Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 330 Euphemistic Persuasion
Since his grandfather said so, he would definitely not want the Mountain and Stream Travel Stone, and Fan Ning no longer insisted, so he followed his grandfather to the study outside the atrium.

"This official house covers an area of ​​twelve acres, and the official family must give it to me. I didn't want it at first, but you know that my old house is too small, and there are so many children and grandchildren. It's a little hard to live in. See the official house Sincerity, I will accept it."

While pouring tea for Fan Ning, Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "But if the official wants to use this house to silence me, he has made a wrong calculation. I want to live in the house, and I have to say anything bad."

Fan Ning didn't know much about the affairs of the court, so he smiled and asked, "How is Uncle Chunren doing now?"

Chunren was Fan Zhongyan's second son, Fan Chunren, who was in the same discipline as Fan Ning. He was admitted to Jinshi but did not become an official. Instead, he took care of his sick father at home. Fan Ning always admired his filial piety.

"Erlang has always refused to become an official. Although filial piety is commendable, I don't want to delay the child's future. I persuaded him again and again. He only listened to my words last year and became an official. Now he is the magistrate of Xiangyi County, which belongs to Kaifeng Prefecture. Kong will often come to the capital to see me."

"Do a good job in Kaifeng Mansion. Although it is said that 'the parents are here, don't travel far away', once the court needs it, I still have to go to Kunzhou, which is far away overseas."

When the topic talked about Kunzhou, Fan Zhongyan's face was obviously a little displeased, but he still held back his anger. After thinking for a moment, he took out a memorial from the drawer, handed it to Fan Ning and said, "This is the memorial I am going to give to the emperor, and Kunzhou has something to do with it, you should see if there is anything inappropriate in the memorial."

Fan Ning seemed to feel something, but he couldn't explain clearly, so he had to read the final memorial, but he almost jumped up after reading only a few lines. , this is only the word "good big joy" more than Zhang Yaozuo and his ilk, and the other views are the same as Zhang Yaozuo's.

Fan Ning was startled for a while, and asked, "Could it be that grandfather also supports Concubine Zhang's adoptive son to take the throne?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he regretted it. Sure enough, Fan Zhongyan sank and became extremely ugly. After a long while, he said coldly: "Do you think that I, Zhang Yaozuo, Gao Ruona and others are all the same?"

"It's my grandson's fault. It's really because my grandson has put in a lot of hard work in Kunzhou, and it's my belief in being an official. So seeing that my grandfather also opposed the opening of overseas borders, my grandson was in a hurry and put my grandfather and Zhang Yaozuo and Gao Ruozuo together. Those shameless villains are put together, grandson apologizes to grandfather!"

Fan Ning put down the memorial and sincerely kowtowed to apologize. Fan Zhongyan's face softened a little, and he said, "Don't jump to conclusions, read the memorial before you talk!"

Fan Ning had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to watch. The more he saw the back, the more frightened he became. He never imagined that the people at the bottom of the wealthy Song Dynasty would live in such a difficult situation. After working hard for a year, they still had nothing to eat and no clothes to cover their bodies.

Fan Zhongyan sneered and said: "Do you think that this is a peaceful and prosperous age, and everyone can have enough food and clothing? In the third year of Qingli and the third year of Qingli, why did Wang Lun of Yizhou on Jingdong Road rebel? The response was overwhelming, sweeping dozens of counties. Why did Wang Ze launch the mutiny? Hundreds of thousands of people in Hebei responded. I have witnessed the miserable life of the people at the bottom. If it weren’t for the fact that they couldn’t survive, who would follow the rebellion? But in order to satisfy the emperor’s personal desire to make great achievements and open up territories, How much food was spent by the imperial court, and the inner treasury is almost empty to build a large ship with thousands of stones to go to sea. Last year, there was a severe drought in Shaanxi, and the imperial court could not provide money and grain for relief. Isn’t this a waste of money and people?”

After being silent for a while, Fan Ning said in a low voice: "Last year and this year, I have returned more than 200 million taels of silver to the imperial court, and amber wood worth hundreds of thousands of pennies. In fact, it has completely made up for the expenditure of the imperial court to open up borders and go to sea." .”

"I know that it is the money earned by selling soldiers and armors to support the Japanese civil war. The civil wars have been fought for years, but the common people in Japan have suffered. How many people have lost their families and lost their wives and children because of this. Don't show off this kind of political achievement in front of me! "

"But the situation in Kunzhou is indeed not what my grandfather thought. I just reported to the court yesterday. Please allow me to explain a few words."

Fan Zhongyan snorted, "I'm showing you the memorial just to listen to your explanation. If you can't satisfy me with your explanation today, don't come here again in the future. Don't seek advice from different ways!"

Fan Ning was very bitter in his heart. He only now understood why the second uncle had such a weird expression when he heard that he was going to visit his grandfather. It turned out that today was his real job report!
Fan Ning pondered for a while and said, "I would like to ask my grandfather first, even if the imperial court does not open up borders, will the lives of these low-level people be better?"

