Zhao Bing has been in this world for more than ten years. During this period, he has been constantly adapting to and studying this society, trying to seize the rare period of transformation to find a prosperous road suitable for the Song Dynasty. As the research deepens, from the previous disagreement of Confucian culture and even oppression of some ideas, it has begun to change, and finds that there are some truths in it.

First of all, the Song Dynasty opened the gate for fair competition in the imperial examinations, and children of all classes, including industrial and commercial, could enter the officialdom. The entire bureaucratic team mainly came from the selection of the imperial examinations. Although they were of high rank, they were "compared with victims" and were equal in legal status. The landlord class was no longer "different from scholars and commoners". Land rights began to be frequently transferred through economic means, and landlords, self-cultivated farmers and tenants may have their status fluctuated due to the gains and losses of land.

Not only the tenancy of cultivated land, but relatively equal contractual relationships have also begun to enter many economic activities. Farmers and handicraftsmen have begun to have the right to move and the right to move, which has promoted the horizontal and upward flow between various classes. All these changes have given rise to people's vague yearning for equality. Among them, Song scholars advocated "the people are my compatriots, and the things are my friends", which emphasized this view of equality.

In society, the traditional idea of ​​agriculture-oriented and industry-commerce as the end was challenged, and the concept of equality among scholars, peasants, industry and commerce emerged. Zhao Bing believed that this was nothing more than a revolution of identity concepts before the emergence of modern citizen consciousness, and expressed a strong demand for social equality. Compared with the previous generations, this sense of equality was a new factor. Of course, in his opinion, there was still an essential difference from the modern concept of equality.

Secondly, compared with the previous dynasties, the political atmosphere of the Song Dynasty was relatively relaxed, and the spirit of compatible came into being. During its establishment and formation period, the Song school adhered to an open attitude of inclusiveness and inclusiveness, with a spirit of doubt and innovation. At the same time, it was quite tolerant of religion and tradition in the world, and objectively affirmed the resources of other schools, so that Buddhism integrates Confucianism and Taoism in theory, and Taoism draws nutrients from Confucianism and Buddhism. The supreme rulers also handle religious relations with compatible spirit, and peaceful coexistence of the three religions became the norm. In compatibleness, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce can also constantly absorb, learn from, integrate other heterogeneous cultures to produce new cultures.

In essence, Confucianism at this stage can also be regarded as a world-oriented culture, focusing on practice, emphasizing management of the world, fundamentally focusing on how the people survive and develop, and how the country is peaceful and strong, reflecting the sense of saving the world with "taking the world as one's own responsibility". The elites among them believe in the safety of the world and the actual responsibility of the people and the benefit of the people. They made an appeal to the emperor to "rule the world with scholars and officials", showing a self-conscious consciousness that was very different from the scholars of the previous generations. The "internal sage" skill of investigating things, seeking knowledge, sincerity, uprightness of the heart, and self-cultivation, ultimately fell on the "outer king" of managing the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world.

During the reconstruction of Neo-Confucianism, Zhao Bing also discovered that scholars advocated ethics and urged outstanding scholars and officials to "not be ungrateful to seek progress" and consciously believed that "punishment is a temporary honor and disgrace, and their power is in the monarch; the name is a great honor and disgrace for all ages, and their power is in the clear discussion", and regarded the evaluation of the current and future generations of themselves as higher than reward and punishment, and the eternal value beyond life. However, with the development of history, the status of scholars has been stabilized, and negative factors inevitably begin to appear, and the pros and cons often tangle the gains and losses.

By the time Zhao Bing arrived, the Song Dynasty was already full of holes, with officialdom corruption, economic collapse, and the world was declining. Many scholars gave up their past ethics, instead pursuing fame and fortune, and even betrayed the nation and the country. As for the political legacy he obtained, his institutional design certainly ensured the centralization of the monarch and eradicated the division and separatism, but they were always and everywhere, "prevent things and ruled them". In terms of military affairs, they all acted independently, lacked coordination, and difficulty in coordination, and other problems followed, which seriously weakened the combat effectiveness of the army.

In administration, many political schools have emerged, officials are redundant, and inefficient phenomena are common. Therefore, strong enemies are approaching, and when the current situation is chaotic, they lack vitality and are short of response. As for spiritual heritage, the new Confucianism, as the core of spiritual culture, has indeed injected many new elements into the times. However, with the pressure of the external environment and the strengthening of internal autocracy, Neo-Confucianism gradually gained respect as the mainstream of Song studies and was promoted to an official school. The compatible spirit of the founding period gradually disappeared, and dogmas such as "preserving the laws of nature and destroying human desires", "starving to death is small, losing integrity is big", and finally became the spiritual shackles of the autocratic empire to control bureaucrats and tame the people.

