Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 256 Create peace for the world
What on earth is His Highness the King of Qin going to do?
After everyone in the world learned about the content of Zhao Guangmei's edict, their first reaction was similar to that of Xiao Chuo. They suspected that he wanted to break the ground for Zhao Dezhao and seize the throne from his nephew.

But this is really not His Highness King Qin's style of doing things.

How does His Highness the King of Qin do things?In the face of rebellion by local powerful men, they dared to directly incite peasant uprisings and actively deceived unruly people into rebelling.

His Highness never makes a big deal out of a big deal. When things are being settled, if you dare to set fire to his yard, he will take the initiative to set fire to his own house, and then take your house to live in.

When His Highness King Qin does things, he always makes small things bigger, and then makes the person who caused the trouble confused, scared, and helpless. Then he uses some extremely surprising ways to solve the problem and solve the person who caused the problem.

For example, this time, didn't he just kick those who took the initiative to submit letters to Dali and become Zhao Dezhao's ministers?

In fact, in the current Dali Kingdom, except for Yangcheng and Cangshan Erhai Generation, that is, the capital of Dali Kingdom is still controlled by the Duan family, the chieftains in other areas have taken the initiative to express their surrender to Zhao Dezhao.

The reason why he did not go to Yangcheng was entirely because Zhao Dezhao needed a reputation for conquering the country.

However, the problem with Dali has never been that it cannot be defeated here. At least for the founding army of the Song Dynasty, it is enough to be able to defeat this thing.

But although those chieftains surrendered, the work of domesticating them was not easy. Zhao Dezhao not only did not exploit them but also gave them loans. However, how to use these loans and how to achieve the results that Zhao Dezhao wanted was not that easy.

What if a chieftain embezzled the money originally used to build a road?
What if a chieftain deliberately destroys the repaired road?
The interests of ethnic groups and the interests of ethnic rulers are often not the same, and sometimes they are even completely opposite. A southwest region with easy access and convenient transportation is not conducive to the rulers here to maintain their rule, and it is not conducive to them to squeeze the people in the territory and exercise power. Be a blessing.

Therefore, except for a small number of chieftains who are relatively close to Zhennan Mansion and whose roads have been built, and those who are a little further away but agree to become vassals and pay tribute, Zhao Dezhao can just send these people to inspect various ministries, or even be stationed as magistrates or county magistrates. .

The poor mountains and rivers are just that. Every year during the rainy season, except for those areas where roads and drainage channels have been specially built, once the roads in other places are flooded, they will immediately become isolated places.

The court has no control over what these chieftains, who are ostensibly subordinate to the imperial court, do during the rainy season. Therefore, if something happens to these resident officials during this period, they may die of malaria, plague, or even be accidentally killed. The poisonous snakes were dying, and the chieftains couldn't even hand over their bodies.

The reason why the orders of the Duan family in Dali can never leave the capital is precisely because of this. No matter how strong you are, you can only control the local area for half a year at most. Who can take care of the court during the rainy season.

In fact, in ancient history, the entire Greater India region, that is, South Asia and Southeast Asia, has never had any great empires. This is also the reason for great political power. Things like the Mauryan Dynasty and the Ashoka Dynasty can only be short-lived.

During the dry season, I will recognize you as the boss and pay you some protection money. During the rainy season, fuck you. If Li Shimin comes again, I can only lie down in such a bad place, and it is impossible to achieve any political achievements.

From this perspective, the ability of the Ming and Qing dynasties to basically subdue the Yunnan-Guizhou region and convert it back to the original state is truly a reflection of the ultimate assimilation ability of Confucian culture. Of course, the rainy season in the Yunnan-Guizhou region is also different from that in regions farther south. It is indeed shorter, a place like Myanmar, even the Manchu Qing government, which is fanatically obsessed with territory, does not want it.

It is really a very sinister idea to kick all those who dare to write letters to Dali. If Zhao Dezhao treats them well, it will be okay. If Zhao Dezhao deliberately throws them into those uncooperative toasts, then nine times out of ten they will not die. Knowing how he died, Zhao Dezhao could also attack these chieftain tribes who had surrendered in the name of "kill my Song envoy".

