Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 54 Infinite Loop

"What, you still want to grab it?"

"I…"

Sheng Changbai said disdainfully: "If everyone in Bianjing is like you, teasing cats and dogs, and being dishonest people, and taking back the sixteen states of Yanyun, it's just an idiot's dream!"

Hearing this, Gu Tingye bowed again and said: "Today's betting on geese was indeed my fault, and I'm really sorry. I would like to swear that I will never gamble in the future."

Sheng Changbai glanced at Gu Tingye, his expression softened, and he said, "You swear, I really can't believe it."

"I swear in the name of my late mother." Gu Tingye said solemnly.

"Brother Sheng, I watched when the pot was thrown just now. He kept keeping his hand. There must be something unspeakable." Li An said.

Sheng Changbai also watched when the pot was thrown, and naturally knew that Gu Tingye was keeping his hand. Even so, Gu Tingye had embarrassed his Sheng family. Naturally, he was angry with Gu Tingye in his heart, but it was not hateful, otherwise he would not have done it. So much to tell Gu Tingye.

Now that he heard Gu Tingye swearing on his dead mother, his anger disappeared and he said, "This is too big an oath for you, and you don't have to do this."

Gu Tingye smiled when he heard this. First, Sheng Changbai cupped his hand, then cupped his hand to Li An, and said, "Zhong Huai, a small character."

Sheng Changbai cupped his hands and said, "Ze Cheng."

Li An also bowed his hand in return and said, "Li An, I have no words yet."

In ancient times, men were crowned when they were twenty, and women were born when they were fifteen.

After a man is crowned, his elders or teachers will choose the title for him.

However, in fact, it is not so strict. Some wealthy families often help their children pick out the characters early, and some who dote on their daughters will even pick out the characters for their daughters.

Both Gu Tingye and Sheng Changbai were given names early by their fathers. Li An's father had never read any books, so naturally he couldn't count on them.

Li An thought about going back to his master to help him pick a word.

In ancient times, the word also signified adulthood. With or without you, it always felt like a child playing with adults.

Sheng Changbai saw that Gu Tingye had been staring at the painting in his hand and handed it over.

Gu Tingye was stunned for a moment, then took it with a smile on his face and started to read it.

"The painting is really good, but it's a pity that the great country fell into the hands of foreigners."

"This is not the place to talk. My yard is not far away. Let's go over and talk." Sheng Changbai said.

Sheng Changbai took the three of them to the courtyard where he lived, and asked Gu Tingye and Li An to sit down at the stone table in the courtyard. After the maid brought tea and retired, he said: "As long as the ruler is wise and the ministers are wise, and the civil and military forces work together, One day we will take back the sixteen states of Yanyun."

Gu Tingye said sadly when he heard this: "It's a pity that our Song Dynasty has serious disadvantages. Now that even Duke Fan Wenzheng has passed away, it is not easy to take back the sixteen states of Yanyun."

At this time, the Song Dynasty had been founded for nearly a hundred years. From the founding of the country by Taizu, there have been four generations of emperors. The first three generations of emperors tried to regain the sixteen states of Yanyun. Not only did they return without success, but they also spent a lot of national power.

What's even more bizarre is that during the Zhenzong period, they clearly won the war, but reached a peace agreement with the Liao Kingdom.

The Song Dynasty gave Liao 10 taels of silver and 20 bolts of silk every year. The Song and Liao Dynasties used Baigou River as the boundary, which was known as the "Chanyuan Alliance" in history.

After the Chanyuan Alliance, Song and Liao indeed fell into a rare peace, and Zhenzong was praised by literati all over the world for this.

As a result, after the current official ascended the throne, Xixia, which was dependent on the Song Dynasty, wanted to be independent, and the "Song-Xia War" broke out. As a result, the Liao Kingdom took advantage of the war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia to suppress the country with soldiers and forced the Song Dynasty to increase their annual coins.

You must know that the Liao Kingdom not only asked for an increase in annual coins, but also requested that the gift be changed to the payment.

It seems like there is only one word difference, but it is a world of difference.

The Han dynasty has always regarded itself as the supreme kingdom of heaven, and has always been generous to those barbarian foreigners to show its magnanimity as the supreme ruler of heaven.

Why did those foreign states like to pay tribute to the Central Plains dynasty since ancient times?

