One Piece of Song Dynasty

Cai Jing burst into tears of gratitude for Song Huizong's kindness, and was determined to repay him with death. When he came to power, he quickly set off a vigorous Chongning Reform Movement, and the country's appearance soon took on a completely new look. In February of the fifth year of Chongning, Cai Jing, who had served as prime minister for less than four years, was dismissed by Song Huizong because of his dictatorship. Cai Jing has always been very strong politically. Although his position has faded, the personal connections he has carefully built within the court are still there.

Only ten months later, in December of the fifth year of Chongning, Cai Jing came back and became prime minister for the second time. Until June of the third year of Daguan, "the capital has been exclusive to the country for a long time, Gong Bi and others talked about his treachery, and the superiors also disliked the capital", so he dismissed the prime minister for the second time. Cai Jing was sixty-three years old this year, and he officially went through the retirement procedures this winter. He thought he could say goodbye to politics from now on. Although he had stepped down, he was still under constant attack from his political opponents and was forced to leave Tokyo and live in Hangzhou.

In February of the second year of Zhenghe, Cai Jing suddenly received an imperial edict from Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty: "The prince and grand master appointed Cai Jing as the prime minister for two years. He assisted the government for eight years. He was the first to build Shaoshu. He worked hard and worked hard. In addition to ranking, he was recommended every year. Kuang Yuanfeng's attendants were met by the Shenzong. There are not many today, and they have experienced many favors. They should be among the best, so they can be restored to Grand Master Cai Jing. He still serves as an official official in the state of Chu and is granted a residence in the capital." Cai Jing was overjoyed, and the whole family Moved back to Tokyo. In April, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty hosted a banquet for Cai Jing in the Taiqing Building in Neiyuan. "All the ministers and princes were with him." Cai Jing was deeply moved.

Cai Jing later reported to Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty: "On March , the second year of Zhenghe, the emperor issued an imperial edict. Chen Jing pardoned the province's mistakes and was reinstated. He ordered the Sifang Ambassador and the Yingzhou Fangshi Envoy Tong Shiminlai to summon him to Que. The minister Jington made his first speech, and then received ten edicts from the emperor, charging him with great righteousness, but he was afraid of going to the road. So he drank in the suburbs, had a banquet in the Chui Gong Hall, and purified the evil spirits in the West Pool. He was bestowed with favors and blessings, which are beyond words." Five. In the following month, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty issued another edict, ordering Grand Master Cai Jing to become an official and come to the capital hall every three days to discuss matters. As a result, Cai Jing became prime minister for the third time.

Cai Jing served as prime minister for the third time, which was the longest. It was also the most glorious period of Cai Jing's life, the most glorious period of Song Huizong's era, and could even be said to be the pinnacle and most prosperous period of the entire Northern Song Dynasty.

Cai Jing's third resignation as prime minister was related to the strategy of regaining Yanyun. When Song Huizong first launched the strategy of "alliance with Jin to destroy Liao and regain Yanyun", Cai Jing strongly agreed and actively promoted it, but later his attitude changed. The main reason is that he "sees that the world is in need and the borders are unprepared", and he feels worried. Once, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty had a banquet with the prime minister during the ban, and after drinking heavily, everyone went boating together. Song Huizong suddenly sent Tong Guan a piece of paper and asked him to tell Cai Jing, asking everyone to express their position on the recovery of Yanyun and sign the paper if they agreed. Cai Jing and others were astonished. Cai Jing refused to sign on the spot, saying: "I can't explain the book carefully, but it's hard to name the book."

Four years later, Cai Jing was invited out by Song Huizong to serve as prime minister for the fourth time. However, Cai Jing was already eighty years old and was "blind and unable to write, and too tired to kneel down." All documents that needed to be signed by Cai Jing were done by his son Cai Sui. Even when he went to court, Cai Sui took his place. Every time Cai Sui went to court, "the attendants and the following bowed to him and whispered, and dozens of court officials followed him with documents in their arms." Cai Sui's arrogance and arrogance aroused strong dissatisfaction among the ministers. The most dissatisfied were Bai Shizhong and Li Bangyan. As prime ministers, they had almost no power to handle any official affairs. They could only handle affairs according to the documents signed by Cai Sui.

