Qilu and the Qilu-related champions (XII Li Di)

XII. Li Di, the "willful" leader

In the history of China's imperial examinations, there is a more interesting phenomenon. That is, the great Song Dynasty, especially the Northern Song Dynasty, had a higher rate of achievement than other dynasties. In particular, compared with the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rate of achievement is obviously much higher. The achievement rate mentioned here not only refers to the fact that the officials have done a lot, but also have the factor of extraordinary performance. The last extremely popular subject, and the performance of the Qingshi ZhuangyuanLang, the Northern Song Dynasty produced several, such as Lü Mengzheng, Wang Zeng, etc., the one introduced below is also. It is not too difficult to leave a name in the annals of history as a recipient of the title. And to leave a name for the performance of the youth history, this is very difficult.

In the second year of the Great Song Dynasty (1005), Yi Wei Ke Zhuangyuan was a member of the Li Di clan of Pu Prefecture (濮州, in present-day Juancheng County, Shandong). The Shandong candidates of the Great Song Dynasty were really powerful, and they produced so many excellent titles and won enough face for their hometown. Li Di's ancestral home was Emperor Zan of Hebei, and his ancestors moved to Shandong to settle down in order to escape the chaos of war. Although the ancestral home is not Shandong, in Li Di's generation, his family has taken root in Shandong, and he can be regarded as an authentic Shandong person. Juancheng County is under the jurisdiction of Heze City, because Li Di's ancestors are from Hebei, the author will say in the previous chapter that the Heze nationality of the title of Emperor should be discounted.

Li Di and wang Zeng, introduced in the previous part, are the brothers and apprentices of the previous and subsequent yuan scholars. Among the Qilu students, two consecutive champions who became famous historical ministers were born, and such a coincidence is very rare. Even if it is unprecedented, it should be regarded as a very good point to watch.

At a young age, Li Di was known for being studious and talented. While studying diligently, he also understands the importance of asking famous masters for advice, which is important for his own growth and progress. Once, Li Di took his own article and went to visit the famous literary scholar Liu Kai. Although it is for everyone, but Liu Kai does not have any shelf, after carefully reading Li Di's article, he was greatly amazed, and even sighed: "The afterlife is terrible, it is really the afterlife is terrible!" In time, you will surely become a talent of the auxiliary country! "A famous person is a famous person, and in this matter, Liu Kai really hasn't looked away."

When Li Di was in the middle of the title, there were four out of thirty. After Zhongzhuangyuan, he was first appointed as a general as a supervisor. The general supervisor was a small unit of insignificant importance, with only about twenty personnel, mainly responsible for the affairs of the imperial court. Cheng is one of the low-level clerks. Later, Li Di served as xuzhou tongjue, Yanzhou tongjue, three divisions of salt and iron deputy envoys, Zhizhi Zhen, Bozhou Zhizhou, Yongxingjun prefect, Shaanxi transport envoy and other positions.

The Third Division, also known as the "Ji Province", was the highest financial institution in the early Northern Song Dynasty, and was abolished after the Yuanfeng reform. The Three Divisions are in charge of the national tribute and fiscal and taxation affairs, and their highest officer is the Three Divisions Envoy, known as the "Counting Minister". The deputy envoy of salt and iron, the deputy envoy of the degree branch, and the deputy envoy of the household department are the three deputy posts of the three divisions in charge of different businesses. The deputy envoy of salt and iron, as the name suggests, is the official in charge of the production and sale of salt and iron. The operating income of salt and iron is an important source of tax for the country. In addition, Li Di also held a number of positions, the last of which was a very popular minister, and twice served as the prime minister of the Great Song Dynasty.

Shi Zai, Li Di is a shrewd and capable official, and he handles government affairs very efficiently. When he was serving as the governor of Bozhou (bozhou, anhui), the local thieves were in full swing, and successive government officials continued to send troops to pursue and suppress them, but with little success. After Li Di arrived at the post, he adopted a strategy of wanting to take advantage of the situation. He temporarily suspended the soldiers and horses, took great risks, and went deep into areas where thieves were frequently engaged in micro-service private visits. After careful investigation, the structure and distribution of thieves and the law of activity were quickly clarified. Then, targeted elite soldiers were dispatched to carry out precision strikes, and soon the various gangs of thieves were eliminated one by one. The public beheading of some of the thieves who committed many evil deeds and public displays them formed a tremendous deterrent to the criminal and evil forces and reversed the local social security situation in one fell swoop.

