History Live: Starting from Qin Shi Huang

Chapter 95: Shu

[After many blows, Zhao Guangyi's inclination changed completely. He no longer wanted to recover his homeland, but only wanted to stabilize internal affairs.

After the previous talk about external and internal troubles, in November of the fourth year of Chunhua, Zhao Guangyi said this when talking with Prime Minister Lu Mengzheng: "Governing a country depends on cultivating virtue, and the four barbarians should be left out." This sentence can be said to be a portrayal of the overall style of the Song Dynasty later.

But what is the use of this? If we cultivate virtue and ignore the barbarians, will the world be peaceful?

Have you forgotten that during the reign of King Huan of Zhou, King Wu of Chu responded to the King of Sui with "I am not guilty"?

"I am a barbarian"

Qin Dynasty.

Ying Zheng looked at the sky and mentioned the wars among the vassal states in the early days. He couldn't help but sneer inwardly. These were things that would have happened so long ago.

At that time, the vassal states had not yet lost face, and they still needed to have a legitimate reason to go to war and not fight an unjust war. King Wu of Chu's words must have been shocking.

But what happened later? Who would care whether you were guilty or not? Who would care whether there was a logical reason for sending troops? The countries that had previously been accused by that set of rules, as long as they were still alive, also joined the ranks of the fight. And the most far-sighted countries also implemented reforms to strengthen themselves.

“When you are in a contentious environment and don’t strive to make progress, the outcome is already determined.”

The early years of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang smiled and recited a famous saying of King Wu of Chu, thinking, what should Nai Gong say? I am also a commoner!
Nai Gong did not want to follow any of the political rules of the previous nobles, he just wanted to maintain the Han Dynasty that he had conquered.

Liao Dynasty,

Empress Dowager Chengtian chewed on this sentence and smiled, her smile full of confidence: "Although the Liao Dynasty came from the north, we are the true orthodox of the Central Plains." So what if they are barbarians? For example, the Chu State was located in the south, and other vassal states had also discussed it before. But what about later? Even if King Wu of Chu himself said "I am a barbarian", which country would still use "barbarian" as an excuse?
What's more, to this day, who would say that the Chu State of the past and the place where the Chu State is now located are barbarian lands - yes, those people in the Song Dynasty always talked about the Liao Dynasty.

Then, why can't their Liao Dynasty be the orthodox one?

[By the way, Zhao Guangyi said that he wanted to concentrate on domestic affairs and governing the country. Did he do it well?
No.

In the fourth year of Chunhua, conflicts that had been pent up for many years finally broke out in Sichuan and Shu, triggering a large-scale peasant uprising. This was also a heavy slap in the face to the prosperous and peaceful era that Zhao Guangyi had always advocated and the rule of law.

In fact, there have been many peasant uprisings before. For example, at the beginning of the fourth year of Chunhua, due to drought, there were small-scale riots in Jianghuai, Liangzhe and Shaanxi. In short, since the founding of the country, there have been many problems for farmers.

It’s just that Sichuan is particularly large in scale. 】

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao.

"Sichuan?!" Zhao Kuangyin was a little dazed. When he conquered the Later Shu before, there had been quite a bit of trouble.

In addition to Cao Bin and Liu Tingrang, Wang Quanbin and others were also sent to attack Hou Shu. However, unlike Cao Bin and Liu Tingrang, Wang Quanbin not only allowed his soldiers to rob the people, but also did not discipline the army strictly, did not care about the soldiers, was bloodthirsty and greedy, which led to the rebellion of the Shu people.

At that time, the rebels elected the former Shu general Quan Shixiong as their leader. It was the right time to appease them. However, the people sent by Wang Quanbin were not sober-minded, and were cruel, greedy and lustful. Not only did they fail to appease them, but they "annihilated Shixiong's clan and took his beloved daughter and clothes."

From then on, Quan Shixiong broke completely with the Song Dynasty, and subsequently military mutinies broke out in the 17 states of Shu. As a result, Wang Quanbin killed 30,000 surrendered soldiers of the Later Shu, causing public resentment and making the situation worse.

The Song Dynasty had already pacified the Later Shu, but this rebellion dragged on for more than a year before it ended.

To this end, on the one hand, he dealt with those responsible, on the other hand, he declared that the families of the Shu soldiers who participated in the rebellion were not guilty, appeased the former Shu bureaucrats and soldiers, and on the other hand, he issued several orders to reduce taxes in Shu just to win the hearts of the people.

