Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 631 Unexpectedly
In the afternoon, a carriage slowly stopped in front of the famous Zhukukulou Teahouse in Tokyo. Zhang Xiaojie got out of the carriage and said to a dozen guard soldiers: "Just wait for me here!"

He entered the teahouse with two confidantes, and a tea concubine tied him to Bai Yutang. He said to the two confidants: "You don't need to go in, wait here, and don't allow others to disturb you."

"Follow the order!"

Two robust confidantes stood in front of the door, one on the left and one on the right, with their arms crossed.

Zhang Xiaojie walked into the tea hall, it was a suite, there was a tea boy boiling water outside, a beautiful tea girl was ordering tea in the back room, the person sitting impressively at the table was Fan Ning, the governor of the Great Song Dynasty.

"Let Mr. Fan wait for a long time."

Fan Ning smiled slightly, waved his hand and said, "Zhang Xiangguo, please sit down!"

Zhang Xiaojie sat down, at this time Cha Ji had already ordered a cup of tea, the foam was full but not overflowing, it was ordered perfectly.

"This is Jingting tea. Da Song ranks third, second only to Longfeng tea. Zhang Xiangguo should be able to drink it in Shangjing!"

Zhang Xiaojie said with a wry smile: "There is Jingting tea, but the Liao Kingdom uses boiled tea, put some salt, green onion and ginger in it, and drink it all in the end. It is used to relieve the greasyness of beef and mutton. There is no such elegant tea."

"Aren't there any literati in the Liao Kingdom?"

"There is sencha, but no tea."

Zhang Xiaojie picked up the teacup and smelled it, the aroma was pleasing to the nostrils, he praised sincerely: "The tea is good, and the order is also good."

Tea Ji smiled shyly, and brought another cup of tea to Fan Ning, Fan Ning smiled again: "Make another pot of tea, and then there will be nothing else for you."

Cha Ji nodded and went down to make tea.

Fan Ning asked with a smile: "The negotiation is over, when does Zhang Xianggong plan to go back?"

"According to the plan, I will go back tomorrow, hey! I wanted to visit Mizhou this time, but I'm afraid I won't have the chance."

"Is Zhang Xianggong's ancestral home in Mizhou?"

Zhang Xiaojie nodded, "My great-grandfather came to Youzhou 60 years ago. After he passed away, his family found a way to bury his bones back to his hometown in Mizhou. Both my grandfather and father were buried in Youzhou. They always hoped that I could return to Mizhou. It’s only next time that the state pays homage to the great-grandfather’s grave.”

Fan Ning smiled and said: "I believe there will be opportunities. For example, the next negotiation can be arranged in Mizhou, so that Mr. Zhang can fulfill his wish."

"If that's the case, I really can't thank you enough."

At this time, Cha Ji brought a pot of tea, and then she and the tea boy withdrew.

Fan Ning poured tea for Zhang Xiaojie himself, and asked calmly: "My father-in-law said that Mr. Zhang has a private matter with me, what could it be?"

Zhang Xiaojie pondered for a while and said: "If I want to buy an island overseas, do you think it is possible?"

Fan Ning was taken aback, they did everything possible to lure Yelu Yixin to buy an island in the outer sea, but Zhang Xiaojie unexpectedly proposed it, which surprised Fan Ning a bit.

"Zhang Xianggong, what do you say?"

Zhang Xiaojie sighed, "Didn't you see it? The deputy envoy Yelu Pinghui was actually in charge of monitoring me, because I was Han, and Yelu Hongji didn't trust me in his bones. Although he was the deputy prime minister, it was only Yelu Hong Ji just needs me, but my status in the court is not as good as that of the Khitan officials who are two levels lower than me."

Fan Ning understood a little bit, "Sly Rabbit Three Caves, Zhang Xianggong wants to buy an island overseas, but in fact he wants to leave a way out for himself?"

Zhang Xiaojie nodded, "I offended Prince Yelujun and Empress Xiao Guanyin. Once the Prince ascends the throne, he will not allow me. I am afraid that my family will be slaughtered. Instead of being desperate at that time, it is better to leave a way out now. This matter The reason why I dare not tell others about it is because I am afraid that people will talk too much and leak the secret. At present, only you and I know. If it doesn’t work, then I will leave. If it is feasible, then we can talk about it in detail.”

Fan Ning pondered for a moment and said: "The Song Dynasty controls tens of thousands of overseas islands, so it's okay to give Mr. Zhang an uninhabited island that is fertile and wild, but this matter requires a long-term plan. In the end, Mr. Zhang can leave me a token, and then I'll send someone to Shangjing to contact your son."

Hearing that Zhang Xiaojie was giving him an island, he was overjoyed, and quickly took a jade pendant from his waist, put it on the table and pushed it to Fan Ning, "This is my family's jade pendant, Mr. Fan can send his confidants to find me with it." Zhang Zhou, the second son who studied at the Taixue in the Liao Kingdom, contacted me, so no one else would have to look for it, and please ask Mr. Fan to keep this matter a secret.”

