20demayo Chapter 33 The Fall of the Liang Kingdom
Chapter 33 The Fall of the Liang Kingdom
Zhang Zhao naturally couldn't say that Zhang Zhong's information panel was actually better than all the sons of the current King of Liang.
"He's suitable."
Three words, neither too strong nor too weak, as if a casual reply.
Zhang Quzhuo and Zhang Chengsi exchanged a glance, clearly dissatisfied with the answer.
Zhang Quzhuo put down his chess piece, about to ask further, but saw Zhang Zhao raise his hand and tap the chessboard, signaling him to concentrate on the game. Seeing this, Zhang Quzhuo had no choice but to give up.
Name: Zhang Zhong
Age: 18
Position: Sergeant
School of thought: Legalism
Intelligence: 85
Mindset: Straightforward
Policies: Herdsmen, Craftsmen, and Laws
Abilities: Saving the world, making decisions, serving the world
The current control panel is becoming more and more advanced. It can not only display information about each member of the Zhang family, but also their character, policies, and the role they play.
For example, in the Zhangzhong panel information, policies and capabilities each play different roles.
Herdsman: Policy implementation efficiency +5%
Hundred Crafts: Policy implementation efficiency +5%, completion time reduced by 5%.
Legal decree: Policy implementation efficiency +10%, implementation cost +5%, and national unrest +3 per year.
The functions of the three abilities are as follows:
Jishi: Implementation costs of the policy increase by 10%, while the disease rate in the affected family decreases by 14%.
Decision: Success rate of policy implementation +10%, personal prestige -1%.
Worldwide: Military capability +20%, Post-war survival rate -20%, Vassal independence -20%
Zhang Zhong is straightforward, and perhaps he will suffer a lot because of this personality in his life, but the boy is obedient. Zhang Zhao can tell him what to do by appearing in his dreams!
Since the panel was upgraded, the number of times he received a dream has increased significantly, which is why Zhang Zhao dared to choose this descendant who was the only one with the "sergeant" position and a slightly flawed personality!
The course of history is ever-changing. If Zhang Zhao does not find a way out for the Zhang family, then he will be ashamed before the Zhang family's ancestors!
Looking at the world, since the sixteenth year of King Zhending (453 BC), the three ministers of Jin, Zhao, Han and Wei, united to eliminate the Zhi clan and divided the territory of the Jin royal family into three parts. The political power and most of the land of Jin were controlled by these three families. The ruler of Jin only retained two small pieces of land, Jiang and Quwo.
In the 22nd year of King Weilie's reign (403 BC), King Weilie formally enfeoffed the three families of Han, Zhao, and Wei as feudal lords. The state of Jin existed in name only.
In the 26th year of King An's reign (376 BC), Han, Zhao, and Wei destroyed the Marquis of Jin and divided his territory into three parts.
The reign of King An was extraordinary. Not only did the three families destroy Jin, but a major event also occurred in Qi, a state located on the coast of the East China Sea!
The Tian family usurped the throne of Qi!
In the fifteenth year of King An's reign (386 BC), King An appointed Tian He as the Marquis of Qi.
In the 23rd year of King An's reign (379 BC), Duke Kang of Qi died, and the Qi state of the Jiang clan ceased to exist. The Tian clan continued to use "Qi" as the name of their state, which is historically known as "Tian Qi".
The Zhang family has been in Liang for eighteen generations. This is not because the heavens favored the Zhang family, but because in each generation someone stood up in the most dangerous time and saved the collapsing edifice.
But the world is changing. Before, the struggle was for hegemony; now it's a struggle for survival. If Jin could be divided and Qi could be replaced, is Liang truly as stable as Mount Tai?
unable.
Zhang Zhao knew very well that in the face of the torrent of history, a family, a clan, and a country were all too insignificant.
…………
Zhang Chong was taken by the teacher to a bright hall deep inside the academy. The teacher spoke to him for a while, told him to kowtow to the shrine of Duke Wenzhao, and then told him to leave.
After Zhang Chong left the Mingtang, life went on as usual.
He went to school as usual, dozed off as usual, and was punished by the teacher to copy books as usual. His younger brother, Zhang Liu, was worried for several days at first, but after seeing that his brother's mouth was sealed shut as if welded iron, he gradually stopped asking.
Time flies, and it's gone in the blink of an eye.
In that year, the Qin state implemented two reforms: allowing private land ownership and sales, implementing the county system, increasing the poll tax, standardizing weights and measures, burning books and clarifying laws, blocking private requests, prohibiting itinerant officials, and enforcing the household division order.