Except for a few times when they were beaten accidentally, most of the time they came to pay tribute to get rewards.

Who wants the Celestial Empire to be generous? If others send some worthless things, the emperor will reward them several times or dozens of times in order to show the magnanimity of the Celestial Dynasty.

There are even some foreign countries that have people pretending to be envoys to pay tribute in order to cheat them out of rewards. And those emperors came to court for the so-called "all nations", regardless of whether it was true or false.

In the eyes of the emperor and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, giving some money was nothing.

But Na was different. Only the lower country would pay tribute to the upper country. However, due to the situation at that time, the Song Dynasty had to agree to the conditions of the Liao Kingdom.

This time also made the Song Dynasty realize the wolf ambition of the Liao Kingdom, and calls for the recovery of the Sixteen States of Yanyun became louder.

However, knowledgeable people like Gu Tingye and Sheng Changbai naturally knew that the Song Dynasty's treasury was empty due to years of war with Liao and Xixia.

In addition, a hundred years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there are many domestic abuses, and reform is the key to solving these abuses.

Unfortunately, the reform ended in failure within a few years. Fan Wenzhenggong, who presided over the reform, also passed away a few years ago.

Sheng Changbai shook his head and said: "It is indeed a pity that Fan Wenzhenggong passed away, but now the official family has restored Han Xianggong to defend him, which shows that the official family still has the intention to reform. Although Fan Wenzhenggong is gone now, I believe that the world There are countless scholars who uphold Fan Wenzhenggong’s legacy, and one day they will surely be able to regain the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.”

"Yes, I believe it too." Gu Tingye said firmly.

Li An shook his head slightly when he heard this. He knew history. In the end, the Song Dynasty failed to regain the Yanyun Sixteenth Prefecture. It was not as easy as they said.

The most fundamental reason why the Song Dynasty could not regain the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was that it valued culture over military affairs.

Some people may say it is because of party strife and internal malpractice.

But in Ang Lee's view, all other shortcomings are essentially caused by emphasizing culture over military force.

Take the reform as an example. The Song Dynasty carried out many reforms, but they all failed in the end.

Some people say that the emperor has no courage and cannot withstand pressure.

In fact, since the emperor wanted to reform, he was very courageous. It can only be said that the resistance at that time was too great.

In the final analysis, these resistances were caused by co-ruling the world with the scholar-bureaucrats.

Since ancient times, other dynasties have had civil and military checks and balances. Even so, in times of peace, the power of civil officials will overwhelm military commanders, leading to the overestimation of civil and military officials.

What's more, in a dynasty like the Song Dynasty that valued culture over military affairs, one can imagine how powerful the civil official group was.

The reform affected the interests of the majority of civil servants. Although those who supported it were also civil servants, they were only a minority after all. Failure was almost inevitable.

In addition, the three redundant problems that plagued the Song Dynasty were also caused by emphasizing literature over military affairs.

The Song Dynasty co-ruled the world with scholar-bureaucrats, gave preferential treatment to civil servants, and over-recruited officials, resulting in a large number of officials.

Li An remembered reading on the Internet in his previous life that during the peak period of the Tang Dynasty, the land area was more than four times larger than that of the Song Dynasty.

However, the number of officials in the Song Dynasty was two or three times that of the Tang Dynasty.

In addition, with the loss of the Yanyun Sixteen States, there is no defensive barrier on the border, and a large number of soldiers and horses need to be raised for defense.

The increase in the number of soldiers and officials led to the problem of redundancy.

As we all know, the Song Dynasty was the richest dynasty in ancient times, but the court of the Song Dynasty was very poor.

In the final analysis, the root of all this is to emphasize culture over military affairs. However, this was already decided when the Song Dynasty was established. Even after several reforms, no one mentioned changing this issue.

Because trying to change this issue will touch the interests of intellectuals all over the world, the resistance will be even greater.

Secondly, the purpose of emphasizing civility over military affairs was to stabilize the imperial power, and the emperor would not agree.

Therefore, it is trapped in an endless loop, and no one can change it.

Gu Tingye didn't know what Li An was thinking. Seeing Li An shaking his head, he said displeasedly: "Do you think that the Sixteenth State of Yanyun should not be recovered, or do you think that the Sixteenth State of Yanyun cannot be recovered?"

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  (End of this chapter)