Chapter 50 Watching the Sky from a Well in the City of the Five Kingdoms

The emperor’s large-scale construction of the palace in this way would cost money for flirting, but he, Huizong, was never worried about this. Cai Jing had already assured him that there were still 50 million coins in the treasury. plenty.He also cited the classics and moved out "Zhou Li", "Feng Heng Yu Da" and "Only the King Can't" to prove that the country's economic situation is very good, and the emperor spends money, so naturally there is no need to cut and shrink.So he expressed full trust in Cai Taishi's financial management ability.Although this ability is only reflected in the plundering that disrupts the economic order by distributing salt and making top ten coins.The emperor is absurd, and the ministers are also corrupt and accepting bribes. They do everything, and even the official positions of the court are marked with a price: "Three thousand claims, straight to the secret pavilion; five hundred guan, promoted to pass the judgment."Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, and Zhu Xi were known as the "Six Thieves" at the time.However, when it comes to the biggest maladministration of Huizong's first dynasty, we have to push the notorious "Hua Shi Gang".

"Huashi Gang", as the name suggests, "flower" refers to strange flowers, "shi" refers to strange rocks, and "gang" refers to a mode of transportation at that time.This "Flower and Stone Guide" means that all places should offer exotic flowers and stones to the emperor.Speaking of it, this strange flower and strange rock can be regarded as the plaything of literati.Su Dongpo once collected a stone called "Jiuhua in the Pot", and wrote poems many times to praise it.Mi Fu even got the title of "Mi Crazy" because of his story of worshiping stones.Huizong was also interested in this, and it seems quite refined.However, he is an emperor, not an ordinary literati. This small hobby is enough to stir up unrest in the whole country.Just as Hao Jing, a native of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in his poem: "Long Live Mountain has come to impoverish Kyushu, and there are still thousands of people worrying about Biandi. The Central Plains have been subjugated since ancient times, but who knows that the Song Dynasty is a stone."

Huizong needed a lot of flowers, trees and strange stones to rebuild Yanfu Palace and build Genyue. In order to meet the supply, he specially established the "Suzhou-Hangzhou Yingfeng Bureau" to manage this matter. This institution is directly under the emperor's orders, and local officials cannot interfere.The supervisor, Zhu Xi, even colluded with powerful figures like Cai Jingtongguan in the court.At that time, it was known as the "small court in the southeast", which shows how powerful it is. With the preservation and transportation capacity at that time, it was an extremely large and difficult project to transport those ancient trees and mountain-like stones from the south of the Yangtze River to Bianjing for thousands of miles.Once, when a four-foot-high Taihu stone was transported by ship, thousands of peasants were forced to pull the boats along the way. When the bridge was too low or the water gate of the city wall was too small, Zhu Xi ordered the bridge to be demolished.It costs 300,000 guan to transport one such stone, which is equivalent to the annual income of 10,000 ordinary households.In addition to transporting stones, the cost of transporting trees is not small.Once, an old tree was transported. Because the tree was too big, a large ship had to be built to transport it by sea. Unfortunately, when a strong wind happened, the branches and the sails got mixed together, and the ship was destroyed and people died.Many of the flowers and trees that were transported with great pains were withered and dead when they arrived in Bianjing due to handling damage and unacceptable water and soil.Some actors satirized Huizong, saying that the garden is full of flowers and trees, all of which are "plantains".Huizong was very surprised, and asked him why, Lingguan said that these flowers and trees came from the southeast, and "Ba" arrived in the capital, and they were all "burnt".Is this not "Bajiao".After Huizong heard this, he just smiled, as luck would have it.But the local people were hurt by the flowers and stones. As long as there was a flower and a stone in a family that was favored, Zhu Xi led his servants to break into the household and cover it with yellow paper to mark that it was the emperor's favorite thing and should not be damaged. Then remove the doors and destroy the walls to move the flowers and stones, and use the fleet to transport Bianjing.The people are in great pain under this cruelty. Once there is a flower or a tree in the family that grows weird, it is regarded as an ominous thing.As a result, Hua Shigang finally led to the Fangla uprising, and the court hurriedly sent people to suppress it. Although it was finally pacified, the southeast region, which is a place of wealth and wealth, was hit hard, directly shaking the foundation of the Northern Song Dynasty's rule.Moreover, the transportation of Hua Shigang also seriously affected the South-to-North grain transfer in the Northern Song Dynasty. Many soldiers fled because of insufficient supplies and could not eat enough.In the end, the Jin soldiers invaded the south and the defense of Bianjing was weak, which also had a lot to do with it.What an act of subjugation.

