Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 572 Prescribe the right medicine
In the original history, Zhao Yuan accomplished all four of these things.

He successfully eliminated the redundancy.

He also successfully completed the military reform.

In terms of military parades, he held three grand military parades within five years. He also adjusted the selection criteria and methods for generals, which greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Song army compared with before.

He also shortened the prime minister's term of office, because at the same time, he also shared part of the prime minister's power with the ruling party.

This not only further reduced the influence of the prime minister, but also made the reform of shortening the prime minister's term of office go very smoothly.

Because it is not convenient for the prime minister himself to jump out and argue in order to ensure a longer term for himself.

The scholar-officials portrayed themselves as too great and glorious. While this "personality" brought them many benefits, it also became a constraint for them.

If he wants to oppose, he can only rely on the words of others.

However, why should he support extending the prime minister's term of office when the ruling party can hold more power?

Of course, in the original history, these drastic reforms took place more than 20 years later.

At that time, Zhao Gou died.

In other words, he endured for more than 20 years, until he outlasted his old "mother-in-law" Zhao Gou, and only then was he able to truly show his talents.

The literati have their own personalities and their own "idol baggage", and Zhao Yuan is the same.

Zhao Yuan's "extremely filial character" brought him huge benefits, but also brought him huge constraints.

But now it’s different, Zhao Gou left in a hurry.

In the year when Zhao Yuan changed the reign title, he faced a series of events, including the Jin Dynasty showing weakness, the New Jin Dynasty becoming closer, and the Goryeo Dynasty surrendering.

As a filial son, not only was there no emperor over his head, but his personal prestige had also reached its peak, so it was no longer difficult for him to carry out these things.

Zhao Yuan planned to complete these tasks before he went to Chengdu.

As a young emperor, his greatest pursuit was to leave his great achievements in history books.

These things were successfully promoted because he was a capable ruler, so naturally he would not want to delegate the task to others.

Therefore, when officials with different positions and thoughts were brought down one after another in the court because of the Zhang Mi case, Zhao Yuan also began his reforms.

The first thing he did, and the most difficult of the four things, was to shorten the prime minister's term of office.

However, as mentioned earlier, Zhao Yuan first met with the ruling officials, including the Vice Prime Ministers Tang Situi, Zhang Jun, and Chen Kangbo. After Chen Junqing listened to the government's reform suggestions, they all expressed their approval.

Among them, Chen Junqing is the newly appointed prime minister.

He was originally a professor in the royal palace when Zhao Yuan was the Prince of Pu'an, which was equivalent to one of Zhao Yuan's teachers. He had the least experience among the prime ministers, but was Zhao Yuan's die-hard supporter.

Today, both prime ministers are conservatives, but among those in power, except for Tang Situi, the other three are pro-war.

The power that can faithfully implement Zhao Yuan's will is growing stronger.

After gaining the support of the ruling officials, Zhao Yuan convened a meeting in front of the emperor and made public his opinions on the reform of the prime minister's term of office and the division of power.

1. Shorten the term of office and make it clear in a legal way, with the maximum term not exceeding five years.

2. The right to share profits, allocating part of the power that originally belonged to the prime minister to the ruling party.

In fact, for various reasons, there are not many prime ministers whose term of office exceeds five years.

Many prime ministers served for periods ranging from a few months to three or four years, and there were very few who served for too long.

Some famous people who served in office for a long time include Li Linfu in the Tang Dynasty and Qin Huizhi in the Song Dynasty, who both happened to become negative examples.

Now the Emperor agrees, the Prince of Jin agrees, the ruling officials support it, and the two Prime Ministers, Shen Gai and Wei Liangchen, are old and will not be able to work for many more years. They are not strong in disputing and it is not convenient for them to argue with each other, so this most difficult hurdle was resolved very smoothly.

After reforming the term of office of prime minister and redistributing power, Zhao Yuan did the second thing: cutting down on redundancies.

There was no resistance to this.

The problem of redundant officials is a consensus among many knowledgeable people. More than one senior official in the court has spoken out loudly, explained the pros and cons, and suggested cutting down on redundant staff.

For example, Prime Minister Wei Liangchen has always insisted that the phenomenon of redundant officials is too serious and that excessive rewards and favors are too serious, so he has been calling for changes.

You can't say that many officials are selfless, but it is true that not all decisions are made solely for their own personal gain.

Moreover, the system of imperial favors is a useless option for these senior officials.

Because there is no chance of promotion for officials selected through imperial favor, the highest rank is the seventh.

Therefore, these high-ranking officials are rarely willing to let their sons and nephews follow the path of patronage.

