Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1147 Epilogue : Fence-sitters among the Reformists

Xie Yan's father after traveling through time was named Xie Yiqin, the Tongpan of Huangzhou Prefecture in Hubei Province, in charge of household registration, money, grain, taxes and other matters.

The second elder brother is Xie Kan, who failed to get into the Imperial College and is currently studying in a private academy, waiting to take part in the imperial examination next year.

They were from Hebei, and had been farming and doing business for generations, and had always wanted to get an official position. Over the past few decades, two generations had successively produced Jinshi, and three people passed the examination one after another.

After dinner, Xie Yiqin called his two sons to the study and solemnly warned them: "In the next few years, you should not get too close to certain classmates and friends, but you can't cut off contact with them directly."

"Which ones?" Xie Kan asked.

Xie Yiqin said: "The son of a wealthy family who opposes reform!"

Xie Kan asked, "Father, do you support the reform?"

Xie Yiqin said: "Of course I will support it. Although our Xie family has some property, we are not even new rich. At most, we are a wealthy country gentleman. If we don't reform, it will be difficult for us to climb up in the officialdom."

"For someone like me who is already a prefectural magistrate in my forties, it may seem like I've risen through the ranks very quickly, but in fact, it all depends on my ranking in the imperial examinations and my achievements as an official."

"Before becoming a judge, you could rely on those two things, but from now on, you have to rely on chance and connections. Otherwise, what's the point of having good political achievements? There are too many officials who can achieve political achievements!"

"If I didn't support the reform, I would probably only be a prefect until I died. If I was lucky and lived long enough, at most I would be promoted to a provincial councilor with little real power."

"But we can't be rash in supporting the reform. We should first see how the locals react. No, we shouldn't see how the locals react, but how determined the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister are to the reform. We are afraid that if we step forward and charge into battle, the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister will back down."

Xie Kan said, "Don't turn it into a dispute between the old and new parties. The reforms of the former Song Dynasty were often tested in the imperial examinations. Who among those who have studied is not familiar with them?"

Xie Yiqin said: "That's why the prime minister was so ruthless, beheading and exiling so many people for treason."

Xie Kan asked: "What happened three years ago? Now people are talking about it and there is no consensus."

Xie Yiqin went out to take a look and made sure no one was eavesdropping before returning to the room and closing the doors and windows. "I suspect the late emperor was plotting something with his own body. His stupidity in the years before his death was all fake. The Queen Mother and the new emperor's escape from Luoyang was too strange, and it was too easy for the Prime Minister to mobilize the troops in Chang'an and Kaifeng at the time."

Xie Yan pretended to have lost his memory and listened silently beside him.

"It's indeed strange." Xie Kan nodded.

At that time, Prince Yong isolated himself from the outside world, blocked the news, forged an imperial edict, and suddenly announced the dethronement of the Crown Prince and his own succession to the throne. He also issued the will in the name of the late emperor and sent a telegram to the whole country.

Although the central and local civil and military officials were surprised, they were forced to admit it one by one. There were even many opportunists who immediately sent telegrams to congratulate the new emperor on his accession to the throne.

By the time the orphan and his widowed mother fled to Chang'an and sent a telegram to the king to call for help, it was already too late.

Most local civil and military officials chose to remain silent at first because they did not understand the situation. The troops far from Luoyang also chose to wait and see, not knowing who to help.

At this time, the troops stationed in Chang'an Prefecture announced their support for the king, and the troops stationed in Kaifeng Prefecture announced their support for the king, and directly attacked Luoyang from the east and west.

Soon, more than half of the Luoyang Imperial Guards suddenly turned against their allies and sent telegrams to the king to request his support.

In less than a month, the matter was over. It seemed like a farce and the civil and military officials from all over the country were confused.

The new Prime Minister Deng Gongwu is even more bizarre.

