As the Luozhou plague was gradually suppressed, some people's minds began to become active again.
Tai Chi Hall.
"Your Majesty, I believe that Cen Wenwen did not manage Luozhou well, which led to the outbreak of the plague and the loss of life. His crime is unforgivable and he should be immediately taken back to Chang'an for interrogation." This was the speech of a minister who was close to Pei Ju.
As if it was a signal, many ministers soon came forward and demanded that Cen Wenwen be punished.
Officials from the other factions looked on with cold eyes, because Cen Wenwen was not one of theirs, had no interest entanglements with them, and did not have to fight with the officials of the Shandong faction because of Cen Wenwen.
Du Ruhui and others spoke out to defend Cen Wenwen.
Although ministers who were also members of the emperor's team had internal competition, they were still able to maintain a certain degree of unity when facing ministers from other factions.
In fact, from a general geographical perspective, the officials in the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty fell into three categories.
One is the Guanlong series, the second is the Shandong series, and the third is the southern series. In addition, there are some miscellaneous fish series.
The miscellaneous fish family is mainly composed of small aristocratic families. Some of these small aristocratic families were forced to move some people from larger aristocratic families by the imperial court. For example, the aristocratic families in Liangzhou area.
In addition to these three categories, there is also an imperial line with Emperor Li Zhiyun as the core.
The imperial lineage has more involvement and more complex components, and there are many people from the three major lines. For example, Du Ruhui, who was born in the Jingzhao Du family, belongs to the Guanlong lineage, but he himself is a loyal minister of the emperor and is truly an imperial lineage.
It can be said that the Imperial family integrated ministers from all factions.
However, because the Imperial faction only safeguards the interests of the emperor, it is separated from other factions. The two sides are basically neither enemies nor friends.
There is also competition within the Imperial family.
In addition, Xue Shou was born in the Xue family in Hedong and belonged to the Shandong clan. At the same time, he was also an imperial minister who safeguarded the emperor's interests.
In addition, except for the Guanlong Clan, which is barely twisted into a single rope, the split is not obvious. The remaining Shandong Clan and the Southern Clan are actually very seriously split.
The Shandong family includes the Pei family of Wenxi, the Wang family of Taiyuan, the Zheng family of Xingyang, the Liu family of Hedong, the Xue family of Hedong, the Wen family of Taiyuan, the Guo family of Taiyuan, and even the Lu family of Fanyang, the Gao family of Bohai, the Cui family of Qinghe, and the Boling family. Cui and so on.
Among them, there are also Bingzhou aristocratic families, such as the Pei family of Wenxi, the Wang family of Taiyuan, the Xue family of Hedong, etc.
There are also aristocratic families in Hebei, such as the Lu family in Fanyang and the Gao family in Bohai.
There are also aristocratic families from the Central Plains, such as the Zheng family of Xingyang, the Yang family of Hongnong, etc.
The ingredients are very complex. To a certain extent, the Shandong family can also be called a northern family.
There are many famous families in Shandong, and the divisions are most obvious.
The southern faction is currently weak in power. Because Xiao Yu was involved in King Qi's rebellion and was removed from the position of prime minister, the southern faction has lost its backbone in the court and is currently dormant.
At the same time, the southern system actually also includes the Bashu system, the Jiangzuo system, the Jiangyou system, and so on.
In terms of internal strife, the southern faction is stronger than the northern faction.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the north was devastated, and the southern families were still fighting among themselves, and they did not take the opportunity to capture the Central Plains. You can imagine how strong the southern family was at fighting among themselves.
Of course, forced division does not mean that any of the three major families is really possible to integrate and unify. Although Shandong families often marry each other, there are also many who betray each other when their own family interests are involved.
Only the Guanlong clan has truly become a unified force and has changed dynasties several times. The other two major families have basically passively accepted the unification.
Many aristocratic families privately sneered at the idea of five surnames and seven hopes.
Therefore, these aristocratic families can only be divided into factions and distinguished in an academic sense.
If these three major departments are really twisted into one, Li Zhiyun feels that he may have to kill with a knife.
Just like now, the six political ministers, Pei Ju, Yang Gongren, Chen Shuda, Li Shuliang, Du Ruhui, and Xue Shou, are actually checks and balances in various senses.
Pei Ju was born into the Wenxi Pei family from the Bingzhou family, Yang Gongren was from the Hongnong Yang family from the Central Plains family, and always belonged to the Shandong family. Xue Shou belonged to the Shandong-Bingzhou family.
