"Sigh... I really don't know if we are helping Fan Jingren or harming Fan Jingren by doing this."
Liu Shu said with a worried look.
Many officials around him looked at Sima Guang with confusion. The conservatives were very united. Although they wanted to help Fan Zhen get reinstated, they wanted Fan Zhen to go to Xihe. This...!
Sima Guang quickly comforted him: "I dare say Fan Jingren will be very happy when he gets this news."
Everyone looked at Sima Guang in confusion.
Sima Guang said: "Now that Fan Jingren is in Hezhong Mansion, with his character, if he sees that the people of Hezhong Mansion are suffering again due to the expansion of the Xihe River, but he is unable to stop it, he will definitely be in great pain. If at this time,
Let him go to Xihe, and he will be very happy."
...
"Teacher, they really took advantage of every opportunity and actually took this opportunity to force the officials to use that old man Fan Zhen again."
Lu Huiqing gritted his teeth and said.
He had a huge quarrel with Fan Zhen and finally kicked Fan Zhen out. Only a short time later, Fan Zhen was reinstated. How could he be happy about this? Wang Anshi didn't even dare to tell him the truth.
Wang Anshi said: "This is because we are not prepared enough. Let's let them take advantage, but there will never be another time."
...
"That kid did it on purpose."
Before Meng Qiansheng went out, he glanced at Zhang Fei from the corner of his eye, who was looking at his nose and heart, and then whispered to Zhao Wenzheng.
Zhao Wenzheng sighed: "There is really nothing we can do about his move. He is telling the truth, but the officials do not dare to really let him remove the military power of those chiefs."
Meng Qiansheng said: "Then we must be more careful recently. This kid is famous for his revenge."
In fact, they all knew in their hearts that if Zhang Fei could not be sent to the Xihe area this time, then Zhang Fei would definitely enter the Procuratorate.
With both the emperor and the prime minister agreeing, they had dragged on for long enough and almost had a turnaround, but unfortunately, the devil is always better than the truth.
This was the highest-level meeting of the Song Dynasty. The emperor made a decision at this meeting, and they knew they could not drag it out any longer.
But having said that, in fact, this high-level meeting is more of a formality. We have already reached an agreement in private, and it is just a show for others to see. We are not compromising, we have argued based on reason, but there is no other way.
Therefore, after the meeting, almost everyone had a resentful look on their face, and no one was very satisfied with the result.
The reformists were very puzzled, thinking that this was really their own fault, and asked Fan Zhen to supervise them.
Conservatives, on the other hand, wonder why they want to wade into this muddy water.
The opposition was frustrated that Zhang Fei was not sent away.
Zhang Fei saw all the depression on their faces and was worried about it. He knew that the compromise between the two parties was very fragile, mostly because he was mediating in the middle. If he wasn't careful, it might break down.
As the saying goes, risks and rewards coexist.
The Three Family Fans provided Zhang Fei, a political novice, with huge conveniences and made him unfavorable. However, consolidating the Three Family Fans was no easy task.
After all these ministers left, Zhang Fei quietly prepared to go out.
"Ahem!"
"ah!"
Zhang Fei turned around and saw Fu Bi limping forward. He quickly bowed his hands and said, "Fu Gong."
Fu Bi glanced at him and said, "You brat, you are so bold. You dare to speak nonsense in this Chui Gong Palace. I am not afraid of the officials punishing you."
Zhang Fei pretended to be confused and said: "What nonsense, I don't understand very well."
"Do you have to let me wear it?"
Fu Bi asked: "Do you really dare to deal with those chiefs in accordance with the law?"
Zhang Fei said: "Of course I dare, but it's a pity that no one supports me."
Fu Bi chuckled and said, "I think you are just right. Even the officials and ministers don't dare to let you go."
Zhang Fei refused to admit it and said seriously: "How dare you! I am really sure."
"Yeah?"
Fu Bi smiled slightly and said, "Then you might as well try it in the capital and see if you can govern it according to law."
Zhang Fei was immediately dumbfounded, and immediately said: "Mr. Fu, I never thought that you would use a brat like me to provoke you."
"This is actually one of the reasons why I asked you to stay in the capital."
