Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 280 The Pride of the Song Dynasty

"Hey~, I still have to fight. Really, I thought I could stop fighting. This matter is all my fault to my second brother. I blame my second brother for messing up the matter."

Xiao Chuo's personality was not very good either. In fact, she hardly smiled during the entire wedding.

The so-called wedding is just to give them a sense of dignity. The real underlying logic is to surrender. No one in power will be in a good mood when surrendering.

It's just that originally, even though the Shulu Department surrendered, they still wanted to give the Liao Kingdom a relatively good outcome as much as possible, and also give history a relatively better outcome, so that the people of the two countries would not suffer from the war as much as possible, so that the Khitan nation could be subjugated but not annihilated. , so that the people of Khitan could transition smoothly and live a good life in the Song Dynasty without becoming second-class citizens.

Of course, the main reason is for their historical reputation as rulers. Reputation is actually extremely useful, and most future generations will rely on it to survive.

The Song Dynasty's promise to treat the people of Liao Kingdom well was also an important reason why they were willing to surrender. The in-laws and trading company shares promised by the Song Dynasty alone were not enough to make them feel at ease and secure.

Relatively speaking, reputation is truly the more important talisman.

For example, if Fu Yanqing hadn't used a series of means during the founding of the Song Dynasty to directly elevate his father, Fu Cunshen, to the level of a martial saint, his family would be praised as loyal and loyal, and the people would even build a sect. In the new Ci Temple, he may not be so relieved to relinquish military power and retire in peace.

Once war breaks out, lives will inevitably be lost, and naturally this reputation may not be maintained.

Zhao Guangmei knew what she was thinking, took her hand and squeezed it a little harder: "Don't worry, I promise you that you did not marry the wrong person, nor did you entrust your dowry to the wrong person."

"Ah."

Xiao Chuo smiled bitterly and lay in Zhao Guangmei's arms: "They say that if you marry a chicken, you will follow the dog. Since I have married you, I am yours. Besides trusting you and loving you, what else can I do? What can you do? But husband, this time, I have seen the shortcomings of the Song Dynasty. "

"What are the flaws of the Song Dynasty? What are the flaws of the Song Dynasty?"

"My husband, don't you think that the people of the Song Dynasty are too arrogant? Especially the policy making of the Song Dynasty is deeply affected by the public opinion of the people. Although Xue Juzheng is no different from an ordinary puppet, after all, he is also an official of our Song Dynasty. Family, if you keep talking, you will be kicked out? Wouldn't this encourage the arrogance of the people?"

Zhao Guangmei nodded: "Indeed, this problem is quite serious."

Zhao Guangmei has tried her best to avoid the influence of public opinion on policy. To be honest, Xue Juzheng was not thick-skinned enough, and it was because he no longer wanted to be this bullshit emperor that he decided to resign in a hurry.

In fact, in order to appease him and set an example for future generations, the commercial bank did give him some shares and gave him a seat on the board of directors. He himself happily built a factory and made fertilizers, and even started a business. A construction team was formed, and a large amount of land was purchased to build greenhouses.

In fact, the technology of glass greenhouses has been mature for a long time, and the Ministry of Household Affairs has even been experimenting with it for several years. However, Xue Juzheng has not promoted it because he has always had more important things to do.

Now he has abandoned his official position and started his own business, so he just started working privately.

After all, he had also been an official, and it was really smooth sailing when he started doing this job. He raised at least hundreds of millions of investments with just a shout, and he was ready to show off his talents.

He said that doing business was much more enjoyable than being an emperor.

Therefore, this matter is essentially Xue Juzheng's independent choice. To put it bluntly, as long as he and Zhao Kuangyin survive for one day, no one in the world will be able to enjoy being emperor.

Didn't you see that there is no emperor in the imperial court now, and even the state system has temporarily become a prime minister-cabinet system?

Only the board of directors of the trading company can really decide the change of throne. Of course, the board of directors will be affected by public opinion, but it is not that big.

Xiao Chuo was still persuading: "Husband, I also know that my eldest brother has a strict order not to offend anyone who writes a letter, but this time, it is indeed a bit too much, right? What's more, it doesn't matter if the people and scholars are so restless, this time Once, even the Forbidden Army was involved. What is this going to do? This has never happened before in all dynasties. What is the difference between this and rebellion or mutiny? "

Zhao Guangmei thought for a while, then smiled and shook her head and said: "It's okay, what I want is the people who enlighten the people's wisdom, not the cows and horses who don't understand anything. Even the ancients knew that it is better to guard against the people's mouth than against the river. The truth is that a dictatorship that rules a garbage dump will achieve nothing."

