"Your Majesty, please listen to me tell the truth, has the power of the emperor really been unlimited since ancient times? Why are there still so many emperors who have been overthrown by powerful ministers? Zhang Chao asked.

"That's those courtiers who don't keep the courtiers' festivals, and they are really rebellious." Li Yuan said without thinking about it.

But Zhang Chao replied: "Your Majesty, let's not say whether it is a rebellion or not, but the minister knows that the emperor and the courtiers have always had contradictions, and there is a conflict of power, right?" The minister said something disrespectful, since ancient times, the monarchy and the prime minister have been losing and losing each other, this is a very long-term process, and this cannot be completely solved. Even if it is countless years later, as long as the emperor still wants courtiers to assist, as long as there is a prime minister in this world, the monarchy and the prime minister are constantly changing one and the other, and there is no real one side that can absolutely suppress the other. ”

"However, I don't know if the emperor found out, all dynasties have gone through three stages, the founding of the country, the heyday, and then the decline with the heyday, and finally perished! If nothing else, my Datang will also be this result! Zhang Chao said.

"You're bold!" "What a bold man, he actually cursed my Datang!" "Bastard, Emperor, please kill this bastard, you dare to curse me for the death of the Tang Dynasty, please kill this person!" ……

The eunuchs around Li Yuan really couldn't help it, and immediately began to hope that Li Yuan would kill Zhang Chao, because Zhang Chao's words were simply a foreshadowing of the fate of the Tang Dynasty. And in this way, I am afraid that Li Yuan will be furious, and then they will all be unlucky. So they hoped that Li Yuan would quickly kill Zhang Chao, and then make Li Yuan angry like this. What Zhang Chao wants to say is simply too terrifying, if he continues to say this, then who knows what will happen!

"Your Majesty, if you want to deceive yourself, then kill me. However, if you want Datang to be inherited for a long time, you might as well listen to me! Zhang Chao said calmly.

Zhang Chao didn't think that Li Yuan would kill him, because Li Yuan was not a fool, and he was telling the truth. And all the founding kings will naturally not be the kind of people who deceive themselves, the wisdom of the founding kings is absolutely unimaginable to ordinary people, they will not believe in that kind of self-deception, but will be extremely calm. If a person is not calm, he cannot become the founder of the country. What's more, what Zhang Chao said is very novel, and any emperor who wants to make his country pass on forever will not fail to listen. Therefore, Zhang Chao thinks that Li Yuan will listen to his own explanation no matter what.

Sure enough, although Li Yuan was very angry at first, he quickly calmed down, and finally said flatly: "Tell me, why will it gradually perish after its prosperity?" ”

"Your Majesty, in fact, this is also a truth of an imbalance of power. Every human being in this world has his own rights. For example, the right to live, and the right to have wealth. There are even many kinds of power, and I won't talk about that. However, some of these powers are very obvious, and some of them are hidden and will not be easily discovered by ordinary people. And we human beings are social beings, and a group of people naturally has to have a leader, and then there must be a system to manage everyone, and in this way there are leaders and officials. ”

"In ancient times, it was a Zen concession system, but later the ancients found that if they blindly made Zen, it would inevitably cause a lot of disputes. Because every time Zen is made, it is also a Ding Revolution, which is very dangerous. Therefore, the hereditary system was later invented, so that a certain family can inherit it from generation to generation, so as to maintain the stability of the country as much as possible and let the vast majority of people avoid suffering from the disaster of the Ding Revolution. ”

When Li Yuan heard this, he suddenly smiled, because Zhang Chao said this very well. Although Zhang Chao did not say that the emperor was granted the power by God, what Zhang Chao said was very "easy to understand", not as difficult as any God. Zhang Chao provided a reason for the hereditary system of the emperor's family, that is, the Zen concession system, and every Zen concession is also a Ding Revolution, which will inevitably bring great political disasters. Therefore, the hereditary system has also become inevitable, so as to avoid too many people coveting the position of the supreme leader, but to maintain the stability of the country.

