Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 79: The Way of Being a King
On the eaves of the building, Wu Fei leaned on the railing, gazing at all the departing aristocratic families, his eyes displaying the typical villainous gaze. Wu Fei twitched his chin, imagining himself to have a long, narrow face.

Wu Fei: This whole "give a warning, then a treat, then a sweet talk after the threat, seemingly close, but constantly monitoring for any inappropriate behavior" approach is a bit much, isn't it?
They apologize verbally, but they're not kind at all!
Wu Fei subconsciously distrusted these aristocratic families, assuming they would inevitably betray him. Therefore, he seized every opportunity to find evidence of their misconduct, much like a villain trying to control a woman physically, financially, and emotionally.

Wu Fei summoned cadres and members from within the Security Bureau.

These security bureau members were all blood relatives recommended by the personal guards. They were not called by their real names, only by code names. Their merits were not made public, but were recorded on Wu Fei's personal guards. And this personal guard promotion channel was one of the few tacitly approved routes in the entire army that allowed them to bypass the open system of blood rewards and directly obtain blood rewards.

After Wu Fei gave his orders, the men quickly fled. These security bureau members changed into special uniforms and, armed with crossbows, began their operation.

The dogs in the street were barking.

Wu Fei's understanding of the relationship between imperial power and aristocratic families is similar to that of marriage between men and women.

Even the relationship between the patriarchal group, the precursor to monarchical power, and the matriarchal group, the precursor to aristocratic families, is the origin of the marriage system. In ancient times, the monarch represented the patriarchal tribe, while the women from the matriarchal tribe were equivalent to the earliest "aristocratic families."

The story of the Yellow Emperor having relations with three thousand women was not something he did personally. Rather, it was a result of his tribe forming alliances with numerous other tribes through marriage after achieving military unification. It wasn't just the Yellow Emperor acting alone; his entire tribe participated in these marriages. Furthermore, it didn't necessarily involve three thousand tribes, but rather all the tribes under heaven that submitted to him, establishing stable ties of interest with the ruling tribe.

Of course, for each local tribe, the most valuable thing was to marry directly with the chief of the paternal tribe.

As history progressed, three thousand tribes eliminated one another, and some local powers became strong. These powerful local tribes would then lock onto the monarch's lineage.

In this power combination, when the monarch needs to lead the military, he can use the appeal of the patrilineal tribe to summon all his uncles, cousins, and other relatives to carry out military operations. However, when the monarch is young and lacks military leadership, his uncles may act on their own, requiring the support of the maternal lineage in the local area to ensure that the monarch can mobilize the most resources and that his core position is unshakeable.

The "sacred principles" of the institution of marriage stem from this, because they are linked to the political stability of the upper echelons of early human societies.

Thus, the earliest relationship between monarchs and aristocratic families was born.

However, just as the initial cooperation in a marriage may be sweet, it will soon be filled with disagreements and arguments, and even power struggles may escalate into major conflicts.

The conflict at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty was just like that. For several generations, the Houdang tribe steadily held a stake in the core power structure of the Zhou Dynasty through blood-related marriages, while the patriarchal tribes of the Zhou Dynasty suffered a serious decline due to the loss of the Zhou army's legions. At this time, King You of Zhou had the idea of ​​changing the crown prince, and the political conflict between the monarch and the aristocratic families erupted in the most intense way.

From then on, the struggle between monarchical power and aristocratic families in history became increasingly fierce, and there was no going back.

If the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty was like a young couple escalating from a quarrel to a fight, then Qin Shi Huang's actions after ascending the throne, eliminating all his maternal relatives and ruthlessly unifying the country, and elevating "royal power" to an unprecedented level, were tantamount to "promoting official positions, making money, and losing one's wife," pushing the royal families of the six kingdoms who had been intermarried for hundreds of years along the Qin lineage towards extinction.

For an emperor, if the entire world is under his control, then the next monarch will not need the matriarchal system to provide political assistance as a transcendent entity. An overly powerful matriarchal system may even be an enemy that usurps the throne.

King Ying Zheng of Qin had no intention of granting any official titles to his maternal relatives. He took women from the six states into the palace, but did not establish an empress; all the women were his concubines. Fusu, the eldest son of Chu, was exiled to the countryside, in an attempt to support Huhai, who lacked clan power. And then what happened? The powers of the six states: "Fine, fine, so this is how it works. Even this one channel of power is being cut off, so let's do it."

For the next two thousand years, the love-hate relationship between monarchical power and aristocratic families continued.

…Breaking up was impossible, and so began a karmic entanglement spanning two thousand years…

Until the Ming and Qing dynasties, the relationship between the monarch and the aristocratic families had completely degenerated into a scheming relationship between scoundrels and gold diggers.

