Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 703: The Song Dynasty Falls Due to Jia Sidao
[Jia Sidao's life was relatively simple.]

The boy was dissolute, but as a young man he rose up and studied hard. After only five years he successfully passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi.

In addition, his elder sister, Concubine Jia, was deeply favored by Emperor Lizong of Song Dynasty, so Jia Sidao's official career was destined to be a rise from the ground up, with many ups and downs.

In seven years, Jia Sidao's career was very successful and he was directly promoted to the Pacifier of Jiangxi Road, but more importantly, he was appreciated by Meng Gong, the unbreakable wall of the Southern Song Dynasty at that time.

So after Meng Gong's death, Jia Sidao was directly promoted to the post of Jinghu Zhizhishi and was in charge of guarding an area, facing the iron hoof of the Mongols head-on.

After that, Jia Sidao continued to be promoted. Twelve years later, Mongke, who was supported by Batu to become the Khan of Mongolia, had basically settled the internal conflicts in the Asian region of the Mongol Empire and officially launched a large-scale attack on the Song Dynasty.

We all know the outcome of this incident. Mengge led his troops to attack Shu, but was defeated by the mountain city defense system built by Yu Jie, and even died in Diaoyu City.

At the same time, in another direction, Jia Sidao was ordered to resolve the threat posed by Kublai Khan to Ezhou. Finally, seeing that he could not take the city after a long siege, Kublai Khan simply returned to plan for the Khanate.

Jia Sidao also relied on this achievement to gain power in the court and reach the peak of his political career.

After that, Jia Sidao monopolized the government for fifteen years. During this period, he implemented the "strategy method" in the army to review military expenditures, and implemented the "public land method" in western Zhejiang in an attempt to solve the financial crisis, but both failed in the end.

Later, after the defeat in the Battle of Dingjiazhou, Jia Sidao was demoted to the position of Gaozhou Tuanlianshi. He was killed by the guard on the way at the age of 63. Four years after his death, the Southern Song Dynasty fell.

Different from the final conclusion in the History of Song Dynasty, Jia Sidao's image underwent several changes in the late Southern Song Dynasty.

After Kublai Khan returned north after lifting the siege of Ezhou, everyone from Emperor Lizong of Song to the literati and poets described Jia Sidao as a famous minister of the restoration.

Records of people in the late Song Dynasty praising Jia Sidao included being the mouthpiece of the Shun court, the arm of the Zhou royal family, the talent of a general or minister in Yuntai, and the one who supported the Han Dynasty.

But after the defeat in the Battle of Dingjiazhou, Jia Sidao's reputation underwent a polar reversal, from a pillar of the Zhou Dynasty to Dong Zhuo of the Han Dynasty. If you look carefully in the history books, you will find that before the defeat in the Battle of Dingjiazhou, after Song Duzong ascended the throne, poems satirizing Jia Sidao gradually began to appear.

This is not difficult to guess. One reason is that Song Duzong was supported by Jia Sidao, who thus became more powerful. However, he did not achieve his original ambition of "enriching the country and strengthening the military" and his foreign policy became increasingly compromising. This was the influence of the people.

Another reason is that at this time the "Public Land Law" and the "Land Planning Law" had been implemented for two years, and both the military and the landlords were criticizing them. This was the influence of the powerful class.

The history of the Song Dynasty was compiled by the recorder "Qi Ju Sheng", which was then organized into "Calendar", then compiled into "Veritable Records", and finally became "National History", which was also the main basis for the history of the Yuan Dynasty.

However, the Yuan Dynasty historian Su Tianjue also said that the records during the reigns of Lizong and Duzong were the most incomplete. During the reign of Lizong, there were still two or three hundred volumes of calendars, but during the reign of Duzong, there was not a single volume. Therefore, the image of Jia Sidao in the History of Song Dynasty was processed by the Yuan Dynasty historians.

For example, "The Biography of Jia Sidao" records that when Jia Sidao was in Hanyang, Wu Qian ordered Jia Sidao to move to Huangzhou, but Jia Sidao thought that Wu Qian wanted to harm him, so he held a grudge and took revenge in the end, which made him seem petty; but "The Chronicle of Emperor Lizong" and "The Important Political Events of the Three Dynasties in the Late Song Dynasty" clearly record that Jia Sidao encountered Mongolian cavalry on the way, and it was only thanks to the elite cavalry escorting him that Jia Sidao was not killed at the risk of their lives.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Lizong, powerful eunuchs like Dong Songchen and Li Zhongfu were causing chaos in the government. After Jia Sidao took over as prime minister, he followed the will of the court and eventually eliminated them all. People inside and outside the court applauded at the time. However, the "Biography of Jia Sidao" finally added the sentence "promoted a group of small people", which changed the nature of Jia Sidao's behavior of cracking down on eunuchs and relatives of the emperor.

