At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

They would not be able to be high-ranking officials at all without the road to official career from Taixue provided by someone from Guo. They must rely on the emperor's side to guarantee their own interests.

This point has been confirmed in a series of turmoil before Guo Peng ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor.

Those poor children with crooked buttocks and abnormal heads were abandoned because they mistakenly stood on the side of scholars and became spiritual scholars, and were then packed and thrown into the garbage dump by someone Guo.

And the scholars will not turn against the emperor and fight for this group of people.

not worth it.

After those incidents, a large number of powerful children from poor families sat upright.

Knowing that the scholars will never accept them, they just talk loudly. If they want to further replace the scholars, the only object they can rely on is the emperor.

The best example is the Cheng Yu family who advanced from a poor family to a noble family.

Because of Guo Peng's promotion, the family inheritance of "Little Du Lv" was awarded to the Cheng family, which made the Cheng family leap from a humble family to a second-rate legal gentry. This is quite desirable in the eyes of many poor families. matter.

As long as they rely on the emperor closely, the emperor will raise their ranks sooner or later, so that their families can also leap forward and become enviable gentry.

And this kind of thing, although it only happened once at present, but there will be a second time for the first time, which is something everyone agrees on.

In a sense, the inheritance of "Little Dulu" mastered by the Guo family is also an important reason why countless poor children are willing to surround Guo.

They look forward to becoming the second Cheng family and becoming scholars.

Cheng Yu is the bonsai that someone Guo attracts foreign investment.

Therefore, although Cheng Yu was hit politically, his family has become a noble family.

As long as they are nobles and have not been imprisoned by the emperor, they have the qualifications to serve as officials continuously, even if they are only local officials, which is fatal to the children of poor families.

Guo is very good at drawing cakes to satisfy his hunger.

While launching a political struggle against scholars, Guo used the authority of the emperor to punish them and imprison them, using this as an excuse to punish their local power.

On the other hand, the bureaucrats from poor families are continuously promoted to serve as the main officials at the county level, which makes the county-level regimes completely transformed into poor families.

Make them break free from the shackles of scholars, and constantly eradicate the foundation of scholar dictatorship at the local level.

This kind of action has been carried out all the time, and the results are still good.

At least in the four years of Yande, three-sevenths of the counties in the country have realized the local government's poor family status, that is, no official in a county is from a noble family.

In the remaining four-sevenths, there are also most of the county-level regimes where only the county magistrate or the county head is an official of scholar origin, and all other auxiliary officials are from poor families or Lishu children.

Very simple way.

After letting Li Shu's children work in the county government, Guo, under the banner of high and low status, and under the banner of preferential treatment and compromise with scholars, stipulated that the starting point for scholar officials is the county magistrate or county magistrate.

Scholars officials start with a county magistrate, and then go up to county-level officials, state-level officials, and even central officials.

This made the scholars and officials very satisfied, and they all felt the superiority of their own status, and completely distanced themselves from the [lower people] such as children from poor families.

Prior to this, scholars and officials had a record of serving as the local pavilion chief Lizheng.

After this rule was implemented, the power of scholars gradually concentrated in high-level government organizations. Their eyes were only on higher official positions and power, and they didn't care about other things.

Grassroots government organizations are largely ignored by them.

Therefore, in addition to the complete impoverishment of the second-level rural government, it is reasonable for the county-level government to have a three-seventh probability of being impoverished.

Then this group of [low bureaucrats] with very difficult positions naturally have natural envy and hatred for those [noble bureaucrats] whose positions are very simple.

What Guo has to do is to elevate the jealousy and hatred in this emotion and make them opposite.

In this way, the Li Shu and the poor families are consolidated, the proportion of the poor families and Li Shu in the county-level government is continuously increased, and the local government below the county is in their own hands.

It is more difficult for county-level and state-level bureaucrats and even central officials.

At this level, the number of scholars and bureaucrats occupies an absolutely significant proportion.

Seventy percent of the county guards are scholars.

Except for Qingzhou, Youzhou, and Bingzhou, where Mi Zhu, Xian Yufu, and Xiahou Dun served as governors of the prefectures, and Guo Rui served as the governor of Yanzhou, who was one of his own people, the other governors of the prefectures were all scholars.

