Tracing China: Through history, dialogue between ancient and modern

Chapter 194 The Traveler VS The Son of the Plane
"Dear audience friends, welcome to watch today's..."

"Looking at how many years of history, ancient and modern, there has been a very miraculous person. Who is this person?"

"That's right, it's the suspected time traveler Wang Mang!"

"Is this new emperor with a legendary experience a time traveler? Today, we will find out!
"Looking back on the long history of 2000 years, dialogue..."

……

On the brightly lit stage, as soon as Lin Feng's words came out, all the audience who watched the show immediately burst into laughter.

why?
Wang Mang is suspected to be a time traveler.

Now the host wants to travel back in time to investigate a suspect?
Isn't this fifty steps laughing at a hundred steps?
"Hahaha, this picture is so funny!"

"Good guy, two time travelers, when they meet in time and space 2000 years ago, will there be any sparks?"

"It's possible that fellow villagers see fellow villagers, with tears in their eyes!"

"Wang Mang said, host, why did you come? I have been waiting for a long time, if you don't come, I will be fucked by that kid Liu Xiu."

"The host is about to ask: Brother Wang, you come from modern times, and you have so much modern knowledge, why can't you beat Liu Xiu?"

"Wang Mang must have cried: Old Wang, I have worked very hard, but Liu Xiu is the son of the plane, and I really can't beat him!"

"Interesting and interesting, the time traveler VS the son of the plane, it seems that the great magister is better."

"Of course, Liu Xiu, the great magister who can summon meteorites, do you think it's a joke?"

The atmosphere on the Internet is generally very cheerful.

In full view.

On the stage, lightning flashed, and terrifying lightning intertwined across the world, as if a pillar of thunder was splitting against the sky.

When the dazzling brilliance disappears.

In the camera, an ancient city catches the audience's eyes. The majestic city head, fortified city gate, and bricks and stones shining with cold light all show that this is an ancient city with profound heritage.

The ancient capital of thousands of years.

Changan.

The ancient capital of China's thirteen dynasties should be as it is today.

At this time, above the top of the city, one could see a gray-haired old emperor standing alone on the high part of the city wall, alone, with empty surroundings.

This is Wang Mang who has been the emperor of the new dynasty for 15 years.

At this time, he looked like he was seventy years old, with white hair and an old face, and even a pair of eyes were cloudy and lifeless.

in history.

It took Wang Mang 31 years to complete the usurping of the Han Dynasty and establish a new trend. After 15 years in power, the country was subjugated and his life was lost.

At this time, he was about 67 years old.

In ancient times, when productivity was low, the age of 60 was already the age of sixty.

As the saying goes.

Thirty and standing.

Forty is not confused.

Fifty knows destiny.

Sixty sixties.

Seventy is rare since ancient times.

Eighty, ninety old.

One hundred years old is the year of ecstasy.

At this time, Wang Mang, regardless of other things, can definitely look down on this era in terms of life expectancy alone.

It was the first time for Lin Feng to see the ruler of the new dynasty 2000 years ago with his own eyes, and Lin Feng was deeply moved.

In history, Wang Mang has always been a villain.

Since modern times, although historians have also noticed some positive aspects of him, or affirmed his reform intentions, but his "conspiracy" and "hypocrisy" seem to have come to a conclusion.

After the fall of Wang Mang, except for the "Hanshu" compiled by Ban Gu in the early Eastern Han Dynasty and officially recognized as "Wang Mang Biography", other relevant historical materials have disappeared.

Fortunately, "Hanshu·Wang Mang Biography" is still quite detailed.

In 45 BC, Wang Mang was born in a prominent family, and his aunt Wang Zhengjun was made queen by Yuan Emperor.After Emperor Cheng succeeded to the throne, nine members of the royal family successively became marquises, and five served as grand simas. They were the most prominent families in the Western Han Dynasty.

But Wang Mang's father died early, and it was not his turn to become a marquis; his elder brother also died at a young age, leaving behind orphans and widows.

This made Wang Mang develop habits different from his wealthy cousins ​​since he was a child. He is humble, studious, and lives a frugal life, just like ordinary Confucian scholars.

Serving his mother and widowed sister-in-law and raising his nephew are all well-behaved.Treat celebrities, scholars, and uncles in the family with extra courtesy.

Later, Wang Mang was granted the title of Marquis of Xindu, and was promoted to the servant of Doctor Guanglu, the captain of cavalry.

Wang Mang was always cautious when he was on duty in the palace, and the more he was promoted, the more humble he became.He made friends with high and middle-level officials extensively, supported and helped celebrities, left no surplus money in his family, and even distributed his military and horse clothes to the guests.Officials in office continued to recommend him, and people in the field spread his stories one after another. Wang Mang's reputation gradually surpassed that of his uncles.

That is from this time on.

Wang Mang began to accumulate fame and shape his image, so that his reputation as a sage and wisdom could be conveyed to all corners of the world.

Therefore, the process of his successful usurping the Han Dynasty was not so thrilling, as if it was a matter of course.

What benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, faith, filial piety...

In every aspect, Wang Mang has reached the pinnacle, making it impossible for people to jump out of faults, and the common people also regard him as a saint.

just.

When Wang Mang carried out reforms, he went to another extreme. In order to achieve the goal of perfection, he did not hesitate to offend everyone.

For example, with regard to the issue of land and slaves, the focus of social conflicts, Wang Mang's policy announced in the first year of the founding of the country was:
Changed the name of Tiantian Tiantian to "Wang Tian", and changed the name of slaves and maidservants to "Private Ownership", and no trading was allowed.

