The Cui Qu case dealt a great blow to the bureaucratic system of the entire Guo Wei Empire.

The unspoken rules that the previous dynasty had always followed, and after the new dynasty had been running silently for more than two years, it was suddenly attacked by the emperor.

In fact, in the final analysis, this was a common practice in the era of the Eastern Han Empire, and it was something that everyone had been doing all along.

But it's not that simple.

It is not a simple struggle for power and profit, and it is not simply a struggle between the imperial power and the ministers.

This is also a rehearsal for Guo to launch a large-scale change.

Cultivating protégés and recalling old officials is the method of building a relationship network among the top scholars, and it is the normal operation of the top scholars of the four generations and three princes such as the Yuan clan of Runan and the Yang clan of Hongnong.

Protégé, old official, this is the foundation of the top scholar, without protégé and old official, there is no top scholar.

Not to mention the protégés, these big families relied on the right of the three princes in the central government, and used the power of the county guards to recruit officials in the local area to create their own political power.

This in itself was something that was allowed under the dual monarchy rule, and it was a tacit fact after the decline of imperial power in the Eastern Han Empire.

But it is clear that the current Guo Wei Empire, this is not allowed.

The centralized system was re-established and greatly strengthened, returning to the point where it did not even exist when the Eastern Han Dynasty was first established, almost close to the late Western Han Dynasty.

Relying on absolute force and personal prestige, as well as superior power and maneuver, the Guo Wei Empire established by Guo Peng vigorously suppressed the power of the bureaucrats to recruit former officials.

The three dukes were falsely established, the power to open the government was dismissed, the power to guard the county was restricted, and the inspection system was directly directed to the central government, connected to the ministry of officials through the Ministry of Rites, and finally to the emperor himself.

This series of operations greatly weakened the strength of the anti-centralized forces.

It can be said that the prevailing trend of regionalism after the Eastern Han Dynasty was abruptly interrupted after the establishment of the Guo Wei Empire, and there was a slight tendency to return to the Western Han Dynasty.

At the local level, such as the military level, there is even a return to the time of the Qin Empire.

This is all a situation created by Guo Peng.

Obviously, Guo Peng has already understood the real reason for the division of the heroes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

As a result, the power of officials to summon all kinds of local authorities was forcefully restricted, and the momentum of local protectionism and separatism was severely suppressed, and the prestige of centralized power was once again established.

This point was gradually reflected by the scholars after the establishment of the system.

The unspoken rules of politics are well known to the scholars themselves, but they will never be publicized to the outside world, let alone recorded in the history books.

Even if it is recorded, it must be covered up with benevolence and righteousness.

The war did destroy the power of the powerful people in many places, and a large number of powerful people who were entrenched in the local areas did whatever they wanted, which caused local protectionism and separatism to fall into a low ebb.

Guo Peng seized this low tide period, changed the rules for locals to be local officials, and directly transferred the power to appoint and dismiss important posts in counties and counties to the central government, strengthening the centralization of power and suppressing local protectionism and separatism.

Whether it is the history of the state assassin, the county magistrate, or the county magistrate, the important adjutants around him are all appointed by the central government, and they are not appointed by the local chiefs, and they do not have to appoint locals.

Appointments and dismissals are primarily the responsibility of the central authorities, and local officials are not allowed to make their own decisions.

The rules since the Eastern Han Dynasty were strongly broken by Guo Peng.

There was nothing the scholars and officials could do about this.

The emperor is strong and has great prestige, they can only pinch their noses and admit it, at most they will make some small moves in private, there are policies and countermeasures, and they dare not do it blatantly.

But Guo Peng's measures obviously go beyond this, he has more to do.

The two main ways to be an official in the Eastern Han Dynasty are Taixue and filial piety.

However, those who have become officials through Taixue are generally the children of noble officials, and filial piety and honesty are considered the right way by scholars.

Guo Peng is similar here, and he is also an official selected by Taixue and filial piety.

However, the scholars obviously hated Wei Taixue more than the Eastern Han Dynasty Taixue, so much so that they widely resisted Wei Taixue and were unwilling to enter Taixue to study.