Seventy percent of the central bureaucrats are scholars.

Therefore, although the basic policy has been determined, and someone from Guo also strongly supports it, the group of gentry is still very large, and the group of poor families and the group of Li Shu do not yet have the strength to replace them.

The gentry group controlled [-]% of the senior officials and power of the Wei Empire.

In order to maintain the normal operation and strategic actions of the Guo Wei Empire, Guo still had to use these gentry bureaucrats.

In any case, these gentry officials who have received elite education and experienced long-term experience are excellent in every sense.

But using it doesn't mean using it unprepared. You must have precautions, and you must have second-hand preparations.

We can't let them be harmonious, we can't let them develop and grow, we must start to weaken their strength, make them internally disharmonious, and let them internal friction.

Therefore, someone Guo needs to artificially arrange a ranking for the gentry group.

Let them fight in the nest, keep fighting, and they cannot be monolithic.

Some people rank officials according to whether they are former officials of the Guo family, but Guo does not see it that way. He still uses the differences in regional origins to instigate fights among scholars.

With differences, there is the driving force behind jealousy and resentment.

The highest-ranking scholars in the Guo-Wei Empire system were those from Jizhou, Qingzhou, and Yanzhou.

In addition, officials from Bingzhou, Youzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou came next, followed by Yongzhou in Kansai, followed by Yangzhou, Jingzhou, and Yizhou.

The latter Liangzhou, Pingzhou and Jiaozhou are not included in this level because of their special circumstances.

Basically, according to the order in which Guo pacified the world, the scholars were classified according to the region of origin, and the grades were distinguished at once.

The first-level Qingyanji Sanzhou scholars have the best political status, political resources and political channels.

It is very simple for their children to rise up step by step, they can easily enter the center, turn upside down in the highest power hub, and swim in the ocean of power.

The next few levels will all stand aside.

The identity of Guo's former official is for you to know the truth, not for you to climb beyond the limit of identity.

In the first level, there are also the differences between whether the Guo family was an old official or not, whether they were close or not, and whether they were born in Qingyan Erzhou and Jizhou.

Because Qingyan and Yanzhou are the foundation of Guo Peng's career, Jizhou was only conquered later.

Although Jizhou was accepted by Guo to the greatest extent because of its outstanding people, in the eyes of scholars in Qingyan and Erzhou, Jizhou scholars still had to stand aside.

The previous two major political storms could vaguely see the struggle within the first echelon political group of the Guowei Empire.

Chapter 1020 One thousand and thirty Their emperor is watching them

The previous political struggle developed to a late stage, and Cheng Yu and Tian Feng inevitably used their backgrounds in Yanzhou and Jizhou to fight for an alliance against each other.

So before Guo Peng attacked them, the conflict between Yanzhou scholars and Jizhou scholars was already very sharp, and directly led to bloody fights.

The infighting of the first-echelon political group that Guo personally facilitated unfolded very smoothly.

And it was very intense.

Then someone Guo beat both sides to the ground with a Tathagata palm.

Not only is it attacking the first echelon, but it is also attacking the forces of heroes and seizing part of the power held by heroes.

Then it was a matter of course to introduce the forces of weak groups into the imperial hub to take power.

Mr. Guo's first-stage plan has been successful, and the internal struggle of the hero group has caused them heavy losses.

The next second stage is that the weak group of scholars will fight against the strong group of scholars.

It is a game between underachievers and top students, and it is also a game within the scholar group.

Let them give full play to the spirit of dog-eat-dog, trigger a new round of political struggle, and let them continue to weaken the political power of the hero group and scholars.

All in all, let them fight, let them quarrel, let them kill each other, and fight for the highest power.

Whether people from Yanzhou, Jizhou, or other states, anyway, let's fight.

Guo will watch them silently.

After someone Guo transforms most of the counties in the country from humble families, everything will be a foregone conclusion.

Who said that power must be obtained from the central government?

Who said that you must have the support of the gentry to become an emperor?

