New Year, new atmosphere, AD 1041, the first year of Qingli comes.
Historically, Song and Xia are still in a confrontation. Years of wars have made the Song Dynasty miserable, and the price of food in Bianliang has skyrocketed.
However, since the Kangding peace talks last year, the domestic situation has become regionally stable and food prices have normalized.
Zhao Jun has been very busy these days. First of all, as the Vice President of the Constitutional Yuan and the second-largest figure in the Song Dynasty, he has to attend various occasions.
For example, during morning meetings, year-end sacrifices, New Year banquets, etc., they also have to go to Kaifeng Mansion and various departments to make inspections and instructions, review their work last year, and investigate the current efficiency of officialdom.
Then Zhao Zhen chose a match for him. It was Cao Wei's young daughter named Cao Miaoxin, the cousin of Queen Cao.
It is worth mentioning that Queen Cao’s name is Cao Miaolian.
Cao Miaoxin was born to Cao Wei in his later years. He was born in the first year of Tiansheng, that is, 1023 AD. He is seventeen years old this year and will probably turn eighteen in a few months. He barely meets Zhao Jun's requirements.
no way.
Zhao Jun inherited the fine tradition of the old Zhao family - he likes beautiful women.
Secondly, he really cannot accept underage marriage. It has something to do with his principles, and it also has something to do with his hope that his wife will grow up and give birth to healthy children.
However, in ancient times, when women were engaged and married at the age of fifteen, even eleven, twelve, or even seven or eight years old, it was very difficult to find a beautiful woman over the age of eighteen who was not a widow or a divorcee and who was a good match. You can imagine how big it is.
As for Cao Miaoxin, she was fond of swords, guns and sticks since she was a child because she was a general. It is said that she once had a sweetheart who beat out anyone who came to propose marriage. This is why she has not married anyone even at the age of seventeen.
After Zhao Zhen heard about it, he told Cao Cong. Cao Cong was naturally overjoyed and went to tell his niece, but Cao Miaoxin was not happy, saying that she had been waiting for her sweetheart and did not want to go on a blind date with Zhao Jun. As a result, the matter was delayed for several days, and it took a long time before we agreed to meet.
It happened that Zhao Jun had other things to deal with. Although Zhao Zhen mentioned to him that there was a suitable woman that he could go meet, but halfway through, he was delayed by other things and let the woman go. Pigeons are quite an unexpected thing.
In fact, we can't really blame Zhao Jun for this, because he happened to be caught by Bao Zheng that day. Bao Zheng returned to Bianliang in the fourth year of Jingyou's reign and was appointed by Zhao Jun as a promotion official in Kaifeng Prefecture. He was quite conscientious in his duties and did the job. Two years later, he was promoted to Dian Zhongcheng.
Although he was an eighth-grade censor, he did not humble his authority. He served for less than a year and impeached many of his colleagues, making people dislike him.
Originally, this situation would definitely be suppressed, but the big boss appreciated it. Last year, he was promoted to Supervisory Censor, and a year later, he was transferred to Tongzhi Kaifeng Mansion. His promotion was like a rocket, from the seventh rank to the fifth rank in four years.
On the way to a blind date, Zhao Jun's carriage accidentally slipped due to snow and the horse collided with the people. He was caught by Bao Zheng who was patrolling the streets at the time.
Bao Zheng didn't care that the big boss behind his appreciation was Zhao Jun himself. He directly reprimanded his immediate boss in the street and asked him to compensate the people for all losses.
This made people depressed and delayed the blind date, so Zhao Jun had no choice but to send someone to tell the Cao Mansion to make an appointment next time, and then went to Lao Fan's mansion to discuss this year's new policy reforms.
It was the sixth day of the first lunar month at the beginning of the new year. Except for the officials on duty, most of the officials were taking a nap.
Lao Fan has been very prosperous in recent times. He has just been promoted and has been promoted from deputy prime minister to prime minister. His prestige among the people has skyrocketed because of his two great victories. Now he is already in the hearts of the people of the Song Dynasty. idol.
Zhao Jun entered Fan's mansion and saw Old Fan drinking tea leisurely in the study. In previous years, Zhao Zhen would hold several more banquets, inviting civil and military officials to have banquets and poetry gatherings every day.
But this year it is snowing and a bit cold in Bianliang, and the Constitutional Yuan is a group of old men in their 60s and 70s. We are afraid of causing trouble by tossing them, so we only held one annual meeting, and the subsequent banquets were cancelled, and everyone rested at home. , quite comfortable.
