A group of people entered the Prefecture Mufu, but it was very deserted inside. Only a dozen Japanese officials stayed behind. People like Yu Shinan, Xiao Yu, Liu Xuan, Liu Zhuo, He Tuo, Wang Cong, Yang Shidao, etc. all went to the prefectures to preside over the Liang Dynasty. I went to the state imperial examination.
This is a follow-up to Yang Guang's martial arts examination. Yang Guang's main purpose of organizing the martial arts examination was twofold: one is to promote the concept of meritocracy, and the other is to break the monopoly of Guanlong aristocrats on grassroots generals.
In Yang Guang's established plan, he originally promoted the national imperial examination after the martial arts examination. However, the martial arts examination was the first since the beginning of the world, which attracted the attention of people all over the world. In addition, it was held too hastily, resulting in the There were constant problems during the process. If Yang Ji had not made timely remedies, the martial arts exam would have become notorious.
In view of this, even the audacious Yang Guang did not dare to hastily hold the national civil service examination, considering that Yang Ji always asked him for talents from poor families, and he did not know which scholar from a poor family could really compete with a big family. The gatekeepers had nothing to do with it, so they simply let Liangzhou take the exam themselves, which could be regarded as accumulating experience for the national imperial examination and avoiding the embarrassment of performing martial arts exams in the future.
However, the imperial examination was the first time for Liangzhou, and Yang Ji, who had many evil ideas, was not here, so everyone took into account the disadvantages of the martial arts examination, which was laborious and laborious, and wasted money and money. Instead of letting students from various states come to Ganzhou, the examiners went to various states. After conducting preliminary examinations and selecting outstanding students from various states, they are then brought to Ganzhou to take the examination. In this way, those who are not good enough can be eliminated in the state, saving them money and effort. The exam time is at the end of this month.
Everyone sat down in the side hall, and a clerk served them tea. Pei Ju took a sip of tea and said to Yang Ji: "King Wei, the state examination you conducted caused quite a disturbance in the court. Woolen cloth."
Yang Ji glanced at Master Yinshi, who was also in charge of military and political affairs during this period, and saw that he was calm and drinking tea leisurely. He knew that he had not confessed Yang Guang, so he explained: "Prime Minister Pei doesn't know something. We Liangzhou lacks many officials, and the reserve officials in the DPRK dislike the barrenness and wars here and are unwilling to come here to take office. We have no choice but to recruit local literati to serve as county officials through examinations. This is a no-brainer. It should be It’s not as serious as Xiangguo Pei said, right?”
Pei Ju actually didn't mean anything else. He just saw that the place was very deserted and asked casually. Seeing that Yang Ji was not enough in comparison, he didn't bother to ask more questions. After all, in addition to rewarding the army, he wanted to go west this time. He also wanted to go on a mission to the countries in the Western Regions, but he knew nothing about the countries in the Western Regions. He urgently needed to understand the basic situation of the countries in the Western Regions from Yang Ji, so he changed the topic and said to Yang Ji: "I think King Wei also knows that I am like this." On this second trip to the west, in addition to rewarding the army, I also shouldered the mission of sending an envoy to the Western Regions."
Yang Ji nodded: "The messenger has already said it."
"We are not outsiders, so I won't be polite!" Pei Ju smiled and said to Yang Ji: "You have been here for several years, and your understanding of the Western Regions far exceeds that of the ministers in the DPRK, including Me. So I need to get more detailed information from you in order to complete this mission."
"This is easy to handle!" Yang Ji told Du Ruhui, who was standing beside him. Du Ruhui immediately found a topographic map of the Western Regions provided by Niluo Khan and completed by Lao Gao and "businessmen" and hung it on the wooden frame. superior.
Pei Ju quickly walked to the map and looked at it carefully.
Yang Ji waited for him to finish reading, then pointed to the map and introduced: "To put it simply, the Western Region is mainly composed of six major forces: First, we are the Sui Dynasty. Our sphere of influence is mainly concentrated in the eastern and northern parts of the Western Region. For example, the newly acquired Tingzhou, Yizhou, Qiemo, Shanshan, and Xizhou were originally countries in the Western Regions, or part of a certain country; followed by the Western Turkic Nichuluo Khan tribe, which was ostensibly submitted to the Sui Dynasty, and whose main power was Distributed in the east of Baishan Mountain, Qiuci, Yanqi, and Gaochang are his sphere of influence, while the Cymbal Khanate at the western foot of Baishan Mountain is the frontier of the war between him and Shekui Khan: the third force is Bujia Khan's grandson Shekui Khan, his forces are mainly concentrated in the western and northern parts of the Western Region, including the Qianquan, Suiye, and Sogdian kingdoms. The fourth largest force is Tiele's Qibi tribe; the fifth largest force is Tiele. Le Xueyantuo. Except for our Sui Dynasty, which has stopped moving forward, the four major forces behind us are fighting almost every day."
Seeing Yang Ji stop, Pei Ju asked, "In other words, these four major forces dominate the war in the Western Regions?"