But what Tianmu meant was... "I have not succeeded in eliminating the conflicts in Shu? I have not made the people of Shu accept the rule of the Song Dynasty?" Otherwise, why have the conflicts lasted for many years?

"Not necessarily, Father." Zhao Dezhao also knew something about the previous rebellion in Later Shu. "Perhaps you made a good order, but the people you sent to govern Shu disobeyed your orders and exploited the people, just like Wang Quanbin did not follow your request to enforce military discipline and appease the people."

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Zhao Guangyi suddenly woke up. The fourth year of Chunhua? Isn't that this year?
Is there going to be an uprising in Shu? Or a large-scale uprising?
He cheered up and ordered the ministers: "We must send people to Shu to investigate as soon as possible. If there are people who privately increase taxes, oppress the people, and commit corruption and abuse of power, I will never let them go!" In addition, a reliable general must be sent with an army to garrison nearby to prevent any accidents.

There were also ministers in the hall who looked unhappy. After all, the situation in Shu was not completely unknown.

[The conflicts in Shu existed before the establishment of the Song Dynasty.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Huang Chao Uprising moved to the Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River, and Pearl River basins, but did not reach Sichuan, and Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty led a large number of aristocratic officials to flee to Sichuan. During the Five Dynasties period after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, many of the Tang Dynasty's "gentlemen fled to Sichuan to avoid the chaos."

Therefore, there were a large number of aristocratic families and bureaucratic landlords in Shu, who constantly annexed land and exploited local people. Until the beginning of the Song Dynasty, this region still retained the relatively backward production relations before the Tang Dynasty, and land annexation was more prominent than in the Central Plains.

After Zhao Kuangyin conquered the Later Shu, he did not change the local situation but simply maintained it as it was.

This resulted in the contradictions that originally existed in Shu not being improved as they had been when previous dynasties were first established, but instead continuing to accumulate.

Among these, the most serious is the "side household" problem caused by serious land mergers.

A side household is actually a tenant household, but the reason why it is given a separate name is because the side households in Shu are still different from the tenant households outside Shu.

In the Song Dynasty, with the development of social economy, the personal dependence of tenants on landlords (main households) had weakened, and many of them had the freedom to migrate and terminate the lease. The fixed rent in some areas allowed tenants to engage in other occupations in their spare time, and some tenants could be upgraded to main households.

But none of these exist in the Sichuan area. 】

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao. Seeing this, Zhao Kuangyin frowned: "I did not make any changes to the Shu clans, but I could not easily take action against them because of the rebellion in Shu." At that time, when Shu was recovered, the rebellion occurred because of the problems of the Song army. He had no time to quell the rebellion and appease the people. How could he think of taking action against these local clans for no reason? Moreover, he needed the help of these people to stabilize Shu.

Furthermore, he did not have the habit of clearing out the local tyrants after conquering a place! Those who were unwilling to submit to the Song Dynasty were cleared out. Those who were willing to submit were naturally appeased. Why would he have to clear them out? - Changing the other party's land and tenants, what is the difference between this and clearing them out for these tyrants?
The most important thing is that he still didn't think about how much negative consequences these existing things could bring.

In his view, he had recovered the land, the local clans had also submitted to the Song Dynasty, and he had also implemented a series of policies to appease the people, such as taxation and corvee labor, so everything was safe.

Zhao Kuangyin never thought that a large-scale uprising would break out in Shu so soon - in the fourth year of Chunhua, Zhao Guangyi's reign was no more than forty years, and it was related to something that had existed for a long time!

Zhao Guangmei was also worried: "But it is not easy for the wealthy families in Shu to take action." Not to mention whether it would cause turmoil in Shu, he was afraid that the wealthy families in other places would start to feel insecure and take various actions. What would happen to the Song Dynasty then?
After all, the Song Dynasty had only been established for eight years, and there were many people in the world who were eager to make a move.

But what will happen if we don’t change?
Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

"Peasant uprising." Everyone sighed. Looking back over the dynasties, many were destroyed by peasant uprisings. Although the peasant uprisings may not be successful in the end, most of them were the beginning of decline.

However, the Song Dynasty was founded not long ago, so it should be no problem to suppress the peasant uprising. Besides, wasn't it said before that they had a conscription system, which specifically included refugees?

Rather, it is the Tang Dynasty’s own affairs that are worth discussing.

"The Huang Chao Uprising, I really didn't expect it would be such a Huang Chao Uprising." Li Shimin looked solemn, it was obvious that the scale of the Huang Chao Uprising exceeded his previous imagination.

