The struggle of the reborn prince

While avoiding the ideological trend of "the world is peaceful" in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Tong also found that warlike thoughts began to appear.Because the Song Dynasty has achieved complete victories in foreign wars in recent years, especially the westward expedition to Gaochang and the cross-sea attack on the Seljuk Empire, it not only expanded the country, opened up trade routes, but also plundered a large amount of gold and silver property. The national power has been strengthened, so the idea that war is a necessary means for the country's prosperity and strength has emerged in the country.

The public opinion sometimes simply distinguishes between the enemy and ourselves, and blindly calls for the use of troops. This kind of militant speech mainly appears among the new generation of young students and young military officers. It is very popular in major academies and imperial schools. They have knowledge and enthusiasm. Hope to solve all problems by means of war.Once these people reach high positions, they will inevitably be swayed by public opinion, and will continue to lead the country into wars.

If a country is full of public opinion that constantly instigates war among the people for a long time, Zhao Tuo knows that sooner or later there will be problems, so he must be vigilant.When Zhao Tun was extensively building state schools and county schools, he put forward requirements for this, and appointed those students he had trained in the early stage to serve as state and county school officials to spread his own philosophy of governing the world.As for the various academies established by the society, he also supported great Confucianists in his own camp to serve as mountain palms through funding, expanding their influence, attracting many school elites to join, and forming a basis of public opinion that is beneficial to him.

And Zhao Tong also found that because he can always control the direction of public opinion and establish a good image, under normal circumstances, it is easier for him to mobilize the government, the opposition and the army to hate a country and lead the country to war than to call for peace. To maintain national unity.Unifying the will of society is very beneficial.Therefore, in order to strengthen the unity of the camp, it is also necessary to shape foreign enemies.Find a potential opponent and use this method to strengthen the rationality of your strategy.

Of course, as the decision-maker of the national strategy, Zhao Tun must not wait for favorable or unfavorable public opinion to emerge.For him, public opinion must first be beneficial to the grand strategy, so it is necessary to control public opinion, guide public opinion to serve his own strategy, and even shape public opinion to achieve his goals. The manufacturer does not rule out telling a little lie and doing some tricks.As for how to operate it, it is the responsibility of the intelligence department...

While guiding and controlling domestic public opinion, Zhao Tun did not relax using the power of public opinion to attack external enemies.

The era of Zhao Tun's previous life was the heyday of wrestling among great powers, and there were more methods and richer forms of this kind of soft attack around public opinion competition between big powers.Their guidance on the direction of decision-making has a considerable impact on the tendency of public opinion in a country and even the behavior of people. The occurrence of "color" revolutions is often preceded by external forces that usually carry out a large number of public opinions and psychological foreshadowing.Once a governance crisis occurs in a relevant country, the instigation and attacks of external public opinion will take the opportunity to expand, eventually leading to drastic changes in the political situation.

And the war of public opinion, which is a strategic confrontation between countries, is not always verbal and verbal.It also includes currency, finance, and capital business wars, which he is familiar with and has been doing.The difficulty is that at this time there are no radio stations, television, the Internet, and developed media. However, it is not difficult for Zhao Tun. He has found another way to maintain the offensive of public opinion against other countries.Of course, it is unavoidable to have to spend some real money.

Taking advantage of the long border between the Song and Jin Dynasties and the relatively peaceful situation after the peace talks, Zhao Tong invested a lot of money in the border areas to build a number of towns focusing on agriculture and animal husbandry, which could attract people from the inland to settle and guard the border.It can also be used to create a sharp contrast with the border line.People on one side live affluent lives and dress brightly.Living in a big tile-roofed house with a bright hall, walking on the bustling town; while the other side is desolate.They lived in simple straw huts and felt tents, and lived with wild animals all day long.

This kind of material contrast will produce a strong visual contrast, which makes people envious, especially the bottom-level people of all ethnic groups in the Jin Kingdom who are still living in "distress", making them yearn for one day to come to the Song Dynasty to rule, and to This reduces the resistance from the civilian class after the invasion and gets their help.At the same time, it can also be used as a temptation to attract the population of Jin to move south, so that the Han people living in Jin have a strong desire to return, so as to weaken their strength and obtain information.

The commercial field established on the border can also be used as a battlefield for propaganda. Through their eyes and ears, businessmen from the enemy country can bring back the prosperity and strength of the Song Dynasty to the country.You can also buy small favors and small benefits through business contacts, let them become the mouthpiece of singing praises to the Song Dynasty, and consciously compare the advantages and disadvantages of Song and Jin, so that Jin people will feel disgusted with those in power and yearn for it. They were overthrown and 'liberated' themselves.

