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

Chapter 768: Guanlong Nobles (Part )

The strength of several other families among the Guanlong nobles is no less than that of the Longxi Li family. If those people really wanted to be the emperor, how could they easily let Li Yuan become the chairman?

It is because they know that the emperor's position is temporary. Although he seems glorious and powerful on the surface, he is actually sitting on a fire, enjoying a false reputation but facing real disaster. He is also excluded from the circle of aristocratic families and stands in opposition to everyone.

If you cannot break the impasse before the next reincarnation comes, you will be ruthlessly dismembered and thrown into the garbage dump of history.

However, these aristocratic families can plan ahead, reap the dividends of the change of dynasties, continue to grow and develop, and wait for the next reincarnation.

It is precisely because the other few families have a clear understanding of the groups they belong to and the dynasty model formed over hundreds of years, and they know well how to restrict the imperial power, but they are helpless in getting rid of the control and domination of the powerful families.

Only then will people choose the easier option over the more secure one.

In fact, the Li family was not the strongest among this group of aristocratic families. On the contrary, Li Yuan's father Li Bing died young, and Li Yuan inherited his father's title of Duke of Tang at the age of six. He had no one to rely on since childhood, and his family was considered to be in decline among the Guanlong aristocratic families.

Li Yuan had always been a horse-puller beside Emperor Yang of Sui, and was promoted to the position of governor of Taiyuan at the age of 51.

Because of this, everyone felt that the situation was under control, and the Li family was elected as the legal representative, making the situation easier to control.

If it fails, it can be sacrificed at any time.

This pattern lasted for hundreds of years. After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the new unification was not completed immediately. After sixty years of the Three Kingdoms period, it had a huge and far-reaching impact.

Sixty years, one Jiazi, three generations.

The continuous wars among the Three Kingdoms not only destroyed the social resources and abundant demographic dividend left over from the unification by Emperor Qin Shihuang and the 400 years of governance by the Han Dynasty, but also led to the formation of aristocratic families and the loss of power in the court.

Ordinary people have also accepted the fact that unity will eventually lead to division and no longer desire unification.

These noble families also adapted to the survival and development model without central control and management, and found more effective ways to expand their family power. They discovered that they could develop more smoothly without the management of the court, and began to reject the unification of the world.

The Wei and Jin dynasties failed to maintain stability, with the Sima family usurping Wei and the Eight Kings Rebellion occurring one after another. The country's last bit of vitality was finally completely drained away by years of war.

Everything has its pros and cons. Without the unified management of the court and the effective accumulation of national strength, the nomadic peoples were almost powerless to resist the southward advance. These people could only migrate south and use the naturally formed Yangtze River to resist the iron hoofs of the north.

The vast land left by their ancestors was lost to the Hu people, the land of China was destroyed, and countless descendants of the Chinese nation wailed in misery under the iron cavalry of the Hu people, with no way to survive.

The Five Barbarians era completely destroyed the last glimmer of hope for the unification of China.

It can be said that the splendid Three Kingdoms era had a huge and far-reaching impact on later generations. The subsequent hundreds of years of chaos were inseparable from the division of the Three Kingdoms at that time. Whether it was Cao Cao, Sun Quan, or Liu Bei, they were all sinners in history.

There are no heroes when the nest is overturned.
Liang Qichao once said that the population at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty was one-third of that at the peak of the Western Han Dynasty, and the population of the Three Kingdoms was only one-seventh of that at the peak of the Eastern Han Dynasty. This shows how much damage a sixty-year war would cause to the entire society and how serious the population decline would be.

Li Yan thought that the country was finally unified again, at least in form. However, if this fundamental problem could not be solved, there would be an An-Shi Rebellion in the future, and foreign races would move south, and the world would fall into conflict again.

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was a dark era that was no less than the period of the Five Barbarians.

In fact, in Li Yan's opinion, the Tang Dynasty experienced five generations of wise and holy rulers, Li Yuan, Li Shimin, Li Zhi, Li Wu, and Li Longji. In any other dynasty, the one appointed would be a wise ruler, no matter how much they competed with each other.

But no matter who comes to power, they have never forgotten their mission.

It is not easy to maintain the unity of the world and prevent the people from suffering.

Logically speaking, Li Yuan is similar to Liu Bang, Li Shimin, Li Zhi and Li Wu are equivalent to Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, and Li Longji is similar to Emperor Wu of Han. Although he was senile in his later years, he was wise and intelligent when he was young because of the hard work of several generations of emperors.

It's just a few years of confusion, but the world won't be thrown into chaos.

It is almost unimaginable that a local warlord's rebellion could shake the country built by several generations of wise emperors. To put it bluntly, the resources and power in the hands of the Li royal family were not that strong, and the country was not that solid.

