Chapter 182: Your Majesty the Pig

【The full name of the tyrants should be the tyrant landlords.

The real watershed of the Western Han Dynasty was Emperor Wu.

Before the Enfeoffment Order, there were many vassal states, and the emperor only held 17 counties.

After the Enfeoffment Order, the era of vassal states in the early Han Dynasty ended, and the Han Dynasty truly entered the era of centralization.

One of the keys to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's great ambitions on the throne was the good foundation left by the rule of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing.

There is always a misunderstanding about Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing in modern times. People always think that Wen means weak, as if when these two were in power, they just need to start the policy of inaction.

But in fact, it was Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty who first used cruel officials.

What was the reason for using cruel officials? The biggest reason was that the tyrants were difficult to control.

The first person in "Biographies of Cruel Officials" was Zhidu, who was used by Emperor Wen. From the records, we can get a glimpse of the style of the tyrants at that time.

There were more than 300 families of the Jinan Xi clan, and they were cunning and cunning, and the two thousand stones could not control them, so Emperor Jing appointed Zhidu as the governor of Jinan. When the clan was wiped out, the chief culprit of the clan was exterminated, and the rest were all trembling.

With more than 300 households, they were able to act lawless in the vassal states, and the vassal kings asked the central government for help in pacifying the situation. This shows how fierce the powerful were.

After Zhidu, Emperor Jingwu and Emperor Wu successively used cruel officials. There were a total of ten named officials in the "Biographies of Cruel Officials". The most common words in the records were "clan extermination", "lineage extermination", "killing", "family tyrants", "tyrants" and so on.

It can be said that the fight between the imperial power and the powerful had officially begun during the reign of Emperor Wen.

Why could the powerful rise so quickly?

The multi-level hierarchy of power in the vassal states was the soil for their growth.

The frequent natural disasters in the early Han Dynasty were the nutrients for their growth.

For example, during the 23 years of Emperor Wen's reign, there were a total of 26 recorded disasters such as fengshui, drought, earthquake, hail, famine, and locusts, with an average of more than one disaster per year.

Ordinary people would go bankrupt if they encountered a disaster year, and the only way left was to be annexed by the local tyrants. 】

Liu Bei, Kong Ming and others looked a little solemn, and even Li Erfeng's boasting was temporarily ignored.

Only Zhang Fei was humming:

"It's only been a few days, how come he has become the Khan of Heaven?"

Zhang Fei has been reading a lot recently, so he naturally understands what the title of Khan is.

Who wouldn't envy the Hu people who are good at fighting and respect Khan and add "Heaven"?

Zhang Fei even thought that if he waited to conquer the Central Plains in the north, he would also fight the Hu people. I wonder if he could also get a title?

The word "General of the Universe" in the light curtain sounds good.

Pang Tong was a little envious:

"At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, many heroes rose up, which is quite right."

"For example, Gongsun Hong, who was a pig herder in the sea when he was young, studied at the age of forty, and was made a marquis and prime minister within ten years."

"It is the first precedent to praise a marquis as a prime minister."

For a while, the hall was full of envious sighs.

In a prosperous era, meeting a wise monarch, he showed his ambitions, and returned home with honor after being made a marquis and prime minister.

It is impossible for any scholar not to envy such a life experience.

Especially for those scholars who were born in troubled times and often sighed that their talents were not used before they met Liu Bei.

Zhang Fei was disturbed and said loudly:

"Why sigh? We only need to help the great cause, why envy Gongsun Hong?"

This is true. Zhang Song looked around and found that he had chosen the right lord!

Kong Ming also shook his head and chuckled: Now with Chengdu as the center, there is Hanzhong in the north and Jingzhou in the east, so why worry about not achieving the great cause?

Pang Tong rolled his eyes and thought of someone:

"Yide, you know, there was also a man in the early Han Dynasty who was made a marquis in a battle and blessed his descendants."

"Ah?" Zhang Fei thought hard. Even Fan Kuai, the Marquis of Wuyang, had fought countless battles.

Pang Tong said slowly:

"His son Sun Xiaozhao served as prime minister during the reign of Emperor Xiaozhao, and his wife was the daughter of Taishigong."

After saying this, Zhang Fei immediately thought of a person, and his face was even full of disgust:

"Are you talking about Yang Xi, the Marquis of Chiquan?"

"To be a marquis by dividing Xiang Yu's body, we warriors disdain it!"

Pang Tong laughed and patted Zhang Fei's arm and said:

"Yide is really ambitious, but what he said is correct, just like the Hongnong Yang family only respects Yang Chang as the first ancestor, but not Yang Xi."

Liu Bei and Kong Ming watched the question and answer between Pang Tong and Zhang Fei with a smile.

Liu Bei was very pleased: "Yide's reading has been quite effective."

"After all, there are books now." Kong Ming was also very pleased:

"If the books Yide has read in the past year were recorded in bamboo slips, three ox carts might not be able to fit them."

"Printed in books, they weigh no more than a pound, and can be carried with you even when marching and fighting."

Then Kong Ming raised his head and continued to look at the light curtain. He also wanted to see how this period of history that he was more familiar with would be different in the eyes of later generations?

...

"This younger generation's cognition is strange. How could Emperor Wen not be decisive in killing and conquering all directions?"

Changsun Wuji was puzzled and flattered him lightly. The light curtain had known before that the posthumous title of His Majesty after his death was Wen.

Li Shimin narrowed his eyes a little:

"When I was young, I admired the achievements of Emperor Wu of Han. Now I know how rare Emperor Wen is."

Du Ruhui also shook his head:

"The word wen wei... is hard to agree with."

"A gentleman also has six arts. I also have to ride a horse and shoot a bow with Xuanling every month to strengthen my body so that I can have sufficient physical strength."