Fan Zhongyan felt sad for a while, why didn't he know that Fan Ning was talking about the root cause, if that was the case, what else did Qingli need to do?
In fact, it was because of Wang Lun's rebellion in the third year of Qingli that the imperial court was greatly shaken. At first, the officials were determined to carry out reforms. Unfortunately, the throne of the officials was not stable at that time, and finally they had to compromise under the persecution of the powerful. , gave up reform, and now the official throne is secure, but he has no passion for reform, but is interested in opening up territories.

However, Fan Zhongyan would not show the slightest compromise in front of his grandson. He said coldly: "If it doesn't cost too much to open up the frontier, the imperial court at least has spare power to help the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi Road."

In fact, what Fan Zhongyan said is not wrong. The imperial court not only supplies Kunzhou, but also Danzhou and Liuqiu Mansion, especially Liuqiu Mansion. The garrison consumes a lot and has almost no output. The imperial court needs huge supplies every year. It brought a heavy burden. Originally, the financial resources of the imperial court were in short supply. After the expansion of overseas territories, the financial resources of the imperial court were a bit beyond their means, so they tried their best to increase their income. It was against this background that Tian Huangshi became an official camp.

The huge expenditure of the imperial court was ultimately borne by the common people. Fan Zhongyan could see clearly that he was worried that the overseas development of frontiers would become a bottomless financial pit that could not be filled, so he resolutely opposed the overseas development of frontiers.

But Fan Zhongyan also made a common mistake among scholars, that is, empiricism. He had never been to Kunzhou, so he took it for granted that the bitter cold place in Kunzhou can only be maintained by imperial supplies. As for raising horses, Fan Zhongyan also I don't think it makes much sense. If the army does not carry out thorough reforms, no matter how many horses it has, it will not be the opponent of the Liao Kingdom. Moreover, raising horses will consume huge resources.

However, Fan Zhongyan has rich experience in politics after all. Although he opposed the opening of Xinjiang, he did not rush to submit the memorial to the court. He wanted to hear Fan Ning's explanation before making a decision.

Fan Ning organized his thoughts and decided to start with what his grandfather cared about the most, and slowly convince him.

"Does grandfather know that [-] households of Han people have already moved into Kunzhou, and another [-] households are going to move in this year. The population will exceed [-]. Would grandfather want to know about their situation?"

"You say, I listen!"

"Grandson has learned specifically that among the thousand households that moved in last year, seven hundred households were victims of disasters on Shaanxi Road. The drought made it impossible for them to survive. Begging for food in the capital, the imperial court sent them to Kunzhou together with [-] other families from Hebei. There were more than [-] people in total. Fang Zhai has enough food and cloth, and they are very contented, and no one wants to go back to Song Dynasty."

Seeing that his grandfather didn't interrupt him, Fan Ning continued: "Grandfather may think that their wealth is supplemented by the Song Dynasty. It was true in the first year, but it has not been the case since last year. The two thousand hectares of wheat fields cultivated by the army The grain output reached 30 shi, which completely solved the problem of food for the army, common people and laborers. This year’s output will be even higher. In addition to the wheat planted by the people, this year’s grain will reach 80 shi. I have estimated that this autumn will be the last Once we return to the Song Dynasty, we will deliver at least 40 shi of grain to the imperial court."

Hearing this, Fan Zhongyan's face was a little moved. He didn't expect Kunzhou to repay the imperial court so quickly. He couldn't sit still for a while, and said: "Go on!"

"Not only food, Kunzhou is rich in mines, especially gold mines, silver mines, and sulfur mines. We found three large silver mines and two gold sand rivers. Mining will start in June, and they can deliver at least one million taels of silver to the imperial court every year. 10 taels of gold. In addition, Kunzhou is extremely rich in fishery resources. I estimate that in the future, we can provide the capital with [-] to [-] dans of dried fish. What we need for the imperial court is some daily necessities and tea, and we even need cloth. If you can solve it by yourself, you can even trade with Japan, selling silk, porcelain, tea, paper and other daily necessities from the Song Dynasty to Japan in exchange for a large amount of silver, and Kunzhou will become an important source of income for the imperial court in the future."

Fan Zhongyan was silent for a moment, he knew Fan Ning, and Fan Ning was not a person who talked about it, he must have a well-thought-out plan when he said this, Fan Zhongyan's strong opposition to Kaijiang's point of view was a little shaken in the face of facts.

After a long silence, he asked again: "How is the horse raising situation now?"

"Reporting to grandfather, I brought back fifty ponies this time. In fact, by the end of this year, Kunzhou will add [-] ponies. After five years, Kunzhou will be able to provide Da Song with [-] ponies every year." War horses, ten years later, this number will increase to [-], and they are not ordinary horses, but real army war horses."

(End of this chapter)