(Second update)
The whole Song Dynasty knew that Zhao Zhen was a wimp?
Many ministers looked at each other in confusion.
Although the official's character is a bit soft, it shouldn't be to this extent.
Turning around to look at the official, he saw that his face had changed from purple to green, and then from green to black and red.
I guess he's going crazy.
I think so too.
It's so uncomfortable to be scolded by others every day and not be able to talk back.
At this moment, Zhao Zhen clenched his fists.
His face was dark, the veins on his hands were throbbing, and he wanted to punch Zhao Jun.
But after thinking about it, I decided to forget it.
After Zhao Jun's eyes recovered, he had to curry favor with this person, otherwise how could the Industrial Revolution be carried out? His own son had not yet been found.
Fortunately, such a day is not far away.
Zhao Jun's eyes are about to recover, and he is looking forward to the other person seeing his expression after he recovers.
“Ahem.”
Yan Shu coughed twice and said, "Renzong is already one of the best emperors of the Song Dynasty. I believe that if he can get enlightenment, he should do well."
"You're overthinking it."
Zhao Jun shrugged. "It's not just that he's a wimp; he's completely out of his mind. Honestly, the so-called Renzong's reign was all hype, and the Renzong group was all just the result of the scholar-officials flattering each other. It's useless."
"Teacher Zhao, enough is enough."
Seeing Zhao Zhen's increasingly grim expression, Lü Yijian quickly reminded him, "That's about all we have to say today."
Zhao Jun said angrily, "You've only just reached that point, and that's almost enough. It's not enough at all. Let me tell you about the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, and you'll understand how rubbish he was."
"Let's start with the 'Chongxi Increase of the Currency'. During the war with the Western Xia, Emperor Xingzong of Liao forced the Liao Dynasty to submit and pay tribute, increasing the annual tribute by 100,000 taels of silver and 100,000 pieces of silk."
"It's only because his father had a precedent like the 'Chanyuan Alliance' where he won a war and still paid tribute. Otherwise, this matter would also be nailed to the pillar of shame."
"Also, the Liao Kingdom took advantage of the situation and threatened them into signing the 'Chongxi Currency Increase'. After all, the Song Dynasty was plagued by internal and external troubles. On one hand, it had to deal with the Western Xia, and on the other hand, it faced the Liao Kingdom's troops stationed on the border. It couldn't afford to fight on two fronts. This excuse barely makes sense."
"But what about being forced by the Western Xia to sign the 'Qingli Peace Agreement', which not only required them to recognize the establishment of the Western Xia state, but also to pay them an annual tribute of '150,000 pieces of silk, 70,000 taels of silver, and 30,000 kilograms of tea'?"
"Western Xia had a small population and a weak state, its national strength less than one-tenth that of the Song Dynasty. As a result, it was beaten half to death by a small country, suffered three consecutive defeats, and was forced by a small country to sign a humiliating treaty. If Emperor Wu of Han and Emperor Taizong of Tang heard about this, they would probably laugh their heads off."
"And Sanyi Huihe. He clearly had the ability to temporarily address the problem, but to save time and effort, and to prevent an invasion by the Liao Kingdom, he deliberately adopted the worst possible strategy, flooding the entire Hebei region, turning the once prosperous Hebei into a swamp overnight. The losses were even greater than before. He truly brought this upon himself."
"Militarily, the Song Dynasty was completely defeated by a small nation; diplomatically, the Song Dynasty lost its sovereignty and was humiliated; the economy was exhausted; education was completely ineffective; and the governance of the people's livelihoods allowed bandits to run rampant and uprisings to break out. The attempt to dam the Yellow River directly turned the mother river into a river of disaster. Tell me, how good was this emperor?"
"Yet, even this guy is being touted as one of the rare wise rulers of the Song Dynasty. You can see how valuable this wise ruler is. The entire Song Dynasty had the most incompetent rulers in history, on par with the Sima and Aisin-Gioro families. Otherwise, how could someone like Zhao Zhen deserve the title of 'benevolent'?"
At the end of the conversation, Zhao Jun was so angry at his son for not fighting back that he almost shouted it out.
Although his impression of Song Renzong was barely acceptable, because he did have a good temper and a relatively peaceful and prosperous era in the middle and late stages of his reign, it cannot be denied that he was just a good person, not a good emperor.
The so-called wise ruler was basically exaggerated. That is, he did not make many troubles during his reign, and rested with the people. He issued many policies to reduce corvee and taxes. Compared with the period of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty, which "increased farmland by more than 340,000 hectares and reduced taxes by more than 710,000 hu", he had many benevolent policies.
But to be honest, if Zhao Zhen was replaced by Liu Chan, the same results could be achieved. It is even possible that Liu Chan did better than him. At least Liu Chan always firmly supported Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, unlike Zhao Zhen who was wavering on Fan Zhongyan's reforms.
So in a sense, Zhao Jun never thought that Zhao Zhen was a "wise ruler". It was just that in the Song Dynasty, a dynasty that was considered to be the worst, he was just the tallest among the short emperors and could barely be considered a human being.
At this moment, Zhao Zhen's face looked very ugly. It felt like he was stripped naked in front of him. It seemed as if he had no privacy at all. Zhao Zhen wanted to find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. Yan Shu glanced at the sky and said to Zhao Jun, "Teacher Zhao, it's getting dark. Let's go back and have dinner and rest early."
"Um."
Zhao Jun knew he was a little angry, so he slowly suppressed his anger and said, "I'm sorry, I got a little angry when I thought about the grievances in the Song Dynasty. I didn't take my anger out on everyone, I took it out on the Song Dynasty."
Lu Yijian and others almost peed their pants at that time.
Good fellow, he is almost pointing at the official’s nose and cursing him, and still says that it is not directed at us?
If the time had not come yet, I'm afraid that in order to save the government's face, they would have rushed up and bombarded him in turns.
However, what everyone did not know was that the reason why Zhao Jun was so angry was because he thought it was too ironic that Zhao Zhen, a person who had done nothing, was actually regarded as a wise ruler.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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