Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 258 The perfect system for the Song Dynasty
"What do you mean? Don't you want to be the emperor? How old will you be when I am sixty? You are exactly 39. Besides, I may not live to be sixty. This policy of yours is simply It's inexplicable. If you don't want to be the emperor, then why are you still the prince? What's more, there is Zhao'er. You can't be the prince, let alone him. What kind of prince do you let him be? You... this It’s just a little too silly.”

Zhao Kuangyin was almost going crazy. His third brother would act like this if he didn't pay attention and let his gaze relax.

In addition, although Zhao Kuangyin did not understand it thoroughly, he could still understand it. He knew that he was for the long-term peace and stability of the Song Dynasty, and he also approved the separation of the family temple and the Ancestral Temple. In this case, the Song Dynasty would one day destroy them. The incense of the Zhao family will not be cut off.

People who came from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms would not think that their family's world would last forever. They would have such unrealistic spring and autumn dreams. If they could have a century-old dynasty, they would be smiling.

In fact, although the period from the Anshi Rebellion to the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties were turbulent times, it was indeed a critical period for China's social, political, and even economic and cultural collective transformation. The reforms carried out during this period had much less resistance than other dynasties. many.

The officials, the people, and even the emperor himself have no historical baggage, because history has been beaten to pieces long ago, which fully proves his unreliability. Everyone's demands are not too high, and there are no vested interest groups at all.

But people under 40 are not allowed to be emperor, which is actually a bit weird.

In fact, the average life expectancy of ancient people is about forty.

After hearing this, Zhao Guangmei smiled and said: "Zhao'er, the crown prince, is not originally fighting for the next generation, but should be fighting for the next generation. As for me, I may not necessarily be the emperor."

"What do you mean? If you don't want to be the emperor, then what will you do after I die? Even if I pass the throne to my second son, you will definitely ignore him. Isn't this just a waste of taking off your pants and farting?"

Zhao Guangmei shook his head and said: "I carried out so many reforms, especially the separation of family and country, in order to decentralize the monarch's power. Once the monarch's power is decentralized, then I will definitely centralize power on the business side to protect our Zhao family for generations to come. of."

"Commercial banks? Centralization of power? Do you... think that the control of commercial banks is more important than the control of the imperial court?"

"Let's complement each other, brother. The city's population is increasing. Bureaucrats, workers, and soldiers will soon form different interest groups. The court's work can no longer be as simple and crude as before. The world has changed since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Such frequency is not unrelated to this, but I think that it is not a big deal even if our Zhao family no longer sits on the throne. It is even possible for any generation not to want to do it and deliberately let others do it for fun, but the commercial bank But we cannot let go of the control for a moment. This thing is in our hands. To put it bluntly, the emperor can be the emperor if he wants to be, and not if he doesn’t want to be. But once the trading house is lost, his life will really depend on others. Hands on."

"As for the emperor, whether 40 is too old and 60 is too impatient, that depends on you, brother. In your opinion, what is the main job of the emperor? What is most needed? What qualities are they? And most importantly, what does the Crown Prince do and what should he prepare for?"

"Emperor, what does the emperor do? It mainly depends on what kind of person the emperor is. But as far as I am concerned, the most important and necessary thing for an emperor is to understand the underlying situation. Everyone How do yamen work specifically and what is the relationship between ministers? Only in this way can we not be confused about big things and dare to let go of small things."

"Well, brother, do you think it is difficult to be an emperor?"

Zhao Kuangyin thought for a while and said truthfully: "It is not difficult for me to be the emperor. After all, I was born in Jiamaying, Luoyang. I was born in the army and grew up in the army. I am also a soldier of Guo Wei. Our family can be considered General, at least in matters in the army, I am in charge. After I released my military power over a glass of wine, at least the main generals in the Forbidden Army were promoted by me personally. Even if I smell it with my nose, I can smell the trouble in the military."

