A powerful minister of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 68: The emperor is the one who has the strongest army and horses, is there any special kind?

At least you have to ride a horse when guarding the border. Could it really come to that that you, a Jinshi, need to drive a donkey cart to attack the enemy?
Moreover, there have been few wars between the two countries since the Treaty of Chanyuan. Everyone cherishes this hard-won peace. Once the war breaks out again, innocent civilians will be the ones who suffer in the end.

The most important thing is that the annual tribute is paid from the inner treasury of the current emperor, and will not be imposed on the people.

Besides, this is what the emperor should do.

Bao Zheng said carefully: "Shi Erlang, this idea is probably a bit problematic."

Bao Zheng is a man of principle.

Also respect the rules.

Never overstep your authority if it is not your responsibility.

He didn't want to stop Song Xuan from doing this.

I just expressed my own opinion and thought that Song Xuan's idea was not right.

"Shi Er Lang has such a high talent for studying, why does he want to go to guard the border?"

Bao Zheng believes that the reputation of soldiers today is extremely bad.

Benefited from the tradition of military personnel rising up from below during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

Even the generals who followed Emperor Taizu of Song did not have much anthropomorphism.

Give a few examples.

For example, in Hunan, Li Chugeng distributed the prisoners to his left and right to eat;
Wang Yansheng, who tore apart the Dangxiang people and ate their ears raw in the northwest;

Wang Quanbin, who allowed his soldiers to cut off women's legs alive and eat them with wine in Sichuan.

There are Wang Jixun who ate hundreds of women in a few years, Zhao Yantao who dug out people's hearts and livers and ate them, and so on.

Even Wang Quanbin felt very aggrieved that his subordinate was killed because of military discipline because he had only cut off a woman's giggles. Was this a big deal?

Considering the military, gourmet and moral standards of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, why did Zhao Da rely on Cao Bin?
Because he stood out among a group of anthropomorphic generals.

Not only can he control his own desire for exotic delicacies, he also has good military discipline and can control his subordinates from eating and killing indiscriminately.

It is truly a beacon for warriors.

These military leaders were described as beasts and as a country in which social order and morality had collapsed.

That's all praise for them.

They often massacre cities and kill people for fun, and they have no moral principles.

If you are a loser, the winner will kill your whole family.

Mr. Lu Xun once said that when you open a page of history, you will see benevolence, righteousness, and morality written on every crooked page. But when you look closely, you will see the word "cannibalism" written all over the book.

However, in the entire Five Dynasties, even the four words used as a cover-up, such as benevolence, righteousness, and morality, were not written.

There are only two words: cannibalism.

Cannibalism on all kinds of physical levels!

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin simply gave up the military power with a toast, and did not choose to develop a culture-oriented and military-repressed policy.

He took back the military power from the military families and appointed young generals.

Especially the young generals who have not been infected with the "gourmet" mentality.

The emphasis on culture and suppression of military power continued until Emperor Taizong of Song came to power, when he killed Wang Jixun and his cannibalistic team.

When Emperor Taizong of Song suffered repeated defeats in the war against Liao and was almost killed, the group of military men wanted to support Zhao Dezhao to take the throne.

The emperor is the one who has the strongest army and horses, so is there any special kind of person?

As a result, this group of warriors wanted to stage a drama of changing the emperor, but Zhao Guangyi, who was forced to drift 200 miles on his lame donkey cart to rush back, discovered it.

He directly forced Zhao Dezhao to death and dealt with a large number of military leaders.

In any case, whether Emperor Taizong of Song was drifting a donkey cart or using candlelight and axe shadows, it didn't matter.

At least he made a contribution to Chinese civilization by eliminating the "gourmets" on the old ship of the Five Dynasties.

After that, military generals gradually lost their voice, and when Kou Zhun led the emperor to fight in person, the military was completely suppressed by civil officials.

From now on.

The Song Dynasty emphasized culture over military power.

It's back to the use of cannibalism as a cover-up for morality.

It was not until the Jin soldiers captured Bianjing, abducted the two emperors and other spoils that they once again resorted to cannibalism.

"Why is it bad to guard the border?"

Song Xuan patted the donkey and let it go over to drink. "Others can do it, but I can't?"

Facing Song Xuan's counter-question.

Bao Zheng was stunned again.

He is not a person who is good at quarreling.

Especially when it is still in the process of growth.

Be it his parents, his teacher, or his classmates, no one had ever told him what Song Xuan had said: why can't scholars do the things that soldiers do?

Because everyone works hard to pass the imperial examinations, not to become a stinky soldier with a very bad reputation.

Only standing at the top of the temple can we achieve our common goal.

Regardless of whether you can reach the position of prime minister, you must always have ambitions.

"Shi Erlang, if you want to be a soldier, you can just join the army as a bandit."

Bao Zheng wanted to provoke Song Xuan and see what he thought.

"I want to be able to choose whether to fight or make peace, rather than being bossed around by a bunch of clueless people and end up dying."

"If the Liao or Xixia invade in the future, and we don't rely on soldiers guarding the border to defend against the enemy, do we have to rely on scholars who are powerless?"

"Do you really think that planning strategies and winning battles thousands of miles away are things that scholars can accomplish by imitating Prime Minister Zhuge Liang and waving a goose feather fan a few times?"

Song Xuan stood there and said loudly:

"At least with someone as reliable as me guarding the border, Brother Bao and his family might be able to sleep more soundly in the future."

Bao Zheng bowed slightly upon hearing this, crossed his arms and said:

"Shi Er Lang is so righteous, but I was too narrow-minded."

"It doesn't matter, everyone has different ideas."

Song Xuan waved his hand and then said:

"Let's go to my Sanwei Book House to study. As the saying goes, sharpening your spear before a battle is always better than sharpening it."

Bao Zheng didn't want to talk much about this matter, mainly because everyone has their own aspirations.

Song Xuan's house is on the second floor, so it looks bigger.

The study is right after the entrance, filled with stuff. There's a bed behind a screen.

"Shi Er Lang, what are the three flavors?"

Bao Zheng looked at the plaque hanging at the door.

He had never seen that font before, but it had a certain beauty to it.

I wonder who wrote this?
"Reading the classics is as delicious as rice and wheat, reading history is as delicious as delicacies, and reading the various philosophers is as delicious as pickled meat."

Zhang Fangping explained to Bao Zheng.

"I see."

Bao Zheng immediately imagined that this was written by Song Xuan’s teacher to motivate him to study.

"Bullshit, don't listen to his nonsense." Song Xuan asked Bao Zheng to sit down:

"He's completely making things up. I got this name in a dream. There's no such thing as that."

"Hahaha."

Zhang Fangping couldn't help laughing out loud.

Twelve Brother didn't want to pretend at all that he studied very hard.

Bao Zheng also smiled, sat down, and immediately took out his textbook to start reviewing.

Song Xuan continued to copy the Analects to strengthen his memory.

Zhang Fangping began to read policy essays to continue consolidating the examination methods taught to him by Song Shou.

The progress and focus of the three people are different.

Bao Zheng was used to reviewing his lessons, but he was shocked when he saw the manuscripts of Song Xuan and Zhang Fangping and some points in their policy essays.

Many of the arguments they wrote were things Bao Zheng had never thought of.

You should know that Bao Zheng was also a local academic genius in Hefei.

Everyone praises it, who can say a word of praise?
A standard local "top scorer" seed player.

But when Bao Zheng saw the learning results of Song Xuan and the others today, he realized the Master's words:
What does it mean that there are always people better than you?
(End of this chapter)