Chapter 737

"Third Brother, Xun Can of the Xun family has held the position of Censor-in-Chief for many years now."

"Since our Yuan family intends to lend the Xun family a helping hand, we must collect some benefits from them in return, right?"

Hearing this.

Yuan Wei vaguely understood some of Yuan Feng's schemes.

But he still felt somewhat puzzled.

The position of Censor-in-Chief, if placed in the pre-Qin period, was indeed incredibly formidable.

After Ying Zheng unified the world, the first generation of the Three Excellencies he established were precisely the Chancellor, the Grand Marshal, and the Censor-in-Chief.

The Censor-in-Chief was responsible for supervising the entire country.

What did this equate to?

It was equivalent to being the boss of the highest judicial institution in the nation.

Moreover, in terms of prestige, the Censor-in-Chief was generally held by someone of high virtue and great respect.

But the position of Censor-in-Chief, ever since the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, had shown a trend of being gradually hollowed out.

First, regarding various supervisory powers in the regions, the Censor-in-Chief's authority was stripped away and given to the Colonel of the Capital and the various regional Inspectors.

What did this equate to?

It was equivalent to the Censor-in-Chief losing more than ninety percent of his original, most formidable supervisory power.

You must know, Inspectors did not have to report to the Censor-in-Chief.

This meant that the Censor-in-Chief was no longer the nominal superior of the Inspectors.

Wasn't this just purely a commander without an army?

Furthermore.

The rise of the post of Commandant of Justice also meant that much of the Censor-in-Chief's jurisdiction had been divided away.

By the late Han period, the Censor-in-Chief was almost just an empty shell, possessing the rank but no real power.

But a Provincial Governor was different.

Although Inspectors possessed supervisory power, the power in their hands could not be compared to that of a Provincial Governor at all.

It was like this: an Inspector only had supervisory power.

But administrative power, financial power, and military power were all in the hands of the Provincial Governor.

Clearly, the Provincial Governor was a local warlord.

Added to this, Yizhou was one of the two most prosperous provinces in the world at that time.

Under such circumstances.

How could a Censor-in-Chief with only a rank and no real power be compared to a powerful local warlord like the Governor of Yizhou?

What's more, the Xun family was an aristocratic family from Yingchuan in Yizhou.

If Xun Yi became the Governor of Yizhou, wouldn't this be insane?

Therefore, Yuan Wei felt very puzzled by Yuan Feng's suggestion to trade the Yizhou Governorship for the Censor-in-Chief position.

"Third Brother, just imagine."

"Are we the only ones in the Yuan family who don't want Xun Yi to become the Governor of Yizhou?"

Yuan Feng's face was filled with a cunning and treacherous smile.

Although the Yuan family was the head of the world's aristocratic families.

But the Hongnong Yang family, the Taiyuan Wang family, and others were also top-tier aristocratic families.

Everyone was in the same tier, so why should your Yuan family always sit at the head of the world's aristocratic families?

Shouldn't it be time to change people?

However... if Xun Yi really became the Governor of Yizhou.

Then the one who would replace the Yuan family as the number one aristocratic family in the world might just be the Xun family.

How could the Hongnong Yang family, the Taiyuan Wang family, and others be willing to see such a situation occur?

However.

If it were only to this extent, it certainly wouldn't be worth them making a big fuss.

But... what if the Yuan family and the Xun family joined forces?

One becomes the first aristocratic family, and the other becomes the second.

If that were truly the case, no matter how broad-minded the other aristocratic families in the same tier were, they could not continue to tolerate such a thing happening!

What?

This couldn't happen?

No, it didn't need to actually happen.

It was just that as long as the Yuan family deliberately created this feeling, making other top-tier aristocratic families in the same tier feel this sense of crisis, then they would definitely take action.

At that time.

The target of the other aristocratic families' attacks would inevitably be the Xun family!

Even if just to prevent the Yuan family and the Xun family from successfully joining forces, the other major aristocratic families would unanimously operate this way.

Furthermore.

Besides them.

The military group was not to be trifled with either.

Xun Yi was more than ten years younger than Yuan Wei.

The number of young talents in the same generation as Xun Yi within the Xun family was also the best among all the major aristocratic families.

For example, Seeing Xun Yu's father, Xun Gun, Seeing Xun Yu's uncle, Xun Shuang, and others were basically of the same age as Xun Yi.

Even.

Among the literati, the young talents of the Xun family were even called the "Eight Dragons of the Xun Clan," which was enough to show the prosperity of this generation of the Xun family.

(PS: According to records, the real "Eight Dragons of the Xun Clan" refers to people of the generation of Seeing Xun You's father and Seeing Xun Yu's father, which does not include Seeing Xun Yu, Seeing Xun You, Xun Chen, and others.)

Looking across the literati, the younger generation of the Xun family had the strongest talent.

This had already made other major aristocratic families feel threatened.

If the Xun family were to go one step further, how could the other major aristocratic families continue to play happily?

Therefore.

Whether it was to suppress the alliance that the Xun family and the Yuan family might reach.

Or simply to suppress the momentum of the Xun family's further growth.

Other top-tier aristocratic families would definitely take action on the matter of Xun Yi wanting to become the Governor of Yizhou.

As the saying goes.

One doesn't fear living poorly oneself.

One only fears that peers are living better than oneself!

The strife between aristocratic families understood this principle even more deeply.

After understanding Yuan Feng's strategy, the smile on Yuan Wei's face became even more brilliant.

"Second Brother, I am not at ease leaving this matter to others."

"I ask you to work hard, Second Brother, and ensure this matter is accomplished!"

Yuan Wei solemnly entrusted this matter to Yuan Feng.

For Yuan Feng, naturally, he accepted it gladly.

For people of aristocratic families in this era, the thing they cared about most was whether the family could develop and grow.

Although the Yuan family had already become the head of the contemporary aristocratic families.

But if it were only to this extent, it was still not quite enough.

Most importantly, after becoming the head of the aristocratic families, could they continue to maintain their dominant position, allowing the family to obtain more resources?

Yuan Wei was in such a situation now.

Yuan Wei was the head of the family, but Yuan Wei was also an indispensable and important component.

Inside the Imperial Palace.

Gu Yi, He Jin, Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, and others gathered here.

Regarding Liu Hong, Gu Yi held a disdainful attitude.

You must know, in the main text of this book, Gu Yi had already become the person behind the Emperor.