Northern Song Dynasty: Starting from the son of Song Renzong

Chapter 204: Yanguo, what are you dissatisfied with His Royal Highness the Prince of Yu?

The second year of Huangyou.

If you want to get to know someone, you must spend a long time in contact with that person so that you can make an accurate judgment.

If it weren't for what Zhao Xin had said to Fan Zhongyan under the moon, if it weren't for things like steam engines, it would make sense.

Many people may still have the impression that Zhao Xin is the second son of an official, and that he can act lawless because of the official's favor.

The specific manifestation is that he said he was the biggest in the court, he could ask the government to give him a fiefdom, and he could train soldiers at will.

even……

Even for the Yellow River, once he says he will come, everyone else has to shut up.

His words cannot be questioned or refuted by anyone.

But in the eyes of others, what abilities could a little boy of only twelve years old have?
If you don't see it with your own eyes.

It may be hard for you to imagine that he could train such soldiers and even make such a steam engine.

This is His Royal Highness Prince Yu.

If you don't look into it deeply and just look at the surface, you will definitely think that it is nonsense for the government to let him lead the troops.

But actually...

Their soldiers are so well trained that even the imperial guards in Tokyo City may not be a match for them.

can only say……

His Royal Highness Prince Yu is hiding the truth too well.

of course!

This must also be about publicity.

For example, when he and Han Qi were guarding the northwest border, there were sayings like "There is a Han in the army, and the western bandits are terrified when they hear about it." and "There is a Fan in the army, and the western bandits are frightened when they hear about it."

on the contrary……

As for His Royal Highness Prince Yu, apart from hearing that he led the army, founded a country, married a wife, and he said he was the greatest, then you will find that he seems to have not made any contributions.

Suppressing the rebellion in Beizhou City can be considered an achievement.

But the main credit goes to those who dug the tunnel.

And because Beizhou City has such a great influence, Beizhou has now been changed to Enzhou.

I just don't want to mention the matter of Beizhou City anymore, so that the publicity for His Royal Highness Prince Yu won't be too great.

In addition...

Fan Zhongyan did think that His Royal Highness Prince Yu seemed to have supported the construction of Shuiluo City.

of course!

Shuiluo City cannot actually be considered a great achievement, but invisibly, with the completion of Shuiluo City, the Song Dynasty did gain more support from the foreign peoples on the northwest border.

If His Royal Highness Prince Yu had not made the final decision, would the result have been different?
and……

His Royal Highness the Prince of Yu was probably even younger than he is now.

After returning to the court.

Fan Zhongyan was also very curious, and began to talk about these things in the court, with the emperor, and other people.

Let’s start with Shuiluo City.

Then we talked about military training.

Let’s talk about the present.

So much so that no one in the court knew what he wanted to say.

Zhao Zhen then asked, "Mr. Fan, what do you want to say?"

Fan Zhongyan said, "I have no other intentions, I just want to say that your Royal Highness Prince Yu has made a lot of contributions over the years." "I almost forgot that Xuchang and Nanyang also slowly resumed the construction of various water conservancy projects with the support of your Royal Highness Prince Yu. Now, the farmland irrigated is nearly millions of acres."

"I went to Hebei this time and saw that the people in Hebei who were originally affected by the disaster have now been properly resettled."

"Even some capable officials can probably only do this."

Zhao Zhen asked, "So?"

Fan Zhongyan looked at the emperor and said, "I think that the court has not done much publicity for His Royal Highness Prince Yu. It seems that His Royal Highness Prince Yu has not done anything and was named Prince Yu."

Zhao Zhen thought for a while.

It seems that this is indeed the problem!
Then he said, "If you hadn't told me, even I wouldn't have realized that Zui Xinglai had done so many things."

Zhao Xin also said: "Dad, these are all trivial matters, not worth mentioning. Moreover... I definitely did not instruct Fan Zhongyan to say this. What he said in the court today has nothing to do with me."

Zhao Zhen: "..."

Zhao Zhen was stunned for a moment when he looked at Zhao Xin who was trying to distance himself from the matter, and then he reacted.

He said, "Lord Fan is an upright man. He would never praise others for no reason. I thought about it and it seems that every time I issued an edict in the past, I really didn't reflect your contribution. You should pay attention to this point in the future."

After saying this, Zhao Zhen asked again: "What do you think of the law for electing county magistrates?"

The so-called law on the election of county magistrates allowed officials of the imperial court and some local officials to recommend talents to the imperial court.

But the word 'election' doesn't seem quite right, it should be more like 'recommendation'.

Zhao Xin said: "I object!"

This method of electing county magistrates was thought up by Fu Bi, Pang Ji and others.

After Zhao Xin said this, Fu Bi and Pang Ji's faces naturally became unhappy, and the others were also suddenly surprised.

Fu Bi stepped out and said, "Your Highness Prince Yu, what do you think is wrong with this method?"

Zhao Xin said, "Elections are usually conducted by higher-level officials. I think this is inappropriate. It will easily lead to collusion between officials and lead to corruption."

Zhao Zhen then asked, "So what do you think should be done to ensure that the county magistrates of the Song Dynasty are all useful and employable people?"

Zhao Xin said, "Just randomly assign the people, and then every year, have them submit a report on what they have done and give themselves a score."

"There are so many counties in the world, and the court cannot investigate them one by one. However... we can adopt the method of random inspections and secret investigations."

"For those who do not do well or cheat, just dismiss them directly."

Fu Bi said, "Then we need someone to go and investigate secretly, right? How should we select these people?"

Zhao Xin said, "If the people below know everything, it's not called a secret investigation. The people below will have ways to deal with it. In short... the people below just need to be good county magistrates. People who always worry about whether others will find out about them will never be good county magistrates."

Everyone seemed to be able to feel it.

recent……

It seems that Fu Bi's relationship with His Royal Highness Prince Yu is not very good.

There is a subtle sense of tit-for-tat in both of them.

Is it possible...

Fu Bi, do you also want to go to Lingnan?

It’s just about the issue of whether the Yellow River should be diverted. I didn’t listen to you. To be honest, you can’t target others just because they didn’t listen to you.

Down to court.

Fan Zhongyan stepped forward and said a few words to Fu Bi.

After all, Fan Zhongyan was the matchmaker between Fu Bi and his wife.

Then he asked, "Why, Yan Guo, are you dissatisfied with His Royal Highness Prince Yu?"

(End of this chapter)