Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 247 Civilian rebellion?

To be honest, Zhao Guangmei originally thought that it would not be easy to persuade Zhao Kuangyin.

After all, allowing businessmen to develop cities is almost equivalent to decentralizing administrative power. This kind of thing is really unbelievable in ancient times and even in modern times. This kind of pure imperialist play is almost only seen in a specific period in history. occurred during the period.

It is inherently anti-political.

However, he never expected that Zhao Kuangyin would agree without even thinking.

It's not that he is very enlightened, but that he really doesn't regard Southern Han and Dali as his own territory.

In fact, although the Northern Song Dynasty also annexed the Southern Han Dynasty in history, it feels like he didn't really want much. As for Dali, it has a well-known jade ax painting circle, and it is clear that "my empire ends here." Such words.

It seemed as if he was afraid that his soldiers would disobey and attack Dali and knock this place down.

This cannot be said to be a limitation of the ancients. Chunchun was just extremely pragmatic as the Emperor Wu, so maybe in his heart, the Southern Han Dynasty and Dali were not his land in the first place. Since they are no longer his things, take them out. If you sell it for money, how can you not agree to it?
He also specifically emphasized to Zhao Guangmei that although this model did have merits when used to expand territory, it must not be used in this way when the sixteen states of Yanyun were recovered in the future.

So, everything was implemented smoothly.

The civil servant group still opposed it, but the opposition was ineffective, and the two brothers once again went their own way.

Although the envoy of the Privy Council is no longer Zhao Pu, the entire Privy Council is still Zhao Kuangyin's old lineage, that is, the Guide Mansion lineage, and they are all Zhao Kuangyin's personal ministers.

Lao Zhao never dared to relax his control over military power.

Even Zhao Pu, the head of Lao Zhao's staff, was not a Jinshi, and he claimed to rule the world with half of the Analects. It is very likely that his knowledge is really limited to half of the Analects, so the rest of the people...

It seems that what they are doing is the business of civil servants, but in fact they have nothing to do with civil servants.

Although the fundamental reason why the supervisory army is always used as a vanguard is due to the abnormality of the military system of the Northern Song Dynasty, a very important part of the reason is that these people who came from Zhao Kuangyin's staff were really brave on the battlefield.

They are really not civil servants, and they are not of the same faction as the civil servants of the imperial court. In fact, it can be seen from many things that apart from gaining the trust of Zhao Kuangyin, this group of people has really low quality and quality.

Originally, the descendants of this group of people should have chosen to study and learn literature one after another, and gradually moved towards the path of a family of officials. After all, they were not generals.

But in this time and space, because of Zhao Guangmei, most of these people's children and relatives have gone to do business, and they are either middle- and high-level leaders of commercial banks, or wealthy businessmen with considerable strength among the people.

After all, it was too difficult to learn the Four Books and Five Classics. If their children took the imperial examination, they would have no advantage. They could not compare with those real civil servants. It would be too dangerous to become soldiers, and they were not real generals.

Chu Zhaofu is not the only smart person, in fact, everyone is not stupid.

A new class already has overwhelming power compared to the old class.

Officials from the Privy Council, the Forbidden Army, the Third Department and the First Department are all supporters of the New Deal, and they are extremely supportive of the bidding for the Military and Horse Supervisors.

In a certain official office.

"The officials and Your Highness have gone too far now. In today's world, there are fewer and fewer people who study peacefully and cultivate and inherit the family. They are even called stupid, but... ah ~ what a worldly custom. Sunshine! Now you actually dare to sell positions such as military and horse supervisors. Isn't this a hundred times more serious than the selling of officials and titles in the late Eastern Han Dynasty? If these businessmen are allowed to acquire Quanzhou and other seven cities, this... is simply allowing them Split the earth and make a prince!"

It was Lu Yuqing who smoothed things over: "The Song Dynasty was pragmatic. Now, the New Confucian school is getting stronger and stronger. It may not be because the world is declining, but it is just more practical. The vast majority of students are no longer regarded as Jinshi. It’s not all a bad thing if you have ambitions.”

This is the beauty of the imperial examination reform. When the imperial examination admissions are expanded to a large scale, these officials' children and the aristocratic families still have a huge advantage when they are admitted to the Jinshi. So why don't everyone get the exam with you?