When he was the prefect of the Yongxing Army, there were many rich sons and scoundrels in the city, who fought and fought all day and caused trouble. They also forced themselves to buy and sell, bullying and dominating the market, and the people were miserable. On the basis of in-depth investigation and investigation, Li Di arrested and brought to justice several guys with the nature of a triad leader in accordance with the law, effectively deterring other small, making them no longer dare to make trouble, and the local social order has greatly improved, winning unanimous praise from the people.

Those who are officials have feelings. Officials who lack the spirit of humanistic care, even if they are capable, will not be wholeheartedly supported by the people. Li Di is an official with very humanistic feelings. During his tenure in Beijing, for one year, there were frequent locust plagues in some places, and many people had no food or clothing. In this case, Li Di suggested that the emperor take out his own private money ("please send the inner treasury") to relieve the disaster, and reduce or exempt the people in the disaster area from taxes to tide themselves through the difficulties.

It was not easy to get the emperor to willingly pay for it. Because of the cleverness of Li Di's advice, the emperor happily adopted his suggestion. At first, the emperor was a little reluctant, saying that he could ask the government finance department to write a report and borrow three million dollars from the royal account. Li Di said to the emperor: "The property under the whole world, whether inside or outside, is your majesty's, where else can you say what you can borrow or not borrow?" Nowadays, the finances are tight, and if the emperor can take out the money in the royal account to help the disaster-stricken people, he can show his love for the people like a son, and the people will be more grateful to Dade. "This matter shows that it is important to give advice and suggestions to the boss.

In order to curry favor with the emperor, some officials often did not show mercy to the people and made extravagance. Li Di is very dissatisfied with this phenomenon. Once, when the emperor summoned Li Di, Li Di suggested that he visit various places in the future and not let local officials cut down trees and open roads, build large construction, and engage in too solemn welcome ceremonies. Doing so would not only be a nuisance to the people, but would also cause a lot of waste. In the future, I will go out to tour various places, let the local government simply paint and clean up the post or the official government's dormitory, and temporary living can be done. The emperor was also able to do as good as he could, and instructed the relevant departments to act according to Li Di's opinion. In this matter, Li Di dared to express his views, and the emperor was more tolerant and understanding.

Li Di's courage to speak out is also manifested in the following matter. There was a general named Cao Wei, who had been stationed at the border for a long time. For some time, because of the shortage of troops, he repeatedly asked the emperor to send more troops to consolidate the border defenses. Cao Wei's request caused the emperor's displeasure. He believed that Cao Wei was making excuses for his cowardice and fear of war, so he wanted to replace him.

After Li Di learned of this, he argued for Cao Wei with a public heart, believing that he was the best candidate to defend the northwest frontier, a brave and strategic warrior, and by no means a timid and fearful person. There was a reason for asking the imperial court to increase its troops. If he is replaced, it will have a serious impact on the border defense. Later, as Li Di said, Cao Weiguo performed extremely well in dealing with the invasion of ethnic minorities in the north, fought several beautiful battles, and became one of the rare famous generals of the Song Dynasty.

Li Di was a high-profile official. After Emperor Renzong of Song was made crown prince, the emperor asked Li Di to be his teacher and made him the highest honor for civil officials such as Crown Prince Taifu (Yipin). Li Di believes that there is no precedent for the former prince's teacher. Therefore, he could not accept such a high appointment, and was only willing to work part-time as a prince guest (Sanpin). When the traitorous minister Ding Wei was in power, Kou Zhun was framed by him and dismissed. Emperor Zhao Heng at the time wanted Li Di, who was deeply trusted by him, to succeed him as chancellor. However, Li Di insisted on not accepting his resignation on the grounds that his qualifications were still shallow and his ability was not enough. Later, after Li Di was appointed as the prime minister, he was framed by Ding Wei, and was dismissed from his position as prime minister and sent to Yun Prefecture as ZhiZhou. After being assigned to a local post, Ding Wei still did not spare him, almost persecuting him to death.

Zhao Heng, who was originally an understanding person, became a bit faint in the late period of his reign. Not only did he do some stupid things, but he also used some adulterers who knew the way of sneaking and patting horses, such as the traitor Ding Wei. During the period of Ding Wei's dictatorship, villains were in charge, and loyal ministers were often framed and persecuted, and history said that "the right people in the DPRK and China were empty". There are also folk songs circulating: "If you want to win the peace of the world, you should pull out the nail in your eye; if you want to win the world well, it is better to summon the old man." The "nail in the eye" mentioned in the folk song refers to Ding Wei. "Kou Lao" refers to Kou Zhun. After the fall of Ding Wei, Wang Zeng became prime minister, and Li Di was used again.

