In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

In the middle of summer in June, the Youyan Road became increasingly hot, and all prefectures and counties were busy with disaster relief.

In the midst of this busyness, the Liu family mansion in Beiping City was silent.

Since the fall of Xijin Prefecture, the city has been in chaos, and the Liu family is not in a good situation.

Fortunately, they surrendered quickly, their property was preserved, and the three brothers Liu Erxuan, Liu Siduan, and Liu Wuchang also sought several positions in the government.

For example, Liu Erxuan is now Xiuwu Lang, and Liu Wuchang is the Tuanlianshi of Beiping Prefecture.

Liu Siduan had made meritorious deeds and served as a liaison between Liu Sangu and Liu Liufu. Now he is a Tuiguan under the Youyan Road Transportation Office.

It can be said that although Liu Erxuan and Liu Wuchang are just empty officials without real power, the Liu family also has three powerful officials.

For example, after Liu Sangu fled to the Song Dynasty, he passed the imperial examination and was initially awarded the title of General Supervisor, and later served as a civil official such as the Secretary of the Ministry of Works, the Doctor of the Imperial College, and the Secret Pavilion Compiler.

Liu Liufu was of a higher rank. Although he had not passed the imperial examination of the Song Dynasty, he had served as prime minister in the Liao Dynasty. Even the prime ministers of the Liao Dynasty were divided into different levels.

Liu Liufu was the prime minister of the Southern Palace, which was the lowest rank among the high-ranking officials, because the Southern Palace was in charge of the Han people, and the Northern Palace was the power center for the Khitan.

In addition, the prime ministers of the two palaces were divided into two privy councils, and there were two kings above them.

Therefore, to a certain extent, even if the princes of the Yelu family and the Xiao family were not included, Liu Liufu would be ranked more than ten out of ten in terms of actual power.

But no matter what, he was still a prime minister, one of the people in the highest power center of the Liao Dynasty, at least equivalent to a minister of a certain department of the Song Dynasty, and a second-rank minister of a first-level institution plus a deputy Tongzhi title.

So when he surrendered, his rank must not be too low. Even if he was not given the same position, it should not be reduced too much. The most suitable one was a transport envoy of a certain route.

Considering his merits in surrendering and turning the tables, Zhao Jun decided to appoint him as the Pacifier of the East and West Roads of Beijing after discussion by the Political System Council.

This position was established in the second year of the Qingli period. It was mainly because disasters occurred in many places in Henan during the Baoyuan to Qingli period, and many people became bandits, resulting in poor public security.

For this reason, the court temporarily set up pacifiers in some roads in the inland areas where banditry was more serious, responsible for mobilizing local wing troops, eliminating banditry, and managing disasters.

In recent years, the country has been peaceful and the people have been safe. The banditry has gradually subsided. The pacifiers in most places have been revoked, but in order to accommodate Liu Liufu, the pacifier of the East and West Roads of Beijing was retained.

In this way, although this is a real power position, and nominally the head of a road, due to the large reduction of banditry, the role of the pacifier is only to prevent disasters, and the real power is greatly reduced.

Such a high-level, low-power, but indeed a real power position, is very suitable for him, which is the best of both worlds.

Therefore, now, except for Liu Yide who died early, the six brothers of the Liu family have two idle officials and three powerful officials. Although they cannot be said to be prominent in the Song Dynasty, they are at least much better than the other Youyan families who surrendered.

At this moment, except for Liu Siduan and Liu Liufu who served in the heart of the Song Dynasty, Liu Erxuan, Liu Siduan, and Liu Wuchang gathered in the mansion, and none of them looked very good.

In the huge back hall of the Liu Mansion, the servants served tea and walked out backwards. Soon, only the three brothers were sitting in the room.

After a moment of silence, Liu Erxuan said, "Yang Yunyun has talked to me, and they should have talked to you too. What do you think about this?"

Liu Wuchang sneered, "What can I think? Whoever wants to go can go, I won't go anyway."

Liu Siduan looked at the two letters on Liu Erxuan's coffee table and said, "What do the third and sixth brothers think?"

Liu Erxuan picked up the two letters and raised them, saying, "The attitude of the third and sixth brothers is very clear. They said they would do it according to the court's wishes."

Liu Siduan did not speak.

Liu Wuchang said anxiously: "How can this be? My Liu family's foundation of more than a hundred years has been destroyed. My third and sixth brothers can't follow the Song Dynasty court."

"Old Five!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Siduan interrupted: "Pay attention to your words, it's the court, not the Song Dynasty court."