Guo's power base comes from the lowest villages.

His basic background is not a scholar or a tyrant, his basic background is also a country.

Whether it is a scholar or a powerful man, in his eyes they are all tool people.

He is not far away from becoming a real emperor like Qin Shihuang and Han Wudi.

That's how he feels.

The punctuation revolution is not far away, and the real decisive battle is not far away.

After the decisive battle, it's hard to say whether the Wei Empire will just sink, or will glow with a new vitality.

But no matter what kind of result, Mr. Guo will not really sit back and relax.

At the beginning of May in the fourth year of Yande, a certain Guo received news from Liangzhou that the joint caravan he sent out last year had entered Yumen Pass and returned to Wei State.

Ma Yuan also gave Guo Peng a form, saying that he fulfilled his mission and not only completed the trade with the countries of the Western Regions, but also completed the exchange with the Guishuang Empire.

He also brought back a group of Guishuang merchants, including semi-official merchants, who are representatives in a certain sense.

Ma Yuan said that he was also entertained by Emperor Guishuang and met Emperor Guishuang. Emperor Guishuang welcomed Chinese caravans to do business very much and hoped to expand the scale of exchanges between the two parties.

Mr. Guo was overjoyed when he learned that the Silk Road had been initially opened.

According to the memorandum sent by Cao Xiu, the five garrison points in the Western Regions have basically completed the army's garrison and initial foothold, and they can already start to play the role of the garrison points.

The Silk Road in the northern part of the mountain can basically guarantee safety, as for the countries in the southern part of the mountain...

Cao Xiu didn't think that the Shannan states had the guts to intercept and kill the Wei Empire's caravan halfway.

They are all small countries with less than [-] soldiers and a population of less than [-], and there are even many small city-states with thousands of people. How dare they go against the Wei Empire?

A cavalry of hundreds of men, with their own dried meat and water, can wipe out a small country in one go by rushing there day and night.

Deterring the countries in the north of the mountain can also deter the countries in the south of the mountain. Guo Peng's idea of ​​setting up garrisons in the countries in the south of the mountain may not be necessary.

This is the answer given by Cao Xiu.

In this regard, Guo was noncommittal.

Although the countries in the Western Regions have surrendered, they have never received the beatings of the Wei Empire.

The memory of the Han Empire beating them severely no longer exists in the minds of this generation. They may still have the memory of the last time the Han Empire withdrew from the Western Regions in their minds.

In short, the reason why he didn't just give Cao Xiu 36 people and let Cao Xiu go to the Western Regions was because of this idea.

It's hard to say that Cao Xiu can stand shoulder to shoulder with Ban Chao.

Those talents who are invincible in the Western Regions have the demeanor of a great strategist, and Cao Xiu is still too young.

It is possible to send Guo Jia there.

Given Guo Jia's black-bellied nature, if he was given [-] soldiers, he would definitely be able to kill all the countries in the Western Regions, but Guo Jia has a more important mission right now.

As the leader of the Guo family's royal ministers and the head of the Guo family's five tigers, Guo Jia's importance to Guo Peng is self-evident.

The so-called Five Tigers of the Guo Clan are the names given by outsiders to the five most powerful members of the Guo Clan's royal family in the Wei Empire.

Firstly, Guo Jia, the staff officer and general manager of the Shouyangshan Lecture Hall.

Second, Guo Rui, the governor of Yanzhou.

Third, Guo Yi, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment of Shangshutai.

Fourth, Guo Dong, the general of Zhen Guo and the rear general of the Wei Army.

Fifth, Guo Lie, the general of Zhenguo and the deputy governor of Jiangling Daying.

These five people are the five with the highest official positions in the Guo clan, and they are also the best among the Guo clan officials who are engaged in legal judges. Among them, the highest and most important official position is naturally Guo Jia.

Guo Jia is also one of the people most trusted by Guo Peng. Earlier, when Guo Peng was still fighting on the battlefield, Guo Jia often accompanied him.

Later, after Guo Peng retired to the second line and no longer went to the battlefield personally, Guo Jia often went to the battlefield as a warlord and existed as a special envoy of someone Guo.