Chapter 2162: Taizong Chronicles 30: History That Turns Its Pages Quickly

In early summer of the fifth year of Jianlong, following the deaths of pillars of state such as Wang Dan, Ma Huaiyu, and Guo Yi, the Great Han Empire lost another founding meritorious statesman—Yang Ye, founding hero and veteran of five reigns, passed away peacefully in his official residence at the age of ninety-two, dying of no illness.

The death of Yang Ye was clearly an event that shook the court and the country, not only because of his own lofty prestige, but also because of the powerful influence of the Yang family in the empire's military and political affairs. And with Yang Ye's passing, it also meant that the last trace of warmth left by Emperor Shizu in this world had dissipated—Yang Ye was the last meritorious elder of the same generation as Emperor Shizu in the Great Han.

For Emperor Liu Wenji, the passing of Yang Ye naturally filled him with deep regret. After all, this was the man who had helped him ascend the throne, a pillar who held up the heavens. His departure somewhat dimmed the luster of Liu Wenji's imperial legitimacy.

To be fair, of the two elders who had made the final decision and supported Liu Wenji's succession, Yang Ye was the one for whom he felt unreserved gratitude and trust. In contrast, toward Prince Zhao, Liu Fang, Liu Wenji could not help but harbor a trace of wariness.

Many a midnight, waking from dreams, Liu Wenji had feared that Uncle Prince Zhao might raise a call and depose the new sovereign. Even if that possibility was extremely remote, it did not stop the Emperor's suspicion and wariness...

With Yang Ye, there was no need for such concerns at all. And even if only for the sake of the great favor of supporting his succession, Liu Wenji had to show special consideration. Thus, Yang Ye in life reached the pinnacle of officialdom, and in death enjoyed full honors—his funeral rites were the most solemn politically, the most grand in scale, and the most widely felt of any meritorious minister since the founding of the state, with Yang Ye himself as the protagonist.

On the day of the funeral procession, the grandeur of the scene moved many to sigh that in the current court, no family enjoyed greater glory and favor than the Yangs. The Great Han Empire had no shortage of meritorious pillars, but the last one to receive such honor and inspire such sighs was after the death of Prince Linqing, Gao Xingzhou, during the Qianyou era.

In the past few years, especially during the time when Yang Yanzhao was still alive, the Yang family was the foremost among the empire's honored noble houses. Yang Yanzhao died of illness in the winter of the third year of Jianlong, and with Minister of War Guo Yi passing away in his residence in the spring of the fourth year of Jianlong, the three pillars of the imperial army personally appointed by Emperor Shizu now existed only in people's memories—the empire's history was turning its pages rapidly.

For the Yang family, when the old patriarch Yang Ye also departed this world, their glory inevitably began to decline. However, who would dare to despise the Yang family because of this? Not to mention Yang Yanlang, who succeeded Ma Huaiyu as Commissioner of Military Affairs, the Emperor's attitude of favor toward the Yang family alone was enough to make people envious.

After Yang Ye's death, he was posthumously conferred the title Duke of Xin. At the same time, Liu Wenji rearranged the Yang family's noble titles—Yang Chuanzhen, the legitimate son of Yang Yanzhao, inherited the title and was redesignated Duke of Yanmen, and the Marquis of Guo that Yang Yanzhao had held in life was bestowed upon Yang Yanlang.

The pattern of the Yang family holding one dukedom and one marquisate was thus firmly established, passed down separately through the two lines of Yang Yanzhao and Yang Yanlang. In the more than seventy years of the empire's era, no small number of meritorious noble families had emerged, and for a long time, the Yangs were merely an "ordinary" one. What surprised the vast majority of people was that more than seventy years later, the Yang family could actually become the empire's foremost noble house—even if this "foremost" might not last long.

Of course, this was also related to other families gradually fading into obscurity. In terms of imperial favor, across the entire court, the only families comparable to the Yangs were the two Zhao households—the Duke of Rong and the Marquis of Guangyang. But the Zhao family of today was already far worse off than before; merely maintaining their former prominence was difficult, let alone being mentioned in the same breath as the Yangs.

The line of Duke of Rong Zhao Kuangyin, with the passing of Zhao Dezhao, was sliding rapidly. More critically, they faced a severe problem of thinning bloodline—in the fifth year of Jianlong, the living descendants of Zhao Kuangyin numbered fewer than ten fingers...

As for the others, they either died of old age, died of illness, died in accidents, or were done in by Regent Empress Dowager Liu E in the state of Annam. Even Zhao Weizheng, the third Duke of Rong, was a mediocre specimen. Of Zhao Dezhao's sons, he alone among the elder brothers survived, approaching sixty with no sons of his own, and had already petitioned the court to adopt one from among his nephews.

