and do not like to do the preparatory work. They are unwilling to be the kind of person who "may not be the one to achieve success, but I must be part of the success."
Of course, this is also related to the short-sightedness of most people. Most people cannot see the endless harm caused by some policies. They can only see the current prosperity, but cannot see how many landmines the current prosperity has left for the future.
Most people can only see the current poor life, but fail to see that these are left behind by those who were once praised by them. Those things that are easy to change are still fine, but many things have become irreversible now.
Most of the wisdom of later generations is not enough to deal with the pits left by their predecessors, because the pits left by their predecessors were also created by the wisdom of their predecessors.
When revising history, Luo would pay attention to this aspect. For example, when evaluating Emperor Li of Han, he affirmed his achievements in expanding territory in the early period, but also said that part of the problems he caused were caused by Emperor Ding of Han.
The most important problem of Emperor Li of Han was that the world had clearly not reached that point. If there was no money for war, then there should be no war for the time being. If the people were suffering, then there should be some relief. If the treasury had no money, then there should be no construction of palaces. However, he was unwilling to admit these problems and they became worse, thus leading to the final outcome. So it is no wonder that he was given a bad posthumous title and the final evaluation.
The reason why Luo Shi doesn't care whether he will succeed or not is because Luo Shi always considers things in the long term. Anyway, future generations will definitely persevere in doing so, so there is no need to be very successful in his own time.
When Luo Youzhi was in power, he did not finish dealing with all the matters. Perhaps it was because deep down in his heart, he knew that his son Luo Xianzhi would eventually take on his own responsibilities and deal with all the problems he left behind one by one. Luo Xianzhi did not disappoint him.
After Luo Xianzhi realized the problem, he immediately began to think about how to persuade Xiao Yan. Persuading the emperor is a science. If it was during the Luo family's heyday, such as the Bang Zhou period, Luo Xuan Gong had pointed at King You of Zhou and acted sarcastic, but the final result was that the Queen Mother persuaded King You of Zhou to let it go, as they were all family.
The relationship between the monarch and his subjects in that era was different from that of today. There was reason between the princes and the emperor, but the emperor was more reasonable most of the time.
However, after entering the Qin and Han dynasties, this situation changed dramatically. The status of the emperor was greatly enhanced, essentially because the emperor was able to mobilize more power. But under the new political system, the emperor must be able to mobilize more power, otherwise the world cannot be under one big government.
In order to rule a vast land, one must have a strong central government. In the pre-Han era, the central court was far superior to the local governments. The emperor had great power, and the three dukes and nine ministers also had great power, so they checked and balanced each other in the court. However, after entering the post-Han Dynasty, the emperor's power increased in the central court, and the three dukes and nine ministers could no longer compete with the emperor, but the power of the entire central government over the local governments decreased.
This trend has continued to the present day. The emperor now has great power in the court. If the aristocratic families are suppressed successfully, the power of the central government over the local governments will also be strengthened, which is naturally what the emperor wants.
But Luo Xianzhi sensed danger from it. Balance is the most important thing in this world. Anything that loses balance can lead to unpredictable results. The dominance of imperial power is definitely not a good thing, especially when the education of the princes becomes a problem.
But how to persuade Xiao Yan now?
Luo Xianzhi would not persuade Xiao Yan directly just because he had a good relationship with him. Xiao Yan's heart was made of flesh, and flesh would have doubts and other problems. The human heart was always the last thing worth testing in this world.
Thinking of this, Luo Xianzhi pondered and said, "Your Majesty, suppressing the gentry has been a policy since my father was alive. But I think the reason for suppressing the gentry is that the gentry is too powerful, and most of them do not have any real ability. For example, many people in the Wang family of Langya are indeed talented, but those talents are only used to decorate the facade and pass on culture. They are not very useful for governing the country.
Allowing these people to hold high positions is irresponsible to the country, and allowing them to become powerful is detrimental to the country, so we must crack down on the gentry.
But the gentry are not completely useless. Most of them are indeed knowledgeable, and they have their own set of rules. When they get things done, they have a bottom line, or they have concerns. After all, these families are wealthy and powerful, and they are unwilling to gamble their entire family because of some people. They just want stable wealth and glory.
