In the prefectural government.

Ran Min went out to Wu County as the emperor of the Great Wei Dynasty, and according to reason, the place should build a palace so that the emperor could live in.

However, the Wei State advocated frugality up and down, and Ran Min led by example and was absolutely extravagant, so he went out on patrol in a mighty way, but repeatedly asked the local government not to build a palace and not to work the people and lose money. As for the expenses of the patrol team, it was covered by the state treasury.

At this time, Ran Min was in the study of the county government to deal with daily government affairs.

The crown prince Ran Ming is in charge of the country, but if there is a major matter that cannot be decided, he will send a fast horse of 800 miles to Ran Min to deal with it urgently. But such performances are rare, so in his spare time, Ran Min can also read books and do some entertainment activities.

Suddenly, a man dressed as a brocade guard walked in, presented a secret report to Ran Min, and then stepped back. After reading the secret report, Ran Min's expression was quite solemn, but he immediately asked people to find Qin Mu and Xun Ji who followed him.

"You all take a look, this is the secret report that Jinyiwei just transmitted."

Ran Min handed the secret report in his hand to the two.

After reading the secret report, Xun Ji suddenly frowned: "What are these Jiangdong scholars plotting?" ”

"What they are plotting is unknown. There are many people in Jinyiwei who are installed among the major scholars, but according to the secret report, there are twenty-one Jiangdong scholars who participated in this secret meeting, and except for the Lu clan, almost all the local scholars in Jiangdong are involved. They had a secret meeting in a manor in the west of the city, and there were bright posts and secret sentries nearby, and there were also people from the brocade guards among the guards, but they could not enter the study to listen. ”

Hearing this, Xun Ji said: "Your Majesty, this time you executed one hundred and three people of the Shi clan involved in Li Song's case in one go, and the Jiangdong Shi clan, especially the people with the four surnames of Wu County, must have a grudge against Your Majesty and the imperial court, maybe they want to be unfavorable to Your Majesty." I'm plotting to do something that is not good for Your Majesty. ”

"Probably so." Ran Min nodded and said: "I am not afraid of these, but the enemy is in the dark and I am in the open, as the so-called open guns are easy to dodge, and hidden arrows are difficult to defend." Always remembered by these Jiangdong scholars, this southern tour is very sad! Qin Mu and Xun Ji, what do you think these Jiangdong scholars can do that is unfavorable to me? Assassinate? Or poison? ”

Xun Ji smiled dumbly and said, "Your Majesty said that you are laughing." With the courage of these Jiangdong clans, they will never dare to do this, even if there are really bold guys, at least they will not dare to blatantly assassinate His Majesty, unless they really want to kill the clan and leave a stench for 10,000 years. ”

"Huh. Maybe that's possible! Ran Min pursed his lips and said: "How bold is the Shi clan, Xun Ji, you can't not be unclear, you were originally from the Yingchuan family." You should know better than I know the dirty things among the nobles. ”

Hearing this, Xun Ji pondered for a while, and then said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that unless these Jiangdong scholars have taken the wrong medicine and are dizzy, they will definitely not dare to do this." The dynasty and the scholar clan use each other and compete with each other, and if a dynasty cannot handle the relationship with the major scholar clans, it will not be able to escape the doom of destruction. ”

"In the past, Emperor Sima Rui of the Jin Yuan Dynasty ascended the throne in good health, and when he ascended the throne, Sima Rui took Wang Dao's hand and asked him to accept the worship of hundreds of officials with him. Although Director Wang thanked and refused, after that, a saying circulated among the people: The king and the horse share the world! Throughout history, the noble class is the invisible driving force behind the dynasty, Your Majesty. ”

In this regard, Ran Min is deeply convinced.

Ran Min sighed and said, "Why don't I know? ”

Ran Min's heart knew very well how powerful and unshakable the scholar clan was.

What is a Scholar?

They haunt the court and hide in the mountains and forests, they are bloody and loyal and sell their lords for glory, they have many names and many identities, but in the end there is only one identity - the scholars.

They are not emperors but can share the world with emperors, they are not heroes but they can decide who can be heroes!

