The land of Fenghao, the royal palace.
Since Ji Lie carried out some reforms, Ji Lie has gained a lot of money, but the price of this money has been the poverty of the people. Although Ji Lie also exploited many nobles of the royal family, the nobles of the royal family soon extended this exploitation to the people of the country, and the people of the country eventually became increasingly poor.
On the other side, Ji Lie ordered that anyone who slandered him should be killed directly. He specially set up an organization to execute this order, and as the order was issued, more and more people were killed, and gradually the people became silent.
Among Wang Ji, there were very few people walking on the street. After the two parties met, most of them just looked at each other and stopped talking. From then on, no one dared to discuss the government or the emperor.
After Ji Lie found out, he was very happy and proudly called Mu Gong: "Look, no one dares to say bad things about me now!"
Duke Zhao Mu closed his eyes in despair and stopped talking. He knew that no matter how much he said, he could not change the emperor's decision.
After Ji Lie obtained a large amount of money, he rebuilt the palace and the army began to conquer Rongdi. For a time, Wang Ji's military power was at its peak, sweeping away the weakness of the previous generations of Wang Ji. Although Ji Lie had a good military level, he had a problem that most emperors had, he was very happy with his achievements.
Therefore, when he was strong, Ji Lie began to recruit mercenaries year after year, and continued to fight against Rong Di and Yi people.
Ji Lie was very happy about this situation. However, successive years of military use led to Wang Ji's financial shortage. After repeated oppression, the people of the country no longer had much money.
In order to maintain the emperor's six armies, he had no choice but to increase taxes again. However, the taxes in Wangji were already very high, so Ji Lie came up with another idea - to sell his official position and get a title.
Of course, the act of selling one's official position and conferring title should not be too obvious, otherwise the reputation will be bad, and the act should be concealed. Of course, at this time, there was no extra land in the royal territory for enfeoffment, so these titles did not have fiefs.
But even so, many nobles purchased it, and then obtained a large amount of money to maintain and build the palace and the emperor's six armies.
Ji Lie was very happy with his achievements, built palaces, and used troops against the barbarians all year round. As a result, even if the Emperor of Zhou sold his official position and won titles, he was still not satisfied.
Ji Lie, who was looking for someone to make money, heard that Duke Rongyi was an expert in making money, so he got close to Duke Rongyi. After Duke Rongyi became Ji Lie's favorite, he began to help him prepare funds.
...
After more than a hundred years of development, Chu State has become a major country in the south. Because he had always been looked down upon by the princes of the Central Plains, he had already become king when King Zhou Yi was king.
The state of Chu claimed to be king without permission, which was a complete insult to the state of Zhou. During the period of King Zhou Yi, Wang Ji was weak and he conquered the barbarians several times without success. The prestige of Emperor Zhou had fallen to the bottom, so Chu dared to arrogantly claim the throne.
After Ji Lie succeeded to the throne, he wanted to cause trouble with the Chu State. However, after he succeeded to the throne, many Yi Di invaders came from King Ji of Zhou Dynasty. Ji Lie could only deal with these Yi Di before he could deal with Chu.
Ji Lie conquered the Yi Di and became famous. After defeating all the Yi Di near Wangji, Ji Lie began to prepare to deal with the Chu State. The State of Chu is thousands of miles away and has millions of people, making it a top-notch country.
Wang Ji's strength alone was no match for Chu, so Ji Lie ordered the five Hanshui Kingdoms to prepare to conquer Chu. The Five Hanshui Kingdoms had often been in conflict with the Chu State. After receiving the emperor's edict, they immediately agreed and prepared to join forces to attack the Chu State.
King Xiongqu of Chu was frightened when he heard that Emperor Zhou was coming to conquer. In these years, Ji Lie conquered the east and west, and became famous. It is not comparable to King Yi of the previous generation, but now the five kingdoms united to command the Han River. They may be invincible, so they mobilized the entire country's troops and hoarded them in the Han River.
King thirty-three years.
The emperor of Zhou personally led his army to fight against the Chu army at the Han River.
The two sides fought in March and into July. The weather was sweltering, the corpses were putrid, and diseases were rampant among the troops. Xiong Qu, the king of Chu, went to Wanghao and withdrew to the north of the Han River. Both sides stopped fighting.