Each family with less than eight male members can use no more than one well of land, and the excess must be distributed to the neighbors of the nine ethnic groups. Those who did not have land before can receive land according to the system.

It is also stipulated that those who dare to speak ill of the "Sacred System of Jingtian" and those who violate the law and spread rumors to confuse the public will be escorted to the frontier.

Of course, the big landlords would strongly oppose it, because they occupied far more than one well, and asking them to hand over the excess land was tantamount to cutting their flesh.

Most of the slaves they possess are used for agricultural production, and now that they have handed over the land, is it true that they are raising the slaves for nothing?

And slaves are not allowed to buy and sell, isn't it forcing them to give them away for nothing?
Small landowners, including peasants barely enough to support themselves, were also dissatisfied.

One is that these people have to reduce some land, and more importantly, the land that was actually private will now become public land. If the family population decreases in the future, it will have to be handed over again.

Since there is neither feasibility nor practical coercive measures, most of the excess land owned by the powerful landlords has not been handed over, so the government does not have enough land to distribute to the landless and landless peasants who should receive it. will be satisfied.

Those who were lucky enough to get the land were not at ease, because this is "king land" and does not belong to them.

As for slaves and maidservants, changing the name to "private" will not bring them any benefits, and the prohibition of trading has not changed their identities. On the contrary, because the trading has been changed to secretly, or the owner's original land is reduced, their situation will only be worse. .

In fact, the bureaucratic landlords did not stop buying and selling land and slaves, so countless people were punished, which aroused their opposition.

Three years later, Wang Mang had no choice but to make concessions, so the land and slave sales legally resumed, and the original owner must claim back the land that had been handed over and "accepted" by others.

So far, Wang Mang has offended the only beneficiary who supports this policy.

Besides.

At the beginning, Wang Mang's reform of currency was only for the sake of retro, imitating the mother-in-law money of the Zhou Dynasty.Later, regardless of the reality that the five baht coins had produced 280 billion yuan since the time of Emperor Wu, they blindly promoted various new currencies with various designs but no credibility.After being resisted by the people, they also tried to enforce it through severe punishments, stipulating that those who carry and use five baht coins will be punished the same as those who oppose the well field system, and they will be exiled to the frontier.In order to limit the theft of casting, he stipulated that "one family casts money, five families sit together, and no one is a slave", so that the number of people who are not official slaves "numbers in the hundreds of thousands".In order to enhance the status of the "cloth money" he promulgated, Wang Mang stipulated that officials and citizens must bring it when they go in and out. Otherwise, even if there is a legal certificate, the hotel will not accept board and lodging, and the gate and ferry can be detained.Even Gongqing must show the cloth money he brought when he enters and exits the palace gate.After a currency becomes a passport, the role of circulation ceases to exist.

After a series of reforms failed.

The entire imperial court was already in turmoil.

What's more deadly is that the weather was also extremely unfavorable to Wang Mang. The period around the beginning of AD was one of the most serious periods of natural disasters in the history of China. It can be seen in records of drought, locusts, plagues, and the diversion of the Yellow River. The scope of the disaster area Large and long lasting.Such a large disaster, even under the conditions of sufficient national reserves and stable social order, would cause huge losses, not to mention that it occurred in such a turbulent era of drastic changes, when the national treasury had already been exhausted!

Therefore, when Wang Mang's new dynasty was in trouble at home and abroad, failure was inevitable.

for him.

Lin Feng summed it up in two sentences:

"The 'new sage' obsessed with Confucianism."

"The "speculators" who claim to be reforms."

These two sentences are enough to summarize Wang Mang's ups and downs in his life, but no matter what, Wang Mang relied on his own efforts to leave a strong mark in the vast history.

……

A gust of wind blows the ancient city of Chang'an.

Lin Feng appeared.

Standing beside this ancient emperor, Wang Mang was in a daze, so preoccupied that he didn't realize it.

as always.

The host Lin Feng introduced himself, with a familiar opening line, "Junior Lin Feng, from the era after 2000, crossed the long space of history, traveled through two thousand years, just to trace back to China, and talk about the past and the present..."

Hear the sound.

Wang Mang, with a vicissitudes of face, came to his senses and turned to look at the young man who suddenly appeared.

"You, how dare you step away from me? Come..."

Although Wang Mang has an old posture, his voice is like a jackal, sharp and penetrating, like a wild beast.

"Where's the person? Don't hurry up..." Wang Mang discovered the strangeness before he finished speaking.

It was empty all around.

His voice failed to spread, but formed a strange echo within twenty meters around him.

This space seems to be blocked.

Lin Feng smiled and said, "Senior, I didn't lie to you, this junior really came from a future generation in 2000."

Seeing that Lin Feng did not have any murderous aura.

Wang Mang finally let go of his hanging heart, and asked immediately, "Young people of future generations, have you already possessed the great ability to travel through the world and be comparable to a high-ranking god?"

Lin Feng said, "This is a unique skill for juniors."

"Great!"

"I need you."

"Can you help me, clear up the chaos, eliminate all kinds of bandits, and help my new dynasty become strong again?"

Wang Mang's eyes lit up, he was so excited that he couldn't control himself.

It's like a drowning person, before dying, suddenly sees the hope of surviving.

Unfortunately.

Lin Feng came back from time travel this time, and he didn't intend to help him to help the new dynasty. After all, you are facing the great magister Liu Xiu!
(End of this chapter)