During the Winter Solstice Festival in the third year of Zhenghe, Emperor Huizong worshiped heaven in Yuanqiu. In addition to the lu book, a hundred Taoist priests were used to lead the way with sticks. Huizong actually obeyed Gun and crowned Da Gui and held Yuan Gui. Cai You was the official of Sui, and he was followed by hundreds of civil and military officials. Yulue went out of Nandongmen.
When everyone walked to Yujin Garden, Huizong suddenly asked the people around him: "If there are repeated buildings and halls to the east of Yujin Garden, where is this?"
Hearing this, Cai You said, "Your Majesty, wait a moment. I'll take a closer look." After saying this, Cai You acted like a ghost, put his hands in front of his eyebrows, blocked the light, and looked into the distance. After watching for a while, Cai You reported back to Emperor Huizong: "What your Majesty saw is true. I looked around according to the order, but saw that deep in the clouds, there were several layers of buildings, palaces and pavilions. When I looked closely, I saw that there were dozens of them. It’s only ten feet away.”
When Huizong heard this, he asked anxiously: "Have you seen anyone else?"
Cai You replied: "If there is a Daoliu boy, holding a banner and a canopy, going in and out of the clouds, his clothes and eyebrows can be clearly counted. This is because your majesty is inspired by the heaven, so a god descends to show his support."
Huizong was overjoyed when he heard this.
On that day, after the ceremony of worshiping the gods was completed, the gods descended and announced to the world.
Cai Jing then led hundreds of officials to congratulate him.
Emperor Huizong was so happy that he issued an edict to build a Taoist palace at the Yunqi table.
Cai Jing heard the edict and urgently arranged labor to build it. About half a year later, the Taoist palace was completed and named "Yingzhen". The emperor made a record of the manifestation of the spirit of innocence, published it on a stele and laid a stone, and erected it in the palace.
Emperor Huizong decreed that the Taoist Immortal Scriptures should be made available to the world, and he also established Daoliu official ranks, with names such as Mr. and Shishi, Jun Bizhong and Dafu, down to General and Shilang, all twenty-six levels, with attendants in various palaces, school registration, and teaching of scriptures. Waiting for an official title is similar to waiting for the system, compilation, and real pavilion.
Because Huizong was obsessed with Taoism, Huangguan Yuguo came one after another, and they were all favored in front of the palace, and their power was higher than that of the courtiers.
In order to maintain his power and fear that Huizong would be denounced due to his sensitive nature or discovering his treachery, Cai Jing took advantage of Emperor Huizong's weakness of being eager for success, greedy for foreign affairs, and happy to enjoy himself, so he started a large-scale construction project and built a luxurious palace for Huizong.
The luxurious palace Cai Jing wants to build is Yanfu Palace.
The palace was headed by five eunuchs, Tong Guan, Yang Jian, Jia Xiang, He Xing, and Lan Congxi, who were responsible for the work, extensive construction work, and clever construction.
During the construction of Yanfu Palace, five eunuchs competed for favor with every possible intention. During this period, you competed for novelties and I competed for cleverness, specializing in luxury, magnificence and grandeur, regardless of industry and wealth, and finally built Yanfu Palace.
How spectacular is Yanfu Palace? But I saw the scenery of Longmen in the east, Tianbo Gate in the west, endless palaces and pavilions, dug pools to form the sea, water springs to form the lakes, Hezhuang Deer Village, and numerous gates of birds, strange beasts, peacocks, and emeralds. Thousands of rare and famous trees are gathered together to form the best, strange rocks and secluded rocks, poor workmanship is extremely successful. It’s really a Yao Chi fairyland aura.
On the day when Yanfu Palace was built, Huizong was overjoyed. After the tour, he was so happy that he personally wrote a record of Yanfu Palace, and his disciple Wang Ximeng, a painter, engraved a monument to leave the traces.
Later, in order to make Yanfu Palace a grand scene in Tokyo, additional villages and restaurants, restaurants and singing towers were built, stretching for ten miles. Every year until after the festival, people will visit and watch, hanging colors during the day and putting out lanterns at night. From the north of Donghua Gate, it is not forbidden to stay at night. Officials at all levels are ostentatious and vain, and they move to the townspeople's shops and live in secluded houses along the road, living and drinking freely. It didn't stop until after the Shangyuan Festival.
