I'm a humble concubine. My acting skills are off the charts. You can check my performance.

"It's also good luck, otherwise I really wouldn't be able to find out these things."

Zhao Fangyu's fingers were grasped by the sleeping child and she couldn't pull them out. She was also afraid of waking the child up, so the two sisters leaned against each other and talked.

"I was originally only focused on the Yang family and the third prince, but it was only when I met Yang Xiaofei on the way to the palace last time that I remembered."

"The Li family has been very popular in Beijing these days. Among the five surnames and seven noble families, only our Li family has suffered the most due to the continuous wars in Jiayuguan."

When the Five Surnames and Seven Families were mentioned, something seemed to flash through Zhao Fangjin's mind, and he instantly grabbed Zhao Fangyu's wrist.

Zhao Fangyu continued, "The Yang family originally came from a small family. Even if Yang Gushan is a genius, he must have a noble person behind him to help him. Otherwise, how much luck would it take for him to have such a smooth journey until now?"

There are only so many positions in the court. The higher you go, the more employable they are. Each position is filled by one person, and the person may stay in the position for a few years at the least, or even more than ten years at the most.

Born in a poor family, there was a top scholar who appeared every three years. If you count the number of people in the Hanlin Academy, you can pull out many of them. Why did only Yang Gushan rise to a high position?

It's not that Zhao Fangyu discriminates against people from poor families, but there are too many things to consider when being an official, and there are too many temptations to be encountered. Even those from wealthy families cannot avoid accepting bribes and squeezing the people's wealth. Among the officials from poor families in the officialdom, only a few can still stick to their original intentions in the end.

A man like Zhao Minshan, who married the legitimate daughter of the Li family and had a brother-in-law from the Duke's Mansion, climbed the ladder for decades but only served as the Minister of Revenue for a few months. However, Yang Gushan, whose wife was of humble origin, rose to the position of Prime Minister step by step. Both his character and the noble people behind him were indispensable.

The person supported by the Li family in the court at the beginning was undoubtedly Zhao Minshan, but now it has been replaced by someone else.

Yang Gushan, who among the Five Surnames and Seven Families supported him?

"Qinghe Jun of the Qinghe Cui family is in love with Fourteenth Lady and is at loggerheads with the Third Prince. Even the ancestral house knows that the Wang family has no future in this generation and has few descendants. Even if they support Yang Gushan, it will be useless."

If it was really the Wang family's support, they would never have allowed Yang Gushan to become the prime minister.

Yang Gushan is ambitious and aims directly at the throne. However, the Wang family has few descendants. When his grandchildren enter the court, Yang Gushan will be at the peak of his power. Isn't this like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth?

Not to mention the Wang family, even the Li family would not do such a thing as raising a tiger to cause trouble.

"For three generations, the Lu family has been close friends with the Cui and Li families, and they are also close friends with my mother. We can put it aside for now."

Among the five surnames and seven families, only the Zheng family has a close relationship with the Li family. It can't be said to be close, but it is not distant either.

It is precisely because of this that Zhao Fangyu is most suspicious of the Zheng family.

"I once asked my seventh cousin about business matters.

"He said that the Wang family of Taiyuan values both civil and military, while the Zheng family of Xingyang values too much civility. They have sent many disciples to the army, but all of them have been ineffective."

Zhao Fangyu leaned closer to Zhao Fangjin's ear and whispered, "The aristocratic family is a thousand-year-old clan. Every family wants their children to be both civil and military. Only the Zheng family, from previous generations, has gradually learned to value civil over military."

"The military commanders were fighting fiercely for merit and territory. Once the Zheng family left, the Shen family in Shuobei took a lot of it. The remaining noble families divided it up, and the other military commanders also fought for it. Where would their place be?"

Whether it is writing or swords, they should all be based on the country. The Zheng family has gone astray, and now it is understandable that they are trying to make up for their losses and end up nurturing a tiger to harm themselves.

Emphasize culture over military affairs or emphasize military affairs over culture, but this is the current trend. The aristocratic families have been standing for less than a thousand years, so they naturally know that these trends are ever-changing and will not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Over the years, the Zheng family should have realized that their path had narrowed in the past few years, but now they can no longer pick up martial arts and establish connections among military generals.

The Zheng family has few officials in the court, and their positions are not high. They can only have a say among civil officials, but are useless among military generals.

I just don't understand what conditions the Zheng family and Yang Gushan agreed upon that could allow the Zheng family to support Yang Gushan to such an extent.

"The Zheng family is not afraid of vicious dogs eating their masters."

When I didn't think of the Zheng family, I naturally felt that there was a lot of confusion, but if I linked all the chaos to the Zheng family, things would gradually become clear.