The five surnames and seven looks, they no longer represent not only the interests of their own family, but also the symbol of the entire powerful class of the gentry.
It is no exaggeration to say that more than half of the officials in the world are related to them.
Although Li Shimin continued to promote officials with civilian backgrounds, he could not fundamentally reverse this situation until the academic and political systems and the imperial examination system really took effect.
Later, he won over the military meritorious noble class through enfeoffment, which severely affected the arrogance of the gentry.
But for the nobles, it was still not a big deal. The reputation they had built up over hundreds of years could not be broken so easily.
Even if the emperor found excuses to kill a group of people close to the nobles, and even Cui Gan hit a pillar and died, the prestige of the nobles still remains.
In the eyes of many people, the gentry are still gentry, but now the emperor's prestige is too high, and they are unwilling to confront him head-on and choose to remain dormant.
Once the nobles really risk their lives, they will be able to shake the foundation of the world and even change the dynasty.
No one believed that the emperor dared to attack them directly.
However, things were always so unexpected. If the emperor didn't take action, he would do it with thunderous force and directly wipe out the main line of the Wang family in Taiyuan.
The world was shocked.
Then everyone began to wait for the reaction of the nobles, but the result disappointed everyone, and the powerful nobles collectively lost their voices.
This has also made more and more people realize that the sky has changed... no, or that the sky has changed a long time ago, but they just didn't notice it.
There are also people who are unwilling to accept it, and think that the nobles are not immobile, but are preparing for a major counterattack, but they just need time to prepare.
This statement was agreed by many people, and even Li Shimin was a little uneasy.
His fear of the gentry was very deep, which is why he sent five generals to take charge of the place before attacking the Wang family in Taiyuan.
Chen Jingke sneered at this and said: "You think too highly of them... Let's put it this way, they didn't have any plan, and the reason why they didn't react was because they woke up from a dream."
Li Shimin asked doubtfully: "Awakened from the dream? What does it mean?"
Chen Jingke said: "I once saw an analysis about the gentry in my family. I have forgotten the specific content, but I still remember the general context. You will understand it as soon as I tell you."
When he heard that it was an analysis written by his family, Li Shimin immediately became interested and said, "Tell me quickly."
Chen Jingke immediately recounted the so-called analysis report.
In fact, there is no analysis report. It is just an article I saw when I was chatting with people on the Internet. The main idea is:
The powerful families have a long history. They have existed since the beginning of human civilization records, and they have always existed as rulers.
But the entire history of the family can be divided into two stages, before the Sui and Tang Dynasties and after the Song Dynasty.
In the dynasties before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the aristocratic family and the emperor basically ruled the world together.
At this time, the aristocratic families were indeed powerful and relied on monopolizing knowledge to control the channels for becoming officials.
Then he used his status as an official to develop his own family, allowing the family to grow and further monopolize knowledge.
Not only did they monopolize knowledge, they also had their own tenant farmers, private soldiers, manors and fortresses, etc.
At that time, when aristocratic families married a daughter, she could have thousands of slaves accompanying her.
It can be said that every aristocratic family is equivalent to a small country within a country internally.
After the Song Dynasty, the academy system allowed learning to enter the common people, breaking the monopoly of knowledge by the gentry. Coupled with the existence of imperial examinations, the combination of the two completely eliminated aristocratic families.
The subsequent rise of the landowning gentry class only had influence in their own towns and counties, and was no longer comparable to that of aristocratic families.
The Sui and Tang Dynasties were the transitional stage of the family from glory to destruction.
The imperial court has been using various methods to limit their strength, such as not allowing them to have private soldiers, not allowing them to build fortresses and manors locally, etc.
During the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty nationalized all hermit households, tenant farmers belonging to the nobility, etc., and ordered the demolition of all unofficial military buildings such as forts.
Although Yang Guang carries the name of a faint emperor, he has been implementing Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty's ideas and attacking the gentry.
It's just that he used too much force and gave up on himself when the situation was even slightly wrong, which ultimately led to the death of the second generation of the Sui Dynasty.
However, after the suppression of two generations of monarchs in the Sui Dynasty, the gentry basically lost their military capabilities.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, their so-called strength had changed from the previous dual strength of military and culture to pure cultural influence.
As we all know, cultural strength is also called soft power.
On the other hand, knowledge gradually flowed into the people, and more and more scholars came out from poor families and ordinary people, and they began to have a certain degree of competitiveness.
