Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 427 Persuasion
"Zi Qian, you should be loyal to the emperor and eat his food. Have you read all these years of books on sages in vain? I remember you once said in Sheng Family Academy that you wanted to be a loyal minister. Was everything you said false?" Gu Tingye asked.

"Zhong Huai, as a subject, do you think you should be loyal to the emperor or to the country? Do you have to be loyal to the emperor even if you know he is a tyrant?" Li An asked back.

The reason why Confucianism became mainstream is that it maintained the feudal ruling order, deified the autocratic monarchy, and was therefore highly respected by ancient feudal rulers.

Those in power need Confucian ideas of benevolence and righteousness and ethical concepts between ruler and subject to educate the people of the world so that their descendants can continue to rule the world.

As a time traveler, Ang Lee would naturally not be bound by these ideas.

Gu Tingye retorted: "You are making specious arguments. Prince Yong has not yet ascended the throne. How can you assert that he is a tyrant?"

"I dare not make a conclusion, but judging from his previous performance, even if he is not a tyrant, he will be mediocre. If the world is at peace, a mediocre and inactive ruler cannot be called a tyrant. However, the Song Dynasty is now facing internal and external troubles, and being mediocre and inactive is a tyrant! Zhonghuai, aren't you determined to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun? Do you think that when Prince Yong succeeds to the throne, he will use military force against the Liao Kingdom?" Li An advised earnestly.

"Although Prince Yong is mediocre, he is better than a treasonous person sitting on the throne. Prince Yan rebelled and came to the throne. In order to shut up the people in the world, he would definitely purge the court. By then, the court would be in turmoil. How could the Song Dynasty withstand such turmoil?" Gu Tingye said after a long silence.

Li An laughed when he heard this. Gu Tingye's words proved that he had been shaken.

"Zhong Huai, do you still remember what I said to you on the way to Yangzhou when we traveled to Yuzhou last time?"

"Zi Qian, have you not given up yet? Putting aside the abilities of the Yuzhou militia commander and his son, their backgrounds alone mean they have no chance." Gu Tingye shook his head.

"Zhong Huai, originally they had no chance, but if Prince Yan plotted rebellion, the opportunity would come. Once Prince Yan plotted rebellion, he would definitely attack Prince Yong's family. You don't deny this, right?" Li An said.

Gu Tingye nodded without saying anything. Although the emperor did not issue an official decree to appoint Prince Yong as the crown prince, he did appoint Prince Yong as the prefect of Kaifeng.

In the Song Dynasty, being appointed as the prefect of Kaifeng was almost the same as being conferred a title by the royal family.

Whether it was to prevent someone from supporting Prince Yong in suppressing the rebellion, to cut off the emperor's thoughts, or even to stabilize the Rong family, after Prince Yan launched his rebellion, the first thing he did after taking control of the palace was to kill Prince Yong.

Li An paused and continued, "In addition to killing Prince Yong, Prince Yan will also take control of the royal family in Bianjing. The government certainly does not want to hand over the world to a traitor. Since the royal family in Bianjing cannot be relied upon, we can only rely on the rest of the royal family.

The royal family members with distant bloodlines were arranged to go to remote areas. Only Zhao Zongquan, the commander of the Yuzhou militia, was closest to Bian Jing.

The emperor did not want to pass the throne to Prince Yan, so he could only order Zhao Zongquan to lead the troops to suppress the rebellion. After all, the rest of the royal family was too far away. "

When Li Ang watched the drama in his previous life, he never understood why the official blood edict was given to Zhao Zongquan.

The Zhao family is from the lineage of Taizu, while the Guan family is from the lineage of Taizong.

Even if Prince Yan rebelled and Prince Yong was killed, there were other royal descendants in Taizong's lineage.

Only after he carefully studied the rules of the Song Dynasty regarding the royal family did he truly understand the reasons.

The Song Dynasty was famous for its strict precautions against military commanders.

But many people don’t know that the Song Dynasty was not only strict on guarding against military generals, but also more strict on guarding against royal family members.

All the descendants of the imperial clan were kept in Bianjing and were not allowed to hold any real positions. Normally, they had to report to the clan office before leaving the city and get permission before leaving.

No contact with officials in the DPRK is allowed.

Those with distant bloodlines were sent to remote areas to take up insignificant positions.

Officials could still be promoted, but the children of royal family did not even have the qualifications for promotion, let alone taking the imperial examinations.

On the contrary, Zhao Zongquan's branch, because they were the descendants of Taizu, were arranged in Yuzhou, not far from Bianjing, for the convenience of surveillance.

After Prince Yan rebelled, he took control of Bianliang, and naturally he also took control of the Bianliang royal family.

The rest of the royal family were too far away from Bian Jing, and by the time they got the news and rushed over, the opportunity was already cold.

Instead, Zhao Zongquan occupied the geographical advantage and became the only hope.

This is also the reason why King Yan sent people to Yuzhou to assassinate Zhao Zongquan before plotting rebellion.

If Zhao Zongquan was not a threat, why would Prince Yan go to all this trouble?

