People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 18 Changing the Political Situation of the Song Dynasty
If there has been another major incident in the DPRK recently, it must have been the dismissal of dozens of middle- and lower-level officials by Zuosi, the Judges' Court, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Third Class Court in the name of mediocrity.

But what is incredible is that this incident was investigated by Fan Zhongyan in a very high-profile manner, with the Imperial City Division fully cooperating.

Fan Zhongyan himself went to various yamen to supervise all officials, and severely punished laziness and laziness. Many officials were the first or second leaders in their own departments. They were not active in work and were lazy in handling government affairs. Fan Zhongyan found excuses to remove them.

This was obviously an act beyond the scope of their duties, but everyone in the Yushitai remained silent. The two bosses of the Yushitai, Yanshu, Zhongcheng of the Yushi, and Jia Changchao, the Zhongcheng of the Quan Yushi, accompanied Fan Zhongyan throughout the whole process, helping to clear the way for Fan Zhongyan.

You must know that these two are both Lu Party members, and many of the officials whom Fan Zhongyan dismissed are also Lu Party members.If you ask them to support Fan Zhongyan, isn't that just trying to undermine yourself?
So many officials came back to their senses.

As Fan Zhongyan was Lu Party's mortal enemy, Prime Minister Lu would never allow Fan Zhongyan to act so recklessly. What's more, Fan Zhongyan himself did not have the power to depose officials. He did not even hold any real power position in the civil service and was not qualified to do these things.

But he was able to do this, which can only mean one thing - Fan Zhongyan has the support of another big boss.

who?

Naturally, he is the current emperor.

Except for that official, who can use the Imperial City Division, and who dares to make trouble on Prime Minister Lu?

But after figuring this out, the officials in the capital became puzzled.

Fan Zhongyan impeached Lu Yijian two days ago and was beaten to the end. At that time, everyone thought that Lu Yijian was in good hands. How come the trend in the court changed in just two days?

This is getting too fast.

Soon some smart people understood the reason... His Majesty suppressed Fan Zhongyan on the surface, but in fact he still fought fifty times each. It was probably for this reason to weaken Lu Dang's strength. Lu Yijian was probably aware of it, so he simply went along with the flow. Let Yan Shu and Jia Changchao cooperate fully.

For a while, they all sighed in their hearts that His Majesty's imperial will is really unfathomable. Even though Lu Yijian had won the Emperor's heart so deeply and accompanied His Majesty all the way through adversity, he could not escape the fate of liquidation in the end. His later life was somewhat desolate.

Fortunately, although Lu Dang suffered a big blow, his strength and foundation were not damaged.Because most of the senior officials in Lu's party have not been dealt with, the high-level power has been preserved, and Prime Minister Lu will not become isolated and helpless in the court. Therefore, this result may not be unacceptable to him.

The only difference is that the original views of the government and the public about the relationship between Lu Yijian and Fan Zhongyan soon changed again.The officials who had been fawning over Lu Yijian and writing letters to impeach Fan Zhongyan suddenly changed their direction and began to write letters praising Fan Zhongyan.

Imperial officials have always had no position.

They help whoever wins.

On May [-]rd of the third year of Jingyou's reign, Fan Zhongyan got into the sedan chair after a busy day. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, officials still mainly rode horses or carriages.But in the middle period, sedan chairs became popular. Because the Northern Song Dynasty lacked horses and had abundant human resources, it was obviously more cost-effective to hire sedan bearers.

At this moment, the sedan went out from the Liangmen Gate of the inner city. It was still afternoon. People were coming and going in the market. Various types of vehicles were coming in and out of the wide roads. Umbrellas were held outside the shops, signboards were hung, and voices with various accents from the east, west, and northwest were everywhere. The whole market.

Fan Zhongyan sat in the sedan chair and closed his eyes to relax.