Liu Wuchang was silent for a while, and said coldly: "No matter what, they want to take away our land and move our family to the south, which shouldn't be done. How can I recognize such a court?"

"Do you need to recognize it?"

Liu Siduan sneered: "You have to understand your identity. We are surrendered ministers. What qualifications do surrendered ministers have? Bargaining? The third and sixth brothers have made it very clear in the letter, cooperate with all the actions of the court! "

Liu Wuchang said angrily: "Fourth brother, cooperate with the actions of the court? You can also say this? Our tens of thousands of acres of land, thousands of tenants, and our five-generation family business in Xijin, just gone like this?"

He then looked at Liu Erxuan and said: "Second brother, you are the eldest in our family now, and you should make the decision. You tell me yourself, the industry accumulated by our ancestors for generations is gone just like this, do you think this is appropriate? How should we meet our ancestors a hundred years later?"

As soon as he said this, Liu Erxuan and Liu Siduan were silent.

The family accumulated for generations and finally climbed to the peak of power in the Liao Kingdom, but fell overnight.

Not only did they fall from the throne of power, but they could not even keep their family industry and personnel. No one would feel good about this.

You should know that their Liu family was not prosperous at the beginning. At the earliest time, they were Liu Peng, the governor of Lulong Army, a vassal in the late Tang Dynasty.

Liu Shoujing, the grandson of Liu Peng and the great grandfather of the brothers, was an official of the Later Tang Dynasty. After the fall of the Later Tang Dynasty, Liu Shoujing entered the Liao Dynasty and served as the deputy governor of Nanjing in the Liao Dynasty.

Liu Shoujing's son Liu Jing inherited his father's favor. He was first a literary scholar in Youdu Prefecture, and later he was promoted to the position of Minister of Rites and Minister of Government.

It wasn't until their father Liu Shenxing that the family rose to prominence and became prime minister of the Beifu.

You must know that the status of the Prime Minister of the North Palace is much higher than that of the Prime Minister of the South Palace.

When the Yutian Han family, ranked first among the Han families in the Liao Kingdom, reached the peak of power, it was the Han family who gave birth to Han Derang, the prime minister of the Beifu.

Therefore, it can be said that starting from their father's generation, the Liu family truly entered the power center of the Liao Kingdom.

Liu Liufu, the sixth son of their family, became the Prime Minister of the Southern Mansion at the age of forty. If nothing unexpected happened, it would be a natural thing for him to be promoted to the Prime Minister of the Northern Mansion in the future.

And in Yelu Zongzhen's era, the Han family in Yutian had already declined slightly.

Handerang had no sons and had several adopted heirs from the Yelu family, but their surnames were all Yelu. Few of Handerang's brothers' heirs reached high positions.

Therefore, it can be said that after Zhang Jian's death, Liu Liufu was already the highest-ranking official among the Han people.

In the future, it is not impossible for him to continue to be promoted like Han Derang and Zhang Jian, to serve as privy envoys of the Northern and Southern Councils, and even for the prime ministers to become representatives of the Han people in the Liao Dynasty.

However, it took the old Liu family five or six generations to get to where they are today. As a result, during the Liao-Song War, the Song Dynasty regained the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures and directly brought them back to their original shape.

It's as if you have spent a lot of effort and money to build a beautiful large villa. When you see that the entire construction work is completed and you are just about to decorate and move in, a fire burns down your villa.

This is how the Liu family brothers can comfort themselves. At least Liu Liufu is working as a comfort envoy in the Song Dynasty. Otherwise, someone with poor psychological endurance may have to shut himself up on the spot.

However, although these brothers are not autistic, they are almost there.

Because now the imperial court hopes that they can take the lead and sell their land to the imperial court with other Yan families, and the family will move to the south.

For them, this is obviously unacceptable.

However, after a moment of silence, Liu Siduan finally said: "Let's do what Lao San and Lao Liu want."

"no."

Liu Wuchang firmly refused to agree.

Liu Erxuan also looked troubled and said: "Fourth, is there no room for maneuver?"

Liu Siduan smiled bitterly and said: "If possible, who would be willing to leave their hometown and go to a strange place far away from their homeland?"

"well."

Liu Erxuan sighed.

Liu Siduan shook his head and said: "Since the third brother and the sixth brother have said so, it is obvious that the imperial court is very determined. It is unwise to risk a break with the imperial court."

"They must have been coerced by the Song Dynasty court. Why should we listen?"

Liu Wuchang was dissatisfied and said: "Now the people of Youyan are under our control. As long as we don't nod, who among the many people below will listen to the Song Dynasty court?"

