March 15th.

Early morning.

It has been seven or eight days since I met my contact person.

During this period, Xu Shouyun's life was very boring. He just went to Yanfu Palace to clock in and go to work every day. He thought that Eunuch Chen would cause trouble for him.

But I didn't expect that the other party seemed to have changed his personality and ignored me. All the previous threats felt like a joke.

But it can't be said that there is no revenge at all. At least some eunuchs in Yanfu Palace are not very willing to talk to him.

The palace maids didn't pay much attention to me, that is, the two sisters Yanyun and Yanyue were willing to chat with me, but they often stayed with Concubine Liu.

So Xu Shouyun is alone most of the time.

Eunuch Chen's method of revenge is a bit feeble and he isolates himself, but the effect is surprisingly good, because the palace is really boring.

Without any entertainment methods in his previous life, and no palace maids and sisters to chat with, Xu Shouyun was indeed a bit dull.

Fortunately, after coming back every day, I can occasionally chat with Li Jing.

Through this chat, Xu Shouyun got a piece of good news, that is, Da Wei might really take the pill.

Xu Shouyun generally has a certain understanding of the Wei Dynasty.

The Chu Dynasty did not lie to itself, the Wei Dynasty was indeed in danger.

Before Renzong took over the Wei, it was already riddled with holes. With a series of means, he continued the fate of the Wei while also making many concessions.

Let’s talk about external troubles first and then internal worries.

Foreign aggression is very simple. There are three major dynasties in the world, the Chu Dynasty and the Jing Dynasty. The Chu Dynasty has strong troops and horses, and has always wanted to annex the Wei Dynasty.

At the same time, the prairie cavalry in the north of the Wei Dynasty repeatedly harassed you. This harassment is not about sending a cavalry to invade your territory and then run away.

They came here to plunder the supplies of the people on the border, and sometimes they would directly slaughter a village. The men would be killed, and the women would be captured and made into slaves. If the children were in a good mood, they would be brought over to be slaves. If they were in a bad mood, they would be killed directly. The old people would not have to ask.

When something like this happens, the Wei Dynasty usually sends troops to guard it, and then nothing happens. Even officials from the Ministry of War suppress such news.

To the south is the Southern Xinjiang area, where there is the Southern Barbarian Royal Court. These guys are even better. Their soldiers are not particularly strong, but deep in the mountains, there is nothing you can do against them.

After spending a lot of manpower and material resources, a 'genius' in the court finally came up with a 'genius' idea.

Let the other party take the initiative to recognize Wei as their suzerain state, and then send a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry and supplies there every year, and establish diplomatic relations from then on. If Wei needs help in the future, you have to come and help.

The Southern Barbarian Royal Court is definitely willing. They are not a big country in the first place, and are much inferior to the nomadic tribes in the north. They rely on the terrain advantages of deep mountains and old forests.

After raising the Southern Barbarian Royal Court in this way for decades, the Southern Barbarian Royal Court became stronger and stronger, and was no longer weaker than the northern grassland cavalry.

Then they turned against each other, demanded more and more silver, asked to give them women, and now even directly ask for marriage.

Let the Wei Dynasty send the princess to get married, along with three thousand maids.

Who doesn’t know what this means?

Renzong chose to refuse, and as a result, the Southern Barbarian Royal Court teamed up with the northern grassland cavalry to directly invade the Wei Dynasty.

It was this battle that defeated Renzong, because the Wei Dynasty suffered more than 500,000 casualties in this battle. In the end, as a last resort, he agreed to the request of the Southern Barbarian Royal Court.

Moreover, all the Guanshan Mountains in the south have been lost.

By the way, the misty sixteen states in the north are also gone.

Renzong vomited blood and was depressed, and the Wei Dynasty almost collapsed.

Fortunately, in the two years before Renzong's death, he used a series of means to stabilize the overall situation, and this series of means was to lose money and land.

Although it was humiliating, at least the situation was stabilized.

As for the east and west sides, they are slightly better, but not much better.

There are many great powers in the East China Sea Islands, among which the Ying Kingdom is the strongest. A large number of Japanese pirates roam around, massacring the people near the sea, and plundering the resources of the Wei people.

The west side is somewhat uncontrolled, because the west side is the land of Buddhism. It used to be better and could be controlled a little, but now it is no longer possible.

The people there only listened to the arrangements of the Buddhist temple. The imperial power of the Wei Dynasty had no influence there, and the Buddhist sect had the support of the Jing Dynasty, so it was difficult to move.

This is the foreign invasion in the southeast, northwest and northwest of the Wei Dynasty.

[East China Sea Japanese Pirates], [Southern Barbarian Royal Court], [Western Buddhist Kingdom], [Northern Grassland]

Let’s talk about internal problems, it will be even more exciting, and more troublesome than the late Ming Dynasty.

