PFC Chapter 7190 The Gradually Taking Shape of a Pillar
Chapter 7190 The Gradually Taking Shape of a Pillar
Chapter 7190 The Gradually Taking Shape of a Pillar
The large families, having eaten and drunk their fill in Central Asia, dreamed of a bright future. The small and medium-sized families, following the example of the large families, had a ceiling that was the same as the ecological niche that the large families once held in China. This was indeed progress, but that ecological niche was just so-so.
For the branches of small and medium-sized aristocratic families, this upper limit is already clearly visible today.
The saying goes, "Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of an ox." Even if the branches of various large, medium, and small aristocratic families are not yet fully aware of this, they will eventually realize it as the situation in Central Asia becomes clearer.
The consequence is that those who are able to run away are very likely to run away with their sons-in-law. To reiterate, the size of a small or medium-sized aristocratic family is definitely stronger than that of an old soldier who rose to prominence in one generation, but the branches of a small or medium-sized aristocratic family are definitely not as good as these sons-in-law.
In this way, the branch that has come to join them will have no chance of seizing their son-in-law's fiefdom unless their son-in-law's life is in danger.
Because after small and medium-sized aristocratic families were divided in this way, their size was no longer sufficient to assimilate and absorb their own sons-in-law.
No matter what, the legal authority lies with the son-in-law, not with them.
This is very important.
Chen Xi had considered these things before. Human nature is to seek advantage and avoid harm. When the branches of small and medium-sized aristocratic families realize the existence of the ceiling and also realize that their own family has the opportunity to become the main family, then how to choose is self-evident.
In addition, they had legitimate reasons. Besides strengthening themselves, diversifying their resources was also a survival strategy for aristocratic families.
As for what to do with the main family after a small or medium-sized aristocratic family splits into three or four branches, to be honest, that's not a question for the branches to consider. That's something only the direct line needs to think about, and it has nothing to do with them.
Besides, once these branches have grown strong, the main family is gone. Can't they still be considered the main family? What a joke! Don't we all share the same ancestor? If your family is failing, but my family is powerful, can't my family also worship our ancestors?
Really!
Our family shouldn't be so narrow-minded, right?
"So you don't need to worry at all. Just work hard, and maybe your future in-laws will even be able to work for you, right?" Chen Xi said with a grin. "As for what happens when they come after us, by then, most likely only our main family will be left. Whether they'll still be as big as you is another question. I acknowledge the existence of so-called aristocratic families, but it's quite normal for them to be surpassed in a lifetime."
When Chen Xi said this, there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but Liu Bei knew very well that Chen Xi was not talking nonsense. Chen Xi himself was the kind of person who, with just one generation, surpassed the accumulated wealth of all the powerful families that had accumulated over hundreds or even thousands of years.
"Oh, is that so? Then can I go pick up my father-in-law's family now?" Bai Hao said with some worry. After Wang Xi took Old Man Hu's family away, martial law was imposed on the Hu family in Anding. Hu Ting's family, who originally wanted to go with Bai Hao, could not leave either.
"You can observe for a while. These powerful families can't be suppressed for long. Even the branch families have some ambitions." Chen Xi nodded to Bai Hao, telling him not to rush.
“Lord Chen, I’ve actually been feeling something is strange.” Jiang Guang said hesitantly. He had noticed this before, but he didn’t know how to describe it. This time, after meeting so many old brothers and having time to talk, everyone compared their families and found that it seemed that it wasn’t just their family that had this problem, but all the families had it.
"What's the problem?" Chen Xi asked with a smile.
“My wife comes from the Chen family of Yimen in Luoyang. I feel that when she first married me, there was something, how should I put it, that she always thought her family was better.” Jiang Guang said with a hint of reminiscence, “Especially when she first married into the family, she felt that nothing was as good as her family. I even specially bought some things to make it better, but in reality, I felt that her family was not as good as she said.”
“Yes, yes, my wife is too,” Wang Xi added from the side. Eight out of ten veterans around him nodded in agreement. The other two were either widowers or married to women who were not from prominent families.
“My wife has actually eaten refined rice very few times, but when we first arrived, she was very picky about it, but later she seemed to be more normal.” Wang Xi added, “After going to our new home in Central Asia this time, in my opinion, the Hu family of Anding is just so-so. At least my wife’s branch is definitely not as good as mine.”
Unlike Jiang Guang, Wang Xi was truly capable of commanding two thousand men, making him a key figure at the deputy general level. Although they shared the same rank, Wang Xi's return would not be as an instructor, but rather as a commander of troops, thus his conditions would be relatively better.
Of course, it's not accurate to say that Wang Xi's family background is significantly different from Jiang Guang's. If there were a significant difference, it would be due to the difference in the stewards' abilities.
“My family situation is the same. They say we come from a wealthy and prestigious family, but in reality, I feel it’s not much better than it was ten years ago.” Yang Tuo said with a hint of helplessness, “But when I first married into the family, I was quite picky. Especially looking back now, this issue is actually quite serious. At least now, I probably wouldn’t be able to accept it.”
