Chapter 1,246: Three years of silence (two updates combined into one)
Chapter 1254 Three years of silence (two updates combined into one)
This night.
Chen Mu, Cai Jing, Cai Bian, Huang Lu, Su Song and other more than ten senior officials from the Mingzhang Party were all sitting in Wang Anli's house, the political advisor.
The night drain outside the hall is dripping water.
The female envoy at Wang Anli's residence had already changed several bowls of tea soup and drinks for everyone.
Wang Anli said: "According to Prime Minister Sun, the imperial court wants to abandon Xi'an Prefecture, exchange Huaide's army and one prefecture for Liangzhou, and then give a sum of money to the Khitan party to pay for the redemption of Liangzhou!"
As soon as this statement came out, Chen Mu, Cai Jing, Cai Bian, Huang Lu, Su Song and others were in an uproar.
Cai Jing slapped the table and stood up and said: "Instead of ceding territory to others, it is better to advise your majesty to complete the victory in one battle and send out six armies to capture Xingling. First, eliminate future troubles, and then embarrass the Liao Kingdom!"
As soon as Cai Jing's shocking theory came out, Huang Luxian put his hands on his hands and laughed and said: "Okay! This is exactly the truth!"
Su Zhe then said with a lewd expression: "To take Xingling directly, this is a crazy statement!"
Cai Jing defended Su Che with a sharp look in his eyes. He and Su Che were at odds. This was an open secret behind Zhang Yue's curtain.
Seeing that the two of them were about to quarrel, Su Song immediately held his ground and said: "It is absolutely impossible to send six more troops to capture Xia. The time is not ripe yet."
"But in Xi'an Prefecture, the Huaide Army was also a territory that this dynasty spent an unknown amount of money on food, soldiers and horses. Now that it has been abandoned, it will never dare to look back on other matters."
Cai Jingdao: "You don't need to say more, we two brothers have already made an opinion on this matter, and we will see the outcome within a few days."
Wang Anli pushed the chair and said, "What do you two brothers have to say?"
Su Che sneered: "Isn't this another method of roosters and dogs stealing?"
Cai Jing said with a smile: "Whether it is a method of roosters and dogs stealing, we will find out in a few days!"
Su Zhe said: "In my opinion, it's not a dirty trick like spreading rumors, making some prophecies, or being a storyteller!"
Cai Jing was mostly convinced by Su Che's words. His smile was a bit cool and a bit sarcastic: "Su Ziyou, don't look down on these methods. The emperor still avoids the changes of heaven. Don't the people hear this."
Wang Anli said: "As long as it can be used, it will be fine. Don't wait to cede two states and make the ship a done deal. Then wait for the whole court to be in an uproar before making arguments."
Su Song said: "Now that the Prime Minister is not in the court, please take charge of everything!"
Wang Anli was not confident after hearing this.
After all, he and Zhang Yue were both Jinshi in the sixth year of Jiayou's reign, and they had only served as officials for twenty years. In the past, they listened to their elder brother Wang Anshi, and later they followed Zhang Yue's lead.
In fact, his attitude towards reform and unchanging laws is somewhere between acceptable and unacceptable. Now he is pulled into the camp by Zhang Yue. He was previously the deputy privy envoy, and now after Xue Xiang's death, he was replaced as the counselor of political affairs.
However, no matter whether he was a Hanlin bachelor, a deputy privy envoy or a counselor in political affairs, neither the emperor nor the government and the public had high hopes for him.
Only on the matter of rescuing Su Shi, Wang Anli expressed a firm attitude.
Wang Anli immediately said after hearing this: "Xi'an Prefecture, the Huaide Army must not abandon it. I will deal with this matter with all my strength."
Everyone said happily: "It all depends on Da Shen's advice!"
After Cai Jing left Wang Anli's house, he said to Cai Bian: "Now that the Prime Minister is away from the court, we can only recommend Wang Dashen, who has the highest official position, to take the lead."
"But it's not enough to rely on Wang Dashen alone to stabilize the inner court. As for the outer court, we need to arrange some officials to help."
Cai Bian listened to Cai Jing's words and said: "Brother, don't worry, I will arrange this!"
Cai Jing laughed and said: "Then I will create public opinion among the Imperial Academy and the people!"
Cai Bian looked at Cai Jing, as if Zhang Yue was not in court, Cai Jing was as comfortable as a fish in water and was extremely active.
Cai Jing glanced at Cai Bian and guessed what he was thinking in his heart.
