Xuande

Chapter 169
The matter of Dutian is actually quite interesting.

Liu Bei knew that many people's evaluation of Liu Xiu was always that he failed to save the land and was almost kicked off the throne, but the actual situation was not like this.

Liu Xiu's saving the land cannot be regarded as a failure. It should be said that the imperial power and local forces have re-reached a certain state of balance after the wars in the last years of Xinmang.

However, Du Tian was not completely successful. Liu Xiu did not completely solve the problem. He just used political and military means to improve it to a certain extent, thus delaying the outbreak of the problem.

It’s not that Liu Xiu didn’t work hard to save the land. It’s not that Liu Xiu couldn’t see the problems caused by the high concentration of land. Therefore, in the early days of the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu, who had achieved his empire with the support of Hebei Haoqiang and Nanyang Haoqiang, did not attack Haoqiang.

For a long time, he patiently retired honors, built Shangshutai, revived Taixue, supported Zuo's Spring and Autumn School, abolished the county soldiers, step by step to demonstrate imperial power, reduce honors and local power, in order to achieve the goal of centralization.

It was not until No. 15 years after he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor that he had firmly secured the throne, stabilized the world, and consolidated his power. Then he turned his face against the powerful and powerful with the determination to win, and implemented the policy of saving land.

At the beginning, the local officials colluded with the powerful local forces and made false demands on him, so he ruthlessly killed more than a dozen county guards and a group of officials, so as to force the officials to attack the powerful landlords.

The local officials were frightened by Liu Xiu's killing, so they had no choice but to carry out the order and attack the powerful landlords, which aroused a strong reaction from the powerful landlords, and raised their troops to resist the land-saving policy.

However, in the central government, Liu Xiu realized the centralization of power through the Shangshutai, and at the local level, he realized the strong and weak branches by abolishing the county and state soldiers. As a result, the resistance forces of the local county and state were greatly weakened, and they could not really threaten Liu Xiu's rule.

Liu Bei nodded and said, "I just feel that now is not the time to implement this strategy."

"So, teacher, at least at this time, I will never support you in any way to implement the strategy of saving the land."

The time when this balance was broken should be in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty. Years of internal and external wars represented by the Han-Qiang War greatly consumed the power of the Central Committee of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was very painful.

However, with the power and enforcement strength of the Central Committee of the Eastern Han Dynasty today, whether it is still possible to implement the land-saving policy and implement it to the localities is a question worth exploring.

Therefore, the Dutian policy has always been maintained. After Liu Xiu’s death, the Dutian policy continued to be maintained. Several generations of emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty maintained the results of the Dutian policy. The power of the field policy.

There are few adult emperors, and there are many juvenile or even young emperors. The political forces of eunuchs, relatives, and scholars appear on the stage after you sing, and the situation of centralized power is tossing and crumbling.

The strength of local militarists, powerful clans, and the powerful political power of the gentry at the central level have effectively suppressed the monarchy, making it impossible for Liu Xiu, who is the founding emperor, to achieve a complete autocratic monarchy through Dutian.

Even so, by means of killing, relocating powerful families to other places to settle down, etc., Liu Xiu's land preservation has achieved certain results, taking part of the political and economic interests from the powerful families, and re-establishing imperial power and local forces. some kind of balance.

The Eastern Han Empire is the continuation of the Western Han Empire. The establishment of the Eastern Han Empire is not a new rule built on the ruins, but a battle of a group of vested interests from the old dynasty to restore the old order.

"at this time?"

In this situation where you sing and I come on stage, it is almost impossible to maintain a long-term implementation of a policy.

The Luoyang court has already suffered from serious illnesses, not to mention the Chang'an government during the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, even the Luoyang government during the Liu Xiu period is far inferior.

However, the social situation in the Eastern Han Dynasty was completely different from the social situation in the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty could strengthen the centralization of power to a certain extent, and he would not pretend to anyone, but Liu Xiu did not have such a foundation.