"But the same cannot be said for civilian officials. In fact, as you know, the military used to look down on those civilian officials. During the previous dynasty, I only got along well with Xue Juzheng. He was an alternative among civilian officials and was particularly good at drinking, so I talked with him. We have a good relationship with the good drinkers. As for Lu Yuqing and the others, they were just minor officials in the previous dynasty, but it doesn't matter, as long as the military power is always in their hands, the civilian officials can't change the world."

Zhao Guangmei said: "Brother, you are too humble. Of course, you are not as good at controlling civil servants as you are with the Forbidden Army, but at least you always understand the operating logic of these civil servants and some of the explicit and hidden rules. At least It’s not easy to lie to you.”

"That's true. I'm not saying that I'm very smart, but at least I'm not that easy to deceive. In this case, those who want to deceive me will naturally have to think about it. If they don't succeed, I will kill them. of."

Zhao Guangmei nodded and said: "Yes, but the descendants of our Zhao family are not so lucky. Even Zhao'er can barely be said to have been born in a military camp, but did he grow up in a military camp? As for Fang'er , and even in the future, my children may really be raised in the hands of women in the palace. What is going on in the court, what is going on in the world, what the soldiers are thinking, what the people are thinking, are not caused by Just fool the people around you."

As he said this, Zhao Guangmei couldn't help but sigh.

In fact, in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, the emperors became more and more incompetent starting from Zhenzong. Especially Renzong of Song Dynasty, he was truly the emperor in the eyes of civil servants. It is estimated that his achievements far surpassed the Qin Emperor and Han Wu in an instant. That was really a civil servant. Believe whatever you say, and the power in your hands was gradually released. The court became more and more pragmatic and less and less pragmatic. In the end, the Northern Song Dynasty had to "share the world with the scholar-bureaucrats" rather than with the people. The world is under heaven.

He may also feel that he is doing a good job.

What's even more vicious is that after he qualified, the civil servants gave him the temple title of "Renzong". This kind of temple title is basically the most qualified except for the founding king, so that future generations will unconsciously think that this is the right person. Good emperor, I want to learn from Emperor Renzong, and later generations of civil servants can also mold him in the direction of an emperor's model, so as to teach their contemporary emperors.

This is how civil servants tame the emperor. It is essentially no different from taming a dog. "Under the previous centralized politics, when new emperors became princes, they often did nothing except princes, and they could not even decide anything. If they took more control, they would be faced with the fact that your father is not dead yet. It's embarrassing, and some people have never been a prince before becoming emperor. The choice of prince is not determined by their political ability, but by etiquette, but by who is the eldest son. If you don't look at who is the eldest son, then It’s simply ridiculous to see which child the old emperor likes more.”

Zhao Kuangyin said: "So, you created such a princely system, just to allow future generations to accumulate experience and prestige in the position of prince, and to introduce a competition mechanism? This is different from those grassland peoples, such as Turks, Xiongnu, and Xianbei. What difference does it make to the Khitan now? Are we not afraid that they will fight against each other and fight with each other with swords?"

"Don't be afraid. There is no need to involve military power in the competition between princes. In other words, we should establish a rule that princes who have military power are not qualified to be princes. Of course, there is also the second principle, which is not to kill ministers, that is, third-rank officials. The above ministers cannot be killed under any circumstances, and they cannot even be demoted if they are not corrupt. Haven't you always done this? In this way, the intensity of the struggle between the princes can be well limited."

It should be said that the Qing Dynasty did a pretty good job in this regard. It fully combined the dual advantages of the grassland people and Confucian civilization, allowing the princes to fully compete in each generation, and at the same time controlled the competition for the heir apparent without causing military coups or conflicts over flesh and blood. Kill each other.

"Of course, that's not enough. The most important thing, the fight for the throne, must have a clear standard of judgment, and the monarch's power must also be subject to certain restrictions. In other words, everything must have a referee."

"Business firm?"

"Yes, a trading company."

"How to judge the prince? The emperor has no say, but you have the final say? Just say you can be the emperor? It's fine if you want to be the emperor. Anyway, after I die, no, you may not even wait for me to die. It's up to you to have the final say in the Song Dynasty. You can be the emperor or the supreme emperor as you like. I can't understand your brain, but what about you after you? Aren't they all the same?"

