Diqin Designer

Chapter 505 Our Great Song Dynasty is truly amazing! (History of the Northern Song Dynasty)

Li Nian continued, "In later generations, some people praised the great calligrapher as the emperor who was the best to the poor in Chinese history, because he set up nursing homes for widows, orphans and the lonely, and relieved the poor. He even said that he set up universal medical insurance for the people of the Song Dynasty."

"Medical insurance means that if people get sick, they can receive medical treatment for free or at a lower cost."

This "universal health insurance" sounded like a good policy, but the First Emperor and others immediately sensed its unreliability.

In order to implement this universal health insurance policy, the country must first be wealthy enough to have surplus funds to support its implementation.

If there is no money, where will the medicinal herbs come from, and where will the doctors be found?
If the Song Dynasty's finances were sufficient to provide universal medical insurance for its citizens, Emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji) would not have allowed Cai Jing and others to help him amass wealth.

And would Zhao Ji and Cai Jing be willing to spend a large amount of public funds on the people?

If they truly had such intentions, they wouldn't have issued "ten-cash coins" and implemented the "public land law," openly robbing the people of their money and land. How could they be so kind as to provide universal medical insurance for the people of the Song Dynasty?
Leaving aside the financial and economic issues, just considering the availability of doctors and medicines, did the Song Dynasty have enough doctors to implement universal health insurance? Did it have enough medicines?
Furthermore, could this universal health insurance policy truly be implemented for the people of the Zhao Song dynasty?
If there were any real benefits involved, they would probably all be squeezed out by the princes and officials of the Song Dynasty.

Wang Jian said, "This is nothing more than a show of face and a mere formality by Zhao Ji and Cai Jing. It is impossible to achieve anything and will not benefit the people of the Zhao Song Dynasty."

Feng Jie chimed in, "I'm afraid all the benefits will fall on the heads of the princes and officials of the Zhao Song dynasty. There will be no widows or orphans in nursing homes and no commoners in front of medical insurance."

Meng Tian laughed and said, "Zhao Ji and Cai Jing are both hypocrites. How dare they help the poor? They don't even look at how many families they have ruined and become poor. Take Cai Jing for example, if he ate less, he could feed many people of the Song Dynasty."

It would be far more useful for great calligraphers and others to do fewer bad deeds than for them to put on a show by setting up nursing homes for the elderly and providing relief to the poor.

But what the great calligrapher and Cai Jing were pursuing was certainly not to truly relieve the poor or bring benefits to the people of the Song Dynasty.

In the opinion of this great calligrapher, perhaps it's because I, the emperor, am now wealthy and can give those commoners a little bit of profit that I can squeeze out from under their fingernails, so that they will be grateful to me.

Then, after receiving gratitude from the "people", the great calligrapher felt that he was both cultured and martial, and that under his rule, he had brought the Song Dynasty to its current "golden age"!
In other words, these "beneficial to the people" policies are the flowers that the great calligrapher uses to showcase his prosperous era. As for how the flowers bloom or what the result is, the great calligrapher doesn't care. What he wants is for the people to sing his praises to highlight his glorious achievements.

Therefore, whether the flowers are real or fake is not important; having these beautiful flowers for decoration is enough.

Li Nian said, "If the great calligrapher and Cai Jing really wanted the people of the Song Dynasty to live better lives, they should have implemented fewer bad policies. Compared to the people who lost their families and became homeless under their bad policies, how many people could their nursing homes and medical insurance save? The poor people they helped might have been made poorer by them."

"Those emperors who later generations praised the great calligrapher as the best people in Chinese history should be allowed to live in the era of the great calligrapher, so that they can personally experience the 'goodness' the great calligrapher brought to the people!"

Although the Qingming Riverside Scene was bustling, only a group of people could enjoy the prosperity. They only saw the prosperity and did not see the countless people of the Song Dynasty being exploited behind the scenes. They would become the kind of people who say, "The Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties were wonderful. You could see handsome men and be the leading lady."

Li Nian was able to live a relatively good life in the Qin Dynasty because he traveled to the Qin Palace, which confirmed to the First Emperor that he came from the future, rather than traveling to the construction site of the Great Wall and the road to serve in the army.

