Chapter 11 The Fabulous Turn of a Timber Merchant

A few years later, when the sky of the Li Tang Empire suddenly rose to the sun and the moon of the Wu Zhou Dynasty, when the country that had been ruled by men for thousands of years was suddenly dominated by rouge and pink, Empress Wu Zhao's family background naturally became a subject of the Great Zhou Dynasty A hot topic of conversation on the street.Many people know that Empress Wu Zhao was born in Wenshui, Bingzhou, and her father, warrior Xun, was a founding hero of the Tang Dynasty. He was an official to the Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, the governor of Jingzhou, and the Duke of Ying. It seems that few people mentioned that the empress's father, the samurai Xun, was actually a lowly timber merchant in his early years.

In ancient China, the order of social status has always been: scholar, farmer, worker, and merchant.A businessman is a fourth-class citizen and the bottom of society.Even if you are rich and wealthy, you are nothing in front of those in power, and even peasant brothers may be straighter than you.For behind them there is an ascending stair that is always open.The so-called "Tianshelang in the morning and Tianzitang in the evening" means that as long as people from peasant backgrounds are willing to work hard and study hard, they may turn out to be glorious ancestors, but businessmen do not have such an opportunity, because the gate of the imperial examination room is always closed. Closed to business practitioners who are "full of money".Therefore, in such an official-based society that discriminates against business, the wealthy may not be able to be bold.

The samurai Xun in his youth felt that he could not get angry at all.Although taking advantage of the opportunity of Emperor Sui Yang's large-scale construction projects and the construction of Tokyo, he made a fortune, and his pockets were heavy, but in front of those officials and lords who held great power and ordered them around, the timber merchant and samurai from Bingzhou could only humbly and nod their heads. . This knot may be one of the reasons why the samurai Xun later abandoned business and entered politics. People who do business are good at socializing, and the samurai Xun is no exception.The reason why he was able to get rich quickly was that he became one of the "Four Nobles" of the imperial court at that time - Guan Wang Yang Xiong, and Yang Xiong's younger brother was the deputy envoy in charge of Tokyo Construction Project - Nayan (Prime Minister) Yang Da. (This Yang Da was later Empress Wu Zhao's grandfather. Of course, the warrior Xun at that time didn't know that he would marry Yang Da's daughter as his successor more than ten years later.)

Although the samurai Xun made a fortune in the Luoyang construction project through the relationship of the Yang brothers, he failed to curry favor with an important person in time (maybe the method was not strong enough, so he did not curry favor with him), and this person was the principal of the Tokyo construction project Envoy—Shang Shuling (First Prime Minister) Yang Su.The specific reasons why the warrior Xun offended Yang Su are not recorded in history books, but one thing is certain, Yang Su was very unhappy with this timber dealer surnamed Wu.Therefore, when the samurai Xun ran between the Bingzhou forest farm and the officialdom in Tokyo without emotion, and his wealth was rising steadily with the rising Luoyang Palace, Yang Su had already secretly charged the samurai Xunluo with some crimes. Intent on putting him to death.

At the critical moment, the power protection umbrella created by the samurai Xun played a key role. Yang Xiong, a powerful man in the dynasty, and others actively came forward to protect him, and finally helped him escape the murderous disaster. Many years later, the empress Wu Zhao, who has always been happy with her father, uttered this anger on behalf of her father.She issued an imperial edict ordering that the descendants of Yang Su's family could not serve as Beijing officials for generations.The superficial reason is that Yang Su was disloyal as a minister and was responsible for the demise of the Sui Dynasty, etc., but anyone with a discerning eye can see that the queen's actions are clearly revenge and revenge.

The samurai Xun, who had suffered a crushing defeat in front of the power, fled back to his hometown in Bingzhou in one breath.Just as he was in shock, the samurai Xun couldn't help but feel at a loss for the future—although his life was saved, but the way of making money he had managed for many years was completely cut off—what should he do next? Samurai Xun knew he had to make a career change, but he didn't know where to turn. In the eighth year of Sui Daye (612 A.D.), swarms of hordes rose up and the world was in chaos. The warrior Xun who lived in seclusion in his hometown suddenly realized that this was an opportunity to reshuffle the cards, and it was also an excellent opportunity to reborn himself.After thinking for a while, he immediately made the most important decision in his life—abandoning business and joining the army.