Fu Bi said with a serious look: "Although the Public Security Bureau was first tried out in the capital, the governance is actually far inferior to that in Hezhong Prefecture. If it cannot succeed in the capital, no matter how well the local states and counties implement it, it will be nothing more than a flash in the pan."
Why did Zhang Fei's departure panic the people of Hezhong Prefecture? It's because the current society is a centralized society. Any reform must start from the central government. If the central government does not change, no matter how hard the policy is implemented, it will be useless.
Down the drain.
Although the Public Security Bureau was first tried out in Bianjing, it was actually only a semi-finished product. The reason was that for a long period of time, the Kaifeng Prefecture still controlled the judicial power. Later, after Zhao Pin was transferred to the Imperial Court, the judicial power was transferred from
Kaifeng Mansion was transferred to the Imperial Court, but this was only brought about by personnel transfers, and the imperial court never issued an explicit order.
In addition, there are central departments such as the Judicial Court, Dali Temple, Criminal Ministry, Yushitai, and Jianyuan, all of which can directly intervene in the public prosecutor's office.
In this case, it is difficult to follow the concept of legality.
Zhang Fei understood the meaning and said: "That's why the rich man pinned all his hopes on this little boy like me."
Fu Bi said: "Let's talk about Mr. Zhao. He can enforce the law impartially and be impartial, but it's just him personally. He still doesn't know how to play the role of the public security system. He can only rely on you."
Zhang Fei understood immediately, "Don't worry, Mr. Fu, I will do my best."
Fu Bi said: "But the top priority is Jingdong East Road. We can't let any more trouble happen there."
...
The arrival of this great victory in the northwest has also made everyone forget that at this moment, Qingzhou is undergoing a vigorous debt restructuring.
This is an absolutely historic moment.
Qingzhou, Qiancheng County.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! County Lieutenant Li Meng returned home and saw that his useless son was still looking sleepy. Without saying a word, he immediately raised his palm as big as a cattail leaf fan.
A slap came up.
Snapped!
"Ouch!"
A scream also disturbed Mrs. Li. She hurriedly came forward and saw her son lying on the ground, covering the left half of his face. She also screamed in fright and quickly stepped forward to protect her son, "Old... Master
,you...why did you beat your son?"
"How long has it been since this happened, and you, a woman, are still protecting him?"
Li Meng pointed at his wife, his eyes as wide as copper bells, and said: "Other people's children are trying their best to study hard and take the public security examination, but this loser is still hanging around the place of fireworks every day. Will he be able to pass the exam by then?"
?"
Mrs. Li said: "If you can't pass the exam, you can't pass the exam. It doesn't matter. As long as you are good to me, sir, that's fine."
"I'm even worse off than him now."
Li Meng said: "Do you know, now I have to go to the police station to take the exam. If I fail, then our family will go to the tree bark to chew on."
Mrs. Li was immediately shocked.
The son said blankly: "Dad, at your age, you still have to take the exam?"
When Li Meng heard this, he immediately raised his left hand again.
"Daddy, have mercy!"
...
The county lieutenant is the superintendent of the old system. In terms of power, he has been eclipsed by the police department, so he is naturally a key target. If the county lieutenant wants to continue to serve, he must pass the police station examination.
It can also be seen that this debt restructuring is really very ruthless. Basically, it is better to kill the mistake than let it go.
Although it was Wang Juqing who was executing the debt restructuring, he knew in his heart that the more ruthlessly he did it, the more people would hate the public prosecutor and the procuratorate and not target him, so of course he had no scruples.
No, there is still business law behind this.
Qingzhou, Business Administration.
As soon as Shen Kuo, who was responsible for this business law, took office, he immediately issued a registration notice and conducted recruitment for the business hospitals, business colleges, and business newspapers.
This immediately triggered a huge response.
But it is not opposition and hatred, but very enthusiastic registration.
Shen Kuo himself was confused.
This is hundreds of millions of ways different from what you imagined!
If he is like this, let alone others.
Fan Chunren and Qian Yi also rushed here immediately. The rumors were true. They saw that the courtyard was full of people, mostly middle-aged people, and there were even some gray-haired old men.
Fan Chunren walked towards a gray-haired old man and asked: "Old sir, I would like to ask, because of your age, you are not included in the business law, so you don't need to sign up here."
