Chapter 309: Transformation of the State System (I)

When Dai Yan entered Suiyang, he had become the de facto lord of the Song Kingdom. Without the slightest hesitation, the nobles of Suiyang immediately began to pledge their allegiance to the new lord of the Song Kingdom, and suggested that Dai Yan ascend the throne and take over the throne.

The nobles' idea is very simple, now Taoqiu has proved its strength, defeated the power of Suiyang, and successfully settled in Suiyang, then Dai Yan, as the lord of Taoqiu, naturally has the capital to become the lord of the Song Kingdom. And they expelled Song Junzixi before, didn't they make room for this Tao Qiu Jun?

For these people's practices, Dai Yan refused without hesitation. Dai Yan's refusal of the Suiyang nobles was not because he wanted to be as hypocritical as Wang Mang, to make a resignation and three concessions, and then "reluctantly" ascend the throne under the "last resort".

What he wanted was much more far-reaching than the nobles of Suiyang, that is, to let the Song State he took over have a reasonable identity and become a legitimate regime, that is, to establish a new Taoist system!

Any political regime in the world, as long as it wants to continue for a long time, must have a reasonable reason for its existence, that is, it needs a legitimate Taoist system. A country that has lost its legitimacy is a country that has lost its legitimacy, and it will inevitably be spurned by others and then perish!

For example, today's Taoism is still Zhou's set. From Zhou Li's point of view, Dai Yan's approach is a rebellious rebellion, which is not a legal way to obtain power!

Dai Yan must be in charge of the Song State, no matter when he is in power, or in the future, his descendants take over the Song State, as a courtier, through rebellion, and then seize the throne of the Song State, it is always wrong, which cannot be erased in history.

Such a wrong problem is like a thunderstorm, if it cannot be eliminated in the early stage, then once it explodes in the future, the impact on the Song State will be greater. And a regime that was only seized through power tricks, even if he became the lord of the Song Kingdom, he was afraid that he would defend those ministers to the death.

Such a regime, like the later Song Dynasty, was always wary of military generals who wielded force because of its lack of legitimacy. It obviously had the strongest economy in the world at that time, had the best weapons, had the largest population and troops, but turned out to have the most defeats in all dynasties!

After Dai Yan dismissed the suggestion of the Suiyang nobles to suggest that he ascend the throne as the monarch, the first thing he did was to send troops to various parts of the Song Kingdom, tell the nobles and the Yi guards the changes in Suiyang, and take over the city defense of various parts of the Song Kingdom.

Any city that dares to resist the Taoqiu army will inevitably be attacked by the Taoqiu army! Under such a clear general situation, no nobleman dared to resist the power of the Taoqiu army, and they all obediently opened the city gate and let the Taoqiu army enter!

Among these cities, the three cities that Dai Yan attaches the most importance to are them. They are Mengyi, which is located near Suiyang, Pengcheng, one of the three capitals of the Song Kingdom, and Dangyi, which once sent Taoqiu envoys to Suiyang.

Mengyi, which was once the hometown of Zhuangzi, was actually the only fief of the Le's. In Dai Yan's expectation, Yueqing, the young master of the Le family, is burdened with clan hatred and family hatred, and he should be inseparable from Taoqiu. However, Mengyi surrendered as quickly as possible, and Yueqing himself also fled from the Song State with part of his family property and retinue during this period of time, and went to the Qi State to defect to Tianying.

Pengcheng, the city that had previously been defeated by Dai Yan in the field, also quickly surrendered to the Taoqiu army. Even Peng Cheng Ling Zizhang personally handed over the documents appointed by the prince of the country to Tao Qiujun, and was willing to resign from Peng Cheng Ling's position. For such a clan uncle with a very high status in the imperial clan, Dai Yan naturally did not agree to his request, and still let Zizhang serve as Pengcheng's order, but only took over Pengcheng's government affairs in an all-round way.

A small town like Dangyi, after Dai Yan became the owner of Suiyang, he no longer had the ability to resist. However, Dangyi Yishou is a person who has offended Taoqiu, and he hugged Suiyang's thigh too tightly at the beginning, so he made a series of outrageous moves, and now it is difficult to turn back. He also wanted to rebel against the Taoqiu army and accept the city, but the nobles and officials of Dangyi gave up, and they collectively rose up to kill the Yishou and handed Dangyi into the hands of the Taoqiu army.