"What is the connection between wen and wei?"

Fang Xuanling also nodded, wondering if this younger generation has some prejudice against literati?

【When the little pig emperor was in power, he was more ruthless to the powerful, and his cruel officials were talented.

And he successively introduced policies such as salt and iron monopoly, property tax, relocation of tombs, and unified coinage rights to crack down on the powerful.

But from a macro perspective, the emperors after Xiaozhu did not have his tough tactics, and they took over a Han Empire that had been torn apart by Emperor Wu, which accelerated the rise of the powerful.

The first was the order to calculate the money and report the money.

The money was first created by Liu Bang to emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce, but it was abandoned during the reign of Empress Lü.

The people of the three subsequent emperors Hui, Wen and Jing lived a relatively comfortable life, and business began to prosper.

Emperor Wu had many ambitions, and these ambitions needed policies to be completed, and the implementation of policies required money, so the money was calculated again.

In the eyes of later generations, the order to calculate the money and report the money did not bring much money to Xiaozhu, but instead greatly destroyed the confidence of merchants, forcing the merchants to gradually give up business and strive to transform into powerful people who own land.

The second is the policy of salt and iron monopoly.

The Salt and Iron Conference during the reigns of Emperor Wu and Emperor Zhao was very famous. At the conference, Sang Hongyang, who advocated the prosperity of the people, and the Confucian scholars who advocated economic laissez-faire had several fierce debates. It was also a fierce collision between the imperial power representing the central power and the powerful people representing the local power.

Sang Hongyang was undoubtedly the representative of the central government, and the more than 60 Confucian scholars who debated with him came from Qufu and other places. The nominal economic laissez-faire was actually advocating for the powerful landlords.

In the end, the salt and iron monopoly was implemented by Emperor Wu's iron fist, but after Xiaozhu died, the Confucian scholars, the old powerful people and the new bureaucrats and landlords joined forces to counterattack. In the end, Sang Hongyang was killed, and Huo Guang joined this opposition force. The salt and iron monopoly existed in name only, but became a new weapon for local powerful people to oppress the people.

The Huo Group became a trinity of big bureaucrats, big landlords and big businessmen, and was the first to reach the peak of powerful families.

The third important policy was to open the Imperial College.

This policy was in line with the policy of respecting Confucianism. The official textbooks of the Han Dynasty were selected and young people were trained to become reserve officials of the Han Dynasty.

His Majesty Xiaozhu even personally issued the "Encouraging Learning Order" to seek wisdom, hoping that these scholars would not be ignorant of promotion and come to shine for the Han Dynasty.

The Imperial College in the Western Han Dynasty was relatively normal, but Wang Mang, who was known as a time traveler, saw the value of the Imperial College and made a small change:

There were only twelve doctors in the Imperial College who were qualified to lecture in the Western Han Dynasty. Based on this, it is speculated that the number of students should not exceed 100.

During the Wang Mang period, according to the records of the Book of Han, Mingtang, Biyong and Lingtai were built, and tens of thousands of student dormitories were built for the students of the Imperial College, and there were also supporting markets and granaries, which can be called the prototype of modern universities.

We all know that it was quite difficult to leave work in the agricultural era, so the expanded Imperial College became the best place for local tyrants to connect with each other and consolidate their power.

During Wang Mang's time, many talented people came from the Imperial Academy, such as Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty Liu Xiu, and Deng Yu, Zhu You, Jing Dan, and Geng Chun, who were among the 28 generals of Yuntai.

Wang Mang himself probably didn't expect that the Imperial Academy failed to train him famous ministers and generals of the new dynasty, but instead trained a group of "rebels".

As for the reason why Wang Mang fell, we all know: it was both advanced and retro, but it was not in line with the times at that time.

And Liu Xiu couldn't expect to have too much friendship with his classmates, for example, Deng Yu gave Liu Xiu a cold shoulder and violated the rules more than once or twice, and let's look at Deng Yu's origin: Oh, Nanyang nobles, that's fine.

One of the reasons why the Eastern Han Dynasty established its capital in Luoyang was because it was closer to Nanyang, and the basic base of Liu Xiu's subordinates was the Nanyang nobles.

It was also in view of the national conditions of the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty that the Eastern Han Dynasty failed to solve the problem of land annexation, and the local tyrants as a whole were in a state of being stronger than the previous generation.

The already weak imperial power had to rely on eunuchs, and eventually it gradually evolved into a struggle between eunuchs and tyrants, and a struggle between new and old tyrants in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

The bigwigs were full of grease and fighting each other, and the common people were broken up and hungry in the process.

So in the end, "the blue sky is dead and the yellow sky should be established", and Zhang Jue vowed to put an end to the Eastern Han Dynasty. 】

In the Chengdu government office, the master and the ministers were all motionless, staring at the light screen and not daring to relax at all.

This is their Han Dynasty, and they are in this chaotic world!

In today's world, almost no one who has read books will not question themselves:

How did the world become like this?

Everyone has different opinions on the cause of the Yellow Turbans, but for them, this is the first time in history that they have shown them this great man from the perspective of an outsider more than a thousand years later.

They seemed to see a fight without gunpowder and to the death.

The nobles and landlords fought for power and the emperor tried to implement new policies, but these gradually became new weapons for the "carnivores".

After two hundred years of fighting, who could hear the people's cries?

So just like the Daze Township at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the common people who were ravaged and had no strength to cry out chopped the princes and generals with their hoes.

Although Liu Bei had been prepared in his heart, he was speechless for a while.

Kong Ming was silent. This problem was also what they had to face later. How to solve it?

I think there are still a few dry goods in this chapter, so it was difficult to produce.

Chapter 2 will be very late, sorry.