Yang Ji nodded and said, "That's right."
"Please continue, Your Majesty."
"In addition to the above five major forces, there is the sixth major force that operates independently." Yang Ji then introduced: "The sixth major force is the countries native to the Western Regions. There are dozens of large and small countries. The big one is Qiuci. , Yanqi, Gaochang, Zhujubo, Tochara...the smaller ones include Khotan, Humi, Potokshana, Hedu, Suwen, Weitou, etc. These countries were mainly established by Wusun people and Yuezhi people. , of course, there are also Sogdians and Persians...their common characteristic is that they are the slave states of the Western Turks and Tiele. The four major suzerain countries have long sent tax collectors Tutunfa to station in various countries, every spring and autumn. , each collects tax once.”
After hearing this, Pei Ju realized that his mission to the Western Regions could not avoid the four major suzerains. He looked at the map carefully and asked, "How do the four major suzerains collect taxes? What are the tax rates?"
"It's not clear." Yang Ji said with a smile: "Including the four major suzerain countries, all countries have state-controlled taxes and only take what is necessary! This uncustomized tax system of 'taking only what is sufficient' means that all countries The ruler can levy taxes at will; after the ruler sets tasks for each ministry, a batch will be eaten by the chief or the tax collector, and in the end it will be more severe than a customized tax. If unfortunately there is a war, the people's seven Eighty percent of the livestock will be forcibly taken away, and some even more."
Pei Ju nodded and asked: "Does the suzerain country do the same to the slave country?"
"Exactly!" Yang Ji said: "Take the former Yiwu country as an example. Every year, 60% to 70% of the tax was handed over to Bujia Khan's tax collectors. In the end, the people of Yiwu were unable to make a living, and they levied and levied this excessive amount of money. The bad reputation was shouldered by the King of Yiwu. The people did not know this link and thought he was greedy. In fact, it was the Western Turks who exerted great pressure. If he had not cooperated with the tax collectors, the entire country would have been annexed, and the people would have been even more greedy. awful."
Pei Ju smiled and said: "In this way, the kings of these small countries are quite helpless."
"There is no way, who makes them a weak country!" Yang Ji smiled: "The law of the jungle is the normal life of the Hu people. They also want to resist, but even if they resist, it is useless. If a weak country wants to survive, it can only let it go A strong country will knock at its bones and suck out its marrow. If you are smart, you will take advantage of the terrain to get the best of you among the major powers. For example, Gaochang, Qiuci, and Yanqi are masters of this way."
Pei Ju nodded, silently digesting the information.
"Your Majesty, at the end of last year, the sage summoned Nichuluo Khan to the court to participate in the Yuan Dynasty meeting, but Nichuluo Khan did not come for an excuse. The sage was very dissatisfied." The speaker was Cui Junsu, Pei Ju's deputy envoy. He is about forty years old, looks elegant and has a talented appearance.
Cui Junsu was born in the Cui family of Qinghe. During the Elephant Period of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, he served as a student of Yang Song, the king of Daoxuan. Although he had sufficient abilities and qualifications, he could not get promoted.
This was also the helplessness of the Shandong nobles. Compared with the prosperous Guanlong nobles, the Shandong nobles were very weak in the central power. There are several reasons. The first is the Heyin Incident. Er Zhurong massacred all the Shandong gentry who were the center of the Northern Wei Dynasty, causing heavy losses to all the famous families of the Shandong gentry. All the capable, status and famous big shots were severely damaged. All will die. Gu Ling
Secondly, the Sui Dynasty was the continuation of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties, and was dominated by the Guanlong forces, while the Shandong nobles mainly served the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. Yang Jian needed the support of the Guanlong nobles, so important officials mainly came from the Guanlong forces, especially the standing army. , almost all the generals in the military mansions in various places were occupied by Guanlong forces.
The Guanlong forces finally enjoyed the fruits of victory, and naturally they did not want to take away the fruits of victory for the enemy's Shandong gentry. Their powerful squeeze and exclusion left the Shandong gentry with almost no place in the court, and they could only pass through the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng. The continuation is distributed in the traditional sphere of influence of Bingzhou.
The third and most important point is that the Shandong gentry were already in a weak position in the Sui Dynasty, and Yang Jian abolished the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng on which the Shandong gentry relied for survival, putting the Shandong gentry under triple suppression by the emperor, the system, and the Guanlong nobility. Among them, it was even more difficult for the Shandong gentry in the Sui Dynasty.
Third, they were under four pressures and the Shandong nobles could not move up, so the "arrogance disease" of the famous families began to attack. They were dissatisfied with the Sui Dynasty and began to take "non-violent non-cooperation actions" , have focused on home education and are unwilling to enter politics.
I thought Yang Jian would give in, but instead of asking them to serve as officials, Yang Jian supported the southern gentry who passed down poems and books. The efforts of the southern gentry made the situation of the Shandong gentry even more difficult.
