Prime Minister

Chapter 853 I Wronged You To Help Me

Let go of your words?
The officials understand what Zhang Yue means.

The reform is that the overall premise remains unchanged, but the steps must be slowed down.

The official said: "I have issued an edict in March to ask for words, how can I let go of my words?"

Zhang Yue thought about it, and there are many ways to let go of his words, such as pardoning Yan Fu, who was prosecuted and questioned when he was sentenced to the Imperial College, and other straightforward speeches, and exempting Zheng Xia from guilt, etc. Deng Wan, Zhang Yu, and Shu Yu were withdrawn, and the old system of Taiwan admonishment and supervision of Zaizhi was restored, as well as public opinion supervision and so on.

However, it is not easy for Zhang Yue to mention these things, because if he mentions them himself, it is easy to have ulterior motives, or cause the emperor or a minister in a certain position to be dissatisfied.Whether it is specific to personnel matters depends on your position.

Zhang Yue said: "This is your majesty's holy order, and I dare not say anything."

The officials were also quite dissatisfied with Zhang Yue's caution.

Zhang Yue said: "These ministers have heard two stories in the northwest these days, which are quite interesting, and I want to speak to His Majesty."

The official said: "You just say it."

Zhang Yuedao: "There is a story that I heard from there. There was a market in Xihe at that time, and the market was used for exchanges between Han and Fan, and salt banknotes were used for circulation. As for the local Fan people, they also had markets, but their markets The collection does not use salt money but barter."

"And this minister has always been a little clever, or economically talented, and he can talk a lot. He will go to the Fanren market every time, holding a bag of wheat and some salt in his hand. When he leaves the market, There is no shortage of wheat and salt, but there is more mutton and beef, which are used for the tooth-making sacrifice.”

The official said with a smile: "Zhang Qing, your servant is really talented."

Zhang Yue said: "Your servant is good at trading. In fact, there are so many goods in the market, but as long as the transactions between the common people can be carried out smoothly, then everyone can get what they need, so convenient. May all be happy."

Others were confused when they heard Zhang Yue's words, but to the officials, they understood immediately.

From the ranks of scholars, farmers, businessmen and four people, businessmen are in the lowest position.

Why discriminate against businessmen?
Because from the point of view of the state, businessmen are useless to the state.The profession of a businessman is to discard the basics and chase the end. The businessman never produces things, but exclusively relies on means such as buying and selling to get rich.

For example, the Legalists talked about "making a hole out of profit", and the common people only need to think about farming and war.

There was also a farming family in the pre-Qin period, which advocated two points. One point, all the people, regardless of whether they were high or low officials, had to cultivate, and even the emperor had to go down to the fields to cultivate.Another point is that there is no double price in the market. All commodities are bought and sold at one price, and there must be no double price.

Production labor is of course the first, and at the same time it can cultivate a honest social atmosphere, but trading is also a means of optimizing resources.

The example given by Zhang Yue, as long as transactions can be carried out freely, is also beneficial to the people of the country.

Zhang Yue's story is just a beginning.

The official felt that this story seemed to be aimed at the market, and he asked Zhang Yue to continue telling it.

However, Zhang Yue did not continue, and turned to the second story: "The minister opened a salt well in Xihe River, and used the salt to trade with Fanmin for the benefit of military supplies, and at the same time cut off the benefits of Xia Guo's green salt. "

The official nodded. Zhang Yue knew about digging salt wells in the Xihe River and digging soil and salt.

"Soil salt is different from well salt. It is born in alkaline soil. My subordinates use the method of sprinkling brine to get salt from the salt soil. As for the brine residue after taking the salt, my subordinates don't pay much attention to it, so they throw it away at will."

"But after a period of time, the minister's subordinates discovered that the brine slag he had discarded had disappeared. He sent someone to investigate the matter, and found that it had been piled up in one place by the villagers from scattered places. , originally planned to pile it up and go back to refining salt again.”

"The slag was not worth a lot of money, and the official under him didn't care. As a result, two villagers found him one day. It turned out that another villager saw that the slag piled up by the previous villager was left unattended. It was taken away."

"Another villager spoke plausibly. The other party didn't say that the brine slag belonged to him, so why couldn't others take it away."

"The minister's subordinates didn't make a decision. I asked the minister about this matter. Who should award the brine dregs to? It stands to reason that the brine dregs should belong to the court, but if they are thrown away, they will not belong to the court. As for To the former villager, he piled the slag in one place after all, and the other said, the place where the slag is piled up is the public property, which means it belongs to everyone.”

"The subordinates of the minister asked the minister, but the minister is not easy to judge, how can your majesty judge it today?"

The official thought for a while and said with a smile: "This seems to be an interesting case, but since the previous villager piled up the brine residue, I will award it to him."

Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty's words are very true, and what I see is similar. Confucius ruled the Spring and Autumn Period with subtle words and great righteousness. How to judge a case is also related to the hearts of the people."

"There is an old saying, life is hard work, what can you get if you don't ask for it? A piece of unowned wasteland, after cultivation, is owned by the cultivator. This is a universal truth. If the court does not protect the interests of the people who cultivated the wasteland, no one will Land reclamation."

"The reason why the imperial court reformed is because there is no land without an owner in the world, and most of it is occupied by powerful people with clever names, so it tries to break the benefits of annexing families, but it should be protected by law for the people who obtained land through hard work. "

"Otherwise, everyone would have the desire to spy on other people's property. Why did Mencius say that those who have permanent property have perseverance. If the people have no perseverance, then the chaos of the Five Dynasties will be restored."

This involves a problem, that is, the high cost of theft and robbery, or the high cost of production labor.

In troubled times, people are not as good as dogs. The wealth you have worked hard for a year is finally taken away by warlords.

In this way, no one thinks of working, but of being a warlord and robbing others.

When governing the world, the cost of crime is high, so the people will feel at ease to increase their wealth through labor.

After hearing Zhang Yuezhi's words, the official said, "What Zhang Qing said speaks to my heart. Now refugees are everywhere and thieves are rampant. This is my fault."

The officials could hear clearly that the three things Zhang Yue said were vague and general, but there were no specific and clear steps.

The official said: "I called you back to Beijing this time to entrust you with a heavy responsibility and entrust state affairs to you."

Zhang Yue said: "Chen..."

The official said: "You don't need to say anything to evade, the two empress dowagers also appreciate you very much, and Emperor Renzong and the empress dowager once said that your talent as a prime minister is reserved for future generations to use."

"Emperor Renzong knows people better than anyone else, and I have always treated you as my thigh. Even so, you are reluctant to be a governor, wronged you to work hard, and how about coming to help the world for me?"

The officials spoke very earnestly, and Jiang Zhang was also stunned.

The position of prime minister is what the ministers look forward to, which emperor doesn't use it as a reward, but in the mouth of the officials, it means that you are wronged to come out of the mountain to help me, okay?
Ps: These two stories are borrowed from Xue Zhaofeng's economics lecture notes.

(End of this chapter)