Zhao Jun had no idea that he was going further and further on the road of seeking death.
He began to talk endlessly about the main reasons for the failure of Fan Zhongyan Qingli's New Deal, the objective reasons, and why it was resisted by almost the entire scholar-bureaucrat class.
In the final analysis, five of Fan Zhongyan's ten reforms were aimed at redundant officials, and the remaining five were about enriching the country, strengthening the army, and strictly enforcing the rule of law.
Therefore, his main reform direction is still the problem of redundant officials, one of the three redundancies. He wants to achieve the purpose of saving finances and clarifying official administration by cutting a large number of overstaffed officials, streamlining the organization, and enhancing efficiency.
But again, what this does touches is the interests of the entire scholar-bureaucrat class. As those who have lost interests, they will naturally unite to belittle the New Deal and trample Fan Zhongyan into the ground.
If Song Renzong had the courage, even if he offended the scholar-bureaucrat class and held military power in their hands, they would not be able to cause any trouble. They would still have to be laid off if they should.
But Song Renzong was wavering, and he gradually distrusted Fan Zhongyan, causing the reform to lose the support of the supreme ruler and ended sadly.
This is why Zhao Jun believes that the biggest reason for the failure of the Qingli New Deal was Song Renzong.
In fact, this reform was very important to the Song Dynasty.
You must know that the number of officials in the Song Dynasty was six times that of the Han Dynasty, and twice that of the Tang Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Many officials often held multiple positions, such as sent salary officers, staff officers, casual officials, honorary officers, postal posts, titles, etc. Etc., each position can receive a salary.
So it seems that the number of officials in the Song Dynasty was only twice that of the Tang and Ming Dynasties, but if we count them in terms of holding multiple positions, the number of officials was more than three times that of the Tang and Ming Dynasties.
Moreover, their salaries are generally higher than those of other dynasties. For example, compared with officials of the Ming Dynasty, the salary of low-level officials in the Song Dynasty was five to ten times that of officials of the same level in the Ming Dynasty. The gap in the level of the prime minister can even reach a hundred times.
At the same time, there were too many officials in the Song Dynasty and few departments. As a result, a large number of officials were granted false posts. Officials had no real power. In addition, various departments were bloated and the efficiency of work was extremely low. Many officials received high salaries and had nothing to do every day, which was a pure waste of the country. financial.
Therefore, if Fan Zhongyan can really solve the problem of redundant officials and cut half of the officials, then the court's annual financial expenditure will be reduced by more than ten million yuan.
This amount of money is undoubtedly a huge sum of money for the Song Dynasty, whose current annual military expenditure reaches more than 40 million yuan.
In addition, Fan Zhongyan also wanted to reform the military system and laws.
If the problem of redundant officials can be solved, the military system can be reformed, and military expenditures can be reduced, then the Song Dynasty's finances will be extremely healthy, and the history of the Northern Song Dynasty can be extended by at least one hundred years.
But even the problem of redundant officials cannot be solved, let alone the problem of redundant troops and waste. Therefore, Fan Zhongyan's reforms only lasted for one year and four months before being stopped, which can be said to have ended hastily.
In contrast, although Wang Anshi's reforms had many problems and caused considerable turmoil and consequences, they could last for a very long time, as long as fifteen years.
It was precisely because Wang Anshi had the unswerving support of Song Shenzong that the reform was forced to terminate until Song Shenzong's death.
"So in summary, it's Zhao Zhen who let Fan Zhong drown in a way to complete the reform."
Zhao Jun made a comprehensive comparison between Qingli's New Deal and Wang Anshi's reform, and said: "The restructuring of the country must be completed unswervingly by the highest authority, unless it is wrong, like Wang Anshi's reform. It is a pity that Fan Zhongyan was in the right direction and could not get support. Wang Anshi It’s the wrong direction, but it’s supported.”