Even if they failed to pass the imperial examinations and were able to enter the officialdom temporarily through imperial favor, they would still require their sons and nephews to study hard in order to gain fame and honor, otherwise they would not achieve the desired result.

Therefore, the resistance to cutting down on redundancy came mainly from below, and since all the higher-ups agreed, it was actively promoted.

At this time, the second emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty had just ascended the throne. The phenomenon of redundant officials in the Southern Song Dynasty was actually much milder than that in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

After all, Bianliang was captured by the Jin people and the royal family was wiped out. How many of those ministers could escape?

The Southern Song Dynasty court started from scratch, so up to now, the problem of redundant officials is not particularly serious and is mainly concentrated in the Lin'an area.

In this way, Zhao Yuan used Lin'an as a pilot to carry out elimination reforms. Once successful, it would be equivalent to a success across the country.

After the reform was implemented, the first batch of dismissals included more than 300 young officials, as well as more than 700 redundant officials in various government offices who only received salaries but did not do any work.

These people simply seriously fail to meet the retention conditions and do not even need careful screening, they are completely unqualified.

However, Zhao Yuan originally thought that more young officials would be laid off, after all, officials should be more reasonable than clerks.

As a result... this time, only more than 300 clerks were cut, but more than 700 redundant officials were eliminated, which was more than twice the number of young officials cut.

This gave Zhao Yuan a deeper understanding of the seriousness of the phenomenon of redundant officials in the Song Dynasty.

There are actually more officials than clerks, and more of them talk than they do.

The yamen is full of officials, but only a few of them are doing their work. It is simply outrageous.

Thinking about the numerous salary benefits in the Song Dynasty, in addition to the regular salary, there were also money distributed under many names such as cloth and brocade, official salary, salary and grain, additional allowance, public money, and coupons.

These redundant officials were also enjoying these treatments, and Zhao Yuan, who had always been loyal, couldn't help but become angry.

He said to Zhao Yu, "Brother Yu, please remember this for me. After the elimination of redundant officials is successfully completed, the court will start to reform the problem of redundant expenditures. It is a huge waste!"

……

Yang Yuan picked up Mr. Fan on his way home from work.

The ox cart passed an intersection. Fan Jiang, who had been waiting there, bent down and got into the car while the car was moving slowly.

He is still serving in Lin'an Prefecture.

Yang Yuan had just been transferred to the Censorate. It would not be appropriate to transfer his people immediately to each place he arrived at.

Moreover, Mr. Fan’s starting point was too low. If he went to the Censorate, he wouldn’t even be able to become a Censor-in-Chief. It would be better for him to stay in Lin’an Prefecture.

Here he holds a low position but has great power. No matter how big or small the affairs of Lin'an Prefecture are, he can keep them under his ears and can even intervene.

Yang Yuan sat in the car and asked, "How is the matter going?"

Fan Jiang said excitedly: "It's going very smoothly!"

Fan Jiang introduced to Yang Yuan how the students of the Imperial College, the Imperial Academy, and the Military Academy had been tracing the root cause of the case in recent days, in which Zhang Mi was sentenced to death.

The students continued to "archaeologically" conduct research by citing classics and discovered many cases of "extrajudicial leniency" to the scholar-official class.

Through these cases, they were convinced that it was precisely because of such unreasonable rules that many officials were able to engage in corruption and abuse of power with impunity, which dealt a heavy blow to the majesty of the court's laws and caused great harm to the people.

There were several corrupt officials in Lin'an Prefecture, such as Zhang Cheng, Cao Yong and others. Their bad deeds were too numerous to mention, but what happened in the end?

They all transferred their properties, and then were dismissed from office and became common people, or demoted to local areas, which was considered a punishment.

This is completely different from the times of Taizu, Taizong and Zhenzong.

At that time, all officials who were seriously corrupt and committed law-breaking crimes were sentenced to death.

Wait, Taizong? Zhenzong?

Isn’t it said that Emperor Taizu erected a stele ordering future emperors to “not kill scholars and officials”?

It would be fine if Emperor Taizu himself did not comply. Emperor Taizong was his younger brother, so it was understandable that he did not comply. But why would Emperor Zhenzong not comply?
Does this monument really exist?

The students were full of energy and had plenty of time, so thousands of them studied this problem all day long.

They looked through various historical books and actually found out some things.

In this era without computers, when the storage and retrieval of various materials was extremely difficult, only these students had the conditions to conduct such detailed and powerful cross-examination.

