When Liu E was in power, she also had many confidants in the court. For example, Wang Qinruo was Liu E's loyalty, but Wang Qinruo also had a bottom line, that is, Liu E could not usurp the throne. However, people like Wang Qinruo are still a minority after all, and most of Liu E's confidants are flatterers, and some of their character has been criticized. The person Li Zhang recommended to Zhao Zhen is such a guy with a problematic character.

"Cheng Lin? He... can he do it?" Zhao Zhen couldn't help but ask with wide eyes when he heard the name of the person Li Zhang said.

Cheng Lin's fame is indeed not as good as Ding Wei, and not as good as Wang Qinruo's prime minister, but he is still one of Liu E's biggest confidants. At that time, Cheng Lin had always held the position of Kaifeng Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture not everyone can hold it. Ministers who can hold this position will almost be qualified to enter the Political Affairs Hall in the future.

However, Cheng Lin didn't know whether it was short-sighted or really too loyal to Liu E, which made him do something stupid, that was to present "The Picture of Empress Wu's Reign to the Dynasty" to Liu E. This was almost a disguised encouragement of Liu E to become emperor. Although this made Liu E even more favored him, Liu E's age was destined to be unable to withstand Zhao Zhen, so when Zhao Zhen was in power, Cheng Lin was tragic.

In order to stabilize the court, Zhao Zhen did not attack Liu E's confidants at first, but instead promoted them to the title. However, after Zhao Zhen stabilized the throne, these people began to be unlucky. First, Cheng Lin lost such an important position as the prefect of Kaifeng, and was transferred to the Shangshu Province to be a famous and left-ranking minister. Later, he continued to be in the nameless and unreal places such as the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel.

It can be said that during those years, Cheng Lin's official position has always been a kind of false position that sounds good but has no real power. In fact, although Cheng Lin has a problem with character, she is still quite capable. The ghost beggar was wiped out under his personal command. In addition, when he was the prefect of Kaifeng, he was "stolen sued Xi Shao" in Kaifeng City. When he worked in Yizhou, he killed local cults to make trouble. With his political achievements and qualifications, he could have been steadily admitted to the Political Affairs Hall.

However, the "Emperor of the Martial Arts Returning to the Dynasty" has always been a thorn in Zhao Zhen's heart, so Cheng Lin had to waste his time in the officialdom. In the past two years, Zhao Zhen may have been a little open and finally gave Cheng Lin a real position, that is, to let him go to Daming Mansion in Beijing to serve as a left-behind person. Although Daming Mansion is an important town in the north, it is far away from the court and it is basically impossible to return to the capital.

"Your Majesty, don't underestimate Cheng Lin. He has worked in Daming Mansion in the past two years and has achieved remarkable achievements in the local area. Especially when he attacked Yanyun before, Daming Mansion was the material dispatch center in the rear. It can be said that Cheng Lin has made great contributions to the recovery of Yanyun. Moreover, when he was the prefect of Kaifeng, he also managed the capital in an orderly manner. Now many people in the people are grateful for his contribution to the extermination of the ghost beggar!" Li Zhang replied with a smile.

"It is obviously your cousin to destroy the ghost beggar, and the wild dog is the most important thing. What is Cheng Lin?" Zhao Zhen said unhappy when he heard Li Zhang's last words. He was still a little prejudiced towards Cheng Lin.

"Although the Wild Dog and I made some contributions, Cheng Lin was the one who was in charge of the center later. Without his strict deployment, it would not be so easy to clean up the ghost beggar. Later, he asked someone to build an iron fence underground to prevent anyone from entering the underground and becoming a ghost beggar. These contributions cannot be erased." Li Zhang smiled again.

"But... but Cheng Lin's reputation is not very good. Many officials regard people who despise him. Even if they transfer him back to the capital, can he really restrain Lu Xiang?" Zhao Zhen hesitated again at this time, and then confessed with concern again.

"Actually, Your Majesty doesn't have to worry about this problem. Although Cheng Lin's reputation is a little bad, no matter how bad he is, he is not as good as Wang Qinruo back then. When Wang Qinruo was transferred back to the capital, he knew that he was despised, so he could only rely on the support of the Grandmaster to stand firm in the court. This also made him loyal to the Grandmaster, and Cheng Lin had the same situation. As long as Your Majesty dared to use him, he would definitely be grateful to Your Majesty and would never have any selfish thoughts."

When he said this, Li Zhang paused for a moment and then said, "As for his ability, Cheng Lin was able to get favor from the Grand Empress, not only because he could only flatter and flatter, but because this person is indeed talented. Your Majesty can see his political achievements in the local area, which can be said to be very outstanding. Now Your Majesty is only talented. With Cheng Lin's talent, he can actually enter the Political Affairs Hall long ago. The most important thing is that Cheng Lin is about ten years younger than Lu Xiang!"

