Please call me Your Majesty!

Chapter 150: Chu Shizhao’s Ode to the Humble Dwelling, Yang Fang fights to the death with Jian Zhenxin!
Chu Shizhao has not yet taken the true anti-traitor route.

Even in the simulation of rebuilding the Great Zhou, he still established his foundation as a royal noble.

It can be said that he crushed Wang Shouyi's rebel army, and after it grew stronger in Jingzhou, he then conquered the imperial court.

Although there is also a practice of accumulating reputation and winning the hearts of the people, in fact it is still for the Great Zhou Dynasty to win the hearts of the people.

The situation in this simulation is completely different.

First of all, Chu Shizhao was defined as a traitor by the imperial court.

Although Chu Shizhao theoretically had room to purge the rebels, and could even find ways to continue to rely on his status as a royal noble to gain support, after thinking it over, Chu Shizhao felt that there was no need to do so.

In the situation of the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, it was extremely difficult to hold up the flag of the Great Zhou Dynasty again. A broken flag would be like a rag and would be meaningless to hold up again.

Moreover, Chu Shizhao first had a memorial to maintain public security and then had the merit of lifting the siege of Chang'an, but in a blink of an eye he was accused of treason. People with ulterior motives must have felt that he had been wronged.

He created an identity of being persecuted for himself, and when the uprising was really successful, he would restore order for himself. Chu Shizhao could even use this incident in a positive way to show that the old order was not fair, and he could overthrow the Zhou Dynasty with justification and establish a new system.

In fact, rules are always made by the strong.

Why were the arrangements for the Eastern Jin emperors so clear? Because the emperors of the Eastern Jin were not strong men, they were all puppets manipulated by the powerful families.

However, Li Shimin introduced the imperial examination system with justification to suppress the living space of those aristocratic families. Even the aristocratic forces of the Sui and Tang dynasties did not dare to say a word.

Now Chu Shizhao has to wait and see how the Great Zhou Dynasty will destroy its credibility which is already on the verge of collapse.

Originally, Chu Shizhao had been trying to restore the credibility of the Great Zhou Dynasty and gain the trust of the people.

Now let's simulate and deduce that he was suppressed and slandered by the court. Do you think it was Chu Shizhao who was hurt? It was the credibility of the Great Zhou Dynasty itself that was hurt.

The coup d'état completely negated the contents of the public security memorial and the achievements of Chu Shizhao in the siege of Chang'an.

Just like after Zhu Qizhen's coup d'état, the first thing Zhu Qizhen did was to deny Yu Qian's achievements. Wasn't that tantamount to denying the Battle of the Defense of Beijing?
If Zhu Qizhen's son, Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen, was not much more capable than his father, the Ming Dynasty would have suffered a Waterloo long ago.

There were countless uprisings and rebellions during Zhu Qizhen's reign, and even major events such as the Jingxiang refugees occurred during Zhu Jianshen's generation.

To put it bluntly, as long as the days during Chu Shizhao's brother's reign were not easy, there would be people who would miss Chu Shizhao, or even Emperor Yongjin.

Even though Emperor Yongjin was not a human being, at least during his reign, there was neither war nor disasters in which large numbers of people starved to death.

Sometimes, even the uprisings of the rebel army occurred after the death of Emperor Yongjin.

Chu Shizhao's father, Emperor Yongjin, was actually very strange. If you compared him with incompetent emperors, he seemed like a normal emperor. If you compared him with wise emperors, he was just about the same.

What Chu Shizhao needs to do now is to wait and see the overall situation.

Under the changes caused by the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, various negative effects will cause the court to become corrupt at an extremely fast rate.

It is not easy to fight with the imperial court, but it is quite easy to fight with the people.

