I studied in modern times

Chapter 816 Pu Zongmeng Becomes Prime Minister

It was Yimao (the fourth day of the lunar month) in May of the second year of Yuanyou.

Pu Zongmeng knelt in the front yard of his home in Bian Jing, facing the direction of the imperial city, listening to the eunuch who came to read out the imperial edict, reciting it in a rhythmic manner, and felt extremely excited.

"My disciples..."

"A king's achievement is to have people assist him in governing the country, and a prime minister's responsibility is to govern the world on behalf of heaven! Therefore, when the three levels are in harmony, the wind and rain will be in order! When the people are loyal, the yin and yang will be in harmony! I have been looking for talent, and have been vacant for a long time. I have promoted a wise and capable person and have reported this to the outer court:
Pu Zongmeng, the scholar of the Zizheng Palace and the minister bestowed with the goldfish bag by the emperor..."

"He has a clear mind and a pure mind! He is wise enough to handle the affairs of the world and learned enough to study the words of the ancient kings! He works hard and is loyal to the country. He is favored by the former emperor and is honored by the ministers..."

"What a joke! I have examined the records of the past and the minds of the famous ministers... Fang and Du were able to make decisions and make good plans, and their governance was effective for almost three generations. Yao and Song were able to adapt to changes and uphold justice, and their achievements were great at the time! If you are willing to follow your advice and follow in the footsteps of the past, you may be specially appointed as the Grand Master of the Central Secretariat, the Right Prime Minister of the Secretariat, and the Minister of the Central Secretariat, and be promoted to the Founding Duke of Ba County, with an additional fief of 700 households and an actual fief of 300 households, and the rest remains the same!"

This poem written by Qian Xie is indeed very good, and the description of Pu Zongmeng is even a little too flattering.

Even Pu Zongmeng felt a little embarrassed when he heard it.

He exhaled slightly, bowed again, stood up, took the order, and then faced the direction of the imperial city and began to express his determination: "I have been blessed by the late emperor and received the grace of the emperor. I will do my best and die to repay the grace of your majesty and the late emperor!"

He naturally knew what he was doing on stage.

He is also very clear about his role.

People like him have been playing the role they are going to play very well since they entered the official career - a troublemaker and a vanguard.

The difference is that this time, he, the former pawn, sat at the table to eat!
He became the chess player!
and so……

He must show greater courage and determination than before to carry out the will from the palace.

To put it simply - the emperor must resolutely implement the policies and laws that he likes!

At the same time, if the emperor doesn't like any policy or decree, he will find ways to abolish it!
At the very least, it should be frozen and turned into something that exists but no one cares about!

However, he cannot take office immediately.

Because tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival.

According to tradition, the government would close for one day on the Dragon Boat Festival (officials in the Northern Song Dynasty had 113 statutory holidays throughout the year, and they would take almost all holidays that were celebrated).

However, Pu Zongmeng knew that he could not rest.

On the contrary, from this moment on, he has to get into work mode.

First, he had to organize a reliable regent team and bring them to the capital.

And it’s a tough job.

After all, he was not like Han Jiang and Lu Gongzhu, whose fathers and grandfathers had served as prime ministers.

After these people returned to the court to serve as prime ministers, they could easily find suitable, reliable talents that met their own governing philosophy in the city of Bianliang.

He is different.

His father, Pu Shidao, also served as an official in the court during the Renmiao era.

But the highest position he ever achieved was the Secretary of the Taichang Temple, which did not leave him with any useful connections.

All he could rely on were the connections he had accumulated during his last time in the court.

However, the last time he was in court was in the fifth year of Yuanfeng, which was several years ago.

Many of those I knew and befriended in the court back then have been transferred out of the capital.

For example, Lü Jiawen went to Jiaozhou, Xie Jingwen was in Tanzhou, Xiong Ben went to Jingdong Road, Su Che returned to the court last year, and this year he was appointed as the governor of Chenzhou...

Instead, political enemies are entrenched in the court.

Lü Gongzhu, Li Chang, Wang Cun, Han Zhongyan...

Looking around, the whole court was filled with his enemies.

Even Li Qingchen and Deng Runfu, who belonged to the New Party with him, might not be reliable.

You even have to be on guard against them stabbing you in the back.

after all……

Sometimes, heretics are more terrifying than enemies.

It just so happens that these two people are moderates in the new party. If they cannot be united with him as a radical, they at least dislike each other.

"Perhaps, Lu Shinong (Lu Dian) can recommend some suitable people to me..."

Lu Dian has been in the court since Yuanfeng.

Now, although it seems that he has been marginalized - he was driven from the positions of Jieshizhong and Shijiang to the Imperial College.

But, he was just lying dormant in the Imperial Academy.