It will indeed be a little uncomfortable, but there is really no way. Public opinion supervision is still necessary. This is an indispensable step to get rid of the feudal dynasty. It is pure nonsense to just rely on advanced productivity to maintain rule.

The powerful armed forces in modern society are equipped with the most elite equipment in the world and are beaten to death by the Slipper Army who can't even eat enough. They have to cede territory and pay compensation. Anyway, before Zhao Guangmei traveled through time, he heard that the Slipper Military Control Lords wanted 2000 billion. The princes still negotiated the price of U.S. dollars in annual coins as war reparations. They even had to reconcile with Persia to ensure their political security, which also came with many economic terms.

Isn’t this the modern version of the Chanyuan Alliance?

Thanks to the big dog owners, Zhao Guangmei clearly understands why the Northern Song Dynasty was so rich and productive in history, but kept losing.

Who in their right mind would dare to believe this before it happens?

No matter how confident he is as a time traveler, he can never bring the national power gap between the Song Dynasty and surrounding countries to the point where the prince's army and the slipper army are, to put it bluntly.

To put it bluntly, people are always fighting on the battlefield, and the country is always composed of people. How can there be an army that really has no ideas?It's just that I suppress it very hard.

If the rulers don't dare to let the violent machines in their hands have thoughts, they will dare to let you know what it means to be a mob when fighting begins.In feudal rule, no matter how powerful it seems on the surface, it will actually be as brittle as paper. Facing an enemy with even a little bit of faith, it will instantly turn into a paper tiger.

"Of course, there should still be some control, at least to guide public opinion to a certain extent."

Xiao Chuo said: "But this is really the weakness of my Song Dynasty. I also know that since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the national power has been booming, the people are living a prosperous life, and technological changes are also changing with each passing day. However, because of this, I The people of Song Dynasty have an almost extreme arrogance."

"Let's take this incident as an example. No matter how you say it, the Liao Kingdom is a big country that controls millions of people. It is all because of your strategizing that it can peacefully surrender now. Even I can see that you have given so much for this day. We have been digging holes for more than ten years, but what about the people? The people don’t understand your difficulties at all. Are they really dealing with Xue Juzheng? They are obviously dissatisfied with you. "

"Throughout the ages, those who govern the country and the people and are as benevolent as you can't be said to be rare. There are none at all. Such prestige should also be unprecedented since ancient times. They obviously don't understand anything, but they didn't see you. After more than ten years of hard work, everything seems to be taken for granted.”

"The Liao Kingdom is a big country. It is inevitable that there will be resistance to the merger of the two countries, and it is impossible not to resist. Do these people think that state affairs are too easy? The people of this generation have still endured hardships. When the next generation grows up, people who have never experienced hardship and don’t know what life was like before the Song Dynasty, they may take all this for granted. I’m afraid that by then, they will not only be arrogant, but hypocritical.”

Zhao Guangmei hugged her and said with a smile: "Is it hypocritical? In fact, it's quite good. I've thought about it. This person, the better his life is, the more hypocritical he is, and the richer the people's life is. Maybe more people will criticize the court. This is not necessarily a bad thing. No matter what my eldest brother and I do, the people will definitely understand and forgive us, because we are still totalitarians. People see When I was a totalitarian, I would still look at the things we did well, but in fact I had done a lot of evil, such as letting too much water, which caused the gap between the rich and the poor to be too wide, and unknowingly increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. Song Dynasty introduced the model of big city politics, and the more common people living in small cities and villages below were left unattended."

"But after my eldest brother and I die, other emperors and prime ministers will no longer be centralizers. Naturally, the standards and requirements will be raised accordingly. The new generation of people who were born in the Song Dynasty and grew up in the Song Dynasty will not know the suffering of the past. Maybe we have to scold the rulers of the imperial court for their incompetence every day. As you said, the government of the Song Dynasty was greatly affected by public opinion. These public opinions will inevitably be transmitted to the commercial banks from the bottom up, so this people It’s hypocritical, the requirements for the imperial court are very high, and it will only become more and more difficult for the imperial court to be in charge.”

Xiao Chuo smiled and said: "Sure enough, you can see things more clearly than me. Aren't you worried about this? Maybe these people will scold you in the future."