[In March of the third year of Kailai, Emperor Chu Shixu tried to implement a series of reforms to strengthen centralization in his administration, such as weakening the power of the gentry, vigorously promoting poor scholars, and rectifying the criminal law. However, he was stopped several times by Queen Mother Wang Conghui. Obviously, with the support of Wei and Wang, Chu Shixu should have a certain role to play, but every time he wanted to do something, he would hurt the interests of the gentry, resulting in Chu Shixu's right to speak only on some ordinary matters. ]

【Knowing that he was caught between a rock and a hard place and unable to control power, Chu Shixu began to let things take their own course.】

[In addition to framing Jin Wang Chu Shizhao in the Witchcraft Rebellion, Chu Shixu also took the initiative to kill Ning Wang Chu Shiren and Liang Wang Chu Shiyu in order to consolidate his power, which caused dissatisfaction from Queen Mother Wang Conghui. However, as things had come to this point, under the leadership of Wang Conghui, Chu Shixu forced the southwestern gentry to capture Shu Wang Chu Xuanhong in Chengdu. ]

[In April of the third year of Kailai, Chu Shixu spent the national treasury's assets to start repairing the imperial palace. He ignored all the affairs of the court. After he realized that his power was hollow, his style became increasingly vicious.]

[In order to show his dissatisfaction with the loss of power, Chu Shixu mingled with the officials in the capital and played a kind of card game in a gambling house, forcing them to pay tribute until he won all their money.]

[In fact, Chu Shixu used the game of playing cards to form a party in private, trying to launch a coup again and change the pattern of the aristocracy's power.]

[In the fourth year of Kailai, a large-scale drought hit the counties of Jiangdong, causing severe famine. Six out of ten households in Zhejiang died of starvation or fled. The officials in Chang'an persuaded Chu Shixu to open the granaries and release grain as soon as possible to provide relief to the victims.]

[However, Chu Shixu had been fighting for power with the officials and nobles in Beijing for many years in order to control power. The emperor and his ministers were at odds with each other, and the national treasury was in deficit, making it difficult to save the people. He had no choice but to issue an order to allow those merchants who sold rice and millet to do what they wanted and not collect their commercial taxes, hoping to use the merchants to provide relief to the victims.]

[However, the merchants knew that the drought in Jiangdong was severe. Not only did they not think about providing relief to the victims, but they took advantage of the fact that food was scarce and expensive and maliciously raised the price of food. The merchants wanted to annex the land of those people who could not afford to buy food, which made it even more difficult for the people to survive.]

[In August of the fourth year of Kailai, the counties in Jiangdong were in a situation where there was no way forward or backward, and riots broke out in various places. Many people knew that if they continued like this, they would only starve to death. In their desire to survive, they would rather fight to the death with merchants, gentry, and government officials.]

[In September of the fourth year of Kailai, in order to quell the riot in Jiangdong, Chu Shixu dispatched troops to quell the rebellion. Lu Yi, who was forced to flee to Chang'an during the Ma Su'an Fanyang Rebellion, was given an important position. However, Lu Yi's most important task was to station troops to defend the defense line in the Ma Su'an area to prevent it from being breached.]

[Han Zui knew that the Great Zhou Dynasty was in a state of internal and external troubles. After the fire in the rich land in the south, it was impossible to defend Chang'an, so he sent troops to attack Chang'an again. Wang Huai was ordered to fight against Han Zui's army again. ]

[In October of the fourth year of Kailai, Wang Huai was defeated at Tongguan. Facing the overwhelming force of Han Zui, Wang Huai wanted to survive but was unwilling to surrender to such a barbarian from Xiliang, so he left Tongguan with several of his confidants and headed for Langya.]

[In November of the fourth year of Kailai, Han Zui captured Chang'an.]

[The military governors of the northern regions all chose to wait and see or sent out symbolic troops to defend the emperor, which allowed Han Zui to capture Chang'an without much trouble.]

[Han Zui, who entered the capital, was not in a hurry to become emperor. His advisers advised him that if he wanted to achieve great things, he had to win the hearts of the people.]

【Han Zui knew that although the Great Zhou Dynasty was weak, it still had a certain degree of popular support. Among them, Jin Wang Chu Shizhao had great prestige in Chang'an, but his whereabouts were unknown because of the struggle for power among the royal family.】

[Such a dead person is not enough to affect his overall situation. ]

[Similarly, if Han Zui wanted to kill the emperor, establish a new emperor, and establish his prestige, he needed a reason to kill the emperor.]