Wu Fei aimed to achieve his goal in one fell swoop: to centralize power, suppress powerful clans, and give more authority over the wealthy families who controlled local economic and informational resources, while reducing his own responsibilities.

Wu Fei: As for the curses and perversions directed at me by powerful families in the future, none of you are qualified. I have merely achieved the pinnacle of the Eastern dynastic system.

…Wu Fei: I need to send out spies to hunt down beauties…

Among the Sun family's sons, a servant named Sun Xizhao was touching the bruises on his body from being beaten for failing to grind ink for his young master in the study.

As he washed the horses in the stable, he had heard that the selection of officials for the civil service examination did not discriminate based on social status, but he dared not imagine it.

“Hehe—” Sun Xizhao shook his head. In terms of filial piety, he had an excellent relationship with his mother. In terms of talent, he was no less capable than that stupid guy in the clan who could only stutter when he could read the Thousand Character Classic.

Just as he was lamenting, a bamboo slip was suddenly thrown out from outside the stable.

He looked at it and saw that it was a registration guide, telling him to register in a designated area.

Two days later, he applied to lead the horse and followed the clan members to the site of the recommendation for filial piety and integrity. Seeing the other clan members talking loudly in the council hall, he suddenly mustered up his courage, ignored the gazes of others, walked into the council hall, found an examiner, and handed over the bamboo slip he had picked up a few days earlier that was engraved with his name and place of origin.

The registration staff's eyes lit up when they saw the bamboo slips. They immediately told the other family members to step aside and conducted the assessment ahead of time.

After passing the test, under the watchful eyes of the Sun family disciples and amidst their quiet protests,

Sun Xizhao thus occupied the Sun family's quota. Someone present immediately protested, "Why?! Our branch paid the most for this 'filial piety and incorruptibility' quota, why should it be given to a slave's son?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a menacing aura emanated from him, and the police officers maintaining order at the scene came out and took him away.

The examiner then came out and said, "The recommendation of candidates for the civil service is fair and just, and there is no phenomenon of selling official positions. We need to investigate him."

The captain's high-sounding words caused an old man in the Sun family to clutch his chest, point at the judge who was recommending candidates for the civil service exam, and be speechless with anger.

A few days ago, when these aristocratic families asked their various branches to pay, the patriarch didn't say this. He said, "Whoever pays gets a spot." How did it become that the payment was made by the clan as a whole, and the selection of spots became a matter of the examiners randomly choosing from the clan's members?

But the General's Mansion made it very clear: it's your business for each branch of your family to pay money, that's protection money; the selection of materials is my business, I have to be responsible for the country.

…Wu Xiaoque: You shall pay for it, and you must not slander my benevolence…

Wu Fei bypassed the various powerful families through the Security Bureau and obtained a list of neglected slave children and illegitimate children from within. He began to select from them one by one.

In name, the aristocratic families paid money, hoping to select a group of filial and incorruptible individuals from their provided lists. However, Wu Fei did not follow the lists. Instead, he simply selected a large majority of those who came to take the exam as slave sons, as long as they were confirmed to be related to the family. These slave sons did not even enter the family ancestral hall; they merely knelt down and called out "father" and "grandfather" to a branch of the clan, and were immediately recognized as members of this family.

These children born from slaves were criticized by the disgruntled members of the aristocratic families for not being of high moral character.

Wu Fei: Is there any extremely difficult threshold for moral character? As long as you are filial to your parents, you basically pass. Why do you have to do some performance art to make yourself special? Is such special treatment beneficial to the operation of the administrative system?

After selecting these talents, Wu Fei immediately ordered these slave sons to take the soldiers of the Wu family army home and bring their elderly mothers over to take good care of them.

With this move, Wu Fei once again taught all the powerful families he was cooperating with a lesson.

What constitutes the legitimate heir within your aristocratic family is merely a matter of self-entertainment. I can decide which branch of the family I want to be the legitimate heir! Even if the child is actually born of a slave, he is still considered legitimate! If the legitimate heir you designate displeases me, then he is considered a collateral branch. And the aristocratic families in various regions must, as far as possible, present me with "beauties" (talented individuals who fit the monarch's centralized rule) to satisfy me.

Of course, the security agencies sent him another message: the talents they had selected had caused many disillusioned individuals within the elite families' inner circles to turn to outsiders.

Wu Fei nodded in agreement, as if it were all perfectly natural. What kind of aristocratic family wouldn't cause trouble? But fawning over aristocratic families was pointless; the only way was to maintain the relationship while continuing the torturous romance.