Both sides suffered heavy losses in this battle. Due to successive years of war, Wang Ji's finances were deteriorating. In order to improve the economy and increase income, Ji Lie appointed Duke Rongyi as his minister and entrusted him with important responsibilities.
After Duke Rongyi took office, Wang Ji's finances were full of holes. So Rongyi Gong wrote to Ji Lie to implement the "patent" for the production of mountains, forests, rivers and rivers, and to take back the mountains, rivers and rivers as the emperor's property, prohibiting Chinese people from entering the mountains and forests to hunt and collect wood, and not allowing civilians to fish. The materials are at the disposal of the emperor.
The people of Wangji were already deeply oppressed by Ji Lie's reforms and lived in poverty. The mountains, forests and rivers were blocked, and their livelihood was cut off. On the other hand, Wang Ji's laws were strict and the people did not dare to speak, so their resentment became more and more serious.
At the same time, a large amount of property was forcibly confiscated from the nobles. At the same time, Ji Lie sold his officials and titles, which led to the proliferation of officials and titles, and the status of the nobility was affected. The nobles who originally supported him also began to turn away.
Duke Zhaomu tried to persuade him several times, but Ji Lie refused to listen at all, so he stopped talking.
It was night, and in a remote house, several middle-aged people were sitting in silence.
"Shi Gong, Wang Ji's oppression is getting worse and worse, and the loss of property is fine, but the emperor wants to completely change the tradition of 'everyone is a minister'. This is cutting off our roots!"
"Yes, we have been the emperor of Zhou for generations, how can the emperor be so ruthless!"
"Selling an official position and getting a title means you only need to pay money to get a title. So what does it mean for our ancestors to go through all kinds of obstacles and fight bloody battles? We can get a title with nothing but wealth! Is this what a wise king did?"
"Competing with the people for profit, selling off officials and titles, using torture to stop slander, appointing villains, and building Yi palaces, the people of the king's territory cannot bear the oppression. My lords, now that life and death are at stake, do you still hesitate?"
"Yes, now even Duke Zhao Mu and Duke Zhou have been deposed, and no one can speak out for us anymore! How long do you think we can endure it?"
For a time, the crowd was excited.
If you really think that these nobles are concerned about the country and the people, you are totally wrong. What they are opposed to is the abolition of the term "ranking officials". If the term "shiweiqingshi" is really abolished, then they will become ordinary Chinese people. This is what they fear most.
Shi Gong was silent for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty worships villains, sells his official position, fights for profits with the people, and tortures to stop slander. The foundation of the state is unstable. For the sake of the country and the country, we have to do it!"
"The people are in poverty. Even fishing, hunting and wood-collecting are prohibited. There is a lot of resentment. There will definitely be a riot. You can go back and prepare in advance."
These nobles and ministers turned to look at each other, their eyes moved slightly, and then they left here tacitly and returned to their respective places.
In the thirty-seventh year of the king's reign, the government was tyrannical and the people could not bear the oppression. They attacked in groups and besieged the palace. The emperor of Zhou was frightened and fled to the pig land in panic.
The officials and nobles were frightened, and the prince fled into Duke Zhao's home. The people of the country surrounded the palace. Duke Zhao replaced the prince with his son, but the prince was spared. Later, he called Duke Mu and Duke Dingg of Zhou to serve as regents, and it was called a republic. In the fourteenth year, King Li died at the hands of pigs.
...
King Zhou Li recorded in "Historical Records" was an out-and-out tyrant, but what is interesting is that if King Li was just a tyrant, then why could he be in power for thirty-seven years? In fact, we have also seen different records from other historical books. King Zhou Li defeated the barbarians who were ravaging Wang Ji, conquered the barbarians from all directions, and forced the Chu king to take the title of king. From these aspects, he was a very accomplished monarch.
In fact, King Zhou Li was a reformer who faced "a situation that is difficult to recover from" since he inherited the throne. He reformed Zhou's politics, economy, military, law, etc., but what he faced was a powerful old man. Noble class.
His reforms touched the interests of a large number of nobles, so that the nobles were dissatisfied, but they also squeezed the people. In the end, even the nobles turned against him. Generally speaking, he was a failed reformer, while at the same time, Gongyang Xie, who was at the same time as him, was a successful reformer. However, even if he failed, his lessons can provide lessons for future generations of reformers. gained experience. ——"Chinese History·The Two Sides of History"