"All this is just your assumption. Let alone, even if Zhao Zongquan has ambitions and learns that something has happened in Bian Jing and wants to lead troops to defend the king, with his few local soldiers, he can't even leave Yuzhou, let alone quell the rebellion." Gu Tingye sneered.

Zhao Zongquan had at most one or two thousand soldiers under his command, all of whom were local militiamen. They only had simple weapons and didn't even have armor.

As a member of the royal family, he was not allowed to leave Yuzhou without an imperial edict, let alone lead troops away.

Even if he went under the banner of suppressing rebellion, the Yuzhou garrison would not let him leave Yuzhou.

For the Yuzhou wing army, it doesn’t matter whether there is really someone plotting treason or not.

He allowed a member of the royal family to lead troops out of Yuzhou without an imperial edict, which was a capital crime.

Even if Zhao Zongquan had been doing business in Yuzhou for many years and could persuade the Yuzhou garrison to let them pass, Yuzhou was hundreds of miles away from Bianliang, and the prefectures and counties along the way would not let them pass.

"What if there is an official edict?" Li An said with a smile.

"impossible!"

Gu Tingye shook his head without even thinking and said, "If Prince Yan was plotting treason, how could he have let the imperial edict leak out of the palace!"

"Don't worry about this. Don't forget that I'm on duty in the palace. I'll find a way when the time comes." Li An said.

Don’t blame Gu Tingye for not believing it, this thing is indeed a bit mysterious.

Prince Yan arrested the emperor and locked him up with a group of palace maids. More importantly, he only sent people to guard outside.

Although there is a dog hole in the palace, the place where officials are imprisoned must be heavily guarded. How could a palace maid escape?

However, Li An did not completely rely on the government to send out the blood edict.

Many times, truth or falsehood is not important. What is important is whether anyone is willing to believe it.

Just like in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when the princes of the world went to fight against Dong Zhuo.

Cao Cao issued a forged imperial edict to summon the princes of the world to attack Dong Zhuo, claiming that he had received a secret edict from the emperor when he was in Luoyang, summoning the princes of the world to the capital to defend the king.

As a result, no one questioned the authenticity of the edict. It was not that they all believed it, but that they were willing to believe it regardless of whether it was true or false.

Because they needed a legitimate reason to attack Dong Zhuo.

Dong Zhuo brought chaos to the imperial court, but the people of the world were unaware of it. Everything Dong Zhuo did was in accordance with the imperial decree, and at least there was no problem in terms of etiquette and law.

If they attacked Dong Zhuo without the imperial edict, they would be considered traitors, so they were willing to believe it.

Even though Zhao Zongquan received the emperor's blood edict in the play, the emperor certainly could not stamp it with the imperial seal under the circumstances at that time.

In addition, the situation was urgent at the time and the official did not write with a pen, so the handwriting was very different from usual.

Moreover, the generals in the Western Suburbs Camp might not recognize the official handwriting. This is why Gu Tingyu said that the reason why Gu Tingye was able to quickly dispatch troops from the Western Suburbs Camp to quell the rebellion was because of the reputation and prestige that the Gu family had accumulated over the years in the army.

If Gu Tingye wasn't there, and Zhao Zongquan went alone, people might not pay attention to him.

Even if I agree, I will consider it carefully.

Therefore, it doesn’t really matter whether there is a blood edict from the government or not. At worst, we can just get a fake one. After the rebellion is quelled, the government will not deny it.

The prerequisite is that everything can develop in the general direction and Zhao Zongquan can come to Bian Jing.

After Li An finished speaking, Gu Tingye was speechless for a long time. According to the education he received since childhood, what Li An said was extremely treasonous. He should denounce Li An or even expose Li An.

But it must be said that the series of things that Prince Yong did were unpopular.

Gu Tingye also knew that Prince Yong could not be a wise ruler, and the current situation of the Song Dynasty was just as Li An said, mediocrity was equivalent to stupidity.

On one side is loyalty to the emperor, on the other side is loyalty to the country, Gu Tingye doesn't know how to choose.

"Zhong Huai, I know you can't accept it for a while, but there is still time now, you can think it over carefully. You once said that the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are the northern barrier. If we don't take them back, there will be endless troubles. You are right about this. It's not just endless troubles. In my opinion, if we don't take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Song Dynasty will surely perish at the hands of nomadic peoples in the future. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the mountains and rivers were broken, the Han Dynasty fell into the hands of foreign races, and how many Han people died. You know this better than me.

Mencius said: "The people are the most important, the country is second, and the monarch is the least important. Zhong Huai, the country and the people are the most important, and the so-called loyalty to the monarch, which one is more important? Think carefully."

Li An stood up, patted Gu Tingye on the shoulder, and was about to walk out.

"How can you be sure that Zhao Zongquan is a wise ruler and can recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun?" Gu Tingye said with a hoarse voice.

