Yang Chongxun was born as a general.
Grandfather Yang Shoubin was the commander of Long Jie during the Song Dynasty Taizu Zhao Kuangyin period.
His father, Yang Quanmei, was the commander in front of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty during the Zhao Guangyi period.
He himself was reused during the Zhenzong period of Song Dynasty.
At that time, the vice-capital knew that Zhou Huaizheng planned to appoint Song Zhenzong as the Supreme Emperor and force Song Zhenzong to pass the throne to Zhao Zhen. Yang Chongxun learned about it and told Ding Wei.
Ding Wei killed Zhou Huaizheng. Since then, Yang Chongxun has been promoted all the way. He has successively served as deputy commander of the Ma Army, commander of the capital in front of the palace, military governor of the Zhenwu Army, envoy to the Nanyuan of Xuanhui and deputy privy envoy, and finally to privy envoy. .
However, with the fall of Ding Wei, Zhao Zhen gradually came to power. Yang Chongxun, who relied on Ding Wei to come to power, naturally became a thorn in the side. He was impeached by the then censor, Zhongcheng Fan Xi, and was dismissed as the local magistrate.
But after all, this person once served as one of the prime ministers, and served as the magistrate of the state. He also judged the state with the power of Tongping Zhangshi and Heyang Sancheng Jiedu, and his status was very high.
It can be said that even at the local level, Yang Chongxun, relying on his previous status and title of "Tongping Zhangshi", is a more powerful existence than the transport envoy. Local officials are all flattering, and it is nothing to dominate a state all the way. question.
But what I didn't expect was that this person's Chenzhou was located on North Jing Road, but he reached out to East Huainan Road. However, historical data records that "Zhongxun was corrupt and held military positions for a long time." Since Chenzhou is close to Bozhou and Shouzhou, it may be understandable.
Zhao Jun even suspected that Yang Chongxun was behind the murders of many county magistrates recently. This person is the only one who has a military background, and may have a small army of dozens or hundreds of people hidden around him.
After finding out the truth about the Huainan Road corruption case, the next thing will naturally fall into place.
Zhao Jun immediately ordered the arrest of these officials involved.
He personally took charge of Huainan Road and sent people to arrest all the people involved in the case who continued to serve as officials on Huainan Road, Jiangzhe Road and other places.
If they have been transferred to the north, then send the list to the Constitutional Yuan and ask the court to send someone there.
Soon it was June.
During this period, Zhao Jun was still conducting research on Huainan Road, traveling to several states to inspect the agricultural economic situation at the grassroots level in the Song Dynasty.
But the imperial court was extremely busy.
First of all, wars are becoming more frequent in the northwest. As mentioned before, although historically Li Yuanhao only started to invade in 1038 AD, that is, the next year, and was then beaten back with a headache.
But before that, he continued to send party items and Qiang Di tribes on the border to attack the border states of the Song Dynasty, and small-scale wars never stopped.
Fan Zhongyan stepped up efforts to build the city, train soldiers, and open up border fields. Therefore, the imperial court needed to raise a large amount of luggage and send all these materials to the border. As a result, the price of rice in Bianliang increased a lot during this period.
Secondly, the Constitutional Yuan is promoting the reform of the national official system. The newly established departments must establish branches in roads, prefectures, and counties across the country. For example, the court represented by Dali Temple must be established in roads similar to the Provincial High Court. , establish municipal intermediate courts in prefectures, and establish grassroots courts in counties.
It would not work to start directly like this, so after half a year of preparatory work, the Constitutional Yuan decided to conduct pilot projects in various areas of the Song Dynasty first. Dali yamen were first established in each district, and the administrative offices of each district were established to temporarily manage the litigation cases of each district.
In other words, if the case was originally decided by the county or state yamen in various states and counties, if the case personnel wanted to appeal, they would need to file a lawsuit with the Dali yamen in each district and have it re-heard.
The functions of the Department of Prisons and Prisons were changed to the Supervisory Yuan. The purpose was naturally to divide the trial powers of local county and state governments.
In the future, when the Dali Yamen and the Supervisory Yuan continue to establish state offices and county bureaus, from now on, the trial of cases will have nothing to do with the county magistrate or the prefecture magistrate. The investigation power of the county government is vested in the county captain, the supervisory power is in the Supervisory Yuan, and the trial is in the Dali Temple. The independence of the public prosecutor and the law is completely achieved.
The last issue is of course the frequent feedback from Zhao Jun, including the local situation recorded by Zhao Jun, the current living conditions of the people, and a large number of areas that need improvement. These are the focus of the Constitutional Yuan's work.
Therefore, the old men were very busy during this period. The 69-year-old Sheng Du almost died suddenly after working overtime one time.
Don't think that the workload of these things is not heavy. In fact, in addition to these things, the old men also have to be busy with government affairs across the country. This is equivalent to increasing their burden on the already heavy work, which naturally makes them a little unbearable.
