Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 254 Rumors Stop at the Wise

"The succession of father and son has been an ethical path since ancient times. This is the fundamental principle. His Royal Highness, King Lu, is both direct and eldest, virtuous and kind. I think it is appropriate to establish a prince as early as possible to calm the hearts of the world."

In the lobby on the first floor of Fan Tower, a person was discussing politics loudly. Although it looked like he was drinking and bragging with friends, in a place like Fan Tower, speaking so loudly, the provocative meaning was actually a bit obvious.

So much so that the hall, which had been bustling with singing and dancing just now, suddenly felt as if the pause button had been pressed by this voice.

A table of wealthy businessmen on the side couldn't bear it anymore and scolded: "What nonsense are you talking about? This is Kefan Tower."

Unexpectedly, the person who spoke actually stared back without fear and said: "What's the problem with what I said? In the future, you will not leave this family property to your son but to your younger brother? Why are you dissatisfied with me? Is that so?" Do you want to represent the trading company, or do you want to represent His Highness the King of Qin?"

But he was speechless as he retorted.

Because they really can't talk about this matter, and they don't even have the position to talk about it. Even from the perspective of the commercial bank, Zhao Dezhao himself is indeed the largest shareholder of the commercial bank besides Zhao Guangmei.

And if you rush to stand up for Zhao Guangmei at this time, you will inevitably have the feeling that the emperor is not as anxious as the eunuchs, and may even be causing injustice to His Highness the King of Qin.

The King of Qin himself hasn't spoken yet, and it's as if he, the uncle, is trying to compete with his nephew.

The current situation is like this. The influence of Confucian culture is still there, and it is even stronger than when the Song Dynasty was founded. Because the education penetration rate of the people has become higher, almost every boy will receive two educations when he was a child. to three years of compulsory education.

Zhao Guangmei didn't do anything wrong. She also studied the Six Classics and some simple history. These are all things that shape national identity, loyalty, and values. It is no exaggeration to say that the Han nation itself was shaped by these things. Confucian civilization is basically the civilization of the Han people. Even if Confucianism is bad in all kinds of ways, if Confucianism is lost, the Han people will actually be gone.

Zhao Guangmei was not really opposed to Confucianism. What he opposed was just that Confucianism was used to recruit officials.

Two or three years of compulsory education are enough for the people to form the most basic ethics, and the so-called etiquette, in fact, the death of the father and the succession of the son are the foundation of all etiquette.

In other words, even the people who support Zhao Guangmei the most in the world must bear a certain sense of moral guilt while supporting Zhao Guangmei.

Moreover, Zhao Guangmei and Zhao Dezhao actually have no intention of fighting. From the beginning to the end, this matter was caused by the masses. To defend King Qin at this time is equivalent to acknowledging that King Qin intends to snatch the throne from his nephew, and it has already reached the point where both women and children To the point of knowing?
In the end, naturally I can only prevaricate by saying something like establishing a prince, establishing a virtuous person, establishing a leader, and so on.

But this is really just prevarication, because now no one dares to really say that Zhao Dezhao, the King of Lu, is unworthy, and what he did in the southwest border area is really good, and he also contributed to the expansion of territory. Well done. It is indeed good. This cannot be denied blindly. In fact, he can also be called a wise king.

However, can Zhao Dezhao really replace Zhao Guangmei as the crown prince?
how could it be possible.

As long as Zhao Kuangyin is not an old fool, no matter how much he loves his son, his son can only exist as an alternative younger brother, because there are too many people in this world who tie their wealth and life to Zhao Guangmei. Zhao Guangmei has been He has always been the de facto deputy emperor, and the financial power of the country is in his hands. Although the military power is not directly controlled, there are countless soldiers who are die-hard members of the King of Qin, and their interests are bound to the commercial banks.

Zhao Dezhao, the wise king, can only be regarded as very good at best. Yes, Zhao Guangmei, the wise king, is unprecedented and unprecedented.

When Zhao Guangmei inherits the throne, he will never embarrass Zhao Dezhao. Instead, he will try his best to appease him. Even Zhao Dezhao himself will become his crown prince. In fact, the interests of Zhao Dezhao and his family will not be lost. But if Zhao Dezhao really succeeds, , then Zhao Guangmei’s department will definitely be panicked.

There is no reason in this world to give power to the emperor's uncle. Since ancient times, there have been few emperor's uncles who can really hold great power in the court. The only ones who can be said to be bigan, Jizi, Weizi, and Zhou in the Shang Dynasty are The Duke of Zhou in the dynasty, but everyone knows how credible the events of the Shang and Zhou dynasties are.

This thing is just like the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, most of the time it is used to bullshit.

This is purely to disgust people.

The fact is that everyone who came to Fan Lou for dinner that day was disgusted.

This is already the case in Fanlou, but what about other places?
In the huge Qin King's party, even if Zhao Guangmei himself did not make any movement, could everyone in this party remain silent?
As long as there is any movement, this so-called battle to seize the inheritance will probably start out of nowhere.

