People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 455 That man is scary
In midsummer June, the Youyan Road became increasingly hot, and counties and prefectures across the country were busy with disaster relief.

Amidst all this hustle and bustle, the Liu family residence in the city of Beiping was completely silent.

Ever since the fall of Xijin Prefecture, the city has been in chaos, and the Liu family's situation is not very good either.

Fortunately, they surrendered quickly and their property was preserved. The three brothers Liu Erxuan, Liu Siduan and Liu Wuchang also got several positions in the government.

For example, Liu Erxuan is now a Xiuwu Lang, and Liu Wuchang is the militia commander of Beiping Prefecture.

Liu Siduan had made great contributions in the past and served as a liaison between Liu Sangu and Liu Liufu. Now he is a prosecutor under the Youyan Road Transport Office.

It can be said that although Liu Erxuan and Liu Wuchang were only officials with no real power, the Liu family also had three officials with real power.

For example, after Liu Sangu fled to the Song Dynasty, he passed the imperial examination and was initially appointed as the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Works. Later, he served as a civil official such as the Secretary of the Secretariat, the Doctor of the Imperial College, and the Editor of the Secret Pavilion.

Liu Liufu was of a higher rank. Although he had not passed the imperial examination to become a Jinshi in the Song Dynasty, he had served as prime minister in the Liao Dynasty after all. Even the prime ministers of the Liao Dynasty were divided into different ranks.

Liu Liufu's position as Prime Minister of the Southern Palace was the lowest among the high-ranking officials, because the Southern Palace was in charge of the Han people, while the Northern Palace was the power center that controlled the Khitans.

In addition, the power of the two prime ministers is shared by the two houses' privy councilors, and above them are the two kings.

Therefore, to some extent, even if the princes of the Yelu and Xiao families are not included, Liu Liufu ranks more than ten places outside the top ten in terms of actual power.

But no matter what, he was still the prime minister, one of the people in the highest power center of the Liao Dynasty. He was at least equivalent to a minister of a certain department of the Song Dynasty, and a second-rank minister of a first-level institution with the title of alternate Tongzhi.

Therefore, if he surrenders, his rank must not be too low. Even if he is not given the same position, it should not be reduced too much. The most suitable position is a transport envoy of a certain route.

Taking into account his contribution in surrendering and rebelling, after discussion by the Council of Political Affairs, Zhao Jun finally decided to appoint him as the Pacifier of the East and West Roads of Beijing.

This position was established in the second year of the Qingli period. It was mainly during the Baoyuan to Qingli period that disasters occurred in many places in Henan, and many people became bandits, resulting in poor public security.

For this purpose, the imperial court temporarily set up pacification envoys in some inland areas where banditry was more serious. The envoys were responsible for mobilizing local troops, eliminating banditry, and managing disaster situations.

In recent years, the country has been peaceful and the people have been prosperous. The bandit problem has gradually subsided, and the pacification commissioners in most places have been abolished. However, in order to accommodate Liu Liufu, the pacification commissioner of Jingdong Road was retained.

Thus, although this was a position of real power, and he was nominally the head of all the senior officials, due to the significant reduction in banditry, the role of the pacification envoy was only to prevent disasters, and his real power was greatly reduced.

This is a high-level position with little power, but it is indeed a powerful position. It is very suitable for him to be given this position, which is the best of both worlds.

Therefore, among the six brothers of the Liu family, except Liu Yide who died early, there are two idle officials and three powerful officials. Although they cannot be said to be a prominent family in the Song Dynasty, they are at least much better than other Youyan families who surrendered.

At this moment, except for Liu Siduan and Liu Liufu who were serving in the heartland of the Song Dynasty, Liu Erxuan, Liu Siduan and Liu Wuchang gathered in the mansion, and each of them had a unhappy look on their face.

In the huge back hall of the Liu Mansion, the servants served tea and backed out. Soon, only the three brothers were left sitting in the room.

After a moment of silence, Liu Erxuan said, "Envoy Yang has already talked to me. They should have talked to you as well. What do you think about this matter?"

Liu Wuchang sneered: "What can I say? Whoever wants to go can go, I'm not going anyway."

Liu Siduan looked at the two letters on Liu Erxuan's coffee table and said, "What do Third Brother and Sixth Brother think?"

Liu Erxuan picked up the two letters and said, "The attitudes of the Third and Sixth Brothers have been very clear. They said they would do it according to the will of the court."

Liu Siduan didn't say anything.

Liu Wuchang said anxiously: "How can this be possible? My Liu family's foundation of more than a hundred years has been destroyed in an instant. My third and sixth brothers cannot follow the Song Dynasty court."

