"When I first ascended the throne, the Shang Dynasty was already facing invasions from all directions, including the Ghost Fang in the north, the Qiang in the west, the Jiumiao in the south, and the Dongyi, the enemy of the Central Plains Dynasty. In order to fight against foreign enemies, I carried out military reforms, first by promoting a large number of new generals, and then by massively expanding the army, especially the chariots and elephant arrays. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "I know that the war between the Central Dynasty in the Central Plains and the surrounding minority regimes has always run through the history of China, some ethnic minorities have invaded the Central Plains, and finally been integrated by the Central Plains culture, and some have always fought against the Central Plains regime. ”

"Yes, the struggle between the Central Dynasty and the surrounding minority regimes began as early as the Xia Dynasty, and lasted for nearly a thousand years during the Shang Dynasty. My succession to the throne was even more crisis, not only did I have to face invasions from many surrounding peoples, but I also had to guard against the seizure of power by various tribes within the Shang Dynasty, as well as the control of the people of the Shang Dynasty by the divine power. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "The Shang Dynasty, like the Xia Dynasty, belonged to a tribal state, and a nation or tribe was a country. As the central dynasties, the Xia and Shang kingdoms actually controlled a very limited area. ”

"In addition to its own direct territory, the Shang Dynasty also controlled many 'Fang States' established by other ethnic groups or tribes. These states submitted to the central dynasty when our Shang dynasty was strong, and confronted the central dynasty when the dynasty's power was weak. The Shang Dynasty was always surrounded by various surrounding tribes and ethnic groups, so it often fought wars with these surrounding forces. Especially in our Shang Dynasty, the external aggression was even stronger, and it once forced our Shang Dynasty to move its capital five times. The entire history of the Shang Dynasty is a history of wars between merchants and surrounding peoples. This contradiction reached its peak during my succession. Therefore, I swear that I must defeat all the enemies, destroy the enemies once and for all, so that the Shang Dynasty will no longer have foreign enemies to peep, and I will establish immortal merits. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "Your ambition and self-confidence made you constantly wage wars, emptied the treasury of the Shang Dynasty, overdrew the center of the people of the Shang Dynasty, and finally ended up destroying the country and dying." ”

The Emperor's expression was a little gloomy, and he eased up for a moment, and then said: "I was a hot-blooded young man at that time, I was young and strong, smart and witty, and wise, I had extraordinary intelligence, courage, superb political means and a tough iron fist that others did not have. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "Your dynasty still has many loyal ministers and good generals. ”

King Su said: "Yes, my father has left you many capable people, my two elder brothers Wei Ziqi, Wei Zhong, Uncle Bigan, Prime Minister Shang Rong, and Taishi Wen Zhong, they are all my right-hand men, helping me in my most difficult time." ”

An Xiaoyu said: "Then why didn't you listen to their advice later?"

The king smiled bitterly: "When I first succeeded to the throne, I followed the advice of my courtiers, and we carried out drastic reforms together. The law at that time provided for the hereditary system of slave owners and aristocracy, the royal family

Members and nobles benefited greatly, and after obtaining benefits, members of the royal family and nobles often intervened in court politics in order to protect vested interests, and they were insatiable to have greater benefits. So I took bold reforms, abolished the hereditary rights of the nobility and reclaimed their domains. The loss of the territory meant that the nobility and members of the royal family were no longer able to organize a confrontation with the central government. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "I understand this, many emperors have to kill heroes after the founding of the country or after succeeding to the throne, it is not that these emperors are ungrateful, but those heroes help the emperor overthrow the old forces and become a new force, always threatening the emperor's dominance, the descendants of those heroes are often more rampant and arrogant than the original old nobles, Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang have killed heroes on a large scale, and some of the better ones are Zhao Kuangyin's cup of wine to release the military power and let go of a group of heroes. ”

King Su said: "The adult's opinion is very unique, and the villain thanks the adult for your understanding." ”

An Xiaoyu said: "I'm not defending you, I'm just talking about things, you can go on." ”

"The members of the royal family and the great nobles whose interests were lost resisted fiercely, and even launched an armed rebellion, and they also colluded with the religious theocracy led by the great priest. In the Shang Dynasty, the state had to carry out frequent sacrificial activities, and everything had to be divined, from the use of foreign troops to the killing of a chicken, all of which had to be 'asked to the gods' through divination, so the power of the religious theocracy was extremely great. The religious theocracy led by the Great Priest often used divination and other religious means to interfere in the government's affairs, which seriously threatened the stability of the royal power. For example, Xibohou Jichang often used divination to deceive people's minds, so I carried out a firm religious reform, punished a group of religious personnel who committed crimes, and at the same time clearly stipulated that politics and religion should be separated, and religion should not interfere in the secular political affairs of the state, and this endangered the interests of religious groups. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "There are a lot of things in the world that are falsely rumored, for example, there is a Qin Shi Huang in your later life, who was falsely accused of burning books and pit Confucianism, but in fact he burned all the books against the Qin Dynasty, and buried alive dozens of swaggering and deceitful scholars. ”