So Wu Fei made his move again, this time targeting a new weakness exposed by the aristocratic families: the discord between the direct descendants and powerful commoners.

The ground squirrel decided to scrape off another sum. Because, you see, these families could still be squeezed for some oil.

As for offending me? Wu Fei: I never expected you all to "not offend me" in the future, so I have to offend you as soon as possible.

Historical records show that offending a powerful family meant inflicting a fatal wound... Xuan Chong's database reveals that Gongsun Zan of the Three Kingdoms period came from the Gongsun family, but not as a direct descendant, so he could only start as a minor official. He later rose through the ranks to become the governor's secretary, thanks to his intelligence. Of course, without the right opportunity, this would have been his end. But then opportunity struck: when the governor encountered bandits, he bravely fought them off, and was transferred to a military position. Then, with the chaos of the times, he was promoted again.

However, Gongsun Zan never integrated into the aristocratic circles. When he was at odds with Yuan Shao, his core allies were his sworn brothers, local wealthy merchants, rather than local powerful clans. After Gongsun Zan's defeat and death, when he was abandoned by everyone, he was likely betrayed by the local powerful clans.

Therefore, people like Lü Bu and Gongsun Zan felt extremely frustrated within the powerful clan system. They rebelled against their fate, but history books highlight their fickleness due to "petty gains."

…Military tactics never involve knowing when to stop…

Fan Tangwen went home dejectedly.

A few days ago, the family was holding a "recommendation of filial and incorruptible officials" ceremony. The eldest branch of the family was short of money, so they allocated him a large sum of money to pay for the service and promised that his son would be recommended. He took his son to the Hall of Worthies with great enthusiasm, but after a lot of work, the state government finally announced that his son was not among the candidates for filial and incorruptible officials. He was extremely disappointed.

However, when he entered the shop today, he saw a "strange person".

The man bowed to him and then showed him his waist badge.

Fan Tangwen was taken aback when he saw the waist tag, but then he wasn't surprised. The man got straight to the point, explaining that he represented the Wu family army and was looking for local worthies.

Visitor: I feel that you are a person of great talent today.

Fan Tangwen was taken aback for a moment, then invited the man into the house. After a few incense sticks had burned, he discerned the murderous aura of the military from the man's speech. When the man showed his waist badge indicating he was in charge of the General's Mansion, he suddenly realized that this might be a way to get in.

Just as Fan Tangwen was preparing to send a gift of money and ask him to act as an intermediary.

However, the man politely declined, giving him a hint: "Sir, those with real connections don't talk about material things at the beginning; they only discuss credit after the deal is done. Anyone who asks for bribes beforehand is a fraud."

This was a strict order issued by Wu Fei to the Security Bureau, because Wu Fei knew that once a channel was opened, many people would try to use it; and once money was accepted, someone would inevitably offer money; and once someone rushed to offer money, there would inevitably be swindlers trying to cheat people out of their money.

Wu Fei: It's all my money! It has to flow into my hands efficiently, how can I give swindlers room to cheat?
Therefore, a clear order was given to the security personnel: they must not accept any money while performing their duties. Afterwards, these collateral branches that had decided to siphon off the family business would offer up shares, and the security personnel would then receive dividends.

Wu Fei told his subordinates, "Everyone gets to eat! So be mindful of your table manners."

Note: This is an imitation of the old Britain, where some gloves bearing knighthoods would search for relevant people to attend salon banquets and organize gatherings.

…The dividing line between having no worthy successors…

After carefully inquiring about the situation, Fan Tangwen learned about the actions suggested by the person who claimed to have connections.

He gritted his teeth and went to the Wu family's loan and pawnshop to pawn the property. Although it was a family business, the family was unscrupulous, so he couldn't be too honest.

Two months later, he pawned his family assets, raised enough money to go to Fenxing City in the southern border to buy property, and then suddenly encountered barbarians outside the border and won the merit of beheading them.

The officials in charge of selecting worthy men suddenly announced that they had overlooked someone and replaced him.

Under such a demonstration effect, many merchants and scholars began to follow suit, and the Wu families who attracted investment in places like Fenxing City also opened their "eyes" and discovered many talented people.

Wu Fei's logic was very simple: I understand that you commoners used to pay money and cooperate with those who controlled the upper-level channels and resources, but now you can do direct sales with me. Why go through middlemen?

In the past, during times of peace, the imperial court would cooperate with local powerful families to maintain "great order." Naturally, it would accept the quotas directly recommended by these local powerful families, and the recommendation power would be held by the main lineage of these families.

