It was satisfying to kill corrupt officials, but even the dim-witted Zhao Huan knew that there were no officials in the world who didn't take bribes, and that corrupt officials could never be completely eliminated. Just like the cowherd in the Ming Dynasty, who was incredibly ruthless in killing corrupt officials.
At most, Zhao Huan would behead the corrupt official, confiscate his property, and then exile his family members.
But the cowherds were subjected to a different kind of torture, including skinning, playing the pipa (a traditional Chinese stringed instrument), washing and combing, and disemboweling.
When you see someone playing the pipa, don't you think it's quite artistic? Don't you think that even though the cowherd was born a monk, he's actually a cultured young man? And what about washing, bathing, and combing hair?
Playing the pipa involves using a sharp blade to remove the bones from a person one by one, not by plucking them with your hands!
The washing and combing was even more outrageous. They would put the person on an iron plate, strip them naked, pour boiling water on them, and then use an iron brush to scrape off the flesh piece by piece until the flesh was gone and the bones were exposed. Wasn't that even more intense than slaughtering a pig?
When Liu Bang, another founding emperor, killed his ministers, he did so indirectly through his wife and prime minister Xiao He.
Why did the cowherd dare to do this? It's because the Ming Dynasty was conquered by the cowherd and his generals. Liu Bang, on the other hand, excelled in using people, so his methods were naturally different.
And what about Zhao Huan? A northern expedition pushed the border northward, making the Song Dynasty suddenly powerful. Those passionate young people were already completely devoted to the emperor, worshipping him so much that they wanted to run up to him, take off their pants, and say, "Your Majesty, do whatever you want."
Therefore, Zhao Huan was not as anxious as the two prime ministers, who thought the sky was falling.
The sky won't fall. The Han Dynasty was founded with Liu Bang supporting it, the Ming Dynasty was founded with a cowherd supporting it, and now the Song Dynasty is rising with Zhao Huan supporting it. What will support it? The elite troops and generals under the emperor's command!
At this moment, the emperor raised his arm and shouted, and the new army led by Zong Ze responded in droves. The various armies of Yan and Yun, the three towns of Hebei and Hedong, and the elite troops of the Northwest—which one of them had not fought alongside the emperor through thick and thin?
The emperor personally escorted the fallen soldiers to the Martyrs' Shrine, and the compensation and military pay were all paid. Everyone praised the emperor as a sage ruler.
The only weak point now is the south, where people don't feel the emperor's power, and the army there hasn't truly marched north to fight alongside the emperor. However, the Imperial City Guard's forces are frantically infiltrating the south.
On this day, before the blood outside the Five Dynasties Gate had dried, more than three hundred heads fell to the ground. In just half a month, more than a thousand people had been executed by the emperor. The sky of the Great Song Dynasty was red with blood, and the prime ministers of the two ministries were terrified.
This grain and silver transport case was later known in historical records as the "Jingkang Grain Transport Case." Some historians have said that the emperor used the heads of more than a thousand people as a sacrifice for the new policies, thus launching the grand Jingkang New Policies.
Just as more than three hundred heads fell to the ground, a voice from the common people of Tokyo reached the imperial court in the highest heavens. A scholar knelt before the palace and submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that if the Song Dynasty wanted to reform its officials, it needed to promote the theories of all schools of thought, rather than Confucianism alone.
The Imperial Guards immediately arrested the scholar and threw him into prison.
But his voice, like a tiger roaring through the mountains, resounded throughout Tokyo, keeping all the scholars awake at night.
If it is reasonable and well-founded for the emperor to kill corrupt officials, what is the basis for promoting various schools of thought?
The emperor was severely punishing corrupt officials and there was a strong trend towards promoting Legalism. At this time, was the appearance of such a person a coincidence or was it orchestrated by someone behind the scenes?
An official then rushed to the palace that very night to see the emperor and, on the grounds of "slandering the former sage," demanded that the scholar be executed to rectify the foundation of the nation!
