Chapter 50 Chapter Four

Without the addition of the yellow robe of the Chen Qiao mutiny, Zhao Kuangyin would not have been able to ascend the throne of the emperor.And once in the position of the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, Zhao Kuangyin seems to be overwhelmed, and sometimes even reflects some extreme inner inferiority complex.The throne is the focus of the world's people, and it is also the object of ambition.As long as the seemingly high-ranking emperor is a little careless, he may fall from the clouds of thousands of miles into the abyss of eternal doom.Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin's eyes had to look around vigilantly from time to time to guard against unpredictable rebellion.In the final analysis, man is a rather strange higher animal. When he has no capital, he will feel dizzy when he thinks about the unattainable and unattainable throne of the emperor; The so-called "feeling food and clothing and thinking about lust", "this mountain looks at the height of that mountain", always have some sweet dreams of ascending the throne; and once you become an emperor, you have to always think about how to secure the throne.This, I am afraid, is a common mentality under the feudal autocratic and centralized rule of China.

Zhao Kuangyin is no exception. The series of political strategies he adopted after Huangpaojia are all related to how to secure the throne.It seems that all his ingenuity and wisdom are used to maintain and consolidate the throne of the emperor and the Zhao family under his buttocks. He never regards the safety of the world and the happiness of the people as the ultimate goal of being in power, and his descendants have inherited this mantle . It is no exaggeration to say that the turning point of the addition of the imperial robe not only decided and changed the fate of the Zhao family, but also decided and changed the fate of the Song Dynasty and the Chinese nation for more than three hundred years.

Not only Zhao Kuangyin, how many rulers of China's feudal society put the prosperity of the country and the prosperity of the nation first?What they do is nothing more than personal interests and the fate of the family.Feudal rule is family rule, and changing dynasties is also changing the soup without changing the medicine.In the thousands of years of feudal rule, the nature of autocratic centralization has never changed, only the rise and fall of certain families has changed.Not focusing on the overall situation of the country and the nation, but only considering the power of the individual and the self-interest of the family. This is the characteristic of all feudal autocratic rule, and it is not the "patent" of any dynasty or individual.The ordinary people who are submissive seem to be able to "understand" it, and only cast aside those rulers who push this characteristic to the extreme, such as Shi Jingtang and his like.

Although Song Taizu also considered regaining the lost land and unifying the world, although he also thought about how to make the Song Empire prosperous and strong, what he put first was still his personal interests-how to stabilize the country. As soon as he came to power, he wiped out the open opposition, and then ruthlessly wiped out potential opponents and hidden resistance by means of gentleness and "release military power with a glass of wine".After a glass of wine released his military power, his rule was stable, but the local power suddenly became weak, and the foreign invasion was irresistible, and he pushed all the problems to the central government.From the perspective of consolidating the dominant position, it seems that there is nothing wrong with releasing military power with a glass of wine, but "slashing" against one's own military power when there are enemies on all sides, Song Taizu also proceeded a little too early, a bit nervous and nervous the taste of.Waiting for the unification of China and the peace of the world to remove the real power of the generals can be called a real strategy.

In order to abolish the power of Fangzhen and prevent it from getting worse, Song Taizu concentrated all the political power, military power, and financial power in the hands of the emperor.In the past, Fangzhen was like a semi-independent kingdom with immunity from officials.Song Taizu changed the previous horizontal management mode, and officials from all walks of life (provinces) were not only vertically managed by the central government, but also directly selected by the central government.Song Taizu firmly controlled the regime in his own hands by strengthening the centralization of power.In order to achieve the purpose of centralizing power and increase the majesty of the emperor, he not only abolished the ceremony of sitting in front of the prime minister, but also weakened and restricted the power of the prime minister.The prime minister's civil rights, military power, and financial power are divided by the governor, the Privy Council, and the three divisions.For example, the country's finances are already in difficulty, but the Privy Council needs to increase its troops; the people are already impoverished, and the three divisions are still asking for money.The weakness of the separation of the military and the government, and the weirdness of handling, is even more exposed in the event of a war.

