Song Gexing

Chapter 237 Misfortunes Never Come Alone
"Get ready to go back to Beijing."

Zhao Fang finally calmed down and immediately told Gao Ju Jiandao that he had originally planned to stay a few more days, but now he didn't want to stay at all.

He must go back to preside over it, otherwise the people in the court may not decide what kind of honor and honor they will give Pang Ji.

Pang Ji's descendants were not very outstanding and had no say at all in the court. His son Pang Yuanying was a Chaosan official, and his grandson Pang Gongsun was born as a Jinshi with Zhao Fangci and worked in the official department.

Since ancient times, good fortune has always been unparalleled, and misfortunes never come alone. On Zhao Fang's way back to Beijing, another news came that Fan Zhongyan also passed away seven days ago.

Da Song lost two famous ministers one after another. Although they were both old men who had retired, they were no ordinary old men.

Although they are no longer involved in government affairs at home, they can still give advice to Zhao Fang. Sometimes when major issues are unresolved, Zhao Fang will write to them to ask for countermeasures.

The knowledge and experience of both of them are at the top of this era, and they are both civil and military experts. They can make good suggestions regardless of government affairs or military affairs.

In addition, by not being in their position, the bystander's perspective can be more fair and objective.

Zhao Fang, who hurried back to the capital, immediately held a court meeting to discuss their posthumous titles, and asked his two younger brothers Zhao Xin and Zhao Xi to prepare and go to express their condolences respectively.

He didn't want to change history about Fan Zhongyan's posthumous title. The "Wen Zheng" presented by the ministers made the decision immediately, but Pang Ji's posthumous title caused controversy.

The ministers suggested "Zhuang Min" but he disagreed, so they changed it to "Zhongxian" but the ministers objected. For a while, there was a quarrel and the court was very lively.

In the end, Zhao Zhen came forward and persuaded the ministers to agree. Then Zhao Fang granted the two people the title of county king and buried them, which caused another wave of criticism.

But fortunately, this was a posthumous title and had nothing to do with inheritance, so I finally agreed.

Fan Zhongyan was granted the title of Prince of Yongxing County, and Pang was granted the title of Prince of Yong'an County, and each of his descendants had a thousand households. This matter caused controversy in the court.

The matter of favor and favor was a normal thing in the Song Dynasty, but since the Reform, this privilege of scholar-bureaucrats has been gradually abolished.

From the beginning, no favors were rewarded for people below the third rank. Now, no actual positions are allowed for any favors. This has become a new rule in the Song Dynasty.

However, it is customary for the descendants of civil servants to be given the rank of civil officials and the descendants of military officials to be given the rank of military generals. However, this time Zhao Fang gave the descendants of these two former prime ministers the rank of military generals. This made the civil servants very dissatisfied.

Everyone was very puzzled. It was clear that Zhao Fang was very grateful to these two for the previous rewards, but why in this last part he was stretched.

Finally, the reason Zhao Fang came up with was that from now on, no matter whether civil or military, favors would be awarded based on the rank of military minister.

They are awarded at three levels: Hundred Households, Thousand Households, and Commanding Officers. They are also not actual positions, but they can be awarded actual positions after assessment.

Only then did everyone understand his purpose, which was to eliminate the opposition between civil and military forces in the civil-military system, so that when civil servants wanted to suppress military generals, they would think that their descendants would also become the targets of suppression by others in the future.

While lamenting the emperor's treachery, the ministers had to admire his excellent strategy. The opposition was gradually suppressed after the generals understood it.

The military attaches in the Fifth Army Governor's Office wrote in support, and the military attaches in the Privy Council also wrote in support. The evenly matched situation was quickly broken down after traitors appeared among the civil servants.

This is really not that Zhao Fang bribed some civil servants, but that these people themselves were the descendants of military generals and chose to support the emperor after weighing the pros and cons.We must know that many of the descendants of the founding generals of the Song Dynasty chose to abandon military service and pursue civil service. After several generations, many people also passed the Jinshi examination and entered the ranks of civil servants.

For example, the Cao family, the Pan family, and the Murong family, the top military generals, are now basically divided into civil and military officials. The Yang family in Linzhou is also a civil servant, and Yang Tian is one of the representatives.

The two great Gao families were also civil servants. Gao Zunyu, for example, lived in the Infantry Governor's Mansion to sign matters, but he was indeed a Jinshi. The descendants of Gao Huaide were also civil servants.

There was nothing that could be done about it. When they released their military power over a glass of wine, these people understood that there would be no future for their descendants to become military generals again.

Therefore, when these people have the power and resources, they work hard to train their descendants to study. Unless they are really helpless, they can only let them practice martial arts.

Especially during the Zhenzong period of the Song Dynasty, the status of civil servants rose sharply. The old man even shouted out Yan Ruyu's words in the book, which made many generals have to consider how long the wealth of their descendants could last.

These people now understand that Zhao Fang has the idea of ​​​​reviving the status of military generals, so they naturally support him. After all, the genes of military generals in their bloodline have caused the martial arts in their descendants.

Moreover, the families of military commanders all have inherited martial arts training methods, which is much more convenient than studying. Ancient martial arts are not the showy style of later generations. They have to be tested on the battlefield.

Strength cannot be achieved by simply lifting barbells or throwing stone locks. They all have their own unique prescriptions for practicing martial arts.

Chuanwu has always been a combination of martial arts and medicine. People who don't understand trauma medicine can't practice martial arts well, because you will be injured almost every day.

This is not about exercising, maintaining health and learning martial arts in later generations, but about fighting to the death after learning. If you don’t bleed during the learning process, you will be killed on the battlefield.

Injury to muscles and bones is a common thing. Although it is also done step by step, it is much more severe than the exercises of later generations.

This is also why competitive sports players in later generations suffered from injuries before reaching middle age, because the methods of martial arts medicine were lost.

In ancient times, medicinal materials were used to heal the body, not only to treat injuries, but also to take medicinal baths. This is not like martial arts novels, but a real thing.

Have you ever seen an 80-year-old man squatting on the threshold, and four young strong men couldn't pull him? I have seen it.

Moreover, the threshold is that of the landlord's house in an old building. The height is almost as high as an adult's knee and the width is only half the width of a hand.

I heard about medicinal bathing from the old man, but I was too young at the time and didn't know it was a precious inheritance, so I didn't ask or learn.

I wanted to learn martial arts when I grew up, but the old man passed away and lived to be 97 years old. However, he had been in good health all his life since he was a child and had no pain at all.

This is gossip. Although it is gossip, it shows that there are countless good things in tradition that have disappeared and been submerged in history.

In June of the third year of Xining, the war in the Liao Kingdom ended. After Yelu Hongji won, he sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to inform the Song Dynasty and discuss with the Song Dynasty the originally disputed areas between Liao and Xia.

Originally, Xixia was also a vassal state of the Liao Kingdom, and there was no border dispute at all. However, after the founding of the country, Li Yuanhao became a white-eyed wolf and had two wars with the Liao Kingdom.

Later, when Li Liangzuo ascended the throne, there was another fight. Each of them advanced and retreated, resulting in the current changes in the Xixia territory, which was completely swallowed up by the Song Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)