He hopes to make military exploits and become famous in the troubled times, and finally join the political circle, and completely get rid of the lowly role of a businessman! The samurai Xun spent money to buy a low-level military position as "Captain of the Yingyang Mansion", and he embarked on the path of officialdom since then. What happened later is familiar to everyone—the samurai Xun boarded the big boat that braved the wind and waves, Li Yuan, who stayed behind in Taiyuan. He climbed straight up, and finally became the top power of the Tang Empire, and successfully completed the most important turning point in his life.

However, when the samurai Xun made his debut, he was just a small "team leader", and his subordinates were in charge of only No. 50 people, while Li Yuan, who was left behind in Taiyuan, was a feudal official sitting in one side, and he was the cousin of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty. Brother, the status and status of the two sides are so different, how did the warrior Xun climb this high branch? In a sense, the history of the samurai Xun's prosperity is somewhat similar to that of Lu Buwei, a rich man in Handan more than 800 years ago, and Hu Xueyan, a red-capped businessman more than a thousand years later.

They have some things in common—the success in business not only allowed them to accumulate huge wealth, but also cultivated their ability to deal with the world well and to be shrewd and pragmatic.In addition, the most important point is that the experience gained in the business field has given them a pair of insight into the world, and also given them a highly forward-looking sense of venture capital, so that they can be among thousands of people at a glance. Lock in that "rare commodity" that can bring them infinite returns, and urge them to sell without hesitation and invest at any cost!

For Lu Buwei, Ying Yiren, the prince of Qin, is a rare commodity that is rare; and for the warrior Xun, Li Yuan who stayed behind in Taiyuan is also a rare commodity. As early as the twelfth year of Daye (AD 616), Li Yuan served as the pacification ambassador of Taiyuan Dao and was ordered to conquer the local rebels. He passed by the home of the warrior Xun on the way to the army and was warmly received by this low-level officer.At that time, as soon as the warrior Xun saw Li Yuan, he believed that he was "simple and simple, smart and powerful, and he can do this" ("Quan Tang Shu" Volume 249 "Panlongtai Stele"), and immediately decided to bet on Li Yuan. In order to obtain huge political returns in the future.At that time, Li Yuan had already planned to raise troops for righteousness, and he had been secretly accumulating power and recruiting heroes from all directions. Of course, he was also willing to make friends with such shrewd and capable people with rich family backgrounds like the samurai Xun.

