At the beginning, Qin Shi Huang traveled to my home

Fan Zhongyan also nodded and sighed, "I have implicated quite a few people."

Zhang Heng looked at Fan Zhongyan silently and thought, it's good that you know it, but he won't listen or change even if others advise him. That's why he got the nickname "Stubborn Donkey". I guess Fan Zhongyan himself knows that others call him Stubborn Donkey behind his back.

Li Wu chuckled twice and did not comment on this matter.

"In 1037 AD, Lü Yijian was dismissed from his post as prime minister, and many scholars and officials spoke up for you, Mr. Fan Zhongyan, and the court officials started arguing over you.

Later, Song Renzong asked Prime Minister Zhang Shixun for advice and issued an edict to prohibit the formation of cliques.

Because Senior Fan Zhongyan was demoted for giving advice many times, Senior Mei Yaochen wrote "Lingwu Fu" to advise Senior Fan Zhongyan to talk less, mind his own business, and just take care of himself.

But it is impossible for you, Mr. Fan Zhongyan, to listen to me. It is impossible for you to ignore everything and pretend that you can't see or hear anything being done.

In many cases, we need ministers like you. If everyone turns a deaf ear and dumb, what will happen to the country?

Of course, a minister like you is bound to offend many people," Li Wu smiled bitterly. There were naturally many people like Fan Zhongyan, but their careers were generally miserable. They were either demoted or not reused. They easily offended people and were too bold.

Fan Zhongyan laughed and said, "If I were afraid, I wouldn't have done it. Now that I've done it, I'm not afraid. Why should I fear death?"

He is afraid of death, but he is not afraid of death.

"Well said," Zhang Heng said, "Senior Fan Zhongyan said it well." Zhang Heng raised his glass, Fan Zhongyan followed suit, and Wang Wei also raised his glass and nodded to drink.

Many ancestors in front of the sky curtain also discussed this matter. The emperor naturally liked such ministers, but sometimes he was also annoyed by such ministers. They were not flattering, their words were not sweet, and their words were like poison. Sometimes he really didn't want to listen.

“In 1038 AD, Li Yuanhao of Western Xia proclaimed himself emperor and repeatedly sent troops to invade the border.

Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty ordered Mr. Fan Zhongyan to be the deputy envoy of Shaanxi's economic development and pacification to help pacify Xia Song and jointly resist the enemy.

After you, Mr. Fan Zhongyan, took office, you built a solid defense system with Dashun City as the center and forts and strongholds supporting each other.

He also trained a group of talented generals such as Di Qing, Zhong Shiheng, and Guo Kui, making the northwest front as solid as a rock and preventing the Xia people from invading the border.

I can only give you, Senior Fan Zhongyan, the nickname 'Little Fan Laozi' and say that Little Fan Laozi has a hundred thousand soldiers in his chest.

Senior Fan Zhongyan, you are also first-rate in training talents, very good," Li Wu nodded affirmatively, he is indeed a powerful figure.

"They were already that powerful, they were just discovered," Fan Zhongyan said. It was not because he trained them to be powerful, but because they were already that powerful. No matter who discovered them, they would be very powerful.

Several people looked at Fan Zhongyan. That's not necessarily true. A talented person must be with the right person to play his best role.

Otherwise, it will be in vain.

Li Wu shrugged and continued, "In 1042 AD, Li Yuanhao defeated the Song army in Dingchuan Village, and Guanzhong was shocked. The news reached the court. Song Renzong pressed his hand on the map and said to his ministers that if you, Senior Fan Zhongyan, came to help, he would have nothing to worry about.

Sure enough, not long after, Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty received the news that Senior Fan Zhongyan personally led 6,000 troops to provide assistance and defeated the Western Xia army.

Song Renzong was overjoyed and said that he had always known that Senior Fan Zhongyan could be used in an important position.

Not long after, Li Yuanhao requested peace talks, and you, Mr. Fan Zhongyan, were transferred back to the capital.

Song Renzong admired you, Mr. Fan Zhongyan, a minister who was both civil and military, very much. Later, he appointed you as the Minister of State Affairs, which is almost the deputy prime minister.

At this time, Song Renzong was aggressive in taxation and appointed a large number of pragmatic officials such as Han Qi, Fu Bi, Ouyang Xiu, etc., in an attempt to fundamentally change the situation of poverty and weakness since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The New Policies of Qingli, which caused a sensation in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, began under the leadership of you, Mr. Fan Zhongyan.

Mr. Fan Zhongyan, you wrote your reform ideas into the "Handwritten Edict Proposing Ten Things", which Song Renzong readily adopted and promulgated throughout the country.

However, because the reform touched upon the vested interests of the bureaucratic aristocracy, it was naturally met with fierce opposition from them. The final result was that within less than a year of the implementation of the new law, it was declared a failure as Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi, Ouyang Xiu and others were successively expelled from the court. "Li Wu spread his hands and said, "In fact, reform is not that easy to do. It infringes upon the interests of too many people. Once it is touched upon, those people will naturally resist with all their strength, and it will be difficult to implement."

Fan Zhongyan sighed. How could he not know this truth?

Even those who want to reform, how could they not know this?

Of course we all know it, but many times, reform is indeed needed to change many things, and they cannot remain unchanged.

In front of the sky, many people who wanted to change nodded. The road of reform was indeed not easy to take, and they knew that few would have a good ending. However, they were not afraid, nor did they regret going. Even if they knew the outcome, they were still willing to do it.

"However, your reform ideas, Mr. Fan Zhongyan, had a direct impact on the reforms of Mr. Wang Anshi who came after you.

After the failure of the New Policies of the Qingli Period, your good friend Teng Zijing, the prefect of Baling County, invited your predecessor Fan Zhongyan, who had been demoted to Dengzhou at that time, to write an account of the rebuilt Yueyang Tower and attach a painting of "Late Autumn in Dongting Lake".

But Mr. Fan Zhongyan, who had never been to Yueyang Tower, wrote the famous article "Yueyang Tower Inscription" based on this painting.

In your article, you used your lifelong code of conduct, "worry about the world before you worry about yourself, and be happy about the world after you are happy about yourself," to encourage Teng Zijing, who was also demoted.

How about we go to Yueyang Tower? "Li Wu looked at the three people.

"I have no objection to this," Wang Wei said. The three of them had no objection, and Fan Zhongyan nodded. Although he had not yet written the "Yueyang Tower Inscription", the little immortal said that it was a famous piece of literature throughout the ages, so it was certainly worth a trip.

Many ancestors in front of the sky curtain have also read "Yueyang Tower Inscription" and went to Yueyang Tower for this reason.

"Then let's go to Yueyang Tower, but it may be different. Our Yueyang Tower has been rebuilt more than 50 times, so it may be completely different from the Yueyang Tower you have seen." After so many reconstructions, it is no longer the Yueyang Tower as before. There is no way, it has been so many years, and the Yueyang Tower is famous mainly because of the "Yueyang Tower Inscription" by Fan Zhongyan, otherwise it would not be so famous.

That is why successive dynasties spent so much time and money on its construction.

The three of them looked at each other, wondering, this had actually been built so many times.

"It's been so many years, so of course it's different," Fan Zhongyan said.

"In 1049 AD, Senior Fan Zhongyan was transferred to Hangzhou. I thought you were going to retire, so I discussed buying some land for you to spend your old age, but you refused.

In October, Senior Fan Zhongyan invested money to purchase a thousand acres of good farmland, and asked your brother Fan Zhongwen to find someone to manage it and set up the Fan Family Charity House to provide food rations to the descendants of the Fan family's ancestors and to help with weddings and funerals."