Once in a hundred years

  July 13th, the sky of Sui Dynasty began to change. This refers to the passing away of Emperor Yang Jian of Sui in the Grand Treasure Hall of Renshou Palace, and also refers to the weather at that time.

  It seemed as if God was also crying for Yang Jian's departure, and from that evening on, the capital area welcomed a rare torrential rain that occurs once in a hundred years. — Of course, this is the consistent tone of the authorities, and their mouthpieces especially like to use phrases such as "once in a hundred years" to lament the difficulties of worldly affairs, while the king's way is not easy.

  For example, the three years of natural disasters that occur once in a hundred years, but in fact, the weather in those three years was not even half as abnormal as in previous years. What was abnormal was that the crops in the land were indeed poor and the people did indeed suffer from a famine that occurs once in a hundred years. ... This may be the history in books, of course, it is also the history in the minds of historians who write history, just like Zhao Dun's murder of his lord, or Cui Shu's killing of Qi Jing Gong. People can only know the nature and outcome of things from a few words, but cannot know the true facts and the original circumstances of history.

  It wasn't until July 21, when Yang Guang formally ascended to the throne and held a formal funeral for his father who had been dead for eight days that the torrential rain finally stopped amidst all sorts of reactions from the crowd.

  More are adding flowers to the brocade, and Yuan Chong, the Taishi Ling, once again made a thunderous statement: "The emperor's accession is combined with the year of Yao's receiving the mandate." Yuan Chong himself was not satisfied with just patting his horse, but also hinted at other sycophants to quickly follow up. As for those who first proposed to fight against the flood and rescue the disaster, such as Xu Shanxin, none of them had a good ending.

  The new emperor ascended to the throne, and the first thing he had to do was to change the guards in the capital and sweep away all discordant voices, pursuing complete unity of thought. So Yang Yue came, as Yang Su's brother and advisor, he appeared in the garrison troops of the capital at the first time, and led the main generals to complete the oath of allegiance to the new emperor Yang Guang. ——This is also a tradition.

  "The army of the people must always be loyal to the Emperor and not to the people." — Only thus can the Emperor use them with confidence to rule and enslave the people.

  Some were delighted, while others were worried. In the struggle to clean up political enemies, Yang Guang's butcher knife was first directed at his own brother Yang Yong. After this "killing the monkey to scare the chicken" and "clearing accounts with one's own brothers", the officials quickly joined the flattering system, one after another presenting their "letters of allegiance" to the new emperor, while the people were struggling in the floodwaters and crying out to heaven for help, they all expressed how good the new dynasty was.

  However, among the officials in the court who were so jubilant and enthusiastic, there was also a killjoy, and he was an old man.

  Xue Daoheng went through the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties. He was famous for a time, along with Li Deyin and Lu Sidao, and was the leader of the literary world and the master of poetry and literature. Born in Shandong, he admired the elegant style of Southern Dynasty poetry and wrote about the scenery of the North using the language of the South, forming a strong, fresh and new style. "The goat hangs its horns, leaving no trace to be found." At that time, Xue Daoheng's articles were not as valuable as those from Luoyang, but there was no one better than him. The people of Jiangdong loved his poems and essays, and Emperor Chen of the Southern Dynasty still loved his intricate and delicate style. Whenever Xue Daoheng had a new work, the southerners would all recite it.

  However, his talent brought him not only universal praise but also the integrity and straightforwardness of ancient scholars, in other words, being "uncompromising". Emperor Wen of Sui had repeatedly "admonished him for being uncompromising", but he refused to change.

  During the Kaihuang period, Xue Daoheng was exiled to Jiangnan. Yang Guang, a young literary enthusiast, admired his writing style and wanted to recruit him. He sent a letter to Xue, asking him to take a detour through Yangzhou, and then petitioned the emperor to keep him there. However, our old comrade Xue didn't appreciate this and didn't even send a thank-you note in return. Instead, he took a different route to Jiangling. At that time, the two had never met, and it's unknown if they were enemies from a past life. Brother Guang was not discouraged despite being rebuffed. He believed his sincerity would move Teacher Xue. However, Yang Guang's self-confidence often clashed with reality. He overestimated his own tolerance and underestimated Old Xue's stubbornness.

  When Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he immediately thought of Xue Daoheng and promoted him as the governor of Fan State. However, Xue Daoheng returned two letters - one was a resignation letter, and in another letter, he wrote "Eulogy for Emperor Gaozu of Tang", dedicating all his gratitude to the late emperor, without mentioning the new emperor who was trying hard to please him. It can be imagined that Yang Guang's anger after reading this article, said to Su Wei: "Xue Daoheng highly praises the previous dynasty, with a hint of 'Yu Zao'!"

