novelonline Chapter 1195: The Transformation of Liao
Chapter 1195: The Transformation of Liao
Chapter 1195: The Transformation of Liao
"Your Majesty..." Zhang Yue stood up.
The emperor hurried into the palace and said to Zhang Yue: "Li Ding's words are even too much. You are wronged."
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty can distinguish between loyalty and treachery, and I have no regrets."
The emperor said, "I think Li Ding is indeed a little too reckless."
The emperor's words also seem to be intended to protect Li Ding.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, Li Ding is definitely not a treacherous minister. But throughout history, there have been only two kinds of political struggles: one is the struggle over the line, and the other is the struggle over power. Every struggle over the line is accompanied by a struggle over power, and every struggle over power is accompanied by a struggle over the line."
What does Zhang Yue mean by this? That's right, Li Ding attacked him, and you, the emperor, can explain it as a struggle over different political views.
However, there is no simple struggle over lines in political struggles; every struggle over lines involves a struggle over power.
Similarly, even if it is a power struggle, it is also based on the broader context of a struggle over the line.
After hearing Zhang Yue's words, the emperor finally admitted, "Li Ding is indeed guilty."
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, in political struggles, the poor and the powerful are bound to take sides. If the poor win, the reform will succeed, otherwise it will fail."
"At that time, Cao Cao promoted people based on their talents, hoping to reform the malpractices of the election system at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, after Cao Pi ascended the throne, Chen Qun's Nine-Rank System ruined it, and the path for poor people to rise was blocked again."
This sentence is a summary of the political struggle, and to go further, there is a class struggle behind the line struggle.
Going back to what Zhang Yue said to Li Ding before, only when the new class wins and replaces the old class to form a new interest group, can the reform or revolution be considered successful.
The emperor knew what Zhang Yue was going to say next, so he held Zhang Yue's hand and said, "I remember what Cai Bian said at the imperial lecture yesterday, and I was inspired by Sang Hongyang's three questions!"
"The imperial court spends thousands of gold coins every day, and it is simply unable to support itself with agricultural taxes alone. If we do not take over the mountains and seas and implement a monopoly policy, where will the imperial court's funds come from?"
"If there is a natural disaster or war, and the treasury is empty, what can we do?"
"If the finances are not centralized at the central level, what will we do if local governments become independent?"
"In response to Sang Hongyang's three questions, the Han Confucians avoided the topic and talked about benevolence, righteousness, and morality. I think this is the opinion of corrupt Confucians."
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, I think so too."
"I divide the people of the world into three categories. The first category is the rich and powerful, the second category is the scholars and the poor, and the third category is the common people."
"But if it is true as Shang Yang said in his five methods of ruling the people, that the people are poor, weak, and exhausted, then there will be no rich people in the world, only poor people. Not only will the people be poor, but the country will not be rich either. If we rank them from top to bottom, it will be like an upside-down nail."
"On the contrary, the best thing in the world is that the first class has little money, the second class has a lot of money, and the third class has little money. It's like a spindle."
"From ancient times to the present, the suffering of the people is inseparable from annexation and the inequality of the rich and the poor. That is, the first class has a lot of money, the second class has little money, and the third class has no money. This is like an inverted triangle."
“Whenever the country is in trouble, the second class of people will slide down to the third class. For example, farmers are forced to sell their land, small vendors go bankrupt, craftsmen lose their jobs, and scholars become resentful.”
"The Xining New Deal was intended to break up annexation, but local officials harmed these four groups of people, causing industry and commerce to stagnate. I cannot bear this."
Upon hearing this, the official sighed and said, "Where exactly is this root?"
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, it all comes down to insufficient productivity."
The economic problems of feudal society can be roughly attributed to insufficient productivity, while the economic problems after feudal society can be attributed to overproduction.
When productivity is insufficient, the middle class is unwilling to produce, and unwillingness to produce means liberating productivity; when productivity is excessive, the middle class has no money to consume. If they have no money to consume, the government must intervene to implement wealth redistribution.
The Northern Song Dynasty faced the problem of insufficient productivity.
How to liberate productivity?
A slave has no personal freedom, and a peasant only has personal dependence, so productivity cannot be solved.
Only when most of the money produced by producers belongs to themselves can their enthusiasm for production be actively mobilized.
Zhang Yue said: "It's been so hard for the poor people to make a living, but the officials are exploiting one part, and the wealthy are exploiting another part. This is a disease."
"If a family has a little money, they will be targeted and slaughtered as fat sheep. This is not because people are corrupt, but because the world is like this. In a place, let alone the county magistrate and other senior officials, a clerk can easily destroy a commoner's family."
"So those who have a little wealth can only rely on the wealthy or the clerks."
The official asked, "How do you solve this?"
Zhang Yue said: "This disease is a serious one, and it can only be cured in detail. If Your Majesty wants to achieve results, you must first defeat the Tanguts and Liao, and then go back and eliminate the accumulated problems."
The emperor said, "Yelü Yixin's escape to Song was one of your plans."
Zhang Yue said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I did not report this to Your Majesty, but to the matter of Yelu Yixin fleeing to Song. I dare not say that it is 100% certain. I have always thought that there is only a 30% chance, so I took the attitude of giving it a try. But I was worried that Your Majesty would be disappointed, so I did not report it directly."
"Until this time when Yelu Yixin wrote to return to the Song Dynasty, I felt it was hard to take it seriously, so I didn't dare to report it."
The emperor suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. If this hadn't really happened, I wouldn't have believed that Yelu Yixin, who was second only to the emperor in Liao, would actually rebel and return to our dynasty. Your caution is indeed justified."
"But now our dynasty has taken in a person like Yelu Yixin. What should we do if the Liao Kingdom finds out and demands his help?"