Seeing Old Fan leisurely and leisurely, Zhao Jun walked over angrily and sat on the chair opposite him. He stepped on the edge of the charcoal pot with his feet and complained while warming himself by the fire: "You are quite comfortable."
"What? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"
Lao Fan was not sitting behind the desk in the study, but this guy actually made a wooden platform inside. There was a thick quilt on the wooden platform. He lay on it and covered his chest with the quilt, leaning on the wooden platform. Lie down and read a book while drinking tea.
He turned sideways, picked up the tea cup from the coffee table next to him and took a sip. Then he put the tea cup down, looked at Zhao Jun and said with a smile: "I heard that the official family has chosen a woman for you. She is from the Cao family. Didn't you take your fancy? ?”
"Didn't even look at it."
Zhao Jun took the hot tea handed over by the servant of Fan Mansion and said: "It's really unlucky. The carriage skidded and knocked over the people's stall. When I met Bao Zheng, he had to give me a lecture. It's not my fault. Besides, it’s not like I won’t compensate the people.”
"Isn't this great? The Kaifeng Prefecture's colleagues are selfless, the Constitutional Yuan's Zhiyuan doesn't show off, and accepts criticism humbly despite being in a high and powerful position. You are simply Qin Shihuang's cloning - a win-win situation."
Lao Fan joked with a smile.
Zhao Jun was shocked and said: "Where did you learn all this nonsense?"
"Yesterday, the official and we watched the popular science video you downloaded. There is also popular science about the strange and small African country. I learned from that."
Lao Fan said.
Zhao Jun rolled his eyes and said: "Don't read that rat stuff in the future. The updates are too slow. I waited for several months to save a few more episodes before I traveled through time. When I looked back, I only updated less than ten episodes. It only took a month. Two or three episodes.”
Fan Zhongyan scratched his head. How could he understand this? He straightened up, sat on the wooden slump, and changed the subject: "I have been studying the plan you gave me recently, and I think there are some problems."
"what is the problem?"
"Agricultural reform is still somewhat radical."
"What's radical?"
Zhao Jun asked.
Fan Zhongyan took the information given by Zhao Jun from the table next to him, opened a page and said: "To carry out national governance, we require local governments to investigate local landlords and bullies. Once there are those who do evil, people's lives are on their hands, oppressing the people, Anyone who runs rampant in the countryside and commits any evil will be executed, all property confiscated, converted into government land, and low-lying land rented out to landless people.”
"Is there a problem?"
Zhao Jun wondered: "I personally think it is necessary to do this, because the country's legal system must be maintained, and the interests of farmers must be safeguarded. Moreover, cracking down on gangs and evil for a long time will help the stability of the country."
"But you have to consider the actual situation. You were able to do this in your era because the social environment at that time was very different. In the Song Dynasty, even if the local government strictly enforced it, the personnel sent to enforce it were not the same as the landlords. Bullies have deep ties with local subordinates.”
Fan Zhongyan pointed out the crux of the problem: "According to later generations, the control power at the grassroots level is far from enough. A county official needs to rely on these subordinates to perform official duties, so it is only a matter of time before cover-up and concealment occur."
"Of course I've thought of this. Do you think I've been out here all these years in vain? Why don't you know the dangers of local subordinates?"
Zhao Jun smiled and said: "I have already studied such a top-down structure. If you want to dismantle local subordinates, you must start from three aspects."
"oh?"
Fan Zhongyan became interested and asked: "What three aspects?"
“The first is to give them a source of income, the second is to give them room for advancement, and the third is to give them supervision.”
Zhao Jun said: "These huge subordinate staff are not included in the salary system of the imperial court. Their income depends entirely on food and salary, and there is no room for advancement. They do the dirtiest, most tiring and hardest work, and there is no hope. Then naturally. You will be resigned to self-destruction, but with a guaranteed income and room for advancement, it’s different.”
"You mean the two-tax system and the assessment of subordinate officials?"
Fan Zhongyan thought of several other things Zhao Jun mentioned during the restructuring.
"good."
Zhao Jun nodded: "Taxation will be changed to national tax and local tax in the future. Local taxation will be retained as local expenses and the salary of subordinate officials. The outstanding ones among the subordinate officials can be recommended by the county magistrate to take the exam in the state capital. Those who pass the exam can come to Bianliang to continue the exam. , those who pass the exam can become officials."
