My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 403 The Awakening of the Traveler
There was a period of time - probably when Emperor Taizong was on his deathbed, when the late emperor was about to enthronize a new emperor and Liu Rong was about to change from the 'eldest grandson of the emperor' to the eldest son of the emperor' - that time, Liu Rong really thought about it seriously.

Do you really want to compete with Emperor Wu of Han in history for the throne of the Han emperor?

If I really managed to get it, could I really do better than Emperor Wu of Han in history?
These doubts accompanied Liu Rong for quite a long time.

It was not until later, when Emperor Taizong Xiaowen passed away and the previous emperor inherited the throne, that Liu Rong gradually freed himself from his confusion after more and more eyes were focused on him - the scrutiny that belonged exclusively to the eldest son and heir to the throne.

At that time, there were three main reasons that helped Liu Rong get out of confusion.

——First, personal gains and losses.

Under the premise that the late emperor had no legitimate son and for some special reasons it was impossible for a legitimate son to be born, Liu Rong's status as the eldest son naturally gave him the right to compete for the throne, but he also naturally lost the right to "withdraw from the competition."

Considering that Empress Bo (deposed) of Emperor Xiaojing would never be able to bear children for the rest of her life due to real reasons, Liu Rong was already half the crown prince almost from the day he was born.

This was a universal value in China's feudal era: the system of primogeniture, a privilege granted to Liu Rong.

But it was precisely because of this reason - precisely because Liu Rong had been the contender for the position of crown prince with the greatest chance, the greatest chance of winning, and the best cards since he was born, that Liu Rong had no other choice in his life.

There is only one way to go!
Either he is appointed as the crown prince and then inherits the throne;

Or, he was eliminated by his younger brother who sat on the throne in order to "eradicate the roots."

Therefore, even for his own sake, Liu Rong must fight for it.

——I have finally traveled through time, I can’t just wait to be killed and talk about ‘respecting the course of history’, right?

Second: patriotism.

Liu Rong thought he had a relatively good understanding of the historical Emperor Wu of Han.

According to the information Liu Rong obtained from historical materials, Emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che, was actually a rather extreme person.

——The martial arts are extremely powerful!
Correspondingly, civil governance and domestic affairs were also extremely poor.

Later generations, through books and the words of historians, naturally paid more attention to the exciting foreign wars.

But in his previous life, Liu Rong happened to be one of the very few who adhered to the principle of "comprehensive understanding" and carefully understood the gains and losses of Emperor Wu of Han throughout his life.

In Liu Rong's opinion, to say something that may be a bit disrespectful to the sage king and wise ruler: the lifelong achievements of Emperor Wu of Han are just like his posthumous title - the single word "Wu" can fully summarize it.

Liu Rong certainly did not deny that in terms of "martial arts", looking through the more than 400 years of the Han Dynasty, and even the 8,000 years of Chinese history, there are probably only five people who can be better than Emperor Wu of Han.

But as a rational bystander and a participant who traveled through time and experienced this era firsthand, Liu Rong had to say: In history, Emperor Wu of Han was so powerful in military affairs, but so bad in domestic governance.

The exclusive promotion of Confucianism eliminated the diversity of doctrines and thoughts, and restricted the development of Chinese literature and thought;

He indulged in luxury and exploited the people - although he had the foundation laid by the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, he used it to finance his own large-scale construction projects and travel around the world.

When the war comes, they throw the abacus beads in the faces of ordinary people, and they even want to tax the air!

As a result, during the reign of Emperor Wu in history, the people of the country, if not living in misery, at least quickly fell from the hotbed of the rule of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing into the purgatory between the Qin and Han dynasties.

Land annexation - the per capita farmland area of ​​the people in the world dropped rapidly from 100 mu of land per household with five people in the early Han Dynasty, to 15 mu per capita during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, with an average of 90 mu per household, to 8 mu per capita, with an average of 40 mu per household!
Heavy taxes - the agricultural tax, which was once levied at the age of 30 when Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing were young, was restored to the level of levying at the age of 15 when the country was founded;
The head tax, which had been reduced to 40 coins per person per year by Emperor Taizong, was restored to the level at the founding of the country - 120 coins per person per year.

In addition, there were all kinds of exorbitant taxes, even a "head tax" for infants...

If we say that the people of the Han Dynasty in the founding period were poor, but they were at peace in their hearts and looked forward to the future;
The people during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing were poor but not miserable, and were very content;

The Han people during Emperor Wu's reign were truly suffering to the extreme.

