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

Taiji Hall.

Li Shimin listened very attentively and hardly said a word.

After Tianmu finished explaining the "three redundancies," he sighed softly.

"The Song Dynasty's system was too restrictive and too restrictive."

"They tried to plug all the loopholes from the beginning, but in the end, they blocked the entire path."

Changsun Wuji said, "Your Majesty is right. The Song people learned from the chaos of the Five Dynasties and established systems too hastily, seeking too much stability. While they achieved stability, they lost the room for flexibility."

"Therefore, governing the world cannot rely solely on defense."

Li Shimin looked at the sky with a distant gaze, "I often say that the world cannot be governed solely by law, nor solely by people. If the law is too strict, people will not know what to do; if people are too focused, the law will have no way to be implemented."

The problem with the Song Dynasty was that its laws were strict but its people were lazy, and its culture flourished while its military was weak.

In the side hall of Daqing Hall, Zhao Kuangyin had been standing for far too long.

From the moment he started talking about the "three redundancies" from the sky, he didn't sit back down.

Shi Shouxin, Zhao Pu, Xue Juzheng and others stood behind him, like a row of frozen shadows.

"From 200,000 redundant soldiers to 1.2 million," Zhao Kuangyin suddenly said through gritted teeth, "they were all fed up by the descendants of the Song dynasty, bite by bite."

Zhao Pu, who had not yet been punished, whispered, "Your Majesty, Tianmu said that this is a loophole in the system itself, and it didn't happen overnight."

Recruiting refugees into soldiers was originally intended to alleviate immediate suffering, but later generations failed to exercise restraint, leading to a major disaster.

"Unrestrained?" Zhao Kuangyin turned to look at him, his eyes blazing. "Why are there three government offices handling the same matters?"

Why are officials divided into ranks, positions, and assignments? Why can the son of a prime minister appoint dozens of people through hereditary privilege?

Are these also ancestral systems?

Zhao Pu fell silent.

In an alley west of Bianjing, several people carrying loads on their shoulders were taking a break and looking up.

"Redundant soldiers, redundant officials, redundant expenses." A middle-aged man selling vegetables stammered out these words, then turned to the person next to him and asked, "What does 'redundant' mean?"

A thin, old man who looked like a schoolteacher snorted: "Redundant means too much, too much waste. They say our Great Song Dynasty has too many soldiers, too many officials, and spends too much money."

"Does that even need to be said?" The vegetable vendor slapped his thigh. "I've been selling vegetables in the West Market since I was a kid. In the past twenty years, there have been more government officials on the street than stray dogs."

A sedan chair passed by, followed by seven or eight men in green robes.

Do you think they're just there to get things done?

No! They're all just freeloaders!

A woman holding a child chimed in, "That's right. My husband works as a porter at the docks, and he says that these days, a good portion of his daily wage goes to taxes."

They say they're raising an army, but where are those soldiers?

Those guys at the city gate, they're always huddled up against the wall, dozing off, they can't even hold their guns properly.

"Is this the kind of soldier we've raised?"

Someone whispered a word of advice: "Say less, or the patrolmen might hear you."

So, the grain we hand over is basically feeding our ancestors.

The vegetable vendor chuckled and slammed his carrying pole on the ground: "Isn't that our ancestor? The other day I was delivering vegetables to an official's residence, and the two stone lions at the gate were taller than a person."

Upon inquiry, it was discovered that a fifth-rank official named "Retired Official" lived in the house. After retiring, the imperial court still paid him his full salary.

Full salary! Freebies! I sell vegetables for a year and don't even earn as much as someone else's monthly ice and charcoal wages.

The schoolteacher shook his head: "Retirement with a salary was a 'gift' in the Song Dynasty."

Not only could they retire from officialdom, but they could also receive hereditary privileges.

When an official retires, his son, nephew, or grandson can all take his place.

One replacement wasn't enough; some people needed seven or eight.

These people's salaries come entirely from the taxes you pay.

A low murmur arose from the crowd.

"Seven or eight? How much salary does his whole family get?"

"No wonder Zhang the butcher next door is so insistent on marrying his daughter to the county magistrate's son, saying that once she marries him, she'll be part of the government."

"An official? Ha, his son can't even speak properly, yet he can become an official. My son studied in a private school for three years and couldn't even pass the county exam."

"That's what happens when you don't have a father who's an official."

Some people laughed, but their laughter was full of bitterness.

The vegetable vendor looked up at the sky and suddenly stopped laughing.

He stared at the people in the picture, dressed in official robes, dozing off, playing chess, and watering flowers in the yamen, and slowly said, "Do you see them? The bowl of rice in their hands is the rice in our pot, and the robes they wear are the cotton in our fields."

He paused for a moment: "Tianmu said that this is called redundant officials, but no matter how many officials there are, they can't put pressure on us."

What's truly oppressive are those clerks who aren't even officials, yet are more ruthless than any official.

Those constables, archers, and village heads—weren't they all using the imperial court's name to squeeze every last drop of profit out of us?

Officials are redundant, and clerks are poisonous.

Why doesn't the author mention "officials" when he says "the sky is covered"?

The schoolteacher sighed: "Because the clerk is not on the official register."

The sky only counts the officials, not the countless clerks.

But you're right, it's the officials who really deal with the common people.

Officials take 30%, clerks take 50%, and less than 20% actually goes to the grassroots.

"Then we can't live like this anymore," the woman holding the child said in a low voice. "My husband said that if things continue like this, we might as well sell the land and go to the city to join the army. At least soldiers get government pay."

"Don't go!" the vegetable vendor glared at him. "A good man doesn't become a soldier."

The schoolteacher sighed again, looked up at the numbers still scrolling across the sky, and murmured:

"Tianmu said that the reason for having too many soldiers was to prevent the displaced people from causing chaos."

The problem with redundant officials is the fear that powerful ministers will become too powerful.

Redundant expenses are the huge hole that these two things have created.

But it forgot to mention that in the end, it wasn't soldiers or officials who filled that hole, but ordinary people like us whose names aren't even remembered.

The sky curtain never stopped.

"So by the Qingli era, the interior of the Northern Song Dynasty was already a pot of hot oil that could explode at any moment."

The Wang Lun Uprising in Jingdong, the Zhang Hai Uprising in western Jingdong, the Wang Ze Uprising in Hebei… though small in scale, their frequency and scope far exceeded normal levels.

"On the outside, Li Yuanhao of Western Xia declared himself emperor, and the Song-Xia War ended in three defeats."

Taking advantage of the situation, the Liao Dynasty demanded an increase in annual tribute.

"Beset by internal and external troubles, the treasury is depleted, and public discontent is boiling."

"This is the background to the Qingli Reforms."

Under the sky, in the official residence of Dengzhou, Fan Zhongyan was slowly grinding ink.

A roll of plain silk lay before him, and he remained silent, as if he hadn't heard the sky speaking of him.

The unspoken words on the sky continued to flow.

"Then, Emperor Renzong of Song decided to reform. He dismissed Lü Yijian, who had been in power for twenty years, and appointed reformists such as Fan Zhongyan, Fu Bi, Han Qi, and Ouyang Xiu."

In September of the third year of the Qingli era, Fan Zhongyan submitted a memorial entitled "Ten Points in Response to the Imperial Edict," proposing ten reform measures.

"Next, we'll talk about what these ten points are and how they were all destroyed by conservatives within a year."