Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 456 Zhang Guifen Gives Birth

Zhao Xing frowned and said, "No matter what, abandoning the city and fleeing is a serious crime. Your father was only demoted, which is already a very light punishment."

According to Zeng Qingxuan, the situation at that time was indeed untenable.

Zhao Xing was not a pedantic person. Even the troops defending the city had been withdrawn, so there would definitely be no reinforcements in the short term.

If Lingzhou City was not that important, given the circumstances at the time, we would have just given it up.

However, Lingzhou City is very important to the Song Dynasty. It is the only road leading to the Western Regions.

Although the Western Regions are barren, they are the only way through the Silk Road. Not only can it trade with western countries, but the Song Dynasty can also obtain horses from the Western Regions.

With the loss of Lingzhou City, the Song Dynasty also lost its only way to obtain war horses.

Since then, the price of war horses has doubled.

There was no other way. The Song Dynasty no longer had any channels to obtain war horses and could only purchase them from the Liao Kingdom and Western Xia. After they monopolized the market, they naturally raised the price.

It would have been fine if they had given up because of the disparity in military strength, but at that time there was no defense at all, and Zeng Qingxuan's father directly ordered to escape.

Given Zhao Xu's temper, all the officials and generals who abandoned the city should be killed.

However, Zeng Qingxuan's father was only demoted, which shows how bad the situation in the Song Dynasty was.

"I am not resentful of the court for this. Your Majesty is right. My father abandoned the city and fled, so this punishment is considered light. But this defeat was entirely caused by Prime Minister Han's reckless fighting. If Prime Minister Han had not withdrawn the troops defending the city, this would not have happened. But Prime Minister Han did not receive any punishment afterwards." Zeng Qingxuan said angrily.

Zhao Xing was silent for a while and then said, "So you want to take revenge on Mr. Han?"

"Your Majesty, I have no intention of taking revenge on anyone. My father was demoted to Lingnan. Before his death, he told me that if a scholar led the army, he would be promoted if he won, and would not be punished if he lost. Even if he was punished, he would only be demoted, and there would be a time for him to be re-employed in the future. I just want to change this phenomenon." Zeng Qingxuan said.

"I also intend to change this phenomenon. My dear minister, I appreciate your thoughtfulness." Zhao Xing said.

Regardless of whether what Zeng Qingxuan said was true or not, Zhao Xing still had to use this person for the time being.

However, what Zeng Qingxuan said was also the tradition of the Song Dynasty, and all this was caused by not killing civil officials.

"This matter cannot be settled in a short period of time. Today, you have caught the court officials off guard. They will definitely not give up. Do you have any countermeasures?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Your Majesty, you can pretend to be sick and delay until the dust settles." Zeng Qingxuan said.

He didn't have any better solution at this time. As Zhao Xing said, he caught those officials off guard today.

Those civil servants will not compromise easily and will definitely continue to make trouble.

"Pretending to be sick is really low class."

Zhao Xing shook his head and said, "I am going to order people to compile the book. Since ancient times, countless classics have been lost. These are all treasures. I intend to announce to the world that we should collect the rare copies, combine all the books, and compile a Xuanwu Encyclopedia!"

The so-called Xuanwu Encyclopedia was actually an imitation of the Yongle Encyclopedia compiled by Zhu Di.

The Yongle Encyclopedia is all-encompassing, bringing together seven or eight thousand books. Its contents cover many fields such as classics, history, philosophy, and anthology, involving astronomy and geography, yin and yang medicine, divination, Buddhist scriptures, drama, crafts, and agronomy.

It is considered the earliest encyclopedia.

Zhu Di ordered the compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia in order to win over the literati and eliminate their dissatisfaction.

Literati love fame, and establishing virtue, making achievements and making words are called the three immortals by literati.

Compiling such a book that will be passed down through the ages and making your name in it is a great thing that will be passed down through the ages.

Zhao Xing also had a similar purpose, and sent all the most vehement opponents in the court to revise the book.

After all, he couldn't really kill all those who opposed him.

In addition, Zhao Xing also wanted to preserve some cultural treasures for future generations. When printing technology appeared, many books were still single copies.

Firstly, people like to treasure their own things, and secondly, they are not worth circulating on a large scale.

However, Zhao Xing issued an edict calling on people all over the world to donate rare books, and it would be noted in the Xuanwu Ceremony who donated the books. There must be many people willing to donate their treasured rare books.

Zeng Qingxuan thought about it for a moment and understood Zhao Xing's intention. He said with admiration, "Your Majesty has compiled this book, which will benefit future generations. You will surely become a great sage."

"I've handed this matter over to you. Please draw up a charter as soon as possible. First, draft an edict, ordering scholars and common people all over the world to present books." Zhao Xing waved his hand.

He didn't care whether he was a saint or not, nor did he think that he would be honored as a saint because of it.

After all, the emperor's job is to govern the world. If the world is well governed, his reputation will naturally come.

If he could not solve the long-standing problems of the Song Dynasty and the country was destroyed after a few generations, he would still be regarded as a mediocre monarch by future generations.

Zhu Di compiled the Yongle Encyclopedia and Qianlong compiled the Siku Quanshu. Are they both honored as sage emperors because of this?
…………

What happened in the morning court spread quickly.

When the literary style of the Song Dynasty flourished, freedom of speech was also achieved.

It was very common for scholars to discuss state affairs and criticize the government and officials.

Although the scholars had previously caused trouble at the execution ground and petitioned at the palace gate, Zhao Xing was furious and punished many scholars.

But this cannot wake up these scholars.

The Song Dynasty was established a hundred years ago, and the sense of superiority among scholars has long been developed. How can it be changed so easily?

Many scholars even advocated again that they should unite to petition and not allow the government to destroy the Song Dynasty. Only in this way could they preserve the spirit of literati.

However, Zhao Xing's last ban on petitioning scholars from taking the imperial examinations still had some deterrent effect.

Although the emphasis on literature over martial arts fostered a sense of superiority among scholars, the learned literary and martial arts still had to be sold to the imperial family.

Isn’t it just for becoming an official that we study hard for many years?

Therefore, although these scholars shouted loudly, not many of them actually followed them.

This turmoil was not entirely without benefits. At least it covered up the fact that Zhao Xing ordered local governments to screen candidates for the military examination and provide them with food and lodging.

If this incident had not happened, this decree would have inevitably led to opposition from all the scholars.

After all, it was the "national policy" of the Song Dynasty to disrespect military power, and scholars naturally did not want to be taken seriously by the warriors who were always suppressed by them.

While there are advantages, there are also disadvantages. That is, various places did not seriously publicize Zhao Xing's edict, and most of them just dealt with it perfunctorily.

In addition, everyone is discussing the turmoil in the court, and no one is discussing the military examination, so the publicity effect is even worse.

However, compared with the previous military examinations, which were completely ignored and many people had even forgotten that there was a military examination in the Song Dynasty, it still had some publicity effect.

At this time, a piece of news suddenly spread throughout Bian Jing that the government wanted to compile a great book containing all the books in the world.

If anyone has a rare book at home, they can copy it and present it to the court. When the palace compiles it, the person who presented the book will be noted in it.

Once this news came out, it actually diverted attention very well.

There was a lot of discussion about this decree. Some people said it was a good thing, while others objected, saying that those miscellaneous books and Confucian classics should not be included in one great canon.

Zhao Xing was not in the mood to pay attention to these things because Zhang Guifen was about to give birth.

(End of this chapter)