Isn't this the way His Highness King Qin has always dealt with things?

On the racecourse, Zhao Guangmei was talking to Zhao Kuangyin:

"The Song Dynasty will not have any problems in our generation. Even in the next two or three generations, there should be no problems within 100 years. But what about 100 years from now? I'm afraid it's really hard to say. Once the interests of the trading houses If we deviate from our royal family, can future generations really tame this fierce horse?"

"Of course, I guess it won't be as chaotic as it was during the Five Dynasties, but there will inevitably still be small-scale bloody conflicts in each generation like the Khitan, or palace coups every now and then, and the imperial power may also be subject to certain restrictions. Even in extreme cases, like the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial edict may not be able to meet the needs of Jingyin."

Zhao Kuangyin thought openly and said: "We can't control the affairs of future generations. Even in the prosperous times of Han and Tang Dynasties, weren't they all in the midst of constant palace coups? They happened in almost every generation, and they could barely maintain it. As long as the imperial court is not destroyed and the Ancestral Temple is not betrayed and destroyed, it will be good. It is a blessing to have peace and prosperity, do you still want to keep it forever?"

In fact, this old Zhao really suffered at the expense of the ancients. In fact, the Song Dynasty really did this kind of thing. The Song Dynasty was an obvious watershed in ancient dynasties. No matter how many faults it had, how cowardly it was, how small it was, At least this dynasty has really managed not to experience major political changes in the past 300 years. It has basically achieved 18 emperors in the two Song Dynasties, all of which were succeeded by the normal death of father and son. It has also basically achieved zero palace coups, and almost no palace coups. No warlords rebelled directly.

Even for the female disasters that have occurred in all dynasties, the two Song Dynasties were much less severe than other dynasties in the past. Even with Liu E's strength, she was not able to be buried in a yellow robe, let alone the court. caused too much damage to the political structure and ecology of the country.

This was almost unimaginable before. After all, even the wise Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had a prince rebel.

To be honest, if Zhao Kuangyin knew better, he would certainly be surprised that the future Song Dynasty would give in and give in so quickly, but if he only looked at it in terms of stability, it would definitely be enough to make him feel gratified.

Moreover, the subsequent Ming and Qing Dynasties actually absorbed a large amount of Song Zhi, and their internal stability was much stronger than that of the previous 1000 years.

It's just that such a result is undoubtedly unsatisfactory for Zhao Guangmei, a time traveler from modern society. Moreover, the Song Dynasty that he has transformed now may not receive such treatment.

Because of this stability, a large part of the reason is really castrated by the castration of military commanders and warriors. Because the leaders of the court, politics, and society gradually changed from warriors to civilian officials, there was such stability.

Moreover, even the stability of the civil servant group is not without cost, because each generation of kings will transfer certain powers to the civil servants below, and the civil servant group will always have a tacit understanding to unite at the turn of the old and the new, slightly eating away some of the monarch's power. , so although the civilian court is stable, it must also face the helpless reality that the power of the king is getting smaller and smaller with each generation.Song Huizong did try to take back power, but the result... It's hard to say whether there is a connection between Jingkang's shame and his takeover of power.

So, is there no solution to this palace coup or military coup?

Of course not. In fact, the more mature political bodies in modern politics will no longer have military coups. In fact, there is a clear dividing line between ancient politics and modern politics.

In 1938, General Zedillo of Mexico led his troops to launch a coup. This was actually a normal thing in Mexico. However, this time in 1938 was different, because this year, the workers spontaneously armed themselves and began to defend their president. , Zedillo was defeated and died the next year, but what he didn't know was that he was actually the last coup d'etat in this country that always carried out coups whenever there was nothing wrong.

Since then, this once-troubled country has maintained political stability without even a single military coup, even during the special era of the 70s and [-]s when Latin America had an average of three coups a month.

