Of course, in the past few years of Kaiyuan's reign, Yao Chong still has a lot of commendable achievements, he is a very pragmatic person, does not advocate vanity, and never superstition, especially for the Buddhism at that time in the name of crossing sentient beings, the practice of accumulating wealth, consuming the wealth of the people, wasting a lot of social resources, very hateful. (Well, sometimes things are two sides of the same coin, yesterday we saw the murals of the Tang Dynasty in the Mogao Grottoes, which must have cost a lot of people's fat and people's ointment, but now the local government has made a lot of tourism money and increased financial revenue.) It's really good that the predecessors dug holes and the descendants filled holes! ）

Wu Zetian and Zhongzong Li Xian two dynasties, because of the belief in Buddhism, the construction of Buddhist temples is very enthusiastic, and even many imperial relatives, a large number of competitions to build Buddhist temples and carve Buddha statues, the Buddha statues of Luoyang Longmen Grottoes, most of them are left at that time, although countless historical heritages have been created for future generations to enjoy, but for the common people at that time, it is a huge burden.

In addition, because monks and nuns do not have to pay taxes and can also receive alms from believers, many people go to become monks even though they do not have Buddhist faith. Yao Chong probably wouldn't be like Ah Q, who thinks that "all nuns must commit adultery with monks" or even worse, "The monk can touch it, why can't I touch it?" But it is true that many monks in the temple do not abide by the rules, and even hide dirt and dirt, which has a bad impact on society, which is what Yao Chong wants to improve.

In the second year of Kaiyuan (714 AD), Yao Chong Shangshu opposed the construction of Buddhist temples and demanded strict rectification of the number of monks and nuns.

"Buddha Tucheng can't save Zhao, Kumarosh can't save Qin, Qi Xiang and Liang Wu will inevitably be in trouble. But to make the common people happy, that is, the body of the Buddha; Why use traitors in vain to make the Fa-rectification bad! ”

Yao Chong made his concept of religion very clear here, that is, if the people can live and work in peace and contentment, they are the embodiment of the Buddha. In the recital, he gives four examples to illustrate that believing in Buddhism does not guarantee good returns for those in power. If readers want to know more, they can go to Baidu for themselves. I'll just make a brief explanation below.

Fo Tucheng was a high monk in the Western Regions, and Later Zhao Shile/Shi Hu revered him and built many Buddhist temples, but Later Zhao perished soon after Shi Hu's death (died at the hands of Ran Min. Shi Hu's adopted son); Kumarosh was enshrined as a national teacher by Emperor Yao Xing of Later Qin, but after Yao Xing's death, Later Qin quickly died in the Tuoba clan of Northern Wei; Gao Cheng (Gao Huan's eldest son) of the Northern Qi Dynasty believed in Buddhism and was assassinated by his servants on the eve of usurping the throne of the Northern Wei Dynasty; Xiao Yan, the founding emperor of the Southern Liang Dynasty. Buddhist temples were built everywhere, and the whole country believed in Buddhism, and died of starvation in Miyagi during the Hou Jing Rebellion. These four examples are used to illustrate that the emperor's belief in Buddhism did not end well or be rewarded.

In fact, Yao Chong has a more ready-made example to say, but I guess he doesn't dare, this example is Li Xian (Li Longji's uncle), in the years when he was emperor, he also built temples everywhere, but Li Xian's fate is as mentioned above, compared to the previous four, it is really not much better. So from this case. We can know why it is better for you to write ancient history than modern history, especially after liberation, because if you write modern history, if you accidentally dig up the scars of a certain leader in the history of the republic, then his filial son and grandson, or the heir of the government, will definitely have to jump to his feet. In order to protect oneself, one must not say it casually, nor can it be written casually. At this point, there is not much difference between ancient and modern, so the "revolution" has not yet succeeded, and the red generals still have to work hard!

At all costs. As a result, Li Longji accepted Yao Chong's Jianyì, ordered the strict elimination of monks and nuns across the country, and forced them not to stay in the temple for those who did not really want to become monks and misbehaved, and finally 12,000 people were returned to the world.

(Serial Update)

If we say that treating Buddhism in the spirit of joining the WTO is only the initial manifestation of Yao Chong's belief. The handling of the locust plague fully demonstrated Yao Chong's courageous spirit of forging ahead, not fearing the mandate of heaven and not following the clouds.