All of these problems accumulated over a hundred years are now passed on to Zhao Bing. If he wants to make a difference and revive the Song Dynasty, he must transform this crumbling dynasty. At this time, the imperial power declined, and scholars had occupied the court and controlled public opinion. His living environment was already very bad, and he would feel restrained from anything he wanted to do.

To give a very simple example, "All the kings under the world are kings, and all the kings and ministers in the world are kings" is a very familiar sentence. In our understanding, the land in the world belongs to the emperor; everyone living on the land is the emperor's subjects, and it does have the flavor of "family and the world". Of course, this sentence is explained by modern people, not a description of the ownership of property rights in the legal sense, but is just a declaration of sovereignty in the political sense.

However, the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty had another explanation, which reversed their meaning: "The king has nothing to do with it. He regards the world as his home. All the land is his land, and all the people are his sons. If the property is in the country, what is the matter with the money and property in the country, let alone the tribute and taxes, what do you think of me? After reading the book, since "Yu Gong", no one has heard of the emperor having private wealth." According to this explanation, that is, "All under the world is the king's land" does not mean that the people have selfless property. On the contrary, "All under the world is the king's land", which means that the emperor has selfless wealth, but regards the world as his home.

To conclude, since the emperor is rich in all over the world and regards the world as his family, he will not be allowed to make money and waste excessive money. The monarch's daily expenses are not a private matter, but a public matter. Therefore, he needs to be controlled by the government. In Zhu Xi's words, "(The monarch) is responsible for food, wine, clothes, second houses, utensils, wealth, bribes, husband, eunuchs, palace concubines, all of them are controlled by the tomb, so that they can move and remain calm, and they can control the law of the officials without any gaps. In a moment, they can hide their private interests."

According to modern interpretation, the tomb priest is the leader of the government, and the grand government refers to the government's Ministry of Finance. In this way, the emperor's rights all come from the prime minister's gift. Whether it is food, drink, defecation, or marriage, having children, the living expenses must abide by the rules set by the prime minister. This view can be said to be deeply rooted in the Southern Song Dynasty, where Neo-Confucianism is prevalent, especially the praise of scholars.

But scholars did not consider the emperor's feelings. They forgot where their power came from, who granted it to it, and supported it? Zhao Bing can be said to be the most democratic person in this era, and also knows that the essence of power is not enjoyment, but contribution. As a trans-society energy, how power serves the country and society is fundamental. Moreover, Zhao Bing, as the person in power, can also accept rational constraints and social supervision, so that the operation of power is in line with its original purpose.

But Zhao Bing could not accept that all his privacy was exposed to others. Every time he spent a penny, he had to approve his subordinates, and he had to help with blind dates first. This was not the life that an emperor should have, but a puppet raised up high. So Zhao Bing was fighting the prime minister's power as soon as he came to this world and tried to regain power. Then it would be natural to attack the literati and official group.

Over the past ten years, Zhao Bing can only be said to have a slight advantage in this battle and has not been able to win completely. But now there is actually an opportunity to turn the situation around. Not only did he see it, but the ministers in the court also understood it. Last year, a group of old ministers including Ying Jieyan, Liu Fu, Ma Tingluan, Chen Zhongwei and others wrote letters to request retirement, but it was delayed because the war suddenly broke out. At the same time, the right prime minister Wen Tianxiang had already gone to Sichuan and Shu to preside over the battle against Shu. Jiang Qi organized a reserve army in Jiankang. Ying Jieyan said that his age was too high and he would no longer go to court, and he was in a state of retirement.

Therefore, in the court, only the left prime minister Lu Xiufu and the chief political officer Liu Fu, were in charge of the government. The most important officials of the six ministries, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, have all completed the change, and are all trusted by Zhao Bing. The ministers and officials of each ministries have basically completed the transition from old to old, and most of them were trained and promoted in Qiongzhou; the officials of the main local prefectures were also selected by Zhao Bing from the earliest officials who entered the officialdom.

It can be said that if Zhao Bing proposed to abolish the prime minister at this time, he would not be subject to too much resistance in the officialdom, and could complete a smooth transition. Even if someone opposed it, it would be more from the gentry and famous scholars in the wild, but they would not cause any great storm or waves without any authority. And he, with the power of the Northern Expedition and the elite troops returning to the capital with the powerful battles, was enough to shock those who were ready to move and completely suppress the opposition.

This time, Wang Yinglin proposed that Duke Zhuang be the one who stayed at Yingtian Prefecture and recommended Chen Puti to take over the Hongqing Palace, which made Zhao Bing immediately alert and realized that the officials in the court were panicked about the deposed prime minister. He wanted to use the plan of removing the firewood from the imperial court to weaken the power of the imperial court and make him unable to assume the duties of the prime minister. He recommended Chen Pu again to serve as an official, in order to use his prestige among scholars to strengthen his voice in the court, and after a group of old ministers retired, he entered the throne of the priest to prevent Zhao Bing from abolishing prime minister.
Chapter completed!