Hearing Bai Shi say that the greatest is Emperor Weide, Mo Longxiang frowned, and thought of the image of Prince Gong who was disrespectful to the old man, and asked strangely: "Why?" ”

Bai Shi said with some seriousness: "Your royal family has been inherited for nearly two hundred years, and there are many kinds of harsh government and malpractices, I have a word of conscience, Emperor Vader has done something to make you still able to maintain this." ”

"Did something? How did we hide in Tibet, evading Vader? Our family spent half a year on the ship in order to escape the assassination of Emperor Vader. Mo Longxiang said calmly.

"If it really does, I hope that Emperor Vader will continue to reign." Bai Shi said.

Mo Longxiang was a little puzzled and asked, "How do you say that?" ”

"I've said so many disrespectful things today, and you're going to punish me?" Bai Shi asked.

"Let's just say that, heaven and earth know but don't speak, you and I know and control each other." Mo Longxiang said.

"Emperor Vader owes three credits." Bai Shi raised three fingers.

"First, when Emperor Vader ascended the throne, there were nearly more than 10,000 people in the royal family and nearly 100,000 people with noble status, and when Emperor Shuozheng ascended the throne, there were only more than 100 people in the royal family and noble status.

Second, after the Southern Expedition, Emperor Weide assigned all the land and resource rivers of the Southern Expedition to the empire, and did not allow them to be bought and sold, and at the same time created the 'right to cultivate farmland' and 'the right to use merchants', which had no right to buy and sell land, and distributed it to the people in the north at a price lower than 5-10% of the land at that time. As a result, the price of land in the north fell sharply, and some large landowners had to sell their land, taking advantage of this trend, Emperor Weide used the treasury to buy land, and gradually promoted the "right to cultivate farmland" and "the right to use business" in the north, and now the land of the imperial household department has reached as much as 70% of the land of the empire, and the drawbacks of land annexation in the past dynasties have been solved, benefiting the empire for a hundred years;

Third, to enhance the status of merchants, to abolish all the laws that treated merchants differently, to imitate the establishment of commercial laws in Europe, to encourage those who were deprived of the title of nobles and large landowners in the north to invest in factories, in order to protect the interests of domestic merchants, Emperor Weide did not allow foreign businessmen to do business in the empire, and suddenly released the imperial capital that had been suppressed for a long time, and this merit was established in the future. ”

Mo Longxiang said: "I didn't expect that Emperor Weide's three things that shook the country's foundation in the chaos of the world are so great merit as you said here. ”

Bai Shi said: "Have you thought about it, if it really shakes the foundation of the country and disrupts the world, why do Zhang Yihuai and Zhang Zhimin swear to defend it?" Why didn't your grandfather not only not change, but even continue to reform? The only problem for Emperor Vader was to carry out reforms when Emperor Shuozheng held military power and did not surrender it. This first thing offended the imperial family and nobles, the second thing offended the northern gentry and tyrants, and the third thing offended the foreign powers. ”

Mo Longxiang: "Wen Yanbo, the privy envoy of the Song Dynasty, once said: 'Governing the world with scholars and doctors, not with the people'. The scholar doctor refers to the so-called royal princes and nobles and those gentry and tyrants. But now what other powers have been joined. ”

Bai Shi looked at Mo Longxiang and asked, "In your heart, what is the relationship between the country, the emperor, and the scholars?" ”

Mo Longxiang was stunned, he had never thought about this matter.

Bai Shi then asked: "Do you know the three major cases?" ”

Mo Longxiang: "Around the 29th year of the empire, Emperor Shuozheng appointed three major cases: the Dinghai case, the Du Zuoyi case, and the Ningku case. Tens of thousands of officials and courtiers were involved, and there were more than 10 officials above the second rank alone......"

"Your father should have told you that this was Emperor Shuozheng's attack on the remnants of Emperor Weide of the previous dynasty? Or tell you that this is the so-called hero of the cleanup? Bai Shi asked with a smile.

"What do you want to say?" Mo Longxiang asked.

"The three major cases show that after Emperor Shuozheng stabilized, he attacked the scholars."

"What?" Mo Longxiang's interpretation of Bai Shi is quite of a nature.

"The Dinghai case refers to the collusion between Wang Bing, a relict of the Weide Dynasty, and the foreign powers, so that the foreign powers later fought two wars with the empire on this ground; In the case of Du Zuoyao, the military marshal Du Zuoyao raised private soldiers in Nanyun Province with the intention of rebellion, and a large number of northern landlords participated in the collection of donations and soldiers; In the Ningku case, another marshal Cai Qibing and some royal nobles embezzled money from Ningku, and were thoroughly investigated. ”

(Ningku - the name of the Imperial Military Government's military treasury, later changed to the household department according to the military region's allocation due to the "Ningku case", and the military government does not set up an independent military treasury)

"Are the scholars threatening His Majesty the Emperor?" Mo Longxiang asked.

Bai Shi shook his head and said: "It is because of the thousands of years of imperial system that the emperor must stand on the opposite side of the scholars, or the prosperity and development of the empire, the thousand-year-old inheritance, is contrary to the interests of the scholars. ”

"What do you mean by this that the doctor is harmful? How would the empire run without scholars? And why is it that the scholars are contrary to the interests of the state? The country is good, won't they be better? One day when the dynasty changes, won't it affect the pond fish? Mo Longxiang asked.