This is also the only bloody city where bloodshed occurred after the Taoqiu army entered Suiyang. As for the remaining cities of the Song Kingdom, after seeing that Dai Yan had entered Suiyang and mastered the three capitals, he also opened the city gates one by one to let Taoqiu's army enter, and accepted Taoqiu's management.

In this way, the task of Taoqiu's army to unify the Song State is completely completed!

After the unification of the Song Kingdom, Dai Yan did not take over the position of monarch, but sent an envoy to Wei to invite Zixi to come back and take over the throne. Under such circumstances, Zixi naturally did not dare to return to China, and the Song Kingdom maintained a state of no monarch.

In the world at this time, it is simply unimaginable that the country has no king! In such a situation, it is not Dai Yan who has not been in a hurry, but the nobles of Suiyang!

They couldn't figure out why Duke Cao didn't take over as monarch when the situation was so clear, when the Song State needed the monarch the most? Could it be that we are not sincere enough?

The nobles of Suiyang discussed privately for a long time, but they didn't understand Dai Yan's thoughts, so after the first persuasion, they launched another persuasion to persuade Dai Yan to take over the throne of the monarch. Not surprisingly, Dai Yan still rejected their proposal.

At this moment, not only the nobles of Suiyang, but even the generals of the Taoqiu Army were a little confused. The generals who had these ideas immediately connected together, and found Tang Ying, Xiao Xiang and others, who had the highest status in the army, and wanted to join forces to persuade the monarch to ascend the throne!

As soon as Tang Ying and Xiao Xiang heard what these people thought, they were frightened on the spot. These generals joined forces, no matter what they thought, just their actions were already a de facto forced palace! Knowing Dai Yan's follow-up plan, the two immediately suppressed these people, repelled them, and told them not to act rashly!

And after Dai Yan learned about the situation reported by the two, he also greatly appreciated them.

Soon after the second persuasion failed, the nobles of Suiyang were still unwilling and persuaded Dai Yan to take over the throne of the monarch again. Seeing the sincere expressions of these nobles, Dai Yan also knew that he couldn't let these people be too chilled, so he adjusted his rhythm and took over the position of ruling Song State. In the case of the Song State now without a monarch, he temporarily acts as the state minister.

Although it still did not meet the psychological expectations of the Suiyang nobles, the Song Kingdom finally had a head and someone was in charge. Moreover, in the eyes of the Suiyang nobles, they let the Taoqiu army into the city and made great contributions in Taoqiu's action to capture Suiyang.

Under the hint of the agent, Dai Yan, as the ruling person, also received the meaning of the Suiyang nobles. He readily agreed, and he readily agreed to the conditions he had negotiated with the Suiyang nobles before. The aristocrat Zi Hong, who personally sent an envoy to negotiate with Dai Yan and led the matter of Suiyang's dedication to the city, Dai Yan also made him become Suiyang Commander as he wished.

The other nobles all had their own rewards, and for a while, the entire Suiyang was filled with a festive atmosphere.

Soon, however, the Suiyang nobles discovered that something seemed to be wrong. Because Dai Yan began to formulate a clear title to change the previous title of the Song Kingdom!

The Song State, as the feudal state of Zhou, has always continued the tradition of Zhou. Moreover, the title of the monarch of the Song State has always been very high, he is a duke, and under the monarch, there are four titles such as Hou, Uncle, Son, and Male. However, in the Warring States period, the title system was no longer valued, and everyone began to compete for a position - feudal monarch.

Only the feudal lord is the lord who really has the actual status. And today's Song Kingdom, thanks to the previous civil war, there are no other feudal monarchs in the entire Song Kingdom except for him, the largest feudal monarch.

For the Taoqiu rulers who had already embarked on the road of capitalism, Dai Yan did not want to let the Song State enter the feudal system again. However, he knew very well that in today's Song Kingdom, he could not get rid of the aristocracy, nor could he cut off the signs of feudalism!

The best way to deal with feudalism is to establish a strong centralized government! If Dai Yan's idea is to say, emulating the Qin State and directly implementing the county system is the best way, but Dai Yan can't do this!

Unlike the Qin state, the Qin state was originally a highly centralized regime, with weak local forces and little ability to resist the monarch, so the monarch could enforce the county system. However, the Song State is different, a country with a long history, the aristocracy has always been very strong, and the folk religious atmosphere is strong, respecting blood, and in the local area are ruled by large and small noble bloodline chiefs. Although these nobles do not have the name of nobility, they rule the place by bloodline and their own strength, and they are de facto nobles.