The old man immediately looked at Fan Chunren with contempt, "Who is here for that little salary? I am here to gain knowledge."
"knowledge?"
"Now the imperial court attaches great importance to legal studies, medicine, and arithmetic. This is a good thing! I also want to compare with others."
"???"
Fan Chunren and Qian Yi couldn't help but look at each other.
Are these studies so popular?
Why didn't you know this before?
Weird!
It turns out that some of the officials in the Song Dynasty, who lived a comfortable life and did not have to work, were obsessed with poetry and songs, but many others studied other subjects. For example, many officials in the Song Dynasty were good at everything because they had too much free time.
, you have to find some interest.
However, because these knowledges are not mainstream knowledge, those who study these knowledges are limited to very small and closed groups among close friends.
Business Law specializes in these subjects, which arouses strong interest among this group of people.
In particular, they are very interested in this exam. Scholars like to compete. They also want to take the exam to see where they rank in this area of knowledge.
Whether you go to the academy or not is another matter, but you must take the exam.
This is really unexpected.
At this moment, Fan Chunren saw a familiar figure and immediately hurried over with Qian Yi.
"Chunren has met Uncle Ouyang."
"Mr. Ouyang."
It's not who Ouyang Xiu is.
Now he was dressed in commoner clothes. When he saw the two of them, he just smiled and said: "You are here too! Don't call me husband, I am just a commoner now."
Qian Yi nodded.
Fan Chunren asked: "Why does Uncle Ouyang have time to come here today?"
Ouyang Xiu was slightly startled and said, "Let me see how he passed the agricultural exam."
Fan Chunren blinked and said hurriedly: "I almost forgot that Uncle Ouyang is proficient in cultivation and planting techniques."
"A little dabbling, a little dabbling!"
Ouyang Xiu chuckled: "That's why I also want to come and see it."
At this time, a swordsman and penman quickly walked into the courtyard and whispered in front of Qian Yi: "Reporting to the president, the white tiger mountain bandit Zhentianhu has been captured."
Ouyang Xiu was stunned for a moment and said: "Zhentian Tiger?"
Qian Yi asked hurriedly: "Does Mr. Ouyang know this person?"
Ouyang Xiu said with emotion: "How could I not realize that this bandit has been entrenched in Baihu Mountain and is very cunning. The government has encircled and suppressed it several times, but all ended in failure, and the losses were not small!"
Then he asked the swordsman and penman: "Who was he captured?"
The swordsman and pen official said: "Taxation Department."
Ouyang Xiu was surprised, "Tax...Taxation Department?"
The swordsman and pen official nodded and said: "It seems that it is because the Zhentianhu has 3,000 acres of land near Baihu Mountain, but has not paid taxes."
Ouyang Xiu couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
It took the government ten years to catch the bandit, but the tax department arrested him in one fell swoop for tax evasion.
this.....!
At this moment, another court policeman ran over and said, "Please inform Judge Qian. The tax envoy said that he has something important to discuss with the Judge."
Immediately, Fan Chunren and Qian Yi rushed to the imperial court, and saw a bitter-looking middle-aged man sitting in the hall.
When the middle-aged man saw the two of them, he immediately bowed his hands and said, "Wu Daliang has met Prosecutor General Fan."
This person is the Qingzhou tax envoy, Wu Daliang.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Qian Yi bowed his hands and said, "I just heard that Zhentianhu, the grass bandit from Baihu Mountain, was captured by your tax police?"
Wu Daliang nodded and said: "That's why I'm here today. We found out that some businessmen have close contacts with Zhentianhu. Now we have convinced those businessmen to testify against Zhentianhu and accuse him of tax evasion. I hope
The Royal Court can pardon these witnesses from their crimes."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Fan Chunren immediately said: "That Zhentianhu has done many evil things and must be a capital crime. Why does the tax envoy need to do this?"
This is already a capital crime, is it still necessary to pursue the crime of tax evasion?
For this reason, do you also pardon the crimes of those profiteers?
This is not unnecessary, what is it?
Wu Daliang said: "Having said that, our Taxation Department is all about evidence. If no one accuses him of tax evasion, then it will be difficult for us to convict him. If we cannot convict him of tax evasion, then it will be difficult for our Taxation Department to obtain
fine."