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty can pretend that this did not happen and cover it up. The Liao Kingdom will not punish us for this in the next two or three years."
"What's more, Yelu Yixin said in a letter that Liao ruler Yelu Hongji intended to go south to intervene in the dispute between Song and Dangxiang."
The official was shocked when he heard this and asked, "Are you serious?"
Zhang Yue said: "I dare not confirm it. It is only Yelu Yixin's one-sided statement at present."
The official looked a little unhappy.
Zhang Yue remembered a saying: Don't change history just for the sake of changing history.
The time and space he is in now is very different from the previous history. The Song Dynasty has achieved a comprehensive victory in Xihe Road.
For example, according to the original history, Huangzhou, Huizhou and Xi'anzhou were conquered in the second year of Yuanfu (1099).
Ji Shi Army was captured in the second year of Daguan (1108).
Guzhou was captured in the third year of Chongning (1104).
Taozhou was gradually incorporated during the Yuanyou and Shaosheng years at the latest.
Now Zhang Yue had made ahead of schedule and incorporated all these states into the territory of the Song Dynasty in the second year of Yuanfeng (1080).
In the great victory of Lanzhou, Liang Yimei, the prime minister of Western Xia, was killed, achieving a great victory.
At the same time, the obstruction of Han Zhen also avoided failure on the Hengshan line, and all efforts were made to consolidate the Xihe Road, laying the foundation for the next step of attacking Liangzhou.
Compared with history, the gap in national power between Song and Dangxiang is even greater, and the advantage is more obvious. Zhang Yue said that he would destroy Dangxiang within ten years. This was not bragging, but was based on strength.
In order to achieve the Song Dynasty's goal of destroying the Dangxiang, Zhang Yue changed history.
But can we really change history just for the sake of changing history? If the news brought by Yelu Yixin was true, the Liao Kingdom, for the purpose of the lips and teeth being in the cold, fully supported the Dangxiang and did not allow the Song Dynasty to destroy the Dangxiang.
So could the Song Dynasty withstand the double-pronged attack from the Dangxiang and Liao Kingdoms?
Will true history tell Zhang Yue that all your planning was in vain?
Of course, we still have to question Yelu Yixin's words. Yelu Yixin may have deceived him and the government, fearing that they would hand him over to the Liao Kingdom, so he told a big lie.
But Zhang Yue's intuition from years of handling government affairs told him that this was true.
The Song Dynasty's advantage over the Dangxiang expanded, and the Dangxiang people would inevitably fight for the survival of the country, while there were still knowledgeable people in the Liao Kingdom.
Perhaps the Liao Dynasty’s top leaders were unwilling to go to war with the Song Dynasty, but they understood that once the Dangxiang were destroyed, the next Song Dynasty would have to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
Zhang Yue sighed, saying that this is why both Taoism and Buddhism oppose you working too hard. It's like the higher your position, the more your colleagues will be afraid of you, but the emperor will also be more wary of you.
The emperor was naturally worried when he heard this. Zhang Yue said, "Your Majesty, our dynasty knows very little about the Liao Kingdom. We need people like Yelu Yixin to give us advice."
"I think Yelu Yixin's escape to Song Dynasty brought more benefits than disadvantages."
The emperor remained silent after hearing this. He was still unwilling to go to war with the Liao Kingdom. No one wanted to fight on two fronts.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, everything has its good and bad sides."
“At this time, you must always know what your highest purpose is and see whether it is close or far away.”
"I would like to ask, compared with the Treaty of Chanyuan, has our dynasty improved or fallen behind? Has the Liao Dynasty improved or fallen behind?"
The emperor thought for a moment and said, "Although I am not as good as the real temple, my national strength is not necessarily inferior to it. On the other hand, the Liao Kingdom should be not as good as before."
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, I also think so. The current Liao ruler Yelu Hongji's initial governance seemed promising, but in recent years, he has been favored by cunning people and has killed his own people. The tribes have rebelled, and the use of armor and soldiers has continued year after year, day after day."
"Liao ruler Yelu Hongji wanted to use Yelu Yixin, Zhang Xiaojie and other humble people to maintain the imperial power and weaken the power of the Khitan nobles through the method of centralization. Now that Yelu Yixin has fled, all the humble people he appointed after establishing the dynasty have been wiped out. The Khitan nobles are in power again. From this, we can see that there is nothing to fear."
What Yelu Yixin's escape meant to the Liao Kingdom was that it was equivalent to the departure of officials like Wang Anshi and Zhang Yue in the Song Dynasty who were committed to reform and to maintaining the authority of the emperor. Internal reforms came to an end and were replaced by conservative officials like Wen Yanbo and Sima Guang.
In this case, you don't have to worry about the Liao Kingdom launching a large-scale military attack on the Song Dynasty.
Although the knowledgeable people in Liao Dynasty will continue to support Dangxiang out of concern for the loss of their teeth and lips, this matter will definitely be opposed and obstructed by conservatives.
The Liao Kingdom has been waging wars year after year, and it also has border threats in the northwest.
Those who were most willing to reform the status quo of the Liao Dynasty were the Khitan nobles represented by Yelu Yixin and the representatives of the new Khitan Han families such as Zhang Xiaojie.
The conservatives were unwilling to make trouble. For example, in another time and space, when Xiao Fengxian, the Northern Privy Councilor of Liao, was in power, the Jurchens had already rebelled and repeatedly attacked cities and territories. However, this person concealed the news of defeat all day long, and only reported good news but not bad news.
When Emperor Tianzuo wanted to kill Wanyan Aguda at the fish head banquet, Wanyan Aguda also acted as a peacemaker and saved Aguda's life. This caused great trouble for the Liao Dynasty.
After hearing what Zhang Yue said, the emperor felt a little relieved.