Zhao Jun had a fight with Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and other old bureaucratic conservatives in the palace.
After they left, they sent another message to Zhao Zhen, further deepening his idea of activating the Imperial City Division to stabilize the imperial power.
Zhao Zhen had a weak personality and was more concerned about strengthening the imperial power, so he also expressed in front of Zhao Jun that he would persist.
Although Zhao Jun didn't trust him, until he became stronger, he could only rely on this guy temporarily. He had no choice but to go crazy with the CPU and repeatedly warned him before leaving.
After leaving the palace, Zhao Jun did not go to the Imperial City Department, but went directly back to his residence. He needed to sort out some things.
After returning home, he put away Zhou Xin and other Imperial City Supervisors, went back to his room, took out his notebook from the locked suitcase, and then sat at the desk in front of the window to make statistics.
The situation of employment land around Bianliang City: Wangjiazhuang was allocated 367 acres of employment land, with an income of one stone to eighty-nine dou per mu. Beigang Village was allocated 298 acres of farmland, with an income of nine to seven or eight dou per mu. Dongguanzhuang Village...
Zhao Jun recorded the employment and field conditions he investigated today. After a while, after the autumn period is over, he plans to go to the countryside to go to the grassroots level and go to Henan, Huaibei, Xuzhou and other hinterlands of the Central Plains to understand the actual situation.
Now he has many other things besides going to the outer city to investigate the darkness of society. For example, how much burden the current job and land system has brought to the people, and how many people's families have been destroyed and their wives and children separated due to government expropriation, oppression, and exploitation.
The simplest example is that he had previously seen in the archives of the Imperial City Division that all shipbuilding timber from the Qinlong Xiegu Office was collected from the people; seven states also paid taxes on bamboo ropes for river bridges, which generally amounted to hundreds of thousands. Through.
The reason why this incident was recorded was because during the Song Zhenzong period, an official embezzled the money. Later, the official was transferred to the central government, and a censor impeached him. Song Zhenzong was furious and asked the Imperial City Secretary to After a thorough investigation, it was stored in the archives.
In other words, if no one was greedy for the money, or no one exposed it, then Zhao Jun wouldn't even know about it.
But what he didn't even know was that this matter continued until the late Song Renzong. It was later that Bao Zheng was transferred to the deputy envoy of the Ministry of Household Affairs and discovered that there were so many exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes levied on the people across the country, and he asked for some exemptions, which was the end.
This shows how serious the Song Dynasty government's apportionment, collection, extortion, corvee, and taxation were. It is evident that not only ordinary people rebelled, but also many small and medium-sized landowners who could not stand such exploitation.
The kind of job land Zhao Jun is investigating now is also a kind of job land. Job fields are used to support officials. They are not allocated from existing land, but allow officials to recruit manpower to open up wasteland.
This policy sounds good, but the problem is that most of the land that is opened up is inferior land with poor soil fertility, and the output is limited. If the people are unwilling to rent, officials can only use administrative means to force the people to rent. Moreover, the rent is high and will not be reduced in times of disaster, which seriously exploits the people.
Many villages were allocated vocational fields for farming, and sometimes the government would even directly replace people's good fields with vocational fields and seize their land. Under the heavy burden, entire villages often fled their homes and fled.
After Zhao Jun left the city, he asked people around in the rural villages outside Bianliang City. The people in the countryside were not as vigilant as the people in the city. Many of them were outspoken. If they had complaints, they would just say it directly. They were not so mean-spirited.
Although it was seen that they were people from outside and kept silent, Zhao Jun used the excuse that he was a businessman and wanted to buy some fields outside the city to inquire about the situation. Since jobs cannot be bought or sold, there will always be upright or simple people who will tell him the real situation, and he will also be able to ask a lot of questions.
"It's outrageous. Adding in the information Fan Zhongyan gave me, the things I've seen and learned over the past twenty days add up to more than 10,000 words. It records the death of countless people, their wives and children."
"This is what I see now. At the emperor's feet, there are censors and admonishers watching. In order to prevent black information from leaking out, these people generally do not dare to go too far. They basically accept bribes and act as a protective umbrella for evil forces. That’s all. When I leave Bianliang and travel across the country, I don’t know how many things I will encounter.”
"Sometimes seeing too much of this kind of dark stuff can really make people depressed. Forget it, let's think about what I should do in the future."
Zhao Jun recorded all the information, and after typing the last word, he closed the document, turned on the music, leaned on the chair, accidentally caught a glimpse of the mobile phone on the table, and plugged his mobile phone into the computer. Try charging again.
The phone was short-circuited when it got wet in a mudslide, but I haven't turned it on since then. Now, after a few months, the inside of it should be dry. I have tried to charge it multiple times with no success, and I don’t know if it is completely broken.
But even so, he always maintained this habit. What if one day it suddenly becomes rechargeable? I still have a lot of photo albums of my parents on my phone, which can be considered as a thought.
After plugging in the power, he glanced at the screen, but there was still no movement, so he could only lean on the chair again, look out the window at the backyard, and start thinking.