For more than a hundred years, the royal family has been constantly fighting against the aristocratic group that bound them, through long-term suppression and game. Those aristocratic families gradually became weaker and were extremely dissatisfied with the Li family. In addition, they would also compete fiercely with each other, with rises and falls, and they all wanted to reshuffle. At this time, the royal family had been consuming them for many years, and everyone was very tired, and the national strength also weakened.

After years of accumulated resentment, it has become difficult for the Li family to unite the strength of the aristocratic families and face the outside world together.

In addition, with the natural development of the dynasty, the dividends of the early days of the founding of the country had been exhausted. After entering the Central Dynasty, there were problems such as land annexation, redundant palace officials, and the weakening of the military system. In addition, there were problems such as the royal family's own relatives interfering in politics, eunuchs interfering in politics, the struggle for succession among various sons, and party struggles.

This led to the huge empire heading in a different direction from the Han Dynasty at this time and it was unable to maintain its dignity.

Li Yan knew that in order to solve the problems that every dynasty had to face, he must first solve the problem of these aristocratic families holding power in the country, otherwise he would not have the energy and time to solve the routine problems that would follow.

So he looked at Li Shimin with sparkling eyes and said decisively: "No, father, I have two sharp weapons that can help you solve their problems and let my Li family become the worthy master of the country and rule the world."

"Oh"

Li Shimin was stunned. If it were before, Li Shimin would never believe that a teenager could have any way to treat such a chronic disease, but the foresight and wisdom shown by the prince in the previous conversation gave him some expectations.

I can’t think of a solution myself, but maybe my son is a genius and can come up with some brilliant ideas?

"It's not that Father doesn't want to solve it, but there is nothing he can do now. If you really have a solution, then Father is willing to be the bad guy and solve this problem for future generations."

Li Shimin was in high spirits and said, "However, let me not mention the matter of killing meritorious officials after their death. It's not because my father is soft-hearted. It's because you now know that the problem of the Tang Dynasty is different from that of the early Han Dynasty. It's not about killing a few meritorious officials."

“On the contrary, their existence can also restrict the aristocratic families to a certain extent. If they are cut off again, the aristocratic families will have even less scruples.”

Li Yan smiled slightly: "Don't worry, Father, your son's method does not require killing anyone."

"In that case, then tell me what you want to do. As long as it works, after we defeat the Turks and settle down, Father will start making arrangements."

Li Yan took out a piece of silk from his arms and handed it over. Of course, this was just a cover, and he actually took it out from the space.

Li Shimin took it curiously and looked at it, and was immediately confused. There were only four pictures on it. The first one had a lot of small squares, like seals, densely and neatly stacked in a rectangular box, with only a corner of the box left empty.

The second picture was an enlarged picture of the small square with a raised relief character engraved on it. Li Shimin looked at it for a long time before he realized that it was the word "Tao".

The third painting was done by inking the small squares and then laying a piece of white paper on top.

The fourth piece of paper is a white paper covered with fonts. After the Li family took over the world, they traced their roots and claimed to be the descendants of Laozi Li Er. Therefore, they highly respected Taoism and were very familiar with Taoist classics. On the paper was the famous Tao Te Ching.

That's right, what Li Yan took out was the movable type printing technology that was invented by Bi Sheng in the Northern Song Dynasty. In history, woodblock printing was not used on a large scale until the middle of the Tang Dynasty, during the Zhenguan period. Anyway, Li Yan asked many people, and no one knew about such an existence.

Nowadays, most people still copy books by hand. Even if there are woodblocks, they are probably used secretly in some family or craftsman's home. After all, this was an era when people cherished their own possessions, and it was far from being as easy to popularize as the birth of a technology in later generations.

The technology is not too complicated and the principle is very simple. Sometimes it is the inherent thinking that limits people's knowledge.

Li Yan introduced the principles of these pictures to Li Shimin in detail. The more he talked, the brighter Li Shimin's eyes became. Finally, he said excitedly: "That's great, Cheng Qian, according to what you said, I think it is not too difficult to make this. I just need to try a few more times."

"Nowadays, a book is mainly printed by people, which is not only time-consuming and laborious, but also prone to mistakes. With this thing, a book can be printed in a short time."

Seeing that Li Shimin was only too happy and didn't realize the hidden meaning behind this thing, Li Yan reminded him, "Father, the reason why the aristocratic families are so powerful is because they occupy most of the resources in society, and the reason they can occupy them is because they can serve as officials for generations."

"Why can they serve as officials for generations? It's because the children of aristocratic families have the opportunity to read books and increase their knowledge. Knowledge is also a rare resource, which is controlled by the big families. Ordinary farmers have no chance to get in touch with it."

"With the technology of movable type printing, we can print a large number of classic books in a short period of time, reducing the cost of books to a minimum."

"Nowadays, the cheapest copy of the Tao Te Ching costs about one guan (a string of coins) and a better collector's edition costs more than ten guan (a string of coins). Most ordinary people cannot afford it. But if we print it on a large scale, the price of a copy can be reduced to ten guan (a string of coins) or even five guan (a string of coins)."

(End of this chapter)