In the fourth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, locusts plagued the eastern region, devouring all the crops, and the peasants in the north and south of the Yellow River fled, while the local officials were helpless. Because of the traditional concept, the peasants did not dare to kill the locusts, but only dared to set up incense cases in the open space next to the farmland, and burned incense to pray for the locusts to leave. Yao Chong then ordered the killing of locusts and sent the imperial history to supervise all over the country, at this time, Ni Ruoshui, the governor of Bianzhou, did not let the imperial history enter the state, and openly declared: "The locust is a natural disaster, not to kill it can solve the problem, as long as the person in the upper position improves the moral cultivation, the natural disaster will disappear naturally; Liu Cong (the third emperor of the Han and Zhao Empires, the country was the first country established by the Nineteen Kingdoms of Wuhu Chaohua) used the method of culling and burying locusts, and the result was even more disaster (history records this locust plague, but there is no record of culling and burying)"

Yao Chong heard the news and was very angry, but he knew that Ni Ruoshui had been a high-ranking official in the central government before, and his achievements in local government were also good, but he was more stubborn, and to deal with this kind of person, he had to be convinced and unjustifiable, so he wrote to him and used Ni Ruoshui's ** to deal with him in the letter, and the letter said: "As Governor Ni said, Liu Cong's original moral cultivation is not very good, so he can't restrain the demon; But when today's son Shengde, the demon will definitely not be able to surpass his kindness. So the key is in the local governor, if you press your **, is your kindness insufficient, so the locusts will be in danger of Bianzhou? ”

When Ni Ruoshui saw this letter, he knew that he had let Yao Chong go around in a circle, if he insisted on not complying with it, as soon as Yao Chong made the content of the letter public, he would be embarrassed? So I had to obediently let Yushi enter the country and supervise the people to kill locusts.

In the extermination of locusts, Yao Chong's way is like this, he said in the recital: "Locusts are actually very afraid of people, so it is easy to drive away, and every field has an owner, let them save their own fields, they will definitely work tirelessly, please agree to let the people light the fire at night, the insects will be attracted by light, it is easy to kill, and then burn the insects, dig a ridge and bury them, and the locusts will definitely be destroyed." ”

Although the locust plague lasted for a long time, there was no great famine because of the adoption of the locust extermination policy.

As mentioned earlier, under the condition of Yao Chong's hard performance and Li Longji's enthusiastic sponsorship, the main heroes of the coup d'état, Yao Chong's political opponents, were already "dead and dead, fleeing, and some people rolled into the ravine". are already far from the center of power.

In order to let Yao Chong do things well and not let him have worries, Li Longji carefully selected the best second-in-command in his mind - Lu Huaishen, to serve as the Huangmen Jian (the highest governor of Menxia Province; Yao Chong was the supreme governor of Zhongshu Province at this time. Purple Emblem).

What is the greatest advantage of Lu Huaishen? His biggest role is that it doesn't work! This sentence was not made up by me, but by our emperor Lao Tzu, Mr. Li Longji, and in front of the person concerned, Mr. Lu Huaishen.

Here's the thing, once Yao Chong took more than ten days off because of his son's funeral. The official documents in the political hall were piled up, Lu Huaishen dealt with it for a long time, and few things dared to make a ruling, helpless, seeing that it was not a way to go on like this, he had to go to the emperor to see how to deal with it. (What should we say about such a prime minister?) Incompetent or point-keeping? It depends on which angle you look at him)

Li Longji told him like this: "I handed over the world to Yao Chong, and you are our gorgeous ornament, so don't be nervous, what should you do, the political affairs will be solved when Yao Chong returns." “

Sure enough, after Yao Chong came back. It's all taken care of at once, and the world is running normally again!

However, Lu Huaishen is very personable, he knows that his ability is not good, so he mainly plays the role of cooperation, although the outside ridicules him as a "companion prime minister", but the combination of the two, the effect is unexpectedly good, and Lu Huaishen is very upright, and has repeatedly corrected some things that do not conform to the norms or laws and disciplines. He actually has a certain credit for the establishment of the prosperous era of Kaiyuan.

Kaiyuan four years. Lu Huaishen died, and before his death, he recommended Song Jing/Li Jie/Li Chaoyin/Lu Congyuan and others, and Li Longji accepted.

After Lu Huaishen's death, he was replaced by Yuan Yaoqian. Although he is also the prime minister, he is concurrently serving as a waiter of the Yellow Gate.