Moreover, the emperor once visited the Imperial College in person, inspected the students, and highly praised their academic performance.

This is clearly a show of support.

Therefore, after retiring to the Imperial College, Lu Dian not only did not become silent, but became more active.

When Pu Zongmeng was in Bozhou, he often saw Lu Dian's articles in the "Bian Jing Yi Bao" - although Lu Dian was wearing a vest of "Taoshan Jushi".

However, writing style is something that cannot be hidden by simply putting on a vest.

Therefore, in the eyes of people who are familiar with them, those who wrote articles in "Bian Jing Yi Bao" were completely running naked.

While in the Imperial College, Lu Dian did not forget to criticize current affairs.

In Pu Zongmeng's view, he must be prepared for the future.

Moreover, Lu Dian had the support of the emperor.

I think he should be a member of the Imperial Party.

Therefore, perhaps we can rely on him to contact some talented officials who are not in high positions at present.

Having made up his mind, Pu Zongmeng sent his son Pu Rusen to visit Lu Dian's home that night and invited Lu Dian to meet him at Pu Zongmeng's home on the Dragon Boat Festival.

Lu Dian readily agreed, and the next day he visited Pu Zongmeng at his home in the new city of Bian Jing. The two had a secret conversation for a whole day, and Lu Dian did not say goodbye and go home until the evening.

……

After the Dragon Boat Festival, it rained for several days in a row in the city of Bianjing.

The continuous rainy weather made Zhao Xu a little panicked.

He was really worried that the continuous rainy weather would make the walls of the Funing Palace damp. When the sun came out, the moisture would evaporate, and the toxic lead and cinnabar inside the walls would enter the air and be inhaled into his internal organs, causing chronic poisoning.

So, he made a quick decision - to respond to the call of court officials and move to the East Hall of Baoci Palace.

When Zhao Xu announced this decision, the court officials immediately shouted with satisfaction, "Your Majesty is wise."

No one was nagging about this issue anymore, insisting that Zhao Xu and Ren Miao move the bed into Empress Dowager Xiang's bedroom like they did.

After all, their demands are actually very simple - the Lord is getting older, so the dragon's health should be the most important thing.

Ok……

They were afraid that the young ladies in the palace would secretly take advantage of Zhao Xu's impulsiveness after he entered puberty and take advantage of him behind other people's backs.

The young man Mu Ai was exposed to women too early and became addicted to them.

Nine out of ten people will not live long!

There are lessons to be learned from history.

Many young emperors died young because of this. The emperors of the Han Dynasty, especially those short-lived emperors in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, all killed themselves in this way.

Therefore, a consensus has been formed since the Han Dynasty.

A young monarch should not be exposed to women too early.

In Zhao Xu's previous life, he had been strictly controlled by the prime ministers.

Before his wedding, there were no young or beautiful female officials around him.

Even palace maids under the age of thirty never appeared.

At that time, he was surrounded by those burly, ugly-looking old female officials and palace maids who were over 30 years old, some even in their 40s and 50s.

Nowadays, the prime ministers certainly don’t dare to do such a thing.

However, Zhao Xu was growing up day by day, so the ministers could only prepare for a rainy day.

Zhao Xu was allowed to move into Baoci Palace, and Empress Dowager Xiang was allowed to supervise the female officials and palace maids.

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In fact, if the ministers didn't say anything, Zhao Xu would not get involved in such matters.

He had a desire to surpass Wanyan Gou in terms of longevity.

Therefore, before he reached adulthood, he would never touch any woman.

Empress Dowager Xiang was very happy that Zhao Xu was going to move to Baoci Palace to live with her.

He started immediately and took people to start making arrangements in the east hall of Baoci Palace.

Knowing that Zhao Xu would check the prices in Bianliang every night, she ordered people to make a map of Bianliang that was exactly the same as the one in Funing Palace on the south wall of the inner bedroom in the east hall of Baoci Palace.

And mark the location of each wing on the map.

So that after Zhao Xu moves here, people can update the prices of Bianliang on the map at any time.

So, this matter could no longer be concealed from anyone.

Soon, the whole city of Bianliang knew that the emperor would check the prices in the various districts of Bianliang every night.

The entire market of Bianjing suddenly became lively.

The idle men were talking about it.

Even the poorest people in Bian Jing, at this time, whenever they thought of the little official in the Funing Palace, they would care about their own lives before going to bed every night. They would proudly straighten their chests and be grateful that they could live under the rule of such a holy ruler.

Zhao Xu's move went very quickly. In just two or three days, all his books, documents and clothes in Funing Palace were moved to Baoci Palace.

When Zhao Xu officially moved into Baoci Palace, it was already the tenth day of the fifth month of the second year of Yuanyou.

Of course, during this period, Zhao Xu did not relax his attention on state affairs.

