The emperor returned, and everyone found that although he was in the upper court, the lower court reviewed official documents, and recruited ministers to discuss matters, it was no different from the past. But the attentive people still found that His Majesty had changed, laughed less, ate less, spent more time alone, and often wandered, and seemed to still be relieved from the grief of Yuan Miao's departure. made the palace nervous one by one, walking on tiptoe, and not daring to speak loudly, for fear of angering His Majesty.

After Yuan Miao left, Zhao Hao was indeed very depressed, especially during the morning exercise, whether it was boxing or dancing with a gun and stick, he couldn't help but think of Yuan Miaolai, and the result was a loss for no reason. In addition, the daily official affairs of the DPRK and China also made him so busy that he was full of official documents to be reviewed every day, to meet with courtiers, to hold court meetings, etc.

In addition, with the advent of autumn, several major events will also unfold. The Western Army is about to set out for the expedition, and it is necessary to ask how it is trained, how to formulate the battle plan, how to deploy the baggage, and how to coordinate the various units. The renovation of Hangzhou City is also about to start with the end of the rainy season, and he needs to review and finalize the plan. The caravan will set sail again, and he will inquire about it. And the relocation of the prison and the ordnance workshop is basically completed, and he needs to come and guide...... Zhao Yu is not a diligent person, he is not idle every day, where can he still have a good mood.

"Halving, Strike Tribute ......" has been busy in August, the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching again, according to the usual practice of the ministers of the herdsmen everywhere to pay tribute to the palace, this is a good thing, but Zhao Yu did not seem to be happy, with a red pen on the list of smeared annotations.

In China's long history of feudal autocracy, all the local specialties of one side should be paid to the imperial court for the use of the royal family, called tribute, simply put, the ancient royal specialty, mostly rare and precious, prestigious specialties from all over the world, from gold and silver treasures to rare birds and beasts, as long as there are good things in the world, they can be used to pay tribute.

Tribute is not far away in Zhao Hao's previous life, and when you walk on the street, you may come across a sign hanging on a shop with 'so-and-so royal tribute', and the promoters in the mall often say that their products have a long history and were tributes. Especially after the costume film and television dramas repeatedly rendered and displayed the honor and luxury of the emperor's family as a highlight, those things that have been eaten and used by the emperor and ladies are even more sought after.

If the specialty of his hometown was once a product of the ancient royal family, it must be the best of its kind, and there is a kind of "imperial domineering" that cannot be measured by value. These products with a royal flavor bring huge business opportunities and wealth to the workers and creators behind them, and even benefit the local economy where they are located.

However, in ancient times, it was the opposite—the tribute brought only a thousand tears to the producers and the local people, and it was by no means as beautiful as the legends of the literati wrote. Zhao Yu knew in his previous life that the insatiable rulers of the feudal society demanded and forcibly requisitioned tribute from the local people in order to satisfy their own desires, causing the family to be ruined, and the most illustrative of this truth is the two most famous 'tribute express mail' in history: one is that the Tang Dynasty transported lychees for Yang Guifei, "a ride on the red dust and the concubine smiled, and no one knew that it was a lychee"; The second is to pay tribute to the Jiangnan anchovy in the Ming and Qing dynasties, "the wind and dust gallop on the road during the day, and the ice and snow river protection boat on the hot day".

Lychees cannot be stored for a long time, because they will change color and taste and deteriorate over time. Emperor Tang Ming set up a special post station for the people and money, and ordered people to send lychees into the palace like a relay race. This incident laid a solid foundation for the "Anshi Rebellion" that he and the Tang Dynasty under his rule encountered and almost perished. In the Qing Dynasty, the scale of anchovy tribute was more exaggerated than the process of Yang Guifei eating lychees, and there was a special ice cellar in Nanjing, which stood every 30 miles, and hung flags during the day and lights at night, for rapid transmission...... The fish delivery person is not allowed to eat on the way, only eats eggs, wine and ice water, 3,000 miles away, and is required to be delivered within three days.

By the time of this dynasty, the emperor's love for lychees was also too much. Su Dongpo was assigned to Lingnan, and he was optimistic and wrote a famous poem: 300 lychees a day, and he will not hesitate to be a Lingnan person. After his recommendation, Lingnan's lychee became the emperor's designated fruit dessert. During the Xuanhe period of Huizong, the traitor Cai Jing was even more ingenious, and the lychees that were selected from his hometown Xianyou Fengting were planted in a tile urn, transported out of Meizhou Bay by sea ship, and then arrived in Bianjing to give them to Zhao Ji of Song Huizong.