Once, Yao Chong was suffering from malaria, and every time Yuan Yaoqian came to report on political affairs, Li Longji knew as soon as he heard that Yuan Yaoqian had consulted Yao Chong, and usually consulted Yao Chong. Li Longji will express his satisfaction, and if he has not consulted Yao Chong, Li Longji will usually have an opinion, and then he will say: "Why don't you consult Yao Chong?" Yuan Yaoqian felt that this was too troublesome for him (and probably too embarrassing), so he asked for Yao Chong to be moved to the Sifang Pavilion (to receive foreign guests), and his family could also come to wait. Yao Chong thought that he was sick and not suitable for where to live, and wanted to excuse himself, Li Longji said: "Let you live in the Sifang Pavilion for the benefit of the empire, I just hate that I can't let you live in the palace, no need to excuse yourself!" ”

(Serial Update)

It is the principle of natural operation that prosperity and decline, blessings and misfortunes are relied upon, and misfortunes and blessings are lurking.

Li Longji treats Yao Chong so intimately, it seems that this trust is unbreakable, the mountains can be dry, the sea can be rotten, and this love will never be swerved! Is it?

Of course not, what the emperor says to his ministers will not be much more reliable than what a playboy says to women.

In the fourth year of Kaiyuan (716 AD), in the same year that Li Longji trusted Yao Chong very much, and it was indispensable, an incident happened that changed Li Longji's trust in Yao Chong, and it was only three short years before Yao Chong served as prime minister in the first year of Kaiyuan.

As mentioned above, Yao Chong's two sons Guanglu Shaoqing (Deputy Minister of Palace Banquet) Yao Yi, Zongzheng Shaoqing (Deputy Minister of Imperial Affairs) Yao Yi usually likes to make friends, and often accepts gifts from outsiders, and the outside reputation is not very good. Therefore, since some people around Li Longji inadvertently revealed the bad deeds of the "second generation of Yao", Li Longji couldn't help but have some doubts, and even later began to wonder whether Yao Chong deliberately connived or was involved.

Trust is like a glass, once there is a crack, it is not far from breaking. At this time, one of Yao Chong's cronies, Zhao Xu, the chief secretary of Ziwei Province (Zhongshu Province), was accused of accepting bribes from Hu Ren, which was not a particularly big deal, but Li Longji suddenly became furious and not only demanded a careful investigation, but also personally interrogated.

Seeing that his cronies might be sentenced to a heavy sentence, Yao Chong couldn't bear it, so he defended Zhao Xu, hoping to reduce his criminal responsibility, but after the song was submitted, there was no response at all like a stone sinking into the sea, and just at this time Jingshi amnesty, Yao Chong thought that Zhao Zhi could get a commutation, and a separate list was announced, but Zhao Yu did not get a commutation alone, and was sentenced to 100 rods and exiled to Lingnan. The smell of warnings and hints is quite strong.

At this point, Yao Chong had fully understood the dissatisfaction in the emperor's heart, and after thinking about it, he decided to retreat bravely, so he categorically asked to resign from the post of prime minister on the grounds of old age and infirmity (Yao Chong was 66 years old this year). Although Li Longji did not regret it, he finally approved Yao Chong's removal from all positions

, only retain the three divisions of the Kaifu Yi (loose officials, no specific positions, can go to the court to participate in the minister's affairs).

So why did Li Longji change his attitude?

I think the main reason is a kind of rebellious psychology, Yao Chong asked the emperor to agree to the ten conditions before taking over as prime minister, and the ten conditions are a lot of patience for the emperor, which is equivalent to a contract between monarchs and ministers, for Li Longji, for the good of the country, I can be patient, but in the same way, you Yao Chong, as a minister, must also show extraordinary moral sentiments, so that your requirements for me are reasonable, but I, Li Longji, sacrificed myself and did a lot of restraint, but found that you Yao Chong connived at his son, Conniving at his cronies to do some immoral things, Li Longji will be very difficult to bear in terms of mentality, and he will inevitably explode.

A very similar example in history is the story of Mingshenzong (Wanli Emperor) and Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng is the teacher of Mingshenzong, when Zhang Juzheng was still alive, Mingshenzong respected and trusted this teacher and minister very much, and gave him almost equivalent to the power of a king, but soon after Zhang Juzheng's death, Mingshenzong wantonly liquidated Zhang Juzheng, but there was no whipping corpse, why? Because after Zhang Juzheng's death, his political enemies wrote to accuse Zhang Juzheng of crimes, especially the pride and luxury of life. The emperor sent people to investigate, and found that many of them were true. However, Zhang Juzheng kept saying that he wanted the emperor to follow the simple way of the sage when he was lecturing, which made the emperor have to suspect that Zhang Juzheng was one set in front of the emperor and another behind him, and finally his opinion of Zhang Juzheng changed 180 degrees. (For details, see Huang Renyu's book: The Fifteenth Year of Wanli) (To be continued.) )