Chapter 1147 Postscript: The losers in the Four Reform Sects
Chapter 1147 Postscript 4: The outsiders in the reform faction
Xie Yan's father after time travel is named Xie Yiqin, who is the general magistrate of Huangzhou Prefecture in Hubei Province and is in charge of household registration, money, food, taxes and other affairs.
The second brother's name is Xie Kan. He was not admitted to Imperial College and is studying in a private academy. He is just waiting to take the imperial examination next year.
They are from Hebei. They have been farming and doing business for generations, and they have always wanted to obtain official status. In the past few decades, two generations in a row have been awarded Jinshi, and three people have passed the exam one after another.
After dinner, Xie Yiqin called his two sons to the study and warned him very solemnly: "In the next few years, you should not get too close to certain classmates and friends, but you cannot directly cut off contact with them."
"Which ones?" Xie Kan asked.
Xie Yiqin said: "Children of wealthy families who oppose reform!"
Xie Kan asked: "Father supports the reform?"
Xie Yiqin said: "Of course I want to support it. Although our Xie family has a little bit of property, we are not even considered new rich. We are at best country squires with some money. If the law does not change, it will be difficult for us to climb up the officialdom."
"For someone like me, who has been working as a general judge for a government since I was in my forties, it seems that I have risen through the ranks very quickly, but in fact it all depends on my ranking in the imperial examination and my performance as an official."
"Before, you could rely on those two things to be a general judge, but in the future, you have to rely on opportunities and connections. Otherwise, no matter how good your political performance is, what's the use? There are too many officials who can achieve political achievements!"
"If I don't support the reform, I will probably work as a prefect until my death. If I am lucky and live long enough, I will at most be promoted to a provincial government with no real power and participate in politics."
"However, we should not be reckless in supporting the reform. We should first look at the local reaction. No, it is not based on the local reaction, but on how determined the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister are to the reform. We are afraid that we will stand up and charge into the battle, but the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister will not do it.
Recoiled."
Xie Kan said: "Don't make it a fight between the old and the new parties. The reforms of the former Song Dynasty were common questions in the imperial examination. Who is not familiar with them who have studied?"
Xie Yiqin said: "That's why the Prime Minister is ruthless. He beheads people all at once for treason and exiles so many people."
Xie Kan asked: "What happened three years ago? Now people are talking about it, and they can't agree."
Xie Yiqin went out to take a look to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then went back to the house and closed the doors and windows: "I suspect that the late emperor was setting up a plan, and that his insanity a few years before his death was all an act. The queen mother and the new emperor escaped from Luoyang.
What’s strange is that the Prime Minister mobilized Chang’an and Kaifeng troops too easily.”
Xie Yan pretended to have lost his memory and listened silently.
"It's really strange." Xie Kan nodded.
At that time, King Yong isolated himself from the inside and outside, blocked information, forged imperial edicts, and suddenly announced that he would depose the emperor's grandson and succeed him to the throne. He also issued a will in the name of the late emperor and sent a message to the whole country.
Although the central and local civil and military officials were surprised, they were all forced to admit it. There were even many speculators who immediately called to congratulate the new king on his succession.
By the time the orphans and widows fled to Chang'an, they were already a step too late.
Most local civil and military officials chose to remain silent for the first time because they were confused about the situation. The armies far away from Luoyang also chose to wait and see, not knowing who to help.
At this time, the Chang'an Prefecture garrison announced King Qin, and the Kaifeng Prefecture garrison announced King Qin, and directly launched an east-west pincer attack on Luoyang.
Soon, more than half of the Luoyang Imperial Army suddenly switched sides and called Qin Wang.
In less than a month, the matter was over, as if it was a farce, and civil and military officials from all over the country looked at it in confusion.
The new Prime Minister Deng Gongwu is even more bizarre.