They discovered that the original source of this so-called Taizu Oath Monument was actually spread through the mouth of Cao Xun, a minister who fled back to the Song Dynasty from the Jin Dynasty in the first year of Jianyan.

In other words, there are no records for more than a hundred years before that.

Even if you keep such a major event a secret from the outside, it should not be missing from important palace records such as the daily records. The so-called confidentiality issue is never kept secret from historians.

Moreover, the later emperors did not want to kill. When students were reading ancient books, they found that during the Qingli period of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, there was a case in which Yao Zhongyue, the military governor of Gaoyou, indulged thieves.

When the incident happened, the emperor was furious. Prime Minister Fu Bi thought that he should be killed to serve as a warning to others, but the famous minister Fan Zhongyan wrote a letter to oppose it and persuaded Renzong.

The original words of Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi's debate on sentencing are recorded. Fan Zhongyan said:

"Since our ancestors, we have never lightly killed our subjects. This is a great virtue. Why do you want to destroy it lightly? Besides, you and I are here. How many of us are of the same mind? Even if the emperor's will is not yet determined, if you lightly lead the emperor to kill his subjects, if he slips in the future, even we dare not protect ourselves."

First of all, is it true that our ancestors never killed their subjects lightly?
Taizu and Taizong killed a lot of people, but the number decreased during the reign of Zhenzong.

However, the empire has been passed down for three generations, and everything has become relatively stable. There are fewer criminal cases than before, which is normal.

Furthermore, even so, what Fan Zhongyan said at the time was "Our ancestors never killed their subjects lightly," not that they would not kill them.

His reason was "If the ruler is easily led to kill his subjects, if he slips, even we will not be able to protect ourselves."

This... this has nothing to do with the ancestral system, right?
This was purely in the interests of the scholar-officials, urging them to abolish the death penalty and leave them a way out. Then the energetic students discovered more doubts.

Cao Xun said, "In the third year after Emperor Taizu received the mandate, he secretly engraved a stele and placed it in the side room of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, which was called the 'Oath Stele'."

The time, place, and also the length, width, and contents of the stele were all described in great detail.

But there was a curious student from the Imperial College who went to look up information about the Imperial Temple of the Song Dynasty.

The Taimiao was built in the first year of Emperor Taizu's reign, following the "same hall, different rooms" system of the Tang and Five Dynasties. Initially, it had only four rooms and a width of twelve rooms.

That is to say, each room was divided into exactly three rooms, which were used to enshrine the four temples of Xizu, Shunzu, Yizu and Xuanzu respectively. After that, there was no record of the start of any expansion of the Taimiao in Taizu's life.

So where did the secret room come from during the time of Taizu?

This side room was built after the expansion by later emperors. It is obvious that when Cao Xun spread the rumor, he did not know that there was no side room in the Taimiao during the time of Taizu, so he made up a loophole.

Furthermore, although the Taimiao later had side rooms, what were they used for? They were used to store treasures.

With the development of the Song Dynasty, more and more treasures were offered to the emperor during sacrificial ceremonies, so that the room became cluttered.

Another student found out that at that time, the Zongzheng Temple had said:

"There are many precious books and Buddhist artifacts in the six rooms of the old palace. They have been placed in the sheds and pavilions in the inner and outer rooms, and they are now full.

I am concerned that after the enshrinement of the spirit tablet of Emperor Zhenzong, there will be too many religious objects to place, so I would like to ask for a wooden shed and a ladder to be placed in each of the two rooms.

In such a messy room, with treasures piled up in a disorderly manner and stacked up with wooden sheds and ladders, there was actually a stone tablet that was seven or eight feet high and more than four feet wide standing there?
"When the new emperor ascends the throne, he will visit the temple and recite the oath." Let the newly enthroned emperor kneel in a messy pile of debris and recite the oath?

Moreover, the Imperial Ancestral Temple was maintained by someone, and there were officials from the Zongzheng Temple in charge. They saw jewels all over the room, but they couldn't see that huge stone tablet? How come there was no record of it at all?
Moreover, at the beginning, the Zongzheng Temple was only headed by members of the royal family's collateral branches, but later it was concurrently held by officials of the imperial court.

Under such circumstances, prime ministers such as Han Qi, Fu Bi, Wang Anshi, Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang and Lu Yijian were bold enough to make fun of Taizong's scandals and anecdotes. They dared to record them in their notes and publish them.

But they didn't even mention a word about the oath stele that was so beneficial to them, the scholars and officials?

Then another student from the Imperial Academy conducted research and found out that during the Jingkang Incident, the two emperors were captured. The records at that time stated that the doors of the Taimiao "were all wide open, allowing people to look out." Didn't the people who went to watch see such a huge stone tablet weighing several tons?
They didn't say anything.

