How Dare You, Official! Who Told You to Reform the Laws?

In the eighth year of Jiayou in the Northern Song, Emperor Renzong died, and his adopted son Zhao Shu seized the throne.

From the start, he inherited a complete mess: the three entrenched abuses had piled up, the treasury was empty, and border threats kept mounting. Fan Zhongyan's Qingli Reforms had long since become a dry skeleton in its grave, and the entire court treated the words "reform the laws" like a venomous snake.

Han Qi was cautious and seasoned, seeking only stability at court.

Ouyang Xiu weighed every side, most afraid of offending his colleagues.

Sima Guang oversaw the remonstrance offices and saw any "change" as a flood and fierce beast.

And Wang Anshi, who would one day shake the realm and was now still in local office, writing a ten-thousand-character memorial, was ignored by everyone.

Worse still, the new ruler could not even keep his throne secure.

An elder of the imperial clan challenged him in open court: "How can a Military Commissioner become emperor?"

A eunuch who had served under three reigns secretly sowed discord between the two palaces.

Empress Dowager Cao sought to rule from behind the curtain, citing the emperor's "mental illness."

But the real drama began on the day the reforms started.

Cutting redundant officials meant taking away how many iron rice bowls secured by hereditary privilege?

Restraining land annexation meant cutting off how many wealthy clans' sources of money?

Changing the military system meant smashing how many veteran imperial guards' old arrangements?

After a single edict, memorials impeaching the emperor piled up like mountains, while covert attacks from the imperial clan came like rain.

Those who benefited from the status quo would never step aside willingly. The nobles whose interests had been touched set traps everywhere and tightened the noose at every turn, moving from open schemes to secret plots, from the court to the palace.

Only then did Zhao Shu understand that true "reform" had never been a mere decree. It was a desperate fight to the death, from the imperial throne down to the common folk.

See how this "bold sovereign" turns a terrible hand into a comeback for the Great Song.