Liu Erxuan looked at Liu Siduan and said, "Didn't the imperial court always need us to help manage the people? Why did the trend suddenly change again?"

Liu Siduan smiled bitterly and said: "Brother, think about it, if the people are not under our control, how can the court let us go? We are in charge of the people, wouldn't it be easier for them to rebel? The Song Dynasty learned the lessons of the Tang Dynasty, and for military towns and aristocratic families, But it was quite harsh. I heard that they had a Yi family, the Chen family, with more than 3,000 people, so they were asked by the Song Dynasty court to separate their families. "

"Ah."

Liu Wuchang sneered and said: "If they want to separate, let them go. Anyway, we Liu family will not separate. At worst, everything will die and the net will be broken. We will incite the people under the rule and other aristocratic families to rebel!"

When his words came out, the expressions of Liu Erxuan and Liu Siduan changed slightly.

In addition to being dignitaries in the Liao Kingdom, the most important thing is that the family has high prestige among the local Han people.

Their acres, land, and industries are spread all over Youyan. They have countless tenants and tenants, and they directly or indirectly control a population of more than 10,000 people.

It can be said that if these Youyan families unite, they can control at least one-third of the millions of people on Youyan Road.

Historically, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty recaptured Yanyun for a short period of time. As a result, the Han people in Yanyun revolted one after another. Is it really because they believed that the taxes of the Song Dynasty were too high and they did not want to be controlled by the Song Dynasty?

Of course not.

After all, the Song Dynasty has not yet begun to rule, and the people have not been forced to pay taxes by the Song Dynasty. If no one organized it, ordinary people would not be able to take huge risks to rise up and fight the Song Dynasty's army.

Therefore, the biggest factor is that these Yan families seriously distrusted the Song Dynasty court, leading the people in the Youyan area to revolt and expel the Song army.

Now the Song Dynasty court wanted to eliminate the influence and control of the Youyan family on the lower class people.

So for these Youyan family, it involves the issue of fundamental interests. If the Liu family raises its arms, it is really possible to attract many people to gather in rebellion.

The problem is that.

Can you beat it?

The Liao Kingdom was so powerful and had more than 500,000 people who controlled strings. What would be the final outcome?

Therefore, confronting the imperial court head-on is tantamount to hitting an egg against a stone.

Now after hearing Liu Wuchang's words, Liu Siduan's face changed greatly at first, and then he slammed the table angrily and said, "Fifth brother, you were also a military envoy of Wu Ding Army before. Why are you so ignorant of the general situation? Do you want our clan to be destroyed?"

Liu Wuchang was just angry at the imperial court's pressing steps. He was not really a fool. He naturally realized that he had said the wrong thing.

But he was obviously still a little angry and said: "We are all brothers. What's wrong with closing the door and saying a few words? Besides, it's not really a rebellion. It's just a matter of stirring up some momentum and letting the court retreat when it sees the difficulties."

"Haha, Zhao Zhiyuan has come to Youyan, do you think the imperial court will retreat in the face of difficulties?"

Liu Siduan sneered and said: "I'm afraid if you really do this, it will just give the court an excuse to kill all the rebels. The third brother, the sixth brother, and even the entire family will be implicated by you!"

"Fourth brother, don't be angry. Fifth brother just said a few angry words."

Liu Erxuan quickly smoothed things over, then thought about it and said, "Besides, didn't the emperor say he was very kind? He was just secretly stirring up some momentum, and the imperial court wouldn't send heavy troops."

Liu Siduan shook his head and said: "Second brother, you still don't understand the seriousness of the matter. That's Zhao Zhiyuan. His coming means that there is no room for redemption in this matter. We can only talk to the court to see if we can get something better." Many benefits.”

"Is it that powerful?"

Liu Erxuan frowned. Could it be that Zhao Zhiyuan could really kill all the aristocratic families in Youyan Road?

Liu Siduan said coldly: "In recent years, people in the north have only known about Fan Zhongyan's power, but few know that Zhao Zhiyuan, outside of Fan Zhongyan's lordship, and within Zhaozhiyuan, have killed as many people as Fan Zhongyan! Even members of the prime minister's family cannot escape death! "

Liu Erxuan and Liu Wuchang looked at each other with surprise in their eyes.

Fan Zhongyan has been on the battlefield in these years, attacking Xixia in the northwest and conquering the Liao Kingdom in the north. He has killed more than 100,000 people. Including injured prisoners, more than 150,000 are more than enough.

Didn't Zhao Jun kill less than him?