"Lao Wu!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Siduan interrupted him and said, "Pay attention to your choice of words. It's the imperial court, not the Song imperial court."

Liu Wuchang was silent for a while, then said in a cold voice: "No matter what, they want to take away our land and move our family to the south, which is not right. How can I recognize such a court?"

"Do you need to admit it?"

Liu Siduan sneered, "You need to understand your own identity. We are surrendered ministers. What qualifications do surrendered ministers have to bargain? The third and sixth brothers have already made it very clear in the letter. We will cooperate with all actions of the court!"

Liu Wuchang said angrily, "Fourth brother, cooperate with the court's actions? How can you say that? We have tens of thousands of acres of land, thousands of tenants, and our five-generation family business in Xijin. Are we going to lose it just like that?"

Then he looked at Liu Erxuan and said, "Second brother, you are the eldest in our family now, and you should make the decision. Tell me, the assets accumulated by our ancestors for generations are gone just like that. Do you think this is appropriate? How are you going to face your ancestors a hundred years from now?"

After he said this, Liu Erxuan and Liu Siduan were both silent.

The family had accumulated wealth for several generations and finally climbed to the pinnacle of power in the Liao Dynasty, but it fell overnight.

Not only did he fall from the throne of power, but he couldn't even keep his family business and people. This is a bad feeling for anyone.

You have to know that the Liu family was not prosperous from the beginning. They were first a vassal state in the late Tang Dynasty and the governor of Lulong Army, Liu Peng.

Liu Shoujing, the grandson of Liu Peng and the great grandfather of the brothers, was an official of the Later Tang Dynasty. After the fall of the Later Tang Dynasty, Liu Shoujing entered the Liao Dynasty and served as the deputy governor of Nanjing in the Liao Dynasty.

Liu Shoujing's son Liu Jing inherited his father's favor and was first appointed as a literary official in Youdu Prefecture. He was later promoted to the positions of Minister of Rites and Secretary of State Affairs.

It was not until their father Liu Shenxing that the family rose to prominence and became the prime minister of the Northern Palace.

You should know that the status of the Prime Minister of the Northern Palace is much higher than that of the Prime Minister of the Southern Palace.

The Yutian Han family, ranked first among the Han Chinese families in the Liao Dynasty, reached the peak of power when they produced Han Derang, the Prime Minister of the Northern Palace.

So it can be said that it was only from their father's generation that the Liu family truly entered the power center of the Liao Kingdom.

The sixth son of their family, Liu Liufu, became the Prime Minister of the Southern Palace at the age of 40. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be natural for him to be promoted to the Prime Minister of the Northern Palace in the future.

Moreover, during Yelu Zongzhen's era, the Yutian Han family had already begun to decline.

Han Derang had no sons, and the Yelu family adopted several of his sons, but all of them had the surname Yelu. Few of Han Derang's brothers' descendants reached high positions.

Therefore, it can be said that after Zhang Jian's death, Liu Liufu had become the highest-ranking official among the Han people.

It is not impossible that he would continue to be promoted like Han Derang and Zhang Jian, and become the Privy Councilor of the Northern and Southern Courts, or even the Left and Right Prime Ministers, and become a representative figure of the Han people in the Liao Dynasty.

However, it took the Liu family five or six generations to get to where they are today. As a result, the Liao and Song dynasties fought a great war, and the Song Dynasty recovered the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which directly defeated them.

It’s like you’ve gone to great lengths and spent all your money to build a beautiful villa. When you’ve almost completed the construction and are just about to start decorating and move in, a fire burns down your villa.

This was the only way the Liu brothers could comfort themselves. At least Liu Liufu was a high-ranking pacification envoy in the Song court. Otherwise, if it were someone with a weak psychological endurance, he would probably have become autistic on the spot.

Although these brothers are not autistic, they are actually almost the same.

Because now the imperial court hopes that they can take the lead, sell their land to the imperial court with other Yan families, and migrate their families to the south.

This is obviously unacceptable to them.

However, after a moment of silence, Liu Siduan finally said, "Let's do as the Third and Sixth Brothers wish."

"No."

Liu Wuchang refused to agree.

Liu Erxuan also looked embarrassed and asked, "Old Four, is there no room for maneuver?"

Liu Siduan smiled bitterly and said, "If it were possible, who would be willing to leave their hometown and go to a strange place far away from their native land?"

"Ugh."

Liu Erxuan sighed. Liu Siduan shook his head and said, "Since the third and sixth brothers have said so, it is obvious that the court is very determined. It is unwise to risk a break with the court."