Zhang Chao's words are not as confusing as the so-called Mandate of Heaven theory, but this can be accepted by the vast majority of the people. Zhang Chao proved from the so-called "laws of history" that the hereditary system is more advanced than the Zen concession system, and this is something that even Li Yuan is not very familiar with. However, Zhang Chao's words are equivalent to providing a theoretical basis for the hereditary system, and Li Yuan also thinks that it can be promoted in this way. As long as the people of the world recognize that the hereditary system was created to maintain the stability of the people in the world, this can also provide a theoretical basis. You must know that those so-called Confucian schools, in fact, many people think that the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors is the heyday, but at that time, it was all Zen concession system. However, since ancient times, there has been a voice, that is, the hereditary system is a kind of regression, and the Zen concession system was the best system for selecting talents. Although this was suppressed very badly, it is still a stubborn remnant.

"Okay, write it down, let the hereditary is a way to maintain peace in the world, and a way to protect the people from the disaster of the Ding Revolution. Therefore, in the future, anyone who opposes my Tang Li family will be making the people suffer the disaster of the Ding Revolution. Li Yuan asked the eunuch next to him to record it.

And Li Yuan actually wanted to publicize it like this, because Li Yuan also wanted to use Zhang Chao's statement, and then provide a theoretical basis for his Li family to rule the world in the future. When the time comes, the Li family will be hereditary from generation to generation, and that is to be able to maintain the stability of the world, not to be revolutionary. Whoever rebelled against the Li family was adding chaos to the world. Li Yuan wants to use this propaganda to propagate the legitimacy of the hereditary system to prove that those who aim to seize the world of his Li family are villains, villains who make it impossible for the people to survive. When the time comes, whoever rebels against the Li family will be destroying the peaceful life of the people.

Then, Zhang Chao went on to say: "Although ordinary people have natural power, the vast majority of people are stupid and cannot bear the power they should use. Then they have to give some of their power to the leaders, and let the leaders help them exercise their power. ”

"Well, that's exactly how it should be, how can ordinary people be stupid and dull to grasp the power of the imperial court? So, who does not rely on the emperor? Make a note of it! Li Yuan said to the eunuch next to him.

And Zhang Chao saw that the eunuch next to him wrote it down, and immediately thought: "This is mixed with my private goods, if you really promote it like this, it is equivalent to burying a thunder for yourself!" ”

Zhang Chao just said that the people must hand over the power to the leader to exercise it on their behalf, which on the surface proves the "legitimacy" of the imperial power, and makes Li Yuan feel that the imperial power still has this kind of "legitimacy". This is easy to understand, as long as it can be so publicized, the people will also acquiesce to the legitimacy of the imperial power. Zhang Chao is actually using the legitimacy of imperial power as an explanation, and such an explanation is easy to understand and can be accepted by many intellectuals. Li Yuan profoundly knows that fooling intellectuals and fooling the common people are completely two ways.

For the people, you can decide what imperial power is granted by God, and the emperor is the Son of Heaven. However, for intellectuals, this cannot be played. True intellectuals, who believes in you? Of course, Li Yuan understands that intellectuals will never believe that imperial power is granted by God, and intellectuals' respect for imperial power is actually very limited. In ancient times, the so-called foolish people only fooled those who had not read books, and would never fool intellectuals. Intellectuals are not so easy to fool.

However, Zhang Chao's statement, that is, legally proves the "legitimacy" of imperial power, and it is a good choice to use this means to fool intellectuals. As long as the intellectuals believe in this set and think that the people are stupid, they should hand over the power to the emperor to exercise it on their behalf, so that the intellectuals' recognition of the imperial power will also increase a lot. Therefore, Zhang Chao's theories are suitable for fooling intellectuals, while the so-called Mandate of Heaven theory is suitable for fooling ordinary people without culture.

However, Zhang Chao said: "I'm completely turning the divine right of the monarch into the people's right of the king, and I will have your good fruit to eat in the future!" ”

Zhang Chao's set of theories is actually a complete change of concept. Originally, the emperors advertised that the so-called imperial power was granted by God, which is actually the same thing as the divine right of kings in the West. However, Zhang Chao put forward this theory, which is tantamount to saying that the source of the imperial power is not the so-called heaven, but the ordinary people. Although the people will not have any problems in a short period of time, once the cultural popularization rate is getting higher and higher in the future, the people will also recognize the idea of monarchy and people's authority, and then they will naturally not be willing to continue to let the imperial power be autocratic.