Needless to say, there is no need to elaborate on the two-tax system of national tax and local tax. The assessment of subordinate officials is different from the civil service examination of later generations. It is a product based on the combination of the imperial examination system of the Han Dynasty and the imperial examination system of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
In the Han Dynasty, if a subordinate official performed well, he would be recommended by the state government to become an official. This form was called recruiting talents.
The imperial examination is to take the imperial examination.
However, at the end of the Han Dynasty, this situation of promoting outstanding talents was in vain. The promotion path of the imperial examination was often monopolized by wealthy nobles. At that time, there was a saying that "the promotion of filial piety and integrity means that the father lives away. The promotion of outstanding talents does not know how to read."
Therefore, Zhao Jun combined the two and asked local county magistrates to recommend outstanding subordinate officials to participate in the state examination, which was equivalent to the provincial examination in the imperial examination. If you pass the state examination, you can take the examination organized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. If you pass the examination, you can enjoy the treatment of Jinshi and become an official.
In this way, since local county magistrates have little energy to intervene in the examination levels of the state and capital joint examinations, passing the state examinations and joint examinations will eliminate the practice of local county magistrates recommending relatives and practicing favoritism, and to a large extent, they can select some candidates. The more outstanding subordinate officials come up.
certainly.
Since there are many people in the huge group of subordinate officials who are obviously very good, but their families are poor and cannot afford to study, their cultural level is not necessarily high. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the cultural difficulty and focus on hard work. Their knowledge is almost as good as that of a Song Dynasty scholar.
Compared to studying hard, Zhao Jun values the ability to work more.
"Well, thinking about it this way, since the qualifications for the promotion of subordinate officials are in the hands of the county magistrate, and they have local income, the possibility of colluding with landlords and bullies is indeed much smaller."
Fan Zhongyan felt that what Zhao Jun gave seemed quite similar.
"But it is only useful for a while. In this way, the county magistrate controls the promotion path of local subordinates, which will inevitably cause the county magistrate to have great influence on these people. If those landlord bullies turn around and collude with the local county magistrate, the harm will be even greater Big.”
Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "So senior officials generally have a five-year term and cannot be applied to lower-level officials in prefectures and counties. It is better to have a three-year term. Three years can generally achieve results, and it is not so deeply involved with the local area. Through local taxes With the assessment of subordinate officials, I hope most local county magistrates will seize the opportunity to eradicate local cancers."
"What about supervision? It is easy for county magistrates to be deceived by subordinate officials. How can they supervise subordinate officials?"
Fan Zhongyan asked again.
"Farmers' Association."
"Farmers' Association?"
"good."
Zhao Jun said: "Each county should organize a census of the specific population of each county, the distribution of townships, and use the distance between villages as the boundary to allow villagers to organize farmers' associations. Members of the farmers' association must be middle farmers, poor farmers, and farmers with only one household owning less than 20 acres of land. Composed of farm laborers.”
"What does it do?"
"Naturally, it helps local governments supervise local areas and indirectly achieves the role of supervision."
"You're talking nonsense. Let's not talk about whether the peasant association will listen to the orders of the local government. If the people form gangs, wouldn't it be more likely to lead to an uprising?"
Fan Zhongyan expressed his dissatisfaction.
There is a certain reason why ancient social power was not decentralized to the grassroots, but was managed by local gentry, landlords, and clans.
If the people are allowed to govern themselves, in times of natural disaster, so many people will gather together to unite, and it is easy to cause an uprising.
So this strategy is simply shooting yourself in the foot.
However, Zhao Jun also has reasons. He said: "This is the result of my on-the-spot investigation. I found that the enthusiasm of local people is still very high, but they are too constrained and their productivity cannot be improved."
"If a farmers' association is formed, it will be directly responsible to the local government. It can be regarded as the township government and has certain powers. If there are any problems in the township, the farmers' association should actively participate in management and report to the government, which will be very helpful for the government to deal with the problem. Grassroots control.”
"For example, fighting for water sources and village fighting can be coordinated through farmers' associations and the government. In addition, the government and farmers' associations jointly organize cooperatives, and the government purchases excess farm tools, livestock, granaries, etc. from farmers and uses them as public farm tools to release productivity."
"After the formation of the farmers' association, farmers help each other and help each other. This can also increase productivity and improve work efficiency. I personally think it is a way to achieve multiple goals with one stone. If you think there are any problems, then let's discuss it."
