The ancients referred to the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties as the "Three Dynasties", while the Song Dynasty, together with the previous Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, was called the "Later Three Dynasties". The so-called "three generations" are the ideal beautiful times of the ancients. Chen Yinke, a master of contemporary history, believes that not only the Xia, Shang, and Zhou, but also the Han and Tang dynasties, cannot be compared with the Song Dynasty. He said: "The culture of the Chinese nation has evolved over thousands of years, and it was created in the Zhao and Song dynasties. ”

The ancients' "three generations" theory has a strong tendency to worship the ancients and retro, while Chen's "making the extreme" theory is not unreasonable. Indeed, the Song Dynasty surpassed the previous generation, which was another new peak in ancient Chinese history; It was the most economically developed, the most culturally prosperous, and the most advanced science and technology in the world at that time.

Both division and reunification have their own relativity. The Song Dynasty did put an end to the split and secession situation since the late Tang Dynasty, and the traditional view is that the establishment of the Song Dynasty eliminated the division and realized the unification of the Central Plains Dynasty, marking the end of the split and secession situation since the late Tang Dynasty and the reconstruction of a unified feudal state. However, if we broaden our vision to the scope of Greater China, compared with the Song Dynasty, the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia are no longer dependent ethnic regimes in the surrounding areas, but equivalent minority dynasties that can compete with them in political, military, and economic aspects for a long time.

Compared with the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty founded by the Khitan people should be ranked the boss in terms of the order of founding and the territory. In the fourth year of Tang Tianyou, Yelu Abaoji became the head of the Khitan tribal alliance through tribal election, and ten years later, Yelu Abaoji abolished the tribal alliance system. Officially called emperor. The country name is Khitan. The territory of the Liao Dynasty borders today's Sea of Japan in the east, the Outer Khingan Mountains and the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast, the line of the Serenga River and the Shilka River in the north, the upper reaches of the Irtysh River in the west, the Jinhai River in the south, the Baxian River in Hebei, and the Yanmen Pass in Shaanxi Province in the south.

In terms of the unification of the territory, the Song Dynasty could indeed not be compared with the Han and Tang dynasties. From the perspective of Greater China, there is also a reason to regard the Song period as a period of division of the so-called "Later Three Kingdoms" or "Post-Northern and Southern Dynasties". For that matter. I have to admit that division was still the mainstream during this period, and the great unification was not realized, and the Song Dynasty was indeed not a unified dynasty

Merely enriching the people cannot fully arouse the people's sense of national pride and crisis. And now, in the context of the southeast civil uprising and the Lianjin invasion of Liao, the banner of strong soldiers is more sacred and correct, and it also makes people fierce and fascinated. However, the lofty goal of 'unifying China and rebuilding China' will also make those literati who have the world in their hearts fierce. And now Yang Shi and others around him have just defeated the Western Xia, and the thesis is also a set of rules to help the people, and it is not impossible to achieve this lofty goal, so that they are frustrated scholars who have experienced vicissitudes of life in the officialdom and have been miserably excluded. I feel like I've met the master!

Of course, Zhao Ta will not let go of this opportunity, but he has deceived these people, his goal is just to live in the coming troubled times and not to be a slave to the country, but in order to realize his wishes, he has to draw a big pie to make these old men who want to achieve a career and go down in history to satisfy their hunger. However, he has to take the opportunity to strengthen his armaments and prepare for the national disaster he faces, but there are still two things that need to be dealt with urgently -- punishing corruption and curbing corruption, and winning over the hearts and minds of the people; The other is that there are still four months left before the autumn harvest. How to solve the problem of eating for many people

"Ladies and gentlemen, the situation in the northwest is very tense now, and the DPRK and China have set up fields in the east and middle of the river, forcibly occupying fertile land and encroaching on the pastures of the Tibetan region. Some officials have seized the opportunity to enrich themselves, and now this unhealthy trend has spread to several states. It made the people's resentment boiling! Zhao Ta saw that everyone had listened to his words, and temporarily gave up the controversy on the concept of governance, and was very relieved, so he came to talk about some practical problems.

Zhao Ta, who has a loyal and brave army, also has to admit that there is indeed a gap between the Song army and the Jin army, which has just risen for a few years. But the gap between the two armies is neither in equipment nor in quantity. As everyone knows, war depends on the economy, the economy supports the war, and war is to a large extent a contest of economic strength.

However, regardless of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, the Jin Dynasty was far from the Northern Song Dynasty, which was second to none in the world at that time. In terms of manpower, at the beginning of the war against the Song Dynasty, it was estimated that the area under the jurisdiction of the Jin Dynasty was only more than one million households. This period was the most populous period in the Song Dynasty, with a total of more than 20 million households in the country, more than ten times that of the Jin Dynasty at that time. In terms of material resources, the Jurchen society was still a semi-primitive and semi-slave society, and at the beginning of entering the Central Plains, it had no understanding of the importance of agriculture, and its material resources were very limited. Then, after a century and a half of stable development and long-term accumulation, the Song Dynasty was known as 'Jingsui at home and abroad, Nian Gu Dengni, Chengping for a long time, and surplus with money', and military spending accounted for seven or eight out of ten

Even in terms of military strength, the total number of troops of the Jin Dynasty at that time was less than 200,000, and the number of troops that could be used to attack the Song Dynasty was only more than 100,000, and the number of soldiers under Kaifeng was only 80,000. The total number of troops in the Song Dynasty was about one million, and although the shortage problem was serious, the number of troops that could be put into the war against the Jin was still several times that of the Jin army. As for its equipment, Shen Kuo once pointed out: This dynasty "armor and armor are extremely ingenious in ancient times; The prosperity of armament has not been compared in the previous life. Although this statement is suspected of bragging, the production level of weapons such as bows, pipes, swords and other weapons in the Northern Song Dynasty undoubtedly exceeds that of the Jin Kingdom, which relied on imports and seizures.