In fact, there is a lot of commotion among the market now. Many businessmen in the market are speaking for Zhao Guangmei from the bottom of their hearts, saying how good Zhao Guangmei is, how the troubled times of the Five Dynasties can only be ended by being handed over to the hands of King Qin, etc. , so to establish the crown prince, you should establish the king of Qin, and you should establish the emperor's younger brother.

And it was only at this time that many people suddenly discovered that Zhao Guangmei had indeed never been explicitly called the crown prince.

Even the unspoken rule of the Five Generations that Prince Yin Jing is the crown prince does not apply to him, because the governor of Kaifeng has always been Zhao Guangyi. Although it has been replaced by Zhao Guangmei in the past two years, the capital of the country is about to change from Kaifeng to Luoyang.

Everyone thinks, shouldn’t it be mentioned?Should we make him the crown prince?
As everyone knows, it is actually best if no one mentions this matter. Zhao Guangmei is too special and different from any prince in history. He does not need any legal procedures and it still does not delay him from becoming the crown prince.

Because if Zhao Kuangyin disappears one day, as long as he doesn't sit in that position, no one in the world will dare to sit in that position.

The King of Qin becoming the crown prince is something that no one even needs to talk about. It is as natural as eating when you are hungry and drinking water when you are thirsty. Don't discuss it and it is over. But to go out of your way to say it is without legal reason.

If Zhao Guangmei said that I want to be the crown prince, that would be to compete with his nephew, which is not very authentic. But if he said that I have no intention of becoming the crown prince, do I support the establishment of the crown prince?That would be a big problem, and it would easily endanger the people below.

To stir up this topic in this way makes Zhao Guangmei passive, because he is indeed unreasonable from a legal and ethical perspective.

The Song Dynasty will not be punished for words, so these people are becoming more and more arrogant.

…………

Yingchuan Racecourse.

Zhao Guangmei was taking Xiao Chuo to take the children away on horseback while verbally repaying accounts and checking the financial situation of Liao Guo Commercial Bank. Is Song Dynasty Commercial Bank also a major shareholder in Liao Guo Commercial Bank? Xiao Chuo naturally also took care of it. He reported the situation and said:
"Since this year, the trade surplus between Daliao and Song Dynasty has reached 800 million guan, and the principal and interest repayment for the money bank has exceeded 2000 million guan. Is the profit of Liao State Commercial Bank...this year it is more than 3000 million guan?" However, the exchange rate between Song and Liao has been inverted this year, and the Liao currency has fallen. One to one cannot be maintained at all, and it can barely maintain two to three."

Zhao Guangmei looked at Xiao Chuo with a half-smile when he heard this and said: "Can we really maintain two to three?" Xiao Chuo's face turned slightly red when he heard this, but he still said firmly: "It's two to three, this is my Daliao The official exchange rate, huh, what are you going to do, do you want to force dividends as a shareholder? I tell you there is no chance, the commercial bank is facing financial difficulties this year, and there will be no dividends."

After saying that, he glared at Zhao Guangmei fiercely.

In fact, the so-called official exchange rate has no meaning at all. The last time he fought a currency war, he used metal currency anyway. This time it is directly paper currency. As far as Zhao Guangmei knows, the truly freely circulating currency exchanges in the market are Liao coins and Song coins. Can't even maintain a two-to-one ratio.

Originally, the issuance of Liao coins was completely tied to Song coins and paid one-to-one, which is similar to the relationship between Hong Kong dollars and US dollars. It is said that such a large exchange rate fluctuation is unlikely to occur.

Especially when the Song-Liao trade was still in surplus with the Liao Kingdom and the Song Dynasty was in deficit.

The Song Dynasty now imported horses, wool, and female slaves from the Liao Kingdom, especially the female slaves. The import volume was terrifying. The Song Dynasty could not sell to the Liao Kingdom just by selling industrial products.

But the problem is that the currencies of the two countries are completely freely convertible. No Song people will take the initiative to exchange Song coins for Liao coins. Liao coins cannot be spent in the Song Dynasty, and ordinary people do not recognize them.

But among the Liao people, many nobles were really willing to exchange Liao coins for Song coins after making money, and then spend them in the Song Dynasty.

Not to mention, most of the current commercial part of the border trade between the two countries is conducted by the Yanyun Han people. These Han people were naturally loyal to Daliao when they were landlords, but now they have become merchants.

Eight out of ten have already sent their families to the Song Dynasty. Even the Han officials are no exception. Not even talking about the merchants, even many small businessmen and hawkers will buy houses here in the Song Dynasty. What are you waiting for? When they couldn't work anymore, they retired, so they took the money they had earned in the Liao Kingdom and returned to the Song Dynasty to live.

It is said that in the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun, and even in the entire Daliao Territory, Song money can be spent directly in the market without discounting the purchasing power of the market, which is much more suitable than exchanging it with Liao money.

If you exchange Liao coins for Song coins, you won't even be charged a tiny bit of departure tax. If you don't exchange them, it will be in vain.

In other words, the money that the Liao Kingdom earned through war and human trafficking traveled around the Liao Kingdom and almost all of it flowed back to the Song Dynasty.