If you suppress the nobles too much, resulting in the emergence of a large number of poor and common people, regardless of what their abilities are, the most important thing is to be careful that many people will come up and follow the path of the nobles, and the chaos created will be much greater than it is now.
To put it bluntly, perhaps a little unorthodox, the country needs talents, but there are too many talents, and truly gifted people are very few.
Emperor Gaozu of Han started his rebellion in Pei County, whereupon a large number of meritorious officials emerged. Some people then said that the talents of a county were enough to govern a country. This is true, and not true.
There are indeed many people like Fan Kuai in a county, but he is not a talented person. The real talent is King Wencheng. In Pei County, there is only one King Wencheng and one Emperor Gaozu of Han. The two of them were able to meet, so they founded the Han Dynasty. The other hundreds of counties did not have King Wencheng and Emperor Gaozu of Han, so they could not establish dynasties.
People like King Wencheng are hard to come by, but there are too many people like Fan Kuai. There is no need for too many people like Fan Kuai. Whether it is the nobles or the commoners, there are many people like this who can fill the gap. "
King Wencheng was Xiao He. After Xiao became emperor, he naturally wanted to posthumously confer a title on his ancestor. He originally wanted to posthumously confer the title of emperor, but was finally persuaded not to do so.
Xiao He was a Han minister all his life, and a loyal minister at that. It would be really embarrassing for his ancestors if he was posthumously named emperor.
Xiao Yan thought about it and realized that it was indeed the case, so he posthumously conferred the title of king on him. This king was recognized not only by the Liang State, but also by the Yan State and the Wei State.
The Emperor of Wei even wrote a letter personally saying that he should be posthumously conferred the title of emperor, and that the Xiao family could not be inferior to the Liu family. After receiving this letter, Xiao Yan completely gave up the idea of posthumously conferring the title of emperor on Xiao He.
When the Han State saw that the Liang State only posthumously conferred the title of king on Xiao He, it did not express any opinion.
Other families did not feel anything about Xiao He's posthumous title. After all, even if they proclaimed themselves emperors, they would at most posthumously title their fathers and grandfathers emperors. As for their more distant ancestors, who still remembered them? But the Huaiyin Han and Lu families were quite jealous. After all, they were once at the same level, but one of their descendants was promising, so he was posthumously titled king. However, Han Wumu, who was known for his unparalleled merits, unique strategies, and unparalleled military genius, who surpassed the pre-Qin dynasty and dominated future generations, and was the number one war strategist in the past thousand years, did not even have a title of king!
Xiao Yan, who was in extreme excitement, heard what Luo Xianzhi said and came back to his senses from his fanatical excitement. He found that since Luo Xianzhi came to Jianye, he could often hear shocking words from Luo Xianzhi's mouth. These words were something Luo Youzhi would never say. Luo Youzhi and Luo Xianzhi were very similar, but also very different.
Luo Youzhi was a traditional minister, while Luo Xianzhi had an evil nature and the way he spoke and acted was completely different from the traditional way.
Just to say what I said just now, there is no need for so many talented people. Is this what a minister should say?
Since ancient times, we have heard of people seeking talented people because there are not enough talented people, but we have never heard of people saying that there are too many talented people and there is no need to care too much about them.
But Xiao Yan also knew that Luo Xianzhi meant that such great talents were rare. For example, Zhang Jiao in the late Later Han Dynasty was not accepted into the court, which led to the rapid fall of the Han Dynasty.
What Luo Xianzhi meant was that ordinary talents, such as auxiliary officials, should not be taken too seriously. These officials could be from either the gentry or the commoners. They could be used as tools to balance the relationship between the gentry and the commoners, and should not be too biased towards either side.
If you think about it carefully, this is actually Luo Xianzhi's consistent governing philosophy. If other people act in a balanced way, no one can do anything, and in the end only he can take the lead. Everyone must obey, and those who disobey will be severely punished.
To some extent, this is pure imperial art. However, for most emperors, they cannot even maintain the balance in the court, which is the first step of this art.
What kind of people do most of the useless emperors use to maintain balance in the court?
Eunuchs who have no ability to govern the country, treacherous officials who are obsessed with money and profit, and relatives of the royal family who rely entirely on nepotism to gain power, these people can indeed help the emperor to strike a balance, but that's all. These people have no positive value in the court, lack the ability to govern the country, and most of them are even quite greedy. The emperor wants them to strike a balance, but they themselves want to take this opportunity to levy heavy taxes and make profits for themselves. The final result is that the entire country and the court are plunged into an irreversible crisis.