"A-Bian, the prime minister often talks about the art of emperors. What is the art of emperors? That is Xunzi's 'The Han family has its own system, which is mixed with the king's domineering way'. If you want to follow the king's way, you must do it with domineering means."
"If you want to be domineering, you have to do it in the name of kingship! Su Ziyou is a scholar. He has read a lot of books, but he has no means. Su Zizhan is also average."
"Why create public opinion? You can tell the truth to smart people, but you must tell lies to ordinary people! Right and wrong, black and white, will kill people!"
Cai Bian scolded: "What kind of crooked way is this! The Prime Minister has never said this."
Cai Jing smiled and said: "Although the Prime Minister never said that, he is watching it, like a bright mirror in his heart!"
Cai Bian knew that Zhang Yue was loose on the outside and tight on the inside when controlling people. He may seem to give you a lot of space, but there is always a pair of eyes staring at you closely behind him.
…
Dingli Temple.
In front of a three-bay Zen room.
The monks were cleaning the courtyard, making a rustling sound when the brooms were waved.
The bright spring light shines through the gaps in the leaves and sprinkles on the moss on the stone steps of the Zen room.
Li Kui sat on a small bench in front of the Zen room and read a book. The windows and doors of the Zen room behind him were closed tightly.
Zhang Yue lives in a Buddhist monastery. Although he never leaves home, he is well aware of various officials and the dynamics of government affairs.
All news was delivered through Li Kui on his behalf.
Of course, deep down in Zhang Yue's heart, he would rate the officials below him while he was away from the government.
To use a very classic saying, "The leader doesn't say anything on the surface, but he knows everything deep down." Zhang Yue is also a veteran. The understanding and speculation of him by the officials below him is the same as his own speculation at the top. Don't think that the leaders can't see it.
The leaders may not know what to do in the local area.
Zhang Yue looked at what the people below him could do if he was not in court.
He was not surprised at all that Huang Lu defeated Wang Gui in the Third Division, and even the emperor was not surprised at all. His friendship with Huang Lu and Han Zhongyan had passed the test of time.
But Lu Huiqing's sudden advance in Hedong was indeed beyond his expectation.
Lu Huiqing's judgment on matters often comes when the matter is still unclear. When everyone is still hesitant, Lu Huiqing, who is in Taiyuan, is so concerned about the affairs of the court and appears to be more anxious than himself.
This also made Zhang Yue's judgment correct, and he should stop with silence. As long as you are not in a hurry, there will always be someone who is more anxious than you.
Opposing peace talks with Liao was not Zhang Yue's fault alone.
…
This is not the most important thing at the moment. Zhang Yue is in Dingli Temple, far away from the hustle and bustle of the world and withdrawing from his daily heavy official duties.
This also gave him an opportunity to think about the future and make plans for the future.
For example, Zhang Yue has been working hard on ‘Song A’.
There are currently five stocks in Song A, and there are also futures such as Yanchao, Jiaozi, Tea, Cotton and Cloth that can be speculated, and the atmosphere of financial speculation is quite strong. Of course, this is also such a large income for the court, and another large item is the salt improved by Zhang Yue.
The banknotes and banknotes are equivalent to the bank's official treasury in later generations.
These were all ignored during the Xining administration of Wang Anshi, especially the quality warehouse. Wang Anshi was considered to be at the end of his career. He once celebrated that the merger and acquisition house was under the compression of market changes and laws, and now it can only manage quality warehouses in despair.
Paved.
Any reform must be supported by a theoretical system.
The great thing about Wang Anshi is that he provided a complete theoretical system. He pioneered the reform and broke the system of three generations of scholars and officials, from the previous king to the present day.
This is where Xining's reform was successful, and the actual operation of the reform was still handled by Lu Huiqing. Lu Huiqing was not as good as Lao Wang in terms of theory, but he was one of the few geniuses in both economic and military operations.
.
However, Wang Anshi was wrong about the quality warehouse, salt banknotes, and Jiaozi. On the contrary, Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing both realized that this could bring huge profits to the court.
Wang Anshi's reform said that "the people are not endowed but the state is fully utilized", and its purpose was to destroy annexation and help the poor. However, in actual implementation, the labor value of the value was overestimated, and the value of marginal utility was ignored.
However, the impact of Xining's reform was too large, and the annexers may not be defeated, but a large number of middle class people were affected by it.
Zhang Yue followed Wang Anshi's reform. He adopted David Ricardo's land rent theory for Xining's exploration and the theoretical guidance of Yuanfeng's New Deal.
