"You understand me?"

The eldest grandson Wuji's gray beard trembled, and the pair of eyes on his slightly chubby face even burst into light.

"The eldest grandson Xiangguo, those who know me are worried, and those who don't know me say what I want. I understand Xiangguo's hard work, Xiangguo has worked hard for the Tang Empire, from the establishment of the empire to the current three dynasties, it is not easy. ”

The so-called self-cultivation Qi family rules the country and the world, and it is good for ordinary people to be able to cultivate themselves.

People like Changsun Wuji are not just officials, they are also politicians and philosophers. Their eyes see not only the little thing in front of them, of course, there are also personal fame and fortune, family interests, but there are also deeper and farther, there is the court and the world.

This is a group of veterans who built a new empire, after decades of ups and downs, watching a new empire slowly build brick by brick in their hands, this painstaking effort is obvious to all.

In troubled times, he assisted Mingjun to unify the world. When ruling the world, Anbang governed the country and enriched the people.

The eldest grandson Wuji stared at Li Xiao closely, he wanted to know if what he said was true, and how well he understood himself.

He knew that in fact, as long as he was a little more knowledgeable and obedient to the emperor's will, then he would enjoy his old age in peace, and his eldest grandson's family would be rich and prosperous. But Eldest Sun Wuji saw that many of the things he was afraid were spreading, and he couldn't retreat at this time.

Even if he retreats, the emperor will not stop his actions against the Guanlong group.

"Empire." The eldest grandson Wuji muttered the two words that Li Xiao said, "Empire." ”

Li Xiao actually understands the intentions of the eldest grandson Wuji, to put it bluntly, the Tang Empire was established by the Guanlong Group, and the previous Sui Dynasty was also, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the Western Wei Dynasty. It was the Wuchuan town generals who joined the Guanlong clan to rise together in the troubled times, they set up Juntian, set up government soldiers, based on Guanzhong, in the post-Three Kingdoms era, it was originally the weakest country, but in the end it finally unified the world and ended the strife.

The bravery of the Guanlong nobles and the struggle of the Guanlong nobles have created one dynasty after another.

It is precisely because of this that in the eyes of the Guanlong nobles, they are the empire, and they should share the world with the emperor.

The Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, and the empires of the four dynasties all came from them, and the rise and fall of the dynasty was just that they took turns to take the throne in Guanlong's own people.

Is this notion wrong?

I can't say what is right or wrong, after all, when Yuwentai took a group of Wuchuan's old brothers to fight the world, it was the brothers who fought side by side and fought together. The throne belongs to the Yuwen family, but the world also has their share.

When the Yuwen family messed up the world, the Yang family took over the throne, and when the Yang family messed up the country, the Li family took over the throne again.

The Guanlong aristocrats regarded themselves as partners in the world, not associates.

After the Sui Dynasty unified the world, it wanted to turn the world into the world of the Yang family, especially after Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he began to weaken the Guanlong group, but his approach also angered the entire Guanlong group, so Yang Guang personally conquered in Goguryeo, and when he saw that he had already attacked Liaodong City, Yang Xuangan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites who supervised the grain and grass in the rear, rebelled and killed back to Luoyang, the eastern capital.

The world was in turmoil, and Li Yuan, who was guarding Hedong, also began to recruit troops everywhere.

In the end, Yang Guang was also strangled by Guan Long's disciples in Jiangdu, and it was not only Yu Wenhua who killed him, but also tens of thousands of Guan Long's children.

In this dynasty, in fact, when Gaozu and Taizong were in power, they had always taken action to weaken the Guanlong nobles, but they were all cautious.

Now that the new emperor has only been in power for a few years, he is already thinking about getting rid of the nobles.

The eldest grandson Wuji didn't agree, and even if he agreed, the other Guanlong nobles wouldn't agree.

Li Xiao couldn't help but sigh in his heart, in fact, the Tang Empire had an irreconcilable contradiction from the beginning. This empire was defeated by the Guanlong nobles, but the Li family did not want the Tang Dynasty to be controlled by the Guanlong nobles like the Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties.

Whether it is the imperial examination system, or the reuse of the Kwantung scholars and the military heroes of Shandong, or the appeasement of the southerners, they are all weakening the Guanlong group in disguise.

But Li Tang, who started with the Guanlong Group, the Guanlong Group is actually their backbone, and when they tried their best, after several dynasties, and finally completely abolished the Guanlong Group at the time of Wu Zetian, they actually broke their own backbone.

The Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when the Guanlong group was in power, they were always full of enterprising martial forces, the Western Wei Dynasty became the strongest one from the weakest one of the Three Kingdoms, the Sui Dynasty dominated the world, and after Li Tang pacified the turmoil in the world, he quickly wiped out the Turks in the north.

These dynasties with the Guanlong Group all have a ferocious enterprising spirit, and they never stop and continue to forge ahead.

It can even be said that the strength of several dynasties is precisely because of the existence of the Guanlong nobles. These Guanlong military aristocrats made their armed forces strong. The Guanlong nobles were born professional officers, and with well-trained government soldiers, this made the Sui and Tang government soldiers invincible and unstoppable.

Even if there is a small setback, it can be quickly returned.

