In September, although the sun is still hot, but it can't stand the golden wind, in the early morning autumn sun, a group of Song troops lined up in a neat queue, passed through the city gate, and entered Jiankang. One by one, the armor is bright, the head is swaggering, the flag is covered, the swords and guns are dazzling, and the military appearance is neat and majestic. The boots trampled on the bluestone-paved avenue, making a series of sonorous and powerful sounds.

The Great Song Dynasty has always governed the country with literature and implemented the national policy of emphasizing literature over military force. It was rare for the imperial army to enter the city with such fanfare. Therefore, the city is crowded with people, and many men, women and children take to the streets to watch this rare scene. From time to time, there were bursts of cheering. Because it is in the middle of the procession, a row of elephants, such a behemoth, has caused many people to marvel and discuss.

It turned out that this was the triumphant return of Bi Zaiyu, who led the army to Dali.

In fact, Bi Zaiyu broke through Dali City as early as February, Gao Jianming committed suicide, and the rest of the party was either killed or captured, and almost no one escaped. But Duan Zhixing, the former monarch of Dali, died at the hands of Gao Jianming, and other members of the royal family were also killed by Gao Jianming. After the news of the victory was transmitted back to the imperial court, Zhao Chen issued an order to let Bi Zaiyu find the descendants of the Duan family in Dali and establish him as the king of Dali.

But Bi Zaiyu searched for more than two months, but he couldn't find anything. It turned out that the Duan clan was almost killed by Gao Jianming, and only some distant branches remained, but they were not enough to convince the public. For a while, no one in Dali could inherit the throne, and Bi Zai had no choice but to write a book back to the court and report the situation to the court. At this time, the Jiankang court couldn't help but be a little helpless. After some deliberation, the ministers decided to appoint Liu Renxian, the general of Dali who followed Bi Zaiyu to Dali, to succeed him as the emperor of Dali.

But after the imperial court's edict reached Dali, Liu Renxian said that he did not want to inherit the throne of Dali. And recruited the patriarchs of various ethnic groups in Dali, and suggested that Dali be merged into the Great Song Dynasty and become a part of the Great Song Dynasty. The patriarchs of the various clans saw that Liu Renxian was unwilling to succeed to the throne, and also knew that after losing the Duan clan, the recognized ruler, no other clan had the strength to rule Dali alone, so they also pushed the boat along the river, and agreed to Liu Renxian's proposal, and jointly wrote to the Song court, asking for Dali to be merged into the Great Song Dynasty.

Then Liu Renxian returned to Jiankang with the joint letter and presented Zhao Chen in person. And kowtowed on the Golden Palace, crying, saying that as a minister of Dali, he could not protect the Dali Society, but let the traitors seize the throne, and the monarch died tragically, and he dared to claim to be the king. At the same time, he also swore that he would always be a minister of the Great Song Dynasty in this life, and he would die in a foreign land. If the Great Song Dynasty does not take it in, he is willing to be a citizen of the Great Song Dynasty forever, and he will never return to Dali for a single step.

After hearing this, the ministers of the Great Song Dynasty were very moved. Liu Renxian was originally appointed as a Chengxuan envoy in the Great Song Dynasty, and Zhao Chen immediately issued an order to specially crown Liu Renxian as the founder of Danyang County and forever as the minister of the Great Song Dynasty. After some deliberation, the ministers finally decided to accept Dali into the Great Song Dynasty.

Immediately decided to take over Dali, then the next step is how to effectively rule Dali, although Dali is not big, but there are more than 3,000 miles of places, with a population of millions, so how to determine the local administrative district, whether it is merged into Tongzhou Road, or a separate road; There are also questions about how local officials should be arranged, whether to use locals, or whether to send troops from the imperial court, and whether to garrison troops in Dali.

The ministers discussed for a while, and decided to set Dali as Annan Road, Dali City as Annan Fu, and divide the whole territory of Dali into Annan East Road and Annan West Road.

Dali was originally divided into local administrative areas by prefecture and county. At present, it is still divided according to the original region, but according to the local administrative habits of the Great Song Dynasty, the "county" is changed to "army", and the "fu" is changed to "state", but at the same time the four prefectures of Tengchong, Annan, Yongchang and Weichu are retained. In this way, Annan East Road includes Yongchang Mansion, Shicheng Army, Shanxian Prefecture, Weichu Prefecture, Zining Prefecture, Xiushan Army, Jingyun Prefecture, and the pacification envoy is located in Weichu Prefecture. Annan West Road includes eight counties, including Jianchang Prefecture, Shanju Prefecture, Tengchong Prefecture, Dongchuan Army, Huichuan Prefecture, Nongdong Prefecture, Moutong Prefecture, and Annam Prefecture, and the pacification envoy is located in Annam Province.

