Yue Fei is amazing, right? Outstanding achievements, why did he end up with a murderous disaster? The officials of the Song Dynasty who were even more fucked up than him grabbed a lot of them, why didn't any of them lose their lives?

The key here is the issue of identity, no matter how powerful Yue Fei is, he is also an outlier in the eyes of the officials and emperors of the Great Song Dynasty, because he is not from a professional class, but a pure martial artist.

He was not recognized by the mainstream class of the Song Dynasty, and if he made a slight mistake, not only did no one speak for you, but he was all down, which is called class identity.

But then again, although the intellectuals at this time had the limitations of the times, they were still relatively pure, and their highest pursuit was to do their studies in a down-to-earth manner, speak with their conscience, cherish their reputation, and realize their ideals and ambitions.

Whether reformists or conservatives, the debate is only about academic issues. Everyone thinks that their own views are right and beneficial to the country, and they defend to the death an inch. This kind of struggle is not opposition for the sake of opposition, let alone dumping each other for political interests, and the bottom line is relatively high.

As a matter of fact, the benefits of this kind of contention outweigh the disadvantages for the country and society, and it is not clear why. Everything must be brought to the table to be clearly disposed of in order to know the pros and cons, and one party cannot have the final say, and others do not even have the opportunity and ability to put forward opinions, so they lose the error correction function.

No one person or organization can always be right, and the more important the decision, the more voices must argue and deduce together.

If you are not afraid of slowness, you are afraid of mistakes, and it doesn't matter if you go slower, as long as you are in the right direction, you are always moving forward. But if you go in the wrong direction, the faster you go, the more you will be doomed.

This kind of major decision only needs to be wrong once, and it is very likely that the previous 99 times of correctness will be erased, and the country will be in a situation from which it will never recover. Because it will consume a lot of social resources, and if you want to change it back, you have to waste more.

Most of the factional struggles and party struggles in the Song Dynasty were academic debates, and whether they won or lost, they were not mixed with life-threatening issues, which made the moral bottom line of the participants not too low.

Just imagine, if anyone who loses will be imprisoned or even beheaded or beheaded, is it still morals to fight? You have to use all the dirty tricks to try to put the other party to death first. I forgot all about face and discipline, because if you lose, you will die, this is human nature.

If the pressure is not so great, losing is just a temporary loss of momentum, just like failing the exam and going back to review for another year, you can start all over again if you do a good job in your studies.

At that time, the moral bottom line of politicians will be relatively high, and they will not use those dirty tricks casually. Because I have to make a comeback in the future, reputation is very important.

From Wang Anshi's intercession for Su Shi, we can draw a conclusion that for Su Shi, who made trouble for himself when he had nothing to do, and also encouraged others to make trouble together, Wang Anshi did not use the means of killing everything, but on the matter, lest no one dare to open his mouth to speak in the future.

And the conservatives are the same, forcing Wang Anshi to resign, the conservatives have won a phased victory, and Sima Guang did not hold on to Wang Anshi.

The reason that should be recognized is still agreed, and the new law that should be opposed is still opposed. Everything is only right for things and not for people, and it is not said that Wang Anshi has stepped down, all his ideas are wrong, and they have to be reversed and restarted.

Hong Tao believes that this is the most praiseworthy part of the Song Dynasty, the ultimate trick of allowing different voices to appear, not being punished for words, and not engaging in personal destruction. While fighting brutally in politics, we have preserved the good side of human nature and tried our best to suppress the evil of human nature.

It is precisely because Wang Anshi and Li Gonglin are intellectuals that they are in the mood to discuss national affairs with their crazy horses, and they don't think that this is playing the piano to the cow.

Because pure intellectuals have a very obvious attribute, they are willing to reason, especially with their own kind. Being able to use reason to convince others is the highest achievement in their eyes, and whoever disagrees will be arrested and forced to bow their heads, in their eyes they are stinky hooligans and scum, very immoral.

This time, Hong Tao did not save any face for the two high-ranking officials, he himself is also a big troll who is willing to be reasonable and has good eloquence, and he also has his own theory and world view. As long as there is a collision with the other party, it must be persuaded by spitting lotus flowers.

Moreover, he has studied the shortcomings of the Southern Song Dynasty court, and has completely changed it, and has achieved good results, so it is more substantial, more targeted and more convincing when sprayed.

Of course, this topic is so big that even if it is a specific small problem, it is not possible to fully explain it in two or three hours.

Today's main battlefield is basically on the Seedlings Law, which is also the most criticized and difficult point of the New Deal to distinguish between good and bad. Whether it is Wang Anshi as the defender or Hong Tao as the attacker, they all regard this position as a battleground for soldiers.

Is the Seedlings Method good? This regulation alone is certainly good, it does reduce the burden on the peasants, and it also increases the tax revenue of the state.

