warring states careerist

Chapter 744

Under the turmoil of the times, there must be trendsetters of the times.

Under the chaos in the Song Dynasty, many people fished in troubled waters, many people sighed, and some people saw opportunities from such chaos.

The person who stood out from such chaos was named Dai Cong.

The Dai family is the surname of the nobles of the Song Dynasty, and it is also one of the real power aristocrats of the Song Dynasty. The Dai family originated from Song Daigong, and they took posthumous titles as their surnames.

Dai Huan, who was expelled by Sichenghuang's clan in the coup 20 years ago, is the Dai clan.

Dai Cong and Dai Huan are close relatives. After the coup, the Sicheng royal family could have been wiped out, but the Mo family came forward to stir up trouble, simply because they wanted to take advantage of the contradictions among the nobles and did not want the royal father's family to dominate. Such a chaotic situation in Song Dynasty.

In addition, Sichenghuang's family was vigilant by the rest of the nobles, so after Dai Huan was driven away, Dai Cong's family was not implicated.

It's just that Dai Cong's family is not a big family, and they are not ranked in the top three among the nobles in the Song Dynasty. Originally, there was no possibility of gaining ultimate power.

If the state of Song remained the same as it was more than 20 years ago, Dai Cong's family would naturally choose to hold their thighs tightly and choose to stand in line, it is impossible to choose to come out by themselves.

But the chaotic situation in the Song Dynasty gave Dai Cong an opportunity.

The times have changed.

After the monarchy lost the solid pillar of the original patriarchal system or feudal system, the etiquette and law were questioned and opposed by everyone, and it was difficult to maintain the original rule.

As a result, people like Dai Cong took the method of turning the wind with the wind, showing off coquettishness and giving false goodwill in order to gain the support of those who have money and power but have no power for the time being.

Buying is used to curry favour, rather than relying solely on swords to maintain rule. After all, etiquette and law have been abolished, and the trend of equality and meritocracy is spreading like a plague.

Even though Dai Cong is not one of the top nobles in the Song Dynasty, he is still a member of a big family and has the status of a gentleman's courtyard.

After the imperial father Yueling replaced his father, the imperial father Zang, Dai Cong was silent at first, because he knew that his power was not enough to shake the status of the imperial father's clan.

After the turmoil a few years ago, Dai Cong keenly saw the opportunity and packaged himself as "the nobleman who is most close to the people".

Because after the war between Qi and Mo, the emperor's father Yueling no longer dared to be the "noble who is most close to the people", because once this fire is ignited, the emperor's father Yueling himself is likely to be burned to death.

If this position is vacant, someone will naturally occupy it.

For Dai Cong, if he doesn't fight, he will never be able to get his hands on the highest power of the Song Dynasty. The imperial father's family is too powerful, even if the imperial father's family is not strong enough, there are still a lot of people like Le, Xiao noble.

Farmers who lost their land and poured into Shangqiu, businessmen who were dissatisfied with the enfeoffment system, and handicraftsmen who suffered from high taxes were all strengths he could borrow.

Just before the Court of Gentlemen promulgated the decree to increase taxes on self-cultivating farmers and industrialists and merchants, Dai Cong started his activities for the first time as a commoner and aristocratic friend.

He stated that he was firmly opposed to raising taxes on the people. In order to protest, he resigned from the Gentleman's Court. There was an uproar in the public opinion for a while, and many ordinary people regarded him as someone they could rely on.

This kind of thing happened more than once in the history of the Song Dynasty. Many people borrowed the power of the common people to come to power, but in fact they still made secret compromises with the big nobles in private.

For example, the son Bao at that time gave wine and meat to people over 70 years old, exempted people who owed usury debts, and gave gifts to the scholar class.

But at that time, it didn't involve the reform of the land system and political system, just be a good person. The little grandmother who wanted to have an affair with him did her best to help him maintain the relationship with the nobles, and finally united with the rest of the nobles to kill many The public clan redistributed the fief and won the hearts of the people.

Times are different now, the power of the common people is getting stronger, and there is Sishang next to him who can be used as foreign aid. Dai Cong seized this opportunity and called himself the commoner faction, completely giving up the support of the rest of the nobles.

This is a big gamble.

The bet is that the Sishang Mo family can win, and the bet is that he will trade with the nobles and Wei Chu and other countries with a small bargaining chip and obtain less benefits; while trading with Sishang and the common people will have a larger bargaining chip and obtain more benefits.

The deeper reason is that his main income now comes from investing in the Chamber of Commerce in Sishang, and the annual rate of return is extremely high.

His own fiefdom, if he maintains the previous ritual and legal system to gain military strength, is not enough to gain access to the highest power of the Song Dynasty, and the income is not much, so it is better to give it up.

So he made a more radical policy than the emperor's father Yueling, granting his fief to the people, and the people only need to pay 20 years of redemption fees to own their own land.

In addition, he also advocated in front of the public that he was the policy of the Ling Yin of the Consulting Yuan.

That is to take back the land occupied by the nobles and distribute them to the people who lost the land according to small pieces; unify the decrees of the Song Dynasty and revoke the checkpoints of the Song Kingdom; take back the power of the nobles and cancel the privileges of the nobles; abolish the Court of Gentlemen and the Court of the Common People, and only have one consultation All kinds of government...