With such an advantage, why did the country die? In a word, the military and the government are corrupt. In China, it is an ancient concept that the people are noble and the monarch is light, and the sovereignty rests with the people. The thinker said that it was his rare ideal; When rulers say this, they are often deceiving themselves with lies. Zhao Ji often boasts of being diligent and honest: "Be diligent in government, and be good in the world; Thrifty at home, with the wealth of the world. "He has also made many promises that he will benefit the people, and he has said things like 'business desire to cause Li Yuanfu', Zhao Ta can't help but scold his father for talking!

"Now the 'six thieves' cite their relatives, form a wide range of party members, sell their official positions, bend the law for bribes, and wantonly loot the people's fat and ointment, and their methods are all done to the extreme, and their henchmen are broken!" Chen Dong gritted his teeth and said.

"The thieves have just been flat, and the thieves in Heshuo and Shandong have swarmed in the blink of an eye, the big ones have attacked the city, the small ones have extended the vine rock valley, the more have 10,000 people, and the few have gathered. Because of the corruption of the government, Wang Hao, Cai Jing and others controlled the government, and in the political loss, they were recommended to prosper, so that the people could not survive themselves, but turned to thieves. Chen Guoting said bitterly.

"You are all upright people, the things in the southeast can't be repeated in the northwest, this king can't control other places, but the northwest can't let these people make a miasma, the people are not happy, these moths must be removed from the northwest!" Zhao Ta patted the case and said that now is the most politically corrupt and darkest period in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty and even China. Moreover, corruption is not a trivial and ordinary corruption, but an all-round and incorrigible systemic corruption, and corruption must be beaten, which is an ironclad law of history.

"The prince has the ambition to fight corruption and sue corruption, which is the blessing of all the people in the northwest, and the lower officials are willing to ask for the lives of all the people, at the cost of their necks!" Xu Zongheng got up and said, most of them were excluded because they couldn't get used to the actions of those corrupt officials, so they hit it off with the prince's proposal.

"You don't hesitate to pay attention to your head, how can this king care about this blood, everyone just let it go, everything is borne by this king!" Zhao said.

"Lord Wang, the local officials are also intertwined, colluding up and down, and there are many shady scenes, we must also be cautious, and we must think about it in the long run, Judge Chen once served as the middle of the imperial history, and the lower officials thought that he would preside over this matter, and it would be good for Shaoyang to assist from the side?" Xu Zongheng suggested.

"Do you have any objections?" Zhao Tazheng had this intention, one was an expert, the other was a hot-blooded young man, the two of them were just right, but he didn't take it personally, but consulted the opinions of the next two parties, and when he saw the two nodding, he said again: "Okay, don't have any worries about the two, as long as you violate the discipline, we don't care if he is a relative of the Jade Emperor or a friend of the Buddha, we will be punished according to law!" ”

After hearing this, everyone was refreshed, and they felt that they were following the right person, and they were naturally excited, although they had been two shifts, they were not tired.

"Ladies and gentlemen, although the anti-corruption officials can win the hearts of the people, the war in the northwest has lasted for more than ten years, the government treasury has been depleted, there is no grain of rice in the warehouse, and self-sufficiency is still insufficient. Nowadays, tens of thousands of displaced people are pouring in, and it is difficult to maintain, as expected by this king, although a large amount of grain and grass was seized last year, and it is difficult to hold on to the grain stored in Hedong until June, I am afraid that it will not be relieved until the autumn harvest, if the grain in these months cannot be solved, the hungry people will also have trouble, and it will inevitably disturb the northwest! Zhao Ta threw another question.

"What the prince said is very true, this matter is incomprehensible, the people's hearts are still uneasy, and the Western Xia wants to be on the side, and the two together may repeat the disaster of the southeast!" Xu Zongheng nodded and said, everyone's excitement just now was dispelled a lot, and they couldn't do anything without food or money, and fell silent for a while.

"Lord Wang, the lower officials have another strategy, I don't know if it's feasible?" Zhou Xingji, who had been silent, said suddenly.

"Sir, please!" Zhao Ta hurriedly said.

"Lord Wang, in the past, there were frequent wars in the northwest, and the imperial court used salt as bait to lure merchants to transport grain thousands of miles to aid the border, but Cai Jing repeatedly changed the salt method, resulting in the lack of trust in salt money. Now that Wang Hao is in power, he has to cancel the Department of Affairs, and Wang Yexi has conquered Yanzhou and captured a large number of salt ponds. Zhou Xingji said.

"Well, this strategy is very good, the southeast people are changing, the salt fields are destroyed, there is almost no production of sea salt, and the output of salt is decreasing, resulting in a soaring price of salt, if Qingbai salt enters the Central Plains, it can reduce the price of salt, and it can make us get grain, but it is a good thing, but the collapse of salt money, how to win the trust of businessmen, still need to be discussed in detail!" Yang Shi nodded and said......)