This is why, when Duke Xuan of Luo and King Yi of Zhou were discussing the three types of kings, superior, medium and inferior, Duke Xuan of Luo looked down on kings who only knew how to play political games.
After all, the emperor came into being to govern the people of the world. The people here include ordinary people, noble officials, and everyone except the emperor.
This is the value of an emperor's existence. If he exists simply to maintain his own power, then the emperor should die and become a tyrant and a traitor to the people.
Being able to make the ministers in the court fight without breaking up, and argue without splitting up, requires superb political skills. Duke Wen of Luo was able to do it in the past, and Luo Xianzhi now hopes that he can do his best to do so.
Xiao Yan turned his head and looked at Luo Xianzhi in front of him. There was no trace of immaturity on his face, but he knew that Luo Xianzhi had not yet been crowned. This young man could have been his son, but he was as mature as his teacher. He even always felt that this was a man who had been an official for decades and had experienced ups and downs in the officialdom all his life.
Luo Xianzhi really doesn't act like a young man in all aspects. Xiao Yan can only sigh that he is a man of natural talent.
"Lingxiu, I understand what you mean, but after what happened to Zhang Jue in the Later Han Dynasty, which king in the world would not worry about having a great talent left in the wilderness?
It is really terrible that such a talented person with both literary and military achievements was not recruited by the court of the Later Han Dynasty. I am worried.
According to your idea, when will we start to rearrange the clan history? I can't wait to do it."
Luo Xianzhi hesitated for a moment and then said, "Your Majesty, we cannot rush this matter. I have already told Your Majesty that it is not as simple as arranging the clan history. We need to wait for something now. Any reform cannot show its majesty if it does not kill the chicken to scare the monkey. There are many lawless people among the nobles. Now we just need to wait for something to happen that will have a big impact, and then we can implement these things naturally."
After hearing this, Xiao Yan pondered for a while and found that he could only understand a little bit and could not understand most of it. Just like when Luo Youzhi reported to him about various affairs of the country in the palace, he did not quite understand. Other officials always stated clearly how much income and expenditure were, but Luo Youzhi would report many other things in addition to these things.
These things seemed to be very useful, because Luo Youzhi was always very serious when reporting, so he had to sit upright and listen. He didn't expect to encounter such a thing again.
So he said to Luo Xianzhi, using the words he had said to Luo Youzhi before: "Lingxiu, just do it. I already understand. When you have achieved results, come to the palace to report to me. If there are any difficulties that are difficult to overcome, come and tell me and I will find a way to solve them."
Xiao Yan still understood some of the emperor's mind. The emperor could have some things he didn't quite understand, after all, everyone has their own expertise, but he couldn't pretend that he didn't understand everything. If he didn't understand, he had to be ambiguous and let those below him guess.
As soon as Luo Xianzhi heard the emperor's words, he was immediately sure that the emperor did not understand. That was easy to deal with. If a minister wanted to demonstrate his power, he had to deceive his superiors and conceal the truth from his subordinates. If the emperor did not understand, there was no need to deceive him.
Luo Xianzhi said goodbye to Xiao Yan, and then left the palace without stopping for a moment. The work of the Shangshu Ling was very busy, especially since Luo Xianzhi was not a puppet Shangshu Ling, he was also responsible for the important task of reforming the system, which made him extremely busy.
…
What happened at the Liushang Qushui Banquet that day quickly spread throughout the Liang State, instantly causing an uproar. When Luo Xianzhi had just become the Minister of the Chancellery, many people speculated that he would continue to follow his father's governing ideas, but they did not expect that it would be confirmed so soon.
Moreover, his methods were swift and cruel, much crueler than those of Duke Wenmu. Duke Wenmu was the type who would suppress the gentry when governing the country, and he did not care much about the effect. But Luo Xianzhi was not like that. He was targeting the gentry completely.
Whether it was the nobles who attended the Liushang Qushui Banquet that day or those who did not, they all felt endless anger about this. Especially in the eyes of some of the most traditional nobles, the difference between the nobles and the common people was like a chasm in the sky, they were simply not a single species. They were ashamed to intermarry with the common people and to have contact with them.
