Preface
In ancient times, what kind of reform could be called earth-shaking? Is it the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, which allowed all people to live happily and stable, away from war, or the Mongolian legend that allowed the dynasty to have a strong army and a sharp sword and conquer the world?
Obviously, whether in ancient times or in modern times, a dynasty that has the ability to keep the people away from war and enter a happy life through reform is the real earth-shaking reform, and in the most chaotic era in the history of the mainland, the five dynasties, ten countries and ten kingdoms, warlords fought and blood flowed!
If there is no one to stop this chaotic war and dominate the world, the mainland is likely to be divided into many regions, and the land of China may also lose a lot of land.
Our people may also be crushed in the "blender" of this era, but Chinese civilization is like this, every time darkness comes, there are always people who stand up desperately to light the torch of the times for the Chinese people!
The hundred years of five dynasties and ten kingdoms ushered in the opportunity to dominate the world, and in the last week of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, the man who "held the torch" stood up, and he lit the dawn of life for the chaotic dynasty of that year.
began to use his own thunderous means to reform iron-blooded and save China, which had a hundred years of malpractice, he was Zhou Shizong Chai Rong, the first person to eat crabs after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms!
Military reform
Zhou Shizong Chai Rong Niu Niu was the first person to eat crabs, when the warlords were fighting, it was the norm for big countries to eat small countries, coupled with the endless emergence of various "nerve" emperors, the military field of the mainland has reached a very "inexplicable" and weird state.
You can see the emperor who surrendered without a fight and was still full of pride, the emperor who took the initiative to sacrifice the country, and even the soldiers who turned against the emperor and ran away from the emperor as a monkey.
Zhou Shizong's first battle after succeeding to the throne was miserably killed by this soldier who defected to the battle, and almost lost the battle of Gaoping, but fortunately, Zhou Shizong and Zhao Kuangyin were not people who were easily eroded by the mundane, and finally turned the tide and won the battle of Gaoping.
The more Zhou Shizong thought about it, the more angry he became, and he looked through the classics and found that there were not a few people who had defected in the past hundred years, and there were not a few people who surrendered without leaving, and even the Later Jin Emperor Shi Chonggui led Fan Aineng to lead 100,000 French troops to crusade against the Khitans, and Fan Aineng actually took 100,000 troops to the battle, and in turn captured Shi Chonggui!
That's an army of 100,000 people, and it is obviously possible to beat the Khitans! No one thought that they would directly surrender without a fight, and steal their own homes under the guise of fighting their own people, and this is the "unique characteristics" of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms!
The more Zhou Shizong looked, the more scared he became, this time there was Zhao Kuangyin, a capable subordinate, and he couldn't rely on Zhao Kuangyin for everything, in order not to make himself the next "stone noble", the next "Fan Aineng" appeared in the army.
Coupled with the defeat of the Gaoping War and the losses he suffered, Zhou Shizong, who had just succeeded to the throne, was regarded as a soldier who had learned the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, and immediately began a drastic military reform, and this was also the first person to carry out military reform in a hundred years, and Zhou Shizong became the first person to eat crabs.
Zhou Shizong's personal investigation found that there were too many deep-rooted problems, and that "stealing, cheating, and cheating" by soldiers in the military had become the norm over the past hundred years, and it was difficult to solve the problem of arrogance and redundancy.
But this did not stump Zhou Shizong, he directly eliminated the old and weak remnants of the generals who ate empty salaries, issued rich rewards to recruit young and strong young people to supplement the army, and implemented a competition system, as long as the military industry has contribution, you can get a higher position, get more rewards, and those who have been hiding in Tibet to play clever, will also be directly eliminated, in order to set an example.
After this military reform, there were some effects, but Zhou Shizong found that although there were fewer clever people in the army, there were still many people who disobeyed the command of the ruler.
This involves the issue of "centralization", because there are some feudal towns with some strength, so they are not convinced by Zhou Shizong at all, but Zhou Shizong cannot directly hit others, and it is easy to be attacked by a group.
Later, Zhou Shizong thought of a way to directly prevent the feudal towns from continuing to raise troops in the local areas, and at the same time to hold the control of the elite soldiers and fierce generals from the local areas in the hands of the central government, so that even if the feudal towns were unwilling, there was no way to continue to "do evil".
No matter how strong the feudal town is, it is not as good as the benefits given by the central forbidden army, so Zhou Shizong has recruited a wave of people's hearts, so that the elite soldiers in many places will become the central forbidden army directly managed by the central government.
And to get preferential treatment these are not without conditions, people who join the central forbidden army must abide by strict military law, the famous Jin King Li Keyong once said that stealing, cheating, slippery, breaking the law and discipline has become a trend, if they are restrained by military law, they are afraid of being betrayed by the army.
But Zhou Shizong not only did it, but also increased the policy of "strong cadres and weak branches", which led to the release of military power after Song Taizu, otherwise Song Taizu could only "watch" with his eyes.
After Zhou Shizong became the first person to eat crabs, he was out of control, and began to carry out large-scale reforms from the inside, re-selecting and replacing some officials.
Among the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, everyone knows that traitors and traitors are endless, and most of the emperors turn a blind eye to their own "pleasure" there, and they don't care about the traitors in the court, or they can't manage it at all.
As a result, Zhou Shizong directly issued a holy decree for all officials to recommend a sage for themselves, and if this sage has any crimes in the future, then the person who recommended him will be punished, and even if he does not recommend it, he will be punished.
In this way, those ministers in the palace can only honestly recommend virtuous ministers for Zhou Shizong, for fear that the promotion of a courtier will bring "murder" to himself, and later this reform was very successful, and the palace was gradually replaced by virtuous ministers.
Then, when the regime and military were relatively stable, Zhou Shizong immediately began to think hard about ways to improve the lives of the people, the "cornerstone of the world".
First of all, Zhou Shizong wanted to move those big landlords, but Zhou Shizong thought about directly eradicating the landlords, but the eradication of the landlords and letting the landlords give up the ownership of the land was still too advanced, Zhou Shizong had not completed the great cause of reunification, and did not dare to make further drastic moves, so he could only improve the people's livelihood first, so he asked for the "land ownership tax" from the landlords, and reduced the taxes of the peasants, and canceled the tax exemption privileges of the magnates.
In this way, "all beings are equal", Zhou Shizong set up a "Miao envoy" in each place, and collected taxes according to the mu, the so-called greater ability, the greater the responsibility, and reasonable taxation, so that the people no longer have to worry about heavy taxes.
After Zhou Shizong carried out agricultural reforms, he began economic reforms, such as currency, and industry and commerce were thinking of thriving in the direction of prosperity during the late Tang Dynasty, which ensured the foundation of the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.
In the "General History of China", Mr. Zhou Shizong was praised by Mr. Fan Wenlan with two sentences in Du Fu's poem praising Zhuge Liang, "Die before leaving the school, and try to be a hero with tears", sighing for the fall of Zhou Shizong.
If Zhou Shizong had not died young and ruled the world, the Song Dynasty succeeded by Zhao Kuangyin would not have been "a world of literati", but it was weak to the outside world!
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Biography 10th // (Yuan) Written by Detachment et al. History of the Song Dynasty. Photocopy of Qianlong Wuying Palace of the Qing Dynasty. Shanghai Commercial Press, 5th Year of the Republic of China (1916): Vol. 53 Vol. 251 . Retrieved 2023-04-12. China Dynasty Library Number: SBYL 20066:417-516.