Song Huizong tasted the fresh lychee, and Long Yan was overjoyed, so he gave a poem: the secret transfer created the Min Mountain, and the newly planted lychee pill was forbidden. The cactus dew is condensed under the jade liquid, and the buds are first knotted with crystal pills. Wine vinegar Guoyan is not vermilion powder, and the wind is fragrant and fragrant. Why bother to ride the red dust, and look at the fragrance in this seat. Huizong, who only knows how to paint flowers and birds, actually has the courage to laugh at Tang Xuanzong's "riding the red dust", which really makes the concubines laugh. Just to satisfy the emperor's desire to try new things, he wasted money and worked like this.

It is not only the food that is selected as a tribute, but also the so-called "provincial flowers" of the provinces in ancient times. Yanling plum blossoms are tribute in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the emperor said that it was the first flower in the world, so the people in the whole place had to plant plum blossoms well, and there was no land to plant some miscellaneous grains if they wanted to! When the flowers of tribute from all over the country withered, when the carnival of the emperors ended, the emperor who left the palace returned to the Jinluan Palace, reminisced about the joy brought by the tribute, and tasted a few sips of fine wine and tea from all over the tribute. The weary and faint people have also woken up, and each of them has gone home along the mess, and what awaits them is another year of green and yellow.

As an outstanding modern young man in the 20th century, Zhao Hao naturally understood the dangers of accepting tribute, and in this era, he was even more deeply aware of the great harm to the people. However, it is difficult to eliminate this phenomenon, and even if he is emperor, it is not a will to remove this ill that has lasted for thousands of years.

First of all, politically speaking, tribute is the offering of the subject to the victor, which developed into a culture in ancient times, and it can also be said to be a system and etiquette. That is, as a privilege of the ruling class, but also as a form of assertion of one's own status, forcing the subject to pay tribute to show his authority. This is also a way for the emperor to maintain his rule in feudal society, and wanting to remove it is tantamount to self-destruction.

In feudal society, there are strict differences and hierarchical regulations on the diet of people of different ranks, and those in the lower position, even if they get something that does not belong to their own use, they must also present it to the superior, otherwise it is arrogance. And the special offerings of the feudal era, in addition to the factors such as the high quality of the products and the rare and difficult to find, even the huge growth of melons, fruits and vegetables is not something that ordinary people can enjoy, and must be dedicated to the emperor.

It was also an important source of income for the royal family. As the lord of the world, the emperor must be the best in the world in terms of food and clothing, so the things paid tribute from all over the world are not only gold and silver treasures, rare birds and beasts, exotic flowers and plants, but involve all aspects of daily life, the oil, salt, sauce and vinegar eaten, the wear from the inside to the outside, the pen, ink, paper and inkstone for writing, the charcoal burned, the tea drunk, and even the paper used for Gong Gong are tributes from all over the world, which saves money.

Due to the system and conventions, Zhao Hao can only follow the customs, but there is also a bottom line. He thought that in officialdom, it was normal for people to receive a small gift, but if the value of the gift was too limited, it would be corrupt. In the same way, the emperor received tribute according to the custom, which was the need of the emperor to maintain a normal life and control. Once the emperor accepts excessive tribute and accepts gifts without restraint, it is also a serious act of corruption, and of course it is a crime.

Therefore, since Zhao Yu inherited the throne, he has repeatedly reduced the tributes from various places, and even canceled it once when he was in Qiongzhou. After the recovery of Jiangnan, it was restored, which is not only a necessity for life, but also a sign that the people have changed the sky. However, he has also repeatedly reduced or exempted tributes from various places on the grounds of sympathy for the people's livelihood, and increased purchases in the market to maintain needs.

But because of habit, the local officials wanted to get some rare things to pay tribute, and some of them really expressed their filial piety; The two also have the luck mentality that once the emperor sees the dragon's heart, he will soar. Therefore, he often paid tribute to Zhao Yu in different ways, so that he had to be distracted to deal with this seemingly trivial matter, and write off those things that cost the people and money, and grandstanding, even if they were necessary......

If it is easy to review local tributes, then Zhao Yu can't be cautious about reviewing the death penalty. In ancient times, the execution was generally carried out in autumn and winter, which is often referred to in film and television dramas. The reason why the execution was carried out in the autumn and winter is not clear to anyone, according to the explanation of the masters, it is because it is necessary to conform to the will of heaven.

