My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 394 'That' Man
It is no exaggeration to say that to achieve this goal - to give the Embroidered Uniform Guard a sacred mission, the difficulty is no less than injecting a new military soul into a weak and mob-like army!
But fortunately, compared with the latter, the Xiuyiwei department itself has a certain operational basis.

——Sometimes, not being able to see the light of day does not necessarily equate to "injustice".

Take the Embroidered Uniform Guard spy who was the first to find out the movements of King Liu Bi of Wu and determine that King Liu Bi of Wu was about to join forces with King Liu Wu of Chu to launch a formal rebellion. Who dares to say that he is not a hero?
There are also the Baiyue people in Lingnan. In order to gather intelligence, they were willing to integrate into the local primitive life of slash-and-burn farming and have been dedicated to the work for decades. Who dares to say that they have done nothing but contribute to the country?
Ultimately, the most fundamental key to whether an intelligence worker is just or not lies in whether his actions bring legitimate benefits to the country.

Even taking a step back - even if it is an illegitimate benefit, it is still a great merit.

As the famous saying of later generations goes: There is no friendship or morality between countries. The only thing that is eternal and unchanging is interest.

It is not difficult to draw the conclusion that for intelligence workers, their work is not just or not, correct or not, or even legal or not.

As long as it is beneficial to the country and detrimental to the enemy country, it is the arm of the country and the national hero.

In the past ten years or so, there have been betrayals, escapes, abuses of power for personal gain, and sacrifices public office for personal gain.
But what no one can deny is that, generally speaking, the Xiuyiwei still played its role as an "intelligence department", obtained and created many benefits for the Han court, and avoided many losses.

For a department like this, it is not too difficult for Liu Rong to inject something like faith, spirit and vitality into it.

But this matter cannot be rushed.

First, sort out the chaotic system of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and then clearly divide it according to the region;

Once the results are achieved, Liu Rong can take advantage of the situation and put on the title of "national hero", and everything will fall into place.

Just like this caravan that will connect Han China and the Western Regions and become the link between the Han China-Hexi-Western Regions channel;

--One day in the future, when the Han Dynasty can occupy Hexi more easily or enter the Western Regions more smoothly because of the intelligence collected by this "caravan", Liu Rong will not even need to take the initiative to give the title of hero.

Whoever keeps the people in mind will be held high by the people;
In the future, with real "merits" in hand, the Embroidered Uniform Guards will naturally become heroes of the Han Dynasty.

At that time, all Liu Rong needed to do was to spread the word about their heroic deeds, and then leave the decision of whether to judge them as heroes to the people of the world...

"Qing, encourage him."

"The Embroidered Uniform Guard has great potential."

"In the future, whether it is the Huns in the north or the Baiyue in the south;"

"Whether it's Northeast Korea or the various barbarians in the southwest, there is definitely no shortage of soil for the Embroidered Uniform Guard to establish their achievements and leave their names in history."

"By then, I'm afraid that you, the first commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, will no longer be remembered in history as simply the six words 'Langzhong Lingrufenhou'..."

These words expressed encouragement to Zhou Ren without reservation, and Liu Rong couldn't help but let out a sigh.

It is actually very difficult to be a close minister or favorite of the Han emperor.

Without mentioning the distant past, let’s take Deng Tong in the reign of Emperor Taizong and Zhou Ren in the reign of the previous emperor as examples - both of them, without exception, were spread around in rumors and made into good friends of Emperors Wen and Jing.

Zhou Rendu is still pretty good;
In the mouths of relatively serious people, the relationship between Zhou Ren and the late emperor was limited to the fact that the late emperor did not avoid Zhou Ren when he favored his concubine, and even let Zhou Ren keep watch at the door.

But Emperor Taizong's favorite minister Deng Tong was really criticized by public opinion.

——The stigma of being gay with Emperor Taizong is naturally the most basic repertoire.

Besides that, what about bewitching Emperor Taizong and blowing his pillow wind?
What's the point of acting like a spoiled child to Emperor Taizong in exchange for half of the world's coin market?
What about the faction that wanted to flatter the Crown Prince Liu Qi so as to interfere in the dispute over the succession to the throne?

——Deng Tong did not dodge any of the dirty water thrown on the king, and no one even dared to say that Deng Tong had any strengths or advantages.

But what is the actual situation?

According to the first-hand information Liu Rong had—which was personally taught by the late emperor, and which was the most persuasive and authentic first-hand information in the world;
The real situation has nothing to do with the rumors.

So much so that after Liu Rong heard two different descriptions of Deng Tong, one from "rumors in the streets" and the other from "the late emperor's mouth", he began to wonder if he had made a mistake.
These are obviously two people!