The theory of land rent divides the value of items into wages (labor value), profits (the balance other than wages), and land rent (the balance other than wages and profits).
Wages correspond to the proletariat, profits correspond to the bourgeoisie, and land rent corresponds to the landlord class (big bourgeoisie).
For example, in the current cotton textile industry, employees earn wages, textile owners earn profits, and leasing land and capital to textile owners is rent earned by the landlord class.
The so-called ground rent is the profit earned purely from assets.
Zhang Yue distributed the income from private wages and profits to private citizens and business owners as much as possible to encourage their labor enthusiasm and promote labor efficiency, while incorporating land and capital into state-owned enterprises or imposing heavy taxes.
Therefore, using theory to guide reform is as easy as doing multiple-choice questions. You can easily know what to do and what not to do.
For example, the treasury (bank) and the exchange exchange must be resolutely state-owned or mixed-run, which can not only increase the income of the court, but also prevent the emergence of a big bourgeoisie that could destabilize the country.
From Xining's destruction of mergers to suppression of mergers.
Gradually, state-run warehouses were used to replace the Changping bureaus set up by Sinong Temple in various places to collect young crop money and market exchange money. In addition, the court still tried its best to control its own hands and not to make profits that did not belong to itself.
Precisely because Wang Anshi looked down upon the profits of the salt banknote exchange and the quality warehouse, the court must attach absolute importance to it and must not operate with the mentality of killing the goose to get the eggs.
For example, Zhang Yue has mainly done two things since he became Prime Minister. One is to crack down on private coinage and forgery of salt banknotes. The other is to prohibit official coins from being used as two coins for three coins, or even five coins for ten coins.
As we all know, there is a money shortage these days.
Under the money shortage, all dynasties have had the habit of privately minting currency. This is not only privately minted by powerful people, but also by many officials and wealthy businessmen. Privately minted currency and counterfeiting have severely affected the imperial salt banknotes.
Promotion.
The imperial court's practice of treating five coins as ten coins was, to put it bluntly, stealing money from the people. Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty frequently used this trick in order to support the military campaign against Xixia. The official coins were also worse than the previous year. In the end, not only was the credibility of the official coins severely damaged,
, also made the people complain.
As paper money in feudal society, everyone knows that Jiaozi and Ming Dynasty money failed, but they don't know that Huizi in the Southern Song Dynasty succeeded.
There were also days when Huizi was overused and devalued wildly. For example, during the Longxing Northern Expedition and Duanping's entry into the Luojian court, Huizi was overused for more than ten times, causing Huizi to collapse for a time.
However, the Southern Song Dynasty court still attached great importance to currency and credit, and used real money and silver to buy back Huizi from the private sector in large quantities, and restored the currency and credit. Of course, by the end of the dynasty, when the economy collapsed before the regime, even modern countries would inevitably lose currency.
A pile of waste paper. What’s more, modern countries have not yet collapsed, and there are many currencies that have become paper, including and not limited to Zimbabwe.
At least before the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, Huizi was quite successful.
In order to ensure the circulation and use of salt banknotes, it is necessary to severely crack down on private coinage and official coinage as N money.
Theory must precede practice, and practice in turn better complements and improves theory.
All in all, what you choose to do is always more important than what you do.
Zhang Yue wrote his theory to the officials at the beginning of the Xining Reform.
It's a pity that the officials didn't read it carefully. When I told it to Lao Wang, he was half-convinced, but at least he didn't bother Zhang Yue about the matter of the Citation Office.
Now Zhang Yue is taking advantage of his free time to reorganize things in the temple. With the current popularity of the Exchange and the reputation of the Green Seed Law and the Market Change Law, the officials should re-recognize their own theory.
In the past three years, Zhang Yue has been checking in on party matters while carefully testing out reforms.
To find a way for the New Deal, through testing and improvement, Zhang Yue has preliminarily determined what is feasible.
Now is the time to become famous after three years of silence.
After returning to prime ministership, this set the tone for Yuanfeng's government.
However, Zhang Yue also understood that things were not so easy.
Historically, the most important achievement of Zhang Juzheng's reform, which extended the life of the Ming Dynasty for twenty years, was not a whipping method or a test, but the clearing of land.
Zhang Juzheng's Qingzhang suddenly increased the 5.18 million acres recorded by the imperial court in the early Wanli period to 7.86 million acres, and discovered 2.68 million hidden acres.
In order to clear the land? It is to start with the land rent.
Known as the first good reform law in feudal reform, the method of apportioning ding into mu is to spread the ding tax into the field tax.
