Autocracy and dictatorship have always been criticized, but sometimes autocracy is needed. Although Zhao Ta has lived in this era for many years, after all, he still carries the memories of his previous life, which is not in tune with some aspects of this era, and what he knows is even something that does not exist at the moment but is more needed. And if he wants to realize new things, he must enforce it, he needs to use his iron hand and be a lone husband, and the identity of the emperor also gives him such opportunities and platforms.

Years of operation have given Zhao Ta a group of loyal subordinates, but what they lack like themselves is the experience of governing and the means to govern the country, and they still need the assistance of the old bureaucrats in the DPRK and China when they first ascend the throne. Therefore, the DPRK and China are faintly divided into two factions, which can also become the old party and the new party. The New Party has followed Zhao Tan for many years, and under his influence, he often breaks stereotypes and dares to act in order to achieve his goals; The backbone of the old party who remained in office was also selected by Zhao Ta, such as Li Gang and Zong Ze, who were upright, honest, loyal to the monarch and patriotic, and had high prestige and influence in the government and the opposition, and many of them were advocates of the reformists in the past.

As the saying goes, 'It's easy to share hardship, but it's hard to share prosperity'. In the early days of Zhao Tan's accession to the throne, there were strong enemies outside, and turmoil was still unsettled inside. If you want to achieve Zhongxing and sit firmly in the country, the two parties must unite to tide over the difficulties together, otherwise everyone will have to capsize together, so although there are also disagreements at the beginning, the two sides can still work together under the banner of righteousness and work together to do everything well.

But with the stability of the political situation, Zhao Ta found that the atmosphere of great harmony in the DPRK and China had changed, and he found that he began to divide the groups when the upper dynasty and the scattered dynasties were separated, which was not only the civil and military division, but the old and new divisions. He ordered an immediate investigation. It turned out that some people in the old party looked down on those who came out of the countryside with them, but in fact, most of the people around Zhao Ta were politicians who had been frustrated in the past and scholars who failed the imperial examination. Then there are the house slaves, and the people of the old party think that they are just shit luck. The master became the emperor, and they also followed the chicken dog to ascend to heaven and were given a jinshi background, but now they are in the same hall as ministers with them, who have studied hard for many years, and they are unhappy.

Zhao Ta figured out what was going on, and felt that this was normal, but because of the difference in life and concept of doing things, it was the city people who still looked at the countryside on weekdays, not to mention these arrogant soldiers. He thought it was just a small thing. As long as it doesn't affect the overall situation, it doesn't hurt to bring those emotions to work, and I don't care about it anymore.

However, after the naval army that aided the Battle of Goryeo was victorious, Zhao Ta's eyes and ears reacted to him some private gossip of the soldiers. Originally, the most dissatisfied with the scholars was that the emperor changed the 'civil and military affairs' to 'pay equal attention to civil and military', so that the warriors could sit on an equal footing with them, which made the scholars really unhappy in their hearts, and the celebration banquet upstairs in Xuanhe did not know how many scholars' glass hearts were broken, and the Jinshi banquet of the Jiying Palace, which they had been proud of, was much inferior to it, and the limelight of the red cross-horse parade was no longer envied. The emperor's actions made them very uncomfortable.

Zhao Ta was alert when he heard about this new trend, this is not a good sign, and if it is not done well, it will turn into another battle between the civil and military. But the next Song-Jin peace talks, a series of family and state affairs such as the crusade against Gaochang, the return of King Feng Liao to Beijing, and the subsequent abdication turmoil made him dizzy. There is simply no time to delve into it. It wasn't until he decided to personally conquer the Seljuks that he suddenly found that the court was overwhelmingly opposed to his own conquest, and he actually confronted him in a passive way.

At that moment, Zhao Ta realized that the situation was serious. The ministers of the DPRK and China all breathed out of one nostril, causing the central government institutions to fall into a state of paralysis. It's not so bad that it gets out of control. But he already knew that his personal campaign had been lost. It may be two or three years if you go by yourself, once someone has bad intentions. By the pretext that he was killed or missing, a civil war would break out even if the army remained loyal to him, and the fruits of his years of hard work would be wiped out.

But Zhao Ta did not 'give in' at the moment, and still had a tough attitude to say that he wanted to levy in person, and through his strict secret system, he commanded the various Zhenfu Divisions and local governors to issue edicts, obviously preparing for the pro-conquest, but secretly once Jingzhong was out of control, they would be edicted into the King of Jingqin and the side of the Qing monarch. At this moment, the abnormal situation in the court and China also aroused the vigilance of Zhao Ren and other military generals, realizing that their good intentions were being used, and finding that the emperor was in danger of being overlooked, they immediately secretly entered the palace to show their loyalty to the emperor, and there was no intention of betrayal, but they were simply worried about the emperor's safety before they wrote together.

At the same time, it was discovered that the 'strike' could not make the emperor change his determination to march in person, and that the emperor could still command the local army to move through the imperial decree without the general order issued by them. Realizing that the Emperor was not afraid of throwing the rake on his own, but put himself in an awkward position and in danger of not being able to end the game, they cooperated with the Emperor instead, hoping to regain the initiative through 'soft means'.