This person entered Taixue as a child prodigy and did not take part in the imperial examination at all. He was directly awarded the Jinshi for his first place in Taixue. In the first twenty years, he was promoted very quickly, but he was suddenly demoted to the county magistrate and was thrown into a poor place in Ningxia.
.
When Emperor Dingtai was in a coma, as three of his grandsons had died within ten years, the censors petitioned for reinstatement of demoted officials, overtly and secretly accusing the court of being too evil.
Deng Gongwu was recalled to the court at that time, and he was the teacher of the emperor's grandson.
But the emperor's grandson died in infancy, and Deng Gongwu and several other teachers were immediately dismissed from their posts. Moreover, they were not allowed to leave Beijing after they were dismissed. They had to recite sutras and pray for the deceased emperor's grandson in Taoist temples and temples in Luoyang.
Just when people had forgotten about Deng Gongwu, this man suddenly fled the capital with his orphans and widows. When he reappeared, he was already energizing the whole country and calling for King Qin.
I can’t understand it, I can’t understand it at all!
In the past three years, Xie Yiqin has often analyzed things from the perspective of conspiracy theories. The more he blindly analyzes things, the more he feels chills in his back.
He suspected that the four imperial grandsons who died one after another were all murdered.
He suspected that Emperor Dingtai had difficulty distinguishing between loyal and traitorous people in his later years, not that he was so dim that he couldn't tell right from wrong, but that more than one of the emperor's confidants was cheating on him.
Therefore, Emperor Dingtai pretended to be stupid and used his own plan to push the boat along with the current and lure the snake out of the hole. He also secretly searched for suitable candidates and waited for him to die again.
Xie Yan suddenly asked: "Has the Ming Dynasty now reached a point where it is necessary to reform?"
"No, we can continue to fool around," Xie Yiqin said, "but it is true that the finances are in some embarrassment. In the past few decades, land annexation has intensified, especially those factory owners and large merchants, who have countless money in their hands to buy land. The government and the opposition
Corruption is serious at both the upper and lower levels, and it is even more unscrupulous in border provinces."
"During the reign of the late emperor, he sent censors to inspect local areas many times. Although many corrupt officials were arrested, it was of no avail. There were many civil unrests in all directions, and there were even mutinies and wage disputes."
"The rebellion in the Qihe Protectorate was due to excessive deprivation, which triggered a mutiny and then the foreign tribes also rebelled. The grassland principle was that farmers and herdsmen were exploited too much, which led to rampant horse thieves and eventually turned into a tribal rebellion."
"After the late emperor sent troops to suppress it, he built railways to Qihe and Mobei. These two railways emptied the treasury."
"Then there was another rebellion in the Tubo Protectorate. The rebels ran away when they saw the officers and soldiers. It took three years to completely subside. There was no way to build a railway there, so they had to increase the garrison."
"The late emperor has been engaged in military reform for 20 years, but the resistance is too great. It can only be said that it has achieved some results."
"There were also many civil unrests and mutinies overseas, and the navy became even more lawless. The late emperor spent the rest of his life busy sorting out overseas affairs."
"While he was in coma, he demoted upright ministers at will. Most of those demoted direct ministers were demoted to serve as officials overseas. I now guess that the late emperor did this on purpose."
Xie Yan was speechless after hearing this, thinking that the late emperor was very busy.
Xie Yiqin said: "Now that I think about the various actions of the late emperor during his lifetime, it seems that every step is paving the way for the new emperor's reform."
"Then how should we change it?" Xie Kan asked.
Xie Yiqin said with a smile: "People who have been reforming since ancient times have all held high the banner of retrospection. Our current prime minister naturally wants to be retrograde."
Xie Yan, who is half-historically illiterate, said with a smile: "How can we reform the old days? The more we change, the more we go back."
Xie Yiqin said: "It is natural to restore the old laws of Taizu and Taizong. The old laws that are beneficial to the Prime Minister will be restored, and the old laws that are unfavorable to the Prime Minister will not be mentioned. Anyone who dares to oppose his reforms is against Taizu and Taizong."