After saying this, Zhao Zhen had a complicated expression. He never expected that the source of the failure of Qingli's New Deal would be him.
Fan Zhongyan glanced at him and remained silent.
After all, he is the emperor, no matter what he does, he cannot be dissatisfied.
So after a long silence, Fan Zhongyan asked: "Why do you say that I...Fan Zhongyan's direction is right and Wang Anshi's direction is wrong?"
"Because of the official administration!"
Zhao Jun said categorically: "A great man once said that Wang Anshi was an idealist who was divorced from practice. The Qingmiao Law was supposed to be a good thing that benefited the country and the people, so why did it fail? The reason was that the administration of officials was too poor. !”
"Although the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty was developed, it did not particularly suppress commerce, resulting in an active economy and relatively rich people. But its essence was still a backward feudal system, and agricultural production was still dominated by small-scale peasant economy."
"What are the characteristics of small-scale peasant economy? Fragility!"
"The common people rely on the sky for food. With their faces facing the loess and their backs turned to the sky, they all rely on God to provide food for them. This year, the weather will be good, there will be no natural disasters, and there will be bumper grain harvests in various places. There will be plenty of grain on the market, which will cause the price of grain to fall."
"If there are natural disasters everywhere in the coming year, and natural disasters are frequent and reduce grain production, it will cause grain prices to rise. This is the reason why low grain prices hurt farmers and high prices hurt people."
"Furthermore, farmers often have periods of drought. The crops have not matured yet, and the family is out of food. In desperation, they have no choice but to borrow food from others. The landlords in the countryside will let them use the land as collateral, forming a loan shark."
"When they are lucky, farmers can repay through the next year's bumper harvest. But if they are unlucky and suddenly encounter natural disasters, resulting in reduced food production and unable to repay their debts, their land will be taken away by the landlords."
"Wang Anshi believes that the landlords in the countryside have annexed a large amount of people's land through loans, so that the people either become landless refugees or can only become tenants of big landowners. This is not a good thing."
"So he simply asked the state to lend money to the farmers at a lower interest rate to help the farmers tide over the difficulties, and then return the money to the government when there is a good harvest next year."
"It sounds good, and the government will not let farmers mortgage their land. If a virtuous cycle is formed, it will indeed be a good thing that benefits the country and the people."
"The problem is that Wang Anshi did not manage the officials well, which resulted in too many crooked monks below, and eventually the good scripture of Qingmiao Dharma was recited crookedly."
"If a policy is to be implemented, it must go through officials at all levels. But by the time of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the grassroots officials in the Northern Song Dynasty were already rotten. There were corrupt officials, people who were doing nothing, and even those who only focused on political achievements."
"For example, if the weather is good in a certain place, the people do not need this loan. For the sake of political performance, local officials forcefully push it forward, causing anger and resentment."
"There are also places where local officials arbitrarily raise interest rates; Wang Anshi stipulated a profit of 20%, and local officials added a few percent more. The extra money naturally fell into the pockets of those officials."
"Historical records show that the most exaggerated case was that local officials directly raised the interest rate by thirty-five times. Originally, the interest rate was 20%, but they actually had to pay back seven times the loan principal."
"Obviously the local officials of the Song Dynasty were too gentle. They could grab it directly, but they still had to decide on a name. He really made me cry to death..."
"What's more, they simply colluded with the local powerful, bullied the people into being illiterate, tampered with the contract documents, deliberately refused to accept repayment from the people, delayed the time, and when the time passed, they said that the people did not repay the money, and then took it away Their land has seriously increased the burden on the people."
“With such huge implementation problems, even the best policies are in vain.”
"Then what is the source of the problem of officialdom? It is still the problem of redundant officials in the Song Dynasty. There were too many incompetent and corrupt officials at the bottom, which made it impossible to implement the Green Seeding Law smoothly."
"So if Fan Zhongyan had solved the problem of officialdom and made grassroots officials more efficient and capable, the reform would not have completely failed due to local execution problems during Wang Anshi's period."