The king continued: "Seeing that I have lowered people's belief in religious theocracy, the religious theocracy led by the great priest on the one hand has made a meteorite outside the sky, the gods have prophesied, and the heavens have sent disasters, to spread rumors that I am acting against the sky, and the gods and ghosts are angry, and on the other hand, they have openly colluded with the aristocratic group to carry out military chaos. Of course, I could not be soft-hearted, and an unprecedented and bloody suppression was carried out against them, many nobles and clergy, including the high priest, were executed, and the capital was bloody, and the priesthood who was loyal to me was appointed as the new high priest. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "I know this history, at that time, several tribal leaders rebelled, such as Jiuhou and Ehou three kilometers away, and Daji's father Su Hu. ”

King Su said: "Yes, I will eradicate the forces led by the royal family, the great nobles, and the great priests in one go, and they will no longer be able to pose a threat to my monarchy in the future." I eliminated the opponents within the imperial court

After that, I began to straighten out the domestic economy, encourage production, reduce taxes and labor, gradually improved the national economy, increased the national strength, and filled the national treasury, and finally had the capital and situation to wage war against foreign countries. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "At that time, there were many minority regimes that threatened your Shang Dynasty greatly. ”

"Yes, there were four main minority regimes that posed a direct threat to the Shang Dynasty at that time, namely Guifang, Xiqiang, Jiumiao in the south, and Dongyi, the enemy of the Central Plains Dynasty. After I rectified the Shang Dynasty and stabilized the hearts of the people, the first target of the war was the old enemy in the north. ”

When the king said about fighting, a pair of gloomy eyes began to light up, as if he had returned to his youth.

King Su continued: "The ghost side is a minority in the northwest of the Shang Dynasty, when my ancestor Wu Ding once sent three or five thousand people to defeat the ghost side and escape, and did not dare to invade the Central Plains for a long time, after a few hundred years, the strength of the ghost side gradually recovered, and began to encroach and harass on the border of the Shang Dynasty. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "There is this problem in the battles between Huaxia and the surrounding minority regimes, the minority regimes rely on the open terrain of the grassland and desert, and the war horses are handsome, and it is difficult for the Central Plains infantry to find them for a decisive battle and completely eliminate them. ”

King Su said: "Yes, I sent a large number of soldiers, consumed a lot of grain, grass and people, and finally drove the ghost party out of the northwest. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "After defeating the ghost side, didn't you let the people recuperate?"

King Xuan said: "No, the victory of the ghost side, let my prestige rise unprecedentedly, at the same time my arrogance has also swelled to the extreme, I want to use one victory after another to wash away the weakness and shame of my grandfather and father, I want to become the first emperor of civil and martial arts through the ages, I am not the obstruction of the ministers, take advantage of the victory to pursue, launched a war against Dongyi, in order to enter the army and transport grain and grass materials as soon as possible, I even built a road from Chaoge to Dongyi." ”

An Xiaoyu said: "You are too hot-headed. ”

The king of Xuan looked excited, and said: "Yes, I was full of achievements at that time, Dongyi people are good at archery, but the arrows of our merchant army are made of bronze, delicate and sharp, and the range is long, the lethality is large, our first weapon is more advanced than Dongyi." And we also have chariots and elephants in our merchant combat units. The sharp axle tip of the chariot can easily cut off the body of the Dongyi people, the elephant's tusks can easily pierce the chest of the Dongyi people, and then throw the corpses into the air, the Dongyi army fell down in batches, and the metal arrows of our merchant army can easily shoot through the chest of the Dongyi people, but the bamboo arrows of the Dongyi people are blocked by the armor of our soldiers. The Shang army under my command rushed to kill countless Dongyi people like the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, and we fought all the way to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, subduing most of the Dongyi tribes and capturing thousands of Dongyi people, and the Shang Dynasty achieved an unprecedented victory in hundreds of years. Since then, the Shang Dynasty's Central Plains and the southeast of the transportation has been developed, the relationship between the central and southeastern regions has been close, the culture of the Central Plains region has gradually spread to the southeast region, so that the local people have taken advantage of the superior natural geographical conditions to develop production, the territory of the Shang Dynasty has expanded, the Shang king

The number of the court's people also increased. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "King Xu, you pacified Dongyi and hit the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Central Plains culture also spread to the lower reaches of the Huai River and the Yangtze River Basin, which created the prerequisites for the formation of a multi-ethnic unified country in China later. However, to open up the territory and expand the territory, you have to use soldiers, and the use of soldiers will consume national strength, and you will have to recruit soldiers, which will lead to the boiling of public resentment, and the prosperity will decline, you have overdrawn the national strength of the Shang Dynasty, which led to the demise of the Shang Dynasty, King Xu, do you regret it now?"

The king squatted on the ground with his head in his hands, and said with hatred in his mouth: "I only regret one thing, I didn't listen to Fei Zhong's words and killed Ji Chang." ”

(End of this chapter) I want to talk about "The Supreme Demon Saint of the Other World" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~