In fact, this method was not only what Zhao Jun himself thought could be done after inspecting the local farmers and people, but it was also the method used by our army in the base areas in later generations, and achieved very good results.
But if you apply the methods of later generations to ancient times, some may be more useful, but some may not be possible, and may even have the opposite effect.
Fan Zhongyan still shook his head and said: "Although you have conducted grassroots research, after all, you have not lived in ancient rural areas for a long time, and you take it too much for granted. Although you criticize gentry, landlords, and clan management as feudal dross, at least in this era, there are Its raison d’être.”
"Then tell me."
Zhao Jun did not refute, because as Fan Zhongyan said, he did research, but he did not live in ancient rural areas.
Fan Zhongyan explained the situation.
Very simple.
Ancient rural areas were actually a relatively closed society, with its own set of grassroots operating logic.
That is, the system of squires, clans and landowners.
Fan Zhongyan believes that if productivity does not reach a certain standard, if this logic is forcibly broken and the government tries to interfere in the grassroots system, the final result may be very dangerous.
For example, the peasant association does restrict certain tyrannical landlords, but if the government cannot achieve close cooperation with the peasant association, then the expansion of the autonomous rights of the peasant association will result in the peasant association replacing the original gentry, clan and landlord system.
After hearing Fan Zhongyan's analysis, Zhao Jun also felt that he had thought a little improperly.
It was difficult for ancient imperial societies to achieve this, so it was easy for peasant associations to get out of control.
Thinking of this, Zhao Jun said: "You are right, and it is true that I did not do a good job. However, reform is meant to be improved step by step. Let's discuss it first and finally come up with a summary charter."
"I think we should start with the administration of officials."
Fan Zhongyan reminded: "Public administration is fundamental. We must first rectify the officialdom and subordinate staff across the country before we can issue subsequent government orders."
"Um."
Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Okay, let's discuss the official management first during this period. I don't need to say more about how to pass the exam."
"Don't worry, I have already perfected all the assessment systems and rules and standards."
"That's ok. I'll help you improve the official structure in advance and divide the officials' powers well, just to make it legal. By doing this, you can manage the subordinate officials well, and the officials and officials will be able to manage well."
"The only thing I'm worried about now is the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty."
Fan Zhongyan said sadly: "I really don't know what you think, redundant officials, redundant officials, you put all those idle officials on duty, and now you have to eliminate them through the examination method. Isn't that an even greater resistance?"
"Originally, the establishment of so many new departments requires so many officials. Otherwise, how can the work of the new department be carried out?"
Zhao Jun shrugged and said: "Don't have any psychological burden, just go for it boldly. I, the official family, and the entire Constitutional Yuan are all your strong backers. Make good use of the prestige you have accumulated this time and achieve success in one fell swoop." You will be a famous official through the ages!"
"I'm afraid I'll get a lot of scolding for this hard work."
Fan Zhongyan rolled his eyes.
The first step of the Qingli New Deal is naturally to improve the administration of officials. Otherwise, if we continue to promote other policies, will we use this dark and decadent environment of official administration as the first to promote them?
Which official system was the best in ancient society?
That was naturally Zhang Juzheng's reform.
After passing the test, the last one was eliminated, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty were involved until they died.
And it works wonders.
For example, combating corruption, eliminating bureaucracy, reforming bad habits and leaks in officialdom, etc.
According to statistics, during the ten years that Zhang Juzheng was in power, a large number of incompetent and unclean "big tigers" and "little flies" were discovered.
Officials who were dismissed due to the implementation of the examination law actually accounted for one-third of the total number of officials.
And because of the existence of the test method, "the established test limit is clear at a glance." It has completely broken the traditional prejudice based on seniority, boldly appointing talents regardless of origin and qualifications.
It can be said that the effect is remarkable.
The officialdom of the Song Dynasty today is probably no different from that of the Ming Dynasty.
After the emergence of the examination method, it is bound to give a fierce blow to the current lifeless and lifeless officialdom.
It not only gives KPI assessment to officials and eliminates a large number of incompetent and mediocre people, but also makes it possible to hide the corrupt officials who have not been discovered by Zhao Jun when he patrols the world.
The only problem may be that the officialdom hates Lao Fan.
Just like the Ming Dynasty officials hated Zhang Juzheng!
(End of chapter)
