The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 260: Discussion on the Temple (Part )

On the fourth day of June, Geshu Han left the country.

On the eighth day, the large army was destroyed.

On the ninth day, Cui Qianyou entered Tongguan.

Xuanzong's countermeasure was simple - go. Of course, it was just him and a few of his close friends. In order to avoid being noticed, Yang Guozhong called a meeting of all the ministers to throw a smoke bomb. Li Longji also appeared and announced that he would personally lead the expedition to calm people's hearts.

But no one knew that Chang'an had turned into a Titanic and the captain had secretly untied the lifeboat.

This must be one of the greatest maritime disasters in Chinese history. However, the first to leave were not women, children, or nobles, but the captain and his small group. The passengers were not even told to "Run for your lives!"

In the early morning of June 12, under the cover of darkness and drizzling rain, Li Longji led the imperial concubine, Wei Jiansu, Li Heng and a group of others to slip out of Chang'an. What court, royal family, wife and children, army, people... What face, integrity, dignity, affection, reputation... Let them all go to hell!
After daybreak, the ministers were still attending court as usual, and the imperial guards were still guarding the palace—"armour and armor were in full force." Everything was the same as usual, but when the imperial gate was opened and the dark corridor was walked out, all the officials were dumbfounded. The eunuchs and palace maids were crying and shouting, screaming, and running around like crazy, like headless flies.

After the rebels entered the city, many court officials and members of the royal family were "shoveled off their heads, blood and brains were all over the streets." The eldest princess of the Huo Kingdom was pinned down on the street and her heart was gouged out. Not to mention the peasants.

Li Longji!
This must be the most mysterious one among the more than 400 emperors.

Just as the common people humiliated him in person - "Everyone knows what An Lushan is up to. Many people have reported him, but all the informants were killed by Your Majesty. Your Majesty knows nothing about what is happening outside the palace... and he has been exiled to this place. I am just an ordinary citizen, but I had expected this day to come..."

Yes, even a peasant believed that An Lushan would rebel, so why didn’t you have any defense?
Perhaps it was not that he was unprepared, but that he did not want to face it. His body and soul were hollowed out, and he did not even have the courage and energy to deal with a traitor. Judging from the response to the rebellion, his brain was also broken. Strong desires, luck, stupidity, and self-esteem made him choose to be an ostrich who covered his ears and stole the bell, a coward, and a madman who dragged the entire country into a gamble.

In fact, Li Longji did not have no choice. In the early days of the rebellion, he could have weighed his own strengths like Li Yuan and Li Dan, and handed over the throne to his son, sacrificing his own power to save his own. If so, the Holy Emperor would have been tolerated in the annals of human hearts and would have been remembered forever.

Too bad he didn't.

Li Longji once lived like a hero. But in the end, he turned himself into an ant and a clown, destroying the accumulation of several generations of ancestors and the career he had painstakingly pursued and managed.

With one hand he reached the pinnacle of success, but with the other hand he dragged the country into hell, bringing endless disasters and suffering to the people of the world, and leaving behind a dying body that took five generations to heal.

How do we evaluate such an emperor?
"Li Jie's achievements were not sent from heaven. His plan was not good and all previous efforts were wasted. What a pity!" This is the conclusion of "The Veritable Records of Emperor Xuanzong" published by the National History Museum.

Zheng Yanchang and a group of historians gave their final opinions based on this.

If he had not been criticized, why would Zhongzong have been posthumously named Huang? Dezong should not have been thoughtful either, and discussing the rise and fall of nations, revising rituals and music, and restoring order in chaos was just self-entertainment.

Li Longji was exiled by the emperor and his ministers, and was given the posthumous title of "Emperor Wenwuli of the Ming Dynasty". His achievements were recognized and praised, but his crimes that were too numerous to list and subverted the country were not avoided. It can be said that he became the most abstract emperor in history, a combination of man and ghost.

Once the temple and posthumous title are determined, the official rank and order of succession will be determined.

Emperor Huang, Emperor Li, Emperor Wen and Wu Li of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xuan, Emperor Zhuang and Emperor Shun are all housed in one temple.

Li Xian and He Si Shun Sheng Empress Zhao were in the same room. Empress Zhao was Emperor Huang's first wife and was killed by Wu Zetian. Emperor Huang's empress Wei committed a serious crime and was beheaded in the Tanglong coup and deposed as a commoner, so Empress Zhao was made his consort.

Li Dan and Empress Dou, Zhaocheng Shunsheng. This was the mother of Yuzhen, Jinxian, and Li Longji. She was secretly executed by Wu Zetian along with Empress Liu, Li Dan's first wife. Their whereabouts are unknown and their bodies may have been fed to dogs. According to the lineage, Empress Dou was the consort, and Empress Liu had her own temple.

