That night, no one was awake, including Wang Fu, because more than ten days ago, a crowd in La Jiangnan rioted, disrupting the local area, and urgent information from the local area continued to be reported to the prime minister's office. After Wang Fu received the urgent information, he did not report it to Emperor Huizong or Tong Guan and others. Instead, he suppressed the urgent information and tightly blocked the news of the Jiangnan Civil War.
In the palace hall during the day, Emperor Huizong arranged for Wang Fu to prepare grain and fodder for the conquest of the Khitans. Wang Fu originally wanted to report the Jiangnan civil uprising to Emperor Huizong, but he was afraid that it would affect the conquest of the Liangshan bandits and his alliance with Jin. The attack on the Liao Dynasty made the Holy Lord Long Yan furious, and his prime minister was gone, and he might be convicted. Therefore, Wang Fu concealed the incident of the La people's uprising in the south of the Yangtze River again and did not report it.
Wang Fu felt that there were still many soldiers and horses in the local area, and the Fangla Civil Rebellion was just a trouble caused by unruly people. The local military strength was enough to suppress it. After the local general suppressed the Fangla Civil War, he could report it to Emperor Huizong. Not too late. Therefore, neither Huizong nor the ministers in the DPRK knew about the civil uprising in La in the south of the Yangtze River.
Because of this matter, Wang Fu spent the whole night thinking about it and having trouble sleeping.
So, what happened to the Fangla civil uprising?
That was during the Xuanhe period. In order to build Long Live Mountain for Emperor Huizong, Cai Jing hired Zhu Chong and Zhu Meng, his father and son, whom he had met in Suzhou. At that time, Zhu Chong and his son Zhu Chong were first arranged by Cai Jing to obtain fake military status from Tong Guan. Then, because of their collection of rare gems and exotic flowers and herbs, they were deeply favored by Emperor Huizong, who actually promoted Zhu Meng to be the defense envoy of Hezhou and granted him the title of "Hezhou Defense Envoy". He is called "Pan Guhou".
Zhu Meng was in his prime, strong, energetic, evil-minded, and full of tricks. He did great harm to the people of Jiangnan in purchasing exotic flowers and herbs.
Because Zhu Meng made too much noise, the people in the southeast were in dire straits, and in the end even the greedy Cai Jing couldn't stand it anymore. Cai Jing was afraid of getting into trouble, so he told Emperor Huizong that "Hua Shi Gang" was disturbing the people too much, and suggested that he restrain himself. Huizong was also sick of the disturbance and worried that the impact would be too bad, so he prohibited Zhu Meng from occupying official grain ships. They dug graves and destroyed houses. Zhu Meng accepted the blame and restrained himself.
However, not long after, Zhu Meng returned to his old ways and started a large-scale construction project to build a Taoist temple and Shenxiao Temple. He also pretended that the area around Sunlaoqiao in Suzhou where he lived had been given to the Zhu family by an imperial edict, forcing hundreds of households in the surrounding area to be demolished within five days. move.
At that time, the government was dark and the people did not even dare to protect themselves. How could they dare to fight against Zhu Meng? In addition, the common people, who knew the emperor and were going to testify against him, had no choice but to endure their grief and anger, pack up their things, and move away in a hurry.
Not only that, the Zhu family and his son also built a garden in Suzhou in a style similar to that of a palace, and recruited thousands of people as personal guards, "who poisoned the prefectures and counties for twenty years."
Fang La rebelled, and his banner was "Kill the traitor Zhu Meng".
Because the civil unrest caused by Fang La was so great that it alarmed the court, the imperial censors intensively impeached Zhu Meng and his sons and nephews from their official positions.
After Fangla captured Hangzhou, he found dozens of people in the VIP reception of the state government's Yamen, all wearing brocade clothes and gold belts, showing off very much. Fang La then ordered everyone to be captured and tortured. Only then did he realize that these people were all slaves of Zhu Meng's family. Therefore, the proverb at that time said, "golden belt, silver belt, the Zhao family is bad in the world and the Zhu family is bad."
So how harmful are corrupt officials and sycophants? ! Regrettably, after pacifying Fang La, Emperor Huizong healed his scars and forgot about the pain. He favored Zhu Meng again and his trust remained as before.
Zhu Meng, who was called an official but was actually a big businessman, embroidered golden handprints on his brocade robe and told others, "Did you see it? This is the handprint of His Majesty the Emperor."
Why is this so? It turned out to be because Emperor Huizong often "touched it with his hands".
One time, Zhu Meng came back from drinking in the inner palace. Because Huizong Zhao Ji specially shook hands with Zhu Meng, Zhu Meng wrapped a yellow silk around his arm, bowed to the man, and kept his arm motionless, indicating that this arm had just been patted by the emperor. , You are so precious that you don’t show courtesy to your ministers and common people.
Zhu Meng's harm was far greater than that of ordinary sycophants, because his greed had exceeded the limit that the villagers could bear.
As we have said before, a strange flower grew in Fang La's house. Zhu Meng's subordinates learned about it and sealed it with yellow paper, but they never expected that it would be beaten by wind and rain.
Fang La was beaten with a stick and fined ten taels of silver. Fang La held a grudge and had the idea of rebellion.
On the ninth day of October in the second year of Xuanhe's reign in the Northern Song Dynasty, hundreds of farmers who had suffered greatly and had deep hatred gathered in the lacquer garden of Fang La's family to complain about Zhu Meng's evil.
After hearing this, Fang La stood on the high platform and said excitedly to the villagers: "The country is like a family. If a family, the younger generation works all year round and finally earns a little food and cloth, but it is spent carelessly by their father and brothers. .Do you think this should be done?”