After the Jin people abducted the two emperors, they returned north. Then, for a considerable period of time, Bianliang was back under the control of the Song Dynasty.

The then garrison general Zong Ze, Du Chong and other officials, as well as many other Song Dynasty officials who traveled between Bianliang and Nanjing, never mentioned this stone tablet.

In July of the first year of Jianyan, Emperor Gaozong Zhao Gou sent people to Bian Jing to "welcome the stored ancestral tablets to the imperial court." These officials emptied the Taimiao, but what about the stone tablet?

All the items that were moved were recorded in the list, but such an important thing was not mentioned at all.

Furthermore, there is no need to keep the contents of this oath monument secret.

Especially since Emperor Taizu seized the throne from the Zhou Dynasty, and the old ministers of the Zhou Dynasty were everywhere in the court and the country. Once this oath of preferential treatment for the royal family of the previous dynasty was made public, it would be able to win people's hearts even more. So why was it kept secret in the Taimiao?
Some students also found out that after Cao Xun returned to China, he brought back Huizong's imperial calligraphy, which was written on the lining of his clothes.

On it are words written by Song Huizong himself, such as "You can be true and come to save your parents", "I saw that Prince Kang's younger brother said he has a plan to clear the Central Plains, so carry it out and don't worry about me".

At that time, Emperor Gaozong showed Huizong's imperial edict to all his ministers, but there was no record of the oath stele in the imperial edict.

Some people even discovered a suspicious point in the timing. Cao Xun did not mention the oath monument at that time. It was only several months after he returned to China that he seemed to suddenly remember it, which led to this "verbal transmission".

All these things prove that this is completely false.

The students with a strong sense of justice were angry. They felt that not only the emperor had been fooled, but the whole world had been fooled, including them.

In order to hit the target with one blow, they are now preparing very detailed materials, aiming to silence those eloquent scholars with irrefutable facts.

"it is good!"

Yang Yuan was so excited when he heard this, it had to be these students.

If he were asked to look through piles of old papers and find so many irrefutable doubts, it would take him a lifetime to finish his studies.

Yang Yuan asked, "When do they plan to submit a petition?"

Fan Jiang said: "The students of the Imperial Academy are in contact with the students of the Imperial Academy and are preparing to publicly submit a petition during the 'Picking Vegetables Festival' on February 2."

The saying of "Dragon Raising its Head on February 2" originated in the Yuan Dynasty and did not exist in the Song Dynasty.

However, during the Song Dynasty, February 2 was also a festival, called the "Picking Vegetables Festival."

Because this is the season for picking wild vegetables, the wild vegetables picked by the people will be treated as a game. The family members will be asked to select and identify them one by one, and set a prize as a reward or punishment.

The palace would also hold a "vegetable picking banquet" on this day, with the names of various wild grasses written on a jar, and different wild vegetables such as shepherd's purse and purslane would be inserted into the jar according to their names.

Then the empress, princes, noble ladies, and imperial concubines would be asked to identify the wild vegetables. If they identified the wrong ones, they would not be punished, but if they identified the right ones, they would be rewarded. This was treated as a game.

February 2nd?

After hearing this, Yang Yuan nodded, thinking that this day was suitable.

Some of his plans could be fine-tuned according to the massive action that the Imperial Academy students and the Imperial College students were preparing to launch.

The heirs of the scholar-officials are about to become their gravediggers.

Yang Yuan sat up straight, looked at Fan Jiang with burning eyes, and said in a deep voice: "I have something to say. If necessary, you can say it in your name."

Fan Jiang immediately sat up straight and concentrated, saying, "Sir, please speak!"

Yang Yuan said: "Today's responsibility does not lie with others, but with our students. If our students are wise, the country will be wise; if our students are brave, the country will be brave; if our students are strong, the country will be strong; if our students are the best in the world, the country will be the best in the world.

The sun rises, its path is bright. The river flows out of the underground stream, rushing into the ocean. The hidden dragon soars into the abyss, its scales and claws flying. The young tiger roars in the valley, and all the beasts are frightened. The eagle tests its wings, and the wind and dust flutter. The exotic flowers are born, shining brightly. The dry general is sharpened, and the edge is made. The sky is blue, and the earth is yellow. Even if there are thousands of years, there are eight wildernesses. The future is like the sea, and the future is long..."

Fan Jiang was overjoyed when he heard this. It was not that they did not understand the call to action, and they had originally prepared the "Four Sentences of Hengqu".