Li Longji and Empress Yang of Yuanxian are from the same family. Not Yang Yuhuan, but Yang, the biological mother of Emperor Suzong.

The woman he loved the most was forced to be killed while he was still alive, and he could only spend the rest of his life in the courtyard holding a sachet and crying. Even after death, they could not meet again, and he had to be buried in the same temple and grave with a woman he did not love. How pitiful!
One room for Li Heng and Empress Zhang Jingwu.

Li Shi and Queen Wang Zhaode. During the Jianzhong Rebellion, she suffered a lot with Emperor Dezong. During this period, her daughter Princess Tang An also died of a sudden illness in Chenggu County on the way to exile. Therefore, she fell ill not long after the rebellion was quelled. Li Shi could not bear to let her down, so he issued an edict to establish Queen Wang. On the day of the ceremony, Queen Wang passed away in the palace.

Li Song and Queen Zhuangxian were one. A virtuous queen, who left a will saying: "The principle of all things is to return to the limit. The widow suffered from frost and dew diseases, and became weaker day by day. Fortunately, she lived to a ripe old age and was able to serve in the mausoleum. My wish has been fulfilled, so why should I be sad? The tradition of changing the moon is shared by ancient and modern people..."

Then Emperor Yuan Li Heng, Emperor Ai Li Zhan, Emperor Ping Li Ang and Emperor Xiao Ming Li Yan were all in one temple.

Emperor Yuan's three sons all became emperors, so there were three empresses: Emperor Ai's mother Gongxi Wang, Emperor Ping's mother Zhenxian Xiao, and Emperor Ming's mother Xuanyi Wei. How could they be paired in the temple? Others had one empress, but you hugged one left and right and knelt at one's crotch?
There were no cases in the previous generation.

Therefore, it was shelved and the court was still troubled by it.

Finally, Emperor Xiaojing Li Chen, Emperor Huo Li Yi, and Emperor Min Li Xuan were worshipped in one temple.

Li Chen and Empress Yuan Zhaochao shared the same room.

Li Yu and Li Heng had the same problem. The two sons became emperors and had two empresses: Wang Shi, the biological mother of the emperor's elder brother, and Wang Shi, the biological mother of the sage, Gongxian.

At this point, except for various details that need to be improved, the reorganization is complete. Excluding the ancestors who were posthumously honored, there are six people with temple names - Li Hu, Li Yuan, Li Shimin, Li Zhi, Li Yu, and Li Chun.

The first three will not be moved.

After the relatives of Emperor Gaozong and Emperor Shizong died, they moved into the side room of the Taimiao.

Li Zhi and Empress Wu Zetian were in the same room.

Li Yu and Empress Shen Ruizhen were in the same room.

This is Li Yu's white moonlight, who has been searched for for more than ten years after she "disappeared". Of course, he has more than one white moonlight. There is also Empress Zhenyi Dugu. But she died before him. After Dugu died, she was put into an ice coffin by Li Yu and placed in the bedroom. When he misses his wife, he goes to see her and talk to her. As for whether he has taken more actions, it is not clear. If it lasted for three years, it may be that the body could not be preserved, so he held a funeral for Dugu under the persuasion of the court.

Even necrophilia is horrifying.

Xianzong was within the five mourning periods for saints and was protected in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Therefore, only four saints, Li Hu, Li Yuan, Li Shimin, and Li Chun, remained in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

When Emperor Li sent his son, if he had a temple name, he would be placed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. If he had no temple name, he would be placed in the Li Chen Temple and sit to the right of his brother. From then on, this was the custom.

There is no point in constantly deceiving yourself.

The Book of History says: "Names are used to show trust, trust is used to protect tools, tools are used to store rituals, rituals are used to practice righteousness, righteousness is used to generate benefits, and benefits are used to benefit the people. This is the great principle of politics."

Only names and tools are under the control of the king and cannot be delegated to others.

If you give people power, you are giving them the government. If the government is lost, the country will follow and there is no way to stop it.

Class and reputation are the most precious assets of the rulers and must not be easily destroyed, tarnished or given to others.

The most powerful weapons of the emperor are rank and righteousness.

If the title can be casually bestowed on an emperor who is not worthy of it, it would be a one-sided, self-anesthetizing and hypnotic act that would degrade the monarch's status and the country's reputation, and trample on class and system.

How important etiquette is!
If the highest ancestral temple rituals can be messed up, then the chaos and turmoil of the empire will begin. And this state cannot be contained or corrected until it is completely destroyed or violently revised, rebuilt, or replaced by another person who is willing to abide by the rules.