——The Han army, which was originally enthusiastic and active, and even relied on connections and favors to get in, was forced to be conscripted by the central government;

The old farmers who were originally positive, motivated and striving for a better life have all become numb and like walking corpses, who only grow crops and eat food one day at a time and will be relieved if they die one day.

All contradictions were temporarily suppressed by successive victories in foreign wars.

It was not until the external wars began to go unfavorably - especially after Wei Huo, when the Han Dynasty almost never gained even a single advantage over the Xiongnu - that the conflicts finally broke out.

Peasant uprising.

Any history lover will be familiar with this term.

In Chinese history, this word appears at least nine times out of every ten times at the end of a dynasty.

It is no exaggeration to say that peasant uprisings are the death knell of feudal dynasties.

When a peasant uprising breaks out, regardless of its ultimate success or failure, it will inevitably mean that the dynasty has become rotten to the core, and collapse is only a matter of time.

Liu Rong was not a historian in his previous life, but just a history enthusiast.

In Liu Rong's impression, there seems to be only one such special case in Chinese history - after a peasant uprising, the dynasty not only did not collapse, but it also "revived" and then enjoyed the country for more than a hundred years.

That's right.

The vast majority of people in later generations do not know, and even dare not believe, that during the late reign of the famous Emperor Wu of Han, there were signs of peasant uprisings in China.

Perhaps the signs were too small, or perhaps in the end, they did not turn into a raging fire that destroyed the Han Dynasty - historians did not dwell much on the peasant uprisings during this period.

But Liu Rong knew very well;

Especially after he actually sat on the throne and became the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty and the emperor of the unified Chinese regime, Liu Rong became more clear about what the peasant uprising really meant.

The late emperor once said this in private.

——An emperor who, during his reign, causes the lower classes of people to rise up in rebellion because they cannot bear the oppression is a complete tyrant!
note!

Not a tyrant, but something worse: a tyrant!
A tyrant may be stupid, but he just does nothing.

But a tyrant is not a person who cares about others...

From this perspective, it seems that we can also say that according to the judgment standards of the previous emperor, Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi, the Emperor Wu of Han in history was undoubtedly a tyrant. I wonder what it felt like for Emperor Jing in history to see that the successor he personally selected and trained eventually grew into a tyrant in the underground...

Liu Rong is not so extreme, or absolute.

In Liu Rong's opinion, it is obviously far from the truth to say that Emperor Wu of Han in history was a "tyrant".

But whether he can be judged as a wise ruler or a sage ruler, Liu Rong feels that this needs to be discussed in detail.

Would a good emperor, an emperor worthy of being praised through the ages, use the funds for foreign wars saved by his ancestors to build large-scale projects, travel around, and then let the people pay for the war?
Could a truly wise and intelligent emperor be deceived and manipulated by his own ministers, ultimately leading to a turmoil like the Witchcraft Incident caused by the crown prince?
To put it more directly: Can a wise and sage ruler force the people under his rule - his own subjects - to be oppressed to the point where they cannot live or die, and ultimately have no choice but to rise up in rebellion?

After understanding this, it is not difficult to know what Liu Rong's feelings and evaluation of the historical Emperor Wu of Han were.

——Like Emperor Qin Shi Huang, he made outstanding contributions to Chinese civilization and did one or several groundbreaking things, laying a solid foundation for Chinese civilization at a certain level. However, he was also tyrannical and foolish in his later years. He was a combination of a wise ruler and a tyrant.

There is a joke among later generations: Go master Ke Jie is only one step away from becoming the "Go Saint" - his death.

Liu Rong also once thought: It would be better if Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, died earlier.

In Liu Rong's opinion, Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han were in roughly the same situation as Emperor Xuanzong of Tang - they lived too long and died too late.

Of course, not exactly the same.

After all, the first half of Emperor Xuanzong's life was pure and wise, and there was really nothing wrong with it.
However, the flaws, or "problems" of Zulong and Emperor Wu of Han, persisted throughout their lives.

Therefore, Liu Rong finally made the judgment that the historical Emperor Wu of Han was not too unreplicable.

——You have grandfathers like Wen and Jing, and I, Liu Rong, have the same!
——You have two peerless heroes like Wei and Huo, and I, Liu Rong, can have them too!
You have the ambition and courage to drive out the barbarians and take revenge, and I, Liu Rong, also have it;
But you don’t have what I, Liu Rong, have—the broad vision and foresight of a time traveler;
You don't have a legitimate legal foundation, the freedom from being restricted by your wife's family, or a full-fledged career as a crown prince.