In addition, "History of Song Dynasty" stated that Jia Sidao wanted to negotiate peace with Kublai Khan during the Battle of Ezhou, and thus criticized him for deceiving the emperor. However, there is no written record of this so-called "Ezhou Peace Negotiation" in the history of Song and Yuan Dynasties, and its authenticity is also questionable.

As for the intention of rebellion, it was even simpler. They said that imperial robes and imperial items were found in Jia Sidao's house. However, this kind of accusation of rebellion was the most common means of attacking the court in the Song Dynasty. After all, as long as one is favored, who doesn't have imperial items awarded by the emperor? The poet Zhou Mi at that time did not agree with this, saying that his wife had also received dragon and phoenix items awarded by the court, so could she also be planning a rebellion?

In addition, there are records in "Song Lizong Ji" and "Shu Zhai Laoxue Congtan" that Jia Sidao built Donghai City, Guanglingbao City, Yangzhou Baoyou City, and used his family funds as military expenses. These achievements were not recorded in "Jia Sidao Biography".

In fact, the politics of the prime minister has always been a major feature of the political situation in the Southern Song Dynasty. Starting from Wanyan Gou, the Southern Song Dynasty had to face the threats of the Jin Dynasty and Mongolia one after another. In order to improve the efficiency of state institutions, the power of the prime minister changed from division to concentration and finally to the monopoly of the three powers of military, finance and politics. It is a national condition that the history of the Song Dynasty only mentions the evils of Jia Sidao's monopoly of power without mentioning his merits. This behavior is tantamount to taking the phrase "must be quoted out of context" from "don't quote out of context".

It is not difficult to find the motives of the Yuan Dynasty historians who used methods such as deletion and reorganization of historical materials to portray Jia Sidao as a treacherous minister who would never be able to turn over a new leaf.

After all, the Northern Song Dynasty fell due to Wang Anshi, and the Southern Song Dynasty naturally fell due to Jia Sidao, and the root cause was still in Neo-Confucianism.

In the Huagai Palace, Empress Ma keenly noticed that her husband seemed to be showing some joy.

After being married for so many years, Empress Ma knew Zhu Baba's temper very well. After carefully thinking about Guangmu's words, she roughly understood what was going on.

After Hu Weiyong, the Ming emperor acted arbitrarily and abolished the prime minister.

Although most of the time, once my husband makes a decision, ten oxen cannot pull him back, such as the matters in the "Ancestral Instructions".

But this does not mean that there will be no hesitation in one's heart after making the decision, especially since the position of prime minister has been in existence for more than a thousand years since the Spring and Autumn Period. If it were not for Ba Ba's enlightenment, the court would have been in an uproar by now.

But the fact that no one was discussing it did not mean that no one was opposed. This year, there were four ministers of the Ministry of Personnel and three ministers of the Ministry of Rites. Li Mian, who had just presided over his 88th birthday celebration, was said to be requesting to be transferred to another post. If Li Shanchang had not persuaded him, he might have retired.

And now, Empress Ma was thinking that Chongba must have found support for the idea that the prime minister was unnecessary from the later generations' discussion of powerful ministers.

So she simply patted the back of her husband's hand to show her support.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled at his queen, then his face turned stern.

Zhu Di was still curious and asked, "How come this title of traitor is related to Neo-Confucianism?"

After all, this period of history is quite familiar to the kings of the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention that my father always uses the fall of the Song Dynasty to warn everyone, but this happened only a hundred years ago, and most of the children and grandchildren of the people at that time are still alive.

But Zhu Di's question instantly reminded Emperor Ming of one thing:

"Last time I asked you to think about what science is in your free time, did you come up with any results?!"

Because there was no one to record the last light curtain, Zhu Yuanzhang could only memorize the parts that seemed more important, and the most difficult part to remember was the judgment on science.

Following his imperial instinct, he realized that this science might be extremely important in future generations.

But the word order was weird and the vocabulary was unfamiliar, so in the end I could only try my best to recall it and threw it to my sons to see what they thought.

Facing the question from the emperor of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Biao remained silent, Zhu Di bowed his head, Zhu Zhen simply pretended not to hear, and only Zhu Su raised his head and tried to speak:
"The meaning of this doctrine has a lot in common with the idea that heaven and man are not in harmony."

"Son, please postpone your enfeoffment and try to explain to me what science is."

(End of this chapter)