If he were on a construction site building the Great Wall, he didn't think he could easily survive. If he did survive, he'd probably have to find a way to make the fox howl a couple of times.

Even in ancient dynasties, when wise and virtuous rulers were alive, the people's lives were only slightly better. Some emperors who could be hailed as great emperors of all time may not have had a very good life for the people under their rule, let alone a foolish ruler like the great calligrapher who messed around and tormented the people.

It is the modern era that has truly made people's lives better; otherwise, how could we feed these people and then have them sing praises to great calligraphers?

The great calligrapher was the best emperor for the people in Chinese history. Has anyone asked the people of the Song Dynasty who were harmed by the great calligrapher, Cai Jing and others?
If a great calligrapher were truly good to the people and made their lives prosperous, would there still be a popular uprising, and on a considerable scale?

Li Nian said: "Cai Jing also did an extremely heinous and disastrous thing, which was to encourage a great calligrapher to indulge in pleasure."

"The great calligrapher had many hobbies. In addition to calligraphy and painting, he also enjoyed playing Cuju (ancient Chinese football), horseback riding, archery, and he was also very interested in exotic flowers, rare stones, and rare birds and animals!"

To curry favor with the great calligrapher, Cai Jing once said to him: "The accumulated currency is now fifty million, enough for widespread entertainment and sufficient for all kinds of gifts."

"It means that the country is now wealthy and the treasury is abundant, so Your Majesty can indulge in pleasure to the fullest!"

"The great calligrapher was an extremely pleasure-loving person, and upon hearing this, he immediately indulged in even more pleasures. He cast nine tripods, built the Mingtang Hall, repaired the Fangze Lake, established Taoist temples, composed the 'Dasheng Music,' and created the Destiny Treasure!"

Wait a minute, everything else is one thing, but this guy even cast nine tripods? Does this guy even know what the nine tripods represent?

That was a symbol of the orthodoxy of China, representing that the dynasty was the legitimate successor of China and that his imperial throne was ordained by Heaven.

Moreover, this was not about asking for or finding the Nine Tripods, but about recasting them, which represented his belief that the dynasty had reached its golden age under his rule and that his achievements had reached an unprecedented level.

But did the Song Dynasty, and Emperor Huizong of Song, have the qualifications to cast the Nine Tripods?

If Emperor Wu of Han or Emperor Taizong of Tang had cast nine tripods, the First Emperor and others would not have reacted so strongly, given their considerable achievements.

But the Song Dynasty, which failed to achieve unification and was not as prosperous as the Han and Tang Dynasties, still dared to shamelessly cast the Nine Tripods.

They have absolutely no shame!

It seems that this shamelessness is a tradition of the Zhao Song dynasty, starting with Zhao Da, then Zhao Er, and then Zhao Heng, and then Zhao Ji. Several emperors of the Zhao Song dynasty were shameless.

While it's true that one has to be shameless to be an emperor, such shamelessness is extremely rare.

In particular, Zhao Heng and Zhao Ji were the best among them. Zhao Heng had no great achievements, yet he still dared to perform the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai. Zhao Ji was even better than Zhao Heng, as he directly cast the Nine Tripods!
Those are the Nine Tripods, sacred artifacts symbolizing China. How dare such a person, who has neither merit nor virtue, cast them?

That's absolutely shameless!
The First Emperor's tone was unusually filled with anger: "These rats from the Zhao Song dynasty dare to forge divine weapons?"

Wang Wan wasn't angry; instead, he laughed and said, "What's there to be afraid of? They all dare to claim that Emperor Renzong's reign was unprecedented and far surpassed the Han and Tang dynasties. As for Zhao Ji, he probably thinks his achievements have reached a level that is unparalleled throughout history." Meng Tian simply commented, "This Song emperor was incompetent at other things, but when it came to shamelessness, he far surpassed ordinary people!"

The First Emperor and others understood the political significance of Zhao Ji casting the Nine Tripods, but this was too outrageous. This was not something that the Zhao Song dynasty could handle.
Casting the Nine Tripods will not achieve your political goals; it will only make you a laughingstock, because your Song Dynasty achievements are insufficient.