In order to prevent ministers from monopolizing their own power, Song Taizu always divided some real power departments and added many new institutions, resulting in bloated bureaucracy, overstaffed, mutual internal friction, and extremely low efficiency.Many major and minor matters were finally pushed before him, the emperor, and he had to make the decision himself.Although the Song Dynasty set up admonishing officials, their duties quietly disappeared and changed. From advising the king to become a censor who specially inspected the courtiers, the so-called situation of "the prime minister listens to the emperor, and the emperor listens to the officials" will no longer be reproduced.The emperor's authority is supreme to the extreme, and there is almost no one to discuss and no one to remonstrate. The ministers can only occasionally restrain the emperor with the law of the ancestors.After Wang Anshi proposed that "ancestors cannot be legalized", the emperor became the real "Son of Heaven", no one can supervise, and no laws can restrain him.

Song Taizu put all the financial power in the central government at the same time that the political power and military power were taken over by the emperor.In the past, the taxes collected by Fangzhen were basically kept by themselves, and very few were sent to the court.Although this provides convenience for local officials to amass wealth and fill their own pockets, it has certain disadvantages, but local autonomy and flexibility have also been brought into play accordingly.Song Taizu carried out financial reforms and ordered all states in the world to send all the normal funds to the central government except for the normal funds specified, and they are not allowed to occupy them.Although this policy played a role in restricting local forces to a certain extent, the transportation and financial management at that time could not keep up, and corresponding government officials had to be added, causing incalculable losses.Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the financial revenue of the Song Dynasty increased seven or eight times.However, it has to support a large number of government officers and soldiers sent by the government to various places and a large number of forbidden troops. From 3,000 people in Tang Dynasty to support one officer and soldier, to thirty people to support one officer and soldier.On the surface, the fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty increased greatly, but in essence it decreased greatly.That is to say, in the period of Song Yingzong, the annual national fiscal revenue was as high as more than 60 million yuan, while the expenses of officers and soldiers cost five-sixths.For the remaining one-sixth, what else can the court do?The developed economy was unknowingly consumed in the invisible, and the poverty and weakness of the Song Dynasty inevitably became a fixed trend that was difficult to reverse.Therefore, whenever border conflicts break out, the national finances are weak, and the local finances are returned to the central government. The lack of power has long been weak and there is nothing to build.

In addition to finances, the construction and management of the army were the root causes of the Song Dynasty's repeated defeats. After Song Taizu released the military power with a cup of wine, it seemed that the military power had been concentrated in the hands of the emperor alone, but the problem had not been fundamentally solved.As long as there is an army, there will be generals who lead the troops in battle; and once a general wins the trust of his subordinates and controls the soldiers under him, he may launch a military coup d'état with his own power.In order to fundamentally solve the disadvantages of generals supporting their own self-respect, only reforming the military system can achieve the goal.After some careful consideration, Song Taizu adopted a military system in which the Privy Council and the Three Yamen coexisted.The Privy Council is in charge of the country's military affairs, and it is in charge of important military affairs, such as mastering military registration, controlling tiger charms, and mobilizing troops.In order to restrain the military generals, the chief executive of the Privy Council, the Privy Council, was appointed by a civilian who did not understand military affairs.The three yamen refer to the commanders in front of the palace, the commanders of the guards and horse troops, and the commanders of the guards and infantry. They usually guard the emperor, are responsible for the guard of honor, stay in the capital, or go to other places for more guarding.The three yamen are divided equally, and all have military power, but they do not have the power to mobilize the army.That is to say, the Privy Council is a retreat military institution. It has the power to deploy troops, but it has no soldiers to command; while the Sanya has an army, but it has no power to dispatch troops.The Privy Council has power but no soldiers, and the Sanya has soldiers but no power. They restrict each other, and no one can even think about rebelling with soldiers.And the real commanding power of the army finally belonged to the emperor alone.In order to prevent incidents similar to his own "adding the body in yellow robes", Zhao Kuangyin was really deliberate to the extreme.