Compared to the miserable state of the Duke of Rong's line, Zhao Kuangyi's Marquis of Guangyang line was doing somewhat better—but not by much. At least Zhao Dechong, the successor on whom Zhao Kuangyi had placed great hopes, still propped up the entire family, and moreover, their numbers were far more abundant, maintaining no small influence in political circles and among the literati.

However, truly outstanding talents were few. Zhao Kuangyi's second son, Zhao Deming, had shown some aptitude and achieved some things in officialdom, once rising to Deputy Administration Commissioner of the Jinghu South Circuit. Then, amid several consecutive years of major floods, he was tarnished, dismissed and prosecuted for corruption and dereliction of duty, and reduced to commoner status.

The third son, Zhao Dechang, had gone to Annam years ago with Liu Wenhuan. After Liu Wenhuan's death, as a key minister of regency and the core backbone of the Zhao family's resistance against Regent Empress Dowager Liu E, he nevertheless had too weak a temperament—his political skills were streets behind Liu E's. Despite holding enormous political resources and prestige, he was steadily forced back by Liu E, yielding power and position, and finally died of depression in Jiaozhi...

To add a word, in the current state of Annam—at least in the Jiaozhi court—the situation had been completely seized by the political bloc headed by Empress Dowager Liu E. Accompanying this was the death by illness of Consort Dowager Zhao and the suppression of the Zhao family.

In this process, numerous court struggles and political maneuvers occurred—just like all power struggles recorded in history, brilliant, fierce, and cold-blooded. After all, as the foremost consort clan of Annam, several members of the Zhao family had been killed.

Unlike ordinary power struggles, Empress Dowager Liu E's authority was established and continuously strengthened, always maintaining the court's stability in administrative coordination. At the same time, while politically repressive, she achieved considerable progress in the economy and people's livelihoods. The increasingly abundant output of the Red River Delta plain continuously added bricks and mortar to the consolidation of the Annam court. On the other hand, the constant rise of commerce, handicrafts, and foreign trade accelerated Annam's ascendancy and prosperity.

Looking at the growth of the core ruling population, between the two Liu-surnamed fiefs of north and south, Annam was truly in a league of its own, benefiting from its uniquely advantageous geography and foundation of Sinicization.

Through nearly seven years of effort, Annam's Empress Dowager Liu E gradually eliminated the "central" opposition faction centered on the Zhao family. After basically achieving absolute control over the Jiaozhi court, her next target was aimed at the two enfeoffed marquises of Wen and Wan prefectures.

During the years of fierce struggle in the Jiaozhi court, the brothers Liu Jiyuan and Liu Jichu had each vigorously developed their own fiefs, accumulating considerable strength that nearly covered the four southwestern prefectures, and their dissatisfaction with and threat to the Jiaozhi court grew ever greater.

Of course, compared to enemies within the court, the threat from those two brothers of questionable bloodline was not particularly alarming to Liu E. The more troublesome matter was that relying on political means alone would likely be insufficient to resolve the "problem of the two marquises." At the same time, the attitude of the imperial center had to be considered—after all, the brothers Liu Jiyuan and Liu Jichu were still in the imperial clan registry...

——————

Entering the fifth year of Jianlong, the Great Han Empire was undergoing renewal and replacement in all aspects, with personnel changes being the most notable feature. After the "aristocratic politics" of the Pingkang–Duangong era, by the fifth year of Jianlong, commoner-origin officials represented by Kou Zhun, Zhang Zhibai, Wang Qinruo, Ding Wei, and Chen Yaozuo once again held the great power of the court.

This was a process of one rising while the other fell, also related to a large batch of formidable old nobles exiting the stage of history. In fact, the integration of the meritorious noble group with the imperial system was deeply rooted, and their influence on the empire's military and political affairs was all-encompassing. Across the entire realm, a large number of key positions were still occupied by descendants of meritorious nobles, and even more officials served in important posts as "disciples" of the nobility.

However, at the level of the imperial center, the trend of nobles retreating and commoners advancing was clear—at least, the situation where only Yang Yanlang, Han Chengjun, and Cao Wei spoke on behalf of the group was the first time in over half a century. Therefore, before another batch of rising talents seized power, some lying low was perfectly normal.

During this period, one of the Emperor's actions aroused widespread dissatisfaction among the meritorious noble group. On the surface, it was merely an appointment—the appointment of the Minister of War to succeed Guo Yi. In choosing this person, Liu Wenji did not follow the long-standing custom of selecting from among meritorious noble ministers, but instead promoted another commoner-origin official: Zhang Jian, Administration Commissioner of Shanyang.

