Chapter 267 Wuji
Changsun Wuji's elder brother, Changsun Anye, had also been sentenced to exile in southern Xinjiang for forcing the emperor to abdicate. As a result, Changsun Sheng's three sons born to his original wife died early, and the third son was exiled.

Naturally, the family business could only fall into the hands of Changsun Wuji. After all, the mother of Changsun Wuji and Princess Qin was the second wife that Changsun Sheng married after his first wife died. She was a wife, not a concubine, and she had no older brothers, so it was only natural for her to inherit the family business.

The original Changsun family had actually begun to decline since the death of Changsun Sheng. Changsun Anye was a complete idiot. After his father's death, he drove his younger brothers and sisters out of the house, and later dared to participate in forcing the emperor to abdicate.

Now that Changsun Wuji has become the family's representative in the court, the family's status in Guanlong has indeed improved a lot.

Because he was the brother-in-law of the King of Qin, in the court, the Duke of Wei and the King of Qin were praised as the white jade pillars supporting the sky and the purple gold beams spanning the sea of ​​the court.

Duke Weiguo Li Jing had always been estranged from his in-laws and old friends. After returning to the court from the battlefield, even his subordinates who had just shared life and death with him could not easily knock on the door of the Duke Weiguo's mansion, let alone come and visit him frequently.

After returning to the capital this time, the King of Qin became much more cautious and low-key, but even for the sake of his wife, he would definitely come forward to support Zhangsun Wuji.

Therefore, Zhangsun Wuji took the initiative to seek benefits for Guanlong. If he did not have this foundation, even if he succeeded, he would only be making wedding clothes for others.

"Your Majesty, I second the words of the Dali Temple."

"Your Majesty, I also think that what you said makes sense. Those officials were laid off in the court some time ago in order to streamline the government. It's not that they have done anything wrong.

Some time ago, Your Majesty promoted more than 200 officials through the imperial examination. Now there are more than 1,000 left. Even if one in ten is selected, it will bring more than 100 carefully selected officials to the court.

These officials have been blessed by your majesty and will certainly perform their duties faithfully in Liaodong."

All the ministers expressed their support one after another. Although a large proportion of the officials who were laid off were from Guanlong, there were also officials from Shandong, Jiangnan and other places.

Opposing now will not only offend political opponents, but will also easily offend one's own people.

However, some people still expressed their opposition, but their tone was not firm. They were the emperor's confidants promoted by him, and they opposed only to give the emperor and his ministers a way out.

We can't have an embarrassing situation where all the civil and military officials in the court support it, but the emperor is the only one who firmly opposes it.

If that were the case, either the emperor would be replaced soon, or the court would surely face a purge.

Li Jiancheng said: "The dismissal of redundant officials is the responsibility of Minister Fang and Minister Du. Although the dismissed officials have not committed any serious crimes, they all have reasons for being dismissed.

Maybe he got his position through illegal means, or he has made no achievements during his tenure, or he has a moral deficiency, or he has done something private that is not public...

I opened the imperial examination to give a chance to those who are truly talented. Now it is not appropriate to show favor to them exclusively.

At the beginning of next year, the court will hold an imperial examination in Luoyang to select scholars, and a military examination in Chang'an to select generals. People from the Tang Dynasty and even from foreign vassal states can all participate. I will treat them all equally, appoint them to official positions, and entrust them with important responsibilities."

Zhang Sun Wuji felt a little regretful, but he immediately expressed his opinion: "Your Majesty is wise."

The expressions of the others, especially the officials from aristocratic families, changed a little. Although they still had confidence in their own children, they also knew that if this continued, their status would inevitably suffer a huge blow.

If one studies hard, one can enter the government as an official through the imperial examination. If one is lucky, two or three generations will be enough to establish a family tradition and accumulate land for future generations to study.

Even if one or two generations fail to pass the imperial examinations, their children and grandchildren can continue the family tradition of farming and studying, waiting for another talented child to appear in the family.

Unlike before, no matter how well one studied, one still had to serve a noble family to have a chance to become an official. But what could they do, rebel?

The Emperor, Prince of Qin, Duke of Weiguo, was in the court, Prince of Hejian, Duke of Ying, was away, and there were countless capable and battle-hardened generals and hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the various local Zhechoufu.

Resign and return to the countryside?

If everyone can work together and advance and retreat together, they can indeed threaten the emperor. After all, no matter how many military generals there are and how brave they are, it is impossible to use these reckless men to govern the place.

The destructive power they can cause is much greater than that of corrupt officials.

But the problem is that they can never work together. Those who hold prominent positions and power in the court will always be those same people, and who wouldn't want to serve their own people?

If one party withdraws, the other forces will definitely not follow suit. Instead, they will choose to immediately flatter His Majesty, quickly swallow up the vacant official positions, and squeeze out all their interests outside the court.

After the court was dismissed, many officials greeted Zhangsun Wuji, expressing their gratitude in words and deeds, and trying to please him. However, if something really happened, this bit of kindness would not even be worth mentioning.

After exchanging some pleasantries with them, Changsun Wuji walked to the side of his uncle Gao Shilian.

"uncle."

Gao Shilian walked away and whispered, "Wuji, you are still a little rash. How could His Majesty issue an order to select officials from the dismissed officials? Wouldn't that mean that the dismissal of redundant officials is wrong?"

Chang Sun Wuji said: "Someone would definitely bring it up for a try, but it's just a matter of convenience."

"Aren't you afraid of causing His Majesty's dislike?"

"The nobles in the court privately think that Your Majesty is narrow-minded, but I know that Your Majesty is magnanimous and tolerant. Even if I am slightly displeased, as long as I can do something practical, Your Majesty will still promote me to an important position."

Gao Shilian sighed and said nothing. His nephew had been extremely intelligent since childhood, well-versed in literature and history and quite resourceful. The only bad thing about him was that he was extremely power-hungry.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be an official. Ninety-nine percent of people who enter the officialdom have thought about it, but it is just a thought. At most, they will try their best if there is a chance. But Changsun Wuji is not like that. If there is a chance, he is willing to gamble everything. If there is no chance, he will risk his life to create one.

At his age, he was already the Chief Justice of Dali Temple, which was already a very high position, but he was still so reckless as to try to get a chance to show his face in front of the emperor and among the court officials.

As for the reason for his character, as the saying goes, no one knows a son better than his father. Although he is not Wuji's biological father but only his uncle, it is clear that he was the one who raised him.

Back then, Changsun Anye drove Wuji and his sister out of the house, forcing them to rely on their uncle even though they were of noble birth.

Although he was born into the Gao family of Bohai and his family had a large collection of books, he was not considered rich. He only had a small piece of land and a house in Chang'an.

And he did not hold a high official position in the previous dynasty. He was only a ninth-rank official in charge of ceremonies, and it was already difficult for him to support his large family.

Later, because the Minister of War Hu Si Zheng secretly helped Yang Xuangan to flee to Goguryeo, he was implicated and exiled to Lingnan. He didn't know whether he could come back alive, so he could only sell his land and houses and exchange them for a small house to accommodate his mother, wife, children and nephew.

…………

(End of this chapter)