Chapter 58: The Trend of Events (2/2)

Of course, this was not to say that the well-known families would rise up in revolt, raise armies to sack the capital and make themselves Emperors; such a foolish thing would be only be the work of bastards!

This world had well-known families with a lineage stretching back millennia, but it was difficult to find imperial dynasties with such long and illustrious lineage!

True well-known families, would disdain to sit upon such a throne.

Because although the power of that throne was great, it was also extremely dangerous!

There had never been a dynastic change, in which the former dynasties' Royalty had not been eradicated root and branch, and their bloodline brought violently to an end. But nobody had ever heard of a well-known family which had disappeared as the result of a dynastic change. Even if they had backed the wrong side, at most they would just have to keep their heads down for a few decades, and would eventually recover their strength and continue to pass on the family bloodline.

well-known families were well-known families, and a true well-known family would never conspire for this kind of position, and certainly would never openly oppose the imperial court for the sake of profit; they would only struggle to maximize the family's benefit within the boundaries of the tacit acceptance of the court. The boundaries of this imperial court's acceptance were elastic, sometimes big and sometimes small.

And so a vicious circle had emerged. When Royalty was weak, the well-known families' influence would expand massively, and they would be able to dominate court administration, even usurping the Emperor's power as they tried to gain as much advantage as they possibly could; and when Royalty became strong again and was able to monopolize power, the well-known families would become silent and obedient, even sacrificing a lot of wealth in order to reach a compromise with the imperial court, so as to give the court no cause to tackle them.

Over countless years, there had been many mighty and heroic Emperors possessed of lofty aspirations and high ideals who had tried to repress the well-known families by hook or by crook, to weaken them or even wipe them out. But as soon as they tried to do this, the families would shrink back like tortoises shrinking their heads back into their thick shells, making them impossible to get at.

There had once been a powerful Emperor who had tried to enact brutal and bloody measures to senselessly put down and massacre these families; but in the end, this Emperor was killed in his own palace, poisoned by his most cherished concubine while eating soup. 20 years later, his court was wiped out, destroyed not by the well-known families but simply by a mob of commoners.

Nobody knew how strong these families would be if they united, but everyone understood that if all these families decided collectively to be rid of a dynasty, then no matter how heroic and mighty leaders that dynasty commanded, the end of its rule was inevitable.

The well-known families could tolerate their power being weakened, and could tolerate being suppressed; in their eyes, their power growing and shrinking was just heaven's law. If Royalty was strong, they would retreat; if Royalty was weak, they would advance. There had never been a dynasty who could guarantee that every Emperor would be mighty, and there had never been a well-known family who could guarantee that every generation had people of talent.

The general direction of the world was determined by the relationship between Royalty and the well-known families, endlessly pushing forward, as timeless yet unchanging as the stars in the night sky.

At present, the Kingdom of Jin was at a time in this cycle when Royalty was strong and the influence of well-known families had scaled back. However, although their influence was on a low ebb, this did not mean that they had abandoned their interests, and although the Royal family was strong, this did not mean that they were not working hard to claw back what they had lost.

Profit, only with strength could it be won!

The Jin Dynasty presently had the strength to vie for some of the profits which had belonged to those families, but how much could they get hold of was a question yet to be answered.

Ma Tianchang was a man of the court, who had come to Yunzhou to serve as Governor; naturally, it was expected that he would serve the imperial court in trying to extract a share of the profits of the big local families. As for the Wu family, as one of Yunzhou's well-known families and a vassal of the Tian Long Taoisms, it was naturally expected to be a target for suppression. So nobody had expected that upon arriving in Yunzhou, Ma Tianchang would do all he could to aid the Wu family. With his strong support, the influence of the Wu clan had skyrocketed over the last 10 years, and their strength had increased several times over, completely contrary to people's expectations. Because of this, most people believed that Ma Tianchang had already been bought by the well-known families, and this was why he was standing by their side. But what Ma Tianchang did next, astonished everybody; in the process of him joining hands with the Wu Clan, their strength had increased, but at the same time the advantages accrued from Yunzhou by the imperial court exceeded those garnered by the Wu clan. It was not just that the finances of Yunzhou were in good stead, but it had also became a key source of imperial finance, due to the fairs and trade routes which created by Yunzhou and the Northern Yuan. Every year they could contribute to 10,000 high-quality war horses to Jin, and in the last 10 years, the strength of Jin's cavalry had increased tenfold. Ma Tianchang had, through his actions, strengthened enormously Jin's military strength; he had served as Yunzhou's Governor for 10 years, and based on the news of this marriage, he intended to continue serving here.

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