"They must have been coerced by the Song Dynasty court. Why should we listen to them?"

Liu Wuchang was dissatisfied and said, "Now the people of Youyan are under our control. As long as we don't agree, who will listen to the Song Dynasty court?"

Liu Erxuan looked at Liu Siduan and said, "Hasn't the court always needed our help in managing the people? Why did it suddenly change direction?"

Liu Siduan smiled bitterly and said, "Think about it, second brother. Isn't it possible that the court will let it go when the people are under our control? If we control the people, wouldn't it be easier for them to rebel? The Song Dynasty learned from the Tang Dynasty's lessons and was quite strict with military garrisons and aristocratic families. I heard that there was a Yimen Chen family in Jiangxi with more than 3,000 members, and they were asked by the Song Dynasty court to split up."

"Ah."

Liu Wuchang sneered, "If they want to divide, let them go. We in the Liu family won't divide anyway. At worst, we will fight to the death. We can encourage the people under our rule and other noble families to rebel!"

When he said this, Liu Erxuan and Liu Siduan's faces changed slightly.

In addition to being powerful and influential in the Liao Kingdom, the most important thing about the aristocratic family is that they enjoy a high prestige among the local Han people.

Their fields, lands, and industries are spread all over Youyan, and they have countless tenants and farmers. They directly or indirectly control a population of more than 10,000 people.

It can be said that if these Youyan families unite, they can control at least one-third of the millions of people in Youyan.

Historically, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Song briefly recovered Yanyun, but the Han people in Yanyun revolted one after another. Was it really because they thought that the taxes imposed by the Song Dynasty were too high and they did not want to be controlled by the Song Dynasty?
Naturally not.

After all, the Song Dynasty had not yet begun to rule, and the people were not forced to pay taxes by the Song Dynasty. If no one organized it, ordinary people would not take the huge risk of revolting and fighting the Song Dynasty's army.

Therefore, a major factor was that these Yan families had a serious lack of trust in the Song Dynasty court, and led the people in the Youyan area to revolt and expel the Song army.

Now the Song Dynasty court wants to eliminate the influence and control of the Youyan family over the lower classes.

For these Youyan families, this involves a question of fundamental interests. If the Liu family raises a call, it is possible that they will be able to gather a lot of people to rebel.

The problem is that.

Can you beat it?

The Liao Kingdom was so powerful, with more than 500,000 soldiers under its command, but what was its final outcome?
Therefore, confronting the imperial court head-on is like hitting a rock with an egg.

Hearing Liu Wuchang's words, Liu Siduan's face changed drastically, and then he slammed the table in anger and said, "Fifth brother, you used to be the governor of Wuding Army. How can you be so ignorant? Do you want to destroy our clan?"

Liu Wuchang was just angry at the court's relentless pressure, he was not really a fool, and naturally realized that he had said the wrong thing.

But he was still a little indignant, and said: "We are all brothers, what's wrong with talking behind closed doors? Besides, we are not really rebelling, we just want to stir up some momentum and make the court retreat."

"Haha, now that Magistrate Zhao has come to Youyan, do you think the court will back down?"

Liu Siduan sneered, "If you really do this, it will just give the court an excuse to kill all the rebels. My third brother, my sixth brother, and even the entire family will be implicated by you!"

"Don't be angry, Lao Si. Lao Wu was just saying a few angry words."

Liu Erxuan tried to smooth things over quickly, then thought for a moment and said, "Besides, didn't the emperor say he was extremely merciful? He is just trying to stir up some momentum in secret. The imperial court will not send out a large number of troops, right?"

Liu Siduan shook his head and said, "Second brother, you still don't understand the seriousness of the matter. That's Zhao Zhiyuan. His coming here means that this matter can no longer be undone. We can only talk to the court and see if we can get more benefits."

"Is it that powerful?"

Liu Erxuan frowned. Could it be that Zhao Zhiyuan could really kill all the noble families in Youyan Road?
Liu Siduan said coldly: "In recent years, the people in the north only know how powerful Fan Zhongyan is, but few know about Zhao Zhiyuan. Fan Zhongyan is in charge of external affairs, while Zhao Zhiyuan is in charge of internal affairs. He has killed as many people as Fan Zhongyan! Even the prime minister's family could not escape the disaster!"

Liu Erxuan and Liu Wuchang looked at each other in surprise.

Fan Zhongyan fought on the battlefields over the years, fighting against the Western Xia in the northwest and defeating the Liao Kingdom in the north. He killed more than 100,000 people, and if you include the wounded and captured, the number of killed was more than 150,000.