Zhang Jian, courtesy name Zhongbao, was a native of Wanping, Youzhou. He was the top scholar (zhuangyuan) of the fourth year of Yongxi, and had successively served as Censor, Magistrate of Yongchang, Prefect of Qingzhou, Administrative Assistant of Luoyang Prefecture, and Fiscal Commissioner of Hebei. Among the many renowned ministers of the Yongxi era, he was a top-tier figure.

With a rich résumé and outstanding talent and knowledge, there was no need to worry whether Zhang Jian's abilities were sufficient for the post of Minister of War. He was no civil official completely ignorant of military affairs—he had even served as Patrol Inspector of the Northwest and presided over the suppression of bandit unrest in the Qinghai region.

However, the post of Minister of War was not merely a matter of military-administrative competence. Since the Shizu era, an established rule required consideration of one's background—specifically, one had to be of military origin, which later developed into the requirement of being from a military meritorious noble family.

Although this was only an unwritten rule formed among the upper echelons of the court's nobility over a long period, never clearly codified into articles written in the *Han Statutes* or the *Collected Institutes*, such consensus reached between upper and lower levels was often more binding than written institutional rules.

And all along, no matter how fierce or how broad the political struggles at the upper levels of the court, the two posts of Commissioner of Military Affairs and Minister of War had always been held by ministers of military or meritorious noble origin—unchanged for over half a century.

It could be said that the Bureau of Military Affairs and the Ministry of War were the private preserve of the Great Han Empire's military meritorious noble class, the guarantee of their voice at court. They might engage in life-and-death struggles among themselves, but their collective interests could never be infringed upon. Moreover, this model had also played an important role in maintaining the empire's stability and public order during special periods.

Liu Wenji's act of appointing Zhang Jian was clearly a violation of this unwritten rule, inevitably offending the meritorious noble class—especially provoking the dissatisfaction of the military meritorious nobles who still held sway in the empire's armed forces—and would surely invite backlash.

Liu Wenji was a man who always acted cautiously and moved only after careful planning. He naturally understood the so-called unwritten rules and knew the repercussions and even resistance that appointing Zhang Jian would cause. Yet he did it anyway, with extraordinary resolve.

The reasons were naturally multifaceted. Strengthening his control and influence over the military was one aspect—the Ministry of War, which oversaw logistics and deployment for the entire nation's armed forces, was a position whose function was not so conspicuous but was extremely critical, and for Liu Wenji it was also a good entry point.

Of course, if it were merely about seizing military power and strengthening control over the army, Liu Wenji would have had no real need to elevate Zhang Jian. After all, the same could be achieved through appointing some sons of meritorious nobles and the commoner-origin generals he had been quietly and methodically promoting.

The fundamental reason was that Liu Wenji was dissatisfied with the "mutual checks between civil and military" structure established since the Shizu era. Breaking an unwritten rule—to the breaker, the old rule has its deficiencies, its points that must be broken.

The so-called mutual checks between civil and military required a balance—a balance between civil and military, between nobles and commoners. But to be frank, this so-called balance had long since become unbalanced.

There had never been a clear standard boundary between power and nobility. Even Emperor Shizu, while building and cultivating the military meritorious noble group as pillars of the empire, also vigorously promoted commoner-origin officials to serve as a counterbalance. Yet in the end, the balance achieved relied on the Emperor's own authority and skill.

On the other hand, while the empire's meritorious nobles maintained their powerful influence over the military year after year, their tentacles had long since reached into every aspect of imperial affairs. Emperors Shizu and Taizong could suppress this situation, Kangzong did not care about it, and by the time of Liu Wenji—with his imperial position increasingly consolidated and his wings fully grown—he decided to make some changes.

The appointment of Zhang Jian, this civil official, could be seen as a test, and this test provoked what could be called fierce backlash both before and after the appointment. Liu Wenji's extraordinary favor toward the Yang family was not unrelated to the pressure from this backlash—he also needed to win over some military noble families to soothe the dissatisfaction within the noble class...

If Emperor Taizong's concerns in his governance reforms came mostly from his caution and tolerance, then Liu Wenji's many concerns and fears were simply because he had no other choice—the reality of the situation was what it was.

In the autumn of the fifth year of Jianlong, Liu Wenji issued an edict establishing Yang Si, granddaughter of Commissioner of Military Affairs Yang Yanlang, as Empress. Thus, the Yang family produced two empresses, and the prominence of the Yang clan was unmatched in the world at that time.