This person entered the Imperial College as a child prodigy, and did not participate in the imperial examination at all. He was directly awarded the title of Jinshi with the first place in the Imperial College. He was promoted rapidly in the first 20 years, but was suddenly demoted to a county magistrate and thrown into the poor place of Ningxia.

When Emperor Dingtai was incompetent, because three crown princes died within ten years, the censors submitted petitions requesting the reinstatement of demoted officials, openly and covertly accusing the court of having too much negative energy.

It was at that time that Deng Gongwu was recalled to the court as the teacher of the Crown Prince.

But the crown prince died young, and Deng Gongwu and several other teachers were dismissed from their posts. Moreover, they were not allowed to leave Beijing after being dismissed, and had to chant sutras and pray for the deceased crown prince in Taoist temples and Buddhist temples in Luoyang.

Just when people had forgotten Deng Gongwu, he suddenly fled the capital with his orphan and widowed mother. When he reappeared, he had already sent a telegram to the whole country calling on them to defend the king.

I can’t understand it, I can’t understand it at all!
Over the past three years, Xie Yiqin has often analyzed things from the perspective of conspiracy theories. The more he analyzes, the colder he feels.

He suspected that the four crown princes who died young were all murdered.

He suspected that Emperor Dingtai had been unable to distinguish between loyalty and treachery in his later years. It was not that he was so foolish that he could not tell right from wrong, but that among the emperor's confidants, more than one person was a traitor.

So, Emperor Dingtai pretended to be stupid, used his own body to make arrangements, and took advantage of the situation to lure out the snake. He also secretly looked for a suitable candidate, and waited until his death to take down the whole group.

Xie Yan suddenly asked: "Has the Ming Dynasty now reached the point where it must reform?"

"No, we can still fool around," Xie Yiqin said, "but the finances are indeed a bit tight. Over the past few decades, land annexation has intensified, especially among factory owners and big merchants, who have countless money to buy land. Corruption is also serious in the government and the country, and the border provinces are even more unscrupulous." "During the reign of the previous emperor, he sent imperial censors to inspect the local areas many times, and although many corrupt officials were arrested, it was of no avail. There were many civil unrests in all directions, and even mutinies and demands for pay."

"The rebellion in the Seven Rivers Protectorate was caused by excessive deductions, which triggered a mutiny and then the foreign tribes also rebelled. The grasslands were over-exploited by farmers and herdsmen, which led to rampant horse thieves and eventually turned into a tribal rebellion."

"After the late emperor sent troops to suppress the rebellion, he built railways to Qihe and Mobei. These two railways emptied the national treasury."

"Then there was the Tubo Protectorate rebellion. The rebels ran away when they saw the soldiers. It took three years to completely quell the rebellion. We couldn't build a railway there, so we could only increase the garrison."

"The previous emperor has been carrying out military reform for 20 years, but the resistance is too great, and we can only say that there are some results."

"There were also many civil unrests and mutinies overseas, and the navy became lawless. The late emperor spent the second half of his life sorting out overseas affairs."

"During his period of stupidity, he arbitrarily demoted upright ministers. Most of those demoted upright ministers were sent overseas to serve as officials. I now suspect that the late emperor did this on purpose."

Xie Yan was astonished when he heard this, thinking that the late emperor was quite busy.

Xie Yiqin said: "Now when I think about the various deeds of the late emperor during his lifetime, it seems that every step was paving the way for the new emperor to reform."

"Then how should it be changed?" Xie Kan asked.

Xie Yiqin smiled and said, "Since ancient times, all those who have carried out reforms have always held high the banner of restoring the past. Our current prime minister will naturally also restore the past."

Xie Yan was half illiterate about history, and he said with a smile: "How can we reform the old ways? The more we change, the more we go back to the old ways."

Xie Yiqin said: "Naturally, the old laws of the Taizu and Taizong dynasties will be restored. The old laws that are beneficial to the prime minister will be restored, and the old laws that are not beneficial to the prime minister will not be mentioned. Anyone who dares to oppose his reform is opposing Taizu and Taizong."

