amaotonovel Chapter 1147 What is common knowledge is not necessarily the truth of history.
Chapter 1147 What is common knowledge is not necessarily the truth of history.
When Yang Shaofeng and Heizhi Tangyuan rushed to the Qianqing Palace as if their lives depended on it, Emperor Zhu, Li Shanchang, and Liu Bowen were already prepared for battle.
Upon seeing Yang Shaofeng, Emperor Zhu greeted him with a smile, saying, "Your son-in-law has arrived."
Yang Shaofeng felt a red light appear in his mind, followed by an air raid siren and a female voice announcing, "Warning: nuclear silo detected."
Old Deng's smiling address to his son-in-law was as terrifying as the King of Hell smilingly calling out names from the Book of Life and Death!
Emperor Zhu first had Chen Zhong bring chairs for Yang Shaofeng and Zhu Biao, and then said with a smile, "If it weren't for my son-in-law today, I'm afraid we would have suffered a huge loss without even realizing it."
Yang Shaofeng chuckled twice, and Li Shanchang chimed in, saying, "What you say is true. Today, thanks to the Prince Consort for exposing this, otherwise, I'm afraid the poll tax and corvée labor would still be two mountains weighing on the people."
Liu Bowen continued, "In the end, the Censorate is still lacking in its inspection and supervision. If it weren't for the reminder from the Prince Consort, I would never have imagined that those officials and gentry would find ways to collect poll taxes and corvée labor fees."
The alarm in Yang Shaofeng's mind immediately escalated to "Warning: nuclear missile launched."
These three old guys are praising me in unison; what exactly are they trying to do?
Just as Yang Shaofeng was feeling uneasy, Li Shanchang unfolded a map of the Yan Kingdom and said, "The Imperial Son-in-Law is now considered a member of our cabinet, isn't he?"
"It just so happens that tomorrow's court meeting will be the formal discussion of the cabinet reform."
"I wonder what the Prince Consort's thoughts are now?"
Before Yang Shaofeng could speak, Emperor Zhu said with a smile, "Just say whatever you think, and we'll discuss it together."
At this point, Emperor Zhu turned to Chen Zhong and instructed, "Go and invite the Duke of Wei and the Duke of E over, so that they can also listen to this."
Yang Shaofeng glanced at Emperor Zhu, then at Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen.
So, you three have been acting, and it's obvious you just want to mess with me, right?
However... if you want to mess with me, I might not want to mess with you either!
Yang Shaofeng chuckled and suddenly looked at Emperor Zhu, saying, "May I ask, Father-in-law, is this a formal audience before the Emperor, or would you like to speak with your family behind closed doors?"
Emperor Zhu clicked his tongue and said, "Of course, we should talk behind closed doors as a family."
After all, you scoundrel, you start by calling me "father-in-law," how am I supposed to respond to you before the emperor?
Yang Shaofeng smiled again and said, "Since we are talking behind closed doors as a family, I have a question—may I ask my father-in-law how he evaluates Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Ji, and how he evaluates the Jingkang Incident?"
Emperor Zhu opened his mouth, but his eyes unconsciously turned to Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen.
We're in the Ming Dynasty right now, aren't we?
We're going to discuss matters concerning our Great Ming Dynasty, right?
How could this scoundrel manage to steer the conversation towards Emperor Huizong of Song and the Jingkang Incident?
Emperor Zhu was still trying to figure out what was going on, but Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen felt a sudden jolt in their hearts.
If it were a few years ago, Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen would probably have unhesitatingly described him as a "foolish and incompetent ruler who brought about the downfall of his country."
However, after being tormented by a certain prince consort for several years, and especially after personally experiencing the changes in the Ming Dynasty in recent years, Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen suddenly dared not directly say that Zhao Ji was a "foolish and incompetent ruler who brought about the downfall of the country".
After carefully recalling the contents of the "History of Song", "Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government", and "Chronological Records Since the Jianyan Era", Li Shanchang suddenly gasped and said, "Does the Imperial Son-in-Law mean that Emperors Huizong and Qinzong were betrayed?"
Yang Shaofeng sneered and said, "In the Song Dynasty, they said that if you break a bucket (Tong Guan) and spill vegetables (Cai Jing), then the world is a good place."
"Whether Tong Guan was a good person or not is another matter, but Cai Jing presided over the "Chongning Education Promotion" during the Chongning period, abolished the imperial examination, abolished the hereditary privilege system, promoted the establishment of nursing homes, sanctuaries and gardens, and launched the Flower and Stone Tribute. Many of the methods in this are very familiar."
As is well known, Emperor Huizong of Song (Zhao Ji) was a famous Daoist emperor who excelled in his side job and calligraphy and painting. He was a typical example of someone who did better in his side job than his main job. The infamous Jingkang Incident in history was caused by Emperor Huizong and his son Emperor Heng.
but!
What is common knowledge may not necessarily be the truth of history.
Who benefited from Cai Jing's initiatives to promote education in Chongning, as well as his later policies to abolish the imperial examination system, abolish hereditary privileges, and establish nursing homes, charitable institutions, and public cemeteries? Who suffered losses?
The abolition of the imperial examination system and the elimination of hereditary privileges resulted in the loss of benefits for those official families and gentry who "passed down their knowledge through poetry and books" and "served as officials through family learning," while the beneficiaries were the scholars in Song Dynasty schools.
Welfare projects such as nursing homes, sanctuaries, and gardens benefit ordinary people. On the surface, the interests of powerful families and officials do not suffer any losses. However, once these welfare projects are fully implemented, if a natural disaster or man-made calamity occurs, where will powerful families and officials go to acquire land at low prices?
Therefore, the Chongning Reform, which abolished the imperial examination system and the hereditary privilege system, actually only lasted from the third year of Chongning (1104) to the second year of Xuanhe (1120), a period of only six or seven years.
Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen both fell silent for a moment.
There are many things that you really can't think about too much, because once you do, all you'll find are problems.
Emperor Zhu blinked and asked, "What about the Flower and Stone Tribute? No matter how good Cai Jing's previous actions were, the Flower and Stone Tribute was still his fault, wasn't it?"
"And Zhao Gou, you always call him Zhao Jiu Mei directly, you can't possibly be going to exonerate him again, can you?"
To exonerate Zhao Gou?
Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes and replied, "As for the Flower and Stone Tribute, judging from historical records, Emperor Huizong of Song was indeed too outrageous, there's nothing more to say about that."
"As for Zhao Jiumei, there's even less to say. She only dared to say 'I am finally free from the knife in my boot' after Qin Hui died. She was a complete coward and a softie."
"The reason I brought up Zhao Ji and Cai Jing is not to exonerate them, nor to exonerate Zhao Jiu Mei, but to use the Jingkang Incident to talk about the aristocratic families, maritime merchants, and gentry in Jiangnan."
Emperor Zhu blinked again and asked, "Weren't we talking about the cabinet reform? Why are we talking about it again..."
Yang Shaofeng cupped his hands in greeting to Emperor Zhu and replied, "Father-in-law, whether it is the cabinet system, the prime minister system, or the Three Departments and Six Ministries system, no matter how the system is reformed, we must face the same problem: how to arrange the political center, economic center, and military strongholds, as well as the issue of taxation."
"And all these messy problems will eventually come back to the problem of 'people'."
"As you said, the changes and development of all things in the world are always accompanied by various contradictions, but among all the contradictions, there is always an important key contradiction."