The villagers heard this and replied angrily: "You shouldn't!"
Fang La continued: "Those fathers and brothers are arrogant and unreasonable. The younger ones will be whipped by them if they don't like them. Do you think this should be done?"
The villagers replied in unison: "This is too inappropriate!"
Fang La continued: "Those fathers and brothers have wasted their own property, and they have used their family property to please the enemy and plead for mercy. Do you think this should be done?"
The villagers became even more angry when they heard this and replied loudly: "It's really inappropriate! How can such a thing happen in the world?"
Seeing this, Fang La said with tears: "Now the government's taxes and labor are so heavy, and those high-ranking officials still want to extort and extort money. The common people finally produced some paint and paper, but they plundered them all. We work hard all year round, and the result is that our family The young and old are suffering from cold, starvation, and even a full meal, what do you think we should do?"
When everyone heard this, they were all extremely angry and shouted: "Rebellion! Mr. Fang, please give the order! We all listen to you."
Seeing that people's hearts had been agitated, Fang La further seduced the villagers and said: "In the past thirty years, the old ministers of the imperial court have been demoted and died, and there are almost none left. Those in power now are all despicable and dirty. , treacherous and flattering guys; like Cai Jing, Zhu Meng and others, they only know how to confuse and bewitch the emperor with singing and dancing girls and building palace gardens, and they have no concern for national affairs."
The villagers listened quietly to Fang La's speech and nodded in agreement.
Fang La continued to encourage: "Local officials outside the capital are also corrupt and extravagant, and do not consider local political affairs as important issues. The people in Jiangnan have been suffering from exploitation for a long time! In recent years, Hua Shigang's intrusion, especially Intolerable.
The villagers agreed in unison: "Who says it's not?! Hua Shigang's harm is unspeakable and we can't bear it anymore! Let's rebel. You are our king. We will follow you to the city of Tokyo!" Drive that fatuous emperor out of office!"
Seeing that the villagers were filled with indignation, Fang La continued to agitate and said: "Everyone, if we can uphold justice and launch an uprising, the four parties will surely respond. We only need ten days to gather tens of thousands of people. There is a civil war in the local area. If there is a change, the officials will definitely recruit people and negotiate with us if they are worried about being blamed. It is not convenient for them to report to the court immediately. In this case, we use strategies to contain them and delay them for a month or two, so that all counties in the south of the Yangtze River can do it in one fell swoop. Take it down."
When the villagers heard this, they got angry and said repeatedly: "Yes! That's it!"
Fang La continued to encourage: "When local officials report to the court, the court cannot make an immediate decision to send troops. It is expected to be delayed and it will take more than a month to gather and discuss. After the court has made a decision, the army will be mobilized and trained, and food and salary will be allocated." It will take another half a year, so it will be a year before and after we raise the army. By this time, the situation should be basically determined, and no one needs to worry. "
The villagers were moved by Fang La's analysis, applauded warmly, and cheered loudly.
Fang La waved his hands to calm down the villagers and continued his analysis: "Now, the imperial court pays millions of coins as tribute to foreign enemies in the west and north every year, and the imperial military and political expenses amount to 100,000 every year. Most of this money comes from our southeastern region. At this time , we have already occupied the Jiangnan region. If the imperial court cannot raise money from the southeast region, it will brutally squeeze it from the Central Plains region. At that time, the people of the Central Plains cannot bear it and will definitely rise up to resist."
"Yes!" the villagers shouted: "We quit, we won't let him exploit us!"
Fang La continued: "Faced with this situation, the foreign enemies in the west and north will take the opportunity to attack if they know about it. The imperial court is under attack from both inside and outside. Even with advisers like Yi Yin and Lu Shang, they can't come up with any solution for them. As long as we use the Yangtze River as the boundary, guard the south of the Yangtze River, reduce labor, reduce taxes, and restore and develop the people's human and material resources, who from all over the world will not respectfully come to worship us? Within ten years, we will eventually unify the world. If Otherwise, you will only die in vain at the hands of corrupt officials. Please plan this matter carefully!"
Fang La's analysis was very sound, and the villagers praised it very much, so they elected Fang La as the leader of the rebel army.
Because during the Yonghui period of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Chen Shuozhen, a woman from Qingxi, rebelled against Muzhou and claimed to be Emperor Wenjia. He regarded Qingxi as the place where dragons flourished, and secretly thought that this kingly aura should be fulfilled in himself.
As a result, Fang La became ambitious and ignored the future affairs. He openly took the lead and claimed the title of Holy Duke.
Fang La rose up and launched the Jiangnan Civil Rebellion. He first captured his hometown, Wannian Town, Qingxi County, and then gathered troops to attack Qingxi County.
When local officials received news of the Fang La civil uprising, in addition to sending troops and horses within their jurisdiction to suppress it, they urgently reported to the court.
At this time, Cai Jing was dismissed as prime minister for the third time and was responsible for the campaign of suppressing the Liangshan bandits. Wang Fu was appointed prime minister.
After Cai Jing served as prime minister for three times, he reformed the court management system and stipulated that all the power of the court was concentrated in the prime minister, who made decisions alone. After Wang Fu received the news of the Fang La civil uprising, he didn't pay much attention to it at first, thinking it was just a minor disturbance. Later, news of the Fangla Civil War continued to be reported from various places, and Wang Fu became afraid. However, at this time, when the imperial court and the Jurchens were trying to regain the lost territory of Yanyun, Wang Fu was afraid of Emperor Huizong's reproach, so he suppressed the news of the Fangla Civil War and counted on local soldiers and horses to suppress the Fangla Civil War.
For this reason, Wang Fu was so worried that he couldn't sleep all night.
