A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

The sky remained silent for three days.

On the fourth day at dusk, the sky lit up again, revealing a vast expanse of water.

The vast expanse of water stretches to the horizon.

A pavilion stands alone between the water and the sky, its eaves soaring like wings, as if it were about to take flight from the painting.

A person stood by the railing upstairs, their clothes fluttering in the lake breeze.

He had his back to the camera, so his face was not visible; all that could be seen was his faded old robe and a thin hand resting on the railing.

A voice, seemingly wanting to say something, rang out.

"1046 AD, the sixth year of the Qingli era."

"An old man who had been demoted to Dengzhou received a letter from Baling."

The scene changes, and a letter is opened, revealing a scroll painting of the newly renovated Yueyang Tower.

Next to the painting was a line of small characters in my friend's handwriting.

"I wrote this to record it."

"A friend said, 'You have the best writing skills, why don't you write an article for this building?'"

He paused for a moment, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.

"This old man is Fan Zhongyan."

"After looking at the painting, he picked up his pen and wrote an article that every scholar would memorize for the next thousand years."

"The Yueyang Tower Inscription"

【Here it comes!】

Be the first to worry about the world's troubles and the last to enjoy its pleasures!

I can literally recite the whole thing from memory.

……

"But before discussing 'The Yueyang Tower Inscription,' we must first clarify one issue."

The voice, which seemed to want to say something, fell silent.

Why was Fan Zhongyan in Dengzhou? Why was he demoted? What was on his mind when he wrote this article?

"To answer these questions, we need to turn back the clock to the Qingli era and look at the major event that caused Fan Zhongyan to fall from the pinnacle of power to the far reaches of the Jianghu."

"The Qingli New Deal".

The scene shifts, and a huge map of the Northern Song Dynasty's territory fills the entire sky.

To the west was the Western Xia, and to the north was the Liao Dynasty, like two open pincers.

"By the time of Emperor Renzong's reign in the Northern Song Dynasty, more than eighty years had passed since the founding of the dynasty. Although the dynasty appeared prosperous and strong, it had actually begun to have many flaws."

"In the last episode, we talked about how Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty and how he set the national policy of 'emphasizing civil affairs and suppressing military affairs'."

In addition, he designed a whole set of systems.

All forces that could potentially threaten imperial power were caged.

The core logic of this system can be summed up in one word: prevention.

To prevent military generals from rebelling, to prevent powerful ministers from becoming too powerful, to prevent local separatism, and to prevent any force from growing to the point of challenging the central government.

"This system was extremely successful in the short term."

The Song Dynasty lived for sixteen years, fifty years, and more than a hundred years.

But what will be the price?

He paused, seemingly wanting to say something but unable to, his tone tinged with regret.

"The price was that, in order to maintain 'stability,' the Song Dynasty created the largest 'government-funded' system in human history."

"This is the famous Three Redundancies."

The scene changes, and three huge copper coins fall from the sky and hit the ground, each engraved with two large characters: redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses.

[Here it comes, the classic three-part series from the Song Dynasty!]

I'm sick of seeing the word "redundant".

[These are the only three things that have been done in the more than 80 years since the founding of the dynasty; the Song Dynasty is unique in this regard]

[This wasn't unique to the Song Dynasty; it was most severe during the Song Dynasty.]

……

"Before discussing the Qingli New Policies, we must first understand these three mountains, because these are the three mountains that Fan Zhongyan wanted to move."

"Let's talk about redundant troops first."

Zhao Kuangyin established a rule: in years of famine, a large number of displaced people would be recruited into the army.

In this way, the young men who might have rebelled became soldiers receiving government stipends.

In the short term, society has stabilized.

In the long run, the military has become a bottomless pit that can never be filled.

"At the time of the founding of the country, the army numbered about 200,000."

By the time of Emperor Renzong, the number had exceeded 1.2 million.

It has increased sixfold in the past eighty years.

"The cost of maintaining the military accounts for 60% to 70% of fiscal revenue."

This massive army almost never fights, nor is it capable of fighting.

Because the "Gengshu Law" resulted in soldiers not knowing their generals and generals not knowing their soldiers, their combat effectiveness was extremely low.

They suffered three defeats in three battles against the Western Xia; 1.2 million men could not defeat tens of thousands of cavalry.

This isn't because the soldiers aren't brave, but because this system fundamentally prevents them from unleashing their full combat potential.

"But I want to emphasize that Zhao Kuangyin had his reasons for doing so at the time."

The lessons of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period were too tragic.

Allowing displaced people to remain in society is tantamount to providing ammunition for rebellion.

If we incorporate them into the army, at least we can provide them with food and supervision.

This was a multiple-choice question with no perfect answer; he chose the one that would save his life in the short term.

"The problem is that his descendants took this expedient measure as an ancestral law, adding to it generation after generation, until it became too difficult to reverse."

Therefore, the Song Dynasty's army was essentially an unemployment resettlement program.

If military service becomes a secure job, who will fight?

You think you're supporting an army of 1.2 million, but in reality, you're supporting 1.2 million displaced people who are living off military pay.

They spend more on military spending than anyone else, and their combat effectiveness is faster than anyone else's.

……

In the Northern Song Dynasty, at the foot of the north wall of the outer city of Bianjing, a lame man was wiping his knife against the wall.

His name was Shen Jiu, a retired member of the Imperial Guard Guangwu Army, originally from Hebei.

His left leg was broken during the inspection at Jinmingchi and was not properly set, so he walks with a limp.

The military neither removed him from the military register nor assigned him any further duties.

He remained half-dead on the roster, collecting half a bushel of coarse rice each month.

"Redundant troops." He clicked his tongue and placed the knife across his lap.

Two teenagers were squatting nearby; they were soldiers from a nearby military post. One was named Aping, and the other was named Qilang.

Both of them were fifteen or sixteen years old. Because their families suffered a disaster, they were recruited into the army last year.

They were called soldiers, but they weren't even issued swords. They were ordered around all day to carry firewood and water for the military leaders.

"Brother Shen, does the '1.2 million soldiers' mentioned on the sky include us?" A-Ping asked in a low voice.

"Yes." Shen Jiu didn't even look up. "Why not? You're a living person who eats military rations, so you count. Even if all you do is wash the feet of the military commander, you're still a soldier."

Qilang squatted there silently for a long while before finally saying, "But we join the army just to get food, right? Tianmu says we'll eat our rations and not fight, so isn't it better not to fight? If a war really breaks out, won't we be the ones who die?"

Shen Jiu finally looked up at him, his eyes clouded with a layer of grayish-yellow turbidity.

"You think you can live well without fighting?" He slammed his knife into the ground. "Go look at those numbers at the city gate. How many of them are actually guarding the city? They're all just carrying bricks for the officials."

When it's time to distribute the grain, the grain officer will deduct 10%, and the military leader will deduct another 10%, so that what ends up in your bowl is enough to reflect your image.

"Is this what you call eating government food? It's like eating swill."

"But Tianmu also said that we weren't recruited for the purpose of fighting, but because they were afraid we'd rebel if we got too hungry," Aping said in a low voice.

"So what?" Shen Jiu said coldly, "The imperial court feeds us half a bowl of thin porridge, and we stop rebelling, but what about our lives? Are they only worth half a bowl of thin porridge?"

A child on the roadside pointed at them from afar and asked, "Mommy, who are they?"

The woman pulled the child away, saying, "Don't point randomly. Soldiers are bad luck."

The group remained silent, and the tattoos on their faces and hands suddenly throbbed with intense pain.