Li An was delighted when he heard this, and he stopped and said, "We can't be sure about this, but we heard some things about Zhao Zongquan when we were in Yuzhou. From what we heard, Zhao Zongquan is good in all aspects. Secondly, Zhao Zongquan is a militia commander, and he knows about military affairs. The most important point is that if Zhao Zongquan sits on the throne, he will definitely be diligent and responsible, and want to make some achievements to prove himself."

"Prince Yan is capable. If he is doing this for the country and the people, why not support him directly?" Gu Tingye said.

Li An shook his head slightly and said, "First of all, Yan Wang is a traitor. Even if he sits on the throne, it is not legitimate. In order to cover up this, he will purge the court officials and cause unrest."

Ang Lee also thought about this question, but gave up after careful consideration.

There were many people in history who launched military rebellions to seize power, the most famous of whom were Li Shimin and Zhu Di.

Although the reigns of these two rulers were not without flaws, they were not many in number and they can be said to be rare wise rulers in history.

After seizing the throne, these two did not carry out a large-scale purge. Instead, they worked hard to govern the country well.

Ang Lee does not deny that the two were wise rulers, but he feels that if they had been designated as crown princes from the beginning and had smoothly become emperors, they might not have been able to reach historical heights.

The reason why the two men never slacked off since they took office, in addition to their abilities, Li An felt that he also wanted to prove to their father and future generations that he was the most suitable one and that there was nothing wrong with him launching a mutiny.

This is particularly evident in Li Shimin.

Li Shimin was known as the greatest emperor of all time, but in fact, if he had not known how to restrain himself, he would have done many foolish things.

Li Shimin once had the idea of ​​enfeoffing his sons, but his enfeoffment was not as simple as making his descendants kings.

Instead, it is somewhat similar to the feudal system during the Zhou Dynasty.

He granted his son some territory to make it a country within a country.

Finally, he was persuaded by his ministers and his daughter.

Do you think Li Shimin is very willing to listen to honest advice?

In fact, this is not the case. Wei Zheng was called a human mirror by Li Shimin, which meant that he could give advice and correct Li Shimin's mistakes.

Li Shimin could tolerate it, but if it were any other emperor, he would have been killed long ago.

But no one knew that the reason why Li Shimin was able to endure it was because of the advice of Empress Changsun.

Later, when Wei Zheng died, Li Shimin even dug up his grave.

Because Wei Zheng recorded all the advice he gave to Li Shimin and handed it over to the historian.

When Li Shimin found out about this, he was furious. He felt that this was a loss of face for him, so he dug up Wei Zheng's tomb in anger.

To the outside world, it was said that Wei Zheng had recommended the wrong person, and Hou Junji was recommended by him, but Hou Junji ended up rebelling.

This reason is a bit far-fetched. Hou Junji was originally Li Shimin's man, and he also participated in the Xuanwu Gate Incident, in which he made great contributions and was awarded the title of Duke. Wei Zheng was originally Li Jiancheng's man, so did Hou Junji need his recommendation?

From this we can see that Li Shimin was a person who cared a lot about what others thought.

In history, Li Shimin built the Daming Palace, nominally for Li Yuan to live in, but how old was Li Yuan at that time? Did he need to build such a luxurious palace?

Li Shimin wanted to build it himself, but was worried that he would be accused of wasting time and money. So he decided to build it in his father's name, which would be filial piety.

As a result, Li Yuan died when the work was halfway done, so he had no excuse and had to stop the work.

After Li Zhi ascended the throne, he continued to repair the palace and moved there himself. Later, the Daming Palace also served as the residence and office of the Tang Dynasty emperors.

It can be seen that Li Shimin did not really want to build it for Li Yuan from the beginning.

Li Shimin was very concerned about his reputation. He was worried about being scolded by future generations because he killed his father and imprisoned his brother. So he worked hard to be a good emperor and never dared to slack off, which enabled him to control his desires.

If Li Shimin had not killed his brother and imprisoned his father, he might have become a wise ruler, but his status would definitely have been greatly reduced.

But the emperors of the Song Dynasty were a bit strange. They wanted to save face and were worried about leaving a bad reputation in history books, but they did it anyway. After doing it, they came up with some tricks to whitewash themselves.

Emperor Zhenzong was worried about being criticized after signing the Treaty of Chanyuan, so he wanted to go to Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth.

But he was neither good at literature nor martial arts, and he had just signed a humiliating treaty like the Treaty of Chanyuan. Even if he had no shame, he would still feel embarrassed.

So he made up an excuse that he was dreaming, and eventually he spent a lot of money and manpower to build a temple.

Li An was worried that after the Prince of Yan succeeded in his rebellion, he would not work hard to govern the country like Li Shimin and Zhu Di did and prove himself with his achievements.

Instead, they will kill people on a large scale, cover up the truth, and maybe even perform a Fengshan ceremony or something.

The current situation of the Song Dynasty really cannot withstand such turmoil.

After all, there are examples set by our ancestors.

"Let me think about this carefully. Let's not talk about this for now. Come drink with me."

Gu Tingye was in a very confused mood. He urged the maid to bring up the wine and food, and pulled Li An to drink.

(End of this chapter)