The trade of the Liao Kingdom was pure profit-making and betrayal by the upper class. The blood and sweat of the lower class was sucked away, and they could not accumulate any wealth. However, it was still free trade. It was fair and just. On the surface, the Liao Kingdom made more money than the Song Dynasty. Much more.

The so-called comprador government is like this. As long as this model is not broken, it will be useless for the Liao people to struggle no matter how hard they struggle. They must and can only be pressed to the ground and suck their blood.

As for setting up tariff barriers and establishing foreign exchange controls, the shareholders of the Liao Commercial Bank, the dignitaries of the Liao court, and even their father Xiao Siwen would probably not agree.

Their family, and even Yelu House, have begun to exchange large amounts of Song money to purchase Song Dynasty assets.

Both Khitan and Han people have black hair and yellow skin, and the upper class of Khitan have been sinicized for more than 300 years. At least the degree of sinicization of the powerful class is quite high. It is really difficult to judge whether they are Song people from their appearance without taking the initiative to explain.

If one day the Liao Kingdom is destroyed, these nobles will come to the Song Dynasty with money, and they can still be nobles after giving themselves Han names.

Moreover, if the Liao Kingdom was destroyed, the Song people would definitely recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and most of the Han people in Liao were loyal to the Shulu Department. They were nobles here when the place belonged to the Liao Dynasty. Now that it belongs to the Song Dynasty, are they no longer nobles?I'm afraid that at the end of the day, I can be a big capitalist or a small shareholder of a trading company, right?
Since whether this place belongs to Liao or Song, and whether the Liao Kingdom prospers or dies, it does not affect them from continuing to eat, drink and have fun as nobles, then what does it have to do with them whether the Liao Kingdom is good or not?A Liao official who sent his wife and children to live in the Song Dynasty, do you still expect him to be loyal to the Liao Dynasty?

Even Xiao Chuo himself began to bet on both ends, and the descendants of Daliao began to have one foot in two boats. Who else can you expect to be loyal to Daliao?If such a person really comes forward, why should he be persecuted to death immediately?This kind of person who shakes the morale of the military and misleads the masses must have received money from the Song Dynasty. He intends to destroy the harmonious environment of our country in the Liao Dynasty. He is spreading rumors and is a spy.

As for the people at the bottom of the Liao Kingdom, their lives have indeed become better. They can all eat canned food from the Song Kingdom. How can we say that we are being exploited?Coupled with the huge trade surplus, Dute Niang was immersed in the macro narrative and couldn't extricate herself. Many people even felt from the bottom of their hearts that Daliao was so powerful. We made a lot of money from the Song Dynasty through the Song-Liao trade. It was amazing to me. In Daliao, the stool under the ruling class was extremely stable.

What?Why does the currency keep depreciating?That's a deliberate preparation, it's called export-friendly, it's called a grand strategy!You simply don't understand anything.

The Song Dynasty successfully sucked the blood, the nobles of the Liao Kingdom successfully made a fortune, and the people of the Liao Kingdom successfully became richer and more patriotic due to the commodities of the Song Dynasty.

Three wins!

Xiao Chuo obviously didn't want to talk about this topic, so he quickly changed the subject and said, "I heard that your nephew is going to compete with you for savings? Hum, I don't know what you are thinking. You obviously have such a big advantage. But you can actually let things develop to this point, aren't you afraid that something will happen when the time comes?"

When Zhao Guangmei heard this, she slapped Xiao Chuo hard on the butt: "We, the Song Dynasty, are a country of etiquette. Do you think we are like you Khitan barbarians?"

"Haha, the so-called country of etiquette just does nothing and allows rumors to spread and cause harm to you? Is this good for your nephew? Huh, I don't know what your elder brother is thinking. It's been so long. , actually refused to express his position.”

Hearing this, Zhao Guangmei rolled her eyes at him.

These Khitan girls see the excitement of their Song Dynasty as a big deal. They wish that their Song Dynasty would be like the Khitans or the Tang Dynasty, where every generation would fight against each other and kill everyone with bloodshed.

Of course, Zhao Guangmei knows very well that many things are just a modern illusion for him. For example, modern people always believe that ancient dynasties should be succeeded by father after death and son by step.

But in fact, the smooth transition in ancient times really only started after the Song Dynasty. Before that, the bleeding and the non-bloody were actually half and half. Especially in the Tang Dynasty, it was really almost every generation. It's a palace coup.

After thinking about it, Zhao Guangmei added: "I, the Song Dynasty, are different from all previous dynasties. Well... even if they are the same, I am also different from other people in all previous dynasties. As the saying goes, rumors stop at the wise, this matter is not enough to worry about. also."

"Haha, so the people who wrote the letter just let them keep talking and causing trouble and ignore them? You have such a good temper."

"In the Song Dynasty, this is called not being punished for words, but... although the court will not let them go because of their nonsense, it does not mean that I will not let them go. The so-called rumors stop at the wise, because those who talk nonsense They are all idiots, and idiots must pay the price for their stupidity."

(End of this chapter)