For the time being, the local officials were all the chiefs of the local tribes, but each tribe, regardless of size, could only serve as the magistrates of one county, which also made the power of the various tribes roughly equal, and the imperial court sent a general judge to help manage the place. Moreover, the various clans who held the official position of county guard also needed to send disciples to study in the Jiankang Tai Academy for three years before returning to the clan.

Then Zhao Chen issued another decree and appointed Yang Fu, the prefect of Chengdu, as the pacification envoy of Annan Road, Cheng Mengxi as the transfer envoy of Annan East Road, and Han Zhi as the transfer envoy of Annan West Road, to jointly assist Yang Fu and govern the entire Annan area. All three of them made contributions to the quelling of the rebellion in Sichuan, so they were entrusted with important tasks. Moreover, Chengdu is adjacent to Annan, and the folk customs and habits are similar, so it is easier to manage. Although this burden is very heavy, the reward is also higher, once it can be comforted by Ping'annan, it will be just around the corner to become an official in the court. Because Liu Renxian vowed not to return to Dali, he left only Zhang Xun, Xie Dongming and 10,000 Song troops to live in Annan.

After the arrangement was completed, Bi Zaiyu led the army and withdrew from Annam. However, most of the military horses that went out to Dali were Sichuan troops, so most of the military horses returned to Sichuan, and less than 8,000 people returned to Jiankang with Bi, and there were 200 war elephants, which also returned to Jiankang together.

Although this battle was not a big victory, it not only achieved a strategic point in the southwest, but also expanded the territory of the Great Song Dynasty by more than 3,000 miles, adding millions of people. At the same time, a place where elephants are produced has also been obtained, so that the Great Song Dynasty has a continuous supply of elephants, no matter what, it is a happy thing.

And because the Great Song Dynasty has always emphasized literature over martial arts, and the social atmosphere is more despised for martial artists, Zhao Chen knows that if he wants to recover the lost territory and rejuvenate the Great Song Dynasty, he must reverse this trend, and the next step is to reform the military system, so he took this opportunity to let the returning Song army enter the city with great fanfare, and it was also like the people to show the power of the Great Song Army. Gradually change the concept of emphasizing literature over military force among the people.

But this time Zhao Chen's actions did not cause many ministers to be dissatisfied, because just two months ago, Zhao Chen issued an order to build a courtyard at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain in the northeast of Jiankang, establish Zhongshan Academy, and recruit well-known scholars in the world, such as: Lu Zuqian, Lu Jiuyuan, Lu Jiuling, Zhang Yan, Zhu Xi and others, as well as Chen Liang, who was appointed in the court, opened a hall in the academy to teach and teach apprentices.

Originally, the new laws were implemented in Lianghuai, Liangzhejiang, and Liangjiang Sixth Roads, and after nearly half a year, all new laws were gradually implemented. In addition, after the invasion of the Jin army, it dealt a heavy blow to the old local powerful forces, and also made the local forces opposing the new law insufficient, and at the same time, several officials who presided over the implementation of the new law were very conscientious, and the imperial court also strengthened the supervision of the implementation of the new law, and successively dismissed several local officials who took the opportunity of implementing the new law to set up a name and enrich their own pockets, which played a warning effect and did not make major mistakes in the implementation of the new law.

The areas where the new law has been piloted have also shown some initial results. More than half of the regions in each region have ascertained the meridian boundaries, and as a result, compared with the records of the previous imperial court, due to the investigation of the false names of the households and the merger of the sub-households, the household property has been reduced by more than 30%. However, the verified land increased by more than 40%, and at the same time, most of the barren land and ownerless land found were distributed to the peasant households, which also increased the source of taxes for the imperial court at once. Since almost all of the coerced households and hidden fields identified were from the families of the rich and powerful, and the calculation of taxes and levies was also changed from the economy to the calculation of acres of land, the burden on ordinary peasant households has not increased, but has been reduced.

In addition, the implementation of the law has also enabled peasant households to tide over the sluggish harvest this year, and the interest rate of borrowing grain from the sheaves is far less than that of borrowing grain from wealthy households, and the burden on peasant households has also been much smaller. The implementation of the law on exemption from military service has enabled some peasant households with better family backgrounds to pay money to be exempted from military service when they are busy farming, without delaying their agricultural time, while some peasant corpses from poor families have taken the initiative to enlist in military service during the agricultural slack period, and can also earn some money to subsidize their families.

And the imperial court can also get some benefits from the Shecang Law and the Exemption Law. Coupled with the good weather and good weather this year, the harvest is now approaching autumn, and the crops in the fields everywhere are growing very luxuriantly, and it is almost certain that this year will have a bumper harvest. And the tax of the imperial court will also have a large increase.

The initial results of the implementation of the new law have greatly increased Zhao Chen's confidence, and also made Chen Junqing, Han Yanzhi, Liu Heng, and other people who are skeptical of the new law a lot more relieved. And among other officials, although there are still a few diehards who still strongly oppose the new law, the voices are much quieter. At the same time, Zhao Chen also made up his mind to continue to vigorously promote the implementation of the new law in Lianghuai, Liangzhejiang, and Liangjiang.

