Yelu Hongji is not as mediocre as recorded in history, at least Zhao Ji can find out through several conversations with Yelu Hongji that Yelu Hongji is not a reckless man. Yelu Hongji was able to come to the alliance, and he did not put on a look of Lao Tzu being the best in the world when he met with Zhao Ji, which shows the true character of a politician.

Yelu Hongji didn't know that Yelu Yixin and Zhang Xiaojie colluded and acted arbitrarily. Instead, Yelu Hongji needs them to stabilize the various tribes, and they need to confront the descendants of the royal family to ensure the stability of their throne. This means is a common balancing act used by monarchs.

Historically, Song Shenzong also used this method in dealing with Wang Anshi's new party and Sima Guang's old party. That's probably what the art of the emperor is. After the death of Song Shenzong, the new party and the old party fell into party disputes, and policies changed frequently. The struggle to connect and destroy the forces of the other side has dealt a heavy blow to the economies represented by the two sides at the bottom, and the economies that have been developed with great difficulty are often deprived by the government and weakened due to policy changes.

In the period of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, the strength of the old and new parties weakened in the mutual attrition, and the mutual struggle made them lose the trust of the landlords and merchants behind them, and also lost their economic support, and then the strength of the Shidafu group was greatly damaged. Song Huizong, who also lost trust in the two parties, appointed eunuchs he trusted to preside over the government, and the eunuchs combined with the imperial power, and used the full treasury after Wang Anshi's reform to control the government. At this time, the scholar group, without the support of the economic forces behind it, no longer had the financial resources and manpower to beat the eunuchs and restrict the imperial power.

After losing the trust of the people, the scholar was no longer able to control the situation. The common people not only lost trust in the scholars, but also in the imperial court, which, under the auspices of the eunuchs, began to attack those scholars who beat the eunuchs and restricted the imperial power. What does it mean to go after a doctor? The scholars were the backbone of the country, and attacking them meant that they could only rely on family nepotism, which was reactionary rule.

The upright scholars lost their way up, and they became traitors who were supposed to be the future prime ministers of the Great Song Dynasty, setting off a large-scale peasant uprising. As can be seen from the leaders of the peasant uprising, the so-called peasant uprising was not led by the peasants, but by the scholars at the bottom who were blocked from the way up.

Such uprisings occurred one after another, shaking the foundation of the Song dynasty's rule. Until the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty and the collapse of the regime. The Southern Song Dynasty was re-established with the support of low-level scholars and military generals. The fall of the Northern Song Dynasty and the collapse of the superstructure meant that the eunuchs and the imperial power no longer had the financial support of the state treasury. After the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Shidafu group was reorganized, and the Shidafu group at this time represented the interests of the southern landlords and people, so they opposed the Northern Expedition. All the generals who were born in the south almost compromised in the end, only Yue Fei did not compromise. And Yue Fei is a native of Henan, an authentic northerner.

Song Gaozong was also a northerner, so he trusted Yue Fei very much at the beginning and leaned on Yue Fei as his arm. However, when the thorny problems of the peasants in the south, such as the peasants, mutiny, and wanderers, were resolved, and the political situation was brought under control. Song Gaozong was forced by the pressure of the Southern Shidaifu group and finally killed Yue Fei.

The Song Dynasty was a party struggle between scholars and doctors, and the Northern Liao Dynasty was a struggle between middle- and lower-level officials representing the interests of various tribes and the descendants of the imperial family. Yelu Hongji had already experienced the Luanhe Rebellion caused by Yelu Chongyuan's usurpation of power, and the reason why he was still so mediocre was that Yelu Hongji needed to represent the middle and lower-level officials representing the interests of various tribes to stabilize the government of the Liao Dynasty and prevent the threat of the royal family to his throne. The traditional tribal system of the Khitans still exists, and it is still possible to remove him, the emperor, through tribal elections.

Subsequently, Yelu Hongji's son Yelu Jun presided over the government, hindering Yelu Yixin from controlling the government, and Yelu Jun was too capable, which also aroused Yelu Hongji's vigilance. In the end, Yelu Yixin had a mentally retarded conspiracy, and Yelu Hongji killed the queen Xiao Guanyin, so that Yelu Jun lost the support of his descendants. didn't expect Yelu Yixin to take the opportunity to kill Yelu Jun, and Yelu Hongji just turned a blind eye.

After Yelu Hongji's death, his grandson Yelu Yanxi was much worse than him. does not know how to balance the situation, completely trusts and relies on the descendants, and has trusted Xiao Fengxian, Xiao Delidi and others. Finally, there were constant contradictions between the royal family and the descendants, between the clan and the aristocracy, and they competed for power and profit in the court, and the middle and lower officials representing the interests of the various tribes became the victims of their struggle.

The spokesmen of the various tribes and the lower classes of the people could not gain a foothold in the court, and they did not have the opportunity to make a complaint in the court of the Liao Dynasty. In the end, the people's uprisings broke out one after another, and the leaders of various tribes also raised troops against the Liao, and the Liao rule tended to collapse. The Jurchens rose in turmoil, destroyed the Northern Liao, and established the Jin state.

Compared with the historical Song Shenzong, Zhezong and Huizong, who have been stumbling against Western Xia, Yelu Hongji has been playing the trick of balancing the situation. Could the Song Dynasty not be able to destroy Western Xia? No. The Liao State would not allow the Song Dynasty to break the situation of the confrontation between the Song, Xia, and Liao Kingdoms, so the Song Dynasty had to face pressure from the Liao State to destroy the Western Xia. Similarly, the Song Dynasty's aggressive posture on the border also put the Liao State under pressure.

