Chapter 1216

Su Fan does not need to worry too much about the future of the Primordial World; in the overall Primordial World, he is nothing more than a small fry.

The safety of the Primordial World can be left to those Quasi-Sages.

What he cares about most now is the Jiuzhou; for the next several hundred to a thousand years, his focus will be on the Jiuzhou, and he needs to ensure that the Jiuzhou proceed according to his plan.

He will not pay much attention to the situation in the Three Realms.

Under his guidance, the Taiping Dao is slowly growing, and the scientific theories and basic knowledge he provided have all been handed over to the disciples of the Taiping Dao.

He does not need to worry about that side at all; Zhang Jiao and his disciples are doing even better than he imagined, and the development of the Taiping Dao has even exceeded his expectations.

Naturally, he is even more at ease.

So, after leaving the Taiping Dao, he has found some leisure in the Jiuzhou.

Traveling across the land like a mortal, he has allowed his heart to slowly settle down once again.

Afterward, arriving in Xuzhou, he began a new goal.

Zhang Jiao gave him a great surprise, so Su Fan is very much looking forward to how many surprises this Zhuge Wuhou, hailed by later generations as the embodiment of wisdom, can bring him.

Arriving in Langya Commandery, this place is much livelier than many other commanderies and counties in Xuzhou, and the common people at the bottom seem to have a bit of vitality.

Traveling across the land, in the vast majority of places, the common people at the bottom are muddled, like walking corpses.

The people here are not very wealthy; like most places, they look very thin, clearly not eating that well.

But Su Fan discovered a glimmer of light in their eyes, a trace of vitality.

This is not easy; clearly, the Prefect of Langya Commandery has governed the region quite well.

Su Fan has governed the world before and knows very well that only in the prosperous age of a dynasty will the people have such vitality.

In the late stages of a dynasty, it can be said that the people live worse than animals.

Of course, the situation in Langya Commandery can be understood with a little inquiry; as the largest noble clan in Langya Commandery, the local "emperor," the power of the Prefect's office is truly far inferior to that of the Zhuge clan.

The Prefect's office is even just a puppet.

This situation is actually considered very normal in the Liu Han dynasty.

Although the Liu Han imperial court has regulations that officials must serve in different regions—for example, the Zhuge clan is strictly forbidden from serving as officials in Langya Commandery under any circumstances.

This is also to prevent local noble clans from becoming too powerful.

Their influence in the region is already very great; if they were to serve as officials in the region, wouldn't they be complete local emperors?

However, such regulations have actually become almost nominal.

It is true that no members of the Zhuge clan serve as officials in Langya Commandery, but eighty percent of the officials in Langya Commandery are related to the Zhuge clan, and some have even pledged themselves to the Zhuge clan.

This situation is very common in the Liu Han dynasty; some talented individuals from humble backgrounds who want to enter officialdom can only pledge themselves to those large noble clans, because the power of recommendation for official positions is controlled by these large noble clans.

If you do not pledge yourself to them, you will never have a chance.

As for joining the army, in the local regions, the military is what it is; only the border armies can be considered relatively fair, but that is only relatively speaking.

In fact, every place has its own unspoken rules.

Therefore, for those talents from poor backgrounds, they can only try every possible way to pledge themselves to higher noble clans so that they can exert their talents.

As a result, the power of local noble clans naturally grows larger and larger, and the imperial court has no good way to deal with it.

Because the system for selecting talent is not so easy to break.

Of course, the Emperor also thought of some methods, such as buying and selling official positions, but apart from bringing a certain amount of wealth to the imperial court, it had no effect.

Instead, it caused the imperial court to lose even more of the people's hearts.

It is not that no one in the Liu Han imperial court had ever proposed changing the system of selecting officials, but unfortunately, not long after, that great figure who had reached the rank of one of the Nine Ministers died of illness at home.

Clearly, those vested interests would absolutely not allow their interests to be stripped away; the official selection system is the most suitable for their noble clans, and the more powerful the noble clan, the greater the benefits they receive.

Changing to another system might help their interests, but it is more likely to weaken the power in their hands, so how could they allow others to take action?

Therefore, even a great figure ranked among the Nine Ministers had to die.

As for the imperial court, apart from posthumously honoring that loyal official, they did not even have an explanation.

The other party "died of illness," and the imperial court had no way to deal with it.

Of course, the imperial court also knew that the loyal official's death was not as simple as dying of illness, but the imperial court was powerless to investigate.

This is the harm brought about by the imperial court's power becoming weaker and weaker.

The imperial power of the Liu Han dynasty has already declined to the point where it can at most control the area around Luoyang.

Sad and lamentable.

However, for Su Fan, the rise and fall of dynasties are just clouds passing in the blink of an eye.

In the current Liu Han dynasty, local noble clans are in charge; in this Langya Commandery, it is almost the Zhuge clan that has the final say, and this is no joke.

Clearly, the Zhuge clan's exploitation of the region is not severe; otherwise, this place would likely also be a desolate wasteland for a thousand miles.

A desolate wasteland for a thousand miles is very normal in the northern regions, because the northern regions are vast and sparsely populated, and secondly, because of the frequent looting by the northern grassland tribes.

The south is a bit better.

The ancestral land of the Zhuge clan was not built within the city, but rather outside the city, near mountains and water, as a huge fortified manor.

In fact, many noble clans have their ancestral lands outside the city; they do have mansions within the city, but most of their disciples prefer to be outside the city.

After all, the city is relatively noisy, and the atmosphere is not clear.

The place chosen by the Zhuge clan was clearly surveyed in detail; it is indeed excellent, with top-tier feng shui, a good place to nurture people.

And Su Fan saw at a glance that this place was originally a spiritual land, but because heaven and earth were sealed, the spiritual land gradually turned into a land without spirit.

With a sweep of his divine sense, this fortified manor came into Su Fan's view; the manor is very large, measuring a full several thousand mu in size.

Such a fortified manor can be said to be a small town.

Thousands of family disciples and servants live inside.

Of course, the Zhuge clan's fortified manor can only be considered medium-sized; Su Fan has seen larger ones, comparable to the size of a city.

The internal guards also number in the thousands; it can be said that even if outsiders came to attack, it would be very difficult to take down such a manor.

Historically, during the Han dynasties, noble clans and powerful families indeed liked to build such fortified manors because they could defend against foreign enemies.

Especially the noble clans in the north, because of the grassland alien tribes, the manors they built had stronger defenses, like a turtle shell.