The Song Dynasty implemented a high-salary policy to support integrity, and the monthly salary of officials was very exaggerated. An ordinary sixth- or seventh-rank official had several official titles, including salary official, casual official, honorary official, temporary official, and dispatched official, as well as salary, allowances, and The combined subsidies in one month can cover the income of an average family for a year or even several years.

In addition, Song Dynasty officials basically did business legally, and they had a lot of shops and land under their control.

Therefore, there were indeed few high-ranking corrupt officials in the Song Dynasty. After all, converted to future generations, your monthly salary of 10 yuan plus the income from land and property would take risks for a bribe of 50 yuan. The risk and cost of crime are too great. Once the corruption is found out, Not worth it.

Therefore, these people investigated and dealt with are basically not corrupt officials.Only a few were found to have abused their power, while the majority were dismissed for doing nothing and having no political achievements.

The list was also carefully determined by Fan Zhongyan.

There are more than a hundred officials in the Lu Party?However, most officials have no real power or have unimportant positions. The existence of these people is of little significance, and there is no need to remove them.

Those he abolished were all members of the Lu Party in important departments such as the 24th Division, the Third Class Yuan, and the Yushitai, and belonged to the middle and lower-level power structures of the Lu Party.

Reducing these people will be a heavy blow to the Lu Party's middle and lower-level power in Bianliang.

Therefore, this time it can be said that the party has won a great victory.

But Fan Zhongyan did not feel complacent about this victory.

Because he understood that the Lu Party could not be regarded as a political party formed around Lu Yijian from beginning to end, but should be regarded as an alliance formed by the common interests of Lu Yijian and them.

Just like the relationship between Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu, these people may not necessarily obey Lu Yijian's orders, but if Fan Zhongyan wants to initiate reforms, then they will definitely unite with Lu Yijian and resist the development of reforms.

Therefore, it is not enough to destroy some middle-level and lower-level officials of Lu Yijian's group. If we really want to be able to carry out reforms without obstacles in the future, we must not let go of any of the people on the list mentioned by Zhao Jun.Fan Zhongyan looked determined and thought seriously.

The road to reform.

A long way to go.

.

.

"The economy and culture of the Song Dynasty were indeed the pinnacle of all previous dynasties. Ouyang Xiu once said: "Pawns are like soldiers wearing uniforms, and farmers are walking on silk shoes." But its military weakness is also a fact."

"The economy and culture of the Ming Dynasty were not as good as those of the Song Dynasty, but the emperor guarded the country and the king died in the country. The last emperor Chongzhen was unwilling to move south until his death. No matter how incompetent he was, for this reason, the Ming Dynasty was the most stubborn since the Han and Tang Dynasties. dynasty."

"To be honest, I have always thought that the Song Dynasty was an extremely malleable era. Although it had many problems, its technology and industrial and commercial development had reached the peak of the feudal dynasty. With commercial exchanges, cultural development, sufficient labor force, and high productivity, These are all points that can be studied.”

"For example, take navigation. The navigation technology of the Song Dynasty can be said to be the strongest in the world. Through the ocean, it can completely navigate Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is very suitable for growing rice. It is easy to have two or even three crops a year. , attracting domestic refugees to go to Southeast Asia to grow food and then transport it back to the country, wouldn’t it solve the labor and food problems?”

"Food prices are low, which has a huge impact on the landlord class. In the Song Dynasty, the "land system was not established and mergers were not suppressed" which legally concentrated the land economy in the hands of landlords, promoted intensive land management, and created a large amount of surplus labor. If food is cheap, labor will be unwilling to cultivate the land, and the landlord’s land will be left uncultivated.”

"In order to retain the labor force, landlords have to offer higher wages and better conditions to attract young people to help them farm. This further suppresses the profits of the landlord class, and the lives of the people at the bottom will be better. Even if there are There are such things as unscrupulous landlords and capitalists, but the general trend is still becoming stable.”