"This is why I say that Fan Zhongyan's direction is right and Wang Anshi's direction is wrong."
“If we want to solve the problem, we must first punish the officials!”
At the end of the speech, Zhao Jun was so impassioned that his voice penetrated the house, making people enlightened and enlightened.
The three-redundancy problem is deep-rooted and cannot be solved overnight.
And if you want to cure it, you have to do it step by step.
Which step to take first?
Naturally, it is the administration of officials.
Policies must rely on the operation of lower-level officials to promote them.
No matter how good the policy is, it will be in vain if the power at the bottom remains corrupt and lazy.
That's why Zhao Jun believed that Fan Zhongyan was heading in the right direction. The problems of grassroots officials should be dealt with first, and then other problems could be solved easily.
As expected of a later generation, Zhao Jun's profound view of the problem is far inferior to theirs. Only such latecomers can summarize the reasons for the failure of the reform.
At that moment, everyone, including Song Renzong and Zhao Zhen, looked at Zhao Jun as if they were looking at a reformer with outstanding ideas and a deep understanding of social structure, giving guidance and scolding Fang Qiu.
The Song Dynasty needs such talents.
Everyone sighed.
But soon, Zhao Jun, who had been delivering a speech passionately, licked his dry lips, showed a flattering smile on his face, and said to Yan Shu: "Uncle Lari, give me some saliva."
This flattering smile immediately brought Zhao Jun's reformer appearance back to his original form.
It was as if everything just now was an illusion.
Zhao Jun is just a commoner who asks for water with a flattering smile.
Zhao Zhen, who just now was still thinking that if Zhao Jun stopped scolding him in the future and his eyes regained their sight, he would reuse Zhao Jun, suddenly trembled.
He swore that after getting all the information out of Zhao Jun, he would spank him hard!
How can my descendants be so flattering just because they ask for a glass of water?
However, if Zhao Jun knew about it, he would probably be confused.
Could it be that you are blind, you are being taken care of by others, and you beg for drinks from others, and you still keep a straight face?
Of course the attitude must be respectful.
However, Zhao Jun obviously didn't know that he was not in the new era at all, but in the old Song Dynasty. After he drank the water handed by Yan Shu, he said to Fan Zhongyan: "How about it, Uncle Nima, am I right?" Wrong."
"That's it...that's it..."
Fan Zhong murmured to himself in a low voice: "It seems that my future direction is right, I should go on like this."
"ah?"
Zhao Jun didn't hear clearly and asked, "Uncle Nima, what did you say?"
Fan Zhongyan came to his senses and said immediately: "It's nothing. How can Fan Zhongyan succeed?"
"Of course it is supported by Song Renzong."
Zhao Jun said without hesitation.
"Can we succeed with the support of the Emperor of Song Dynasty?"
Fan Zhongyan still didn't dare to say Zhao Zhen's posthumous name, but he also lowered his head and looked at Zhao Zhen with hopeful eyes.
Zhao Zhen hesitated for a moment and nodded slightly.
"I don't know."
Zhao Jun spread his hands: "Getting Zhao Zhen's support is only the first step, but you may not know how big the resistance to the reform of officialdom is. It is going against officials all over the world. Even with the full support of Song Renzong, it may happen. Other changes.”
"What change?" Fan Zhongyan asked subconsciously.
"Who knows? I'm not from the Song Dynasty, so I don't know much about the actual situation. If you want me to give you some advice, I can only say that changes should not be too radical, but should be moderate."
Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "But our country has been using a competitive recruitment policy to motivate civil servants and cadres. The problem in the Song Dynasty was that there were too many officials and they were idle all day long. If we subdivide their powers, give them power, and then use the method of competitive recruitment and performance appraisal, maybe it will work.”
Competition for jobs?
Everyone fell into deep thought.