Zhao Guangmei laughed loudly: "Worried? Why should you worry? What do you think is the biggest criterion for evaluating whether a court is good or bad? Is it to keep the people fed and clothed without being invaded by foreign enemies? That is the most basic. This is I have already completed the first step, which is to make the people live a prosperous life? But who will judge the prosperity? How much money is earned, how can one have a head? Or should Qingshi leave a name? But Qingshi is a little girl who can be dressed up by others. "The reason why it is difficult for people to learn lessons from history is because most of the time what we see is dressed up history."

Xiao Chuo also became interested after hearing this: "Then what are the criteria for evaluating the quality of the imperial court?"

"The greatest pride of a court is to cultivate more and more hypocritical people. Only people who have a high degree of trust in the court will really ask hypocritical questions to the court, and will be angry with the court over trivial matters. Because they will believe that people above them can hear their appeals, and even make corrections after hearing them."

"Only those who live a good life have the right to be pretentious. My mother said that when he was young, all he thought about every day was how to have enough food for the whole family, and he had no time to think about other things. You know, my father was giving birth to me. He was already the commander of the Crane Control Army before."

"What are the people of the Song Dynasty thinking about today? Haha, an ordinary housewife in Kaifeng City probably thinks more than my mother thought back then."

"To put it bluntly, what happened this time was that the Khitans entered the Song Dynasty and killed some border residents. This kind of thing didn't happen on the border before the founding of the Song Dynasty. Isn't it just that my second brother lost a battle on the grassland? , the main force of the Song Dynasty was not lost at all. How is it compared to the previous dynasty? Chai Rongshi's army was surrounded and suppressed by the Khitans, and even Shi Yanchao was killed. Didn't it also delay his reputation as a wise king? He is a wise king, better than me and How about brother?"

"Only a hypocritical person would beat his chest for a little failure in the distance. Only a hypocritical person would be furious over a few unrelated lives on the border. Only a hypocritical person would put such high demands on the court. However, throughout the ages, only our Song Dynasty court has been able to raise such hypocritical people."

"Perhaps one day, ordinary people will be so hypocritical that they will even care about air quality, water quality, wild animals, and other boring things when they are full, which will make me sad. It will be hard for the successors, but so what? Isn’t it the greatest pride of our Song Dynasty to have such hypocritical people?"

Xiao Chuo was thoughtful after hearing this.

This man of my own never thinks on the same channel as others, and always takes a hundred years as the time scale. Perhaps, this is called seeing thousands of miles clearly?
"It's also my pride to have you."

………………

Three or four days later, Zhao Guangyi finally escaped from the front line in embarrassment.

La was shaking her head, as if someone had robbed her.

Zhao Kuangyin quickly looked around the man carefully, and when he was sure that he was nothing serious and only suffered a slight injury from an arrow in the butt, he became furious and asked him to treat his brother well. A kick.

Fortunately, the front line was not corrupted by this defeat. The powerful factions in the Liao Kingdom must have been careful now. Yelvxian was not in a hurry to leave. Instead, he gathered troops everywhere and even tried to attack Ji. In the end, the state capital simply attacked Liaoyang Prefecture, the base of the Shulu Department, and captured it.

But fortunately Brother Yelvxiu did not lose his mind. After the battle, he went back to Datong Mansion. It is said that Guo Jindu has already led troops to Datong Mansion. He was very determined to surrender to the Song Dynasty, but he did not This is just a title.

As for why he surrendered to the Song Dynasty and still wanted to kill Zhao Guangyi, it was all a misunderstanding.Besides, people don’t want to surrender before doing it, but they want to surrender after doing it, isn’t it okay?
Now that Brother Yelu Xiu has stabilized his position, there is no chance of any changes happening in the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun. Han Derang is still in charge of Youzhou and serves as a stay-at-home officer in Youzhou.

It seems that except for Zhao Guangyi who made a lot of troubles and showed his big eyes, the Jurchens were the only ones who were unlucky this time.

Of course, Yelvxian's troops also swelled because of this. This defeat caused many of the losers in the Liao Kingdom to sway significantly again.

In the past half a month, the Forbidden Army was finally almost ready.

"Third brother, after all, the Liao Kingdom is full of tribes and is relatively complicated. This battle still needs to be fought to scare Xiao Xiao. The most suitable thing for this battle is for you to go and take your father-in-law with you."

"You won't go? Recovering Yanyun and unifying China is your lifelong pursuit."

"Haha, it's not the same for you or me. It's more suitable for you to go than for me. Besides, I've changed my pursuit a long time ago. Daliao is nothing. I want to give future generations a next one that's as big as the sun. A territory that cannot be left behind.”

(End of this chapter)