Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 256: Emperor Zhezong balances the court, and King Zhongshan pays tribute to the Ancestral Temple

The current court structure of the Song Dynasty is quite subtle.

Although the Song Dynasty shared the same world with scholars, scholars had a particularly bad "stinky problem" and that was "clique". And the strongest form after the cronies become powerful is the "family clan".

The cliques of civil servants and the feudal vassals of military generals have always been a worry for emperors of all dynasties.

Today's Song Dynasty is no exception. In the past, emperors could use relatives, eunuchs, and generals to check and balance those aristocratic families.

However, after the Song Dynasty released its military power over a cup of wine, military generals lost the ability to check and balance each other with civilian officials in the court. In view of the shortcomings of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Song Dynasty also strictly prohibited giving relatives and eunuchs too much power.

What the emperor used to check and balance the civil servant group was a new force, the Xungui Group.

The composition of the Xungui Group is mainly composed of the founding fathers, supplemented by royal family members, and then mixed with some minor relatives such as the Prince Consort.

In order to consolidate the power of the noble group, the nobles often intermarry within the group. For example, Concubine Chai of Prince Dongping's Palace is the princess of Prince Shang's Palace, and Princess Qian is the princess of Prince Deng's Palace.

The same goes for Prince Shang's Mansion. Princess Shang is the emperor's wife, and Concubine Shizi is the princess of Prince Dongping's Mansion.

The ancestor of the old princess of Zhongxiao Palace was Shi Shouxin, the mighty prince of the Song Dynasty who was the founding hero of the Song Dynasty. The Crown Princess is also the princess of Dongping County Prince's Mansion.

It is this intricate blood and marriage relationship that forms the unbreakable alliance of the Xungui Group. Although there is a mutual "chain of contempt" within the Xungui Group, everyone is still very united when it comes to safeguarding their own interests.

Because the interests of the Xungui Group and the interests of the emperor are one.

It doesn't matter to the civil servants, since the Song Dynasty is gone, they can still serve as officials for the Yuan Dynasty or other regimes. Take Soochow before the Battle of Chibi as an example. Lu Su once said, "Everyone can surrender, but the Lord cannot surrender. If we surrender to Cao Cao, we can still keep our official positions in the state and county."

It is precisely because of this flowing dynasty and an iron-clad family. Therefore, most of the civil servant groups in the past dynasties are very divided. The loyal ones are truly loyal, but the sellers will also have no moral obstacles. thing". But most of them fall into the latter category.

But Xungui Group is different. The country is the foundation of Xungui Group. As long as the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is alive and the Song Dynasty is here, they are the hereditary nobles and "old nobles". If there was no Song Dynasty, then they would be nothing.

Their ancestors had shed blood and been injured for this country, so they naturally couldn't stand these "nerds" who had become famous in just ten years of poverty and lived in the same temple with them.

It is precisely because of the mutual constraints between the Xungui Group and the Civil Service Group that the current situation in the Song Dynasty is stable. What the emperor has to do is to balance these two forces.

When Zhezong promoted Zhao Mu, he not only wanted to win over him, but also wanted to make use of him. But there is another very important point, which is to balance the power of the court.

Since Wang Anshi's death, the power in the court has been monopolized by the civil service group headed by Prime Minister Sima Guang. Although Zhezong had not yet officially taken charge, he vaguely felt that the power of the civil servants was too great, and that he, the emperor, was unable to command. At least many issues were rejected by the civil service group.

Before Zhezong met Zhao Mu, he had discussed with everyone that he would no longer give annual coins to Xixia and Liao. But the civil service group is used to living a stable life, and they certainly don't want war to start again. So they gave Zhezong advice one after another, and then started talking nonsense about the common people in the world being the most important thing.

There is also the attitude regarding Wang Anshi’s new law.

Although Wang Anshi's new law has advantages and disadvantages, several of them also infringe on the interests of these "upstarts". They have been studying hard for more than ten years in a cold window, and they have just put on the black hat. Before they have time to benefit themselves and their families, reforms are introduced. Naturally, they will not agree.

However, the views of the noble party on the new law are relatively moderate.