Years of turmoil also gave poor families and civilians the opportunity to compete for military merit, creating a large number of military nobles to compete with them.
In fact, by this time, the powerful nobles no longer had the strength of their ancestors, and their status was more touted by others.
And those who praise them are the nobles all over the world.
Why? The nobles naturally do not want to lose the power in their hands, so they must elect a few leaders to fight for power for everyone.
Qi Wang, a member of the Five Surnames with long heritage and strong strength, was elected.
But is Wu Xing Qi Wang, who has only soft power left, really so powerful that he can even despise the imperial power? Impossible.
The reason why they dared to despise the Li Tang royal family was because Li Tang had established a unified country, and its first priority was stability, so they were naturally unwilling to touch them casually.
The emperor was unwilling to touch them casually, so he gave them the opportunity to raise their own status.
In fact, with Li Shimin's control over the army, if he really went out of his way to attack the nobles, they would be a bunch of lambs waiting to be slaughtered, without any room for resistance.
This post is not all speculation, but also gives practical examples.
When did the aristocratic family, especially the Five Surnames and Qiwang, perish? The answer is the late Tang Dynasty.
First, Huang Chao's "After my flowers bloom, hundreds of flowers will be killed", which wiped out all the powerful nobles in the capital.
Then it was Zhu Wen's turn. This man hated the gentry very much, especially the five surnames and Qiwang.
After he came to power, he directly ordered all the five surnames and seven origins to be sunk into the Yellow River, regardless of their main line or branches.
In one fell swoop, they killed all their families and almost cut off the ancestral hall.
Is there anyone fighting for them at this time? No.
The imagined situation in which a single move affected the whole body, damaged every surname and even a hair on the head, and caused half of the scholars in the world to rebel, did not occur.
Everyone sweeps the snow in front of their own doors and doesn't care about the frost on other people's tiles.
Zhu Wen's example tells everyone that the reason why Qiwang of the Five Surnames dared to be so arrogant was entirely because he lacked an emperor who was willing to take risks.
If they really encountered an indifferent emperor who attacked them, not many people would stand up to defend them, let alone anyone who would rebel in order to rescue them.
More people will choose to sit back and watch, or even kneel down to lick the emperor. Because to a certain extent, the aristocratic family is just a grassroots, and they will lick whoever is stronger.
Therefore, the so-called influence of the Five Surnames and Qiwang is completely touted by everyone, and it is not that strong.
The value of some things comes more from everyone's consensus. Of course, the high status of Wu Xing Qi Wang is due to factors such as the inheritance of long-standing family traditions.
But more importantly, it was the people of the world who jointly lifted them to this position.
To marry a woman with the fifth surname.
Is it true that the daughter of the fifth surname and Qi Wang is so good and noble?
No, it's just like a certain kind of goods. It becomes valuable when everyone thinks it is good, thinks it is valuable, and is proud to own it.
Diamonds are the best example. The content of diamonds on the earth is very huge. Just the diamonds that can be mined on the surface can be turned into ordinary crystals for the price.
But there is a group that has been hyping it for hundreds of years and controlling the market to restrict mining, turning something that should have been popular into a rare treasure.
People all over the world have been brainwashed by the group that hypes diamonds, and subconsciously ignore its reserves. They believe that this kind of thing is very expensive, so it should be worth so much.
When everyone thinks it is valuable, then it is really valuable.
The same goes for girls with five surnames. When everyone thinks it is an honor to marry them, they become a status symbol.
This is how the status of the Five Surnames and Qi Wangs came about. When everyone in the world thought that their family had a long heritage, profound knowledge, and numerous talents, they should enjoy this kind of honor, and their status was infinitely elevated.
In fact, they are just like soap bubbles that have been blown up. If someone dares to poke them, they will burst into pieces.
The above is the general content of that post.
When he first saw this post, Chen Jingke also admired the person who posted it. The angle was really tricky.
"This star really wants to retire"
Then he sprayed the man.
What the hell are you talking about? A huge power that even the emperor is afraid of becomes just blown out of your mouth?
The Tang Dynasty lacked decisive emperors, so where did you put Li Yuan, Li Shimin, Li Zhi, Wu Zetian, Li Longji and other emperors?
Do you dare to say that they are cowards? Why didn't they attack Wu Xing Qi Wang?