These four sentences are a powerful weapon that can motivate these students and make them scream.

However, what Si Gong said is not bad. The most important thing is that it has a stronger effect on stimulating emotions.

These words were spoken in one breath, and the momentum was extraordinary. Wouldn't those students be so excited that their eyes were filled with blood?
Fan Jiang closed his eyes slightly and recited silently. In a short while, he knew it by heart. He opened his eyes and said excitedly, "I've got it down."

Yang Yuan smiled slightly and said, "If you say these words, you will become a famous person in the world if this thing succeeds. If this thing fails, you will also be implicated. You can decide the pros and cons yourself. If you feel it is inappropriate, you can post it in the Imperial College and the Imperial Academy without signing your name..."

Fan Jiang said excitedly: "No! With this statement, it doesn't matter whether you are an official or not. This statement must be said by me, and no one can take it away from me!"

Yang Yuan smiled and said, "Okay, it's up to you to decide."

Fan Jiang excitedly bowed and said goodbye. After he got off the ox cart, he was still muttering to himself as he walked along, fearing that he had forgotten it.

"The red sun rises, its path is bright. The river flows out from the hidden stream, rushing into the ocean. The hidden dragon soars into the abyss, its scales and claws flying. The young tiger roars in the valley, and all the beasts are terrified.

Damn it, I am over 30 years old, but my blood is boiling just by hearing this. I can’t imagine what it will be like when thousands of students take to the streets and hear these words! "

Yang Yuan opened the curtain and watched Fan Jiang stride away. Turning back, he realized that in order to allow him and Fan Jiang to discuss matters in the car, Da Zhuang drove the car in a circle and drove along the other side of the inner river.

At this time, you have to cross the river before entering Renmeifang, and this side is where the "Niaohua Cottage" is located.

Yang Yuan slapped his forehead and suddenly remembered that he had told Bei'er something before, but now he was busy with other things and had forgotten it.

Yang Yuan said, "Let's not rush across the river, let's go to Nianhua Cottage first."

Da Zhuang agreed, and the car, which was about to turn and cross the bridge, continued to drive forward.

Belle has been feeling particularly lonely lately.

In fact, she was not idle. During the day, she helped Fei Yuye to contact and arrange the transportation of military supplies to Xinjin.

The cargo ships that sailed to Xinjin before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month should have completed unloading in Jiuliancheng and Dun'encheng respectively.

Once their ships are loaded with local goods, they will set out on their return journey, and a lot of preparations for the next ship will begin now.

Since Bingxin and Yuchan had just entered the Yang family, Fei Yuye granted them a long vacation and asked them to come back after the first month of the year to continue their work.

As a result, all the details fell on Fei Yuye and Emmanuelle Belle, and they were very busy.

After returning to Nianhua Cottage, there were still six or seven female companions from foreign countries who still lived there. How could she be lonely?

However, the feeling of loneliness and desolation is getting deeper and deeper.

Because she found that Helen, Reba and others who had been keen on "urging her to get married" started to give up after Leng Yuchan, Xue Bingxin and Wugun Yingge moved out.

When they got together, they usually talked about everything, including business and some strange customers they encountered while doing business, but no one mentioned asking her to marry Lord Yang.

Even if these girls have boyfriends who are more compatible with them and are trying to get in touch with each other, other women will ask with interest about some details of the contact between the two parties, but they will not ask whether there is any progress between her and Yang Yuan.

This made Belle, who was both annoyed and irritated when they urged her to get married, feel deeply lost.

That kind of emptiness can't be filled by anything.

She sat there, seemingly an abandoned outsider.

It was the same tonight, with everyone chatting and laughing while having dinner together.

But in terms of affairs, she and these women were completely different and had no common language.

Emotionally, everyone deliberately avoided her, as if they were afraid that talking about her would hurt her, which made her particularly uncomfortable.

So, when the girls gathered together to chat after dinner, she found an excuse to return to her own garden.

"Did we use too much medicine? You can see that Belle is very disappointed." Helen sighed.

Tierreba said, "How can we cure her serious illness without taking strong medicine? If this continues, the possibility between her and Mr. Yang will become increasingly slim."

Afafu said, "Yeah, doing the opposite might work."

At this time, a tall figure walked into the back garden of Nianhua Cottage.

"Mr. Yang!"

Helen saw it from the window, stood up in surprise, and was about to go out to greet him, but was stopped by Afafu.

"do not go!"

Afafu stared at the figure walking straight towards Kiku Ting and said slowly, "What if our medicine has already taken effect?"

(End of this chapter)