Tianmu had only mentioned it before, but no one had expected that the uprising led by Huang Chao alone would be on such a large scale - the Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River, and Pearl River, which almost included all the prosperous areas of the Tang Dynasty!
It was not surprising that Emperor Xizong of Tang fled to Shu with his nobles and officials. After all, people had already known about the capital... the emperor... and Emperor Xizong of Tang was just one of them.

In previous peasant uprisings, one individual would not usually lead to a large-scale uprising. The truly large-scale uprisings occurred simultaneously in multiple locations.

"Huang Chao is truly a talent," Du Ruhui praised. He then changed the subject and discussed the problems of the Tang Dynasty. "But to be able to foster such a large-scale uprising, the Tang Dynasty must have been suffering from many problems and was on the verge of death. What I am concerned about is that the sky curtain mentioned 'the relatively backward production relations before the Tang Dynasty'. Since the 'production relations' in Shu are similar to those in the Tang Dynasty, and an uprising broke out in Shu, is this related to the uprising in the Tang Dynasty?"

Even if there is no connection, it has been rated as "backward". Can the Tang Dynasty make some adjustments?
Li Shimin nodded: "It is probably inseparable from the tax and corvée policy. When the people can no longer make ends meet, they may choose to take risks. However, the tenancy system like the Song Dynasty..."

Seeing his intention, the ministers also began to think about whether the situation of their Tang Dynasty could be further improved.

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Zhao Guangyi was somewhat surprised: "Is this the reason for the uprising? If so, I can help Shu improve the situation."

What about the side households in Shu? They could not migrate, and often moved with the sale of land. The owners and their wives and daughters were enslaved by their masters, and the noble families treated them like slaves.

The number of side households is also very large, with some families occupying dozens of households, and others occupying 300 to 500 or even thousands of households. As a result, the proportion of side households in Sichuan and Shu regions to the total local population is as high as 80% or even 90%.

These side households not only had to pay land rent to the main household, but also had to bear the taxes and labor service of the imperial court, so they could only survive with difficulty.

Such a large population of oppressed, exploited, and heavily burdened people is like a huge powder keg. When its fuse is lit and explodes, it will inevitably cause a large-scale uprising. And the fuse of this powder keg will be lit sooner or later.

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao.

Zhao Kuangyin listened to Tianmu's story in silence without expressing any opinion.

Indeed, he had not paid too much attention to these "side households" issues in the past. Anyway, he had no intention of suppressing land annexation, so the emergence of tenants was inevitable. What was there to say?

Moreover, in order to stabilize the country and avoid a large number of refugees, he also deliberately opened a loophole in the conscription system, so that the army could be used to accommodate some refugees in the future without forcing them to be hostile to the court to the end.

But the big clan...

"There shouldn't be any problem with a slight adjustment, and then we can just do it step by step." Zhao Kuangyin made up his mind.

Han Dynasty, the fourth year of Yuanshou.

"Your Majesty, it's gunpowder!" Huo Qubing immediately found what he was most concerned about.

"Yes, it's gunpowder." Liu Che's eyes lit up. After answering, he turned around and told his attendant, "Quick, tell the craftsmen in charge of gunpowder research exactly what you said about gunpowder. Let them see if they can get some inspiration from it."

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Years.

Zhu Yuanzhang could be said to be one of the people who were most touched by these words. His face was full of nostalgia: "Peasants, in fact, as long as they have something to eat, they can live peacefully. They don't have so many desires, nor so many demands. They just want to survive. It was the same for us back then. Our parents and brothers and they all just wanted to have something to eat." As for other things, such as who the emperor was, how the court was, whether they were foreigners or Han people, he actually didn't care that much.

Survival is the most important thing.

As he spoke, his expression changed from reminiscence to indignation: "It's hateful that those landlords and officials are unwilling to give us a way out, just like this neighbor, they want to squeeze our blood and bones dry, suck the marrow out of our bones, and finally give the peasants nothing!"

There were quite a few old ministers in the hall who had fought together with Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world and had tears in their eyes. They all came from the lower classes and understood what Zhu Yuanzhang said.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his sons and solemnly instructed them: "You must treat the peasants well and never do anything outrageous or oppress the people."

[Due to exploitation and oppression, the farmers in Shu could not rely solely on farming to support themselves and their families, "the harvest was not enough to support them", so they also spent their remaining time doing weaving, picking tea and other work.

But they couldn’t even keep this sideline business. 】

Hearing this, many people became excited. It was over. This was most likely related to the imperial court. In this case, an uprising was inevitable!
(End of this chapter)