Yang Tuo's wife was a concubine's daughter from a branch of the powerful Wei family in Guanzhong, and she was considered a close relative. Some time ago, when Wei Duan heard that he was going to die, which was the time when Zhong Yao rushed back to steal the calligraphy copybook, Yang Tuo and his wife were at the Wei family's house.
Because Yang Tuo is now of a high rank, his wife has also benefited from his family background. In such important family events, if the head of the family attends, she must also wear mourning clothes and kowtow a few times.
Of course, because she was from a powerful family in Guanzhong, when she married Yang Tuo, it was indeed somewhat of a step down for her. Yang Tuo was young at the time and felt that it was not easy to get a wife, so he didn't care about being bossed around by his wife. After they got used to each other and Yang Tuo's wife gave birth to a son, she straightened out her attitude and these problems disappeared.
Just looking back now, if we consider Yang Tuo's current mindset and his wife's domineering behavior back then, there's no point in getting married. I'm a hero all my life, I can find a wife anywhere!
“My wife is the same,” Wang Ke said with a dry laugh. Then Wang Liang glared at his son and said, “Shut up, you silly son. Isn’t my daughter-in-law good to you? I think she’s been very good to you.”
A group of people chattered amongst themselves, eventually concluding that while daughters from wealthy families were indeed good, they hadn't adjusted their mindset when they first married into the family and would need some time to adjust. They went on and on, but none of them said that their own wives had any problems.
Upon hearing this, Chen Xi smirked, but ultimately didn't say anything. If the major aristocratic families had been wiped out, their wives would still have a biased view of their maternal families.
The reason why Chen Xi never mentions eliminating the aristocratic families is that, apart from the fact that those people are still somewhat useful, the remaining reason lies in his interactions with the new social class. For Chen Xi, most of the aristocratic families are simply a control group.
Few of these veterans' wives were as aware of their exploitation as Zheng Ling was. Most of them were proud of their background and considered themselves superior, even if they were not as well off as their own family. They had a clear sense of class distinctions and therefore, if they were dissatisfied with their lives after marriage, they would miss their former life.
She might even complain about her husband in daily life, passing on her biased perceptions to her children, causing them to yearn for and aspire to her past life. However, due to the gap between reality and ideals, and her own limited abilities to change reality, she can only vent her resentment on her husband and children.
The end result is that one becomes trapped in a spiral of suffering without even realizing it.
There is a very important control group here, namely Wang Ke's wife Zheng Ling. This girl is one of the very few among the married daughters of concubines who realized early on that her main family had actually exploited her. Although they gave her many opportunities in her childhood, they also narrowed down her future path to only a few possibilities.
If it weren't for Chen Xi's powerful actions that shattered the era, Zheng Ling would most likely have remained a maidservant accompanying the legitimate daughter of the Zheng family. Even if she gave birth to a child of the main family, that child would still have to call the legitimate daughter "mother."
After all, in this era, concubines were merely gifts given by literati and scholars. This was the most despairing aspect of Zheng Ling's childhood. She did not believe that her talent was inferior to that of the eldest daughter of the Zheng family, but Zheng Shaojun was born to reach an end that she could never reach in her life. The dividing line in life was not about hard work and talent, but about bloodline and birth!
Therefore, Zheng Ling tried every means to break away from the Zheng family. She seized that last opportunity to leave the Zheng family and married Wang Ke, thus gaining the opportunity to decide her own destiny.
However, even someone like Zheng Ling, when she married into Wang Ke's family, would initially find it difficult to adapt and would feel nostalgic for her past life due to the gap between reality and her ideals.
Humans are like that; no matter how determined they are or how correct they are in choosing the right path, they will inevitably recall another path when faced with setbacks, even if they are perfectly clear about whether that path was right or wrong.
This is Zheng Ling, who is almost the smartest, most rational, and most farsighted among these married illegitimate daughters. She is the only one who can be considered a hidden gem.
Despite the apparent abundance of spiritual talent among Chen Xi's group, in reality, among the 80 million Han Dynasty citizens, only less than one in a million possesses genuine spiritual talent.
Zheng Ling truly possesses this qualification, and even now she still has the opportunity to monetize it. However, even someone like her, walking on the right path, will inevitably reminisce about her past life when she encounters setbacks or is suppressed by reality.
It can only be described as human instinct.
But that was then. Now, Chen Xi can guarantee that these people have basically no more of a soft spot for their wives' families. In fact, because that soft spot has been shattered, they might even go to extremes and think, "Your family has only developed this much in a few hundred years? That's really nothing to brag about. Do you want your family's version of things? I can get you one too."
As a result, most of the beautiful memories of the married daughters of concubines were also shattered.
Just like the idyllic pastoral dream many factory workers have, when imagining it, the difficulties are naturally filtered out. But if you really return to nature, you'll be transformed from a factory worker into a farm worker, and it will only be more tiring.
Just like the fantasies many girls have about the bustling Shanghai of the Republic of China era, or the noble life of Empress Yang and Xie Daoyun during the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, those are all filters. The reality is that it was cannibalism!
Let's not even talk about the Republic of China era; everyone knows about the cannibalism there.