However, he just watched the performance of the court officials silently.

It was the second day after he moved into Baoci Palace, May Renxu (Eleventh).

Zhao Xu received a report from the Tongjiansi.

The person who wrote this note is Pu Zongmeng.

At this time, Pu Zongmeng had completed the process of three refusal and refusing the position of prime minister, and officially became the fourth right prime minister of the Song Dynasty since the Yuanfeng New System.

According to past stories, after the Left Prime Minister left his position, the Right Prime Minister would be promoted to the Left Prime Minister (in fact, this situation was only formed since Yuanyou, because after the implementation of the Yuanfeng new system, the Left and Right Prime Ministers in the court never changed).

The personnel memorandum submitted by Pu Zongmeng was also a system that began to appear among the prime ministers after Zhao Xu ascended the throne. Zhao Xu allowed every newly appointed prime minister to submit a personnel appointment and dismissal memorandum to him before officially taking office.

In the past two years, Zhao Xu has never rejected or rebuffed any personnel request made by a prime minister before taking office.

This is easy to understand.

The purpose of appointing a prime minister is to let him do things.

To get things done you need people!
Therefore, these people must have their own basic team so that they can better carry on their work and ensure Zhao Xu's peaceful life.

For example, when Han Jiang was appointed prime minister, his office was filled with a large number of old members of the Han family and the staff he brought from Henan.

When Lu Gongzhu succeeded him, he used his father, brother and his capable subordinates when he was in Beijing.

However, both Han and Lu are from families of scholars for generations.

Therefore, with just a wave of their hands, they can find a large group of like-minded people who are willing to listen to their arrangements and work hard for them.

For a minister like Pu Zongmeng, who had been a prime minister for generations and was serving as prime minister for the first time, this matter was somewhat difficult.

This can be considered the first hurdle he has to overcome after becoming prime minister!

If he makes the wrong choice of people and someone catches him doing something wrong, his political enemies will definitely make a big fuss about it to affect his prestige and may even force him to resign!

Zhao Xu picked up Pu Zongmeng's note, looked at it, and narrowed his eyes.

Because Zhao Xu had some impression of the people reported by Pu Zongmeng.

All of them are officials who have been sidelined during the Yuanyou New Deal in the past two years.

Many of them have worked in municipal trade and embankment management.

This is normal.

The only people Pu Zongmeng could choose were the people in the government office he was familiar with before he was dismissed from his post in the sixth year of Yuanfeng.

Among these people, those who had a similar stance to him, who could obey his orders and follow him were officials from the Municipal Trade Office and the Embankment Office.

However, Pu Zongmeng was very careful and assigned these people positions that were low in rank but could play a role in some key links.

However, for those high-ranking and noble positions, he requested the appointment of people with Imperial College backgrounds.

For example, he requested the appointment of He Zhizhong, a doctor of the Imperial College, to the position of Right Secretary of the Secretariat, which had always been regarded as the secretary and general manager of the prime minister.

Another interesting thing is that Pu Zongmeng also requested to select "several people with both good moral character and talents and potential from the Imperial College to serve as officials in the Ministry of Shangshu to study official affairs."

The reason for doing so is that "The scholars of the Imperial Academy are the place where the country reserves talents. The students of the Imperial Academy learn the classics of the saints and master the Five Classics, but they often lack the talent... Confucius said: "If you can recite 300 poems and give them government affairs, they will not be able to understand them! If you are sent to the four directions and cannot answer questions, what is the use of them even if you have many skills! I would like to make a suggestion at the risk of my life, and ask that the students of the Imperial Academy be sent to the Shangshu Province to observe government affairs and understand government affairs!"

After reading it, Zhao Xu started laughing.

"It seems that Mr. Pu and Mr. Lu are already connected!"

Pu Zongmeng and Lu Dian had a secret conversation for a whole day on the Dragon Boat Festival. Of course, Zhao Xu had already known about it through Shi Deyi.

It just so happened that Zhao Xu also wanted to send a group of Tai students to the capital and the six ministries for internship.

Of course, institutional building must be done well.

Otherwise, given the situation in the Song Dynasty, this system would sooner or later become an exclusive way for the officials to gild themselves.

At the same time, the design should not be too rigid.

Otherwise, all the people coming in are nerds.

After thinking about it, Zhao Xu wrote on the note: Yes, please ask Prime Minister Pu to set up rules and regulations and make them into laws. I will review them personally!
Then, he handed the note to Feng Jing who was standing beside him, and told Feng Jing, "Feng Jing, go to the capital hall and inform Prime Minister Pu!"

"The students selected should be proficient in mathematics, know criminal law, and understand geography..."

"Please ask Mr. Pu to design rules and regulations based on this, and then report to me!"

"No!" Feng Jinggong accepted the order.

(End of this chapter)