Later, it was expanded and built across the old city. The layout was the same as the fifth one, and it was named Yanfu No. 6. In addition, a second bridge was built across the outside of the city, with stones stacked under the bridge to serve as a bridge to connect boats. The figure on the bridge, but no trace of the person under the bridge, is named Jinglongjiang. The Jiajiang River is planted with rare flowers and precious trees, and the palaces are facing each other, making them extremely brilliant.
During the Huizong Dynasty, there was Zhang Zerui, named Zhengdao, a native of Zhucheng, Shandong. He studied in Bianliang in his early years, later studied painting, and worked at the Hanlin Painting Academy.
Ze Rui was impressed by the prosperity of Bianliang and was ordered by Huizong to paint a huge scroll with a height of 25 and a half centimeters and a length of 525 centimeters, and named it "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".
This painting depicts the panoramic view of Bianliang City's waterway transportation and busy market. The painting has been passed down to this day and has become a valuable product. Later generations lamented the extravagance of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and recited a poem:
The green mountains are looming and the water is far away, and the mind wanders about the homeland.
The clinker kite rope cannot be tied, and I dream of Bianliang once in a thousand years.
Under the auspices of Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Wang Fu, Yang Jian and others, the capital was built to be a prosperous and magnificent place, highly admired by Emperor Huizong, and also became the envy of barbarians outside China.
When he was free from government affairs, Huizong often went to the palace to play. He looked up and down, which was very pleasing to the eye. It was as if he had entered the vast cold, floating like an immortal. He was extremely happy at the moment. He looked around and said: "This is how Grand Master Cai loves me. This palace was built. Tong Taiwei and others worked hard to build it, and it was not in vain. In ancient times, Qin Shi and Sui Yang praised the construction, which made it more beautiful than ever, but it may not be as good as this."
Ying Zheng and Yang Guang were both violent people, so Huizong said this urgently: "Both the Qin and Sui Dynasties were the lords of subjugated countries, and their daily love was nothing more than the sound and lust of dogs and horses. Your Majesty is completely different from them. Your Majesty appreciates the things abandoned in the mountains and forests." Things that do not harm the virtues and are beneficial to the saints, how can they be compared with those of the Qin and Sui Dynasties?"
When Huizong heard this, he was overjoyed and said happily: "What you said is very true. I am always afraid of disturbing the people. Just because Grand Master Cai checked the remaining treasury and found that there are almost fifty or sixty million, so I ordered to build this palace to enjoy it with the people." .”
They flattered him again and again, causing Huizong to be fascinated and enter a demonic state.
When building Yanfu Palace, Cai Jing knew that it was time to use Zhu Chong and his son, so he took Zhu Chong to Tong Guan's mansion and handed him over to Tong Guan. When delivering Zhu Chong and his son, Cai Jing told Tong Guandao: "These two are magical people. After Yanfu Palace is built, these two will be of great use. You can naturalize his father and son into the army, commend him for military merit, and promote him to Officer, I will recommend it to the emperor in the future."
After hearing this, Tong Guan obtained fake military status for Zhu Chong and his son, and became officials under false military merit.
After the construction of Yanfu Palace was completed, luxurious decoration became an urgent need. Cai Jing saw that Huizong was fond of exotic flowers, rare herbs, treasures and rare stones, so he thought of Zhu Chong and his son.
Cai Jing sent people to summon Zhu Chong and his son, and set up a plan in the dark room, asking Zhu Chong and his son to "secretly acquire treasures from central Zhejiang for advancement" in order to create a good impression on Huizong and seek a greater official position.
Zhu Chong and his son naturally understood these matters.
Zhu Chong and his son then rushed to Zhejiang, looking for and buying exotic flowers and herbs.
Hard work pays off.
Sure enough, Zhu Chong and his son found three strange boxwoods, so they spent a huge sum of money to buy them and transported them to the capital day and night.
Cai Jing was greatly surprised when he saw it, and took advantage of Emperor Huizong's happiness to introduce Zhu Chong and his son to the court.
Huizong liked the three boxwood trees presented by Zhu Chong and his son, so he granted him the position.