If the Liao State wants to guard against the Great Song Dynasty, it will not be able to free up its hands to solve internal problems, and completely solve the problems of tribal rebellion and the dictatorship of the descendants. This is the same as the Song Dynasty wanted to guard against the Liao State, so it couldn't spare its hands to completely solve the problem of three redundancies. Although Zhao Ji disarmed on a large scale and reorganized the armies, the military expenditure not only did not decline but increased a lot, which was also to guard against Northern Liao.

The current alliance is still the alliance of the Chinese states, which is equivalent to the Song Dynasty recognizing that other countries also have the inheritance rights of the Tang Dynasty before the other countries. The land they occupied was not only the homeland of the Han and Tang dynasties in the Song Dynasty. There is nothing wrong with the homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and it is also their homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties. The Song Dynasty gave up the suzerainty that the Central Plains Dynasty had since the Tang Dynasty.

Zhao Ji believes that the so-called nominal suzerainty has no practical significance, and it is better to recognize the equality of all countries and establish equal diplomatic relations. On the contrary, this will eliminate the antagonism between the political powers, facilitate exchanges between the two countries, promote economic prosperity, and lay a humanistic foundation for future reunification.

Renunciation of suzerainty, recognition of the status quo, and the establishment of diplomatic relations on an equal footing are extremely conducive to the easing of the confrontation. At least there is no need to raise soldiers. The Great Song Dynasty wanted to fight against the Western Xia and Northern Liao and raised millions of soldiers, while the Northern Liao, with a population of less than 10 million, surpassed the Great Song Dynasty in terms of military strength. Even the Western Xia, once in the event of a war, could gather an army of more than 400,000, while the total population of the Western Xia was only 4 million.

Such military confrontation has seriously hindered the social and economic development of various countries and hindered the progress of Chinese civilization. The establishment of equal diplomatic relations and the recognition of the inheritance rights of various countries to the territory of the Tang Dynasty were in line with the requirements of the common development of all countries of the Chinese civilization.

If the Song Dynasty in history did the same, perhaps Wang Anshi's reform would be as successful as the Shang Dynasty's reform. As Wang Anshi said at the beginning: The emperor's childishness has not disappeared, and the rule of the Tao has not been specialized, neither the great weapon of Qin Xiaogong is open-minded and far-sighted, nor the far-sightedness and resoluteness of Tang Taizong. Its desire for treatment is commendable, and its quick success and quick profit are terrifying.

If the historical Song Shenzong dared to be a paving the way for his descendants, instead of achieving a martial arts for himself, then it is unknown that Wang Anshi's reform was successfully realized.

There is an absurd saying in later generations, which probably means that what caused China to fall behind was great unification, and because of great unification and lack of competition, it fell behind. And the European countries are numerous, fighting and dying every day, and the competition between life and death is fierce, so it has developed rapidly.

There is no logic in this statement. Approximate meaning, that is to say, Yao Ming is very good at basketball because Yao Ming is very tall, Guo Jingming's novels are well written because Guo Jingming is short enough, and if the world wants to develop faster, it is best for major powers to throw atomic bombs on each other.

Is there no internal competition in the great unification? Could it be that in the great unification, only China will be left on the earth? War only consumes the wealth of society, only consumes the funds of reproduction, and only slows down the development of society.

At present, the alliance of the Chinese countries is to eliminate the antagonism between countries and let more social funds be invested in the field of reproduction, instead of endless war consumption.

There seems to be another saying that the reason why China is backward in modern times is because of the change of dynasty and the unchanged. How can the change of dynasty remain the same, and how can it become a historical cycle? Then everyone eats and sleeps every day, and human beings are born, old, sick and die, how can it not be said that human beings have not progressed?

When the Qin Dynasty was founded, China moved from the era of river settlement to the era of continental expansion. When the Sui Dynasty was founded, China moved from the east-west expansion stage of the continental expansion era to the north-south stage of the continental expansion era. When the Song Dynasty was founded, China moved from a north-south expansion phase to an overseas expansion phase. The change of dynasty is not a retrogression of history, it is precisely because of the progress of history and the development of social productive forces that the new economic foundation needs to be rebuilt with a new superstructure. This is not a historical cycle, this is the law of historical development.

The West has not changed its dynasty, because Western civilization is a superimposed civilization, not a inherited civilization. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Romans also died out, and naturally they could not change the dynasty. Civilizations have all died out, nations have died out, how can we change the dynasty?

Some people may say that the ancient Roman civilization and the ancient Greek civilization did not die out, and the Western European civilization created the modern industrial civilization on the basis of their culture.

Again, there is no logic to say, if their culture can create industrial civilization, will it be the turn of Western Europeans? The Romans, the Greeks did it themselves. When Western European civilization develops, it naturally has to absorb the cultural technology that is useful to them from other civilizations and other countries to promote its own development. However, it was the development of Western European civilization, not the development of ancient Roman civilization, nor the development of ancient Greek civilization.

In modern times, China has lagged behind, not because China has no development at all, nor because China's development is too slow. It's that Western European civilization is developing too fast. The development of history and the speed of development of civilization cannot be measured by time. The American continent has developed for thousands of years, and there is no high level of ancient civilization, and the civilization has long stayed at the beginning of the river settlement era.

The speed of the development of civilization is determined by the geographical production environment, and the richness, integrity, and cohesion of the geographical production environment determine the rise, development, decline, or progress to a higher civilization. Geographical production environment refers to the degree to which geographic natural resources can be transformed into social wealth through social productivity under the current level of human productivity.

During the Song Dynasty, couldn't China enter the era of maritime trade and create an industrial civilization?