The Ding tax paid on a per capita basis was exempted and all was allocated to the land tax, which was mainly land rent.
This reform led to an explosive increase in the population of the Qing Dynasty. After it was implemented in the Yongzheng year, it exceeded 100 million in the early years of Qianlong's reign, and directly exceeded 300 million in the later years of Qianlong's reign.
Both of these successful reforms targeted land rent, extending the life of the dynasty and even reviving it. Their essence was to minimize the proportion of land rent in value and maximize the proportion of labor.
But these two reforms also touched the interests of the landlord and bureaucratic class.
Yongzheng has always been under suspicion, but he was the emperor and the imperial power of the Qing Dynasty was at its peak, so there was no problem.
And what about Zhang Juzheng?
Without Zhang Juzheng's power, this reform could not be implemented, but with this power, it touched the imperial power. After Zhang Juzheng was liquidated, this policy gradually ceased.
Now Zhang Yue's authority is far inferior to that of Zhang Juzheng, and not as good as that of Wang Anshi in the early days of Xining.
However, to do great things, you must have great power!
Zhang Yue said to himself: "If this reform can be implemented during my time in power, it will undoubtedly be more difficult and more challenging than destroying Dangxiang and conquering Youyan."
"Wang Jinggong had taken the first step back then, and this was the square field equalization tax law in the Xining Reform."
"It is a pity that this policy has been implemented intermittently. It has been implemented since Jingyou, Qingli, Huangyou, and Jiayou, but it has always been abandoned."
"Xining did not vigorously promote it at the beginning, but there were many opponents. Landowners, bureaucrats and local governments all opposed it, and now it has basically stagnated."
"There are indeed some good and bad among the new laws. For example, the Green Crops Law, the Market Change Law, and the Equalization Law all have problems, but the Labor Exemption Law, the Farmland Water Conservancy Law, and the Farmland Equalization Tax Law are all good laws."
"But both the old and new parties now view the new law as a whole."
"If something is good, say it is good. If it is bad, say it is bad. You cannot choose the good ones and follow them, and choose the bad ones to change them."
When Zhang Yue said this, the tip of his pen was suspended above the paper, and he sighed slightly at the end.
After a while, Zhang Yue put his pen on the inkstone, nodded, and wrote on the paper.
No matter what, people still have to move forward.
Can't stop!
…
After discussing it at Wang Anli’s house that day.
There is an undercurrent in the capital.
Bianjing's restaurants, teahouses and Imperial College were places where public opinion concentrated or spread, and where the Imperial City Secretary spied on.
As for media channels, they are storytellers, social dramas, newspapers and tabloids, etc.
But no one thought that the discussion started in Taixue.
Too learned!
After the Xining Reform, the number of students in Taixue was expanded to 2,400.
It was also the time for the provincial examination, so most of the scholars stayed in the capital and did not leave.
Most of the imperial students and scholars are young scholars. This age is also the time when they are most sincere.
When word spread in Beijing that the imperial court wanted to abandon Liangzhou and negotiate peace with Liao, these people could not sit still.
When news of Lu Huiqing's great victory in Hedong came, the scholars could not understand why the imperial court had to give up territory to the party members despite repeated victories in the west.
Why did we obviously win?
Instead, they have to make concessions to the party and even pay compensation!
There are traitors in the imperial court!
Who is the traitor?
That is Privy Councilor Sun Gu!
…
Privy Councilor Sun Gu sat in a carriage and went to court.
Sun Gu is now responsible for negotiating peace with Liao. Now the Liao envoy is about to enter the capital, but the aggressiveness of the Liao envoy gives him a headache.
Once your own conditions cannot meet the requirements of the Liao Kingdom, what will you do? What other conditions can you offer?
While thinking carefully, Sun Gu's carriage stopped.
"What's going on?"
"Prime Minister! There are soldiers blocking the way in front of the carriage!"
Sun Gu frowned and said, "Just rebuke him!"
"Reporting to the Prime Minister, there are too many people and we can't keep up!"
Hearing this, Sun Gu opened the car curtain and took a look.
But in front of him, he saw a dense crowd of scholars wearing white robes and black crowns. They stood neatly and solemnly on both sides of the road, and there were many people watching outside.
Sun Gu felt bad because he was stopped.
Sun Gu had not yet spoken, but he saw the first scholar parting the hem of his gown, bowing down on the muddy road and saying: "Prime Minister, this is a document jointly written by Cao Min and others. I hope the Prime Minister will hear it!"
"
Sun Gu said vaguely from behind the car curtain: "I understand. You can disperse!"