Not only that, Zhao Kuangyin also strengthened the construction of the Forbidden Army.There were three types of military forces in the early Song Dynasty, one was the township army, the other was the Xiang army, and the third was the forbidden army.The township army is not a professional army. It is an army in wartime and works in agriculture in peacetime. It is essentially a militia. The Xiang army is the local troops in various states and towns. It is the emperor's guard army, which is mainly responsible for the emperor's personal safety, but Zhao Kuangyin reorganized the imperial army into a regular army of the country on the basis of the later Zhou Dynasty, and turned it into a powerful central army and core force, led by Sanya , responsible for the important tasks of guarding the capital, protecting the emperor, guarding the frontier, and fighting abroad.Therefore, as long as Zhao Kuangyin firmly controls the Forbidden Army in his own hands, he can basically sit back and relax.

The number of forbidden troops, according to the "Memorials of Famous Officials of Past Dynasties": "In the early years of Taizu's accession to the throne, the country had a total of 120,000," and in the later period of Kaibao, it grew to 380,000.Most of these forbidden troops are usually guarded in the capital Bianjing, which is indefensible.It is conceivable that this professional military group that only cares about consumption and has no production will put a lot of pressure on the capital. It is no wonder that Song Taizu proposed to move the capital. Zhao Kuangyin hated reading and writing in his early years, and devoted himself to practicing martial arts.But when he came to power, he called on people all over the country to value literature over martial arts: "I want to make military officials read as much as possible, so that knowledge can be the way to govern." He is still worried that people's heavy use of force will endanger his regime.Song Taizu not only used civil officials to take charge of state affairs, but also used civil officials to control military generals.In this regard, he once said: "Fangzhen was brutal in the Five Dynasties, and the people suffered from it. Now I select capable Confucian officials and send them to all states in the world. Even if these people are all corrupt, there is no danger of a military official." The Khitan and Liao kingdoms are covetous, if it becomes a fashion and fashion to place more emphasis on culture than military, who would still be willing to serve as a soldier?Where does the army have strong fighting spirit and strong strength?