Bai Shi shook his head and said, "Because the emperor is just a person, a family. Scholars are different, they are all scholars. The emperor and the continuation and development of the family and the empire are tied together, and as long as the scholar surrenders quickly, you don't know the example of Pu Shougeng at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. ”

"Your statement is really earth-shattering!" Mo Longxiang commented.

"That's why I asked you, in your heart, what is the relationship between the country, the emperor, and the scholars?" Bai Shidao.

"The relationship between the tiger, the stick, the chicken?" After Mo Longxiang finished jokingly, both of them laughed.

Bai Shi: "When I was studying in Germany, I thought about this issue, you know, the Germans can talk about anything in the beer hall, they talk about the relationship between the country, the king, and the minister, do you know Bismarck, the iron-blooded German chancellor who stepped down a few years ago? ”

"The German chancellor who overthrew the emperor?" Mo Longxiang asked.

"The perspective of your royal family is naturally empty, but in my eyes, Bismarck has actually found a way out of the traditional imperial system, that is, the prime minister with real power and the virtual emperor." The last word, Bai Shi said it to Mo Longxiang word by word.

Mo Longxiang: "More than 200 years ago, the glorious revolution in Britain was not the last meaning? Why do you want the Germans to tell you? ”

Bai Shi shook his head and said, "You still don't understand what I mean. ”

"What do you mean......" Mo Longxiang said here, pointing to the sky, pointing to the earth, and then turning his finger around.

Bai Shi still shook his head and said, "It's too early to say. And, I think, rather than let the empire struggle out of disorder to take a lead, it would be better to ......"

Mo Longxiang said: "We talked deeply, this time I was ordered to recall Zhaojia, what should I do." ”

"Ask for power from your father, you will suffer in Zhaojia, you will suffer because you are not the spokesperson of any aspect, although everyone will list you as under the Taifu, but you are not a descendant of the Taifu, all your actions are not commanded by anyone, you are all made by yourself. To put it bluntly, the waves you tossed in Zhaojia do not have much sustenance in the eyes of the above, and the root of Taifu's faction is still in the authority of Ma Chongshan's rectification of the prison army. ”

Mo Longxiang knew that Bai Shi was right, and nodded, he felt a sense of powerlessness everywhere in Zhaojia, which came from this.

"Under normal circumstances, no matter how much you toss in Zhaojia, it is just a flash in the pan for Taifu, and if Ma Chongshan establishes the authority of the Prison Military Mansion, it will be a real long-term fragrance. So your current brilliance is only because the King of Chu and Cong Wenzhao have crossed the line and killed Ma Chongshan, so Taifu will fully support you and stop the process of King Chu's 'whitewashing', to some extent, King Chu and Taifu have done it. ”

Mo Longxiang asked rhetorically: "Bai Shi, have you really been locked up by me for a few days?" ”

"You go back so quickly, there must be some will, combined with your current state, I will naturally piece it together, Shuozheng Emperor's intentions, I am at the bottom, I can't touch it, but I have been studying all kinds of policies, for some things, especially the holy decree ordered by the emperor, I can probably figure out some of his thoughts."

Mo Longxiang said: "You are thinking about speculating on the holy will. ”

"There's nothing to speculate, although in the past two years, Taifu Zuozheng, but this is not Emperor Shuozheng's attempt to improve the imperial court......

When Mo Longxiang heard this, he retorted: "The emperor didn't ...... because of illness."

"Oh, do you think Emperor Shuozheng is the kind of emperor who relinquishes his authority because of illness?"

When Bai Shi asked this, Mo Longxiang was stunned.

Bai Shi continued: "Why is Taifu Zuozheng's two years so stable, is it because Taifu has not crossed the line?" Indeed, Taifu is the most common minister of the past dynasties, who does not fight for power, does not grab power, understands balance, understands people's hearts, and does not toss. But according to what we just said, if the Taifu doesn't want to, don't the scholars and doctors want to? Don't you want to think about the bureaucracy? The system of the Western imaginary head of state has already spread, which has put great pressure on Emperor Shuozheng in legal theory, and suddenly stopped the reform of the national system, is it not because of the collusion between scholars and foreign powers, and there is a posture of erecting the emperor with the help of the reform of the national system. Now, the post of prime minister of the political affairs hall, the head of the civil ministers, has been suspended for two years, and Emperor Shuozheng ordered to ask for a vote, if I guessed wrong, this is also a helpless announcement under the pressure of the West. ”

"Taifu has been in charge of the family for two years, but it is also the two years when the empire has developed most smoothly, there is no major event, there is no chaos, and the Western powers have not tossed us in the past two years, they have tossed the Qing court, which can be regarded as two years of 'political peace'. By the way, this era name is good, you can use it later.

Bai Shi's sudden joke made Mo Longxiang laugh. Mo Longxiang, who was repeatedly interrupted by Bai Shi's words and had some small emotions, smiled like this, and was resolved by Bai Shi.

Bai Shi: "This peace is not because the bureaucracy is not colluding with the Western powers, but because it is balanced by Emperor Shuozheng. "What do you mean?" Mo Longxiang asked.

Bai Shi smiled and asked, "You don't really think that the emperor is a man of his word, right?" ”

"I'm not that naïve." Mo Longxiang said.