Seeing that the new law has gradually achieved results, and there are fewer and fewer voices of opposition, Liang Kejia and Hong Shi are very anxious, if the new law can continue to be implemented and continue to achieve results, then the next step for the imperial court must be to prepare for the Northern Expedition, the main war minister will definitely be reused, and the power of the main peace will become more and more marginalized.

In fact, neither of them is a treacherous person, and they also have considerable governance ability, but they have to use some means to fight for power. The last Pu Yi dispute was actually secretly made up by the two, but it did not achieve the desired result for the two, so the two thought about it and finally came up with a solution, which was to recommend Zhu Xi to enter the court.

Because Liang Kejia and Hong Shi knew that Chen Liang was Yang Yan's staff, he had a great influence on Zhao Chen, and Zhao Chen was very interested in Chen Liang's thoughts on the use of the world and the work of Wang Ba. This change actually contains a lot of elements of Wang Ba's meritorious thoughts. Although Zhu Xi also advocates restoration, in terms of behavior, there is no way to be too serious, it is just some clichés such as governing the country with benevolence, sincerity and righteousness, and the inner saint of the king, which is far less enterprising than Zhao Chen.

It is the study of life and righteousness advocated by Zhu Xi, and Chen Liang's study of Wang Ba's utilitarianism and the two extremes. Therefore, if Zhu Xi can be introduced into the court, he can first be ideologically opposed to the new law, even if it can cause a quarrel, it can also divert the attention of the emperor and courtiers, and thus it can also interfere with the normal implementation of the new law and stop the new law.

Moreover, Zhu Xi is also a well-known scholar in the world, inheriting the study of life and righteousness from Liangcheng, has a group of students and believers, and also has a high reputation among scholars. The ministers of the court, such as Chen Junqing, Liu Heng and others, had a good impression of him. Chen Junqing's grandson is also a student of Zhu Xi. Therefore, Liang Kejia and Hong Shi recommended Zhu Xi to the imperial court, and they were also regarded as recommended talents by the imperial court, and they were also supported by many ministers.

Zhao Chen naturally knew Zhu Xi's name, and he also knew about his grudge with Yang Yan back then, so he was a little hesitant. However, Yang Yan didn't care about this anymore, because after all, it had been several years since the incident, and now that Yan Rui had also been married home by himself, there was really no need to continue thinking about it like this. Therefore, he also told Zhao Chen that he did not have to consider his own attitude, and asked Zhao Chen to decide for himself.

Zhao Chen listened to Yang Yan's attitude, and then he was a little relieved. However, after the last controversy, he further increased his experience in political power schemes, and knew that this was by no means an ordinary recommendation, and there must be another reason behind it. He also knows a little about Zhu Xi's doctrine, and naturally knows that it is diametrically opposed to Chen Liang's thoughts, and once it is activated, it will inevitably cause quarrels. But after all, Zhu Xi is a well-known scholar in the world, if he doesn't use it, he is afraid that he will end up with a reputation that does not value virtue, so Zhao Qi can't make up his mind about whether to use Zhu Xi.

Later, Zhao Chen went to ask Chen Liang about his opinion on using Zhu Xi. Knowing that Chen Liang admired Zhu Xi very much, he said to Zhao Chen: "Zhu Xi is talented and knowledgeable, and he is ten times more victorious than his ministers, if Your Majesty can use Zhu Xi as a servant, it is really a blessing for the court." ”

Zhao Chen said: "I heard that what Qing and Zhu Xi have learned is not related to each other, why does Qing respect Zhu Xi so much?" ”

Chen Liang Zhengse said: "Academic opinions, still talk about a family and tolerate and correct, even if people have their own opinions, can not be forced, Your Majesty is a king, you should be open-minded, tolerant, do not use academic differences, exclude heresy and plug the path of virtue." ”

Zhao Chen nodded, and suddenly asked, "In Qing's opinion, will Zhu Xi support the new law?" ”

When Chen Liang heard this, he not only fell silent, in fact, the new law now implemented is only a part of it, and it is far from being developed. In the future, there will be a series of changes in the official system, military system, and economy, and with his understanding of Zhu Xi, it is naturally clear that Zhu Xi will definitely not support the new law.

Zhao Chen sighed and said, "I am not ruling out heresies based on academic differences. However, the new law has been in force for half a year, and it has achieved initial results, and I am trying to vigorously implement it, so I don't want another branch at this time. That's why I'm so hesitant. ”

Chen Liang also admitted that Zhao Chen's heart was not unreasonable, so he was speechless for a while. Zhao Chen saw it, and also knew that Chen Liang couldn't say anything more, and said: "I already know what Qing said, let's go, Rong Zhen thought twice." ”

When Chen Liang saw Zhao Chen say this, he had no choice but to retire.

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