History can't bear to look at the complete collection

Chapter 4
Wang Anshi Fuels Corruption
In 1067 AD, the 20-year-old Song Shenzong took office and took charge of the full power of the Song Dynasty.At the pinnacle of power, the young man looked down at his country and suddenly found that the Northern Song Dynasty, which had gone through 108 years, seemed to be faltering and stagnant, like a bloated middle-aged man with less and less vitality.

The days of peace have passed for a long time, the population of the Song Dynasty has increased too much, the expenditure has also increased, and the problem of overstaffed officials and troops has become more and more serious. Song Shenzong is obviously unwilling to accept such a mess. He said to the minister many times: " There are many evils in the world, and there must be reform.”

As for who can take on the important task of reform, it must be Wang Anshi.As people with extraordinary ambitions, Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi can be said to be sympathetic to each other. As early as the Renzong period, Wang Anshi wrote a letter of ten thousand words, hoping for reform, but unfortunately, there was no news.And the "olive branch" thrown out by Song Shenzong this time undoubtedly ushered in a second spring for Wang Anshi's career.

Both Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi belonged to people with extraordinary ambitions. People with extraordinary ambitions are always vigorous, full of ambition, eager to make a big career.But the reality is often quite different from the idea. In Wang Anshi's reform, the exemption law is a highlight. This is a reform that he came up with in response to heavy taxes and labor.

Serving is equivalent to a kind of voluntary labor performed by ordinary people for the court. In order to ensure the normal operation of the state apparatus, ordinary people need to be selfless and dedicate their financial resources selflessly.In the Song Dynasty, due to the wide variety of servants, the service of the common people was very difficult.

Therefore, Wang Anshi carried out a series of reforms in response to this malpractice, but what he did not expect was that the reform was not only full of resistance, but in the end it was a complete failure. They collectively went to the capital to petition and sue, and caused trouble at the gate of Wang Anshi's house.

Although Wang Anshi continued to insist on his reforms, he believed that "the changes of the sky are not enough to be feared, people's words are not enough to be sympathetic, and the ancestors are not enough to follow the law. People in the world don't know me, and people in the future should thank me." It is for the benefit of the future to increase, but he never imagined that his own reforms were originally out of good intentions, but they would actually help corruption a lot.

Let me give a small example of the reform method: the young crop method.The Green Crops Law was established to allow the common people to eat food in spring, the season of green crops.At that time, in order to alleviate the hardship, the people went back to the rich to borrow money and grain, and when they had a harvest, they would double the repayment.

In order to protect the interests of farmers and the country, the Young Crop Law is done by the state instead of individuals, and the interest rate is lower than that of the rich. I thought that this would not only reduce the burden on the farmers, but also increase the country's fiscal revenue, killing two birds with one stone. , but I didn't expect the implementation to be really unsatisfactory.

In Wang Anshi's eyes, the relatively low interest was implemented among the people, and after layers of exploitation by the middle officials, it was actually higher than the original interest set by the wealthy households. However, due to the implementation of the Young Crop Law, this behavior has become a kind of official government. Monopoly behavior, ordinary people have to borrow money from the government.

However, the government's procedures are always very troublesome, and the transaction can only be completed after layers of notification and review. After this, by the time the food is distributed, the people will have starved to death.Even ordinary people who can wait for food have to endure more cruel exploitation.

Wang Anshi's reform has evolved into helping the government do business. In this way, with the protection of officials and officials, corruption has naturally become rampant.Not only did the common people fail to lighten their burdens, but those local officials filled their own pockets, adding a bit of oil and water.Not only did Wang Anshi not realize this, but he changed his method to "fuel the flames".

In order to implement the new reform smoothly, Wang Anshi issued hard targets to all localities, stipulating the amount that must be loaned out each year.In this way, the magistrates had to make mandatory apportionments, and many people who did not need to borrow money had to take out loans according to the decree. As a result, the people were naturally miserable.

Officials don't care about this, they have finally caught such a big business opportunity, and naturally they will not let it go easily. Corrupt officials use the promotion of the new law as an excuse to complete the target for the court as their own responsibility, wantonly devouring the people's money, and profiting from it.Therefore, Wang Anshi's reform not only did not reduce the burden on the common people, but also increased complaints, and it did not increase the fiscal revenue for the country, and made those corrupt officials cheaper in vain.

Although this was not Wang Anshi's original intention to make corruption more and more rampant, it is also inseparable from him. Therefore, the failure of the final reform has to be said that Wang Anshi did not think carefully.We must know that reforms cannot stop the evil hands of corrupt officials. They are not afraid of reform, nor are they afraid of not reforming.

Wang Anshi wanted to fight corruption, but he still failed to play with corrupt officials.

(End of this chapter)