The Wei Dynasty adopted a "cabinet system". There was no prime minister, and the power equivalent to that of the prime minister became an organization.

There are three forces in the court.

The radical faction headed by Liu Yanming, the chief minister of the cabinet, is extremely powerful.

The conservatives led by cabinet scholar Yang Ning are keeping a low profile and biding their time.

The neutral faction headed by Li Jie, Minister of Industry, is the worst and weakest.

These three forces dominated the government and the public, and the emperor's power was greatly weakened, so that the emperor became the weakest existence.

It was better when Renzong was alive, but now that the empress has ascended the throne, almost everyone looks down on the emperor.

Subconsciously, I still feel that among the prostitutes, there are still some royalists in the court. It’s a pity that they can’t defeat others, so they all retired and returned home.

[The imperial power is weak], this is the first question.

【Three Kings Struggle for Power】, this is the second question.

Before Renzong died, he gave three princes different powers. One was the King of Qin and had regent power, but he must get the consent of the empress.

One is King Yan, who controls the military symbols of the three military camps and is stationed near Kyoto.

There is also Prince Ning. This prince is not in Kyoto, but is stationed in Nanyu. He is in charge of six military camps, has 100,000 cavalry, and has Renzong's edict.

If there is civil strife in Kyoto, you can lead troops into the capital to clear the emperor's side and eliminate the traitors.

Sound familiar?

Renzong's idea was too beautiful. He was worried that his daughter would be weak after she ascended the throne, so he asked his family to protect her.

But he would never have imagined that his own family was the cruelest to his own family.

The King of Qin became the regent and became Liu Yanming's biggest protective umbrella. This is how the royalists were driven away.

The King of Yan was in charge of the army and was tyrannical in the Wei Dynasty. He was a hundred times more arrogant than the emperor.

Prince Ning was in power, and he frequently asked for large amounts of gold and silver in the Southern Henan area. Even a three-year-old child knew what he wanted to do, but the court had to give it.

The only good thing is that the three kings fought for power and achieved a state of checks and balances, but the emperor's prestige and power were also slashed.

And that’s not all.

The generals in the Yungui area are rumored to have colluded with the Chu Dynasty. This is the general guarding the Wei pass.

If he betrays the country, the Wei Dynasty will encounter an unprecedented crisis, so the court can only continue to provide benefits, and even consider granting him the title of king, just in the hope that he can stabilize.

These are all power struggles.

Since the empress ascended the throne, there have been continuous disasters in the country. There has been a severe drought in Suzhou and Nanping. Countless people have left their homes and become refugees.

As a result, a large number of Taoist sects have sprung up, using the name of destiny to move and change the emperor star, conspiring to rebel, and all lives are in ruins.

There are still a few questions, but Xu Shouyun doesn’t want to say more.

The empress dowager interferes in politics, officials are corrupt, the national treasury is empty, and Yin is short of food. These problems are not big problems.

There is a problem that is particularly serious. Others have not noticed it, but Xu Shouyun has.

Cultural invasion.

Well, after chatting with Li Jing for a few days, Xu Shouyun wanted to publish a collection of lyrics and poems, but he didn't say it directly, he just talked about it.

From this, we learned that the poetry and ci circles of the Wei Dynasty have recently been more fond of those from the Jing Dynasty, so Xu Shouyun asked some questions about clothing.

Nowadays, many young scholars actually like some of the clothes of the East China Sea countries, like to put on rouge, drink and have fun, etc.

And all of this has a lot to do with the Four Seas Cultural Conference held every four years.

The Sihai Literary Society is a gathering of scholars all over the world, symbolizing the largest gathering in the literary world. After the founding of the Wei Dynasty, it has been ranked second repeatedly, and I thought it would take the first place sooner or later.

What I didn't expect is that in the past hundred years, I haven't even won the top ten, especially the last time, which was the second to last.

The Sihai Cultural Society is known as the gathering of all nations. Think about what the penultimate one represents.

Therefore, the scholars of the Wei Dynasty began to worship the culture of other countries one by one, but many people were not aware of the crisis.

However, Xu Shouyun knew that this thing was very scary. In his previous life, his country suffered a huge loss and gave birth to a lot of foreign-loving dogs.

Of course, Xu Shouyun is quite happy about these.

After all... Once the Wei Dynasty is destroyed, he will be invincible.

And Xu Shouyun also clearly understood.

There is not much time left for the Wei Dynasty.

Next, as long as the Wei Dynasty makes a few more mistakes like changing rice to mulberry, even the gods will not be able to save it.

Very good.

Very good.

And at the same time.

Next to the main hall and in the side hall in the morning, Li Jie felt something strange inexplicably.
Chapter completed!