When the emperor was executing corrupt officials, these people didn't rush to the palace to see him overnight. Now that a scholar has come, they've become uneasy and are surrounding the emperor, verbally attacking him for his outrageous remarks. The emperor refuses to see them under the pretext of resting and sleeping, so the officials kneel outside and refuse to get up. Finally, the emperor sends a eunuch to tell them that he will handle the matter properly, and only then do the ministers reluctantly return.
The current situation is not good for the ministers either. Which minister doesn't have something shady going on? The Imperial Guards are spread throughout Tokyo, and their reach even extends to the north and south. They have a lot of intelligence.
The ministers couldn't push the emperor too hard, otherwise, if the emperor got angry, he would find a reason to start slaughtering people. The emperor wouldn't just kill ministers for minor faults, after all, people still had to do the work. As long as they didn't cross the emperor's bottom line, there was a delicate balance between the two sides.
Take the matter of the officials, for example. After receiving the emperor's promise, the ministers were still anxious, but they had no choice but to go back. Otherwise, if they kept kneeling there and angered the emperor, the situation would become unmanageable.
Not long after the ministers left, the emperor finished reading all the information about the scholar in the imperial study, as well as his memorial entitled "A Treatise on the Great Learning of a Hundred Schools of Thought," which explained the harm that corrupt scholars posed to the country. He argued that, like in the Spring and Autumn Period, a hundred schools of thought should be encouraged and diverse opinions should be embraced. He also used strong language to attack the Neo-Confucianism of Zhou and Cheng Yi, condemning it as a disastrous theory that harmed the country and its people, and as a poison to Chinese culture!
"Shi Xun?" Zhao Huan frowned slightly; the name sounded familiar.
Xie Dahai said, "Your Majesty, the man who was beheaded at the Five Dynasties Gate that day was Shi Xun, courtesy name Ziming. He was discussing something with a friend named Li Huai'an, and Your Majesty overheard them."
The emperor immediately remembered that he had praised Shi Ziming's bold remarks at the time.
This man was from Jiangling. He came from a poor family and lost both his parents at a young age. His elder brother and sister-in-law supported his education. Unfortunately, he was rebellious from a young age and often criticized the Neo-Confucianism of Zhou and Cheng. He even had some strong opinions about orthodox Confucianism. He admired the Legalist school of Han Fei and believed that the flourishing of all schools of thought was the orthodoxy of China.
Such a person would have been fine during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and even during the early Tang Dynasty, but in the Song Dynasty, when Confucianism was at its peak, wasn't he courting death?
Shi Xun is twenty-seven years old this year, but he has not yet achieved fame and fortune. He has been living a poor life in Tokyo. In modern terms, he is a lowly, lowly drifter in Tokyo.
According to the intelligence Xie Dahai possessed, this person often spoke wildly, had the ambition of Han Xin, and wanted to assist the wise ruler in establishing a dynasty that would last for ten thousand generations.
If he weren't a time traveler, Zhao Huan would have thought this person was crazy. But having grown up in the future, Zhao Huan couldn't help but applaud Shi Xun's "Commentary on the Great History of the Hundred Schools of Thought" after seeing it, and even wondered if this guy was also a time traveler from the future.
Having made up his mind, he instructed Xie Dahai: "Take good care of this man, provide him with good food and drink, but do not release him from the prison, do not torture him, and do not allow anyone to approach him. Every meal must be inspected according to my standards to ensure that this man is safe and sound!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Zhao Huan was looking for someone who dared to criticize the flourishing Confucianism of the Song Dynasty.
Reforming the bureaucracy is not as simple as killing people. Killing people is just a crude means of establishing rules and bottom lines. To completely change the bureaucracy of the Song Dynasty, it is necessary to reform both the system and the spiritual culture. Otherwise, everything will be in vain.
Institutional reforms can be enforced through political maneuvering and military power, but reforms of the spiritual and cultural spheres are the most difficult and have the widest scope.
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