Ran Min said: "I know very well that the scholars throughout the ages have controlled the court, their thoughts, and their resources, but as the saying goes, where there is oppression, there is resistance, when the people can't even afford to drink a mouthful of porridge, and they have to sell their sons and daughters to pay heavy taxes, there will be uprisings to beat this landlord, and then become a new landlord, continue to oppress the people, and wait for the next landlord to overthrow him." ”

This is the so-called "long-term union must be divided" in history, and long-term unity must be united. Rather, it was a thousand-year-long curse on the people! ”

Xun Ji was very pleased that Ran Min could understand this, and said, "Since Your Majesty knows the power of the Shi clan, you shouldn't easily challenge this behemoth. One or two scholars are not terrible, and the scholars in one place are not terrible, but when all the scholars in the world are united, and even most of the scholars want to overthrow this dynasty, then this dynasty will perish! ”

"Xun Ji, having said that, the scholar clan still has a certain danger to Great Wei. For an emerging dynasty like my Great Wei, perhaps this harm is not very obvious, because the Great Wei Dynasty was founded, the world has been war-torn for a long time, and the right people are thriving, so much land is waiting for the scholars to annex and wait for the scholars to divide up, so the contradictions between the dynasty and the scholars have not intensified, and the scholars can still be wholeheartedly loyal to the Great Wei, but what about thousands of years later? ”

Ran Min said in a deep voice: "Maybe in less than a hundred years, maybe like the two Han Dynasty, the Great Wei can enjoy four hundred years of national glory." But the long-term stability of the Great Wei, one day will be stripped of the foundation by these scholars, sucking out the vitality, sooner or later, the Great Wei will be like the previous Han, Wei, Jin, died in the hands of the powerful scholars! ”

When Xun Ji heard this, he couldn't help but sigh and said, "Your Majesty, your worries are not unreasonable. But the scholars have been strong for a long time, as strong as the Great Wei, I am afraid that they will not be able to completely wipe out the scholars and uproot the foundation they have accumulated over thousands of years! The minister is from the scholar family, the Yingchuan Xun clan, has been the top wealthy family since ancient times, and was once the crown of the world's scholars, but because of this, the minister understands how terrible the scholar family is! ”

"So the Shi clan is so terrifying, don't the iron-fisted emperors of all dynasties want to eradicate the power of the Shi clan? No, it's not that they don't want to, it's that they simply can't do it! In the past, Cao Mengde also used to be meritocratic, reusing the children of the poor family and suppressing the scholars, but in the end, it was because Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi wanted to win the hearts of the scholars, and the nine-grade Zhongzheng system promulgated by him was abandoned. Cao Pi chose to compromise with the Shi clan, but in the end, he couldn't stand the Sima clan, who was only from a second-rate family, to gain more support from the Shi clan, and then sought to usurp the throne. ”

"During Sun Quan's reign, he also made some efforts to try to suppress the power of the local Jiangdong Shi clan, but they were all useless, and in the end he could only give up on himself in his old age."

"Your Majesty, you must know that the nobles are not heroes, but they can decide who can become heroes! For example, Liu Bei, who is a man of leniency, is silent, does not like to read, and has great ambitions. He was able to stand out in the late Eastern Han Dynasty when the war was raging and the heroes rose together, and the establishment of the Shu Han Dynasty was inseparable from the support of the scholars. ”

"As we all know, Liu Bei really gained a firm foothold in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms, but it was after entering Yizhou. And the reason why he was able to win Yizhou was that the scholars of Yizhou, such as Zhang Song, Fa Zheng and others, abandoned Liu Zhang and chose Liu Bei. ”

"It's not just Liu Bei, there are warriors behind every warlord, the Yingchuan clan behind Cao Cao, the Hebei clan behind Yuan Shao, and the Nanyang clan behind Liu Biao!"

"So, the Three Kingdoms is not a bottom-up uprising, but a game of aristocracy. You can become a hero if you are chosen by the scholars, otherwise you can only live in exile! Among the heroes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, such as Lu Bu, Tao Qian, Gongsun Zhan, and Yuan Shu, these heroes were either never supported by the scholars from beginning to end, or they were simply abandoned by the scholars! Therefore, they are destined to be only a flash in the pan in the long river of history, and they cannot establish their own merits, and they will be remembered for eternity! ”