Chapter 1014: Aftermath【1】

Early morning.

The entire Dunhuang County was quiet.

The common people in the city didn't even know what had happened.

Waking up early, they discovered that the sky of Dunhuang had collapsed.

Indeed.

This time, the sky of Dunhuang had truly collapsed.

The Cao clan of Cao Kuan's lineage was the sky in Dunhuang.

The words of the Cao clan were more effective than an imperial decree.

In Dunhuang, they only recognized the Cao clan, not the imperial decree.

Of course, this is not to say that the Cao clan was how well-loved they were.

But because the Cao clan had operated in Dunhuang for over a hundred years, their influence spread throughout all of Dunhuang.

To borrow a famous line from a movie.

Even a coin dropped from the sky in Dunhuang had to have the surname Cao.

The commoners of Dunhuang either relied on the Cao clan to survive or had simply sold themselves to the Cao clan.

Anyone in the city with even a little bit of assets had some connection to the Cao clan.

To do business in Dunhuang, or to leave Dunhuang to do business in the Western Regions, one had to have the permission of the Cao clan.

When a border noble clan controlled military force, controlled the mountain passes, and controlled the local land.

Here, they were the Emperor.

Therefore, cleaning up the Cao clan was obviously even more difficult than cleaning up the Huang clan of Jiuquan.

The Cao clan had entrenched themselves in Dunhuang for over a hundred years.

They intermarried with local noble clans and had connections with all kinds of powerful families, large and small.

But for Duan Yu, the difficulty was not considered very great.

When all members of the Cao clan in Dunhuang County had been purged, Duan Yu ordered Lu Bu, Zhang Xiu, Chen Qing'an, Gao Shun, Hua Xiong, and others who had arrived in Dunhuang to divide their forces into several groups and begin a bloody cleanup of the noble clans most deeply connected to the Cao clan, such as the Longle Suo clan, the Dunhuang Hou clan, the Dunhuang Fan clan... and other noble clans, large and small.

At the same time, while heading west, Duan Yu had already sent people to notify Gai Xun to head to Dunhuang.

On the third day of the bloody cleanup in Dunhuang.

Gai Xun arrived in Dunhuang Commandery from Jincheng Commandery.

Gai Xun himself was a native of Guangzhi in Dunhuang Commandery.

He was one of the local noble clans of Dunhuang Commandery.

The reason Duan Yu dared to use such bloody means to suppress the Huang clan of Jiuquan and the Cao clan of Dunhuang.

Was not just because his military force was sufficiently abundant.

Governing a locality can never be separated from the local noble clans; this is a certainty.

And when Duan Yu was learning to clear out the ten clans and eight families, he already had subsequent plans and intentions.

Leaving Jia Xu in Wuwei was because the Jia clan, from which Jia Xu originated, was a local noble clan of Wuwei.

With Jia Xu there, and with the Jia clan there, Wuwei would not be in chaos.

By the same logic, Gai Xun, Gai Yuangu, who was currently serving as the Governor of Jincheng Commandery, was a local noble clan of Dunhuang.

Transferring Gai Xun here was to appease the remaining local noble clans of Dunhuang, as well as those small noble clans and powerful families who had not participated in this matter.

Killing was to awe people's hearts.

Using locals to govern the locality was to stabilize people's hearts.

Therefore, when Gai Xun had just arrived in Dunhuang, Duan Yu appointed him as the Governor of Dunhuang Commandery.

This method had already taken effect the day after Gai Xun arrived in Dunhuang.

At first, those local noble clans who were fortunate enough to escape a disaster, such as the Zhang clan of Zhang Huan, one of the 'Three Brights' of Liangzhou.

Compared to pure military generals like Huangfu Gui and Duan Jiong.

Zhang Huan himself belonged to the academic school.

And in the end, in order to shed the identity of being from a Liangzhou noble clan, he even wanted to move his entire family.

But regardless of whether Zhang Huan eventually joined the 'Clear Stream' faction.

In the eyes of those truly big shots in the Luoyang imperial court, Zhang Huan was always in the same category as Huangfu Gui, Duan Jiong, and others.

He was simply not worthy of entering Luoyang.

And Zhang Huan seemed to have understood this point as well.

In the end, he died in depression in his ancestral home.

Today, the Dunhuang Zhang clan had Zhang Huan's three sons remaining.

The eldest son Zhang Zhi, the second son Zhang Chang, and the youngest son Zhang Meng.

Among these three sons, the eldest and second sons followed the path of the literary school, while only the youngest son, Zhang Meng, studied martial arts and learned military strategy and tactics from a young age.

After the Cao clan was beheaded by Duan Yu and their heads thrown outside Dunhuang City, the Zhang clan closed their doors and did not come out.

Duan Yu understood that the Zhang clan was doing so out of fear.

The current Zhang clan no longer had the prestige it had when Zhang Huan was still alive.

It was not just the Zhang clan; all the noble clans that had not participated in supporting Beigong Boyu were terrified and closed their doors, not daring to show their faces.

Duan Yu, of course, would not take the initiative to visit them.

Killing was to establish prestige.

But he could not kill everyone.

Liangzhou had ten commanderies and over a hundred counties, not to mention the townships and pavilions under their jurisdiction.

Managing these commanderies and counties required officials.

If he truly killed all the noble clans, then there would truly be not a single administrator left.

In today's world, the four-hundred-year-old Great Han had long since formed a complete political ecosystem.

Top-tier noble clans were in Luoyang, controlling the official positions of the world.

They had the power of appointment, recommendation, and nomination.

Top-tier noble clans like the Yuan clan and the Yang clan were exercising this power.

Below them were those great clans of hereditary officials with two thousand shi.

These great clans had served as officials for generations, with one or even multiple people in each generation serving as commandery governors—officials of two thousand shi—passing down for over a hundred years.

And relying on these great clans of hereditary officials with two thousand shi were the smaller noble clans.

They were responsible for managing the counties under the commanderies, mostly as officials of around one thousand shi, though some lucky or clever ones reached two thousand shi.

Further down, the townships and pavilions relied on the small powerful families, or even the humble families, that were attached to these small noble clans.

This was like a complete ecological system.

From the beginning of the establishment of the Great Han, this pyramid-like power structure, delegated layer by layer, had already been fixed.

Duan Yu was not a god.

This political ecosystem that had continued for four hundred years could not be broken in a word or two, or in a year or two.

To break this political monopoly, one had to come up with a new official selection system.

A system that could not be monopolized by noble clans.

The most ideal system today would be the imperial examination.

But the prerequisite for the imperial examination was the popularization of culture.

Given the current level of unenlightened people in the world, the imperial examination was still a long way off.

At the very least, to enlighten the people, one must first popularize culture.

And the ones who monopolized knowledge in the world today were these noble clans spread across every corner of the Great Han.

Zhang Huan was able to become one of the 'Three Brights' of Liangzhou because in his early years, Zhang Huan and the Grand Marshal Zhu Chong studied the 'Ouyang Minister'.

The reason the Gai clan, to which Gai Xun belonged, could become a Liangzhou noble clan was because their ancestors inherited the 'Guwen Minister'.

The reason the Yuan clan could become the world's 'Zhong' surname was because they had the right to interpret the 'Mengshi Yi'.

Including the 'Xiaodu Lü' of the Yingchuan Guo clan; the reason the Yingchuan Xun clan was so powerful was because their ancestor was Xunzi.

Duan Yu understood this point deeply. ===== CHAPTER 1016 =====