In terms of the specific management of the army, some of Song Taizu's measures also had many disadvantages. In the past, all the forbidden troops were stationed in the capital. Since Song Taizu transformed them into the main force of the dynasty, they had to adopt the method of "internal and external control" to divide the garrisons.The main threat came from Khitan, so he stationed about 66% of the imperial army in the north, 7% in the south, and 27% in the capital.In order to completely concentrate the power of the generals in the hands of the emperor, Zhao Kuangyin also established the "Great Defense Law": Except for the squads in front of the guard hall, all other forbidden troops must be rotated to a certain place for defense on a regular basis, and the generals will naturally have to be constantly changed.It is often that a certain general has just been transferred to a certain army, and he has not yet reached the level of acquaintance between officers and soldiers, and is quickly transferred elsewhere.The purpose of Song Taizu was to prevent the generals from being in turmoil.If you want to rebel, you must first form a party wing; there must be a process of mutual familiarity and understanding between the party members, and it can only be formed by slowly deepening the relationship.However, the "more garrison law" often makes "soldiers do not know generals, and generals do not know soldiers", let alone forming parties and rebelling against each other.Therefore, Song Taizu only needs to issue an edict to those important generals who hold thousands of miles of territory and hundreds of thousands of troops, and they can immediately become lonely "commanders of light."The purpose of prevention is achieved, however, the resulting adverse consequences are very serious: the generals do not know the talents of the soldiers, the soldiers do not know the appearance of the generals, they are unfamiliar with each other, the relationship is alienated, the prestige of the generals cannot be established, and the strengths of the soldiers cannot be obtained. play.As the saying goes: "Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles." How can you expect an army that knows neither itself nor the enemy to be victorious and undefeated? In terms of strength, the Liao Dynasty is far inferior to the Song Army.The total number of Liao troops is less than 300,000, and only 100,000 can be put into the battlefield.The army of the Song Dynasty was about 380,000 in the Kaibao period of Song Taizu, expanded to 660,000 in the reign of Song Taizong, and reached more than 1.4 million in the first year of Qingli (AD 1041), which was several times that of the Liao army. .Although the Liao soldiers were dominated by cavalry, they were swift and fierce, which was inferior to the Song army, but in terms of the strength of the two armies, the Song Dynasty should surpass the Khitan; what's more, the economic power of the Song Dynasty was far stronger and more stable than that of the Liao Dynasty, so why did it have a stronger advantage? The Great Song Dynasty has never achieved a decent military victory in foreign wars?Although there are many factors that affect the victory or defeat of a war, such as the support of the people, the correctness or mistakes of decision-making, whether the strategy and tactics are appropriate, the general's on-the-spot command, and the overall quality of the army, we can't get it from Song Taizu's "more garrison law" alone. Certain answer?During Song Taizong's reign, Zhao Kuangyin's military defense strategy was pushed to the extreme: in order to prevent the commanding power of the commander, Zhao Guangyi simply abolished the commanding and disciplinary power of the commander over his subordinates.In this way, the relationship between the superior and the subordinate has been lost, and the commander, generals, and soldiers have nothing to do with each other, just like a mess of loose sand.The general has no majesty, and orders cannot be carried out; the soldiers are lax in discipline, and it is difficult to unify command.How can such an army compete with the Khitan cavalry with strict discipline, great flexibility and strong combat effectiveness?It's no wonder that the Song Army will lose every battle. Take the well-known killing of the famous general Yue Fei that happened later as an example, which was also a bad result of the Song Dynasty monarch's suspicion of the general.Yue Fei was undoubtedly the greatest military commander in the Song Dynasty. The invincible and invincible Yue Family Army he led indeed had a heroic spirit of "waiting to start over and clean up the old mountains and rivers".However, he was restrained by the court.If Song Gaozong hadn't inherited the genes of his ancestors who suspected military generals in his bones, even if Qin Hui flattered and framed him again, the incident of killing Yue Fei on the "unnecessary" charge would not have happened.Poor generation of heroic and loyal ministers who made the enemy fearful, but ended up in a tragic death at the hands of their own king. Ever since Zhao Kuangyin's Chenqiao mutiny and the addition of yellow robes, the emperors of the Song Dynasty have become a lingering tradition of doubting and guarding against generals.Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi once said: "The problems facing the country are nothing more than external worries and internal troubles. External troubles are easy to prevent, but internal troubles come suddenly, which is the most worrying. The emperor has his heart, so he has to be extra cautious about it." Therefore, although there was no great chaos inside the Song Dynasty, it was controlled by the Liao, Xixia, Jin, and finally died in the hands of the Yuan Dynasty. It can be said that "success is also Xiao He, and defeat is Xiao He". Not only politics, military affairs, and economy, but even if there are ideologies such as the thoughts and culture of the Song Dynasty, we seem to be able to find the inner root in the historical event of the founding of the country, the addition of the yellow robe. The Chenqiao mutiny was a successful conspiracy in Chinese history, and it always seemed so eccentric, unclear, and disgraceful.Confucian orthodox concepts such as faith, benevolence, righteousness, and loyalty were completely lost here, which made the entire Song Dynasty permeated with a "poisonous fog" of villainous people and shameless obscenity, which eroded the Song Dynasty bit by bit. As a ruler who has firmly established himself in the country, it is natural to pull out the "magic weapon" used by rulers of all dynasties-Confucian theory to govern the country.Zhao Kuangyin not only respected Confucius and Confucianism, but also attached great importance to the descendants of Confucius.Kong Yi, the forty-fourth generation grandson of Confucius, did not pass the Jinshi examination, so he was given special care. Not only was he designated as a Jinshi, but he was also named the chief book of Qufu.One of the greatest characteristics of Confucianism in the past dynasties is hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another.Song Taizu's respect for Confucianism and Confucianism is, in the final analysis, an expression of hypocrisy.The two layers of hypocrisy are superimposed together, and there is a story of "Song Taizu Sends Jing Niang A Thousand Miles".I believe that every reader who has read this legend will have some kind of disgust with Zhao Kuangyin's pretentious attitude and inhumanity.And this story is deduced according to Confucius' concept of "a man and a woman are incompatible with each other".Therefore, it is not surprising that Confucianism developed into Zhu Xi and Er Cheng's cannibalism during the Song Dynasty.From the story of "Send Jingniang A Thousand Miles Away", some clues have clearly emerged. The addition of the yellow robe is an outstanding example of traditional Chinese strategy, and femininity is its inner essence.Influenced by this characteristic, the Song generation was almost soaked in femininity and strategy beyond recognition.Taking Song Taizu as the origin, his younger brother Song Taizong made a "candle shadow and ax sound"; the descendants of the Zhao family used this style in war and diplomacy. Lord, secondary to war.Needless to say for the mighty Khitan, even the not-so-powerful Dangxiang adopted a policy of confinement. As a result, the Dangxiang continued to grow and established a Xixia Dynasty that opposed the Song Dynasty.Especially a short-sighted and cowardly emperor like Song Gaozong didn't understand the gains and losses at all, he only knew to seek peace, blindly seeking peace, even if it was just a piece of peace, he could feel a kind of illusory satisfaction and comfort. Zhao Kuangyin, who sat on the throne of the emperor through the addition of a yellow robe, was almost neurotic about the fear, taboo and imprisonment of treason and usurpation.On the eve of the Chenqiao mutiny, he first used the astronomical phenomenon of the two-day conflict to create public opinion; in the process of unifying the country, he always sent personnel to first inspect the geographical conditions of the countries and collect map data.Therefore, Song Taizu knew very well the importance of astronomy and geography in seizing and consolidating political power.Therefore, it was clearly stipulated: "Xuanxiang utensils, astronomy, picture prophecy, Qiyao calendar, Taiyi Leigong, Liuren Dunjia, etc. must not be hidden in private homes, and those who have them will be sent to officials." It also ordered "Buddhas and Taoists are prohibited from studying astronomy and geography in private." , including astronomy and geography among the prohibited private studies.In this way, the element of scientific rationality that was already very weak and pitiful in the national quality was completely wiped out. ... When we follow the historical context of the Song Dynasty and sort it out slowly, its nature, development and ending seem to have been hidden in the important founding event of the Yellow Robe Addition.This seems to be a bit of "fate", but the old man of history always maintains his unique style of indifference and enthusiasm, accidental and inevitable, profound and simple, and keeps throwing the olive fruit in his hands to future generations , let you chew, let you smack, let you aftertaste. The Song Dynasty was like a piece of fat that made people thumping and salivating, and it attracted the nibbles of the powerful ethnic groups in the north; its invisible internal friction unknowingly hollowed out its solid foundation.As a result, the impoverished and weak empire could no longer bear the ravages of Mongolia's iron hooves, and finally collapsed with a bang and disappeared into the depths of history like a cloud of smoke. The ancient Han nationality experienced the pain of foreign rule for the first time as a whole. Pain brings strength, suffering brings maturity, and blood and tears bring new life.In the continuous melting of the alien race, the Chinese nation has become more broad-minded, its civilization has become more brilliant, and its territory has become wider. From a certain perspective, the humiliation of the Song Dynasty opened up a brand new China. However, some chronic illnesses deep in the nature of the Song Dynasty empire still exist, always prompting us later successors to think deeply about it.