After two reforms, the Qin state became powerful and its people were wealthy and prosperous.
In Qin, people did not pick up lost items on the road, and there were no thieves in the mountains. The people were brave enough to fight for the country but timid enough to fight privately, and the countryside and towns were peaceful and orderly.
Autumn is often a season of sorrow. In the third year after the second Qin reforms, Qin conquered Wudu Commandery, and its governor, Zhao Jujiu, was killed in battle. The Zhao clan perished with him.
Two months later, before the Liang Kingdom could recover from the grief of losing a loyal family, Shangyong Commandery, Chencang Commandery, and Shubei Commandery fell one after another.
The Qin army launched a three-pronged attack on Hanzhong, led by Gongsun Yang, who combined the Liang Law with his own talents to make Qin stronger.
Inside the Hanzhong Academy.
The Master put down the bamboo slips, looked at the young faces below the hall, and remained silent for a long time.
He didn't say anything grand or inspiring; he simply told them to finish their homework for the day and then go home.
Three days later, Marquis Liang issued a conscription order, requiring all members of the Zhang family aged between eighteen and forty to enlist.
Zhang Chong was assigned to the garrison at the North Gate.
On the day the Qin army besieged the city, the sky was as dark and gloomy as iron.
Arrows blotted out the sky, and siege ladders stretched densely across the city walls. Zhang Zhong stood guard behind the battlements, spear in hand, as his comrades fell one after another beside him. His face was splattered with blood, indistinguishable between his own and others'.
On the seventh day, the north gate was under attack.
The Qin army used battering rams to ram the gate, and the gate bolts were cracked in several deep places. The defending general ordered ten soldiers to go out of the city and burn the battering rams. As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Zhong stepped forward.
He didn't utter any grand words, but simply glanced back in the direction of the city, where the Hanzhong Academy, his younger brother, and the shrine of Duke Wenzhao were located.
That night, the Qin army's battering rams were burned, and the north gate was temporarily secured. The Liang state held out until reinforcements arrived.
But Zhang Zhong did not return.
Soldiers cleaning up the battlefield found his body next to the wreckage of the battering ram.
He was still tightly clutching a charred handle of a halberd, his knuckles impossible to pry open.
When the news reached the academy, the teacher was organizing bamboo slips.
After listening to the report, he remained silent for a long time, then slowly closed the copy of "Jingzi" that he had been holding for forty years, got up and walked to the window, looking towards the north gate.
After a long while, a drop of water fell on the bamboo slip, spreading the ink.
The master did not wipe it. He turned and walked out of the house towards the main hall of the clan, where there was a list of the fallen soldiers that he needed to copy by hand. The first name was Zhang Zhong.
The Liang Kingdom fell in the second month after Zhang Chong's death.
On the day the Qin army broke through the pass, the Zhang-character banner that had flown over the city of Hanzhong for four hundred years was torn down and replaced with the Qin banner with a black background and white characters.
The last Marquis of Liang surrendered, baring his chest, and knelt before Gongsun Yang's carriage, holding the royal seal in both hands.
After receiving the imperial seal, Gongsun Yang glanced at the Marquis of Liang without saying a word, but with just a look, his men understood.
On that day, the Zhang family was brutally exterminated.
On the day the city fell, the Hanzhong Academy was sealed off by the Qin army. The master and the remaining students stood at the gate of the academy to refuse the Qin army entry, but the Qin army did not budge.
They were met with the swords and spears of the Qin army. On the fourth day, the gates of the academy were sealed, and the classics of various schools of thought were loaded into dozens of oxcarts and transported to Xianyang.
Inside the ancestral temple, the heads of the family from all generations gathered together and witnessed all of this.
Zhang Zhao stood in the void, his face calm. Zhang Quzhuo put the white pieces back into the chess basket and remained silent. Zhang Chengsi beat his chest and stamped his feet, cursing the Qin people as tigers and wolves and cursing the injustice of fate.
Zhang Zhao remained silent. As the firelight gradually died down, he turned around, his gaze piercing through the void and landing on the quiet mountain road outside Hanzhong City.
A small group of people were heading towards Chencang under the cover of night. There were only a dozen or so people, but that was enough. The leader of the group was Zhang Liu, the seventeenth son of the Marquis of Liang.
"It's not over yet," he whispered.
Then he sat back down in front of the chessboard, picked up a black piece, and placed it in the center of the board with a crisp snap that echoed through the empty ancestral temple.