Li Zhang's words finally moved Zhao Zhen, especially the fact that Cheng Lin was younger than Lu Yijian, which made him make a decision almost on the spot, because it means that if Cheng Lin was competent, he would no longer have to be upset about restraining Lu Yijian. After all, he had been very troublesome about this matter at the beginning, first Li Di and then Wang Zeng, but neither of them could survive Lu Yijian.

"Okay, let's transfer Cheng Lin back and try!" Finally Zhao Zhen nodded. If someone recommended Cheng Lin, he might have doubted whether the other party accepted Cheng Lin's bribe, but he never doubted Li Zhang. After all, the two of them grew up together, so there is still this trust, not to mention that Li Zhang is not very interested in fame and fortune, and has not held any important positions so far. He just works in a medical school. If he wanted, Zhao Zhen would have let him go to the Political Affairs Hall long ago.

After confirming the candidate to replace Wang Zeng, Zhao Zhen and Li Zhang discussed the recent rectification of the administration. Fan Zhongyan's ability has been fully utilized in the Ministry of Personnel. Now the framework for the examination has been established, and a group of extremely bad officials have even been dealt with. Now the power of some official positions has begun to be completely divided, and some official positions can be abolished if necessary.

A major drawback of the Song Dynasty was that it was redundant officials, that is, one position and multiple officials, which led to extremely dispersed power and a large team of officials. In addition, the frequent imperial examinations and so many people were admitted each time. This also led to more and more officials. Even if one position and multiple officials were used, many people still failed to get assigned official positions for many years after passing the imperial examination.

The above situation must also be changed. After all, too many officials lead to inefficiency, and the salary of officials in the Song Dynasty is relatively high, which leads to a large amount of wealth being consumed on officials. This is an extremely heavy problem.

Fortunately, after conquering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the prefectures there needed a large number of officials. This was originally a good opportunity to divert officials, but many officials were worried that Yanyun had just conquered them and were afraid that they would suffer when they went there, so many officials were unwilling to go to the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

Officials in the Song Dynasty had great freedom. If they were not satisfied with the official positions assigned by the superiors, they could even refuse to take office. Even if the emperor's imperial edict came, they could refuse. For example, Wang Anshi later refused the imperial enlistment from the court many times, and every time he refused, his fame would increase a little, which was very rare in feudal dynasties.

But now it is different. The court's appointment of officials will be compulsory. If it is not willing, the court can take back the officials' official position, which is a devastating blow to any official, so in this case, many officials have to go to office.

Of course, some people are worried that these officials will be passive and slackened when they take office with a reluctant mood. However, with the exam system now, if these officials fail, they will be reclaimed from their official status in the future. After all, there are so many officials in the Song Dynasty, and it may not be easy for core officials to find suitable people, but the middle and lower levels of official positions are really not afraid of no one being available.

With the 16 prefectures of Yanyun, a large number of officials were diverted, and the problem of redundant officials was temporarily alleviated. However, the source of redundant officials was the imperial examination. Once the imperial examination was too frequent, it was held seven or eight times in the past ten years after Zhao Zhen ascended the throne. On average, it was held almost every two years, and the number of people admitted each time was hundreds, and thousands of people were admitted together.

Thousands of officials were admitted in just over a decade, but their lifespan was still very long, especially the lifespan of officials was generally longer than that of ordinary people. Therefore, the main force in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty was the officials admitted during the Zhao Heng period before. Zhao Heng reigned for 25 years, and thousands of officials were admitted.

In this case, the reform of the imperial examinations was put on the agenda, because if we were admitted to Jinshi like now, sooner or later, the officialdom of the Song Dynasty would be full of idle officials. Although the Song Dynasty could still expand outward like now, our ancestors warned us that war would perish, and war could only be the last option in any era.

"Cousin, yesterday Fan Zhongyan and his friends submitted a memorial to the 'Jing Gong Ju', suggesting that the Jinshi exam only focus on poetry and essays to focus on policy theory, and change the Mingjing exam only requires memorizing Confucian classics to express the meaning and principles of the scriptures, and also set up public schools in prefectures and counties, so that students must study in public schools for a period of time before they can take the exam, thereby increasing the difficulty of the imperial examination and reducing the number of admissions. But I always feel that this method is used to treat the symptoms but not the root cause." Zhao Zhen finally frowned again.

The imperial examination is related to the selection of talents in the country, which is one of the fundamentals of the rule of the Song Dynasty, so Zhao Zhen also attached great importance to it. He did not immediately respond to the suggestions of Fan Zhongyan and others yesterday, but instead prepared to carefully weigh the pros and cons and make plans.
Chapter completed!