Bianliang City, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, when the autumn mood is getting stronger, the scenery becomes extremely beautiful. The autumn scenery of Bianliang is even more beautiful than the scenery of spring and summer. Located in the north of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the four seasons are distinct, the autumn of Bianliang City is the appearance of autumn, the sky is solemn, the city is magnificent, between the gray and black tall halls and houses, dotted with red like the canopy of fire. All this makes the autumn of Bianliang like a magnificent picture.

This year, autumn in Bianliang City is still magnificent and magnificent. It's just that in this magnificent autumn scene, there seems to be a little more of a cold and decadent atmosphere. This aura of slaughter does not come from the scenery itself, but from the temperament and feeling exuded by the people who live in the city.

Once upon a time, the prosperous and wealthy Central Plains Shangguo Great Zhou was the most powerful country in the world. In every aspect, it is the best in the world, and no other country can match it. The prosperity of the Great Zhou Dynasty is all-round, not only the material prosperity, but also the spiritual, cultural and technological all-round crushing. At that time, the spiritual outlook of the people of the Great Zhou was positive, full of pride and pride. Especially as the people of Bianliang, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and as the residents of the city at the foot of the Son of Heaven, they are even more arrogant and have a sense of psychological superiority over others. As both subjects of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the people of Bianliang City will always have a good sense of self-esteem for people outside the capital. This kind of spiritual temperament also makes the city of Bianliang a little more unattainable, a little more arrogant, snobbish and yearning in the midst of prosperity. As the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, its temperament comes from the reflection of the temperament of the people living in it.

However, in the past ten years, the national strength of the Great Zhou has deteriorated, and it is obvious that it is declining. Especially in the past two years or so, the Great Zhou has experienced several major changes, such as the change of the imperial court, the change of policies, and the outbreak of internal and external troubles, which have caused the entire Great Zhou to suffer a major impact. The capital bore the brunt and suffered the most. The once proud spirit is completely lost under a series of blows, and once the self-confidence and pride are crushed, it will go to the other extreme and become extremely humble. The originally high head has also become a bent backbone. And with the deterioration of the entire economy and people's livelihood, and the high-pressure control of speech by the imperial court, the people of Bianliang City have rarely talked and laughed loudly in the streets and alleys of teahouses and restaurants as before. Nowadays, they walk in a hurry on the streets, with caution between their eyebrows, and their behavior is obscene and careful. He has long lost the pride and superiority of the people who were at the feet of the Son of Heaven in the kingdom. They had lost faith in their future, because they had lost faith in the fate of the entire Great Zhou court.

In the Inner Palace, in the courtyard of the Yong'an Pavilion near the northwest lake in the corner of the harem Yanfu Palace, the Great Zhou Emperor Guo Xu was sitting in the autumn sun, squinting and napping. The surrounding chrysanthemums are blooming brilliantly, the air is filled with the rich fragrance of chrysanthemums, and the autumn sun shines warmly on his body, which makes Guo Xu sleep very sweetly, and the corners of his crooked mouth even drool.

The reason why Guo Xu slept so sweetly was not entirely because of the quiet and peaceful atmosphere here, but mainly because he had been partying for too long last night and didn't rest until the early hours of the morning. sleep

In less than two hours, I had to get up again to go to court, and I was dizzy and dizzy for a long time, and I didn't quiet down until noon, so I came here to make up for sleep.

Although he is still young, he is still in the prime of his thirties. But with such a toss of singing every night, the iron-beaten body can't stand it. But Guo Xu doesn't care about these anymore, life is too short, he has fun in time, and he can't extricate himself from being indulged in wine.

It would be unfair to say that Guo Xu was such a decadent and ridiculous person in the first place. Guo Xu used to be a person who was full of ambition and wanted to do something big. Before he became an emperor, he was also a self-disciplined and self-loving person. However, when he got the throne of the emperor, he found that things were not as simple as he imagined, and he realized that governing the great power of the Great Zhou was not as easy and pleasant as he thought. Soon he sadly discovered that he was so incompetent, and that he was not capable of controlling the big ship of Da Zhou at all.

Before, Guo Xu scoffed at the strategies and methods of governing the country by the former emperor and his father, thinking that they were incompetent, and why not use them when there were better methods, but they had to use those bad methods. For example, the Yanyun alliance with the Liao State is one of the grievances that Guo Xu often indignantly dislikes in private. That's a shameful humiliating clause, what kind of thing are the Liao people, and the dignified Zhou Shangguo actually wants to see the faces of the Liao people, which is simply a shame.