You know, in the 100 years since this country was independent, there have been a thousand military coups. This number is even higher than that of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

What made Mexico end the Five Generations and Ten Nations?Their army does not seem to have been emasculated.

Military coups are not the fate of the imperial court. What can truly effectively restrain the military is never a simple decentralization system, nor is it the brutal suppression of generals by civilian officials. It is the people of this country, or more accurately, the common people. Political participation.

The reason why the African region is prone to coups is that political participation is so low. Sometimes a military coup only requires a dozen people to complete.

Because whether the imperial court exists or not, who the president is has nothing to do with the country’s lower-level people, grassroots officials, or even mid-level officials and military officers.

No matter who you love, whoever becomes the emperor, we are all destined to work.

Just like the palace coup in the Tang Dynasty, they are all from your old Li family anyway. What does it have to do with us soldiers who are killing us? Whoever survives this Gu raising competition will be everyone’s long live master. .

It has nothing to do with the officials below.

Common people?Ordinary people don't care about this.

This means that Confucianism is indeed brainwashing. Although the Han Dynasty has always had coups, it has always been alternating between relatives and emperors. A relatively long-lasting regime.

Otherwise, what is the difference between it and the African and Latin American regions?The average number of coups is once every ten years.

To put it bluntly, this is called oligarchy. That is, only a very small number of people affect the highest power of the country. The transfer of power is just a game within the very small ruling class. A very small number of people have decision-making power in the power operation system. , politics has nothing to do with ordinary people, especially grassroots officials.

The same is true for many so-called democratically elected courts, because the people do not even have high voting rates. They seem to have political power, but in fact they do not know the two people who need to vote. The political participation rate is actually extremely low. They may have five years or more. You only participate once in four years, and it’s over when you finish participating. And there are only a few candidates. It’s easy to become confused and turn into an oligarchy again.

In the final analysis, in any political system, the higher the people's political participation, the more stable the politics, and the more difficult it is for a military coup, just like the armed workers in Mexico who defended the presidential palace in 1938. A country with high public political participation Here, if you want a coup, the opponent you face is not just the bodyguards of the highest power, but the true will of the country, which is finally gathered by thousands of ordinary people in the entire country.

This national will is no longer the personal will of a dictatorial monarch.

Political participation does not lie in elections, at least it does not lie in every change of office. What is more important is that it goes deep into the daily lives of the people, especially the local court, grassroots officials, subordinate staff, both above and below. Have a political connection that stays open all year round.

In fact, before Zhao Guangmei traveled through time, the people in his home country actually had a high level of political participation. However, the vast majority of the people only knew about voting, and they had been brainwashed by mainstream Western views for many years, so they did not necessarily know their own level of political participation. Just high.

In an ideal world, the basic necessities of life for the common people should be inseparable from grassroots officials. The grassroots officials in turn influence the decisions of the superiors, and finally come together, making the entire political system work from the bottom up, influencing each other, and compromising with each other, and finally realizing A political hyperstable state.

Of course, this is just an ideal.

And this kind of high political participation actually has a premise, that is, the urban population must be large enough. After all, it is only the urban population that talks about political participation. If people live in rural areas, the word "politics" is like a piece of scattered sand. It really doesn't matter.

In today's Song Dynasty, the urban population has gradually developed. Although there is no clear data on the specific proportion of the urban population, Zhao Guangmei feels that the conditions for political participation should already exist.

"Let me, my second brother, Zhao'er, and even Fang'er, everyone who is qualified to compete for the throne, be put on the same track. Let each of them run an independent government and govern independently. Let the imperial army, commercial banks, and workers... To a certain extent, everyone participates in this political discussion and cooperates with us to a certain extent. In this way, the person who can get the most support and the person with the best political performance will eventually become the successor of our Song Dynasty."

Zhao Kuangyin said: "Then you still have to choose, aren't you sure it's you?"

"Isn't this a method for future generations to establish their ancestors? Once this method is implemented, as long as future generations are not incredibly stupid, our Song Dynasty will continue unbroken for hundreds of generations."

(End of this chapter)