Chapter 11: A Turning Point in Despair

The next day, without waiting for Zhao Ta to call the door, Cai Cheng led the two little brothers to the door with gifts to make amends, as the saying goes, 'if you are reasonable, you don't hit the door', at this time he can't show stinginess, so he forgave these brothers and made them friends. In the next few days, the three brothers took turns to be the east, and invited a group of fox friends to accompany him every day.

The four of them have a father who is the emperor, two are the captains, and one is the prime minister of the dynasty, which can be described as the most luxurious combination, and they can pick out any one and walk sideways in the capital, and the people gathered around them are also the descendants of important ministers and wealthy people in Beijing. In the blink of an eye, it was the Tianning Festival, and Zhao Ta was a vase for a few days, soaking in the palace every day to fill the façade, mixing in the courtiers as an uncle, listening to small songs every day, watching songs and dances, and living a fairy-like life.

The joyful October passed quickly, just entered November, and a heavy snow fell in the capital, the snow was knee-deep, and it was inconvenient to travel, Zhao Ta could only nest in the house, he sat in the warm pavilion, drank hot tea, and looked at the snow outside the window and fell into contemplation. He has been in Beijing for nearly 100 days, and most of the people he has come into contact with in the past are civilian pawns, and his contact with government officials is only those grassroots state and county officials.

Many people like the Song Dynasty, especially the scholar class of the past dynasties, they all think that this dynasty is a paradise for literati, they not only like him not to kill literati, but also an important reason, that is, even an ordinary person can pass the imperial examination 'college entrance examination' to make himself a 'dynasty for Makita Lang, dusk to Tianzitang', supporting concubines, singing and dancing.

Before it, in the five generations of troubled times, the warriors showed off their might; In the Tang Dynasty before, it attached great importance to the family, and it was necessary to be a gate lord nobleman to participate in politics. It was only in the Song Dynasty that the status of the literati was unprecedentedly high. The emperor of the Song Dynasty suppressed the samurai and admired the rule of the literati, and was even more willing to spend a lot of money on the scholars and literati, so that the literati could live a "happy life".

The Song Dynasty can be called an era when literati and doctors were like fish in water. Most of them came from the families of the Shu landlord class, and it was only through their personal struggle that they broke through adversity and became members of the ruling group. Perhaps, it was too comfortable to immerse themselves in the gentle township, and the literati and doctors of the Song Dynasty did not want to forge ahead, forgetting the responsibility of clearing the world and cleaning up the mountains and rivers. It is completely different from the Tang Dynasty before the Song Dynasty, the kind of wild uninhibited and uninhibited in the Tang Dynasty, the kind of presumptuous nature that is slightly offensive, and the pride of "although the young man is not a pen thrower, he still wants to ask for a long time to defend the country", has been replaced by a kind of sunset and twilight.

In order to consolidate their own rule, the emperors of the Song Dynasty deliberately created a social atmosphere of comfort and luxury. Due to the emperor's advocacy, the policy allowed the scholars to not only raise domestic slaves, but also to raise songs and dances, and to adopt more women to be maidservants and concubines. And as the elite of this society, their behavior inevitably becomes a model for the whole society. Among this group of people, there are certainly literati and ministers like Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi, and Kou Zhun who are worried about the country and the people, but more are drunk and dreaming of death, and the whole society is spreading this pessimism that has little to come.

Lu Meng is the champion of the Taizong Dynasty, three times for the phase, when he did not have fame, one day in the southeast of Los Angeles Yishui, want to buy melons and shy in the pocket, see someone throw the melon on the ground and pick up and eat. Later, he became the prime minister and became rich, so he spared no expense to buy land in that place to build a garden and set up a pavilion, and named it 'Gourd' (饐: food spoiled and tasteful) to commemorate it. There is also Han Yuru as the queen, each food must be extremely delicate, so that the pigeon eats the color. When the scholar brought the famous lady Wang Chaoyun home from the Ji Academy, she was only a thirteen-year-old **, younger than his eldest son, and he was really a red-sleeved song, drunk and laughing life, and this kind of "red-sleeved fragrance night reading" was unanimously praised and recognized by the literati at that time, which shows that the social atmosphere is like this. …,

Now, a hundred years of peace, GDP has reached a new high, this kind of extravagance is flourishing, the emperor began not to learn well under the instigation of a gang of traitors, and pushed the wind of pleasure to a climax again, abandoned the government, and delegated power to a group of scholars and scum headed by Cai Jing. If these people stay well, raise Xiaomi with a high salary, and take some money from the emperor's pocket to spend, maybe the Great Song Dynasty can last a few more years, but as their power increases, these people are not at ease.