Da Yao is now facing strong external military pressure and needs the support of the marquisate group that controls the border military. The quota for filial and incorruptible officials in Lingnan has already been filled by the Wu clan's military group.

This is similar to the late Eastern Han Dynasty, where powerful families rose to power through monopolizing Confucian classics. However, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, local military groups gained power, forcing powerful families to act as intermediaries through these groups.

…As for the imperial court? They understand, but they all tacitly agree to it…

The inspectors sent by the imperial court and the prefecture silently examined each of the smeared heads, and then exclaimed that the Battle of Yongji Pass in 27 years was truly a great victory, and the murderous intent on each head that had died on the battlefield was real.

Did the heads of the caravans led by Fan Tangwen and others that went abroad for meritorious service exist forged?
The southern border regions are now under Wu Fei's control. Their merits are determined by the court rather than by Wu Fei allowing the court to determine them. If they falsify their records, even if the court determines them, Wu Fei can still make them go bankrupt outside the Great Wall.

This also solved another headache for both the military family and the imperial court.

Previously, there was a rather awkward situation between the Wu family and the imperial court: the court could no longer reward the Wu family, as any further rewards would exceed their rank.

Wu Fei understood the court's predicament, and being a master of exploiting loopholes, he figured that since he couldn't use all his merits, he'd become a livestreamer selling goods—or rather, he'd distribute his merits among the lower ranks, instead of trying to synthesize the "King" super title. The court would still be rewarded. Otherwise, it would appear that the court didn't value the local militia, and the militia in the southern border would become disloyal to the court.

By awarding merits to those outside the military family, the court could avoid the awkward situation of having the military family's title superimposed on the merits. This was called diluting the merits.

But for Wu Fei, this "invention" successfully turned his accumulated military achievements in the southern border into cash, and the imperial court also successfully bestowed favors and power upon various powerful families in the southern border.

Thirty-two years later, his meritorious service suddenly became valuable within the Great Wall.

After June, the hometown associations of each camp also started doing financial management business. With a large number of southern merchants investing in the development of plantations in southern Xinjiang, there was a shortage of both slaves and merit points. This eventually led to speculation, and Wu Fei had to take action to curb it.

What is it? Wu Fei received complaints from the chieftains and reports from Xiao Qing's intelligence department that some mercenaries had indeed begun to illegally capture slaves within the territories of various chieftains, and were even attempting to use the heads of their fellow villagers.

Looking at the major cases that had suddenly emerged, Wu Fei gritted his teeth: This is truly a bloody capitalist system. Once it is activated, its efficiency in devouring people is much higher than that of the pastoral ethical system.

In response, Wu Fei separated the function of maintaining public order from the auxiliary army and directly established a dedicated police force group in southern Xinjiang.

This police force now focuses on maintaining order by ensuring that there are "no major cases" in the area, rather than on how many criminals are apprehended.

If the army is allowed to arrest bandits again, the consequence will be that the education and reform efforts in southern Xinjiang cannot be implemented.

Wu Fei had begun to understand: Africa, the first continent colonized by Western capitalist groups, had become as backward as primitive tribes by the 20th century. The slave-hunting groups had taken all the people, making it impossible to even maintain the feudal system, resulting in a complete break in civilization.

…Xuan Chong: So I was the one who lobbied the slave-trafficking group before?…

In July, the selection examination for non-commissioned officers began at Yongji Pass. The first batch of products from the newly opened paper mill was used there.

In the examination hall, there were both former military officers and members of the Wu family, all of whom were scratching their heads in confusion. One fool even secretly glanced at the proctor, Wu Fei. When he was sure that Wu Fei's gaze was not on him, he quietly took out an object.

Just when Wu Fei thought it was a cheat sheet, he actually took out dice to gamble on the multiple-choice questions.

Of course, some candidates were incredibly quick with their pens, rapidly filling in the blanks on the wooden test paper with charcoal pencils.

The exam paper contains multiple-choice, true/false, and application questions, such as picture-based questions. The picture shows "armored soldiers and distant saplings as reference points." The question asks: when muskets and crossbows are arrayed and encounter an enemy with only one layer of armor, how many steps should they advance before firing a volley for maximum effectiveness? Furthermore, based on the breathing rhythm during the trampling of vegetation, how many rounds of damage could be inflicted?

Soon the officers handed in their papers. Among them, those who performed well were mostly from unofficial families or from humble backgrounds after their families had separated. After handing in their papers, they looked at Wu Fei with burning hope in their eyes.

Wu Fei absorbed these gazes and slowly realized in his heart: In this day and age, what Lu Bu and his ilk actually wanted was not Red Hare or Diao Chan, but the great military merit and titles bestowed upon them during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han.

(End of this chapter)