diskusbooks Chapter 323 The Ending of the Six Thieves
Chapter 323 The Ending of the Six Thieves
"When the news reached his hometown, the people who had long harbored resentment could no longer hold back. They stormed into Zhu Mian's house and looted and smashed everything. However, a place called Zhu Family Garden still exists here, even after a thousand years."
A farming expert from the Ming Dynasty: Even if these people are killed, the damage they caused cannot be erased!
A romantic scholar from the Tang Dynasty: They are all utterly wicked. What's most terrifying is that there are such people in every era!
A spoiled young man from the Song Dynasty: ...Serves him right! Serves him right for exploiting the people! Serves him right for playing with stones! Neither of them is any good!
An official from the Sui Dynasty said: "Cai Jing even proposed policies to benefit the people, but the others were truly wicked!"
……
"Next up is the eunuch Tong Guan. Compared to the others, he was actually quite famous. He was involved in almost every war during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty."
"Later, because of his efforts in buying back the Yan-Yun region from the Jin dynasty during the Song dynasty, he was granted the title of Prince, which granted him immunity from death—essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card."
"It's just that if the higher-ups want you dead, then whether you get a pardon or not becomes irrelevant. Besides, historically, those who received a pardon for not dying always had good endings!"
"So, it all comes down to whether the emperor will protect you or not. When Tong Guan fled back from Taiyuan, Emperor Qinzong had already ascended the throne."
"Zhao Huan originally intended to personally lead the expedition, leaving Tong Guan to guard the capital, Tokyo. Perhaps Tong Guan could see that Zhao Huan's abilities were somewhat questionable!"
"Therefore, Tong Guan politely declined and followed his old master, Emperor Huizong, southward. He held the Shengjie Army, which he had recruited in the Northwest, in his hands, and used them to serve as his and Emperor Huizong's personal guards, sending this group of people south with him."
"He also realized that only by following Emperor Huizong could he protect himself, so he followed him closely. Fearing that he was too slow, he ordered his personal guards to shoot down those generals who complained and were unwilling to leave, which was an extremely heinous crime!"
"Once this news spread, the court's remonstrating officials and censors all expressed their contempt for him. As a result, the Song court first demoted him one after another, and then exiled him to Yingzhou."
"However, before they reached their destination, the imperial court issued an edict listing his crimes and then sent an imperial censor to hunt him down. On the way, Tong Guan was beheaded, and his head was brought back to Kaifeng and displayed to the public."
"Tong Guan committed numerous evil deeds for over twenty years. Even at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a folk song that went: 'Beat the bucket (Tong Guan), spill the vegetables (Cai Jing), and the world will be a better place.'"
"But in the Northern Song Dynasty at that time, besides the Six Traitors, the biggest troublemakers were Emperors Huizong and Qinzong!"
"And Cai Jing, the most famous of the six traitors, is far more complex than the others."
"In his early years, he maneuvered between two factions and later became prime minister during the reign of Emperor Huizong. He indulged Emperor Huizong in his pursuit of pleasure. If it weren't for his promotion, the others would not have gone so far as to cause public resentment to boil over."
"It is said that when he was finally exiled, even though he still had money, the people along the way knew his great name and refused to sell him rice. In the end, he could only beg on the streets, but he still passed away in Tanzhou."
"The factional strife that arose from Wang Anshi's reforms, which later escalated to the point where people resorted to any means to attack each other, was ultimately ended by him."
"Perhaps even he never expected that Cai Jing, who once held immense power, would die without anyone claiming his body and would eventually be buried in Louzeyuan. It wasn't until the fourth year of the Qiandao era that his descendants moved his remains back to his hometown of Fengting in Xianyou for burial."
"And the Louzeyuan social welfare system in the Song Dynasty was something he ordered to reform at the time! I just wonder if he regretted it before he died and met such an end!"
Zhu Bajie of the Ming Dynasty: He deserved this fate. Although he was capable, he was too greedy and wanted more!
Cheng Yaojin of the Tang Dynasty: Just look at his younger brother, at least he's not that bad!
A Sui Dynasty official: He was partly responsible for the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty…
An official from the Qing Dynasty: "He's an eighty-year-old man; his later years are truly bleak..."
……
During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty.
Cai Jing didn't expect to be brought up again, since he had already mentioned him before and thought that he had been forced to retire by then.
He spent his whole life striving and achieved the great power he had always hoped for, but in the end, no one came to claim his body!
Thinking of this, he gave a bitter smile. It really was karma. If he had chosen to be a good official back then, would things have been different? Maybe yes, maybe no. This was all he deserved!
For some reason, Cai Jing suddenly remembered writing imperial edicts with his younger brother Cai Bian when they were young.
As a boy, he also had ideals, but he didn't know when he lost them!
……
In the live broadcast room.
Lin Ke sighed again, "Actually, whether they regret it or not is not important. After all, these people did cause the downfall of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it's a matter of divine retribution."
"But dealing with it at this point was already too late. As for the six traitors, Li Yan, Wang Fu, and Liang Shicheng, they were all either sentenced to death or exiled and murdered in revenge. Their fates were all pretty much the same—they all met their demise!"
At this point, Emperor Qinzong was refreshed and in high spirits. The external threat of the Jin army had been withdrawn, and the internal threat of the six traitors had been completely eliminated.
"If it weren't for the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, we might have thought that our peaceful life would continue like this, but the crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty was already looming ahead."
Everyone in the Northern Song Dynasty: (? .?.? ?)………
"Often, we say that we should correct our mistakes and mend the fence after the sheep are lost. The consequences of these things do not seem to be particularly bad. But this approach is obviously inappropriate when applied to the emperor."
"It's like the Northern Song Dynasty after the Jurchens retreated. Emperor Zhao Huan, as the Son of Heaven, already regretted ceding the three towns, but it was too late."
"Especially the soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan who were still resisting had no idea that the very emperor they served would hand them over to the Jurchens!"
"At this moment, Zhao Huan, besides feeling deep regret, also underwent a change in his mentality. Perhaps he followed Emperor Huizong's example, or perhaps it was just his nature. That's right! He became arrogant again!"
"Therefore, many people in later generations felt that compared to Emperor Taizu of Song, the quality of Emperor Taizong's descendants, especially those in the later Song Dynasty, was not very high. Why couldn't they stand up to the challenge?!"