New Confucianism is not that complicated. It just advocates applying what you have learned. Students all over the world are also smart people. In the past, everyone had to take exams, but among tens of thousands, 10,000+ or ​​even hundreds of thousands of candidates, only a few dozen exams are taken every year. A Jinshi comes out, but those who cannot roll out are simply useless.

In contrast, New Confucianism is different. You only need to learn the basic Confucian concepts of loyalty and filial piety. It is enough to have a foundation to pass the exam. A lot of energy can be spent studying other subjects such as history, law, arithmetic, physics, etc.

The chances of taking the exam for merit and fame are much higher. You can still be an official. Although you can only be a petty official, the boundary between officials and officials has been completely opened. Take your time. And the most important thing is that after learning these things, even if it is an exam If you don't do well in the exams and don't gain fame, you can still go to a commercial bank or even work for a private merchant.

These are the talents that are eagerly sought after.

Thanks to this, today's Song Dynasty is full of schools. This time, knowledge really changes destiny. If we really want to educate all people, this ultimate ideal is Zhao Guangmei's New Deal. better.

Hearing this, the room became increasingly suffocated and silent.

This room is the secret room of the Political Affairs Hall. Those sitting here today are almost all important officials in the civil service system, all from the third rank and above. After hearing what Lu Yuqing said, everyone couldn't help but lower their heads. The atmosphere began to become extremely strange.

The civil service group is... going to split up after all.

This group of civil servants, represented by Lu Yuqing, is now called the Reform Party. Although most of the time they do not approve of Zhao Guangmei's reforms, for example, this time the bidding for the Military Supervisory Supervisory Authority is simply a Extreme nonsense.

If we give merchants such great power, wouldn't it mean that all the outstanding talents will go to work as merchants in the future?Then who can read the books of sages properly?

And once this method is implemented and is indeed effective, it is almost foreseeable that the Song Dynasty in the future will definitely embark on a path of militarism and continuous external expansion.

This is definitely not a good thing in the eyes of traditional Confucian scholars like them.

But that's all.

Although they did not agree with New Confucianism, they also held a relatively tolerant attitude towards New Confucianism. In his opinion, wasn't this the dispute between modern classics and ancient classics in the Eastern Han Dynasty? There was no need to be so hostile.

And they also had to admit that although the New Deal indeed caused the collapse of rituals and music and led to many bad things, the shortcomings could not be concealed. At least it actually made the Song Dynasty rich and powerful in a few years, so they In fact, the general attitude is actually to support the New Deal. I just hope that some necessary corrections will be made when the New Deal is implemented.

At the same time, they naturally advocated that these officials themselves should make some changes, such as supporting business, learning about business, etc., etc., and they were regarded as liberals among the literati.

To put it bluntly, Lu Yuqing has a good personal relationship with the officials, and at the same time, his foundation is not deep. Regardless of his political views, he cannot blatantly oppose the officials.The other faction... No one can tell who it is, because no one in the world dares to blatantly deny the New Deal in its entirety, but in fact everyone knows in their hearts that almost all of them except those who are more aggressive among the reformists Except, almost all are from the other faction.

But in fact, the reformists are not particularly clear.

As a result, no one among these civil servants knows who is theirs, and they cannot say anything that is obviously treasonous.

After an extremely awkward silence for a while, Lu Duoxun spoke again: "In any case, this matter of military and horse supervision is really ridiculous. No matter what, as ministers, we cannot allow this policy to pass. Otherwise, it won’t take long, no, otherwise those businessmen and low-income people will immediately be superior to us scholars, the rituals and music will collapse, and the country will be ruined.”

"Yes, businessmen value profits over trust, so how can they know what loyalty is? If businessmen are allowed to guard the country's borders, wouldn't they be like beating dogs with meat buns?"

"Cough, cough, cough."

Lu Yuqing coughed heavily.

Then he said: "You can't say that. Now the officials and His Highness have recognized this matter, and all our petitions have been rejected. The people in the Privy Council are more active than His Highness. I heard that, Chu Zhaofu brought his own sons with him, and he himself had to be the Superintendent of Soldiers and Horses on the Southeast Road. The others... were about the same. The rest was the Ministry of War. Lu Shangshu, do you still dare? Are you going to let the Ministry of War restrict the soldiers from going out to fight?"