Hasn’t Zhao Jun killed fewer people than him?
Is it really that exaggerated?
However, what they didn't know was that over the years, both inside and outside the Song Dynasty had been overshadowed by Fan Zhongyan's brilliance, which had overshadowed Zhao Jun a lot.

But if you count carefully, you will find that the number of people Zhao Jun killed is indeed very large.

First, he launched a crackdown on gangs and evil in Kaifeng Prefecture. There were more than 30,000 people in the underground kingdom, and he killed more than 10,000 of them. Many of them were guilty of heinous crimes and were directly sentenced to death.

Many of them were only serious crimes. For example, according to the laws of the Song Dynasty, they should be sentenced to more than ten years in prison or exile, but he increased the crime by one level and directly dragged them outside the city and beheaded them as a public display.

The remaining ten thousand or so were those whose crimes were less serious and were also punished one level higher. The lighter crimes became felonies, and the felonies became death sentences. Some were sentenced to jail, and some were exiled.

After that, he traveled around the country for the first time, investigating corruption and cracking down on crime. Thousands of officials were killed because of Zhao Jun's downfall. Two prime ministers' families, the Han family and the Ma family, were arrested. Zhao Zhen's childhood friend Guo Chengyou and Yang Chongxun, who had served as prime minister, also died.

There were countless other officials, both big and small. Basically, as long as Zhao Jun found out that you had committed a crime, he would never show any leniency, and he would also include these officials' accomplices, family members, subordinates, and clerks.

When he first traveled around the country, he killed more than 10,000 people, mostly officials and clerks. He also exiled or imprisoned another 10,000 or 20,000 people.

Later, various major actions were carried out nationwide.

It included eradicating evil forces, eliminating official corruption, cracking down on the landlord class, dealing with local bandits and road bullies, and killing generals and nobles, in order to carry out a comprehensive cleanup of the Song Dynasty.

All in all, the number of people killed must be at least 80,000, if not 100,000. Add in the number of people exiled, sentenced, etc., and the total number might be 200,000 or 300,000.

But Zhao Jun was still not satisfied.

Because the great men of the new era cleared the sky and dealt with millions of corrupt officials of the Republic of China, the landlord class, the gentry bullies, bandits and all kinds of monsters and demons.

However, due to different national conditions, the results are naturally different.

After all, it was still a peaceful time in the Song Dynasty. The people could not be said to have enough food and clothing, but they could still get by.

During the Republic of China period, there were heroes everywhere, warlords, bandits and bullies took turns to fight each other, and the taxes collected could not be sustained for more than 90 years. For the people, it was not a case of draining the pond to catch fish, but killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and plundering them to death.

Therefore, when great men create a new era, there are naturally many people like Huang Silang who are swept away.

In comparison, Zhao Jun had already cleaned up the Song Dynasty by killing so many people. The integrity of the officialdom and the level of local security had been improved by more than one level.

It’s just that Zhao Jun’s killing was carried out in stages, killing a class after a period of time, and he adopted various strategies of division and attack to minimize the impact as much as possible and avoid causing too much turmoil.

In addition, Fan Zhongyan had repeatedly defeated the Western Xia and Liao dynasties, and the people's attention was attracted by Fan Zhongyan, which led to Zhao Jun killing so many people. However, his influence within the Song Dynasty was second only to Fan Zhongyan, but his influence abroad was much less.

In the final analysis, the people killed by Zhao Jun were closely related to the people of the Song Dynasty. The killed class hated him, and the people were grateful to him and were overjoyed.

But for foreign countries such as the Western Xia and Liao Kingdom, they naturally paid more attention to their military enemies and paid very little attention to Zhao Jun. Also, due to the underdeveloped speed of information dissemination, the Youyan family did not understand how powerful he was.

Only Liu Siduan knew.

Because he had served as a liaison and had gone in and out of the Song army many times, he later went to Bianliang with Liu Liufu to receive a reward.

In Kaifeng, he not only met his third brother Liu Sangu, but also heard the rumors about Zhao Jun with his own eyes and ears, and naturally understood how terrifying he was.

Liu Siduan looked at his two brothers seriously, and said with undisguised warning and seriousness: "I advise you, if you don't want your family to be destroyed, just listen to me. When the governor comes back from Liaoyang, I will go to ask for an audience and agree to the court's request. I only hope that you can behave yourself and don't do anything impulsive, so as to avoid the family from suffering a catastrophe!"

Liu Erxuan and Liu Wuchang looked at each other and fell silent.

perhaps.

The fourth one is right.

Sometimes, when faced with irresistible forces, it is time to be submissive.

(End of this chapter)