Qian Yi was puzzled: "Is it worth letting those who do evil things off just for this fine?"
Wu Daliang cupped his hands and said: "Please forgive me, President Qian, our tax department only relies on fines to survive."
Fan Chunren said: "If I don't agree, what will the tax envoy do?"
Wu Daliang said: "Without the evidence provided by our tax department, it would be difficult for you to investigate those businessmen, and we will keep Zhentianhu detained until we find other evidence."
Fan Chunren said: "But the procuratorate can investigate your tax department."
"I know that, and we will also cooperate with the procuratorate's investigation." Wu Daliang nodded, and then changed the topic and said: "To be offensive, if the procuratorate can find out the actions of our tax department, or even evidence of crimes, then you
It will be very easy to find the evidence."
Just so domineering!
The corner of Fan Chunren's mouth twitched, but he also knew the methods of the Taxation Department. The Procuratorate had not checked it, but it was of no use. He nodded and said: "Okay, this time our Procuratorate is willing to cooperate with your Taxation Department, but you also
Remember what you said today, our procuratorate will definitely be able to find evidence of your crime in the future."
Wu Daliang took out a contract and said, "As long as the imperial court signs this declaration, our tax department will formally file a lawsuit against the Zhentianhu."
Qian Yi took it and took a look, "This is Zhang San's masterpiece!"
...
However, the Taxation Department is not omnipotent. In fact, they are just like the soldiers. When encountering each other on a narrow road, the brave will win. In Qizhou, the Taxation Department suffered a big setback.
In the misty spring rain, on a low hill in the suburbs, there were faint sounds of crying, but I saw some women and children kneeling in front of the brand-new graves, covering their faces and sobbing.
There were dozens of men standing next to them, but they saw a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar, standing at the front of the team. "Man perishes for money, and birds perish for food. This is nothing to complain about, but if we want
To reduce the occurrence of such things, we must unite and complete revenge on those evil thieves.
Our Taxation Department will offer a reward of 10,000 yuan to capture these evil thieves until they pay with blood. We want to tell everyone that once they mess with our Taxation Department, they will only die. There is absolutely no chance of death.
The second result."
"eye for eye!"
"Blood debt and blood taste!"
...
Zhang Fei, who was in Bianjing, had no time to go east for the time being. He had to quickly deal with the financial crisis of Hezhong Prefecture, because he dug this hole. Yuan Jiang and the others were helpless about it. After all, the salt production was limited.
There are only so many years. If you ate too much food in the first place, you will definitely have problems today. You must find enough salt to make up for it.
Zhang Fei's response was very simple, which was to smuggle cheap Xixia salt as a supplement.
To put things into perspective, Xixia salt is not only cheap, but also very close to the border states. However, after Zhao Xu took office, he issued the strictest ban on private salt in Xixia, forcing Xixia's economy to deteriorate and preparing for a large-scale attack in the future.
Today, Li Bao came to the Zhang family with detailed information on the Northwest Salt Policy. At the same time, he also brought bad news.
"The Taxation Department encountered an ambush in Qizhou and lost more than 20 people."
"what happened?"
Zhang Fei asked immediately.
Li Bao said: "I'm really not making excuses. It's all because we expanded locally too early and the tax department didn't go there. As a result, some people gradually lost their patience. After the news of Hezhong Prefecture came, those people all changed.
You have to be more careful and beware of people around you being bribed by the tax department. This fiasco happened because the person we recruited was bribed by a local bandit and then tipped off the other party, so that our tax police were ambushed."
Zhang Fei frowned and said, "Then are they capable of revenge?"
Li Bao nodded and said: "They have found the real culprit and have offered a reward of 10,000 yuan. It won't take long before we can make those people pay with their blood."
Zhang Fei nodded, "Go tell them that to deal with this group of people, there is no need to keep anyone alive, and there is no need to give them a chance to plead. Just leave some witnesses and get the fines. It's time to tell everyone that the Taxation Department
He really knows how to kill people."
Li Bao nodded.
Zhang Fei didn't say much about this, because this kind of loss was expected. He checked the information sent by Li Bao. After looking at it for a while, he suddenly asked: "So, the Qin and Wei states are also
Does it belong to the salt solution area?”