At this point, Zhu Chong and his son, because of Cai Jing's recommendation for promotion, turned out to be ordinary people and naturalized in the army. They faked military merit and became high-ranking officials. They also won the appreciation of Emperor Huizong by donating exotic flowers, rare herbs, treasures and stones. He was an official in the same dynasty.
Later, Emperor Huizong built the Long Live Mountain in Tokyo and collected exotic flowers, herbs, treasures and stones everywhere. Cai Jing set up the "Yingfeng Bureau" in Suzhou and sent Zhu Chong and his son to be in charge of collecting tribute.
Zhu Chong and his son were given important responsibilities, and they were loyal to Emperor Huizong and worked extremely hard.
Zhu Meng, in particular, was young, strong, and full of tricks. He was so selfish in purchasing exotic flowers, rare herbs, and precious stones that he enriched his own pockets and caused considerable harm to the common people.
At that time, as long as there was a piece of wood or a stone in the homes of the common people in Suzhou, which was worthy of appreciation, Zhu Meng led his soldiers to break in without any explanation and put a yellow seal on the flower stone in the garden as a sign, thus collecting another imperial tribute.
If the people complained about such overbearing behavior, Zhu Meng would accuse it of being "disrespectful" and use the opportunity to extort money. Ordinary families were often forced to sell their sons and daughters and lose their fortunes. Even large families were overwhelmed. However, Zhu Meng used this opportunity to extort money. This makes a fortune.
In the name of purchasing flowers and stones, Zhu Meng withdrew money from the treasury, "tens of millions each time", but the tribute sent to Tokyo was "robbed and fished from the people, leaving nothing in return". A lot of money was embezzled.
There are many other things, such as digging graves and destroying houses, too numerous to mention.
During the Jingguo period of Emperor Huizong's reign, in order to build Jinling Palace, the imperial court ordered to collect Taihu stones from Wu County.
Zhu Meng was ordered to take charge of this matter.
Zhu Meng then ordered his men to search everywhere and found a total of 4,600 Taihu stones.
In order to collect the 4,600 pieces of Taihu stones, Zhu Meng ordered thousands of mountain masons and boat owners to collect them without any mistakes, whether it was dangerous cliffs or abyss.
After long-term water erosion, the fine Taihu stones have become thin, leaky, permeable, and wrinkled. Some Taihu stones are very large, which poses problems for transportation. Zhu Meng ordered people to find a solution.
Someone came up with a way to solve this problem, which was to seal the stone with clay and then wrap it in linen and carry it.
At that time, in order to carry flowers and stones, Zhu Meng could allocate official and commercial ships at will, which once affected water transportation.
In the fifth year of Xuanhe's reign, Zhu Meng obtained a huge Taihu stone, four feet high, and carried it on a huge ship with thousands of trackers, demolishing bridges and houses along the way. After several months, it was transported to Bianliang in Tokyo.
Emperor Huizong was extremely excited when he got this stone. He named it "Shen Yun Zhao Gong Stone", commended Zhu Meng for his loyalty and filial piety, and named him "Pan Guhou".
Zhu Meng, who was commended by Emperor Huizong, became more diligent and worked harder, winning Huizong's favor. Within a few years, his official position was gradually moved to Hezhou Defense Envoy.
Because of Emperor Huizong's favor and trust, Zhu Meng was so arrogant that he accumulated huge wealth through various means and lived a luxurious and corrupt life.
Of course, it also sparked a civil uprising in Jiangnan and forced Fang La to rebel.
Since the Yanfu Palace was built and Zhu Chong and his son were enabled, the glorious Song Dynasty began to decline. From this time on, many treacherous ministers and traitors such as Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Wang Fu, Yang Jian, Zhu Meng, Gao Qiu, etc. gathered around Emperor Huizong. This gang of treacherous ministers and thieves dug a huge hole for Emperor Huizong from different aspects. No matter how smart Emperor Huizong was, there was no way he could recover.
It is said that not long after the construction of Yanfu Palace, trouble broke out in the northwest territory. The Qing and Tang people took advantage of Emperor Huizong to build gardens wantonly, believe in Taoism, play with things, and do nothing. They launched an attack on the northwest territory of the Song Dynasty and successively captured Shan, Huang, and Kuo. Three states. When the news was reported to the court, Emperor Huizong was very angry and wanted to use troops in the northwest to regain the three states of Shan, Huang, and Kuo in one fell swoop to show the court's might.