If even the emperor's title becomes as ridiculous as Emperor Yizong's, how can your family's title retain its value?
These are all very simple truths, so simple that they were already understood by people who studied governance as early as the pre-Qin period.

But what is the reality?
Rites, music, wars and conquests are decided by the emperor! Laws are under the king!
The emperor has reasons to abide by the system, but he can also trample on any system without thinking.

The imperial authority cannot be offended!

The laws of our ancestors cannot be changed!
Considering that Emperor Taizong was such and such a person, why is Your Majesty rebelling?
The Book of Documents says:
The History says:
.........

The arbitrary, arbitrariness and contradiction of the imperial power determined that no matter what the emperor did, there would always be someone to defend him. What an organization lacks the least is guests. Among the three thousand great ways, what China lacks the least is classics, stories and precedents. Messing around? Don't talk nonsense! Everything is well-founded!

The government is corrupt and the world is in chaos?
Ha, it’s not my kingdom that is being destroyed, and it’s not my family that is being slaughtered. As long as he can gain fame, power and wealth by following his hobbies, he doesn’t care, so what should I care about?
Therefore, after fulfilling his wish, Li began to think about how to consolidate the customization to ensure that the results of this revision would not be revised again.

Perhaps, we can create a law for one person similar to the "Holy Tang Decree"?
You must dance within the circle I draw and are not allowed to quote classics everywhere.

While revising the ritual and music system and constructing society, politics, and ideology, it also restricted the successor monarch and his ministers in certain aspects.

It is of the same nature as "Huang Ming Zu Xun".

Use ancestral teachings to grant the bureaucrats and the court the moral high ground to suppress the emperor. Use all kinds of rules such as "If you dare to do this or that, the officials will impeach you, and you will be tortured to death and your whole family will be executed" to suppress the traitors. Tsk, it seems feasible. The emperors and ministers of the Tang Dynasty practiced revisionism, but in the Ming Dynasty, it seems that few emperors and ministers dared to "adapt"?

But everything has its ups and downs.

The abundance of martial virtues was the root of the Tang Dynasty's prosperity, but also the cause of its decline and turmoil. It was the only dynasty that set up militias throughout the country to teach the people how to march and fight. But facts have proved that giving all people the power and ability to "defend their country" is not a good thing.

Adaptability was one of the reasons for the turmoil in the Tang Dynasty, and it was also one of the reasons why it could survive time and again. It was also the reason why Li's various reforms were not difficult. In later generations, if you dare to remove the temple of your ancestors, you can go to bed.

Similarly, Monk Zhu's various designs were one of the sources of the Ming Dynasty's political stability, but also one of the reasons for its decline and rigidity.

One is too flexible, the other is too conservative...

I still need to think carefully about how to deal with this matter.

The saint unconsciously kneaded a certain part of Nangong Chongyan, touched his chin, and his mind wandered away.

In addition, the saint also has some ideas about tax laws.

The people of the country relied on force to resist paying taxes. They were always reluctant to pay taxes, and there were even cases where the governor was killed.

This couldn't help but make the saint deeply worried.

How can we make the people willingly do so?

How to make the people help you count the money after being sold out is a technical job.

The sage considered doing an experiment. Following the example of Li Deyu setting up the Border Defense Extension Fund, he established a safe depository. He would regularly take a portion of the money from the court and Xuanhuiyuan, that is, his own pocket, and remit it to the safe depository every month as the insurance premium.

Then, sell insurance.

The common people can forget about it, because neither he nor the imperial court has such credibility among the people. Therefore, Li thought of using his credibility in the army to guide the warriors to buy first.

After all, the warriors were much richer than the common people. They did not dare to collect taxes from them openly, so they had to plunder them in disguise. Once the common people believed in the warriors' real-life examples, they would gradually get involved.

Let's assume the annual fee is 6.2 coins, and the number of customers is 80 troops and 160 million commoners. The annual premium is million, nearly strings of cash. If the premium is coins, it is million strings of cash...

Hiss, even with such a rough forecast, it’s a very considerable income.

Moreover, in addition to military death insurance, medical insurance, natural disasters, war, unemployment, housing, retirement insurance, children's education... can all be sold. Isn't this better than making money from salt and iron?
It's exciting.

But the saint hesitated again.

It is true that the soldiers believe in me. I will definitely manage it strictly and make it a welfare system. But they may not believe in my son and the court. If I die one day and there is a problem with the insurance business, the army will be "deployed in the palace".

Also, besides insurance, can we sell lottery tickets?