These two completely opposite statements actually describe the same person?

It's totally off the mark...

According to the late emperor's oral statement, the late emperor did not like Deng Tong personally.
But from an objective point of view, the late emperor also had a very high opinion of Deng Tong.

Let me first tell you why I don’t like it.

According to the late emperor, Deng Tong was a ruthless character who was good at observing people's words and expressions, and was always able to flatter and curry favor with others in just the right way.

No matter whether Emperor Taizong was happy or angry, annoyed or worried, Deng Tong was always able to help the emperor maintain a relatively stable emotional state in an extremely appropriate way.

——Sometimes, it was Deng Tong who could offer suggestions that saved Emperor Taizong from having to worry about something;

Sometimes, Deng Tong would directly solve the problem so that Emperor Taizong would no longer have to worry about it.

At the very least, Deng Tong could persuade Emperor Taizong to "stay calm" and think about how to deal with the situation calmly, so as to avoid being swayed by negative emotions and thus missing out on unnecessary opportunities.

From this perspective, Deng Tong was obviously a wise minister;
And he is a wise minister of the kind that "so-and-so is my mirror".

But it was precisely for this reason that the late emperor disliked Deng Tong.

——This guy is so fucking awesome!
She is thorough and considerate in everything, and whatever she does can make Emperor Taizong sigh, "You are deeply loved by me!"
This makes the late emperor and the crown prince at that time look very stupid!

The late emperor was originally a template for a moderate and conservative ruler, but he also had a rather serious rebellious period;

If there had been no comparison, Emperor Taizong would probably have accepted it - after all, King Huai of Liang had fallen off his horse and died, and among his sons, the late emperor was the only good-looking one.

But there just happened to be a control group called Deng Tong!

Emperor Taizong looked to the left and saw that Deng Tong had accomplished something, which made Emperor Taizong less worried.
Turning his head to the right: The late emperor had caused another disaster, and he had to trouble Emperor Taizong to come to his house and take off his hat to apologize to his ministers...

With this kind of painting style, how could Emperor Taizong not beat the previous emperor to death?
To be honest, the fact that the late emperor was able to live until Emperor Taizong died instead of being beaten to death by him was all due to the paternal love inherent in human genes! After experiencing such a dark period in his life, the late emperor obviously did not dare to bear a grudge against Emperor Taizong;
Naturally, I hated the control group member who made me look dull and stupid and caused me to get beaten eight times a day: Deng Tong.

This is like in later generations, when there is always an omnipotent "neighborhood kid" who makes the originally amiable parents furious, so they pull out their belts and start disciplining their offspring.

But as a son, no one would ever hate his parents for this.

The only person that everyone hates is the omnipotent "neighbor's kid" who lingers in their mind for most of their lives.

Deng Tong was the "neighborhood kid" who existed throughout most of the late emperor's life.

Understanding this, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that it is completely natural for the late emperor to hate Deng Tong;

The late emperor was certainly not wrong, but then again, it couldn't be said that Deng Tong did anything wrong either.

The real reason why the late emperor, while loathing and even hating Deng Tong in his heart, also had a very high opinion of Deng Tong and even admired him very much was that Deng Tong was truly worthy of Emperor Taizong's love and closeness.

It’s not that Deng Tong was handsome and that he touched upon some strange sexual fetish or aesthetic of Emperor Taizong;
But this person is really capable.

Looking back on Deng Tong's political career, from the time he gained the trust of Emperor Taizong to the time when Emperor Taizong passed away and Deng Tong starved to death on the street - in just over a decade, there were at least three major events in the Han Dynasty that were handled by Deng Tong himself.

The first item: coins.

As we all know, since Emperor Taizu Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty has experienced extremely frequent monetary system reforms in a short period of time, or the chaos caused by the frequent reforms.

——First, Emperor Taizu Gaozu minted the "Han Ban Liang" with a weight of three zhu, which completely destroyed the currency system of the Han Dynasty and made the Han Dynasty regress to the ancient times of barter;
At the same time, in order to shut up the people, Emperor Taizu Gao decided to divide the cake, opened up the right to mint coins, and allowed private coinage.

Later, in order to clean up the mess of Emperor Taizu Gao, Empress Dowager Lü took back the coinage rights to the central government and introduced the eight-zhu coin, which was relatively popular and not so ugly.

The eight-zhu coin of Empress Dowager Lü weighed eight zhu, which was two-thirds of the weight of the Qin half-liang, which weighed twelve zhu. It had a qualified copper content and a decent fineness.
Compared with Taizu's 'Han Banliang', which had a copper content of almost zero, was of extremely poor quality, weighed only three zhu, and was only one-fourth of the weight of the Qin Banliang, the eight-zhu coin introduced by Empress Dowager Lu unsurprisingly brought the currency system back on track quickly.