"All the shareholders of the commercial bank have the final say, not just the major shareholders, but also the small shareholders, and not just the prince. From now on, I and the prince of the Song Dynasty should try our best to exercise their power in the yamen. Not only the prince, but all yamen at all levels should Accepting ratings from commercial banks, or in other words, every major decision-making and major project of the imperial court should have a private feedback system during the implementation stage. That is, every year, commercial banks need to rate the implementation of large-scale projects of the imperial court, every year. "

"In my vision, the future heir to the Song Dynasty must have more than ten years of experience in implementing large-scale government affairs, such as Zhao'er's current Southwest Development Project, Er Ge's Luoyang New Capital Construction Project, etc. Wait, these projects will eventually be evaluated by commercial banks. When the annual evaluations are compiled together, they will naturally become the basis for the old monarch to choose his heir. When the old emperor dies, these reports accumulated year by year will naturally be It will also become an important basis for choosing the new emperor."

"Of course, it's okay for the old emperor to be more willful. Under this model, if the difference between the two princes is not big, the power to choose will naturally return to the emperor. But if the difference is big and he insists on having his own way, then Of course it won’t work. If it’s more serious, there is a possibility that the trading company will not send people to force people to leave.”

"As for the owner of the commercial bank, naturally it will not be me, but all the shareholders of the commercial bank. What I can guarantee is that in this process, even hundreds of years later, our Zhao family will still have absolute influence among the shareholders of the commercial bank. But it’s not necessarily someone who controls the business.”

"In the next few years, I will try to recover as much of our Zhao family's shares in the business bank as possible, and strive to stabilize it at more than [-]% and less than [-]%. This [-]% does not belong to me alone, but to the three of us. Among the other shareholders, those with more shares and greater influence are, to put it bluntly, our relatives. If nothing else happens, they will all be married to our Zhao family for generations, forming a true relationship where you have me and I have you. Alliance.”

"In addition to concentrating the equity of the commercial bank in our Zhao family, it will further spread to the Forbidden Army, and even establish a public trading platform to publicly issue some shares of the commercial bank and allow some shares to be traded freely to attract private capital to join. "

"Finally, and most importantly, although only one of each generation of princes will eventually become the new prince, the remaining ones can and must join the board of directors of the commercial bank and be responsible for holding part of the Zhao family's shares in the future. So if nothing else goes wrong, the people who will really control the business after me should be the former princes of our Zhao family, some of the highest-ranking elders of the Zhao family, those with some prestige in the military, who have broken bones and connected muscles with our family. Generals who have been intermarriage for generations, plus a handful of big merchants who have made fortunes through various means among the people, these people together form the ruling class of our Song Dynasty."

"After me, it is probably very difficult for anyone to have absolute control over the trading house. However, the trading house does not need anyone to have absolute control, as long as it is controlled by a group of people from our Zhao family. In this way, even if one day Da Song is defeated If someone overthrows him, our Zhao family can at least have a good death."

"Of course, the essence of a commercial bank is an industrial and commercial organization. To be honest, they don't care who is the emperor, but they will definitely care about urbanization, the proportion of citizen population, industry and commerce, markets, raw materials, etc. These people will definitely push the big The Song Dynasty went in this direction. As long as this direction is right and it will not go back in history, the people's wisdom will definitely become more and more open. In fact, it doesn't matter."

In fact, the fundamental purpose of all the efforts Zhao Guangmei made was to turn the Song Dynasty into Li Jiapo. For this, he didn't even have to be the emperor, it really worked.

That is to say, the Zhao family will always be the masters of the Song Dynasty, but the Zhao family does not necessarily want to be the emperor of the Song Dynasty. If one day the country fails and society changes, the Zhao family can also settle down smoothly.

It can be said that it is excellent for the country, the family, the people, and the civil and military officials. The people will become more and more open-minded. It will not take long before they will definitely evolve from the feudal era to the imperialist era. As for after imperialism, they will I'm not sure, but I should be sure of landing smoothly.

perfect political system.

At least it was the political reform that was most suitable for them, the Song Dynasty, and for his ruling class.

(End of this chapter)