After hearing this, Lu Duoxun naturally shook his head repeatedly, saying that he would never dare to do it, and this was not how he wanted to die.

"Isn't that enough? You are not convinced, and I am not convinced either. You are dissatisfied, and I am dissatisfied. We scholars have finally wrested power from the hands of warriors, but now we have to be stepped on by these merchants. Who can Can you be convinced? But what if you are not convinced?"

After saying that, he stood up and cupped his hands to everyone and said: "Everyone, I advise you not to make small moves. Although the officials and His Highness are benevolent, they are not merciless in killing people."

After that, he didn't want to continue arguing with these colleagues, but walked away.

I couldn't help but think about it, why don't I just resign?

After Lu Yuqing left, the entire political hall became increasingly depressed and silent. In fact, everyone didn't need Lu Yuqing to remind them that since ancient times, there has been no one more ruthless than His Highness in rectifying the officialdom.

In less than three years, the Song Dynasty launched two official purges. Although the killings were not particularly large, there were about 2000 people, and nearly [-] people were dismissed or even exiled.

Officials below the third rank were wiped out by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangmei under the banner of anti-corruption.

In fact, although their level [-] and above were indeed not touched, their so-called foundations had already been dealt with to pieces in these two major purges.

Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangmei really used them as copywriting secretaries.

It just so happens that the world is actually quite peaceful.

Even more peaceful than before I started sex.

As for the landowners.

There are fewer and fewer pure big landowners, and the real foundation of the bureaucracy is disintegrating. If nothing happens, it may be disintegrated within ten years.

And these people, no matter how many small meetings they hold, or how many yin and yang they say overtly or covertly, they cannot shake the national policy even one bit.

They have already tried any tricks, and if they want to stop it, it seems that the only thing left is to rebel.

But rebellion... isn't that a joke?

The reason why you still dare to complain here and be so arrogant here is already the benevolence of officials. If the Song Dynasty did not have the iron law that never will be punished for words, do you think how many of them would dare to talk like this?
Thinking about it this way, everyone felt more and more uninterested. They were all the best among the people. They were so incompetent and chatted together. How boring was Dot's mother?What a fucking waste of time?What can I do if I have the time?

In officialdom, you just want to be raped. If you can't resist, you have to learn to enjoy it.

As a result, everyone in the Zhengshi Hall, which had been crowded just now, felt that their interest was waning with Lu Yuqing's words, and they all dispersed in an instant.

There were only two people left, sitting here.

After a while, one of them said:
"Actually, what Lao Lu said is right. If you want to turn this world back now, the only way left is to rebel."

Another person said: "Have you never rebelled? In the past six months, there have been 48 rebellions across the country. These things have been recorded in the history books. I'm afraid future generations will think that the imperial court imposed excessive taxation and the people were in dire straits. But they are not afraid of you rebelling at all. And What can be done?”

"Haha, with just a few thieves and a few strong men, how can they really have the qualifications to rebel? It's just to scare the officials, but the officials are not afraid of scares. Your Highness... even fanned the flames. I wish those rebels could become bigger in scale. A little, naturally it will be useless unless...we have external help."

"external force?"

"I heard that the officials went out incognito again at noon?"

"Well, I said I was going to buy rotten meat noodles made by a... restaurant."

"As far as I know, there are at least 500 Khitan spies hiding in all walks of life in Kaifeng City. If these spies can know the official's whereabouts in advance..."

"Huh???? You...this is impossible. Although the official family is in private service, they at least have a few Banzhi escorts with them. Moreover, the official family is in private service. They always do it when they feel like it. How can they prepare in advance? ? Taking a step back, even if it is really successful and His Highness ascends the throne, will His Highness be less courageous than the officials? "

"That's wrong. Why does it have to be His Highness who ascends the throne? Besides, since the Khitans have taken action, even if they fail, isn't that a good thing? Your Highness has a bad relationship with the Khitans, especially with the Nashulu tribe. It’s shallow.”

"Are you saying...whether this matter succeeds or fails, there are only benefits?"

"Exactly, what's worse, the only thing left is how to let the Khitans know the information about the official's private service in advance."

(End of this chapter)