Chen Shuda belongs to the southern lineage, and he is a descendant of the Nanchen royal family.
Du Ruhui is a member of the Guanlong family.
Li Shuliang belongs to the royal family. To be stricter, the Li family of the royal family is also related to Guanlong.
In terms of three major categories.
Pei Ju, Yang Gongren, and Xue Shou represent the Shandong Department.
Du Ruhui represents the Guanlong clan.
Chen Shuda represents the Southern Department.
Li Shuliang represents the royal family.
It is not difficult to see that the Shandong clique has the upper hand. This was also the policy of the late emperor to Li Zhiyun, who used the Shandong clique to suppress the Guanlong clique.
Then differentiate in another form.
Li Shuliang, Chen Shuda, Pei Ju, and Yang Gongren were all prime ministers left over from the late emperor's era.
Du Ruhui and Xue Shou were ministers of the newly-entered Xungui clan and the Imperial clan.
The third type is narrow geographical division.
This is what happens when internal divisions occur within major departments.
For example, Pei Ju seemed to be the leader of the Bingzhou family in the court. But in fact, Wang Gui of the Wang family in Taiyuan, Wen Yanbo of the Wen family in Taiyuan, and others had no intention of joining forces with Pei Ju.
Not to mention Xue Shou from the imperial lineage.
It is precisely because of the divisions within the family that the court maintains a state of balance. This is also the reason why Li Zhiyun chose small-scale precision surgery even though he knew Pei Ju had framed Cen Wenwen.
Because, once Pei Ju is touched, from a large level, the strength of the Shandong clique will be damaged, and the Guanlong clique will inevitably take action.
From a small level, if Pei Ju is finished, the Shandong faction will inevitably fight with each other. In this way, things will become very troublesome.
You have to know that it's not that Li Zhiyun doesn't want to see the aristocratic families fighting among themselves, but that they can't be allowed to fight among themselves now.
In the early years of Zhenguan, natural disasters came one after another. If the ministers of the Shandong faction fought back and forth, who would lose?
One, the emperor.
Second, the people.
In this era when knowledge was controlled by aristocratic families, officials in local states and counties either came from aristocratic families or were students of aristocratic families. The relationship between them was so complicated that it was difficult to sort out.
Once the Shandong faction fights internally and suffers from natural disasters, the ministers of the Shandong faction who get into a real fight will casually signal their subordinates to cause a little trouble for the other party's ministers, and the court's losses will increase exponentially.
And the people will be even more miserable.
If he had not been constrained by natural disasters, he would have instigated internal strife within the family, and then reaped the benefits.
But that's not possible now. We have to wait until the natural disaster passes in a few years.
Seeing Pei Ju getting angry, Li Zhiyun knew that he had to go under the knife.
It is inevitable to kill Pei Ju, and it is also inevitable to keep the Zheng family. Because they must be used to suppress the Guanlong relationship.
The main contradiction and the secondary contradiction must be distinguished.
At this stage, the strength of the Guanlong Clan is still as strong as ever.
Whether it is accurate or not is the difference between slaughter and surgery. For aristocratic families, slaughter can be done, but not now. If it were a prosperous age, the Zheng family in Xingyang would not be able to escape this time without heavy bleeding. If they don't kill a lot of Zheng families,
Exiling some people and dividing their families, Li Zhiyun will not let it go.
Surgery is available at any time. What he, the emperor, has to do is to constantly scrape off the cancerous tumors on the giant body of the Tang Dynasty.
To put it more concretely, now on the giant of the Tang Dynasty, a suppurative tumor named "Pei Ju" grew on a cancerous tumor called "Wenxi Pei Shi", which caused a little pain and nausea to the Tang Dynasty.
For the sake of health, this small purulent cancerous tumor called 'Pei Ju' must be removed. As for the cancerous tumor called 'Xingyang Zheng's', for the sake of health, we can only temporarily squeeze out some pus and apply some plaster.
This was done because a cancer called the 'Guanlong Family' grew around the heart of the giant of the Tang Dynasty.
He had to perform a careful operation to prevent the "Guanlong Family" cancer from developing.
If you want a radical cure, you must take a long-term approach and never act too hastily. This is because the last person who directly picked out the tumor because he couldn't stand the pain, and then died of pain, was named Yang Guang.
Fully learn from the lessons of previous generations and treat slowly is the way to go.