Like his brother Wang Zeng, Li Di was also a figure who was hated by Empress Liu. When Empress Liu was made empress, Li Di strongly opposed it. He believed that Empress Liu's character was not suitable for being the mother of the country. Therefore, when Empress Liu was alive, she was also an important force to suppress Li Di. Once when Li Di went to Beijing to report on his work, Empress Liu said something to him: "At the beginning, you always disagreed with my participation in major state affairs, but now it seems that you are wrong. Isn't it obvious that I have cultivated Today's Son (Song Renzong) into such an excellent emperor? "This vendetta is remembered, really deep enough.

After Empress Liu hung up, Li Di was reappointed as prime minister. Later, because of a conflict with another chancellor, Lü Yijian, Li Di once again lost the hat of the prime minister and was demoted to shangshu of the Punishment Department and Bozhou Zhizhou. This Lü Yijian was the nephew of the famous Xiang Lü Mengzheng. Lü Yijian was also a famous courtier with outstanding ability during the Northern Song Dynasty, but he was more arbitrary and less tolerant. It is said that "the prime minister can hold a boat in his belly", Lü Meng is such a prime minister, Wang was such a prime minister, Li Di is also such a prime minister, but Lü Yijian is not.

After Li Yuanhao of Western Xia established the state, he repeatedly sent troops to attack the Song. In just two or three years, between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, there were three famous battles in Sanchuankou, Haoshuichuan and Dingchuanzhai. In these three battles, the Song army suffered heavy defeats and suffered heavy losses. The performance in these three battles reflects the real combat effectiveness of the Song army since Zhao Kuangyin. It is no wonder that the Song Dynasty can produce such a strange story and legend as the Female General of Yangmen, men can't fight, people will fornicate a bunch of highly skilled old ladies, sisters-in-law, and little daughters-in-law, imagining that they can cross the gun and break the enemy army, and defend the country.

The defeat of these three battles caused a huge shock in the Great Song Dynasty. As a minister with a strong sense of responsibility, Li Di was naturally worried. At a time when the country was in difficulty, Li Di, who was not old in his heart, took the initiative to ask to go to the border to resist the enemy. However, Li Di's application was not approved by the emperor. Probably out of consolation for Li Di, Emperor Renzong of Song simply appointed him to make such a military attaché the highest fictitious title of Military Attaché with the Rank of Commander of the Zhangxin Army, and concurrently served as the prefect of the Tianxiong Army. Li Di, who had not been rewarded with lofty ambitions, was somewhat disheartened by the official career. A year later, Li Di took the initiative to apply for retirement on the grounds of old age and frailty, and went home to retire.

After one of Li Di's sons became officials in Beijing, he was taken to the capital to take care of him and serve. After Song Renzong heard about it, he sent people to visit and comfort him many times, and wanted to summon Li Di into the palace to discuss things, but Li Di refused on the grounds that he was ill. This shows that Li Di, who can afford to put it down, has completely looked down on the affairs of the official field.

Li Di died at the age of seventy-six at the age of seventy-six. After Li Di's death, Song Renzong personally inscribed a tombstone for him, with the inscription "Monument of The Will", and gave him the name of the burial place in his hometown as "ZhizhiXiang". At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the prime minister was stripped away, and he commented on Li Di as follows: "Li Di, Wang Zeng, Zhang Zhibai, Du Yan, all xianxiangye. The four people are fierce and often similar", "The so-called sheji courtiers of the ancients, Yu Sizhi". It is a bit of a pity that today in Juancheng County, there is no such township name as "Zhizhi Township". What is a cultural tradition, this should be.

Officials do not do anything trivial, but stay in the human world. Song Renzong and Detuo's evaluation of Li Di's character is in place.

About author:Wang Lijing, pen name Gu Di, male, Shouguangren, Shandong, born in Beijing in 1958, graduated from qufu Normal University Chinese Department. He has worked as a young intellectual, a worker, a teacher, a cadre of the organs, and has served as the vice president of the Shandong Police College and a second-level police supervisor. A prose writer who is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, he has published more than 3 million words, won many awards and been selected for a variety of anthologies. The related works have become the bibliography of the libraries of princeton university, Stanford University, Peking University, the University of Hong Kong and other famous universities, and have twice been selected as the top ten recommended books for primary and secondary school students in Shandong Province to read a good book during winter and summer vacations.

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The content of this article is published by the author of One Point and does not represent the position of Qilu One Point.

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