【Han Zui then listed several evidences of Emperor Chu Shixu's crimes, and believed that the current chaos and turmoil in the Great Zhou Dynasty was caused by the emperor's unkindness.】

[After he rehabilitated Jin Wang Chu Shizhao, he quickly produced the evidence and executed Kailai Emperor Chu Shixu.]

【He supported the youngest prince of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Chu Shiju, as the new emperor, and released all the officials who were convicted for power struggles in order to win the hearts of the people.】【In December of the fourth year of Kailai, Han Zuiyi exterminated the three clans of Wang and Wei, and used their property and land to satisfy the appetite of his own soldiers. However, the number of soldiers in Liangzhou was too large, and the source of soldiers was extremely mixed. Even if the Wang and Wei families were wealthy, it was still difficult to satisfy the appetite of the Liangzhou generals.】

[In addition, most of the prisoners Han captured were Hu people and Qiang people. Most of these people had no military discipline. Even if they were rewarded, they would still infringe on the rights of the people of Chang'an. Many of them would rob the local people and nobles at night.]

[Han Zui turned a blind eye to this, and when the people held him accountable, he asked them to produce evidence. Without evidence, he had no way to make a decision for the people.]

[The reason why Han Zui was so protective of his soldiers was because the common people could not protect Han Zui's interests, but these soldiers could.]

[In January of the fifth year of Kailai, the new emperor Chu Shiju ascended the throne. Under the instruction of Han Zui, the reign title was changed to Jiade. Han Zui was promoted to the title of Three Dukes and given the Nine Gifts for his meritorious service in restoring order and killing the traitorous monarch.]

[In February of the fifth year of Kailai, the Xiongnu invaded Chang'an again and besieged it. A war broke out between Ma Su'an and Li Jin.]

In the picture, the Great Zhou Dynasty is flourishing everywhere. The map, which was originally a whole piece of green markings, is now covered with colorful flags.

[March of the fifth year of Kailai, this is your fifth year of farming in Haozhou. After the defeat in Chang'an, you went to Liangzhou to conspire with Huan Jie but were not valued, so you left Liangzhou. During this period, you have been displaced and have become accustomed to the vicissitudes of the world. During the five years of farming in Haozhou, your mind has been extremely firm and you are not moved by external things.]

[You have a humble house in Haozhou, but you often travel around, providing free medical treatment to the suffering people, using your medical skills to help the people.]

[During these difficult days, you thought that it was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it was difficult to go from luxury to frugality.]

[But you are surprised to find that without the body of an emperor, you are just an ordinary person. ]

[You don’t feel any gap because of this, because you are one of the ordinary people. ]

[In your secluded place, in such a humble room, you deeply feel the feeling of freedom. ]

[On the door of that humble room, you carved the word upright with the sharp sword in your hand.]

【A mountain is not famous because of its height, but because of the immortals living there. 】

[It is not the depth of the water that makes it magical, but the presence of a dragon. 】

【This is a humble room, but my virtue is fragrant. 】

[Life is but a hundred years, it will pass in a flash. If one has ambition, what is so shabby about this room?]

[In the first year of Jiade, a drought hit Haozhou, and in the spring of the following year, a severe locust plague and epidemic broke out. The war in the north was not peaceful, and it was difficult for the south to survive, which led to the emergence of waves of uprisings in the south.]

[These rebels are fighting for survival, but in reality most of them are just weaklings robbing food from the weaker ones. Many of them don’t have slogans or ideas, they just form a makeshift team just to survive.]

[As the conflicts between the nobles, the powerful, the common people, the rich and the poor intensify, coupled with frequent natural disasters, many people around you have decided to join the uprising. ]

[In Haozhou, the most famous rebel army is the White Sleeves Army. Most of them wear white sleeves, which they regard as a symbol. Compared with those rebel armies that are fighting for survival, the White Sleeves Army has a clear goal: to overthrow the corrupt court of the Great Zhou Dynasty.]

[As the uprising in the south became more and more vigorous, the Xiongnu invaded and broke the balance of war between Ma Su'an and Li Jin.]