The plan aimed at the elites of the Jin Kingdom is also being implemented. Da Song uses intelligence personnel to buy off officials and nobles of the enemy country and let them act as Da Song's advocates, affecting the ruler's judgment on the situation.Jurchen intellectuals advocating Han culture received 'adapted' Chinese classics through special channels.In this way, Zhao Tong carried out a large number of subterranean dissemination activities, introducing the superiority of the Central Plains' own system and the universality of values ​​to them, thereby influencing their thinking, and making these people strongly dissatisfied with the current system of the Kingdom of Jin. They spread this idea through their exchanges with each other, disintegrating the enemy's will to resist from the top, and accepting the idea of ​​Song rule.

At that time, the United States used "Coca-Cola" as a medium to spread Western culture to the whole world, but Zhao Tuo did not have the ability to create that thing.But he has tea and wine, which are widely accepted by cultures all over the world, so he removes the essence of the tea and wine culture in the Central Plains, keeps the dross, and adds elements of court luxury, which is basically the way Cai Jing bewitched his father back then. The copies were sent to the upper class of the Kingdom of Jin through commercial and non-governmental communication channels to train them to learn to 'enjoy' the beauty of life.

In order to cooperate with this "cultural" export, Zhao Tun did not hesitate to use the power of the country, and through repeated negotiations through diplomatic channels, he was able to open a "Song Guan" in the most prosperous place in Shangjing City of the Kingdom of Jin. A comprehensive commercial body integrating luxury sales, not only the architectural style is from the Central Plains, but all the staff are from Song Dynasty, even a teacup and a pair of chopsticks used in it are made by the most famous workshop in Song Dynasty. The chef is the imperial chef of Zhao Er, the emperor of the Song Dynasty. The wine sold in the shop is produced by Xiangyi Yujiufang. The perfume, glass and other things sold in the shop are hard to find in the Song Dynasty.

After a series of operations, the Shangjing City, which was already famous in the Kingdom of Jin before its opening, attracted the attention of many people immediately after the opening of the Song Pavilion. When the exquisite delicacies were delivered by golden cups and jade cups, they had already conquered the Jurchens and the set of cumbersome and considerate services inside also let them know what aristocratic enjoyment is. They know that the huge and heavy gold chains and earrings they wear on weekdays are just the favorites of local tyrants. Be polite and understand that this is the life of the Song Dynasty.

But now the Great Song Dynasty is not what it used to be, and you can herd horses southward at will. Fortunately, there is still a place where the Jurchens can learn and enjoy Songguan. For a while, the Songguan became the King of Jin, grandsons, nobles, literati and local tyrants. their place of nostalgia.They not only enjoyed it, but also redecorated the mansion after returning home, trained servants, and purchased clothing and utensils, so that they could enjoy it every day.

Since the Kingdom of Jin has always advocated Sinicization, this trend did not arouse the vigilance of the rulers of the Kingdom of Jin. Words: I only know the profoundness and essence of the Central Plains culture when I came to Songguan today. I have only learned superficially over the years!

Hu Quan, the minister of the Ministry of Rites of the Great Song Dynasty, said after his mission to the Kingdom of Jin: As soon as he stepped into the gate of Shangjing, he could smell the extravagance and decay of the Xuanhe period of the Great Song Dynasty...

Zhao Tong freely manipulated the weapons of public opinion and achieved good results one after another. At the same time, he also knew that the complete victory of "surrendering the enemy without fighting" is just an unattainable ideal state, and the pursuit of unifying the world by ideology is just a dream. It's a dream, and the solution to all strategic issues still requires war as a means of ending.But not everyone in the world has Zhao Tunami standing as high and seeing so far. After his trip to Yanjing, several Confucian scholars expressed dissatisfaction with his "preparing for war" remarks, and they jointly wrote to him that it violated the Confucianism advocated the concept of peace and 'governing the country with benevolence'.

Several Confucian scholars believed that the sages Confucius and Mencius advocated "no war" and opposed all wars, and the emperor's arbitrarily launched wars violated the sages' purpose.That is to say, Confucian culture advocates morality and harmony, and should not launch aggressive actions against neighboring countries, and can only focus on defense for security.Their point of view is that all Chinese dynasties did not launch offensive wars like the northern nomads in order to seek hegemony. Instead, they had more goodwill towards other countries and pursued benevolent governance rather than hegemony.

Furthermore, it is said that the core of Confucianism is "benevolence". The emperors of the Song Dynasty also advocated the rule of the world with benevolence. Knowing what is right and what is wrong, transforming into a country of benevolence and righteousness, so as to realize the ideal of great harmony in the world, does not solve problems by launching wars.

A few scholars who didn't know the depth dared to write a letter to accuse the emperor, and there was an uproar. Some ministers thought that they should be severely punished, deprived of their fame, and sent to a remote place for self-reflection, as an example to others.But Zhao Tong believes that severe punishment is not the solution to the problem, and suppressing public opinion will hardly dispel people's doubts.Punishment of the person who wrote the letter might cause a bigger storm, and he would be condemned by the public opinion, which is not conducive to the implementation of his own strategy, so he decided to write back to refute it in person... (to be continued...)