"The biggest headache is the lack of pioneering spirit of the Song Dynasty. Although our country is known as a heavenly state and rich in products, in fact, the precious metals gold, silver and copper needed in ancient times are still scarce. The birth of Jiaozi was due to economic prosperity and insufficient coins. Paper currency transactions began to occur.”

"However, Jiaozi can only be issued by bulk goods and particularly reputable trading houses. For the common people, copper coins are definitely more valuable. Therefore, if we want the economy to be more prosperous, we should actively expand externally and occupy more The place."

"Japan is rich in silver mines. I remember there was an Iwami silver mine there, which accounted for one-third of the world's silver production in the seventeenth century. There are also many copper mines and gold mines. If Japan were occupied, a large number of immigrants would , will definitely be richer."

"There are also India and Southeast Asia. They are obviously close to each other. Ships and shipping are also developed. More immigrants will expand the Maritime Silk Road. Southeast Asia will become the backyard of the Song Dynasty. The economic and agricultural levels will naturally reach a higher level."

"It's just that the military aspect is a bit of a headache. The Emperor of the Song Dynasty had a very tight grip on military power. He didn't know the generals and the generals. It would be very difficult to improve this problem."

"Perhaps we can only start with weapons and equipment, such as firearms. Didn't the Song Dynasty invent the prototype of the musket? Their steel production was also the first in the world at that time. If they had musket technology, they could rely on hand-made firearms, ammunition and artillery to deal with nomads. The nation should be able to do it.”

"Of course, I'm just talking nonsense. After all, I'm just a history student, and I wasn't born in the Song Dynasty. I can only understand them through history books. I don't know their true situation and specific development level."

"So, Uncle Lari, if you want to hear how the Song Dynasty should be strong and developed, I will just talk nonsense and you can just listen to it."

Zhao Jun was sitting on the edge of the bed, with one foot on the bed and one foot on the ground. He was holding a rice plate in his hand, foaming at the mouth, and talking.

Today Yan Shu came again and asked how to make the Song Dynasty develop and grow.

Although this question is very strange, because they are now in New China and not in the Song Dynasty, it seems meaningless to ask how the Song Dynasty can grow?
But anyway, I am idle, so I just talk nonsense, regardless of whether what he proposes is reliable or not.After all, he wasn't really in the Song Dynasty, and he was talking nonsense in New China. How could he still influence the Song Dynasty thousands of years ago?

Yan Shu recorded everything he said one by one. Zhao Zhen and the others were not here today, and the Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers could not stay in the back garden every day, so he was needed to record and report the situation to Zhao Zhen.

Speaking of which, Zhao Jun has been in Song Dynasty for more than ten days. His injuries have improved a lot and he can now get out of bed and walk around. In the past two days, Yan Shu even took him for a walk on the corridor outside.

But what Zhao Jun definitely didn't expect was that he was really in the Song Dynasty now, and because of his appearance, the history of the Song Dynasty had been temporarily offset.

In May of the third year of Jingyou's reign, the middle and lower levels of the Lu Party were dealt a heavy blow.Although Fan Zhongyan was demoted, he was not transferred out of Bianliang.

Even on Fan Zhongyan's recommendation, another reformist pioneer was transferred back to the capital.

Fu Bi, the general magistrate of Jiangzhou, who was Yan Shu's son-in-law, was appointed as the official of Kaifeng Prefecture. He entered the Zhijian Yuan and became one of the Taiwanese admonishers. He replaced the previously deposed Lu Danggao.

obviously.

With the indirect help of Zhao Jun, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty has made up his mind to support the Qingli New Deal to the end. He is currently making plans in advance to promote reformist officials to pave the way for the future New Deal.

Even though they, the old people of the Lu party, knew that it would harm their own interests, they had to make concessions for the interests of the country and remain silent.

Zhao Jun has only been here for more than ten days, but he has already begun to change the political scene of the Song Dynasty invisibly.

(End of this chapter)