[In January of the third year of Jiade, Li Jin was defeated and died. With the support of the Xiongnu, Ma Suan quickly captured Jinyang. Not long after, Lu Yi surrendered to Ma Suan. Han Zui was furious about this and he raised his army to fight against Ma Suan, who was supported by the Xiongnu.]

[In February of the third year of Jiade, Han Zui put up a strong resistance and the Xiongnu were defeated. However, the nobles in Chang'an had long been dissatisfied with Han Zui's rule. They joined forces with Han Zui's general Gu Sanshi to mutini.]

[In March of the third year of Jiade, Gu Sanshi rebelled and Chang'an was in chaos. Han Zui was extremely angry. He recruited Qiang people to suppress Gu Sanshi's rebellion and promised that as long as they could win, Chang'an would be looted within three days without limit.]

【Gu Sanshi fought against Han Zui's army but failed to win. His head was soon delivered to the court by the Qiang people, and Han Zui immediately executed the noble families who had conspired with Gu Sanshi to rebel.】

[In a short period of time, Han Zui killed tens of thousands of ministers and nobles in the court with a single wave of his hand. This allowed Ma Suan to seize the opportunity of the civil strife in Chang'an and attack again.]

[In May of the third year of Jiade, Chang'an fell. Ma Su'an captured Chang'an. Han Zui retreated to Liangzhou and eventually died of depression.]

[In June of the third year of Jiade, Ma Su'an pledged his loyalty to the Xiongnu Khan and expressed his willingness to be the puppet emperor of the Xiongnu. From then on, the Xiongnu would be king outside Chang'an, and he was willing to continuously transport tea, war horses, money and food from the Central Plains to the grasslands.]

[In July of the third year of Jiade, the young emperor Chu Shiju was placed under house arrest by Ma Su'an. In the same month, Chu Shiju abdicated the throne to Ma Su'an, and the Great Zhou Dynasty was declared extinct. An unprecedented turmoil began, and the various ethnic groups outside the grasslands successively conquered the northern vassal states and established their own countries, which were known in history as the "Five Barbarians and Seven Kingdoms."]

[In August of the third year of Jiade, after Chang'an was captured by Ma Su'an, Yang Fang, who had resisted the coup with Chu Shizhao in his early years, could not bear to see the court destroyed, and resolutely decided to fight to the death.]

[He lost contact with Chu Shizhao during the war, and actually stayed in hiding near Chang'an, retaining a glimmer of strength to support the Zhou Dynasty.]

[Faced with the invasion of foreign races and the loss of sovereignty and humiliation of the country, Ma Su'an, the child emperor, described himself, Yang Fang's eyes were filled with raging anger. ]

[Even though Yang Fang's newly restored title of Marquis of Changping was abolished by Emperor Kailai Chu Shixu because he supported Chu Shizhao's position, he still had a generous and passionate heart to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. In order to repay Chu Shizhao's kindness, Yang Fang tried his best to contact the remaining combat-capable Great Zhou army and his former subordinates in Chang'an, and recruited some people who had been persecuted many times near Chang'an as new troops.]

[“I intend to do my utmost to be loyal and faithful, and then die.”]

[“I still have the strength to fight, which can help my Yan Zhou Dynasty survive and have a chance to recover.”]

[Faced with a situation where the enemy outnumbered us, Yang Fang mobilized the last remaining forces of the Great Zhou Dynasty in Chang'an to attack Ma Su'an who had captured Chang'an. The nobles who had once attacked each other, those who were from different political parties and served different government troops, at this moment, unexpectedly showed a rare kind of cohesion.]

[Because at this time, everyone realized that once the Great Zhou Dynasty fell, all their privileges would be gone.]

【Yang Fang is different from these people. 】

[“I have received the kindness of two generations. How can I betray them today?”]

[He thought of the important task entrusted to him by Emperor Yongjin, and of Chu Shizhao's kindness in recognizing his talent.]

[“In this battle, my blood will test my heart.”]

[“Since our Yang family started from the founding of the country, we will end here.”]

【"I live with you, and I die with my country."】

(End of this chapter)