Teacher, including the people around us, are you really willing to cooperate with the strategy of saving the field?When one's own interests are harmed, who can feel calm and at ease? "

"Teacher, the policy of saving the land is of course a good policy, but for the current big man, is the policy of saving the field really meaningful? In other words, is it a good thing or a bad thing for the big man to implement the policy of saving the field now?" Woolen cloth?"

Liu Bei said: "There is no possibility of success at all. There is no need to do it. It is a wise choice to keep a useful body until the situation changes."

Lu Zhi looked at Liu Bei and asked, "Xuande, at least at this moment?"

Therefore, the balanced state of the world that Liu Xiu can achieve is not something that the current Liu Hong government can return to.

"Xuande, it looks like you understand everything."

The central imperial power and local centrifugal forces have repeatedly seen and seen within the framework of the Dutian policy, always maintaining a certain sense of balance.

Anyway, Liu Bei thinks that this possibility is almost impossible.

After the balance was broken, the illusion of prosperity that the elites of the Eastern Han Empire tried to maintain began to show signs of collapse. The empire began to collapse from the peasants at the bottom, and finally got out of control.

"Yes, teacher and disciples agree that the strategy of saving fields is an effective strategy."

As a high-ranking official of the central government, Lu Zhi, as the Shang Shuling who was actually in charge of the world's government affairs before, knew this very well, so he knew very well the significance of Dutian to the Eastern Han Dynasty and the significance of Dutian to local tycoons.

"At this time, at that time, I also understand this truth. I also know that the current local chaos is out of control. The land saving is in name only, and it has no effect. Forcibly restarting the land saving, I am afraid that the decree has not been passed to the local area. It has already been pointed out by thousands of people."

So this balance is also well maintained.

Moreover, doing so will inevitably lead to wars, which will be far larger than the Yellow Turban Uprising this time, and it will be even more difficult to quell it.

Liu Xiu wanted to reach a compromise between the central and local governments through Dutian, so that the structure of the Eastern Han Dynasty would not develop in the direction of rapid collapse.

At the same time, the politics of the Eastern Han Dynasty became more and more chaotic.

It is conceivable that during the process of killing and confronting each other between the imperial power and the local forces, Liu Xiu and the local forces found that they had reached a certain balance, and both sides were unwilling to continue killing to avoid causing larger-scale social unrest. So everyone compromised with each other.

Perhaps the background of the land saving policy has never been drastic reform, but a modified and mutual compromise.

He has studied some files of past eras, and has a relatively deep understanding of the implementation of Dutian's policy.

The motive for the establishment of the Eastern Han Empire was not to seek innovation, but to seek restoration, so there was no need to kill you to the death.

Liu Bei laughed and said, "Not to mention other people, which of the officials in the court, including disciples, does not have a large piece of fertile land? Which family behind the scholars of the ancient literature school does not have a large piece of fertile land? Among the eunuchs with power, which one doesn't have a large piece of fertile land?
Anyone who may become your strategy of saving the land is counted as your enemy, not to mention people from the Modern Literature School, even including the Lu family of Zhuojun and the Liu family of Zhuojun.

Lu Zhi took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

Lu Zhi looked at Liu Bei, was silent for a while, and showed a forced smile.

So when he proposed to solve the problem by Dutian, Liu Bei was not surprised, and even agreed with Liu Bei that Dutian was indeed a bright way for the Eastern Han Empire to redeem itself.

"It's not that I understand everything, but my disciples also know that at one time and another, the strategies that worked back then may not work now."

Lu Zhi stroked his beard.

"So, when do you think it is a good time to implement the strategy of saving the field?"

"When the teacher no longer carries out the strategy of saving the field with the heart of death, it will be a good time."

Liu Bei sat upright, bowed respectfully to Lu Zhi, and said, "Saving the land is not a one-time strategy. Teacher, there is no need to be in a hurry. Otherwise, the government will die, or even the government will die while the person is still alive. It will waste the teacher's ambition in vain."

(End of this chapter)