Under this tremendous social pressure, many tragedies similar to the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were born.
If anyone else dared to do this, they would have already pointed fingers at him and criticized him passionately, letting the person who came up with this idea know what it meant to be a noble family.
Of course, there are different people in any era and any class. Even during the Chu Dynasty when the aristocratic families were the strongest, there were many people who did not care about family background and were willing to promote people from humble backgrounds.
These people are usually the ones who drive the tide of history.
Such people are quite valuable.
Because human nature is selfish.
People in this world always think that everyone is equal above themselves, and there are clear classes below themselves.
People in this world always speak righteously when they appreciate the generosity of others, but make all kinds of excuses when it comes to sharing the profits among themselves.
Rich people are reluctant to give away their gold, pearls and jade because they really have them. Poor people are reluctant to give away their meal because they really have a meal.
The common people righteously demanded that the officials be selected based on their talents, believing that the aristocratic families were squeezing out their positions and were insects to the state.
But according to Luo's observations over the years, after these people came to high positions, the first thing they did was to place their relatives in positions, and even their horses had to be fed by the emperor. They were bullied by the powerful in the past, but after they became rich, they began to treat people who were not as good as them in this way.
Their faces changed, the only thing that remained unchanged was their "righteous" words.
Knowing this, the Luo family only regarded these people as tools. The commoners were tools to attack the gentry, and the gentry were tools to attack the commoners. They would be thrown away after use.
Therefore, Luo family pays great attention to finding those unchanging people. These people can be identified. Those whose heads are not controlled by their buttocks are the ones that Luo family will reuse. Only these people can complete the unfinished great cause.
chameleon.
Not worthy.
Many nobles gathered together because of Luo Xianzhi to discuss important matters. They strongly opposed Luo Xianzhi's proposal to revise the clan records, but what made them feel uncomfortable was that they could not find a reason.
The Luo family has a natural advantage in handling this matter. No scumbag is worthy of being listed in the same aristocratic family as our Luo family. This sentence alone can kill an aristocratic family.
But Luo family will not use this sentence, which is one of the final trump cards. Once this sentence is said, it is basically equivalent to exchanging Luo family's reputation.
"Why on earth would the Luo family do this? Isn't the existence of our noble families a kind of protection for the Luo family? Is there anyone in this world who would destroy himself?"
Finally someone asked the question, and everyone frowned.
This is a question that no one can ever answer. Under the current system, the Luo family is almost one of the biggest beneficiaries. The Jiangdong Luo family has been rich and powerful for so many years, and has maintained a high status for so many years. Who dares to say that it has nothing to do with the current aristocratic system?
As long as this system exists, with the uniqueness of the Luo family, they can live freely in Jiangzuo forever, and they can live freely and superiorly for a hundred years, three hundred years, or even five hundred years.
Just thinking about it, these people are already envious to the extreme. If they were asked to choose such a good thing, any hesitation for a second would be disrespectful to hundreds of years of inheritance and to the glory of their ancestors.
This is not a choice!
"But the Luo family didn't choose this way. They insisted on standing with the royal family and the common people. They are crazy, crazy!"
In the eyes of everyone in Jiangdong, the Luo family stands with the common people. 70% of the commoner officials in the entire Jiangzuo were promoted by the Luo family or had connections with the Luo family. Now that commoners occupy so many official positions, it is also because the Luo family has been promoting them. This is the consensus of everyone.
The Luo family only promoted commoners because there were too many noble families, but in the eyes of others, the Luo family was opening the door to success for the commoners.
"Hasn't Luo's always been like this?"
Suddenly someone spoke, and everyone looked at him. He was a rather elegant middle-aged man. Seeing everyone looking at him, he said in a deep voice: "Hasn't the Luo family always been like this since the Bang Zhou era, the most noble era of the Luo family?
They were the defenders of the ritual system, but they were never conservatives, and they constantly changed the ritual system. In Jingzhou of our Liang State, there was once a State of Shen. Haven't you read history books?
The king of the State of Shen was originally a bastard and had no right to inherit the throne, but Duke Wen of Luo finally appointed him as a vassal.
How many wives of the kings of Luo State were ordinary people?
During the Han Dynasty, such things happened even more frequently, so many that they were countless. They had always been like this, never caring about other people's bloodline, because compared with the Luo family, it was negligible.