One is that he does not have many fiefs, two is that his income does not depend on the customs checkpoints and monopoly fees of the fief, and three is that he was opposed by the nobles in the Court of Gentlemen because he opposed taxing industrial, commercial and self-cultivating farmers.

So these things he advocates are things that he doesn't have at all.

He just changed his butt, but he might get his hands on the highest power of the Song State, which immediately caused an uproar, making the already chaotic Song State even more chaotic.

In addition, he also advocated the absolute monarchy, thinking that the current "Inquiry Council" is the fault of the nobles, and even the Common People's Council is just a group of wealthy speculators and big landowners. The only thing that can restrain them is the absolute power of the monarch.

He wants to be the elected "Dong Song" and let the election give him more power.

A large part of the public supports him.

Because owner farmers and landless farmers actually prefer a monarch with absolute power.

Aristocrats, businessmen...are actually the enemies of the peasants. What they need is a capable monarch who can completely suppress the nobles and businessmen by relying on power, not the so-called equality and freedom to choose the emperor.

Of course, on the one hand, he yelled like this, dressing himself as the spokesperson of the common people and the landless, and on the other hand, he hooked up with those big businessmen, and half-openly stated that the land should be absolutely privately owned, and the land will be distributed to those landless peasants in the future The remaining ones can be auctioned to the highest bidder.

Anyway, what he gave was not his own.

This meant that he had the support of landless peasants who flocked to Shangqiu, some self-cultivated farmers who were oppressed by speculators, and some wealthy businessmen who wanted to buy land for management.

After gaining the support of some people inside, Dai Cong came into contact with people from the Mohists again, acting like a gentleman with "the heart of benefiting the world".

At that time, inside Sishang, Shi once commented: Dai Cong is a pure and pleasant camp prostitute who dresses himself up beautifully, but his appearance is what we like. We don’t like him, but we like him. His dress, although what we like is the dress, but we have to be felt that we like him in order to let people know what we like to dress.

At that time, the Mo family had already had a semi-public quarrel with the emperor's father, Yue Ling, and Dai Cong, who had dressed himself as a spokesperson for the common people, immediately gained the support of the Mo family.

As for Dai Cong's ambition, it doesn't matter, Sishang has no interest in Song State for the time being, and has no energy to fight another Central Plains war.

Anyway, if the world is stable, the state of Song will be stable; on the other hand, if the state of Song is in chaos, the world will be in chaos sooner.

If he is willing to be the Duke of Song, let him be; if he is willing to be the monarch of Song with absolute power, then support him; what the Mohists need is a buffer state between Wei and Chu to be close to the Mohists.

In fact, all the nobles in the Song Kingdom except the royal family are looking for wild fathers for themselves.

It is nothing more than that Xiao, Hua, Mu and other clans want Chu people to be wild fathers; Le, Niu, Shi and other clans want to find Wei Han as wild fathers; Qi was beaten up five years ago and is not qualified to be wild fathers; The Dai family is looking for Sishang as a wild father.

There is only one emperor, Yueling, who wants to be independent, relying on the contradictions of various countries to survive in the cracks, and does not hesitate to drag Wei Chusi into the war in order to weaken them so that the Song Kingdom can maintain its true independence.

This doomed the tragedy of the emperor's father Yueling, because the surrounding external forces were too powerful, and it was too difficult for him to maintain the proud dream of the successor of Yin and Shang.

Right after Dai Shi went to Sishang, the Mo family immediately came forward to give Dai enough face, which was also a signal to force the emperor's father, Yue Ling, to act against him.

If the imperial father Yueling wanted to guard against Dai Cong and the Mohists, he had to find a way to get money to arm his own private soldiers. This was Sishang's method of coercing the imperial father's family, and it was even more a means of intensifying the conflict.

Dai Cong's prestige among the common people is increasing, and the nobles are hating him more and more. This time the chaos in the Song Dynasty broke out when Dai Cong was assassinated. Although someone protected him and did not kill him, this incident immediately caused chaos in Shangqiu. .

A large number of Song Guoguo people demanded that the murderer be strictly investigated, and various rumors were flying everywhere.

It is said that it was the hands of the imperial father's family, because Dai Cong's prestige is enough to serve as the Minister of the Advisory Council, so it must be eliminated first and then quickly.

It is said that this was the work of other nobles, because Dai Cong's call was to take back the power of the nobles and divide the redundant fiefdoms of the nobles.

Some people also speculate darkly that Dai Cong may have directed and acted it himself, in order to arouse the resentment of the lower class towards those conservative nobles.

These messy things followed one after another, and the original covenant of no harm was ten years, and after ten years expired, it was renewed for another ten years, and now the time limit has expired.

The nobles all understand that the previous peace is no longer possible, and the balance maintained by external forces will explode as soon as the external pressure is withdrawn.

The imperial father's family has always wanted to centralize power these years, and the conflict between the rest of the nobles and the imperial father's family has been very deep.

And the Mo family suddenly became more radical than before, especially after the change of Fei Guo, the imperial father Yueling felt that the ambition of the Mo family was clearly revealed, and the Song country was also in danger. quite difficult.

Because he is the most powerful among the nobles, and because he has been centralizing power before, several major nobles are still thinking about problems with the way of thinking in the era of the feudal system, underestimating the hearts of the people and overemphasizing the peasants and soldiers on the fiefdoms. Dai Cong, who was not threatening at all, stood out.

Now all parties have no choice, and there is no other solution except civil war.

(End of this chapter)