If Dai Yan forced the reform of the county system, then it would inevitably be opposed by these nobles, and at that time, the reform of the Song State was very likely to be like the reform of Wu Qi of the Chu State, facing the opposition of the entire Song State and ending in failure! His elder brother Zixi actually wanted to implement such a reform, but this time in the process of his army, with the neutrality of most of the Song Guohao's elders, we can know their opinions on this reform.

Therefore, for the nobles of the Song Kingdom, he did not want to use this forced way, but to complete this reform by bribery!

Soon, after Dai Yan took charge of the Song Kingdom, the first major decree began to change. The title system before the Song Kingdom will be changed. Originally, the Song State imitated the Zhou system, and the four titles of Hou, Uncle, Son, and Male under the monarch remained unchanged, and the names were changed to Hou, Dian, Male, and Wei, and in addition to these four titles, there was a separate title of Bang Earl.

For Dai Yan, it is a matter of course to change the name of the title. The Song State ruled by him will no longer be the state guest of the Zhou Dynasty, but the new Song Kingdom that inherits the traditions of the Shang Dynasty, so the title must also be changed to the title of the Shang Dynasty!

As for the newly added Bangbo, it is a title that can only be possessed by powerful local factions located outside the control of the Song State today. It's like discovering the gold and silver of the neon island before, and Kong Tongjia, who has been appointed by Dai Yan as the doctor of the Uno country, was named the Uno Bangbo by Dai Yan and became the actual lord who can rule the Uno country! Bomber, such a new title, should be established for the next overseas expansion!

And for the four kinds of titles, Hou, Dian, Male, and Wei, Dai Yan is also stingy, so that those nobles who originally had titles can go to the next level, so that the support he gets is even higher!

In this round of canonization, the nobles of Suiyang were very disappointed, because they found that after Dai Yan promised them a reward, he turned to the nobles all over the Song Kingdom, and came with a round of universal rewards! In this way, their title is not so prominent. The title is a thing that compares the noble and the humble, and once the comparability is lost, the sense of accomplishment obtained will naturally be greatly reduced!

And after that, Dai Yan's newly established institution and another policy he implemented really surprised the nobles of Suiyang!

This new institution, called the House of Nobles, was later called the Left House due to the fact that it was located in the place where it was established in front of the left side of Miyagi. The members of the Left Court are all composed of people from all over the country. If you calculate carefully, there are more than 30 members of the Left House in the entire Song Kingdom. Among them, the three capitals of Song Guo, Taoqiu, Suiyang, and Pengcheng each occupy five places, accounting for almost half of the number of members of the left court, and the remaining members are all from various small towns, and each of these small cities can roughly get a quota!

In this way, the entire Zuo Yuan almost concentrated all the powerful nobles of the entire Song Kingdom. Dai Yan then publicized the functions of the Left Yuan, which was the legislature of the Song State, with the power to make decisions on major national affairs, such as the establishment of the monarch, the selection of the ruling party, and the formulation of laws!

In Dai Yan's view, the Left Courtyard, a house composed of nobles, is the representative of local forces. Through this power of letting the local tyrants share the center of the entire Song Kingdom, he can bring in the local wealthy clans of the Song Kingdom, so that he can perfectly control the entire Song Kingdom! And the reason for him to set up this institution is also very sufficient, now there is no monarch in the Song Kingdom, and the major affairs of the country cannot be undertaken by a single person, but must be borne by the entire Song Kingdom! And it is all the members of the Left House who bear this responsibility!

Such a way to win over the local wealthy families, the original rulers of Suiyang nobles naturally strongly opposed, but under the strong support of the local wealthy families, the establishment of this institution is unstoppable, and the local wealthy families also soon entered Suiyang and began to enjoy such a precious power!

After the establishment of the Zuo Yuan, Dai Yan could clearly feel that the local officials he sent to various parts of the Song Kingdom to deal with local affairs became much smoother!

Of course, when the capitalist power of the Song State had already risen, he certainly would not let the power of the nobility swell too much! After the establishment of the left court, on the other hand, the civilian council, which was completely composed of civilians, was located on the right side outside Suiyang Palace, and was also established!