If Zhao Jun had not reformed the official system of the Song Dynasty before leaving, which greatly alleviated the problem of low efficiency of officials in the Song Dynasty, many things would only be given opinions by the Constitutional Yuan, and the specific implementation would be left to the departments below, the old men would still be as before If you do everything yourself like that, I'm afraid you will be exhausted.
On June 11, outside the Chongzheng Hall of the Kaifeng Palace, Zhao Zhen had just visited the harem and was now on his way back to his study.
During this period, he has restrained himself a lot and has slowly quit playing games and movies. It's not that he doesn't play anymore, but he has implemented strict time regulations.
For example, after finishing the day's government affairs today, Zhao Zhen will gather everyone in Chongzheng Hall to read the popular science knowledge in his notebook. When the old men come home from get off work, he will use the limited time to play a little bit, never being greedy for more. .
Plan your time reasonably, and don’t forget about entertainment and life after work. It is much better than just indulging in games and games before. It can be regarded as a combination of work and rest, and you can relax a little after work.
It was late summer, the weather was clear, the sun was high in the sky, and the earth was so hot that it made people sweat profusely even when standing in the shade.
Zhao Zhen slowly walked towards the Chongzheng Hall from the shade of the harem corridor, with a slightly joyful look on his face, because it had been more than eight months since Empress Cao and Zhang Meiren were pregnant at the end of September last year, almost nine months. , due to give birth in about a month.
The delivery time of the two children should not exceed two weeks, so that he can have two children at the same time. As long as any one of them is a healthy baby boy, then his problem of having no children in history will be completely solved.
For Zhao Zhen, this is naturally a great joy.
After visiting the harem, Zhao Zhen was chatting with Wang Shouzhong, talking about topics such as what name should be given to the born child, while walking forward. As soon as he arrived at the entrance of Chongzheng Hall, he saw Lu Yijian and others waiting at the door.
"Do you have anything important to do today?"
When Zhao Zhen saw everyone gathered, he walked over and wondered, "Are the Western thieves coming to invade again? Or is there some local government affairs?"
"neither."
Lu Yijian stepped forward, raised his hands and said, "It's a letter from Han Long."
"Grandson finally received a letter."
Zhao Zhen perked up and laughed: "I haven't written to the court for more than a month. I thought my eldest grandson had forgotten all of us. It just so happened that I also had good news to tell him. The queen and Zhang Meiren are about to give birth. , he will have two more ancestors."
Hey guys, what ethical joke?
Zhao Jun knew it and didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
Everyone sneered, and Lu Yijian and others followed Zhao Zhen into the house.
After passing through the hall outside Chongzheng Hall and walking into the study room inside, Zhao Zhen sat behind the desk and asked everyone to sit down as well.
Nowadays, Chongzheng Hall has replaced the original Guanjia Hall and has become a place for people to hold small meetings. Therefore, there are many Taishi chairs here all year round for meetings.
After Zhao Zhen sat down, he looked around at everyone and said, "What did the great grandson say in the letter this time?"
"There are three letters."
Lu Yijian gave a brief summary and said: "The first letter writes that he has gone deep into the people these days and investigated the many problems that exist between local officials and the people."
Zhao Zhen said thoughtfully: "It's still a commonplace thing. Local county magistrates need to rely on these subordinate officials for management. After the subordinate officials have a comprehensive report, they deceive the superiors and deceive the subordinates, embezzle and extort bribes, resulting in many unjust, false and wrong cases in the local area."
"Yes."
Lu Yijian nodded: "Hanlong said that in less than half a year since he went out, he found, heard, and even saw many cases. For example, in Yingtian Mansion, he saw a widow and her son suing her late husband's brother for embezzlement. With her family property, the subordinate officials were bribed by the deceased husband’s brother, and instead arrested the widow.”
"This kind of phenomenon can be said to be everywhere in the Song Dynasty. It happened in almost every county. Therefore, Hanlong was extremely dissatisfied with this point and pointed out that in the future, officials must be reformed, at least to reduce such things on a large scale. It just happens.”
Wang Zeng also said: "I feel that maybe we really need to consider making corresponding changes."
"Then did Dasun give a corresponding solution?"
Zhao Zhen asked.
In fact, Zhao Zhen is not unaware of this problem. In the past, upright officials often put the issue of subordinate officials on the table, but there was no solution.
In the entire centralized feudal society, from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, this was basically a two-thousand-year-old problem.
It’s not that the ancients didn’t want to change, it’s just that there was really no way to change.
"Hanlong said that we can refer to the Western civil service system to distinguish between officials and officials, and also set up grades. They should be given corresponding salaries, and those with outstanding performance can become officials after passing the assessment."
Lu Yijian repeated what Zhao Jun said, but everyone had a look of helplessness on their faces.
Zhao Zhen even smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid this won't work."
"yes."
Cai Qi sighed: "The tens of thousands of officials in the Song Dynasty have already resulted in redundant officials and redundant expenses. If we give additional salaries to subordinate officials, the expenses will be heavy and the state treasury cannot afford it."
As Shen Kuo wrote in "Mengxi Bi Tan": "All the officials in the world have no permanent salary, and they can only make a living by accepting bribes."