When they met for the first time, both parties had a very good first impression of each other. It can be said that they hit it off immediately and hated seeing each other too late.So in the second year, after Li Yuan officially took command of Taiyuan, he immediately promoted the samurai with rich business talents to be the marching commander, that is, the minister of ordnance in charge of logistics and equipment.The samurai Xun realized that he had finally found a tree that was big enough to provide shade, so he spared no effort to please and cling to him.Li Yuan is also very face-saving, and often visits Wu Zhai as a guest, "drinking and drinking with the samurai for a long time, and the kindness is overweight". In the thirteenth year of Daye (AD 617), the Sui Dynasty fell apart, and everyone knew that the day of changing the dynasty was not far away.At that time, several elder brothers of the warrior Xun were unanimously optimistic about Li Mi, the leader of the rebel army in Wagangzhai, and believed that he was the most powerful person among the heroes of the Quartet to win the world, so they persuaded the warrior Xun to defect to Li Mi.But the warrior Xun smiled coldly and said: "Although Li Mi is talented, he has not traveled far. If he wants to achieve success, he may fail in the end." In his mind, in the whole world, only Taiyuan left-behind and Tang Guogong Li Yuan, who has great talents but is not attractive, is the true son of heaven in the future! But the problem is that the heroes of the Quartet have been working in a hurry for several years, and the big cake of the Sui Dynasty is about to be eaten up and divided up by them, but this Tang Guogong Li Yuan, who has passed the year of knowing his destiny, is still silent Hibernate, what is he waiting for? The warrior Xun couldn't sit still. He decided to take action and pushed Tang Gong behind his back. He tentatively gave Li Yuan a few military books at first, but Li Yuan pretended to be deaf and dumb, unmoved.The samurai Xun changed his method again, describing his strange dream vividly to Li Yuan for several days. He said that one night, he dreamed that a mysterious and majestic voice came from the sky saying: "Mr. Tang should be the emperor!" Another night , I dreamed that Mr. Tang rode in front on a horse, and he followed behind. Suddenly he saw Mr. Tang flying into the sky with a "babble", and he stretched out two hands, holding the sun with one hand, and embracing the sun with the other. The moon... ("Panlongtai Monument": "From the great ancestor to the sky on a horse, all of them touch the sun and the moon with their hands.") This is obviously an authentic emperor's posture! If it is said that Li Yuan was still pretending to be stupid when the warrior Xun sent the military letter before, then when the warrior Xun told him these meaningful "dreams", Li Yuan had to express his opinion.He immediately told Samurai Xun with all his heart that he "knows the meaning of elegance" but this is a big matter, so he asked Samurai Xun to "fortunately not to talk too much". pass")! When he heard Li Yuan's promise, the warrior Xun couldn't help but burst into ecstasy. At that moment, he seemed to have seen his own future—a future that would be proud and glorious. In hindsight, the samurai Xun should be regarded as one of the first people who persuaded Li Yuan to raise troops.From this point alone, the warrior Xun is worthy of the title of "Taiyuan Yuancong".Of course, to become a founding hero of a dynasty from an aide who plotted righteousness, it is not just a matter of dreaming a few weird dreams and sucking up a few nasty asses, you must also do a few down-to-earth things serious business. At that time, there were two deputy left behind in Taiyuan: Wang Wei and Gao Junya. They were the two nails that Sui Yang Emperor Yang Guang placed beside Li Yuan.Without them, the matter of righteousness cannot be smooth sailing.When Wang Wei and Gao Junya noticed that Li Yuan had changed, they planned to take Li Yuan's cronies Liu Hongji and Changsun Shunde under the knife. The reason was that these two escaped military service and should be arrested and questioned.The purpose of Wang and Gao was to beat and warn Li Yuan and weaken his strength at the same time.At the critical moment, the samurai Xun stepped forward. He said that these two people are trusted by Tang Gong. If they are arrested, Tang Gong may turn his back on him. If internal strife is caused, it will not benefit everyone.Wang and Gao made sense after thinking about it, so they had to give up. Later, Li Yuan began to recruit troops on a large scale on the grounds of guarding against Liu Wuzhou and the Turks, ready to revolt at any time.Tian Deping, one of Wang Wei's generals, was deeply suspicious of this, and wanted to suggest that Wang Wei secretly investigate Li Yuan's true intention of recruiting troops.The samurai Xun immediately came forward to stop him. He said: "Military power is in the hands of Duke Tang. Wang and Gao are just names. Even if they really find out something, what can they do with Duke Tang?" Tian Deping had no choice but to give up. Investigate Li Yuan's thoughts. Both of these incidents happened on the eve of the Taiyuan uprising.The situation at that time can be described as complicated and critical. The samurai Xun was able to settle the problem in time and objectively ensure the smooth progress of the recruitment and righteousness. Naturally, his contribution is not small. After Li Yuan officially raised his army, the warrior Xun was appointed as Kaicao to join the army, and he went west to Guanzhong with the army.After the Tang army captured Chang'an, the samurai Xun added another 1,000 households in Shiyi and gave him a house by "serving the city of Pingjing, worshiping Doctor Guanglu, and enfeoffing the Duke of Taiyuan County" ("Old Tang Book·Samurai Xun Biography"). . In May of the fourteenth year of Daye (AD 618), Li Yuan abolished Emperor Gong of the Sui Dynasty, established Wude in Yuan Dynasty, and created the Tang Dynasty.The samurai Xun was appointed as Kubulang and awarded the title of "Taiyuan Yuanmou Honorable and Contributing Minister".In the third year of Wude (AD 620), the samurai Xun was promoted to the Minister of the Ministry of Industry and entered the top power of the Tang Empire in one fell swoop. So far, Samurai Yi's venture capital has finally reaped rich returns. Back then, the low-status timber merchant who escaped from the clutches of power has finally turned around and become one of the few nobles in the new dynasty! At that moment, the satisfaction and joy in the warrior's heart must be beyond words. Many years later, Empress Wu Zhao may fully understand her father's state of mind and feelings when he successfully turned around. Because in a sense, she and her father have very similar life experiences and life experiences—whether it is the unforgettable confusion and anxiety in loneliness and hardship, or the infinite yearning for power and status and extreme love for power and status when a humble person was young. Desires were once rooted in the souls of the father and daughter in exactly the same way. At the same time, there is no doubt that many of the traits in the Queen are inherited from her father.Such as self-confidence, perseverance, scheming, strategy, such as shrewd insight and decisive execution, as well as the determination to look for the goal, the courage and adventurous spirit beyond ordinary people, etc., are all thanks to her father. Of course, on the road of Empress Wu Zhao's personality growth, there is another person whose influence is also huge and far-reaching. That is her mother Yang Shi.