Zhang Chao is equivalent to burying a thunder in China's ideological system, and Li Yuan cannot find the shortcomings in it in a short time, but thinks that it can be used to fool and secretly think intellectuals. The number of intellectuals in this era was small, but when the productivity increased and education became popular, the whole world was composed of intellectuals, and then the idea of monarchy and people's education put forward by Zhang Chao would become a rebellious and rational ideological system. Therefore, Zhang Chao brought his own private goods, and Li Yuan was stunned and didn't find out.

This can't be blamed on Li Yuan's stupidity, but his thinking doesn't take into account the long-term of future generations at all. He couldn't understand the difference between the divine authority of the monarch and the people's authority for a while, as long as he could maintain his ass and sit on the throne, he didn't have much research on the relevant ideological system in ancient times. Li Yuan even thought that this set of theories could be compromised, and then it could be combined with the ancient propaganda that had been propagated until the divine right of the monarch, and then on the one hand, the emperor was mythical, and on the other hand, the power in the hands of the people was handed over to the emperor to exercise. In this way, they can also be more effective in confusing the people.

Although Zhang Chao didn't know Li Yuan's thoughts, he saw that Li Yuan was getting more and more proud, and he must have bad water mixed in his stomach. However, Zhang Chao doesn't think that Li Yuan's bad water can have any impact on the general trend in the future, because more and more people will awaken in the future, and they will definitely borrow Zhang Chao's theory for "reprocessing". Zhang Chao knows that history is a woman without clothes, and she can dress up as you like. And the same is true of historical classics, as long as you put forward a theory, then you must be able to get an explanation from your own theory in later generations. And as long as he opens a window for the monarchy and the people, then this kind of thinking will develop like a seed in the future. Although it will not bear fruit in the short term, it will definitely develop into a towering tree in the long run.

"Your Majesty, the next minister is going to talk about why all dynasties and dynasties are going to perish." Zhang Chao said.

And Li Yuan reacted at this time, and then planned to listen to Zhang Chao's words and see what Zhang Chao could say about the destruction of all dynasties, which was what Li Yuan was most concerned about.

"Your Majesty, in fact, all dynasties eventually rose up to cause hundreds of people to rebel, and then let a dynasty collapse day by day, and this one is actually a power without restraint. Because although the people gave some of their power to the emperor to use, it did not mean that the emperor could arbitrarily deprive them of their right to exist. In fact, they all want to survive, and if the emperor doesn't let them live, they will naturally rebel. After all, ants still steal life, if they don't survive enough, then how can they obey the emperor's rule? And the emperor must first ensure the survival of the people, even the emperor must establish a maximum limit of power, and cannot deprive all the people in the world of the right to exist. Otherwise, the people would not be willing to accept the fate of being killed. So, I think this is the highest limit of imperial power. ”

And when Li Yuan heard this, he thought that this limit was acceptable, as long as he did not deprive the people of their lives in large quantities, then such a maximum limit was also acceptable. At least not to set up rules and regulations one by one, and then let the emperor's power be controlled.

However, the emperor has too many other powers to indirectly deprive the people of their rights. And this indirectly deprives the people of their power, which will inevitably cause Baixin to be unable to accept that his right to life is deprived at will, and then be forced to rebel. This was the case at the end of the Han Dynasty, and it was also the case in the former Sui Dynasty, because the emperor indirectly deprived the people of their lives with the help of too many other powers, so that they would eventually be forced to rebel. Your Majesty, you should know what will deprive the people of their right to live, right? Tax increases, wars, etc. will indirectly deprive the people of their right to live, and many of these things are caused by the emperor's words, and finally affect countless wives and wives, life and death. ”

"I don't kill Beren, but Beren died because of me, and the lives of these people are pinned on a certain emperor. Although the vast majority of emperors can guarantee that they will not be poor and extravagant, even if there is only one, as long as there is one emperor who will be like this, it means that an end of the world has come. ”