Chapter 67 The Han Dynasty, from prosperity to decline
Chapter 67: The Han Dynasty, from prosperity to decline, origin and destruction
"Fifteen years ago, it was the sixth year of Guanghe! This was the sixteenth year of the late Emperor Ling's reign!"
In front of Shuixie Study Room, on the high platform, Yi Xiaotian began his lecture.
This feeling is very familiar. After all, in his previous life, he was not only a time management master, but also a good professor who taught and educated people...
"Teaching students" made him feel happy. Of course, it was easy for Yi Xiaotian to deal with Sima Yi's problems that others racked their brains but didn't know how to solve.
"The sixth year of Guanghe? What happened in this year?" Yi Xiaotian asked and answered himself. "Summer, severe drought! Autumn, Jincheng River overflowed; Wuyuan Mountain bank collapsed! Winter, East China Sea, Donglai, Langye Well was iced
Thousands of years of thick weather, combined with drought, floods and ice disasters, have put the entire Han Empire into an unprecedented crisis!"
Speaking of this, Yi Xiaotian waved his hands, and his tone had an "unremarkable taste!"
"However? Is this phenomenon strange? It's ordinary, ordinary. In the past fifteen years, this kind of natural disaster happened almost every day!"
"In the third year of Jianning, there was a famine in Henan, and the couple ate each other; in the fourth year of Jianning, there was an earthquake, the sea water overflowed, and the river water was clear; in the fifth month, the east of the river was cracked, there was rain and hail, and the mountains and rivers burst out; in the fifth year of Jianning, in the first month of the year, the
Epidemic!”
"In the second year of Xiping, the Luo River flooded; in the third year of Xiping, the land of Sanfu was plagued by insects! In the sixth year of Xiping, there were locusts in seven states in April and April in the summer, and there was an earthquake in the Xinchou capital in August; in the first month of the seventh year, there were two earthquakes in April.
earthquake;"
"In the second year of Guanghe, there was another great epidemic in the spring, and there was an earthquake in Jingzhao; in the third year, there was an earthquake in Jiuquan; in the fourth year, there was a hot summer, and hailstones were as big as chicken eggs..."
Yi Xiaotian narrates the fifteen years of Han Dynasty's decline in one breath, describing each year's situation in detail, as if it were a treasure trove...
These vivid facts are before our eyes.
For a time, all the scholars and Confucian scholars, including Sima Yi, Cao Ren, and Cao Cao, were fascinated.
They only knew that the Han Dynasty was declining day by day and that the river was in decline, but they did not know that natural disasters played such an important role in this! Even harvesters!
At this moment…
Yi Xiaotian asked. "Tell me about it? Is it difficult for the Han Dynasty to suffer from natural disasters? Is it difficult for the Han Dynasty's court?"
"Disaster…"
in unison.
It was too difficult for the Han Dynasty, it was too difficult for the court...
For a time, all the scholars were affected by Yi Xiaotian's words, and even felt the same. They couldn't help but shout for the big man - "It's too difficult for me!"
Yi Xiaotian looked around and saw that each of them had constipated expressions. It seemed that the atmosphere was well set off.
His voice came out especially.
"According to Dong Zhongshu's divine induction, the coming of natural disasters must have awakened the emperor, so our late emperor changed the Yuan Dynasty three times and granted amnesty to the world as many as fourteen times. Unfortunately, it backfired. In the face of natural disasters, state affairs remained in turmoil, and even became more and more complicated.
The river is declining!"
"This is just a natural disaster! There are also foreign invasions!"
Yi Xiaotian turned his head and glanced at the northwest sky, which seemed to indicate that he wanted to talk about the northwest border.
"On the northern border, the Hexi Corridor has been in crisis for many years. Since the late emperor ascended the throne, the Xianbei people who occupy the northern land have welcomed them. They gather south to hunt every winter... It is said to be hunting, but in fact it is robbery. And the border guards of the Han Dynasty have no trace of Emperor Ming.
Go north to attack the Xiongnu and restore the glory of the Western Regions? Even in the sixth year of Xiping, more than 100,000 people died outside Yanmen Pass and returned with a great defeat!"
"In addition to external troubles, there are also internal troubles! The more natural disasters occur, the poorer the people become.
The poorer the people are, the more people will rise up, and the barbarians in Jiangxia, Yizhou, Bajun and other places will riot at every turn! Our court wants to send troops, but it also wants to allocate funds for disaster relief and quell the chaos, but with the continuous natural and man-made disasters, the treasury has long been out of money.
It’s so bad that even the people have become poor, with no profit to be squeezed out.”
"Amid internal and external troubles? Our court is impoverished? What can be done?"
Yi Xiaotian read the poem eloquently, word for word, sonorously and forcefully, and every sentence was rhymed.
The most important thing is that the arguments in each sentence are clear and the arguments are strong, making people convinced...
Cao Cao's brows furrowed tightly at some point. He was thinking of the many difficulties and challenges he encountered in governing Yanzhou, let alone governing an empire, which must have been even more complicated.
Brother Yi's words are indeed so thought-provoking.
"What if you were the emperor at this time? What would you do?" Yi Xiaotian asked another question...
While speaking, he looked directly at Sima Yi...
As if curious about his answer.
"I...I..." Sima Yi's throat became thicker for a moment. At such a young age, he could not solve the situation of natural and man-made disasters, internal and external troubles.
"Yeah? This is an unsolvable problem!"
