The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 933: Family Heritage

"Are you here on behalf of the Tang Dynasty?"

Li Yan looked at Wei Mingshan, frowned slightly, and said unhappily: "Hasn't Hou Junji always been in charge? Did Li Shimin change the person?"

"Your Majesty has misunderstood. I am here to visit Your Majesty on behalf of the Jingzhao Wei family. I am not a court envoy." Wei Mingshan quickly resolved.

Li Yan raised his eyes and understood the man's intention. He was afraid that this man was trying to contact him privately without the knowledge of the court and Li Shimin. Under such circumstances, he came secretly. I wonder what his plan was?
Li Yan asked calmly, "There are hundreds of thousands of Tang soldiers stationed along the Yellow River, and the defense is tight. How did you get through these heavy guards?"

"Haha, it's just the front line. To be honest with the Right Wise King, even if it's the Taiji Palace in Chang'an City, I can enter and exit at will as long as I want without the emperor knowing."

Wei Mingshan smiled slightly and said confidently: "The city defense and palace restrictions are only for ordinary people. In the eyes of us aristocratic families with a thousand-year heritage, they are nothing but empty words. Those soldiers and guards who are guarding are all our people."

"Even the guards who protected the emperor, the eunuchs he used, the maids who fanned him when he slept, the imperial chefs who cooked, the imperial doctors who treated the emperor, and so on, as long as the emperor was around and could breathe, they were all our people."

'hiss'

Li Yan's pupils shrank, he took a breath of cold air, his face became extremely solemn, his expression became serious, he sat up straight, no longer as casual as before.

Although they knew that what the other party said was a bit exaggerated, and that it was a bit of an exaggeration to say that all of them were their people, it was not surprising at all that there were spies sent by them.

Moreover, they can be won over afterwards. After all, although eunuchs, palace maids, chefs and other service personnel are servants, after serving the emperor's daily life, they become sought-after positions. People of ordinary backgrounds simply cannot get such a good job.

Or to put it the other way around, even if you were an ordinary person before, once you are put in this position, you become extraordinary. The Sandezi in Kangxi's Secret Visits is a man who was castrated and entered the palace because he could not survive. After becoming the chief eunuch beside Kangxi, his whole family became prosperous.

The real situation is only more exaggerated than this.

Hundred-year-old dynasties and thousand-year-old families, these aristocratic families have survived many great chaos and changes of dynasties and have not only survived but also thrived. Which one of them does not have extremely profound foundation and methods of surviving in troubled times?

What methods they have and what resources they control are simply unimaginable to Li Yan, who traveled from the future.

Looking at the man who sat there proudly, talking casually about the emperor, the most noble being in the world, without any reverence on his face, Li Yan felt a deep fear in his heart.

Li Yan could look down on them strategically, but when it came to actually becoming their enemy, Li Yan was still extremely cautious.

The person in front of him represents the Jingzhao Wei family. He is not like the later generations who share the same fate with the country, but is more noble than the national court.

A family can be passed down for hundreds of generations, and it will still exist even if the country is destroyed.

It can be said without exaggeration that the core descendants of the aristocratic families are no worse than Li Shimin's sons and daughters.

The Jingzhao Wei family, from the early Western Han Dynasty, Wei Meng was the Grand Duke of Chu, and served as the vassal of three generations. Because the Chu King Liu Wu participated in the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, he resigned from office and retired to the mountains. Until his grandson Wei Xian was appointed as prime minister and granted a title of nobility. Wei Xian, Wei Xiancheng, and Wei Shang, father and son, were prime ministers, three generations of three dukes, and four generations of nobility.

They then became a prominent family in Guanzhong.

From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, the Jingzhao Wei family was divided into two branches, the Eastern Branch and the Western Branch, with a total of twelve houses.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Jingzhao Wei family was spread across the north and south, and produced many talented people, the most famous of whom were Wei Rui and Wei Xiaokuan.

Wei Rui, a famous general of the Liang Dynasty, was good at using troops in a variety of ways, winning unexpected victories and intimidating the enemy. He was a famous general of the Liang Dynasty and was unmatched by others. He was known as the most talented person in the Six Dynasties.

Wei Xiaokuan, a famous general of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, was a man of extraordinary talent and bravery. He became famous in the Battle of Yubi and his three strategies were equally matched. He can be said to be a famous general of his generation.

After the unification of the Sui Dynasty, six brothers including Wei Shikang entered the Chulique and came out of the Zongfangyue.

The Wei family has been in the capital since the beginning, and every generation has produced outstanding people, who are favored by the emperor and have red wheels connected to the axles. During the Sui Dynasty, there was one Grand Marshal, seven Shangshu, Shilang, and Jiuqing, five Shangshu Youcheng and Neishi, three generals, three general managers, eight provincial governors, five pillars of the country, and twelve dukes.

When a country is prosperous, there will be good ministers in the world.

Li Yan also knew that this was just the beginning. The Jingzhao Wei family reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty. In the future, there would be six more prime ministers who would assist the empress: Wei Juyuan, Wei Hongmin, Wei Fangzhi, Wei Daijia, Wei Siqian, and Wei Chengqing.

Wei Anshi and Prime Minister Wei Sili, who assisted Wu Zetian, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, and Emperor Ruizong of Tang.