Is it really that exaggerated?

However, what they don't know is that Fan Zhongyan's light has indeed been shrouded in the Song Dynasty both inside and outside these years, making Zhao Jun covered up a lot.

But if you calculate carefully, you will find that the number of people Zhao Jun killed is indeed a huge number.

First, Kaifeng Mansion cracked down on gangs and eliminated evil. There were more than 30,000 people in the underground kingdom, and he killed more than 10,000. Many of them were guilty of heinous crimes and were directly sentenced to death.

Many of them were just serious crimes. For example, according to the laws of the Song Dynasty, the crime should be sentenced to more than ten years in prison or exile, but he also added a first-level crime and was taken directly outside the city to beheaded in public.

The remaining more than 10,000 are for lighter crimes, and they are also charged at the first level. Misdemeanors become felonies, felonies become death sentences, and those who are jailed or exiled are exiled.

After that, he traveled around the world for the first time, investigating corruption and fighting crime. Thousands of officials were killed because of Zhao Jun's arrest. Two prime minister families, the Han family and the Ma family, were arrested. Zhao Zhen's younger brother, Guo Chengyou, served as prime minister. Yang Chongxun is also on the road to death.

There are countless other officials, big and small. Basically, as long as you are found to have committed a crime, Zhao Jun will not tolerate it, and then count the accomplices, family members, subordinates, and subordinates of these officials.

When he first traveled around the world, he killed more than ten thousand people, mainly officials and officials, and exiled and imprisoned about ten thousand or twenty thousand people.

Later, various major actions were launched across the country.

Including wiping out the evil forces, eradicating official corruption, attacking the landlord class, dealing with rural bandits and road tyrants, killing generals and nobles, and conducting a comprehensive clean-up of the Song Dynasty.

Lin Lin finally figured it out, and found that the number of people killed was not one hundred thousand, but eighty thousand. Adding in the exiles, sentences, etc., the total number was probably two to three hundred thousand.

Zhao Jun was not satisfied with this.

Because the great man of the new era clarified Yuyu, he dealt with millions of corrupt officials, landlords, squire bullies, thieves and bandits, and all kinds of monsters and monsters in the Republic of China.

However, the national conditions are different, and the results are naturally different.

After all, it was still a peaceful time in the Song Dynasty. The people could not say that they had enough food and clothing, but they could still get by.

During the period of the Republic of China, there were heroes everywhere, and warlords, bandits and bullies took turns to fight. After more than ninety years of collecting taxes, the people were not constantly depleting the lake to fish, but killing chickens to obtain eggs and plundering the dead.

Therefore, when great men create a new era, there are naturally many Huang Shilang who will be eliminated.

In comparison, Zhao Jun killed so many people, which can be regarded as cleaning up the entire Song Dynasty. The level of officialdom and local public security have been improved by more than one level.

It's just that Zhao Jun killed people in stages, killing one class after a while, and adopted various differentiation and attack strategies to minimize the influence as much as possible without causing too much turmoil.

Coupled with the glory of Fan Zhongyan's repeated defeats of Xixia and Liao outside, the people's attention was attracted by Fan Zhongyan, which led Zhao Jun to kill so many people. However, his influence within the Song Dynasty was second only to Fan Zhongyan's influence abroad. The strength is reduced by more than a point or two.

In the final analysis, the people Zhao Jun killed were closely related to the people of the Song Dynasty. The class he was killed hated him, and the people were grateful and happy to him.

But for foreign countries such as the Western Xia and Liao Kingdom, they naturally pay more attention to military enemies, and their attention to Zhao Jun is very low. There are also reasons such as the underdeveloped speed of information dissemination, so the Youyan family does not Understand how powerful he is.

Only Liu Siduan knew.

Because he served as a liaison officer and went in and out of the Song army many times, and later went to Bianliang with Liu Liufu to receive rewards.

In Kaifeng, he not only met his third brother Liu Sangu, but also heard rumors about Zhao Jun with his own eyes and ears, so he naturally understood how terrifying he was.

I saw Liu Siduan looking at his two brothers seriously, and said without any concealment of warning and seriousness: "I advise you, if you don't want your family to be destroyed, just listen to me honestly. This time when the Zhiyuan comes back from Liaoyang, I I will go to see you and agree to the court's request. I just hope that you can stay safe and don't do anything impulsive, lest the family suffer disaster! "

Liu Erxuan and Liu Wuchang looked at each other and fell silent.

perhaps.

The fourth child is right.

Sometimes, in the face of irresistible force, you should be more submissive.