Yi Xiaotian did not embarrass Sima Yi, lowered his tone, and continued to preach.
"Money is needed to run the court! Money is also needed to put down the rebellion! And our emperor was only in his twenties at that time. It doesn't seem too much to find some beauties to fill the harem and build some gardens to relax, right?"
"But where does the money come from?" Yi Xiaotian asked...
"Selling an official position to win a title..." Sima Yi replied blurtly. He knew what would happen next, and he hated it even more.
Yi Xiaotian nodded.
"Yes, it means selling officials and titles. A Guannei Marquis can be sold for five million yuan, and a public minister is priced at tens of millions. Even our Yanzhou Shepherd Cao Cao, his father Cao Song also set a small goal of 'one hundred million' and bought a three-dollar
That’s the official title of Grand Lieutenant!”
Well…
Cao Cao was stunned. He felt as if he had been shot while lying down. Of course, he felt a little distressed. One hundred million, what could he do? Buy a Taiwei, one of the three princes?
I was quite a prodigal when I was young!
After wiping his sweat, Cao Cao pricked up his ears and continued to listen.
"Now, the imperial court has money to run, money to quell the rebellion, there are many beauties in the harem, and gardens have been built one after another..."
Yi Xiaotian continued, "Youdao is full of warmth and thought. Speaking of which, our Ling Emperor is still very imaginative. When he has money and wealth, he starts to think about things to spend money on.
, he inherited the habit passed down from generation to generation by the Han emperors - building gardens. In order to build gardens in Luoyang, a large number of houses were demolished, leaving countless people homeless and displaced..."
Yi Xiaotian presented this history and story to a group of students in an emotional voice.
Full of visuals…
Even many students and Confucian scholars can feel that from the empty treasury to the selling of officials and titles, to the rich treasury, the late emperor's arrogant and lewd face; the miserable situation of the people, it seems that... the decline of the Han Dynasty is inevitable again.
"gentlemen…"
Sima Yi stood up suddenly and interrupted... "Sir, if this is what you said? Your Majesty's actions are so unpopular. Isn't there anyone who can persuade him?"
Advise? Haha...
As soon as this question was raised, Cao Cao shook his head.
Sure enough, even if this student is a little smart, he is still young, silly and naive...
Advising the emperor? Who got kicked in the head by a donkey?
Since the rise of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, relatives have always been in charge of the imperial court, which also heralds the rise of aristocratic families.
Do these aristocratic families only care about the development of their own clans and the rich food in their own farms?
How can you risk admonishing the emperor? If something makes you unhappy? Isn’t it true that the gain is not worth the loss?
Cao Cao sighed when he thought of this.
Sure enough, Yi Xiaotian on the high altar waved his hand. "This little friend Sima, let me ask you? Your Sima family in Hanoi is also a famous family, with disciples and former officials all over the world? Why doesn't your family go to persuade the emperor?"
Uh...this...
Suddenly, Sima Yi's cheeks turned red with embarrassment.
Persuade? How to persuade? If the persuasion fails and the emperor is displeased, what should we do?
It would be better to just cooperate with the emperor in such a weird way, he repairs his garden, and the Sima family develops the Sima family's connections and relationships.
call…
I see.
Sima Yi understood, and immediately bowed his hands and said, "The students have been taught!"
Seeing how well-informed Sima Yi is...
Yi Xiaotian was very pleased and even liked Sima Yi a little. This guy was very cute when he was a child. Children who like to ask questions are very smart and can be taught.
Yi Xiaotian nodded to him and continued talking immediately.
"What I have said so much is nothing more than telling you that from the rise to decline of the Han Empire, the issue that the court and the emperor ignored was only four words - grassroots governance!"
It seems that the key point has been mentioned...
Yi Xiaotian was shocked and said loudly.
"Natural disasters occur frequently. The wealthy families are sitting on resources, but the common people who depend on them can barely rely on them. But what about the people outside the wealthy families' farms? What about the common people who are subordinate to those who buy official positions? Those who are exploited and plundered by the eunuchs
What about the empty Li Shu? What about the poor people who were displaced because they wanted to build gardens? Have they ever appeared in the eyes of the emperor, the nobles, and the eunuchs? Their lives...are not their lives?"
"The character of the common people is the simplest. As long as their lives can go on, they will never rebel. But what? They are watching droughts, floods, ice disasters, locust plagues, and plagues one after another! The aliens invade the border every year.
, but I am homeless and have nowhere to go."
"On the other side, the emperor who has claimed his destiny is eating, drinking and having fun, the rich and powerful family has thousands of hectares of fertile land, and the eunuchs who have taken over the power are still exploiting the people unscrupulously!"
"The grass-roots governance of the Han Empire was completely out of order, out of order, and out of balance. There were a large number of desperate and hungry people. 'They dare not wear clothes when they are cold, and they dare not eat when they are hungry. The people are in trouble but cannot help them.'"
"...At this time of despair...if you are one of them and you hear someone saying that as long as you join us, you will have food to eat and you can be cured, if those people tell you that the only way out is rebellion, will you not
Will you follow?"
"This is why, in the Year of Jiazi, when Brother Zhang Jiao stood up in yellow turbans, so many people followed him, and so many people shouted the slogan 'Heaven is dead, Huang Tian is here to stand'! The grassroots governance was out of order.
, imbalance, so they can only find hope in this way!"
"Grassroots governance, just four words, is full of countless energy. This is what the Han Dynasty ignored, and it was also the turning point from prosperity to decline, and the source of ruin!"