This Emperor Huizong was all about having fun, and caused a civil uprising, but he had no intention of reflecting on it, and he wanted to raise the idea of ​​helping money to destroy Liao and recover the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun.The sixteen prefectures of Yanyun were ceded to the Liao Kingdom by Shi Jingtang, the son-in-law of the Later Jin Dynasty, during the Five Dynasties.During Song Taizong's Northern Expedition to the Liao Kingdom, he wanted to take it back, but he was defeated in the battle of Gaoliang River, so he had to give up.Later, the Chanyuan Alliance during Song Zhenzong's time made the Northern Song Dynasty produce 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 pieces of silk every year.Although there has been no war between Liao and Song since then, they can be called friendly neighbors.But for the people of the Song Dynasty, it is really shameful for the people of the Song Dynasty to lose money every year to make peace with the kingdom of heaven.Therefore, this heart disease has always existed among the monarchs and ministers in the Northern Song Dynasty.Huizong was so overjoyed. After learning that the Liao Kingdom was defeated by the Jurchen rising up in the north, he felt that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it. In the first year of Chonghe (1118), he sent Ma Zhi and others to cross the sea from Dengzhou to Jin to conspire with Jin. Destroy Liao.Then Jin also sent envoys to Song Dynasty, and the two sides started secret diplomacy and basically reached an agreement: Jin State captured the Dading Mansion in Zhongjing of Liao State, and the Northern Song Dynasty was responsible for capturing Xijin Mansion of Yanjing and Datong Mansion of Xijing in Liao State.After the Liao was destroyed, the land of Yanyun was returned to the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty transferred all the old coins that had been given to the Liao in the past to the Kingdom of Jin. This was the "Sea Alliance" between Song and Jin.

The covenant was fixed, and the Jin soldiers successively captured the Zhongjing and Xijing of the Liao Dynasty with a force of destruction. The Liao Emperor fled into the mountains, and the defeat of the Liao Dynasty was a foregone conclusion.At this time, Huizong hurriedly ordered Tong Guan to lead an army of 150,000 to Yanjing in the name of patrolling the border, intending to reap the benefits of the fisherman.But this Tong Guan is an "expert in civil war and layman in foreign war". Although he suppressed Fang La's uprising, he was defeated by the Liao army.After several negotiations later, the Kingdom of Jin finally agreed to return Yanjing and its surrounding six prefectures to the Song Dynasty, but the condition was that the Song Dynasty would not only transfer the full amount of old coins given to Liao to Jin every year, but also add one more yearly coin to the Liao Dynasty. Millions of "tax money".In April of the fifth year of Xuanhe (1123), Huizong sent Tong Guan to take over the Yanjing area on behalf of the court.But when the Jin soldiers retreated, they looted the population and gold and silk in the Yanjing area, leaving only a few empty cities to the Song Dynasty.Huizong was very proud of such a "tragic victory", declared amnesty to the world, and ordered Wang Anzhong to erect the "Recovering Yanyun Monument" in Yanshou Temple to commemorate this achievement, and promoted a group of favorite ministers who participated in the war.But the common people saw the truth clearly. At that time, in the market drama, some people combed their hair in a bun, saying that it was the "thirty-six buns (measure)" of our Tong Dawang, to ridicule the commander Tong Guan for not daring to fight. Just run away.It is "thirty-six strategies, go first".

After this battle, the weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty was fully exposed.So after the Jin people conquered the Liao Dynasty, they set their salivating eyes on this colorful world in the Central Plains.Huizong hadn't been happy for a long time to regain Yanyun. In the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), the Jin soldiers divided into two groups and went south to Bianjing.Huizong was so frightened that he hurriedly passed on to Qinzong, and asked his son to come out to clean up the mess, claiming to be "the Supreme Emperor", and fled south with Cai Jing.In order to consolidate the imperial power and stabilize people's hearts, Qinzong took him back again.At this time, he seemed to have not forgotten the power of the gods, and he actually believed in the nonsense of a Taoist priest named Guo Jing, and sent him to do things on the top of the city, trying to make the golden soldiers retreat, and the result was naturally predictable.In April of the second year of Jingkang (1127), Huizong and his son Qinzong were captured by the Jin people and went north together, and they were escorted to Shangdu (now Acheng, Heilongjiang). "All Fajia, Lubo, the empress's chariot, Lubo, crown clothes, ritual vessels, religious objects, great music, altar instruments, sacrificial vessels, eight treasures, nine tripods, Guibi, armillary spheres, bronze figures, engraved leaks, Jade wares, offerings from the Jingling Palace, books from the third hall of the Taiqing Tower, state capitals and officials, concubines, servants, craftsmen, craftsmen, and prostitutes, all the treasury was empty."

The Northern Song Dynasty perished.The former Ninth Five-Year Master is now a prisoner. "Sorrowful, I asked the courtyard to be desolate, how many spring evenings. With so much hatred for leaving, how did these two swallows know how to speak. The world is far away, thousands of rivers and mountains, I know where his Forbidden City is. Why don't you think about it, except that you have gone there sometimes in your dreams. There is no evidence, Hemengye, Xinlai will not do it." The sad words conveyed Huizong's sad mood, and maybe now he would regret what he had done when he recalled what he had done, but it was too late.In April of the fifth year of Shaoxing (1135), after the second emperor was hijacked to the north, he was first imprisoned in Wuguocheng.Unable to bear the torture of the golden man, Huizong cut his clothes into strips, tied them into ropes, and prepared to hang himself from the beam. Qinzong hugged him down, and the father and son cried.Huizong was very ill and soon died on the kang.Huizong's body was put on a stone pit and burned. When it was half charred, water was poured to extinguish the fire, and the body was thrown into the pit.It is said that doing so can make lamp oil from the water in the pit.Huizong was 54 years old when he died.After Huizong's death, Qinzong continued to suffer, and finally died tragically in the north.It was not until August in the twelfth year of Shaoxing (1142) that Huizong's Zigong returned to Lin'an from Jinyun and was buried in Shaoxing Zangong.