"That makes sense." Xie Yan was very impressed.

Xie Yiqin said: "Your imperial examination textbooks are already being revised, and it is estimated that the revision will be completed soon. I have also received an order from the cabinet to restore the Huangdi calendar from the early years of the country for all newly printed calendars and newly manufactured clocks."

It was Zhu Ming’s grandson who abolished the Yellow Emperor’s calendar.

He believed that both officials and civilians were using the Yellow Emperor calendar, and fewer and fewer people paid attention to the reign title of the current dynasty. People only knew that there was the Yellow Emperor, but did not know how many years the contemporary emperor had been on the throne. The Yellow Emperor calendar must be abolished in order to restore its dignity.

Xie Yiqin continued, "Restoring the Yellow Emperor's era is paving the way for restoring the old ways. It is also a test to see which officials oppose it. Reducing the number of white officials and white laborers is not only to rectify the administration of officials, but also to pave the way for restoring the immigration order."

"Immigration order?" Xie Yan didn't understand.

Xie Yiqin said: "In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, there was a law to encourage immigration, which reserved a sum of money for local governments, and used this withheld money to allow local officials to organize immigration."

Xie Yan was puzzled and asked, "Ordinary people can also immigrate by themselves, why does the government have to spend money to organize it?"

Xie Yiqin said: "Take Hubei Province as an example. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the land was vast and the population was sparse. Now, the population is large and the land is small. There are serious annexations. There are beggars everywhere in the provincial capital, prefectural capital, and county towns. How difficult is it for these poor people at the bottom to emigrate overseas? The local government must spend money to organize and transport them to coastal ports. Then the central government will pay for them to go out to sea to make a living."

"The local special funds used for immigration were embezzled by local officials in the name of hiring clerks. The government did not pay much money to the non-staff clerks. On the contrary, the number of clerks who did not take the money increased, and the immigration laws were not enforced by the government."

Xie Yan asked: "Dad is also an official, do you support this?"

"I support it logically, and I don't need the money," Xie Yiqin said, "but if so many unemployed officials and laborers are eliminated at once, all government offices at all levels will be in chaos. Many of the clerks are just idling around, and they have deep roots in the local areas, so it will be very difficult to get them to do anything."

Xie Yan suggested: "Re-establish the evaluation method for civil servants and fire all those who fail the evaluation!"

Xie Yiqin said: "The dismissal of government officials must be approved by the provincial clerk department."

Xie Kan said: "If Mr. Deng wants to reform, he has to cooperate with the officials of the three departments of each province. If the province does not support it, what can we do at the prefecture level?"

"It should be soon," Xie Yiqin said, "Whenever the Hubei Provincial Governor is replaced, I will respond to the reform."

Xie Kan was more radical: "Dad, why do we have to wait for the replacement of the governor? Why not respond to the reform now? If the governor or prefect stops us, we can just start a fight with them. The bigger the fight, the better. Let Prime Minister Deng know about it. Then dad will definitely be a key figure in the reform!"

Xie Yiqin was still hesitant: "This is too risky, I need to think about it again."

"What else is there to consider? If we wait until the reform momentum has taken off before responding, how can father stand out from the reform faction?" Xie Kan did not consider the consequences at all.

Xie Yiqin did not comment, and changed the subject, saying: "I am telling you all this today to let you know the current situation. When you are doing policy questions in the imperial examination in the future, you must find out which faction the examiner belongs to. If he is a conservative, you should write that reforms must be cautious. If he is a reformist, the more radical you write, the better."

Xie Yan understood that his current father was a fence-sitter who was timid but inclined to reform.

(Thanks to Jian Shan Gen for the reward.)
(Finally, I would like to recommend a good book, "I Want to Be Reborn Too Much" by Silent Pastry. Lao Wang's next book is also about urban rebirth. Hehe, I heard that the review is not strict now.)
(End of this chapter)