"Now I have obtained the authority of the Imperial City Division and the Xiang Army, but I cannot start a special operation right away. First, I need to clean up the interior of the Imperial City Division. Second, I need to continue to pursue and clean up a lot of crimes in the outer city of Bianliang. clean."
"Internal rectification is imminent, not only for the dynasty and Bianliang, but also for the whole country. Now we can only spread the Imperial City Division throughout the Song Dynasty to clean up the evil and corrupt officials in the country, just like the later countries every few years We need to carry out an anti-corruption and anti-gang campaign.”
"However, these are just symptoms rather than the root cause. If the entire system, social development and productivity cannot be improved, a large number of crimes will continue to breed. In a few years, official corruption and evil forces will make a comeback, so for now I can only Do what you can for the time being.”
"Just catching some corrupt officials, getting rid of some bullies, and cleaning up some landlords will ultimately be nothing more than a paper poster. If we want to completely change the Song Dynasty, except for the imperial power that cannot be touched for the time being, the rest of the social system must undergo major changes. "
"After this autumn period is over, I will stay in Bianliang for a while, and then immediately set off to various places in the Song Dynasty to conduct grassroots research to gain an in-depth understanding of the basic situation of the Song Dynasty. While surveying the governance situation in various places, I will reform the system for the future. Make preparations.”
"After that, there will be the Song-Xia War and the possible Song-Liao War, and then there will be the diversion of the Yellow River. These things are basically within ten years. I must rectify the entire official order after the Song-Xia War."
"After the internal situation is temporarily stable, the Song Dynasty can officially start to open up to the outside world."
Zhao Jun thought about the current path.
Governing a big country is like cooking small dishes. There are many things that cannot be rushed and cannot be rushed.
It is definitely not right to start reform immediately after getting started. Instead, we must first go deep into the people, understand the social class contradictions and understand the actual situation, and then we can start to work on the system.
But more than twenty days after regaining his sight, the situation he saw was already very unpleasant, and I'm afraid there will be more discomfort waiting for him in the future.
I hope that these people under the Imperial City Secretary can be less wormy so that they will not be left unavailable.
Zhao Jun looked out the window and thought to himself.
．
．
After Lu Yijian and others left the palace, they were surrounded by Xia Song, Chen Yaozuo, Jia Changchao, Wang Gongchen, Zhang Dexiang, Chen Zhizhong, Liu Yuanyu and other party members.
But Zhao Jun's affairs were confidential. No matter how brave they were, they didn't dare to talk about it. They could only avoid it and leave directly.
Afterwards, he, Wang Zeng and others communicated with each other and agreed to meet in the private room in the east building.
Logically speaking, Wang Zeng and Lu Yijian were mortal enemies, and they were at odds with each other, so they would not agree to conspire with him.
But in the past, it was just political differences, and conflicts would need to accumulate continuously before they would break out in April next year. No conflicts have escalated to that point yet.
What's more, now that there is a serious position issue, they are forced to stand together because of the same position.
At this moment, except Fan Zhongyan, all the insiders are here.
In the private room, an incense burner was burning on the table, and cranes and welcoming pine trees were painted on the screens on both sides. The setting sun shone into the room through the paper windows, making everyone's faces a mixture of light and dark.
"The official family hates cronies the most, and they don't want Zhao Jun's story to spread. To avoid suspicion, we should have stopped seeing each other after our duties were over."
Lu Yijian looked around and was the first to speak: "But now you have seen what happened. Zhao Jun did not follow common sense, but took charge of the Imperial City Division. What we were most worried about has happened."
It was Lu Yijian who arranged for Yan Shu to propose to Zhao Zhen that Zhao Jun should take the path of being a Jinshi and become an official. It was Lu Yijian who persuaded Zhao Jun when Zhao Jun asked about taking the imperial examination, so that Zhao Jun reluctantly took the imperial examination.
The reason is that before Zhao Jun's eyes recovered, he kept talking about killing a group of corrupt officials who violated laws and disciplines. He also ransacked the homes and exterminated the families of those profiteers who drove up prices and embezzled national assets.
At that time, including Zhao Zhen, everyone marveled at how the people of later generations were so decisive and vigorous in their killings. When they killed people, they did it in batches, and they also confiscated their homes and exterminated their clans, with extremely ruthless methods.
Although Zhao Jun was talking about the way great men of later generations treated these people and the thoughts of the Internet Keyboard Warrior at that time, King Lu Yijian and the others didn't know.
Therefore, when they heard Zhao Jun's words, they panicked at that time. They were afraid that Zhao Jun would really go on a killing spree in the officialdom after his recovery, so they hoped to let Zhao Jun take the imperial examination and enter their system step by step. Assimilation processing.
As a result, I never expected that even though Zhao Jun had already taken the imperial examination, he still secretly persuaded the officials to strengthen the authority of the Imperial City Department, took control of the Imperial City Department, and seemed to have the ability to kill. .
This frightened everyone.
That's why Lu Yijian took the risk and called everyone to meet secretly and privately to discuss countermeasures.
"After all, it is because of what Zhao Jun said before he regained his consciousness that the officials have been shaken. The officials are now determined to restore the power of the Imperial City Division. It is not easy for us to handle now."