After Cai Jing entered the court for the third time, he also seemed to see through it, and he rectified people, ruthless and spicy. All official promotions and dismissals must be approved by him. Whoever obeys him will be promoted and honored in a matter of moments; But whoever disobeys him, from the prime minister to the border officials, will be eliminated and then quickly. His three sons and one grandson were all official scholars, and their status was equal to that of the ruling minister, almost the rank of deputy prime minister. The servants and servants in the family are also high officials, and most of the concubines are named wives

Cai Chen's joke made Zhao Ta even more frightened, once there was a person who went to their house to run for officials, and his father promoted the other three people who gave heavy gifts from county and regiment-level cadres to department-level cadres in front of this person. Cai Yi dared to tell these things in front of so many people, one might want to show off; One may also be that he is used to taking this as a trivial matter at all, but Zhao Ta understands that Cai Jing no longer cares about the opinions of the world at all, and begins to openly exercise power.

Tong Guan, another big man in the court, won several battles and gradually became proud. Now he is serving as the Xuanfu envoy in the northwest, mentioning the military in the northwest, where the emperor is far away, and he is autocratic and becomes an independent kingdom. He arbitrarily ordered to recruit tens of thousands of tall and powerful young men from all walks of life under his jurisdiction, calling himself the "Shengjie Army", as his own pro-army, and the officers were appointed by himself, which actually became his personal army. Since Tong Guan served as the inspector of the school, he echoed with Liang Shicheng and others in the palace, and gradually did not take Cai Jing seriously.

Originally, whenever an officer made a military exploit, Tong Guan would first write a table to apply for Shangshu Province, and then the prime minister of Shangshu Province would ask the emperor for approval and appointment. Now it's different, Tong Guan didn't go through Cai Jing and directly submitted it to the emperor for approval. This phenomenon of overstepping authority naturally caused Cai Jing's dissatisfaction, and the relationship between the two has been cracked since then. A few days ago, Tong Guan brought back a person in order to compete for favor, and his appearance brought the already stormy Great Song into a crisis, opening the prelude to a major event in the history of the empire.

Since Shi Jingjiao sacrificed the sixteen states of Yanyun in exchange for the throne of the Later Jin Emperor, the Central Plains region has actually opened its doors and lost all military and strategic initiatives. Therefore, since the founding of the country, it has been trying to restore it. However, it never came to pass. If God takes time, Zhao Kuangyin's eloquence may be able to realize this wish. By the time of Zhao Guangyi, two consecutive battles ended in the annihilation of the whole army. As a result, the Song Dynasty generally suffered from "Liaophobia". Coupled with Taizu's "cup of wine to release military power", the Song Dynasty gradually formed the basic national policy of using literature to control military force, so the restoration of Yanyun actually became a long-cherished wish of the empire that could never be realized.

The alliance was signed under the condition that Song Zhenzong occupied a relatively advantageous position militarily, and it was still agreed that the Great Song Empire would send tens of thousands of taels of silver and tens of thousands of horses of silk to the Great Liao Empire every year, and the two sides would be about brotherly countries. In fact, everyone knows that this is a kind of tribute with a different statement, a way to spend money to buy peace. Later, after a change, the money was fixed at 500,000 taels of silver silk, and this was the case every year.

In this regard, the Liao State, at least militarily, did not pay much attention to the Great Song Dynasty. The reason why everyone can find a psychological balance is that 500,000 taels of silver silk is cheaper than a huge military budget. And think about it, even if these military expenses are spent, people can not afford to bear the responsibility in case of defeat, and they cannot afford the consequences of the military generals after the victory. It goes without saying that this is the inevitable logical consequence of the basic national policy of using literature to control military force, and it is a knot that makes the monarchs and ministers of the Great Song Empire quite painful

So recovering Yanyun has become the long-cherished wish of the kings of all dynasties, and Wang Anshi's basic motivation for changing the law to become strong contains the deep pursuit of realizing this long-cherished wish. Therefore, when the treasury was relatively full, Song Shenzong once released cruel words: If someone can recover the Yanyun region, the royal family will not hesitate to canonize this person as the king. However, under the basic national policy of Yanwu Xiuwen, many people in the Northern Song Dynasty who were "noble in character, pure in academics, and highly respected" became the main and one faction. As a result, those who try to use "main peace" or "main battle" as the standard for distinguishing good and bad in the Northern Song Dynasty are faced with the embarrassment of never being able to justify themselves. So, in fact, no one can easily take off this crown at this time.

"The Liao country will die, Your Majesty will remember the suffering of the old people, restore China's past frontier, condemn it on behalf of heaven, and control the chaos. In case the Jurchen has the will, the first strike, and the second strike, it is not a matter of fact. Zhao Ta's mind echoed with Ma Zhi's remarks in the Yanqing Palace, and he knew that it was these words that ended the Northern Song Dynasty, but for him, this may be a turning point ...... fate,