The video takes us to ancient times; Li Er transforms into the Tongtian Emperor of Shu Han.

"While members of the royal family may appear to have a noble status, they also face enormous risks."

“Once a dynasty is overthrown, or internal turmoil occurs, they will be the first to be purged.”

“But the sons of aristocratic families are different. As long as their clan’s power is large enough, their status remains unchanged no matter how dynasties change.”

No matter which dynasty it was, it was impossible to exterminate all the officials of the previous dynasty; in fact, those who were capable among them were often given important positions.

After all, the world is only so big. If they really kill everyone, who will help them govern the world?

This principle has remained unchanged throughout history.

A dynasty that lasted a hundred years, a family that lasted a thousand years.

At the height of their power and influence, many people uttered these words.

The saying "I'd rather marry a woman from a prestigious family than become a prince consort" is a true reflection of many times.

Even during the Tang Dynasty, when the imperial examination system was just beginning to emerge, powerful and aristocratic families still ran rampant.

In many people's eyes, the eldest daughters of the five prominent families and seven prestigious clans are even more noble than royal princesses!

For this reason, Li Er was extremely hostile to those powerful families for a period of time.

But even he couldn't change this situation.

In prosperous times, talented people are in their hands, and they are needed to govern the country.

In times of chaos, the prestige they had accumulated and the talent they had cultivated were enough to allow them to remain calmly on the sidelines.

Regardless of who wins in the end, they will still inevitably need to assist them.

After experiencing the failure of the Jin Dynasty under the Sima family, most of the aristocratic families learned a lesson from it.

Be an emperor?

Only those who are narrow-minded would fight for the world!

Between a century of glory and a thousand years of heritage, who can't tell which is more important?

The person sitting on the throne seems to have boundless glory, above millions of people, and no one dares to contradict him.

But no matter what the emperor wanted to do, if they didn't give his approval, the final result was often failure.

No one could be more like an uncrowned king.

Which emperor throughout history didn't want to change this situation?

But the final results clearly showed them that all the changes they made were in vain.

From the powerful families of the Tang Dynasty, to the scholar-official families of the Song Dynasty, and then to the civil official groups and the Donglin Party of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that the aristocratic families have changed their appearance in the court.

Even someone as powerful as Li Er felt a sense of powerlessness after seeing the state of things in later generations.

The changes he made were merely forcing the aristocratic families to adopt a different approach, addressing the symptoms but not the root cause.

Even the Ming Dynasty, after learning from the lessons of all previous dynasties, was unable to truly solve this problem.

At this moment, both Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhao Kuangyin looked at the officials below with rather unfriendly eyes.

The latter did indeed say that he wanted to govern the world together with the scholar-officials.

But he never expected that the scholar-officials would help him govern the country in that way.

Seek peace, survive, or surrender.

He led the Song Dynasty in repeated retreats, never managing to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, until they fled south and settled in a corner of the country, to the point that the entire court, led by Qin Hui, was composed of surrender factions.

Ultimately, it was because they knew that even if they surrendered to the Jurchens, the Jurchens would still allow them to govern the country, and their status would not change in the slightest.

How is this any different from the aristocratic families of the past!

As for Zhu Yuanzhang, he truly did not expect that even though he had tried his best to avoid the shortcomings of the previous dynasty, his descendants would still be controlled by the civil service group.

He was not so furious about the occasional interference of eunuchs in politics.

In every dynasty, once the civil official group gained power, it was impossible for the military generals to defeat them.

After all, the most powerful military generals and nobles were at the time of the founding of the country.

If they don't compromise, they will be dragged down step by step by the civil service group until they have no influence whatsoever.

Then the remaining eunuchs will become the sharpest knife in the emperor's hand.

All the sharpness of this knife comes from imperial power, and since they are rootless people, they would not expect to leave anything for their descendants.

Using eunuchs to deal with the civil official group was indeed a case of drinking poison to quench thirst, but in some situations, it was the only way to cope with the situation when all else failed.

"Throughout history, every dynasty has hoped to achieve a balance between civil and military officials, but finding the right balance is extremely difficult."

"Moreover, even if military generals are truly powerful, they may not necessarily check and balance the civil officials."

If civil officials and aristocratic families think of their long-standing family lineage, then once military generals gain immense power, given the opportunity, all they think about is that the emperor's throne rotates, and this year it's my turn!

The eight characters "By the mandate of Heaven, may your life be long and prosperous" are an irresistible temptation for any military general!

Li Er could not resist this temptation back then, and the chaotic situation of warlord separatism in the later period of the Tang Dynasty also illustrates this point.

To check and balance the civil service?

Could those military generals have so many complicated thoughts in their minds?

Loyal military generals are often silenced by civil officials in the imperial court.

Military generals who are not loyal enough should then strive to be ordained by Heaven and live a long and prosperous life!

The idea of ​​civil and military officials checking and balancing each other may be a false proposition in itself.

"If, I mean if."

"Would things be different without an emperor?"

Old Zhu suddenly had a brilliant idea.

Li Er: "..."

So, in the end, you optimized yourself out of the loop?

If even the emperor is gone, what is the point of the dynasty?

Are we really going to let those civil officials and gentry do whatever they want?

and many more?

Those civil officials and aristocratic families acted recklessly, harming the interests of the dynasty to make up for their own losses. In the end, didn't they still not consider the court as their own?

But if the entire dynasty belongs to them, then...

Thinking about this, Li Er felt he couldn't think about it anymore.

If I keep thinking about it, I might really end up eliminating myself!

"Old Zhu, what you're saying is getting more and more outlandish."

"Take back your dangerous idea. If I'm no longer here, what's the point of this dynasty?"

Zhao Kuangyin replied in a rather annoyed tone.

If he's no longer the emperor, why would he care about the succession of the dynasty?

What do the potential problems within that dynasty have to do with him?

"I was just saying that casually. Since it's not our own stuff, we certainly won't feel bad using it."

"Back then, even when we were herding cattle for landlords, we would slack off. It was quite normal for the officials below us to slack off or have their own selfish motives when they were doing things for us."

Even Old Zhu's ox, when left to rot, had its meat distributed among the men below.

He felt that this might be a true reflection of the dynasty.

When the landlord was able to feed him, he diligently herded cattle for the landlord.

Although I sometimes slack off, I still take this job seriously and try to find better places for the cows to eat fresher grass.

As the late Yuan Dynasty became increasingly turbulent, the landlords began to starve him, so he had to find other ways to make a living.

This, of course, includes killing cows and eating their meat!