During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was even more physically cannibalistic.
Surely no one thinks that Empress Yang was deposed five times and reinstated six times, during which not only did emperors change but dynasties also changed, yet she still became empress in a new dynasty—it's some kind of tragic love story.
Surely no one would think that Xie Daoyun, a talented woman in her fifties or sixties, could have the composure and grace to stand at the door with a knife in her hand, holding her grandson, resisting the rebels after watching her husband and children being killed.
Those are all just filters, okay? If you learn some history, study when you should study, and read when you should read, you won't have any romantic illusions about the so-called feudal era.
That's real cannibalism. An exploiting class is an exploiting class. Individuals in the exploiting class may have pity and kindness, and may sympathize with and understand the exploited, or even go further and betray their own class. But the exploiting class itself is cannibalism. The only difference is the way it is done. As for the filter, that's just the influence of living in that environment in the past.
But now there is something almost like a control group, and there is the real deconstruction of how her husband caught up with her past fantasies through ten years of hard work. The imagined scenario under the filter has become something that can't even fool herself.
It is easy to deceive oneself in this world, but conversely, it is very difficult, especially for intelligent people. It is extremely difficult to deceive one's own true self.
Without those ten years of living there, without seeing the true state of their own families in Central Asia, those married-out daughters might still have some lingering romanticized views of their families. No matter how good their husbands were to them, the idealized memories would always offset some of that. After all, that's how emotions are.
But there are no "what ifs". Ten years of living together, even if there were some different ideas at the beginning, the life has basically been on the rise, and life has gotten better day by day. So, no matter how many filters there are, they can't overcome reality.
Dreams are important, but people still need to eat. Whether life is good or bad, everyone knows the answer in their hearts.
Just like the peak period for working abroad was when local wages were only one-tenth to one-third of those abroad, once the local standard of living reached one-third of that abroad, the number of people going abroad to work decreased rapidly.
When one's own family's standard of living begins to rapidly, even at an unimaginable speed, surpass that of one's maternal family, even with the filter of youthful dreams, it is nothing more than a fragile dream that can be shattered at the slightest touch.
Unless a concubine's daughter truly sees herself as the young lady of the main family, that dream is shattered the moment she is married off. Even if she doesn't understand her own identity, she should realize that she is no longer the apple of the eye of the main family.
So when the filter is completely shattered and reality is laid, and all the original misperceptions are eliminated, what is left? What remains is the foundation that her husband has built in ten years, a foundation that is no less than that of several generations, even more than ten generations, of her family!
If you don't understand what a filter collapse means, then find a new filter. And now, what filter is more suitable for adding filters than your own down-to-earth husband, who in ten years has caught up with several generations of your own family?
Absolutely not. Even if her husband has all sorts of problems, under this powerful filter, he would be perfect!
Just think of Lin Hai. The Lin family of Jinan has been a powerful local clan since the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. But what happened? After hundreds of years, Lin Hai, who ran away to join Liu Bei, became disabled and retired, and returned home to live out his old age. He became the patriarch of the Lin family and brought the Lin family a takeoff that they hadn't seen for six hundred years.
Do you even understand what it means that your family's hundreds of years of hard work are not as good as my solitary rise on the wave of the times? Isn't that reality and representative of everything?
Of course, this is exactly what Chen Xi needs. In fact, it should be said that only by reaching this point can Chen Xi find another kind of support to stand independently outside of aristocratic families.
If a concubine's daughter who marries into a noble family were to completely control the household, what kind of foundational class would that be? She would just be another branch of the noble family. Only when the hierarchy is clearly defined, and who is the boss in this class, can Chen Xi establish the important foundation for a stable society.
"To be honest, it was only after we went to Central Asia that my wife stopped nagging," Zheng Ke said with a hint of teasing.
"Keke, what did your sister-in-law say about you before?" Zhang Liang asked with some curiosity.
“Sometimes when she can’t win an argument, she’ll use her family’s influence to pressure me,” Zheng Ke said with a hint of exasperation. “This time, after I took her to Kandahar, it was a disaster. Luckily, Old Cao didn’t wipe out her whole family. After we came back, I stopped mentioning her family.”
The group of older men were speechless upon hearing this, while those with a bit more sense looked at Liu Bei and Chen Xi. They were relieved to find that the two of them were not angry at Zheng Ke's nonsense. After all, there weren't many people like Zheng Ke who were so brainless when they reached this level of officialdom. The fact that he hadn't been killed despite talking so recklessly could only be attributed to his strength.
"Speaking of which, my wife used to be quite talkative, but she stopped during the time she was disabled. She just cries from time to time. I think she's a good embroiderer. As for talking about her family, she probably just wanted to find a way to put me down when she couldn't win an argument. But I won't lose." Zhang Liang casually changed the subject.
Chen Xi didn't say anything upon hearing this, but he roughly understood the situation that these veterans had all faced before. They were just better and less concerned about these things, so they easily got through the verbal attacks and successfully made it to where they are now, ultimately achieving victory.
I feel like I'm doomed, it's so terrible.
(End of this chapter)