Li Bao nodded, "Yes."
Zhang Fei asked again: "Will the debt crisis cause panic in the local area?"
Li Bao said: "It will definitely be possible, and it is even worse than other places, because that area once had a salt ban, which caused the entire area to be very short of salt. I guess once the news spreads,
When you get there, there will definitely be salt merchants hoarding salt and waiting to sell it at a price. This year, many salt merchants are waiting and watching, and do not dare to easily go to Bianzhou to buy salt banknotes."
Zhang Fei nodded and asked: "Did our smuggling in Xixia go smoothly?"
Li Bao said: "Because Xixia has been thinking of ways to sell salt to us in exchange for our tea, copper coins, and silk. As long as we open an opening here, it will definitely be very smooth. On the contrary, those people are so sophisticated that our
It’s a little nerve-racking for people.”
Zhang Fei asked curiously: "Human feelings are so sophisticated?"
Li Bao nodded and said: "Now there are two factions of nobles in Xixia who are fighting fiercely, and the Xixia Salt Pond is in the hands of these two factions of nobles. We still have to get the rain and dew equally. If we only do business with one faction, it may
Suffering retaliation.”
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zhang Fei asked: "What is going on? Please tell me carefully."
Li Bao nodded, "Now Xixia is ruled by the Empress Dowager Liang, but this woman is really strange. She is obviously a Han woman, but she has been trying every means to abolish the Chinese policy promulgated by her husband Li Liangzuo, especially in our army.
After regaining Suizhou, the Empress Dowager Liang became more radical and won the support of some Xixia nobles, but some other nobles were opposed."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "If she is not cruel to the Han people, she will not be able to consolidate her dominance in Xixia. Whenever the Han people are in charge of foreign affairs, we must be more careful."
After that, he asked: "What are the reasons for those nobles who oppose Empress Dowager Liang?"
Li Bao said: "Those nobles who opposed Empress Dowager Liang admired our Han culture, and they also relied on this policy to gain power.
However, because our country still strictly prohibits the entry of Xixia salt, this faction does not have the upper hand. In fact, the faction that supports the Empress Dowager Liang also hopes to sell salt. They just hope to use military means to force the Song Dynasty to lift the ban on salt.
make."
"So that's it!" Zhang Fei thought for a while, "You divide us into two groups first, and separate the business of these two groups. Then I will have my own plan."
"yes."
"Also, tell the officials that I have something important to face."
...
Zhao Xu learned that Zhang Fei wanted to see him for something, so he immediately summoned Zhang Fei into the palace.
Zhao Xu said: "The reason why you are so anxious to see me this time is because of the salt debt crisis in Hezhong Prefecture."
Zhang Fei shook his head, "No, the officials know that this crisis was within our expectations. We have accumulated enough private salt to easily help Hezhong Mansion resolve this crisis."
Zhao Xu nodded and looked at him doubtfully.
Zhang Fei explained: "The reason why I was anxious to meet with the officials was mainly because I thought that I could take advantage of the salt debt crisis in Hezhong Prefecture to help Xihe Road raise military rations."
Zhao Xu perked up and asked, "What's your best plan?"
Zhang Fei said: "Our original plan was to take advantage of the fact that domestic dignitaries favor green and white salt, disperse the smuggled pure salt, sell it quietly to the wealthy people in the country at a high price, and then use the money in exchange to buy salt on the spot.
, to prevent the salt debt crisis.
But now, I plan to adjust my strategy. Now the people in the northwest are aware of the salt debt crisis, and they are frantically buying salt. This has also happened before, when people smuggled Xixia salt on a large scale.
In this case, why don't we use our plan to make this crisis real? All the salt locked in the salt debt will be transferred to the northwest region, causing a local shortage of salt, and then let people directly sell private salt locally and use the money raised to
Transporting it to the Xihe area will not only save a lot of travel expenses, but also avoid the dissatisfaction of the soldiers on the northern line."
After hearing this, Zhao Xu couldn't help but frown, "The emergence of illegal salt on such a large scale will undermine my ban. Now that the salt ban has put Xixia's finances in crisis, we can't let all our efforts go to waste."