Fan Ning nodded, "I will report this matter to the Son of Heaven, and then we will communicate through one line, so no one else will know."

Zhang Xiaojie got up and said: "Too long time outside will make Yelu Pinghui suspect, I will leave first, I will leave this matter to Mr. Fan."

"Don't worry! I will arrange the island as soon as possible."

After coming out of the teahouse, Fan Ning went directly to the palace and begged to see the emperor outside Ziwei Hall.

After a while, an eunuch led him into the imperial study, Zhao Xu put down his pen, and said with a smile, "Why do you want to see me today?"

"Your Majesty, something unexpected happened today."

Fan Ning told Zhao Xu that Zhang Xiaojie wanted to buy an island overseas and arrange a way out for himself.

Zhao Xu was amazed that Song Dynasty's overseas expansion attracted the attention of so many people, even the Minister of Liao Kingdom. He thought for a while and said, "What do you think we should do?"

"Your Majesty, I have been thinking about Yelu Yixin these days. He is also quite tempted by overseas islands. I initially considered giving him Danzhou, but Danzhou will be used as a logistics base for Ping Island. I have considered it since I was a child. Give him an island in the Ryukyu Islands, Zhang Xiaojie is the same, you can give him an island in the Xiaoliuqiu Islands, the premise is that he wants to play for us."

Zhao Xu nodded. He understood Fan Ning's strategy. He needed to disintegrate the Liao Kingdom from the inside, and put a nail in the heart of the Liao Kingdom as much as possible. That's why he took advantage of Yelv Yixin's greed and Zhang Xiaojie to find a way out for himself. If these two people can make full use of it, it will indeed bring huge losses to the Liao Kingdom, and Zhao Xu has no objection to this matter.

Zhao Xu smiled and said, "I will leave this matter to my husband, and you can handle it with full authority, and you don't have to report it to me again. The same is true for Yelu Yixin."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your trust!"

Zhao Xu took out another draft and handed it to Fan Ning, "This is Wang Xianggong's two reform proposals, one is to reform the official school, and the other is to reduce redundant officials. Please take a look at it."

Fan Ning took the report and sat down to read it carefully. The reform of the official school was Wang Anshi's intention to take the opportunity of establishing an engineering college to reform the official school system.

Basically, it is the same as the historical plan, emphasizing the training of government schools, expanding the number of Tai students, establishing outer courts, and reducing the number of candidates for imperial examinations. In name, it seems to be reforming the education system, but in fact it has deep political intentions.

The imperial examinations of the Great Song Dynasty nominally gave poor children a chance to rise up, but in fact, every time they were admitted to Jinshi in the imperial examination, they were basically children from famous families, and children from a family were admitted in succession. The imperial examination was fair, but in terms of educational resources But it is not fair, the children of the famous family occupy the highest quality educational resources, of course their children have a great advantage over the children of the poor.

Wang Anshi wanted to carry out reforms in educational resources, strengthen and expand official education, and Tai students entered the officialdom after graduation, gradually reducing the number of candidates for imperial examinations.

Historically, Wang Anshi’s education reform was relatively successful, but it was also in education reform that Wang Anshi encountered the greatest reputation crisis. All Confucian classics used by students must use his annotations, which actually seized the right to interpret Confucianism. , Promoted himself to the same position as Dong Zhongshu, Zhu Xi and others.

It was this incident that caused him to be strongly criticized from all sides. Just imagine how the literati in the Song Dynasty allowed Wang Anshi to monopolize the right to interpret Confucianism. Wang Anshi's reputation was thus tarnished, and he died in depression within a few years.

Wang Anshi did not mention the issue of textbooks in the draft, and Fan Ning was not in a hurry to express his opinion. He read the second draft for reducing redundant officials.

At present, there are three redundancy in the Song Dynasty, redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses. Redundant soldiers are the best solution. There are a lot of resources to accommodate retired soldiers, reduce Xiangjun, promote the militia law, and replace the labor service law.

Redundancy has also been resolved well, except that salt and iron are firmly controlled by the government, wine, sugar, tea, spices, and mining are gradually liberalized, but not completely liberalized, but will benefit from the former government and a small number of businessmen. The model has been changed to a model where the government and most businessmen make profits. In fact, the interests of the government have not decreased, but the interests of a small number of people have been diluted.

The biggest problem is redundant officials. There are too many officials in the Song Dynasty. The children of the powerful and powerful have to be taken care of, the children of high-ranking officials have to be given shade, the graduates of the Taixue have to be resettled, the titles of the children of the royal family, not to mention the six or seven hundred every three years. Jinshi.

In addition to military expenditures, the second largest part of the Song Dynasty's finances is the various salaries and benefits of officials. However, the salaries of officials in the Song Dynasty are very high. Over the years.The imperial court has been overwhelmed. Only in the past ten years, with the expansion of overseas financial resources and the drastic reduction of the army in the past two years, the imperial court's finances have begun to be a little more generous.

Fan Ning held the two drafts, pondered for a moment and asked, "Has the Empress Dowager read these two drafts?"

(End of this chapter)