Zhao Ta already had a bottom in his heart at this time, as long as the army was not chaotic, he could control the situation, and he didn't believe that those scholars would oppose him, and there must be some of them who came together with the old party out of concern for their own safety. So he pushed the boat down the river and announced that he would abandon the pro-conscription and lift the vigilance. And the scholars who forced the emperor to retract their orders cheered for their victory, but they did not know that their actions had attracted the attention of the emperor......

Although this incident ended with Zhao Ta's 'submission', he knew that this might just be an accidental incident, and his reaction seemed to be a little excessive, but he knew that this incident opened a precedent for this dynasty to admonish the emperor. If no way is left to correct them, there will be more and more such incidents. If they don't agree, they will confront them again, shattering their dream of dictatorship, and if someone objects against it, it may trigger party strife.

Needless to say, the harm of partisanship can be said to be a disaster for a country. In the Song Dynasty, a major event was Wang Anshi's change. According to the degree of freedom of speech and deeds in the previous writings, some scholars raised various doubts about the reform of the law, and in the debate, they were divided into two parties, the old and the new. Under the reform system, the government often became assertive and arbitrary, and the new party put the old party Su Shi in prison for the Wutai poetry case. On the other hand, when Yuan You was changed, the old party was in power, and he retaliated with a tooth for a tooth, and also fabricated the Chegaiting poem case, and exiled the new party Cai Qu to Lingnan, where he died in the local area.

This kind of life-and-death political ecology can no longer be compared with the Renzong Dynasty, and it also set a bad precedent for the later literary prison and cultural autocracy. The struggle between the two parties lasted for another three dynasties, and the political elite of the Great Song Dynasty was almost inevitably involved, and they lost all their losses in the mutual conflict, so that Cai Jing and other traitors had the opportunity to take power. And the national strength has also turned from prosperity to decline in disputes, and there are many internal contradictions, even without the invasion of the Jurchens, the Great Song Dynasty has come to the brink of extinction.

Everyone understands the consequences of the party struggle, but why are the scholars still happy to get involved in it? Zhao Ta has pondered the reasons for this for so many years.

In the feudal officialdom where absolute utilitarianism is paramount, eunuchs, relatives and scholars are often three irreconcilable forces. Among them, eunuchs are indispensable and necessary for the royal family; Relatives are the natural, fait accompli, and irrefutable attachments of the royal family. Scholars had their natural political weakness in feudal officialdom, and they could only rely on political ideas, ethical displays in line with feudal etiquette, and statecraft that could be used by the emperor to win their status and achieve the goal of realizing their desire for power and political ideals.

After all, the moral talents possessed by the scholars are very elastic, and they seem thin and even empty and empty in front of the generals who attack cities and seize lands and expand their territory. For the emperor, it can be used both here and there; They can be used for both, attack each other, or even discard as garbage; You can use it now or in the future. In order to reduce failures and increase their strength, scholars must look beyond moral talent to find strength.

Forming a party of friends is the easiest political choice for scholars to think of and the easiest to operate. Scholars and officials who are inclined to their own side are tried their best to co-opt, use, and support, while those who disagree with them are brutally persecuted and ruthlessly attacked. It is precisely the ultimate goal of the feudal political struggle to seek political power, status and its interests, and then to further strengthen and consolidate, expand and expand relations with political gains, and form a huge and solid power network to satisfy oneself, facilitate oneself, and ultimately realize oneself and benefit future generations.

Although I have figured it out, how to avoid partisan strife is still a difficult problem. Reasoning with them, Zhao Ta believes that his half bottle of vinegar is by no means the opponent of those scholars who are full of knowledge, they all understand it! Punishing a few to set an example, although it is a way, but it is a symptom but not a cure, with the umbrella of the ancestral family law, they are not afraid of demotion to officials, not afraid of demotion, not afraid of imprisonment. And the high-pressure policy is not conducive to the development of the country, driving all the good people out of the court, and the remaining sycophants follow his father's old path.

After thinking about it, Zhao Ta thought of what a great man in later generations said: Where there are people, there will be struggles, and three people will have left, middle and right. This shows that it is impossible to eliminate party strife from the root, and can only be restrained by the balance of power, and to achieve balance, there must be an arbiter, then the best referee is, of course, he, the emperor, as long as the imperial power alone can control the situation, reconcile the contradictions between them, and avoid the two parties from being pinched, which is in line with Zhao Ta's idea of strengthening the imperial power and implementing 'democratic autocracy'.

And Zhao Ta's behavior during the Spring Festival seems absurd, but it is his temptation of the important ministers, waiting for the opportunity to grab the pigtails of these moral models, so that they understand not to grind with themselves because of some trivial things, you all have shit on your buttocks, and it is not difficult to ruin your reputation if you want to fix it. Although this method is inferior, it can sometimes work wonders, especially against these good-looking scholars...... (To be continued......)