For a big family that has been passed down for 1,400 years, is there any difference between one hundred years, fifty years, or zero years?
Why would the Luo family do something that would hurt their own family?
The nobles of Bangzhou probably thought the same way back then.
The nobles of the six countries at that time were probably thinking about this question.
But what is the reality?
In the end, only the Luo family and the Lu family who had always followed the Luo family were left, and the others were lost in the dust of history.
In the expedition against the Hu people, the Luo family suffered many casualties, and the family was almost destroyed, but they still had to do it in the end, especially now?
I don’t know what I’m saying, but something suddenly hit me in my heart: our ideas seem to be very different from theirs.”
These words made everyone's face change drastically, and these words touched everyone's heart.
It is a very despairing fact, that is, it is not the first time that Luo has made such a suicidal political move, and it is not the first time that he has taken the initiative to dismember his own power, but the final result is that Luo is alive and well, while others who are unwilling to change and stubbornly resist are annihilated.
Moreover, in the mind of the Luo family, there are some things in this world that must be done no matter what the cost, such as opening up more channels. In fact, everyone knows that the Luo family has always been opposed to this kind of hereditary succession and wants to recruit talents regardless of their background, but they are unwilling to admit it.
They would only use the fact that Luo Xianzhi became the Minister of the Chancellery at a young age as an excuse, but they would not think about why Luo Xianzhi needed to do so.
"So what do we do now?"
No matter what the Luo family does, they always have to have a way to deal with it. "The emperor will definitely support him. Even if he says more, I am unwilling to accept it. There is no such simple thing in this world."
It is simply a dream to ask people to give up their interests and even kill them, especially to ask short-sighted and greedy people to be rational.
There are not many sensible and rational people in this world. Power and wealth will not bring about an improvement in IQ. When they are stupid, they are still stupid. A group of people discussed with blank expressions, and then left with a sigh.
As soon as they parted, their expressions changed. Some people had fierce looks on their faces, some showed obvious fear on their faces, and some began to flicker their eyes frequently.
Because of different personalities and situations, these people reacted differently when faced with Luo Xianzhi's policies.
Both the nobles and the common people were waiting for Luo Xianzhi's specific decrees, but there was no news, which made everyone suspicious again, not knowing what Luo Xianzhi was going to do.
It was not until dawn that several messengers from Kuaiji broke the peace of Jianye City.
Now everyone will know what Luo Xianzhi is waiting for.
These messengers brought a piece of news, which was reported personally by the prefect of Kuaiji County.
"County Lord, according to the investigation, there are now alarming cases of fraud among the nobles in Kuaiji County!
And this is based on solid evidence. I don’t know how many cases there are without solid evidence.”
In the Luo Mansion, the messenger reported this shocking news to Luo Xianzhi.
The nobles are faking it!
Even though he had known that such a thing would definitely happen, the fact that it really happened before his eyes still gave Luo Xianzhi a great shock. There were four cases of fraud by the nobles in one county. How many would there be in the dozens of counties in Daliang?
After Luo Xianzhi came to his senses, he shook his head and realized that there were not so many. There were objective reasons why there were so many Kuaiji counties. Many other states and counties did not have the conditions of Kuaiji County.
Especially in other counties of Yangzhou, it is almost impossible to have such a thing. However, in the counties of Xuzhou and Jingzhou, such things are probably not uncommon.
The prefect of Kuaiji County was naturally a member of the Luo family. Luo Xianzhi chose Kuaiji County to investigate not randomly, but because a great turmoil had once broken out in Kuaiji County and the genealogies of many families had been lost.
It is not so easy to fabricate the genealogy of the aristocracy. Just as in a strict system, any inappropriateness is very easy to be discovered, and in a half-damaged system, adding a few strokes can even become a new underlying structure.
In fact, starting from the end of the Later Han Dynasty, various chaos caused the gentry to flee, and such impersonation of gentry became common. However, at that time, there was no help from professionals such as genealogists, so it can be said that there were many mistakes and omissions. After all, the gentry was a collective, and various in-law relationships and relationships within the family made it not so easy to impersonate.
But things are different now. There are professional genealogists who can create perfect relationships, even social relationships.
but!
No matter how powerful the music writer is, can he be stronger than the Luo family?
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.
