Son of Song Dynasty

Chapter 154 Feather Letter

Zhao Dezhao remembers very clearly that in the original historical timeline, a peasant uprising led by Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun would occur in Sichuan in more than ten years. Some areas were later suppressed by the eunuch Wang Jien. This historical fact is very famous, and it was included in middle school history textbooks.

According to the most popular cognition on the Internet in later generations, all peasant uprisings were caused by the exploitation of the landlord class so heavily that the majority of peasants could not bear it and had to rise up to resist.

In Zhao Dezhao's view, this statement is not wrong, but it does not have any guiding significance - why was the first large-scale peasant uprising in the Song Dynasty in central Sichuan and not elsewhere?

As a history buff with the soul of the 21st century, Zhao Dezhao's thinking is certainly not as superficial as Liu's understanding. He feels that the root cause of this matter is actually: the Song Dynasty took Sichuan too smoothly.

In the second year of Qiande, the Song army attacked the Houshu regime, which was separatist in Sichuan. He wrote a famous poem: "The flag was raised and lowered on the king's city, and the concubine learned about it in the deep palace. All 14 people were disarmed, and none of them was a man."

The emperor of Hou Shu descended too quickly, and the biggest advantage was that the war caused very few casualties, but it had a direct consequence, that is, the old pattern of interests in Sichuan was preserved intact and has been maintained for a long time. Continued into the Song Dynasty, a large amount of land was still concentrated in the hands of a very small number of big landlords, and social conflicts continued to intensify, eventually leading to a monstrous turmoil, which broke out completely after many years.

Different from Sichuan, the rest of the Song Dynasty was pacified after repeated wars. The original social class was broken by the war, the old interest pattern was reshuffled, and the degree of land concentration was not so exaggerated. Social contradictions were alleviated in the fierce war, so after the Song Dynasty unified the Central Plains, it remained calm for a long time.

Zhao Dezhao is unwilling to repeat the mistakes of history, so he can only choose to use cruel methods to nip the problem in the bud—in other words, "physical annihilation". Years are getting better.

……

"Ma Yushu! Cruel servants and servants, stripping the common people!"

"There are a total of 120 three treacherous sinners, and they will be punished here!"

Pan Mei's loud shout brought Zhao Dezhao's thoughts back to the present moment. He looked up and saw that all the treacherous and sinners listed on the list had been pulled to the high platform, kneeling beside the executioner's sword and shivering. Trembling like a flock of quail waiting to be slaughtered.

A gust of cool south wind was blowing, and Zhao Dezhao smelled a familiar and unpleasant smell in the air, which seemed to be urine and stench. After a moment of stupor, he finally realized that someone had peed on his pants!
"Your Highness, look at—" Pan Mei turned her head to look at Zhao Dezhao, with a last hint of pleading in her eyes, as if she was saying, "Can you think about it again?"

Zhao Dezhao felt no fluctuation in his heart. He looked at Pan Mei coldly, raised his right hand and struck down.

"Execution!" Pan Mei ordered loudly.

When the military order is issued, the drums in front of the stage are beating, the rhythm is concise and unadorned, but there is a kind of shocking power, the faces of all the people watching the punishment change color, and those who are waiting to be executed are all dejected, and they did not wait for the knife It has already lost half of its life.

After the sound of the drum, the executioners slowly raised the big knives in their hands, and saw the light of the knives cut down, more than ten necks of blood sprayed into the sky, and the heads of people rolled down the stage like dumplings in the pot, frightening the audience. Everyone who was punished shouted in panic and backed away.

Although Zhao Dezhao was the instigator of the massacre, he did not have any bloodthirsty hobbies. He had no intention of admiring the bloody scene in front of him, and subconsciously turned his head to look towards the entrance of the square in front of the hall.

At this moment, Zhao Dezhao noticed that a fast horse was riding into the square in front of the hall from that direction, but was stopped by the guarding sergeant immediately. The two sides seemed to be arguing. The rider was wearing the usual uniform of Tokyo people, obviously It's a messenger coming from Tokyo.

Zhao Dezhao instinctively realized that there must be something urgent, so he immediately ordered someone to let it in.

A moment later, a letter with sealing wax was delivered to Zhao Dezhao's hands.

Zhao Dezhao only glanced at the envelope for the first time, and his eyelids twitched immediately. There were three chicken feathers stuck to the wax on the envelope!

Long before leaving Tokyo, Zhao Dezhao asked Wang Xiuzhi to keep an eye on the movements in Tokyo, especially if there was any movement in the palace, he would immediately arrange for messengers to go to Lingnan to report;

In addition, Zhao Dezhao also made a special agreement with Wang Xiuzhi, in order to prevent someone from pretending to be a messenger and thereby delivering false information, so every time a letter is delivered, chicken feathers must be glued on the envelope. It is urgent, one chicken feather represents the slightest degree of urgency, and three chicken feathers is the most urgent.

Something big is happening in Tokyo!

Zhao Dezhao tore open the envelope, opened it and glanced at it, his eyes suddenly turned dark.

What he was most concerned about this time when he led the army was never whether he could obtain military exploits, but the physical condition of the emperor, but this kind of thing still happened!

Zhao Dezhao felt dizzy and dizzy, his feet shook a little, and he almost couldn't stand still for a while.

"Your Highness, this is—" Jiang An, the captain of the personal army under his command, hurried over to support Zhao Dezhao.

"No problem." Zhao Dezhao pushed Jiang An away, took a deep breath, and squeezed out a smile on his face: "My king has been marching for a long time, and I am a little tired."

Zhao Dezhao knew very well that this matter was too confidential and must not be leaked right now, otherwise the morale of the army might be shaken and it was necessary to temporarily conceal it.

Hearing this, Jiang An showed suspicion on his face. He saw Zhao Dezhao's complexion changed drastically after reading the letter with his own eyes, and he already guessed in his heart that something big happened in Tokyo, but he didn't ask, but respectfully cupped his hands and said: "Your Highness, Please go back to the tent and rest."

Returning to the military tent, Zhao Dezhao kicked out all the military officials. After thinking silently for a while, he ordered someone to call in Pan Mei, who was outside supervising the execution.

"General Pan, there is a letter from Tokyo." Zhao Dezhao handed the secret letter written by Wang Xiuzhi to Pan Mei, and said calmly, "After you have read the letter, I will discuss it with you."

Pan Mei took the letter and glanced at it before jumping up from the chair.

(End of this chapter)