  At this time, Yang Guang hated Xue Daoheng extremely, but he could only endure and not vent his anger. He appointed him as the Grand Master of Ceremonies, intending to observe his later behavior. The Governor of Siye, Fang Yanqian, had always been on good terms with Xue Daoheng, and his son Fang Xuanling was a student under him. At this time, seeing that his friend was in a precarious situation, he could only advise him to "refuse all guests, humble himself and lower his spirit", trying to make him compromise, but the stubbornness of the former is imaginable.

  Su You heard about the dynamics in the imperial court and couldn't help but worry for Old Xue, thinking to herself, "I hope he gets a good rebirth next time."

  Due to the heavy rain, Su You can only stay at home recently. The drainage system in Beijing is really unbearable, and the clover underfoot is not Adidas King, walking in the rain can only be a fantasy.

  On a rainy day, Su You started teaching Xiao Jiu and Qing Wei the multiplication table and abacus, watching them study with all their might. At the same time, he couldn't help but think of himself when he was young, and naturally, his thoughts turned to Yun Fan. If it weren't for this accident, the child should have been able to start school by now.

  The rain kept falling, Su You's eyebrows were tightly furrowed in worry.

  The ancients were short-sighted, they built cities only for tens of years. When the city was filled with garbage and the sewers were clogged, the rulers would establish a new city and relocate the people... So every time Su You walked out of the courtyard and saw the streets full of trash, he felt inexplicably melancholic. Fortunately, the leaders living in the northern highlands didn't have to worry about being flooded... Generally speaking, the people in the capital were only inconvenienced when traveling, while those outside the capital were the biggest victims. It's said that the mudslides had already claimed hundreds of lives.

  "Horizontal waves, how do you have the energy to come out and watch the rain?" Yang Er's body was no longer wearing the coarse linen clothes he had worn when he first entered the city. It seemed that with the change of emperors in the imperial court, the princes had also changed into new attire. Fine food, beautiful clothing, these were the normal necessities for the lives of the nobility; as a member of the royal family, it was not proper to wear coarse linen shirts, and new clothes needed to have patches sewn on them, a pair of socks needed to be mended and re-mended after three years, yet this had fallen into the realm of hypocrisy.

  "Congratulations, Your Excellency, this is a promotion and elevation of your title." Seeing Yang Er's luxurious attire, the number of followers behind him had also increased several times over, Su You hastily bowed to pay his respects.

  "Alright, alright, hurry up and go inside, this rain... doesn't seem like it'll stop anytime soon." Yang Er waved his hand and stepped inside first.

  "Why doesn't Your Highness go to the outskirts of Beijing and comfort the disaster victims?"

  "This is not right, resisting flood and saving people from disaster is the emperor's business. If others do it, it's a move to win over people's hearts, and there's a crime of usurpation." Yang Er looked at Su You like an idiot after hearing this question, and finally nodded in understanding.

  Yang Er's words made Su You suddenly realize that it was no wonder that charitable efforts were always targeted at a small crowd. Whenever there were natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, if ordinary people wanted to experience the scene firsthand, it would be extremely difficult. Su You thought back to a earthquake relief effort during his university days, when he, as a volunteer, was stopped on the way to the disaster zone and told "You can leave your relief supplies here and go, we have enough professional personnel inside."

  Wanted to save but couldn't, the voices heard at the scene were that there were enough professional personnel inside, but online, they were shouting about lack of people, money and supplies. What's more, those kind-hearted people who went to rescue with great passion were attacked by some malicious people, calling them "troublemakers".

  Rumors spread like this, and the authorities have confirmed that they added chaos. This is where the wind starts from the tip of the green duckweed, and then there are those who lack love and want to destroy the determination of those with love due to their own inferiority. As a result, that small group of loving people became pests. At this time, relevant departments no longer shouted "Three No Principles" - "No rumors, no spreading rumors, no believing rumors".

  Rumors often cannot be stopped by the wise, and the masses can destroy a person's reputation. Reality is such that those who spread rumors continue to do so, while those who are being slandered still suffer as usual.

  A new emperor ascends to the throne, and as usual, a grand amnesty is declared. Then, a batch of real pests returns to the world, their crimes even more egregious than before, and even if they are caught again, it's like the gray wolf shouting at the end of each episode "I'll be back". So, after the devastating rainstorm on July 21st, the suburbs of Beijing experienced another peak in thefts and robberies.

  "Revise the law, we must revise the law." This was Yang Guang's anger. With his one sentence, Su You's path to asking for rites was declared dead from then on, because this time the list of officials revising the law included Comrade Liu Xuan and Liu Guangbo. This old Confucian scholar, who had been dismissed from office for forging books and had been depressed for over a decade, was reused at the age of fifty or so.

  Su You heard this news, and didn't know whether to be happy or worried.