From the moment the gentry was born, the Luo family knew that in the end the gentry would definitely stand on the opposite side of the family. This was the experience gained from long history that every class that gradually rises to the top will eventually go to the opposite side.
From advanced to backward.
From a trend-setter leading the historical trend, he has become a rock in the river that hinders the progress of history.
The nobles of Bang Zhou back then were so great and made outstanding contributions to the development of the various states. However, in the end they became people who only knew how to live a life of drunkenness and dreams.
Our ancestors went through numerous hardships and dangers back then, but our descendants don’t even have the backbone.
In the end, they were swept into the dustbin of history by the military nobles who rose from the bottom. The military nobles did not have the last laugh. They were a group of people who only knew how to fight. In the end, they were replaced by the Confucian scholars. In the past, the scholars transferred knowledge to the lower classes, allowing more people to be literate, read and change their own destiny. But now, they have gradually returned to the path of the aristocracy and begun to monopolize everything.
The entire development process fully confirmed all of Luo's speculations about the gentry.
“They don’t even want to be a little bit unexpected.”
Luo Xianzhi thought of the "On the Aristocratic Family" he had read before. This was a book written by Luo. There were only a few copied versions, which had never been released. After all, this book was enough to make Luo the target of public criticism. However, this book was widely circulated within the Luo family. It was basically a must-learn book. After all, books with such incisive analysis were rare.
Luo Xianzhi was not ready to inform anyone else about the aristocratic family's fraud for the time being. This was a major earthquake for everyone. Facing the messenger with a look of horror on his face, Luo Xianzhi carefully wrote a letter and asked the messenger to take it back.
In the letter, Luo Xianzhi asked the governor of Kuaiji County to continue to pay attention to the matter and collect more evidence. He would soon take charge of the matter and detonate it at the right time to achieve his goal.
…
In Kuaiji County, the prefect of Kuaiji County stroked the object in his hand, still unable to convince himself to calm down. From the moment he received Luo Xianzhi's letter and started investigating the matter to the moment he actually found out the truth of the matter, he was completely dumbfounded.
He never expected such a thing to happen, and he never expected Luo Xianzhi to know about it.
Either of these two things would be devastating.
If a fake aristocratic family appears, the first thing the other aristocrats have to do is to prove that they are not fake. Among them, the direct descendants with a complete genealogy will generally be fine. After all, who gave birth to children and who have relatives and friends cannot be deceived. However, this will still cause panic among the people.
As for Luo Xianzhi knowing about this matter, even if the prefect of Kuaiji County used a pig's brain, he knew that Luo Xianzhi would definitely take advantage of the situation and use this incident to greatly undermine the reputation of the gentry.
The messenger returning from Jianye brought a letter from Luo Xianzhi to the prefect of Kuaiji County. After he unfolded it and read it, a complicated expression appeared on his face. The content of the letter made him realize that his guess was correct and Luo Xianzhi wanted to take advantage of the situation.
He burned the letter directly to prevent it from being leaked.
He sat upright in the hall, shook his head, and gave up on telling his friends to prevent any unexpected situations. Anyway, his friends were all upright nobles, so they were not afraid even if they were investigated.
The governor of Kuaiji County was able to hold his current position because he was also a member of a noble family. However, he belonged to a relatively poor noble family and had no reputation in the county. He was only respected in the county and belonged to the lowest class of the nobles. According to the clan records, he was considered to be below the third rate and not even in the mainstream.
"This is an opportunity. I am the Duke's man. If I can make great achievements this time, I may be able to enter Jianye as an official. My family's status can be upgraded to third-rate or even second-rate, and I can completely get rid of my current low-ranking status."
The commoners were discriminated against by the gentry, but they did not know that there was even more sectarianism and a more serious chain of contempt between the gentry of different levels. If the prefect of Kuaiji County had not had a good relationship with the Luo family due to his father's generation, he would not have been able to become the prefect now. His talent would not have been so irreplaceable that it would not have reached the point where people would marvel at it.
Holding on to the Luo family's thigh and allowing his family to complete the class leap, this is his current idea, just like what he did to the Xie family in the past. As for secretly telling other great aristocratic families about Luo Xianzhi's plan, he is not that stupid. He has followed the Luo family for so many years and has some understanding of the Luo family. It can only be described as the higher they look up to, the higher they are. Other families can never be the opponents of the Luo family.