Zhang Fei said: "First of all, the chaos in Xihe breeds illegal activities. This is reasonable and no one would doubt it. Secondly, after all illegal activities are dispersed, the officials can send people to investigate the matter thoroughly and then arrest them.
A wave of private salt dealers.”
Zhao Xu was stunned for a moment, "Aren't those private salt dealers our people?"
What do you want to do? I am currently the biggest smuggling leader. I want to arrest this person. If someone discovers it, I will be doomed!
He issued a ban and went to smuggle by himself. He suddenly felt that he was completely led into a ditch by Zhang Fei.
"It's just a show. When the time comes, we will think of a way to transfer them elsewhere." After saying that, Zhang Fei explained: "We can also take the opportunity to provoke internal strife in Xixia."
Zhao Xu was surprised and delighted when he heard this: "Instigating internal strife in Xixia?"
If you want to deal with Xixia, stay in the ditch.
Zhang Fei first informed Zhao Xu of the internal situation of Xixia.
Zhao Xu nodded and said, "I know all of this."
The Imperial City Secretary is not a vegetarian. He knows the situation in Xixia very well.
Zhang Fei added: "Now I have asked Li Bao to divide our salt merchants into two factions to deal with the two forces in Xixia respectively. When the time comes, the officials will order a strict investigation of illicit salt, and they will specifically arrest the faction related to the Empress Dowager Liang.
Cooperative private salt merchants.
Then, we quietly released the news, saying that someone within Xixia had complained, and Empress Dowager Liang and others would direct their conflicts against the opposition. In this way, we could instigate them to fight among themselves, so that they would not have time to worry about our military in the Xihe area.
Behavior.
The officials also weakened some of the power of Chief Xihe by cracking down on illegal salt, and they were able to continue to maintain the ban on illegal salt at the border."
Zhao Xu's eyes lit up, "Yes, we can control the borders between the Xihe area and Xixia and Tubo by cracking down on illegal salt."
"The official sage."
"You are smart, keep talking, keep talking."
Zhao Xu is a bit high-ranking, and he is very interested in matters on the border.
"yes."
Zhang Fei nodded and continued, "The officials issued the ban on Xixia salt because they wanted to take the opportunity to hit Xixia's finances. But if they use all the profits from private salt for internal fighting, then we don't care."
.
According to what we have learned, Empress Dowager Liang's faction has obviously gained the upper hand. After this incident, they will definitely intensify their efforts to suppress the opposition. At this time, we can use smuggling of illegal salt to provide financial support to the opposition.
This ensures that the two factions are in balance, causing them to continue to fight internally.
Anyway, the powerful people in the country like green and white salt, and the smuggled green and white salt can be sold to them at a high price."
"This is a great idea!"
Zhao Xu nodded happily, but then asked excitedly: "If we really instigate civil strife among them, wouldn't it be a great opportunity for our army to send troops?"
Zhang Fei was stunned for a moment and said: "Theoretically, that's the case."
Zhao Xu frowned and said, "Theoretically...?"
Zhang Fei said sarcastically: "Guan Jia, there is another Liao Kingdom to the north. If I were a Liao person, I would definitely hope that Song and Xia would attack each other, but I definitely don't want to see either side be wiped out.
If we send troops on a large scale, the Liao Kingdom will never sit idly by and ignore it, and will most likely provoke a war with our country in the north.
My suggestion is to let them fight internally as much as possible, and slowly encroach on the border, but don't easily resort to large armies to press the border. If the army presses the border at this time, it means that I will fight for my life against the opponent when I have the advantage. If we lose, we will
It's become very fluid on both the western and northern fronts."
After hearing this, Zhao Xu looked a little frustrated, "According to what you said, unless the Liao Kingdom or Xixia suddenly disappear, we will never be able to send troops."
Zhang Fei said: "It is difficult to hope that they will disappear, but the government can allow our country to have two-front fighting forces, at least one line of defense and one line of offense.
In other words, after the war with Xixia begins, we must be prepared to defend the northern front against the Khitans moving south."
Zhao Xu asked: "Can we do this?"
He still felt a little afraid of the Liao Kingdom.
Zhang Fei said: "As long as the officials can remain patient, I believe that the officials will be able to recover all the old lands in the Central Plains."