Li Nian said, "The great calligrapher's purpose in casting the Nine Tripods was similar to that of Emperor Zhenzong Zhao Heng's Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai. Both wanted to tell the world that the Song Dynasty was the legitimate dynasty, that he, Zhao Ji, was the chosen one, and that the Song Dynasty had reached unprecedented prosperity under his rule!"

"He was truly shameless and had no self-awareness whatsoever. But casting the Nine Tripods was not the end of the matter. Under the instigation of Cai Jing and others, the great calligrapher also built the Tiancheng and Shenggong Bridges, repaired the Yanfu Palace and the Jinglong River. The construction of the Tiancheng and Shenggong Bridges involved no less than 400,000 laborers."

This is the so-called best emperor for the people in Chinese history. Now we can travel back in time to build a bridge.

But wait, the great calligrapher has another trick up his sleeve!

"After these, the great calligrapher also embarked on a grand project: he wanted to build the 'Genyue'."

“Genyue is an imperial garden. Construction began in the seventh year of the Zhenghe era and was completed in the fourth year of the Xuanhe era, taking five years. In his “Record of Genyue”, the Song Dynasty scholar Zhang Hao wrote, “It is more than ten li in circumference. Its highest peak is ninety steps high. There is a pavilion called Jie on it, which divides the east and west ridges and directly connects to the South Mountain.” The “History of the Song Dynasty” also records, “The circumference of Wansui Mountain and Genyue Mountain is more than ten li. Its highest peak is ninety steps high.”

“The ‘li’ in the Song Dynasty was different from the ‘li’ in the present-day Qin Dynasty. The Song Dynasty’s ‘li’ was about 14% longer than the Qin Dynasty’s ‘li’ (the Song Dynasty’s ‘li’ is 568.8 meters and the Qin Dynasty’s ‘li’ is 415.8 meters).”

After Li Nian explained it, the First Emperor and others instantly gained a more intuitive understanding of the size of Genyue.

"The main feature of Genyue is not its size, but its exquisite and rare treasures. The great calligraphers who built Genyue practically plundered all the wealth in Jiangnan, and countless Song people were ruined and killed because of it."

"To build the Genyue Garden, Cai Jing and others set up the 'Suzhou-Hangzhou Bureau of Imperial Sacrifices' in Suzhou, which was headed by Zhu Mian, one of the Six Traitors. The bureau was dedicated to collecting rare flowers and stones for the great calligraphers to use in the construction of the Genyue Garden. While serving the great calligraphers, Zhu Mian also used this opportunity to amass a fortune!"

"If anyone has a rare flower or a rare stone, and Zhu Mian finds out, he will stop at nothing to get his hands on it. And this is also a very useful excuse..."

Meng Tian continued, "Even if some families don't have rare flowers and stones, but are wealthy, Zhu Mian can use this as a pretext to force them to hand over their wealth. If they refuse, he can use it as an excuse to ruin their families and cause their deaths!"

Zhu Mian was classified as one of the "Six Traitors," so he was definitely not a good person. Given the imperial order to find rare flowers and stones for Emperor Huizong, he must have been making a fortune and harming people.

Li Nian said: "The rare flowers and stones that Zhu Mian collected in Jiangnan were transported to Bianliang by fleet of ships. Ten ships formed a 'gang', which was also known as the 'flower and stone gang'."

"Moreover, when the superiors have certain preferences, the inferiors will surely follow suit. When the great calligrapher collected rare flowers and stones to build the Genyue Garden, local officials of the Song Dynasty also extensively searched for them in their respective jurisdictions, causing the people unbearable suffering."

"Of course, the Jiangnan region, which was under Zhu Mian's jurisdiction, was the hardest hit area of ​​the 'Flower and Stone Tribute'. They were no longer just complaining, but living in dire straits."

"The main factor in translating the Fang La Rebellion is this 'Flower and Stone Tribute,' which was also the largest and most influential uprising in the Northern Song Dynasty."

Hearing that someone had finally risen up to overthrow the Song Dynasty, the First Emperor and his entourage were in high spirits. This stupid dynasty deserved to be overthrown. Unfortunately, considering that there was still the Southern Song Dynasty behind it, and that the Northern Song Dynasty had been destroyed by the Jin Dynasty, this uprising was bound to fail.