Cai Jing was particularly fond of his youngest son, Cai Sui. As Cai Jing's eldest son, Cai You found it intolerable. Although the ministers of the DPRK were as afraid of Cai Sui as a tiger, Cai You was not afraid. He did not take this younger brother seriously at all. He was secretly looking for strong evidence to get rid of this younger brother. By getting rid of Cai Sui, Cai Jing can be forced back, and he can hope to climb to the prime minister's throne. Cai You has coveted the prime minister's throne for a long time. Li Bangyan and others also took the opportunity to fan the flames and tried their best to provoke conflicts between Cai You, Cai Jing, and Cai Sui. They hoped to use Cai You's hand to combat Cai Sui's arrogance. These court ministers turned a blind eye to the many crises facing the country, and all their thoughts were focused on internal fighting, seizing power, and competing for favor.

At that time, after the Song Dynasty took over Yanjing and its six states from the Jin people at a great cost, there were many difficulties in management and operation. All wealth was swept away by the Jin army, leaving only a few dilapidated empty cities to the Song Dynasty. All supplies for the Yanjing garrison and government agencies, especially food, must rely on the imperial court. It can be said that the recovery of Yanjing only brought short-term spiritual joy to Song Huizong. He soon felt that this was a heavy burden.

In the first month of the seventh year of Xuanhe's reign, Xu Kangzong, a member of the Shangshu Division, was appointed as an envoy to the Kingdom of Jin to congratulate Wu Qimai on his ascension to the throne of the Jin Dynasty. When passing through Yanjing, he discovered many surprising things. "That year, there was a great famine in Yanshan, and the parents ate their children. The corpses of sick and dead people were marked with paper in the market, and people sold them for food money. The bones of the soldiers were all standing, and the garrison soldiers died of seventeen or eighteen from starvation."

The imperial court ordered "Hebei and Shandong to transfer grain to Yanshan", which assigned the task of ensuring Yanjing's grain supply to Hebei, Hedong and Jingdong roads close to Yanjing, and officials of the transportation departments of each road distributed the amount of grain to the common people. Due to the lack of transportation capacity, officials from various transportation departments also specifically asked the people to transport grain to Yanjing for payment.

In order to transport one stone of grain, it costs more than ten or even twenty stone of grain to transport along the way, which brings great trouble and even disaster to the people. In addition, since the fifth year of Xuanhe, famines have occurred in Hebei, Jingdong and other roads year after year, with poor harvests and starvation deaths everywhere. "People couldn't survive, so they all left and became thieves." As a result, many anti-donation storms or peasant riots broke out in various places. The few are hundreds of people, the many are tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, rising and falling one after another. Those with greater influence include Zhang Wanxian in Shandong, with a population of ; Zhang Di in Shandong, with a population of more than ; Gaotuoshan in Hebei, with a population of ; and countless others with to .

Facing the increasingly spreading civil unrest in the north, Song Huizong hastily adopted a two-pronged policy. One was to issue edicts to appease the people, and the other was to suppress them with force.

In the first month of this year, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty sent Li Zun, the official of the imperial court, and Zhu Dingguo, the minister of consultation, to Hebei Road and Jingdong Road with his personal imperial edict to appease thieves and refugees in Tang, Deng, Ru, Ying and other places. Adopt various preferential treatment policies such as "release of prisoners, exemption from taxes and servitude, and payment of all materials".

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty said in his edict: "I am telling the thieves in Hebei and Hedong, and Deng and Ruying in the Tang Dynasty to relocate their households: Fangchuntian mulberry should be restored to business. I am a good citizen and I am an innocent son. I am not the right person to use it, and my government has failed. Unable to care for Anji, he left Junhan homeless, supported the old and young, and moved tens of thousands of people, and turned into thieves. It was not his true intention, and he was sympathetic to him. He pardoned Jue's crime, but still let Xuanhe not pay taxes for six years. Supervise the prefectures and counties to implement the regulations without neglecting them."