"That makes sense." Xie Yan was extremely impressed.
Xie Yiqin said: "Your imperial examination textbooks are already being revised, and it is estimated that the revision will be almost completed. I have also received an order from the cabinet to restore all newly printed calendars and newly manufactured clocks to the Yellow Emperor calendar in the early years of the dynasty.
."
It was also Ju Ming's grandson who canceled the Yellow Emperor's calendar.
He believes that both officials and citizens use the Yellow Emperor's era, and fewer and fewer people pay attention to the reign name of the current dynasty. People only know that the Yellow Emperor existed, but they do not know how many years the contemporary emperor has been on the throne. The Yellow Emperor's calendar must be canceled to restore his majesty.
Xie Yiqin continued: "Restoring the Yellow Emperor era is paving the way for the restoration of the ancient times. It is also a test to see which officials are opposed. The current reduction of the number of white officials and white servants is not only rectifying the officialdom, but also paving the way for the restoration of the immigration order.
"
"Immigration order?" Xie Yan didn't understand.
Xie Yiqin said: "In the early years of the Chinese dynasty, there was a law to encourage immigration, which specially set aside a certain amount of finance for local officials. These withheld funds were used to allow local officials to organize immigrants."
Xie Yan was confused and said: "Ordinary people can immigrate themselves, why do they have to spend money from the government to organize it?"
Xie Yiqin said: "Take Hubei Province as an example. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the land was vast and sparsely populated, but now it has more people and less land, and annexation is serious. Beggars are everywhere in provincial capitals, prefectures, and counties. If these poor people at the bottom want to immigrate overseas,
How difficult is it? The local government has to spend money to organize and transport them to coastal ports. Then the central court will pay for it and arrange for them to go to sea to earn a living by boat."
"The special local finances used for immigration back then were misappropriated by local officials in the name of hiring officials. I don't see how much money the government gives to non-staff officials. On the contrary, more and more officials are not receiving money, and the immigration law has also
There is no government to enforce it."
Xie Yan asked: "Dad is also an official, do you support this?"
"I support it rationally, and I don't lack the money," Xie Yiqin said, "but if so many civil servants are eliminated at once, all yamen at all levels will be in chaos. Many of the staff are just dawdling, and
It’s so complicated at the local level that it’s very difficult to get them to actually do something.”
Xie Yan came up with an idea: "Reformulate the evaluation method for officials and fire all those who fail!"
Xie Yiqin said: "The dismissal of government officials must be approved by the provincial officials."
Xie Kan said: "If Mr. Deng wants to change the law, he must cooperate with the officials of the three departments of the provinces. If the province does not support it, what can we at the government level do?"
"It should be soon," Xie Yiqin said. "Whenever the chief envoy of Hubei is changed, I will respond to the reform."
Xie Kan was even more radical: "Why do you have to wait for the change of chief envoy? Why don't you respond to the reform now? If the chief envoy or prefect stops you, just start a quarrel with them. The bigger the quarrel, the better. Let Prime Minister Deng know about it."
, when the time comes, my father will be a leader of the reform faction!"
Xie Yiqin was still hesitating: "This matter is too risky, I need to think about it again."
"What else are you considering? If you wait until the momentum of the reform is already established before responding, how can your father stand out from the reformists?" Xie Kan did not consider the consequences at all.
Xie Yiqin did not comment and changed the subject: "I am telling you this today to let you know the current situation. In the future, when making policy decisions for the imperial examination, you must find out which faction the examiner is from. If you are a conservative, you can write articles
You must be careful when talking about reform. If you are a reformist, the more radical you write, the better."
Xie Yan understood that his current father was a timid but inclined to reform.
(Thanks to the leader of Jianshan Gen for the reward.)
(Finally, I would like to recommend a good book, "I Want to Be Reborn Too Much" by Silent Pastry. Lao Wang's next book will also be about urban rebirth. Hehe, I heard that the censorship is now lax.)