It wasn't until they saw that the Sui Dynasty was prosperous and powerful, and that it had flourished for hundreds of years, that they began to become anxious. They all abandoned their "noble" airs, and for the sake of their own interests and power, they adopted various means to fight for power. In order to gain the support of the Guanlong nobles, they would not hesitate to compromise with the Guanlong nobles who they looked down upon, even if it cost them money, but they would marry their daughters into the various branches of the Guanlong nobles. However, they have lost the right to speak in the center after all. It is naturally very difficult to bring their own people back at this time.
Although Yang Guang now plans to support the Shandong nobles against the Guanlong nobles and does not hesitate to have Cui Zhongfang, who represents the interests of the Shandong nobles, and Pei Ju, who helps the Shandong nobles appear in the council chamber, he only ascended the throne this year, and secondly, he has reservations about his trust in the Shandong nobles. , so the Shandong gentry were still relatively weak in the center of the Sui Dynasty. Except for the Er Cui and the Longxi Li family who could barely bring out a few people, there were basically no such people as the Zheng family in Xingyang, the Lu family in Fanyang, the Wang family in Taiyuan, and the Li family in Zhaojun. People appeared in the three provinces, the Yushitai and the Nine Temples.
It is even luck that Cui Junsu can now serve as a court official for his superiors. He was originally the magistrate of Taigu County in Bingzhou. When Yang Liang rebelled, he originally wanted to escape, but he was arrested and imprisoned before he could act; Yang Liang After the surrender, Cui Junsu, who "did not want to be a thief", naturally became a loyal minister of the court.
After hearing what he said, Yang Ji asked, "So what?"
Cui Junsu said: "Many ministers thought that Nichuluo Khan was disrespectful to the saints and the Sui Dynasty, so they simply induced Shekui Khan to send troops to attack, while the king deployed troops in the east, forcing him to enter the court with enemies from both sides."
"Really?" Yang Ji looked at Pei Ju.
"There is indeed such a statement in the court, but the sage does not know much about the situation in the Western Regions and Western Turks, so he did not express his position. He asked me to listen to the king's opinions and suggestions first." Pei Ju's implication was that if Yang Ji didn't In my opinion, this time I was sent as an envoy to the Western Regions to engage in the affairs of Nichuluo Khan.
Yang Ji slowly frowned and said, "This method is not advisable."
Pei Ju and Cui Junsu looked at each other and asked, "What is the king's reason?"
"If we send troops or support Shekui Khan, Nichuluo Khan will be defeated. By then, the Western Turks will be unified. In less than five years, there will be another powerful enemy in the western part of the Sui Dynasty."
Cui Junsu thought for a while, then raised his hand and asked: "Your Majesty, it is said that the strength of Nipu Chuluo Khan is twice that of Shekui Khan. Isn't it good for us to use the hands of Shekui Khan to consume half of his strength? ?”
Yang Ji was worried that they would go to the Western Regions and help Shekui Khan to unify the Western Turks for no reason, so he said patiently: "That's the theory, but Cui Shijun might as well come over and take a look at the map."
Cui Junsu took a closer look and found that Nipuchuluo Khan's territory was indeed very vast, but to the east was the Sui Dynasty, to the northeast was Xue Yantuo, and to the south was the Qibi tribe. Thinking again of what Yang Ji had said before about the endless struggle between the four major forces, Cui Junsu knew that although Nipu Chuluo Khan's territory was large and powerful, after defending one by one, he did not have many troops at all. This means that the courtiers think that the powerful Nichuluo Khan is just puffy and fat, but is actually not strong or scary at all.
The Shegui Khan in the west had almost no worthy enemies, which allowed him to concentrate all his efforts on dealing with the Nichu Chuluo Khan. If the Sui Dynasty helps him again, the fat and plump Ni Chuluo Khan will definitely be doomed.
Seeing his astonished expression, Yang Ji asked with a smile, "Do you understand, Commander Cui?"
Cui Junsu nodded and said to Yang Ji: "Khan Shekui really can't help. If the king hadn't explained it in detail, I would have thought that Khan Nipu Chuluo was very powerful."
"So my point of view is to maintain the status quo and not to destroy this balance for the so-called face. Once the Western Turks are unified, there will be a powerful enemy in our west." Yang Ji paused and said to the two of them seriously: "Today's The Eastern Turks have taught us a lesson and explained with real actions that 'those who are not our race will have different hearts'. We can no longer raise tigers to cause trouble. At the same time, we also hope that after the two envoys arrive in the Western Regions, Be able to objectively assess the strength of the major forces, and don’t be influenced by courtiers who talk nonsense about the map.”
"It should be so." Pei Ju and Cui Junsu nodded silently after hearing this.
Yang Ji finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. Through this matter, he could see that the courtiers' understanding of the Western Region was only limited to the map, but they had only a partial understanding of the true strength of each country.
It seems that in the future, it will be necessary to sort out the information and influence networks of the Western Regions from time to time, and then quickly send them to the capital to prevent the courtiers from turning the support objects into wolves in sheep's clothing. If everyone knew what was going on, those ministers who had benefited from it would not be able to deceive the knowledgeable people in the court.
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