Dedicate One’s Mind

Chapter 637 The winner’s evaluation (author’s note is included in the article, it is very long, plea

The game between the two factions ended in the most tragic way, the Danming Rebellion. The moderates did nothing but did everything, and did not participate in person, but they had the last laugh. They took over the highest power after the war and continue to this day.

Looking back, the victory of the moderates is the general trend of history. If they follow the path of the hardliners, they will inevitably end up extinct. The moderates closed their doors and closed the mountains, recuperated, and continued their set of methods of doing nothing but doing everything, which allowed Yiqimen to achieve a true revival.

People say that heroes are not judged by success or failure. However, history has its own clear evidence. If Wu Yi were to go back to the past, even if he was ashamed of the moderates' approach, he would still choose to support the moderates, not for anything else, because this is the right path.

The evaluation of the losers by the winners in history is that they are warlike and militaristic, inviting wolves into the house, and at the same time, they declare the defense of the barbarians and warn future generations to be careful of aliens.

Because of this, Xuan Zhenzi used this example to refute Wu Yi's example at this time. And Wu Yi is really the first high-level Yiqimen who recruited aliens as regular disciples (Shan Hui is a witch) after the Danming Rebellion.

(Author's note: I thought about whether to write it for a long time, but finally decided to write it. Otherwise, I would have to ambush for more than a hundred chapters, and my head would want to explode. What is the prototype of the story? What is the allusion behind it? If I only moved myself, but the readers didn't understand it, it would be a pity.

If the readers have a little understanding of Chinese history, plus my many hints, they should be able to see that the Danming Rebellion in the article is talking about the Anshi Rebellion. The backgrounds of the two are different, and the process and results of the events will naturally not be the same. Please don't copy some characters rigidly.

The Tang Dynasty was the most open dynasty in ancient my country. After the Tang Dynasty, it gradually declined and closed in many aspects, and continued the cycle of order and chaos.

The Danming Rebellion in my writing focuses on ethnic issues, and I will now mainly talk about the ethnic issues of the Tang Dynasty. Topic.

I said in advance that I have no intention of provoking ethnic relations. Everything is recorded in history books. In fact, if you read my article carefully, you will find that Sanren still cherishes his life.

The royal family of the Tang Dynasty was of ethnic minority blood (Xianbei), so the Tang Dynasty was also very open to ethnic issues.

Middle school students can also find the words of Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty in history textbooks, "Since ancient times, people have valued China and despised foreigners, but I love them all the same."

This sentence is not only because of blood, but also because at that time, there were a large number of ethnic minority generals in the army as high-ranking officials, and there were a large number of vassal states on the local borders.

During the Anshi Rebellion, Han children accounted for 80% of the troops under the command of An Lushan, the governor of the three towns (because it was a recruitment system, the government soldier system was replaced, the governor held the financial power, and the soldiers were the mothers).

On the contrary, there were many Gao Xianzhi and Ge in the rebellion suppression team. Minority generals like Shu Han were even mainstream in the early days.

So, to sum up, the common problem in the middle of the dynasty, such as the Anshi Rebellion, was the result of a population trap, that is, resource growth could not keep up with population growth. In short, there was not enough food to eat.

The reason why it appeared in this way was an institutional problem, and it had little to do with the relationship between ethnic groups. However, it was a fact that minority generals occupied the top positions in the army in the middle of the Tang Dynasty.

Why did the Han people not want to serve in the army? Because under the Fubing system, they were tax-free and had a high status. After retiring, they could become grassroots cadres of the country. However, under the conscription system, they were a group of rough men. Their superiors arbitrarily deducted soldiers' wages, and their status was not high. It was difficult to support their families (here refers to ordinary soldiers, the general's personal guards, whose status and treatment were very high. , these are also the private soldiers of the generals. They basically rely on these people to fight, which lays the hidden danger of separatism). As for why the Fubing system collapsed, I won’t say much, otherwise I can say it in tens of thousands of words. With the development of social economy, Han people have more choices, such as being civil servants. But a country is destined to need a certain military presence, and the ethnic minorities are brave and good at fighting, which naturally fills this gap. Let’s talk about the prototype of the moderates and hardliners. In fact, it is the Niu-Li Party Struggle in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The article actually beautifies the Niu Party. As a not-so-glorious side of ancient my country, the Niu-Li Party Struggle is generally not clear to middle school students, and textbooks that establish cultural confidence will not write more here. In fact, except for the late Qing Dynasty, the records of the last years of the dynasty in textbooks are basically pitiful. Most people know that when they were studying Li Shangyin, the Chinese teacher taught them a little. Since you may not be able to use or are not used to using Baidu’s function, I will use the most concise words here. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the world was dominated by aristocratic families. With the rise of the imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, ordinary landlords began to enter the officialdom. The Niu Party (the moderates in the novel) was the representative of this group of small and medium-sized landlords, that is, the middle class.

In contrast, the Li Party (the hardliners in the novel) was the original group of aristocratic families, mainly Guanlong nobles. The royal families of the Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties were all this group of people, and they were extremely prominent.

Speaking of the main differences, the Li Party’s foundation is in the army. Only continuous wars can bring them honor and military exploits and maintain their status.

And wars must collect taxes. The upper nobles cannot collect them, and the lower-level people are too poor to collect them. Only the middle class, that is, the foundation of the Niu Party, can be attacked. The Niu Party naturally opposes.

There is no benefit in party struggles. I oppose everything the enemy insists on, and I insist on everything the enemy opposes. In the end, one must die. As the other side of the contradiction, those who survive will often disappear on their own.

The Li Party's proposition was objectively conducive to maintaining the unity of the Tang Dynasty, but when the party was fighting, they opened fire from all sides without considering the people's ability to bear it, and they were extremely corrupt, resulting in more defeats than victories in the war.

The Niu Party's proposition was objectively conducive to recuperation, but when the party was fighting, all border areas were abandoned (it did not happen, but even some areas with opportunities to recover were abandoned, which was a pity). Even in the late Tang Dynasty, the territory was extremely large.

The strong dynasties in China had such a large territory, not because of insufficient military strength, but because of insufficient finances, because they needed to rule costs, and often these areas did not have much benefits. In addition to enhancing the self-confidence of the people, the benefits were negative.

After stabilizing the security of the farming areas, the dynasty generally stopped expanding, otherwise there would be censors who jumped out to say that the emperor was militaristic.

When the Niu and Li parties were fighting, these costs were paid by the Niu Party, and in the end the Niu Party did not get much benefit, and the benefits were monopolized by the Li Party. The Niu Party was naturally unwilling.

The general trend of history is the gradual rise of middle and lower landlords. In the Song Dynasty, there were no more aristocratic landlords. The Niu-Li factional dispute was the last glory of the aristocratic families. When the Huang Chao Rebellion broke out, all the landlords fell into the homes of ordinary people.

In summary, the Niu-Li factional dispute came after the An-Shi Rebellion, and there was no direct causal relationship between the two. The novel was written at my convenience. If you make mistakes in writing essays or use the wrong allusions, don't blame me.

Although the novel has a prototype, it still says the same thing as before, don't copy it mechanically, analyze specific problems specifically, and arm yourself with scientific ideas.

I hope everyone enjoys reading it. It doesn't matter whether you agree with my point of view or not. I hope you can learn to look at problems with a materialist historical perspective, don't follow the crowd, and make your own judgments. )