But laws and regulations have always been enforced by people, did the Song Dynasty have a basis for enforcing the Qingmiao Law? Hong Tao's answer is no!

From the prime minister to the small landlords in the villages, they all have vested interests in the old law, and they will not willingly take money out of their own pockets to help the state solve the peasant problem. This problem is solved, and they all become farmers.

Since ancient times, people have always used their butts to determine their heads. Originally, the peasants rented the land of the big landlords to cultivate and borrowed usury to buy farm tools and livestock, and all the profits went to the big landlords, that is, to the scholar class.

Wang Anshi's Qingmiao Law was tantamount to allowing the peasants to borrow money from the state treasury to pay interest, bypassing the huge vested interests of the landlords and scholars.

Can they be counted on to help enforce the new law? They can only reluctantly fool things around, and on the other hand, try to increase the burden on the peasants and make up for their lost profits as much as possible.

Even officials who did not intend to make money from the peasants now had to reach out to the peasants. Because the new law was enforced by the imperial court from top to bottom, it was also used as a rigid standard for evaluating the performance of officials.

This is something that should be very familiar to modern people, because it has really happened around us. When GDP becomes the primary indicator for promotion, it is easy to imagine what officials will do.

The more ruthless the unscrupulous officials are, the more they will be able to find ways to get more political achievements, and in the end it is the peasants who are unlucky. Because these achievements were cut from them, bloody and hot, sent to the treasury.

In this way, the burden on the peasants not only did not lighten the Qingmiao Law, but it was tantamount to dealing with the cool officials who exploited the Qingmiao Law while paying an extra share of the money of the large landlords, and the burden was increased.

Most peasants can't see these behind-the-scenes reasons, they only know that when there was no Qingmiao Law, they still have 200 catties of grain left every year, and they will have 50 catties of grain left at the end of the year as soon as the Qingmiao Law is implemented.

Where did the rest of the 150 pounds of grain go? The peasants can't figure it out, so they can only blame it on the Qingmiao Fa, which is justified.

The result? It was the New Deal that was criticized by conservative officials in the court and scolded by the broad masses of the people in the people. No matter how developed the commerce of the Song Dynasty was, it was still an agrarian society, and the situation of the peasants determined the direction of the whole country.

The emperor saw that the new law had been unpopular for a long time, and it was no wonder that he had the confidence to continue to persevere. lost the full support of the emperor, unless it was possible to bring aliens, as long as it was an earthling, there was no fun for Anshi.

And then what? It's time to find the backstabber. Even if the emperor wanted to say that this bad idea was his own, the courtiers would not agree. The emperor must be perfect, and there must be no big mistakes, and even if there is, he must be replaced by his courtiers.

So, whoever is the main person who follows the emperor to change the law, who has to carry this pot. For example, Wang Anshi, he is the pioneer of reform, if he succeeds, he will become a son of the ages, and if he fails, he will become a bastard of the ages.

Playing politics is the same as doing business, the big investment is likely to be big, the same reason, the big profit and the risk will become bigger, there is no good thing in the world with small risk and big profit, business and politics are actually a game.

This is only in terms of the statute itself, but no statute is issued alone, and the people and organizations that enact it have a very clear purpose.

Specific to the young emperor of Shenzong, Hong Tao smelled a strong smell of war. If you are so eager to fill the treasury and prepare the army, it will not be a big military parade, right?

Now the Song Dynasty had only two main enemies, one was the Western Xia in the northwest and the other was the Liao State in the north. Whether it is to use troops against the northwest or to the north, it requires a lot of money.

It seems that the emperor's eldest brother has a big temper and a very high spirit, he doesn't want to be angry on both sides anymore, so he wants to give it a go. If he wins the bet, he can also become an emperor through the ages; If you lose the bet, it's a big deal to negotiate again. Anyway, the imperial court has only done this thing in recent years, practice makes perfect, and it is not a big deal.

There is nothing wrong with the emperor thinking and doing so, the people must have suffered in time of war, but if the suffering of one generation can be exchanged for peace for several generations of children and grandchildren, it can be regarded as a profitable long-term investment.

Some people always say that people should not be involved in war, that is harmful. But there is no unearned benefit in the world, and if you want to get more benefits, you must pay. If you don't want to pay, he doesn't want to pay, so who will? Could it be that if you are comfortable in this life, you don't care about your children and grandchildren?

There is nothing wrong with paying, and there is nothing wrong with the goal, but it is the responsibility of the government to ensure the rate of return on this effort.

It can't be said that the emperor will pay once when he is happy, and if he loses or earns, he will do it first. This kind of dedication is really meaningless, and the common people can only consider themselves unlucky to catch up with such an emperor.