It's not just Chen Jingke, nine out of ten people who have read this post are scolding the person who posted it.
Anyone who reads more history books will not come up with such naive views.
But after traveling through time and seeing the situation in Datang in person, he realized how correct what that person's post said was.
The five surnames and Qi Wang are just puffy and fat. If the emperor is really determined and ruthless, they will reveal their secrets.
In particular, the emperor's several innovations were all aimed at breaking the foundation of the noble clan. They retreated again and again, and the so-called counterattacks were painless.
This made Chen Jingke realize this.
Of course, the main reason why the gentry's counterattack was so weak was that Li Shimin used enfeoffment to win over military nobles.
But no matter what the reason is, in fact the nobles are not as powerful as they appear.
Chen Jingke spoke eloquently and explained the content of the post in detail.
At the end, he concluded: "Now the saint has used a butcher's knife to tell everyone that the five surnames and seven hopes are nothing more than this."
"When the bubble was burst, everyone discovered that it was just a ball of air. At this point, the aloof image of the gentry was broken."
"The myth that the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes have been running for decades or hundreds of years is almost shattered, and everyone has once again realized that the imperial power is inviolable."
"So those wallflowers changed their appearance overnight and became loyal ministers and filial sons of the Tang Dynasty."
"This is why the saint took action to destroy the Wang family in Taiyuan, but all the aristocratic families were indifferent."
"They are not engaging in any conspiracy, but simply recognize the reality and are powerless."
Li Shimin was also very excited when he heard this. He couldn't help but sigh: "Wonderful, your elder's analysis shows the essence of the gentry."
Then he glared at Chen Jingke and said angrily: "Why didn't you tell me this analysis earlier? If I had known this earlier, I wouldn't have been in so much trouble."
Chen Jingke said aggrievedly: "Didn't I remember it? Besides, even if I told you at that time, you might not believe it."
Li Shimin said unreasonably: "How do you know I don't believe it? Anyway, it's your fault for not telling me earlier."
Chen Jingke rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, okay, you're right, it's all my fault."
Li Shimin couldn't help but laugh and said: "But it's not too late to say it now. I will have more confidence when I deal with the powerful nobles next time."
Chen Jingke reminded: "This analysis is just a guess and may not necessarily be correct. Saints need to take more precautions to avoid giving them an opportunity."
Li Shimin nodded and said: "I understand that at times like this, you can never be too careful. This is why I sent five generals to take charge of the situation."
"And I have also ordered officials in various places to strictly control the situation and report any trouble to the court at any time."
"The troops stationed at various key checkpoints and important towns are always on standby. Even if someone rebels, they can be wiped out as quickly as possible."
Chen Jingke praised: "The saint is a saint."
Li Shimin smiled and said: "It's rare to hear a compliment from your mouth. It's so rare."
Chen Jingke continued to praise: "Looking at what you said, in my heart you are the most wise and powerful monarch in the world, the only emperor in the history."
Li Shimin had a black line on his forehead and said: "Stop it, flattering words coming out of your mouth are the same as swearing."
Chen Jingke pretended to be distressed and said: "Your Majesty, you hurt my heart so much. My admiration for you is like the water of the Yellow River flowing endlessly, and like..."
Li Shimin interrupted: "Stop it, stop flattering me, you are really not this material. If you have anything to say, just say it directly, don't be nagging."
Chen Jingke stopped pretending and said with a serious face: "I heard that the noble clan's stronghold in Chang'an was also taken away?"
Li Shimin nodded and said: "Of course, the action was carried out at about the same time as in Taiyuan, and all the people sent by the gentry to guard the city were arrested. Why do you ask?"
Chen Jingke said: "I want to ask the saint for someone."
Li Shimin already knew who he wanted, and couldn't help but frown and said: "Wang Xiuqi is the direct controller of this incident, he is very important."
Chen Jingke said: "Don't lie to me. It doesn't matter whether the messenger is Wang Xiuqi or someone else from the Wang family. Everyone has been caught, and it is not easy to make a confession."
"If you don't give it to me, go to your aunt. Anyway, she promised before that she would let me deal with Wang Xiuqi."
Li Shimin said helplessly: "A man who is a man will go to Guanyin to complain. What's your future?"
Chen Jingke said nonchalantly: "You can decide whether or not to give me any future I want in front of my aunt."
Li Shimin wrote a note and threw it to him, and said angrily: "Here, here, take it and get out of here."