Needless to say, performance appraisal is a strategy that existed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
But this competition for jobs......
It probably means that whoever is more capable will be promoted, right?
Zhao Jun added: "It would be too outrageous to unify the salaries of officials across the country. A rich state and a poor state have the same salary as the prefect, so who has the initiative? It will definitely be muddled. If the local governance, taxation, and the number of farmers are And the country’s policies that benefit the people are regarded as political performance as the standard for salary payment. Do those people still dare to perfunctoryly do it?”
"Uncle Nima, think about it, if the number of self-cultivated farmers is included in the assessment, and the salary and promotion of officials are linked to it, will officials still dare to help the landlords seize the people's land? They must change their stance and help the landless refugees to increase their numbers. It’s better to have more cultivated land.”
"In addition, wages and salaries in poor states are low and promotions are slow, so they must try their best to make states and counties richer. This will mobilize the enthusiasm of local officials who are originally lazy and indolent."
"However, the standards still need to be measured. For example, a poor state with few people in the mountains has a very high upper limit. It is really difficult to ask it to become as wealthy as a farming state with all plains, so it still has to be done on the ground. Only through consideration can we set the standard.”
"In addition, the supervision system must also be improved. Whether the policy can be implemented smoothly depends on whether the supervision system is good enough. Otherwise, no matter how good the policy is, if it is left unsupervised, the final outcome will be nothing. .”
"Although there are still many loopholes that can be exploited, as long as you are ruthless and dare to depose those officials who have done bad things and even caused serious consequences, such as causing people's families to be destroyed, then kill dozens or hundreds of them to shock them. Officialdom, I don’t believe they are not active in doing things.”
"As for the issue of reducing the number of officials raised by Fan Zhongyan, this can be slowed down for a while. If so many cuts are made at once, the impact will still be too great."
"So in summary, it is very important to let officials do practical things first. The first step should be to mobilize idle officials so that they can do things. If there is light, there will be light, and there will be heat, at least there will be no heat. I just lie at home every day and eat official food and other salary."
"In this way, a big wave of dismissals can be made. Officials with little ability will have an excuse to be dismissed, and capable officials can be promoted. There will not be a sudden wave of dismissals across the country, causing opposition from officials all over the world."
Instead of cutting officials directly, we should first mobilize their enthusiasm?
This suggestion was very innovative. Zhao Zhen and the others listened carefully. After listening to Zhao Jun's explanation, they felt that it made more sense.
Directly lay off officials, and officials from all over the world will definitely attack.
So what if the court asked them to do something?
This is what officials should do. Before, you could say that the division of power was unclear, and they were carrying empty duties and could not do anything.
But if the power is broken down and each official has something to do, then they will have no reason.
If you don't do your job well, there will be an excuse to lay you off.
If you do well, the better, and you can promote talented officials to the court.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Thinking of this, everyone, including Zhao Zhen, looked at Zhao Jun with admiration.
The top students from later generations are indeed different, they just have methods.
"But actually it's useless to say so much. We are in New China, not in the Song Dynasty."
Zhao Jun finally shrugged and said: "Besides, that coward of Song Renzong was not so bold to support the reform. He was so suspicious. Do you know why he became a rare wise king in the Northern Song Dynasty? That's because he didn't do anything, unlike others. The emperor of the Song Dynasty gave random orders and harmed the country, which was his greatest contribution!"
Damn it!
Zhao Zhen ran to the bench.
It was Lu Yijian who had quick eyes and quick hands to hold him back.
The other prime ministers grabbed each other's hands, hugged each other's legs, and some covered their mouths, and they were dragged out by him.
After he was far away from the wooden house where Zhao Jun lived and no sound could be heard from that side, Lu Yijian, who covered Zhao Zhen's mouth, released his hand, and a shrill roar came from Guanjia Hall.
"Don't stop me, don't stop me, I'm going to beat him to death, I'm going to beat him to death!!!"