During the reign of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, the currency problem arose again.

——The biggest disadvantage of the Qin Ban Liang is that it is too heavy and inconvenient to carry;

If Emperor Taizu Gaozu had strictly controlled the copper content and fineness of the Sanzhu coin and followed market rules, and set the face value of the Sanzhu coin at one-fourth of the Qin Banliang, there would have been no problem in that.

Therefore, Emperor Taizong decided to change the currency system again and introduce a new coin that was lighter than the Qin Banliang and Empress Lu's Bazhu, but would not disrupt the market order.

Taking into account the Qin Banliang weighed twelve zhu and Empress Lü's new coin weighed eight zhu, Emperor Taizong finally decided to introduce a new coin weighing four zhu.

The weight of a four-zhu coin is one-third of the Qin half-liang coin and one-half of the Empress Lü's eight-zhu coin, which are exactly integer multiples of each.
As long as the face value of the four-zhu coin is stipulated to be one-third of the Qin half-liang and half of the eight-zhu coin of Empress Lu, the market order will not be disrupted at all.

They acted immediately - once the four-zhu coin was launched, it quickly captured the market.

People really like this new money which is lighter, has better quality, higher copper content and the face value is consistent with its weight.

But soon after, something went wrong.

——When Emperor Taizong first succeeded to the throne from Dai, he issued an order to allow the people to relax their rights in mountains and swamps in order to consolidate his position.

The decree stipulated that all the private property originally belonging to the emperor, including but not limited to flowers, trees, wild animals, fish, minerals and other natural resources, were generously shared by the emperor with the people of the world.

In the past, no matter how poor you were, you couldn’t go up the mountain to cut trees for firewood. You could only pick up dead branches on the ground.

Because every blade of grass and every tree in heaven and on earth belong to the emperor’s private property.

But after the release of the "Xu Min Chi Shan Ze Ling", the common people could obtain prey from the mountains and forests, cut down trees, and go fishing in the river as needed;
Naturally, those nobles who hold resources can also open mountains and mine.

Emperor Taizong's original intention in doing this was to draw all the people of the world to his side through sharing of interests, and at the same time win over the nobles and clan princes who owned fiefs and could make profits from mining, in order to change his political situation as a "puppet emperor".

But after the currency reform and the introduction of the new four-zhu coin, fate's boomerang turned around and hit Emperor Taizong Xiaowen squarely on the forehead.

——In order to maintain market stability to the greatest extent possible, the four-zhu coins produced under the supervision of Emperor Taizong were all high-quality coins with sufficient copper content, excellent color, and exquisite workmanship;
However, under the premise of "Xu Min Chi Shan Ze Ling" and the opening of coinage rights, King Wu Liu Bi, whose fiefdom was full of copper mines, also began to join the ranks of coin minting with the copper mines mined on his land.

Different from the good coins minted by Emperor Taizong, the four-zhu coins privately minted by King Liu Bi of Wu were mainly for superficial purposes.

Beautifully made?

Just have some money!

High copper content and good color?

As long as it looks good on the surface!
Copper-wrapped lead, copper-wrapped iron - even copper-wrapped soil, King Liu Bi of Wu can do it!
As a result, in addition to the good coins strongly promoted by Emperor Taizong, the four-zhu coins on the market also had the inferior coins privately minted by King Wu Liu Bi.

Since the costs of the two are high and low respectively, it is natural that bad money drives out good money.

——Goods worth one hundred coins require one hundred good coins?

At worst, I can give you one hundred and fifty bad coins!

It’s not obvious anyway;
They are copper coins that look the same on the surface, and no one would be idle enough to break the coins and look at them, so there is no reason for you not to take advantage of this opportunity!

As a result, within just a few years, the currency circulating in the world was almost completely monopolized by the inferior four-zhu coins of King Liu Bi of Wu!
Emperor Taizong knew very well that this was a bomb.

Whether it was the low-quality money of King Liu Bi of Wu or the Wu army that became increasingly wealthy and powerful as a result, they were both huge thunders that the Han Dynasty could not ignore.

Just imagine;
The State of Wu, which was thousands of miles away, was making a fortune every day by relying on its monopoly on the world's currency, and was becoming visibly stronger with each passing day.

In contrast, the central government in Chang'an had almost completely lost the right to mint coins, and even if its financial situation did not deteriorate, it was unlikely to improve.

As one side gains strength while the other loses strength, wouldn't it be that in a few years, the court in Chang'an would once again become the Zhou Dynasty, and the Han emperor would once again become the Zhou emperor?
And King Liu Bi of Wu became the "hero" who only obeyed orders and not declarations?

(End of this chapter)