The most important thing is: you have not personally experienced the suffering of the lower class people, understand their plight, and have no sympathy or favoritism towards them.

To sum up, Liu Rong believed that what Emperor Wu of Han did well, he could do too.

——Left and right guards Huo had never gone through blood test to establish kinship with the Emperor Wu of Han in history, the King of Jiaodong in this timeline.

With these two people, plus the foundation accumulated during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, as well as their unswerving will, there is no reason why Liu Rong's future martial arts would not be able to match that of the historical Emperor Wu of Han.

Especially in history, Emperor Wu of Han's martial arts were not perfect.

After Wei and Huo, the Han family lost every battle they fought. They almost spit out all the fruits of victory that Wei and Huo had won for the Han family and fed them mouth to mouth.

In this way, Liu Rong is not necessarily doing worse than Emperor Wu of Han.
Rather: He will almost certainly do better than Emperor Wu of Han.

Otherwise, it would be too unworthy of the identity of a time traveler...

As for the things in history that Emperor Wu of Han did not do, or did not do well - especially the issues of internal governance, there is no doubt that Liu Rong would do better.

It’s not that Liu Rong’s governance methods are so brilliant;
But the control group was so poor that it left Liu Rong with no room for further decline.

Dogmatically speaking: During Liu Rong's reign, as long as there was no peasant uprising and widespread resentment among most of the society, it can be said that Liu Rong did a better job in internal governance than the Emperor Wu of Han in history.

This?
Isn’t it enough to have hands?

If people had done something human - or even if they had done fewer inhuman things, they would not have ended up with the epic-level fun of officials forcing the people to rebel and peasants revolting.

Finally - in addition to "no way out" in terms of personal gains and losses, and "I can do better" in terms of family and country feelings, the third reason that made Liu Rong get out of confusion and decide to change history and suppress Emperor Wu of Han is the point that Liu Rong is discussing with Empress Dowager Dou right now.

Historical limitations.

The ruling ability of feudal emperors may be high or low, and their achievements in civil and military affairs and historical contributions may be more or less;
But without exception: whether a wise ruler or a foolish ruler, a saintly ruler or a tyrant, they all have inevitable historical limitations.

At best, there are a few exceptional people who can roughly predict the general direction of Chinese civilization in the next 100 years.

However, the indigenous emperors could not predict specific events, turning points, and the drawbacks that have not yet appeared but will threaten the regime and even civilization in the future.

And this is precisely the biggest advantage of Liu Rong, the time traveler.

To say something that goes a little against materialism: Ever since he traveled through time, Liu Rong has always felt that this fantastic experience of traveling through time must have some special cause and effect.

——It must be some unknown existence who thought that China needed a prophet to travel through time first, which led to Liu Rong's fantastic journey through time.

Therefore, what Liu Rong wanted to do was never to be the second Emperor Wu of Han, or simply to do better in existing history than the Emperor Wu of Han whom he replaced.

Rather, what Liu Rong really needs to focus on are the things that others cannot do or see, and that only time travelers have the ability and vision to do.

For example, the government-run grain, salt and iron industries were Liu Rong's way of laying the political foundation for "national macroeconomic regulation" in this relatively backward era;

For example, the "forcing growth" of commerce and industry is Liu Rong's way of making the most of his advantages as a time traveler to accelerate the historical development of Chinese civilization.

For example, as is the case now, we are doing something that is obviously necessary, but no one dares to do it, and no one notices its necessity.

Unfortunately, it backfired.

In other words, everything is reasonable.

——Empress Dowager Dou has experienced so much in her life;
Liu Rong's seemingly passionate "clamor" alone could not move the old empress dowager's heart that had almost seen through the mundane world.

In the end, the old queen mother gave an answer that did not satisfy Liu Rong, but was most in line with his identity and character.

Noncommittal.

As a principle, the Queen Mother would not interfere in the matter until the situation got out of control.

If Liu Rong finally accomplished this, the old empress dowager would not have to interfere in this matter for the rest of her life.

But once the situation gets out of control, or even shows signs of getting out of control, the old queen mother is likely to step out from behind the scenes and come to the fore.

At that time, Liu Rong would really have to do as the old queen said: taste the long-lost taste of failure...

(End of this chapter)