"The Fang La Rebellion was massive, initially winning battle after battle and occupying 'six prefectures and fifty-two counties.' Even Hangzhou was captured by the Fang La rebels, which greatly shocked the Song court!"

"In order to suppress the rebel army, the great calligrapher ordered Tong Guan, Wang Bing and others to lead 150,000 elite imperial guards south to quell the rebellion!"

Upon hearing Li Nian mention that Emperor Huizong of Tang had appointed Tong Guan to lead troops to quell the rebellion, Feng Jie asked in surprise, "This Tong Guan has the talent to lead troops?"

Li Nian said, "There should be some, but not enough. Tong Guan has the ambition to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun and be made a king for this achievement. The Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun have always been the dream of the Song Dynasty. It is said that Emperor Shenzong of Song, Zhao Xu, left a will saying, 'Whoever can recover the entire territory of Yan, even if he is not of the same surname, can be made a king.'"

Tong Guan certainly knew some military affairs, but to say that he was highly skilled is like comparing Zhao Heng's Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai or Zhao Ji's attempt to destroy the Nine Tripods...

"The 150,000 elite imperial guards led by Tong Guan and Wang Bing were actually the army that Zhao Ji had prepared to use to ally with the Jin against the Liao. But before the campaign against Liao even began, the army was used to quell the Fang La Rebellion!"

"After the elite Imperial Guards took action, the Fang La Rebellion was gradually quelled, but it also disrupted the original plans of the Song Dynasty. It can be said that if it weren't for the Fang La Rebellion, the Song Dynasty might not have encountered those later events."

Meng Tian scoffed, “That was all Zhao Ji’s own doing. If he hadn’t insisted on wasting money and resources building the Genyue Garden, leaving the people of Zhao Song with no way to survive, how could the Fang La Rebellion have been launched? Even if Fang La had still launched the rebellion, it wouldn’t have had such a big impact.”

Wang Ben analyzed the matter of joining forces with the Jin to attack the Liao, saying, "Since the Song Dynasty decided to join forces with the Jin to attack the Liao, it must not let the Jin know that it is weak. The Liao, Western Xia, and Jin are all tigers and wolves. The Liao and Western Xia may be old and frail, but the Jin are still sharp and powerful!"

"If the Jurchens saw the weakness of the Song Dynasty, they would surely pounce on it and take a bite. The Fang La Rebellion showed the Jurchens that the Song Dynasty was outwardly strong but inwardly weak, and was not as powerful as they thought. How could they not take such a fat piece of meat?"

"Furthermore, the Fang La Rebellion may have caused the Song Dynasty to miss the date agreed upon with the Jin Dynasty for attacking the Liao Dynasty, thus breaking its promise to the Jin Dynasty. If this were the case, the Song Dynasty might have ordered its army to march north to attack the Liao Dynasty again without sufficient rest after the battle with Fang La's army."

The more sensible choice for the Song Dynasty at this time would have been to abandon the plan to ally with the Jin Dynasty to attack the Liao Dynasty, and instead allow the Song army to rest and regroup before making further plans. However, given the incompetence of the Song people, they would likely have hastily mobilized troops to attack the Liao Dynasty.

Could it be...

Wang Ben suddenly had an idea, looked at Li Nian, and asked, "Young Master, when the Song Dynasty's elite imperial guards attacked the Liao, they couldn't have been defeated, could they? Yet the Jin people were able to defeat the Liao people one after another, advancing with unstoppable momentum?"

Li Nian's answer confirmed Wang Ben's thoughts, which was the worst-case scenario for the Song Dynasty: "Just as the general thought, after suppressing the Fang La Rebellion, the Song court immediately ordered the Song army to march north to attack the Liao Dynasty, because if they didn't go, the Jin people would destroy the Liao Dynasty themselves."

"However, facing the Liao army, which had been decimated by the Jin, the Song army suffered two crushing defeats when attacking Yanjing, the capital of the Liao state. In the end, they had to ask the Jin to send troops to capture Yanjing!"

The First Emperor and his entourage had only one thought: This Song Dynasty is truly too "capable"!

If they understood modern vocabulary, they would definitely give Zhao Song a big "6"!
Who said our Great Song Dynasty was no good? This is amazing! Are there even any humans left in the Zhao Song Dynasty?
(End of this chapter)