Historically, Gaozong Li Zhizhi's suppression of the Guanlong Group was extreme, and by the time of Wu Zetian, it was completely abolished. The Guanlong group was abolished, and Datang no longer had that strong group of officers and non-commissioned officers, and the government soldiers had gradually begun to lose more and win less.

It was in the late Gaozhi period that the Tang army's foreign warfare began to change from the direction of the cloth, to the dilemma of less victory and more defeat, to the time of Xuanzong, not only did the government army have no elite officers and non-commissioned officers, but even the source of government soldiers also had problems, no longer everyone competed for the army, no longer only by the children of landlords, rich people, and strong people for the government soldiers.

The recruitment of troops replaced the government soldiers, and the appearance of the envoys of the towns and towns made the Tang Dynasty finally move towards the Anshi Rebellion, and since then the Tang Dynasty has completely broken its backbone, although it has been retaining for more than a hundred years, but it has no longer been the glory of the Tang Dynasty in the past, and even the imperial capital Chang'an has been occupied by the barbarians again and again.

At present, in the imperial court, it seems that Emperor Li Zhi wants to seize the power of the minister Sun Wuji, but it is far from that simple. As the eldest grandson said, even if he retires and hands over power, the emperor will not be satisfied. He would want to further deprive the Guanlong nobles of power, as they threatened the imperial power.

Will the powerful Guanlong nobles be willing to lose their interests? Won't want to.

What will be the result, it will be a struggle.

Either the imperial power fails, and one of the Guanlong nobles will replace the Li family in the world, and continue to maintain the transcendent status of the Guanlong nobles, but war is indispensable, and the world will inevitably be devastated. Or, the Guanlong nobles lost in the struggle, flowed and killed, but the result is that the foundation of the Tang Dynasty is gone, the foundation is gone, and can they really have a long history of the country?

"Xiangguo, actually, I understand you." Li Xiao did not completely stand on the position of the Guanlong nobles, nor did he fully support them, but he also did not support the direction of the current Tang Dynasty.

That was a wrong direction, as history has long proven.

When was the most powerful time of Datang? At the time of Gaozong Li Zhi, but the most powerful time of Li Zhi was just a continuation of the inertia of Zhenguan's rule, although after the martial arts, there was the rule of Kaiyuan. But in the prosperous era of Kaiyuan, in fact, there has long been an undercurrent surging, and chaos is rampant.

When the Tang Dynasty was at its strongest, it was still in Li Shimin's era, when the Tang Dynasty was united in its efforts to expand its territory and strengthen the country. It's a pity that by the time of Gaozong Li Zhi, the empire went on a fork in the road.

These were originally a little too far away for a small landlord like Li Xiao.

But as a later generation, he has too many feelings for the word Datang. The most prosperous era in ancient China, the most open and tolerant era, and the most enterprising era, but unfortunately it did not last long.

He was just a little butterfly, but when he came to this era inexplicably, and when he had the opportunity to participate, he still trembled a little in his heart and couldn't help but have some extravagant fantasies.

If Datang hadn't gone down that fork in the road, what would have been the result?

This is the last aristocratic era, but also the last enterprising era, Li Shimin's later Chinese dynasties, in fact, no longer have the ability to surpass the ancestors, I have to say, this is a sadness, especially the late Tang Dynasty left a legacy, even let the subsequent China, has not been cleared up.

The Samhan Peninsula left behind after the defeat of Baekje and Goguryeo, the Fusang Island left behind after the defeat of the Japanese thieves in the Battle of the Baekgang Estuary, the distant land of the Western Regions, the plateau of Tibet, the northeast where the Khitans and Buyeo people are entrenched, and so on.

These are eternal regrets.

The failure of the struggle of the eldest grandson Wuji in the court is not only a failure for him alone, it can even be said that since the moment the eldest grandson Wuji was defeated and left the court, the Tang Dynasty has begun to weaken step by step.

"Xiangguo, Your Majesty's determination at this moment is unstoppable, and whoever dares to stop it will be crushed. Instead of hitting the stone with an egg, why not leave this useful body and preserve the glory of the nobles of Guanlong. ”

"What do you mean?"

Again, take a step back and open the sky. The world is so big, you don't have to guard the court. The world is so big, and the nobles of Guanlong don't have to monopolize it all. Wouldn't it be better to give up some? ”

Li Xiao thought, if the Guanlong nobles can take a step back and no longer think about controlling the government and monopolizing politics, then they will only stay in the military circles, become the generals of the Tang Dynasty, and become the most tax-profitable sword of the Tang Dynasty, and the court will be left to those civil servants from the family and the imperial examination, in order to achieve a delicate balance between civil and military, then will the Tang Dynasty be able to move towards higher glory?

Maybe you can, maybe you can't, or these lords, generals, and nobles of the Tang Dynasty will eventually decline like the nobles of the Ming Dynasty, but at least it's worth a try.

"Eldest grandson, it's better for Zhishi to retire and come and plant corn with me." Li Xiao said to the eldest grandson Wuji.

The eldest grandson Wuji stared at Li Xiao for a long time, and suddenly let out a burst of laughter.

"Looks like you really understand me!"