Wei Zhiyi, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Shunzong and Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty, Wei Zhaodu, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Jiazong and Emperor Zhaozong, Wei Wen, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Zhongzong, Wei Jiansu, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Xuanzong, Wei Guanzhi, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Wenzong, Wei Cong, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Xuanzong, Wei Baoheng, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Zhaozong, and Wei Yifan, the prime minister who assisted Emperor Xuanzong.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Wei family produced 17 prime ministers, making them the most powerful and influential people in the country. The marriage between the four families of Li, Wu, Wei and Yang was even more glorious.

The Old Book of Tang records: Some people said that since the Tang Dynasty, no clan was more prosperous than the Wei family.

Background, what is background?

This is the heritage of a thousand-year-old clan, bottomless and thick as a mountain. Just a glimpse of it makes people feel deeply powerless from the bottom of their hearts. This is a real behemoth, and it is just one of the aristocratic families.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the Yuan Benchu ​​family, with three generations of officials in four generations, were just children playing house compared to today's aristocratic families.

Just by looking at these characters, you can tell that the prosperity of the aristocratic families is so powerful that ordinary people cannot imagine. No matter how terrifying you think of these aristocratic families, what you actually see is just the tip of the iceberg. Their real strength is far beyond your imagination.

The royal families of all dynasties were not unaware of the harm caused by aristocratic families, and all of them wanted to dismember them.

The fact that they were able to withstand the repeated suppression of imperial power and remain standing shows how strong these people were, because they were originally part of the national power, even after repeated suppression by many emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

But actually
Whether it was Yang Jian, Yang Guang, Li Yuan, or Li Shimin, they were all just using the power of smaller families to suppress powerful families. The final result was that new families replaced the old ones, and the situation of aristocratic families holding power was not resolved.

If these people are really angered, they can completely form a new court and change the world.

In an era when writing and knowledge were not popularized and the imperial examination system did not exert its power, everything the rulers did was in vain. Li Yan is not in a hurry to solve these problems now. Perhaps this itself is the characteristic of the times!
If you dig deeper, this is also human nature.

Just as a poor man becomes rich, he will also become arrogant and extravagant, amass wealth, annex land, and exploit the poor like the rich, and may even be more harsh than the original rich man. After the dragon slayer finally slayed all the evil dragons, he himself became an evil dragon.

Li Yansan was a man of long-term vision, even after the Huang Chao Rebellion, when it seemed that the aristocratic family had come to an end.

It was just that the aristocratic families, after reflection, voluntarily gave up the model of Wang and Ma sharing the world that had been formed after the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and replaced it with the Song and Ming party model that was more easily accepted by the rulers, which dispersed power and made it less noticeable.

In fact, aristocratic families are still aristocratic families, and powerful families are still powerful families.

Honestly speaking, aristocratic families are what everyone wants to pursue. Even if Li Yan is an ordinary person in the future, he would envy those big families that can make the wind and rain change the rain and have a network of connections. If there is a chance, who would not want to have such a big family, except the emperor?

What's more, the emperor himself is the largest aristocratic family.

Transform the family into the country and the world into the private. Is it the family that becomes the country or the country that becomes the family? Who can tell?

Li Yan looked at Wei Mingshan, who was sitting below him, with a demeanor that was no less than his own. He exuded an air of nobility that had been accumulated over many generations, as well as the confidence to rule the country. On his face was a faint smile that made people feel like a spring breeze, and his back and neck were straight.

Once they sat there, not only did the Turks like Gurentu and Labutu become accomplices, but even Li Yan, a nobleman born into a crown prince family, felt a little overwhelmed.

When Li Yan was in Chang'an before, he had also met some ministers from aristocratic families.

In fact, the real powerful people in the aristocratic families do not hold positions in the court. Any position in the court has corresponding responsibilities. Once you are in it, in addition to handling your own official duties, you must also participate in power struggles and deal with the emperor.

How can I have the energy to manage family power and seek the longevity of the family?
Generally, the aristocratic families would send several representatives to occupy a seat in the court. The size of the official position and the high or low rank were not important at all. Instead, they were often of middle rank to show their support for the imperial power and to show it to the outside world.

It does not occupy the position of Li Shimin's trusted ministers.

Therefore, in the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties, we often see high-ranking officials discussing politics with those of the fifth and sixth ranks. It is precisely because of this complex power structure that such a puzzling court structure came into being.

Often, officials of the first and second ranks were used to gather merit or reward old ministers with great reputation and high status; while officials of the third and fourth ranks were the real backbone who helped Li Shimin handle government affairs, and officials of the fifth and sixth ranks were the spokespersons for aristocratic families.

The importance of officials cannot be simply determined by rank. Sometimes, a second-rank official must be respectful when meeting a fifth-rank official.

The causal relationship is the opposite. It is not the power and position in the court that gives the aristocratic families strength and status, but it is because the aristocratic families have actual power and influence that the court gives them corresponding power.

Similar to the United Nations in later generations, does the UN Secretary-General have the power to order the five permanent members? Obviously not.

In addition to some famous officials, the real core of these big families is still within the family. There is the clan elders' council, the highest authority that governs all branches of the family, there are departments specifically for managing land and caravans, there is a clan school for cultivating family talents, and there are family rules to restrain family members.

It can be said that all the institutions needed for a court to govern the world can be found in these great families comparable to kings and princes.

(End of this chapter)