If you provide such high wages to officials, redundant officials and excessive expenses will be a big problem. If you increase the wages to officials, how can the court persist?
"Hanlong is not ignorant of this truth. What he means is to wait until the problems of redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses are solved, then increase productivity, introduce silver from Japan, and then make further calculations after the court has money."
Lu Yijian added, and then said: "He believes that in the future, the imperial tax will be mainly based on commercial tax, and the agricultural tax can be appropriately reduced, and most of the annual agricultural tax revenue will be retained in the local area to be used for county government expenses. At that time, the national tax will be reduced Separate from local taxes to facilitate fund management.”
"Well, the eldest grandson is still thoughtful."
Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "He can still understand my difficulties."
"The second thing is that Hanlong inspected the trade in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and found that there are many Japanese businessmen in Hangzhou, Changzhou, Taizhou, Suzhou and other places. He suggested that we add more treaty ports in the surrounding areas and strengthen business ties with Japan."
Wang Zeng said: "The inward flow of Japanese silver is the general trend and the only way for the Song Dynasty to rise. If we develop through trade first, it will not attract the attention of the Liao Kingdom."
"Well, that's not a problem."
Zhao Zhen thought for a while and said: "How about I send letters of credence to Japan in the name of the country, hoping to speed up trade between the two sides?"
"But it's inappropriate."
Song Shou said: "Japan surrendered to the Liao Kingdom. If the Song Dynasty issued a letter of credence, the Liao Kingdom would be alert, and it would be bad to cause the Liao Kingdom to intervene."
"Yes, it is better to strengthen private business contacts and continue to inquire about the situation in the Iwami area of Japan to make preparations."
Sheng Du also said.
"Oh well."
Zhao Zhen nodded.
"The third thing."
Seeing that the first two matters were discussed at the same level, Lu Yijian said with a slight hesitation: "This matter is still of great importance."
"What's the matter?"
"It was Hanlong who had found out the truth about the corruption in Huainan disaster relief."
"oh?"
Zhao Zhen frowned and said, "Who are they?"
Lu Yijian explained the situation.
When there was a drought in Huainan, the imperial court sent millions of dendrobium grains and rice from Changpingcang and the state treasury to alleviate the crisis of the victims.
To be honest, these rice can only save the victims for a while, but cannot save them for the rest of their lives.
But these things are only for emergency use. The right way is to first fill the stomachs of the victims, then slowly build water conservancy projects, dig channels, and find ways to ensure food production in the next quarter.
But Yang Chongxun, Huang Wei, Guo Chengyou, Sun Miao and others are quite greedy, not good people in the local area, and they all happen to be near Huainan West Road, so they have similar odors.
After the disaster-relief food arrived, these people saw so much food that they thought they would just grab a few hundred as usual.
However, Yang Chongxun was not satisfied, so under his instigation, everyone made a big profit and also dragged many officials into the water. There were more than ten officials from the sixth grade and above in Huainan West Road Transfer Envoy and Shipping Envoy Yamen alone. in.
The result was that after the emergency food for the victims was resold by them, many people starved to death in the remaining five counties, except for Anfeng County, which concealed and lied about the situation and the situation was slightly better.
Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in this disaster, and hundreds of thousands were displaced. For example, Fang Caixia, whom Zhao Jun met in Bozhou, was from Shouzhou. Due to the drought at that time, she was forced to flee Shouzhou with her family and went north to Yingtianfu to seek life. .
The culprit of all this is a large group of corrupt officials headed by Yang Chongxun, Huang Wei, Guo Chengyou, and Sun Miao.
Zhao Jun was furious. He arrested more than ten officials involved in the case in Huainan, and more than twenty others were transferred and scattered across the country. Therefore, Zhao Jun wrote a letter asking the court to arrest them and deal with them.
Hearing this situation, Zhao Zhen suddenly fell into his old habit. He hesitated and asked, "What does Da Sun mean? How should we deal with these people?"
In fact, don't think about it, basically kill them. After all, they have harmed hundreds of thousands of people in Huainan.
really.
Lu Yijian smiled bitterly and said: "Of course it's beheading and ransacking the house."
"Kill them all?"
"Kill them all."
"hiss"
Zhao Zhen took a deep breath and his expression began to change.
If Zhao Jun were here, he probably wouldn't be so hesitant.
But his character is inherently indecisive and womanly.
He still couldn't bear the thought of so many officials being killed again.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhao Zhen asked Lu Yijian and the others: "What do you mean, sir?"
Lu Yijian and the others stopped talking and all looked at their eyes, nose and heart.
It was Yan Shu who said, "Why do officials need to ask what we mean? They should ask Han Long what he means. If we say we can't kill him, and Han Long comes back and knocks on the door, we can't afford to offend him."
"Then let's do what Da Sun wants."
Zhao Zhen also smiled bitterly.
Yes.
Zhao Jun is a little bully now.
If he really didn't do what he wanted, he would probably return to Bianliang immediately if the news reached his ears, storm into the palace, grab him by the collar and ask him why he didn't kill those corrupt officials who were harming the people. .
(End of chapter)