In addition, we can also refer to the new salt law and value-added tax of the Song and Ming dynasties and liberalize the salt and iron industries. The industry should be mainly operated by the government, with extensive participation from the private sector. In this way, we can reduce and eliminate the living space of the evils of "armed trafficking" and "salt smugglers", and also significantly increase the income from salt and iron industries.

But this is based on a strict and professional civil service government. There are too many aspects involved, and the demand for financial officials is very large. The court under his rule does not seem to have such a strong talent base and a complete government system.

However, it is definitely possible.

Economic knowledge and ideas can be taught to Zheng Yanchang and others, who can then train officials, and the court can then train scholars through schools and examinations. In terms of policy implementation, we should first conduct a small-scale pilot project, solve the problem from scratch, and then gradually fill in the gaps.

By the way, in Beijing, you can also collect garbage fees, property fees, water fees, etc.

Are the officials and soldiers of various units in Jingzhao Prefecture clearing sewers, collecting garbage, and sweeping streets for you for free? These expenses have always been paid by the court, but now the saint does not want to pay for them.

But the saint has not yet figured out the operational and profit model for urban management.

If people really come to collect water fees at their homes, will they be willing to pay?

Otherwise, instruct Zheng Yanchang to talk to Sun Weisheng and let Jingzhao Prefecture contract this matter to the merchants? In the future, the city management will be handed over to the merchants, and Jingzhao Prefecture can just share the profits regularly.

But merchants are so cunning that nine out of ten accounts are false. Considering this backward society, ten out of ten accounts are false. They take part of it and hide part of it. The people of Jingzhao Prefecture will plunder it again. I am afraid that there will be little left in the hands of the court.

First, find a cruel official to spread the word and test the public's attitude. For example, Zheng Yanchang's loyal lackey, Zhang Ping, the magistrate of Dongshi, was always cruel and would do anything to meet his targets. He often confiscated "illegal" assets in Dongshi.

Zhang Ping's words about collecting property fees, well, fit his greedy personality. When the time comes, we will know whether he can do it or not by seeing how fiercely the people scold him. A saint is not Emperor Zhuang, who dared to collect property taxes without investigation, making the people resentful of him.

"Ouch..." The saint suddenly groaned. His temples felt numb, and then he smelled a faint fragrance.

He opened his eyes and glanced around, only to see a pair of white, delicate hands.

A pair of beautiful fingers, as warm and smooth as mutton-fat jade, pressed on his temple, rubbing it gently and carefully.

The saint turned around and saw a tall girl he didn't know. Her hair was scattered on her shoulders, she was wearing a purple dress, her eyebrows were raised, and her eyes were soft.

"who are you?"

"Nunu Zhao Cairen."

"Which Concubine Zhao?" The Zhao spirit in the palace was too strong, and the sage looked at the little beauty and asked suspiciously, "Is it Chu Xian?
Facing the saint's gaze, Zhao Cairen put down her hands, put her sleeves in front of her chest, lowered her head, and said weakly: "Nunnu Zhao Yanran."

"It turns out to be the traitor Zhao Chang..." The saint lifted Zhao Yanran's chin with his index finger, and slid it along her neck to her collarbone.

Zhao Yanran shuddered.

"……His Majesty."

"Very good." The saint fell into the crowded ravine: "Remember you have two younger sisters? Zhao Zi and Zhao Meng. How old are they?"

Zhao Yanran's earlobes flushed red, and she answered honestly, "Not as big as Nunu's."

"Hahaha, what are you thinking about?" The saint's fingertips gently rubbed and picked: "I'm asking about age."

Zhao Yanran was so ashamed that she wanted to run away.

"Ouch, it hurts..."

"Ameng is sixteen, Azi is fourteen."

"Let's talk about it after today." The saint was too lazy to send someone to call her, so he picked up Zhao Yanran by the waist and said, "It's time to rest."

"Ah... Envoy Xuanhui didn't allow Nunu to sleep with everyone else, and he lectured us, telling us to think about the Holy Body..."

"I'm fine. If you don't believe me, go back and ask Rounu to try. She definitely won't dare to come." The saint buried his head in his armpits, then suddenly raised his head and asked with a stern face, "Why don't you have any smell? Why do you smell good?"

Zhao Yanran was dumbfounded: "…Aren't women supposed to smell good?"

“Alas!” The saint sighed and threw Zhao Yanran onto the couch, saying in frustration, “The golden bowl is broken!”

Outside the third floor of Wangxiantai, several familiar female officials were leaning on the door and peeping in. Listening to the waves of screams of pain from inside, they all showed obscene smiles at the same time: "After all, she is a virgin. It's embarrassing to play with her."

(End of this chapter)