Sun Gu thought to himself, okay, if you openly write a letter to express your opinion, or threaten the court ministers in the street, your career will be over from now on.
Sun Gu then thought again, forget it, what does a commoner know? It is impossible for the imperial court to attack Liao and Dangxiang at the same time.
Otherwise, there is a danger of national subjugation.
What does a scholar know about national affairs?
I will never stop doing something. Once I have made a decision, I must stick to it. There will be people who will comment on the merits and demerits of what I have done.
When the document was handed to Sun Gu, the scholars slowly dispersed as ordered...
Sun Gu breathed a sigh of relief and opened the car curtain and was about to say a few words when he saw the scholar who handed over the blood letter said loudly: "Prime Minister, people can endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens! Is this the same for the country?"
"As the saying goes, a scholar can be killed but not humiliated! Students are willing to serve the imperial court with all their blood!"
After a pause, the scholar chanted: "Establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, carry forward the unique knowledge of the saints, and create peace for all generations!"
Sun Gu thought to himself, is he a disciple of Hengqu? Is he a student of Taipei?
But seeing the look of determination in this man's eyes, he suddenly drew his sword and struck it at his neck.
Sun Gu was shocked and wanted to say something to stop him, but it was too late. The scholar did not even hesitate for a moment, and he really spilled his blood on the road.
Seeing this, his classmates rushed forward in panic and fell beside his body, crying loudly.
The people watching on the side also shook their heads. They all regarded the other party as a loyal minister and Sun Gu as a traitor.
Seeing this scene, Sun Gu was so horrified that he couldn't speak. His hand holding the document shook a few times, and then his expression disappeared again. He urged the people around him: "Go quickly! Go quickly!"
The carriage is back on the road.
Sun Gu sat on the carriage with a solemn expression, and heard the sound of many people lying on the corpses crying.
Sun Gu was silent for a while, then sighed after the crying went away: "Wouldn't it be better to leave this useful body to serve the country?"
…
Sun Gu returned to the court and told the emperor about the matter. Sun Gu said: "Your Majesty, I have found out that this person is a student of the Imperial Academy. He is indeed from Zhang Zai's family. He is the 172nd in the provincial examination!"
When the officials heard about it, they ordered someone to check this person's results. On the sidelines, Shi Deyi reported: "He is ranked 57th in the top two!"
When the officials heard this, they said sadly: "What a pity, what a pity! The country needs such a loyal person!"
Sun Gudao: "Nowadays, public opinion is against the peace negotiation with Liao. I speculate that someone seems to be inciting behind this! He is secretly inciting the hearts of the soldiers and the people!"
The official looked stern and said: "Who is doing this? I will definitely not forgive you!"
Sun Gu said: "I don't know. Your Majesty can order the Imperial City Secretary to investigate!"
The official said: "I know."
Sun Gu said: "I have long persuaded your majesty to give up and go to Lu Huiqing. This person is a treacherous person who is greedy for power and is trying to ask for a holiday to save the envoy. Now that Lu Hedong has won, the peace negotiation has become passive."
"
"It is true that these scholars in the capital are brave and courageous, but they do not know the seriousness of the consequences, and they do not know how to deal with the situation once the Song and Liao wars begin."
"Once there is a war, Hebei will not be able to defend, and the capital will also be difficult to defend."
The officials were silent when they heard this. Sun Gu had said this many times.
Seeing that the emperor was silent, Sun Gu said in his heart: "Your Majesty, please resign!"
The official asked: "What is this?"
Sun Gu said: "Both governments are responsible for the celestial phenomenon of comets, and I may be one of them."
The official said: "This is not your business. If you leave, who can I entrust to you? You will do your best!"
Sun Gudao said: "As soon as today's incident happens, I will be infamy for all eternity. However, I was promoted to Privy Council by Your Majesty. It is precisely because I oppose the war between Song and Liao Dynasties. Now I can only do my best."
The official said: "Please do it boldly! I will support you!"
Sun Gu just now thought of retreat as an advance. Now that he had asked the emperor for his words, he had the confidence to say: "Since your majesty has said this, I can only die ten thousand times to repay your majesty! I retire!"
After Sun Gu left.
The official looked calm and said: "One and two are like this, Zhang Qing is like this, are you the same?"
"Shi Deyi, please go down and the Imperial City Department will do its best to investigate those who are spreading rumors these days!"
Shi Deyi said he retreated.
The official calmed down, picked up the paper of this remonstrating scholar, and started reading.