In the ancient theocratic view of nature, spring and summer were the seasons when all things grow, while autumn and winter were the seasons when trees withered, symbolizing slaughter. Human behavior, including political activities, must conform to the time of heaven, and the same is true of the execution of criminals, otherwise they will be punished by the gods. The emperor is the son of heaven, and he must abide by the will of heaven and act according to the time of heaven. However, Zhao Hao thought that the main consideration was to consider the role of warning, and the peasants were relatively idle in the autumn and winter seasons, which was also convenient for the local officials to mobilize the people to watch, and played a role in setting an example.

Looking at the case files piled up in the study, Zhao Hao really had a headache, these are all things related to human life, and his own pen is a human life, so he can't be cautious, but it is not a small amount of work to read through them all, let alone screen them one by one. So now he spends almost all his time on auditing work after he finishes his daily official duties.

Some people may say, you are stupid, is it necessary to read the case file yourself? The black-faced old bag has always been cut first and then played, and there is no need to tell the emperor in advance, and it will be done after the fact, with your hard work! Then Zhao Hao can only tell you with a wry smile - I have watched too many dramas. First of all, I want to tell you that although Bao Zheng is a native of the Song Dynasty, there is really no 'Bao Gong opera' in the opera of this era.

In fact, "Bao Gong Opera" arose in the Yuan Dynasty, and it was not until the late Qing Dynasty that it finally became a grand spectacle. Over the past hundreds of years, the story of Bao Gong's trial has been compiled into miscellaneous operas, southern operas, scripts, commentaries, Qing Peking operas, and many local operas; In modern times, the Bao Gong case has also been adapted into film and television dramas many times. Countless Chinese have learned about the ancient judicial system and judicial culture through "Bao Gong Opera"; Some scholars have also taken the "Bao Gong Opera" as a sample to analyze the traditional "judicial model of rule by man" and reflect on "the important reasons why China's traditional judiciary has been slow to modernize".

Zhao Hao can only say that drama, as a kind of folk opera that only emerged after the annihilation of the civilization of the Song Dynasty, the stories of "Bao Gong Opera" are almost all made up by the grass field literati, and the judicial scene of the Song Dynasty that they reconstructed on the stage is completely inconsistent with the judicial system of the Song Dynasty. If you think that "Bao Gong Opera" shows the judicial process of the Song Dynasty, then it will be a big joke.

Bao Zheng's case is like the gods in the "Feng Shen Bang" will show the magic weapon, Bao Qingtian of the "Bao Gong Case" also carries the emperor's imperial gifts, all kinds of props on behalf of the highest power, there is only "sword gold medal" in the Yuan miscellaneous drama, and in the legend of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there is a large wholesale of power props: a golden sword, two bronze guillotins, a rusty wood, a golden lion seal, and a twelve royal sticks. The yellow wooden flail and yellow wooden cane of the emperor's relatives and ministers, the black wooden flail black wooden cane that arbitrarily judges the injustice of the world, the locust wooden locust cane that beats the three divisions and the nine qings, and the peach wood flail peach cane used to break the sun and the night to break the yin......

The "mighty sword" and "golden sword" here are the so-called Shang Fang Sword; "Gold medal" is the Danshu iron coupon, commonly known as the "gold medal for avoiding death"; Later, the "bronze guillotine" developed into the "dragon head guillotine", "tiger head guillotine" and "dog head guillotine", the dragon head guillotine killed nobles, the tiger head guillotine killed officials, and the dog head guillotine killed civilians. With these magical powers, Bao Qingtian has become the most powerful judge in history, killing Buddha when he encounters Buddhas, and killing ghosts when he encounters ghosts.

Interestingly, the criminals that Bao Gong had to deal with sometimes had similar magic weapons. As a result, the judicial judgment that should have been based on the law to distinguish between right and wrong in black and white has evolved into a power duel in which whoever has the more powerful power props wins, just as demonstrated in Stephen Chow's movie "Jiupin Sesame Official": one side sacrifices the royal yellow coat to protect the body, and the other side sacrifices the sword of Shang Fang that can break the yellow coat, which also confirms the accusations of those who criticize the tradition of the "rule of man judicial model".

However, Zhao Yu can only tell you with a smile that the plot of such a dramatic duel of power props will never appear in the judicial process of the Song Dynasty. It is impossible for Bao Gong to hold the Shang Fang sword - because there is no example of the Song Dynasty giving the Shang Fang sword to the minister, giving him the superpower of "coming in person" and "cutting first and then playing". Bao Gong's three-mouth guillotine was even more a torture tool imagined by folk literati, because the guillotine was not listed as an execution tool in the past dynasties, which is more like a reference to the guillotine used by the Mongols.

As for the gold medal for avoiding death, this thing really exists, but the correct name is called - Danshu Iron Coupon......