And this situation has been around since the time of Yecheng School Palace.

It's not without reason.

First of all, there are a large number of children of the Han family in the Taixue of Wei State, which was expanded from the Yecheng School Palace.

Everyone knows that Guo Peng started by relying on the children of the poor family, and it is not impossible to predict that the children of the poor family will be reused after the founding of the country.

So although they have opinions, they are not to the point where they have to resist learning too much.

But what they didn't expect was that in addition to a large number of humble children from poor families in Taixue, there were also those mud-legged people who were from extremely humble backgrounds in their eyes.

This is unacceptable to them.

They feel that it is impossible to be educated with these mud legs, and they feel that the air around them will be polluted by the dirt on these mud legs.

How can a noble scholar be educated with a lowly clay leg?

Are you kidding?!

They also deserve education?!

Scholars have to smoke incense when they travel at home, so that the whole body is fragrant, everyone is clean and very comfortable, just like Xun Yu back then, he pays attention to incense when he travels at home, and the fragrance will not dissipate for three days where he sits.

It can be seen how fragrant the scholars are.

Who knows what dirt is on these mud legs that hasn't been washed?

Dirty!

Therefore, from the beginning of the Yecheng School Palace era when there were mud legs entering the Yecheng School Palace and starting to study, the children of the scholars began to widely resist the Yecheng School Palace, even if the School Palace became Taixue, nothing changed.

In fact, the requirements for Li Shu's children to enter Taixue are still very strict.

Only government officials such as township chiefs or village chiefs are eligible to enter the selection level, and they must not only know a certain number of words, but also make certain political achievements, have certain assessment standards, and go through a lot of hardships to enter the school palace.

When they entered the Xue Palace, they themselves were officials of the Wei Empire.

When Guo Peng decided to allow the township chief or village chief who had made excellent grades to study in the school palace, many of the children of Li Shu who had broadened their horizons through literacy and being an official were quite excited.

Even when they knew that they could not serve as the chief official at the county level after graduation, they could only enter the county government to serve as an assistant official to the county magistrate.

Entering the county seat as an official is already a great leap for them.

Entering the county seat to be an official is completely different from being an official in a village or township.

They were pleasantly surprised, and the scholars and bureaucrats were quite unhappy.

It's just that this was the convention of the year.

Because when Guo Peng established the village system to implement the tuntian system, there were indeed not enough officials who could take on so many things, and a large number of heroes died, and the scholars and officials did not bother to directly contact those mud-legged Li Shu.

So just let the slightly smarter Li Shu manage himself, the village chief or something, and forget about autonomy.

They are high up, enjoy the political rights of the central government, and do not care.

Originally, in the local area, it was the powerful who occupied large-scale land estates and had a lot of wealth, while scholars often did not occupy a large amount of land, but were educated, held power, and were high.

Of course, it is not without conditions that this situation has become like this.

In exchange for their consent, Guo Peng restricted the promotion path of officials from Li Shu on the condition that officials from Li Shu could only be auxiliary officials at the county level at the highest and could not go higher.

Correspondingly, the officials of the scholar clan started with the county order, and there was no cap.

This did not cause wider discussion and resistance.

It can be said that this was a path chosen under the compromise between the two sides at that time, and everyone thought it was quite suitable, so they never paid too much attention to it.

Because they all know that even if Guo Peng gives these mud legs a way to live, these mud legs can only roll at the grassroots level forever, and never want to enter the Hall of Daya, and are locked in the grassroots level.

However, the agreement at that time did not allow these mud legs to enter the school for re-education.

Education is a privilege.

Letting the mud legs enter the school for re-education was forcibly promoted by Guo Peng later.

They shouldn't, they weren't born with such privileges.

They should have faced the loess with their backs to the sky for generations, sacrificed their lives, and built the foundation of a brilliant civilization for the scholars, so that the scholars could create without distractions.

Then they can die in obscurity, and so on and so forth.

They shouldn't be educated.

Especially this high-level education.

The resistance of the scholars was laid bare in this matter.

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