"Why don't we just let it go? Now all the officials in the dynasty have written letters to object, but the officials are still indifferent, which shows that the officials completely believe Zhao Jun's words."
"Actually, Zhao Jun's words are not unreasonable. If we can persuade Zhao Jun to be more lenient with our disciples, we may not be able to support him in carrying out major reforms. Anyway, it's fine that the ones who died are not our disciples."
"Which of your families does not have disciples and old officials, and it is common to make mistakes occasionally. But Zhao Jun seems to be a reckless young man based on his words and deeds. What if he is unmoved and insists on attacking his disciples?"
Everyone was at a loss.
Everyone has their own selfish desires.
Although the power of the powerful families in the Song Dynasty was weakened, Menyin was still strong. Even if they could not become high-ranking officials, they could still become middle- and lower-level officials. Therefore, many children of Menyin from various families became officials.
For example, in the Lu family, all of Lu Yijian's sons entered official positions through their family background. Only the third son, Lu Gongzhu, obtained his family's family position first, then took the imperial examination, and finally became the prime minister.
Including his grandsons and the Lu Mengzheng family, historical data records that more than 20 people from the Guangmen of the Lu family became officials.
This is only within three generations of Lu Mengzheng, Lu Yijian and other descendants. In the future, many people from the Lu family will enter the officialdom, such as the Southern Song Dynasty great scholars Lu Daqi, Lu Zuqian, Lu Zujian, etc. Their ancestors were all Menyin officials, and they were also Menyin officials when they entered the officialdom.
So although they may look like they are clean and honest officials, in fact they all have huge families behind them. This is also the reason why historically they opposed Fan Zhongyan's reforms.
After all, no one wants their family members to be expelled from officialdom.
Previously, Lu Yijian had planned to get Zhao Jun to take the imperial examination and become an official. Firstly, he wanted to assimilate him, and secondly, he hoped to win over him and find a way out for the family's children in the future.
But now Zhao Jun has found another way and opened up the path to the Imperial City Division, which naturally makes everyone look sad.
Some people thought that they might conspire with Zhao Jun to sell out middle- and lower-level officials as well as other high-ranking officials in the same camp. Some people felt that Zhao Jun had a strong personality and might not necessarily agree to their request, so they hesitated for a while.
Lu Yijian looked at Wang Zeng and said, "Xiao Xian, what do you think?"
Wang Zeng frowned, with a slightly troubled look on his face, and said hesitantly: "I don't think Zhao Jun is joking. Now that he is in charge of the Imperial City Division, he has the power to arrest, review and deal with. I'm afraid he will take action seriously. I thought it would be better to have three people." It’s better to work together.”
"you say."
Lu Yijian said.
Wang Zeng said in a deep voice: "First, we must continue to let Zhao Jun enter the imperial examination, let him enter the officialdom, and then urge him to make firearms to distract him. Second, restrain the children of the family and not let them cause trouble, but there are those who do evil. , immediately plead guilty to the official and have him dismissed, lest Zhao Jun really kill him. Come three times."
"What are you doing three times?"
"Thirdly, we still need to test Zhao Jun's meaning. In fact, we all know that after Zhao Jun comes, there will be unprecedented changes in the Song Dynasty. Changes are unstoppable. In the face of great right and wrong, we still have to recognize the reality clearly and cannot use our bodies to To resist the rolling torrent, you should be more submissive."
Wang Zeng looked at everyone and said: "It is unrealistic to blindly win over Zhao Jun and hope that he will show mercy to you and his children. Everyone knows the situation in various places in the Song Dynasty. Zhao Jun will not stop, so he has no choice but to join in. Only by helping him can the family survive the torrent."
"Well"
Lu Yijian looked at Yan Shu and asked, "Uncle Tong, what do you think?"
Yan Shu sighed and said: "What Wang Xiang said is absolutely true, the general trend cannot be changed. The future of the Song Dynasty will change. If we fail to change our minds in time, fail to join in it, or even go against Zhao Jun, I am afraid the end will not be good. "
"Do you think so too?"
Lu Yijian asked others again.
Wang Sui and Sheng Du looked at each other. They had far less say in the political affairs hall than Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng. They always followed the crowd and did not speak.
Only Cai Qi and Song Shou pondered for a moment, and seemed to have understood a lot. They both said, "What the Prime Minister said makes sense."
The scholar-official class is always weak and compromising. What's more, they are only the highest-ranking officials in the scholar-official class and cannot represent the entire scholar-official class. If Zhao Jun really conflicts with the bureaucracy in the future, they will just find a way to stay out of it.
"Um."
Lu Yijian finally sighed and said: "That's it for now. Fortunately, Zhao Jun will still take the imperial examination and become an official. He doesn't seem to be aware of what we are thinking, so he will just let it go. Unless it is absolutely necessary, we should avoid becoming his enemy."
He shook his head as he spoke, stood up and prepared to leave, but after standing up, he seemed to stagger a bit. Finally, he left the private room with his hands behind his back.
That figure.
But he is a bit older, and he is far less like Lu Xugong who once dominated the political affairs hall and was almost independent prime minister!
(End of chapter)