So after taking office, he couldn't wait to follow his own ideas, make a maritime alliance with the Jurchens, and then began to carry out a northern expedition against the Liao. However, what he never expected was that the result was a complete failure. He had to kill Yang Jun in order to retain the throne, and signed an even more humiliating peace treaty with the Liao. This incident alone made Guo Xu feel as disgusting and uncomfortable as if he had swallowed a fly. He finally understood that the Yanyun Alliance was such a fair peace negotiation, and it was a wise decision to exchange a hundred years of peace for a very small price, and the forbearance of the emperor in exchange for a hundred years of prosperity. And what he did had ruined the foundation of all this, and in the end he had to make peace at a thousandfold cost, and it can even be said that he was extremely humble and shameless in wagging his tail and begging for mercy, and barely stabilized the situation. But the damage suffered by Da Zhou was too great to accept.

There is also about the previous change of the law, Guo Xu used to think that his father's support for Yan Zhengsu Fang Dunru to change the law was completely redundant and a defeat. This caused the division of the Great Zhou court, and also led to the dissatisfaction of the people in the world, which was a failed governance decision. But when he himself became emperor, when his imperial treasury was empty and nothing could be taken out. When the army's salaries and food became a problem, and many things were put on hold because of the lack of silver, Guo Xu understood why his father had been so resolute in supporting the change. In the year or two that the reform was implemented, the imperial court's fiscal and tax revenues doubled, which greatly alleviated the crisis. Although there are voices of dissatisfaction among the people, there are more voices of approval. Because the people have land to cultivate, at least they have food to eat. In fact, don't look at the boiling of public opinion, but in fact, it is good on the whole.

And now, the death and death of the law-changing faction are killed, and the impact of the repeal of the new law is in

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, it was not too obvious, but soon the financial constraints made Guo Xu realize that the new law was so important. It's a pity that the imperial court can't turn back, and in the end he can only use a simple and crude way, by finding a reason to confiscate the property of the wealthy family, and by forcibly increasing the tax burden in the name of the name to keep the court running. But Guo Xu certainly understood in his heart how much all this hurt Da Zhou. He also understood himself more clearly, it turned out that he was not the material of the first emperor of the ages at all, and he did not have a Ming monarch who could create a prosperous era of the revival of the Great Zhou. Sometimes the most terrifying time for people is to see their true colors, which can be psychologically devastated and self-confident.

After ascending the throne, Guo Xu was actually a process of recognizing himself clearly, and giving up on himself from conceit and pride to inferiority and self-pity. When the authorities became worse and worse, and it was more and more difficult to clean up, Guo Xu had no way to return to heaven, so he could only indulge in women's bodies, indulge in wine and singing and dancing to numb himself.

And another reason why Guo Xu gave up so much was Lu Zhongtian's father and son. In today's Great Zhou court, Lu Zhongtian and his son have completely controlled the government. The officials of the imperial court have changed almost every time in the past year, and all important official positions have been replaced by new ones. At the beginning, Lu Zhongtian said that the imperial court must have a big change of blood, replace a group of capable officials, and replace those obsolete and stubborn officials, so as to have a new atmosphere and regain vitality.

Guo Xu felt that he was right, as the so-called son of heaven and courtiers, many of the courtiers in the court were ministers of the previous dynasty, and these people must be comparing themselves with the previous emperor in their hearts. They must also be thinking about their own seizure of the throne. These people must have an opinion of themselves in their hearts. In this case, it is better to replace them, and the person who replaces them must be grateful to themselves, which is also a means of stabilizing their status. But when Guo Xu found that every time he proposed something, once Lu Zhongtian opposed it, he would oppose all the Chinese martial arts; Once Lu Zhongtian supported it, and the Korean Chinese Wu all supported it, Guo Xu suddenly understood that these people were all Lu Zhongtian's people. When he understood this, he was shocked to find that the entire court was actually his grandfather who had the final say. His words were no longer as effective as Lu Zhongtian's.

Guo Xu was naturally angry in his heart, but he didn't have the courage to say it, let alone do something. He knew what kind of man his maternal grandfather was, and since he had done all this, it showed that he had been prepared. After Yang Jun's death, after killing a large number of Yang Jun's henchmen for defeat, the entire Great Zhou army was already under the control of his grandfather. At this time, if you want to do another eradication operation, I am afraid that you will die.

Guo Xu would rather believe that although his grandfather was authoritarian, he would not be unfavorable to him. As long as he is still the emperor, he will give power if he wants. If you don't compete with him, you can't grab it. Anyway, now that the situation is like this, just throw this mess to him to dispose of. I don't want to, and I don't have the ability to clean it up. It's better to ignore everything and pretend to be stupid.