The main income of this group of people is the acres of land awarded by the emperor in the "food city". Those nobles who have thousands of households in the food city receive a large amount of money every month without doing anything, and the emperor rewards them with some land. , they eat "hardcore crops" and naturally don't bother to compete with the common people for profit.

Anyway, it's not about their own welfare benefits, so their attitude towards the imperial reform didn't make any big waves. However, in recent years, due to the death of the older generation of nobles such as Prince Dongping, the influence of the Xungui Group has been greatly reduced. Although it is not yet unbalanced, it is already somewhat weak compared to the civil service group.

Therefore, after Zhezong considered it, he planned to inject some fresh blood into the Xungui Group to balance the situation.

And Zhao Mu is the most suitable person. On the one hand, Zhao Mu does not have much ambition, he is just a drunkard. But he is also very capable and has made great contributions. In addition, Zhezong wanted to win over him. Due to this series of coincidences, Zhezong promoted him repeatedly and finally promoted him to his current position.

It was precisely because Zhao Mu's promotion was in line with the interests of the Xungui Group that King Zhongxiao supported Zhe Zong in canonizing Zhao Mu as king against all objections in the court that day.

It's just that Zhao Mu hasn't really felt the strange and subtle atmosphere in the court yet.

After Zhao Mu stood up, Zhe Zong winked at the eunuch beside him. So the eunuch began to read out the imperial decree for Zhao Mu's canonization.

This imperial edict was very complicated. It started with a lot of dispensable remarks, and finally it was announced that Zhao Mu would be promoted to King of Zhongshan.

Although everyone knew the result, the faces of all the civil servants were not very good. At the court meeting just half an hour ago, Sima Guang and Su Che had persuaded Zhe Zong to withdraw his orders and change Zhao Mu to the title of county king. Add the word "prefecture" in the middle of the three characters "Zhongshan King" and change it to "Zhongshan Commandery King".

But Zhezong did not tolerate him this time. Zhezong said that he had already consulted the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother, and both of them agreed to the matter "from the overall situation." It is said that Dali used its direct princess to marry the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty naturally could not humiliate others. The prince can't give it, but an heir can still do it.

With the support of the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, Zhe Zong became much tougher when facing Sima Guang.

After hearing that the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother agreed, Sima Guang and Su Zhe had nothing to say. Then I stopped dealing with this problem. He shut his mouth obediently.

After the imperial edict was read out, Zhao Mu knelt down to receive the imperial edict and the prince's seal. After Zhao Mu thanked everyone in public, he turned around and walked out of the hall holding the imperial edict and seal.

After the canonization of the court was over, Zhezong announced the disbandment of the court. The officials of each department returned to their posts.

Zhao Mu, on the other hand, took a car to the Ancestral Temple. Carry out the ceremony after the canonization. The Shaoqing of Zongzheng Temple and the officials of the Ministry of Rites arrived at the Ancestral Temple ahead of Zhao Mu.

On the imperial steps of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Concubine Chai was waiting there early.

After Zhao Mu got out of the car, holding the imperial edict and seal in his hands, he walked step by step up the Shinto of the Imperial Ancestral Temple as the ritual music played.

When he arrived at the middle section of the Ancestral Temple, Zhao Mu placed the imperial edict and seal on the altar in the middle. There was a tablet on the altar. This tablet belonged to none other than his father, Zhao De, Prince of Dongping County. Zhao Mu's first bow was to his late father and told him about it. Zhao Mu knelt down respectfully.

Then Zhao Mu continued to hold the imperial seal in his hand and slowly walked to the second jade step. Afterwards, the tokens were placed on the altar table again.

Meanwhile, Concubine Chai, who was standing nearby and dressed in a luxurious ceremonial robe, also followed Zhao Mu and knelt down. The mother and son respectfully completed the ceremony of kneeling three times and kowtowing nine times.

And this great gift is to comfort the heroic spirits of the late emperors of the Song Dynasty and other ancestors.

After the worship, the mother and son stood up separately.

After seeing the mother and son getting up, the young minister of Zongzheng Temple came to them holding the family genealogy of the Song Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)