"What exactly is the Duke going to do?"
This is the question that the prefect of Kuaiji County is most curious about now. He is not very familiar with Luo Xianzhi. He is Luo Youzhi's man. After Luo Youzhi's death, he and Luo Xianzhi only contacted through letters.
This connection was established when the prefect of Kuaiji County sent a letter during the Chinese New Year, which allowed him to enter Luo Xianzhi's attention. If it weren't for the act of sending the letter, he would now only have a not-so-deep relationship with the Luo family.
The Luo family has always been like this, focusing on getting someone to work for the family voluntarily. If the governor of Kuaiji County was unwilling to continue to follow the Luo family, Luo Xianzhi would not have given this matter to him now.
Luo Xianzhi, the governor of Kuaiji County, has always been curious and has now begun to look for other families to join him. He plans to gather a few more families and expose the names of all those pretending to be nobles so that everyone in the world will know about it.
When no one was aware of the undercurrents, Luo Xianzhi had already secretly settled everything. Even Xie didn't know about this. He met with Xie Daoyuan several times but never revealed a single thing.
After he had prepared everything, he immediately arranged for people to go to Kuaiji County to control the forged nobles, and then he hurried to the palace with these documents. He was the Shangshu Ling, and although he had great power, the arrest of nobles still had to be approved by the seal of the emperor or the prime minister.
"What?"
"Lingxiu, are you telling the truth?"
Xiao Yan was completely stunned. Even though he had the evidence in his hands, he couldn't believe it. The gentry that the country had always relied on was actually fake, and those official positions specially awarded to the gentry were actually deceived.
“It is absolutely true. Most of the members of these fake noble families are real, but the names of the most outstanding branches were added later. They are pure fabrications.
They benefited each other and used the policies of the imperial court to gain benefits for themselves, which had a huge impact on the reputation of the imperial court and the nobles. If these people were allowed to continue messing around, the real nobles in the future would be doubted. "
This was not what Luo Xianzhi really said. He did not care whether the reputation of the aristocratic family would be affected. Anyway, when the main branch of the Luo family came back, the holy mark would prove everything. The Luo family would not fake things. On that day, if the Jiangdong Luo family was still there, there should be a legitimate daughter marrying in. The holy mark on the offspring could still prove it. Moreover, Luo Xianzhi knew that the family had a magical artifact that could trace a person's whereabouts.
The reason he said this was because Xiao Yan cared about this very much. There were two things he was most proud of in his life.
The first thing was that he turned his family into the country, fulfilling the ultimate wish of the aristocratic family. He had supreme glory in the family history. The family tree started again from his page, and he surpassed all his ancestors, including King Wencheng Xiao He.
The second thing is his identity as a member of the Lanling Xiao family. He was born into this big family that has been passed down for four hundred years. This makes him feel extremely proud. Throughout the world, except for the Luo family, no one can be taken seriously by him. He knows that the Xiao family will lose the position of emperor one day, but as long as the family is not destroyed, it will be fine.
But now suddenly some people say that the family will also be taken over by someone else!
How can this not feel terrifying?
Xiao Yan said angrily: "Lingxiu, this matter must be dealt with severely. I will give you an order immediately. You must kill him. If you don't kill him, it will not be enough to uphold the law!"
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The gentry inherited knowledge, which was the key difference between the gentry and the aristocracy. However, knowledge was still essentially a resource. Books were expensive, and the spread of knowledge was limited. When knowledge became a necessity for being an official, the gentry, who mainly inherited knowledge through their families, would inevitably move towards monopolizing knowledge. ——On the Gentry (Han) (vernacular version)
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The Duke saw that the gentry were becoming increasingly weak, that they were fond of mystery and hated to work, that they held high positions but did nothing, and that they enjoyed splendor but did not work. He therefore wanted to rectify the various clans, and the Jiangzuo region was in an uproar, saying, "The clear stream is stirring, why is it contaminated by the muddy stream?"
The Duke was furious and said with deep emotion: "The muddy stream is made of water and soil, which is the source of life. The clear stream has no soil and cannot survive. Why do you abandon the muddy stream and only seek the clear stream?" - "History of the Southern Dynasties: The Biography of the Duke of Gusu County"
(End of this chapter)
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