The severe drought from the sixth year of Xining to the beginning of the seventh year of Xining was indeed a great test for the Song Dynasty.
This drought covers a wide area and is rare.
In an area as large as the Fortress in the north, the sea in the east, the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers in the south, and Sichuan and Shu in the west, there is almost no rain or snow. The wells, springs and streams have all dried up, and there is almost no harvest of winter and spring wheat. The people are all disappointed.
From the empress dowagers of the two palaces to lowly officials like Sima Guang, Han Wei, and Zheng Xia, they all opposed the new law.
The officials were shaken, so they had a sense of distrust in the new law, but at the same time they could not let go of the benefits brought by the new law. At the same time, the Great Victory in the Northwest and the Seven States and One Army captured by Hehuang, although consuming millions of dollars in financial support every year, did indeed expand the territory.
Forget Wang Anshi, it is not to repeal the new law, but to delay the new law.
Han Jiang saw this clearly, why he could regain his appearance.
Wang Anshi's recommendation is one of them, and letting him continue to implement the new law is what the officials really mean.
The officials still trusted him, otherwise they would not have given him the post of Zhao Wenxiang (historically the Prime Minister). This meant that even if Wang Anshi returned to the prime minister one day, he would still be under Han Jiang.
A scholar dies for his confidant, and it is enough to have the Emperor's will.
Han Jiang decided to accept the imperial edict after discussing it with the curtain man and his nephew.
Han Jiang came forward to talk to Liu Youfang of the Royal Pharmacy School who came to deliver the decree. He said that he was willing to succeed Wang Anshi as prime minister. At the same time, he expressed his willingness to go to Beijing to meet with Wang Anshi first to ask him how to continue his reform?
Han Jiang meant to follow Wang Anshi's lead.
When Liu Youfang heard Han Jiang's words, he thought to himself that he was indeed a man who had experienced decades of officialdom. Han Jiang is known as the "Sramana who spreads the Dharma", which can be said to be on the left and right of Lu Huiqing's "good god who protects the Dharma".
Liu Youfang said he would tell the emperor and left.
Then everyone on the left and right congratulated Han Jiang.
At this time, a guest said: "If Han Gong wants to achieve success in the capital this time, he must rely on Lu Jifu. If so, he cannot be too close to Privy Council Wu and Zhang Duzhi."
Han Jiang slightly thought, what does this confidant's words mean?
Han Jiang came to Beijing this time to serve as Zhao Wenxiang, so he had two choices before him.
One is that he previously expressed to Liu Shouyou that he would go to Beijing to convey to the emperor that he would inherit Wang Anshi's mantle and continue to carry out reforms unswervingly.
Since he has inherited Wang Anshi's mantle, he must use his original reform methods. It is very necessary to make good friends with Lu Huiqing in this way. Because Lu Huiqing was the number two figure in the reform, he represented the entire base that supported Wang Anshi's reform.
Following this path is the true 'Dharma-transmitting ascetic'.
The second option is to stick to your original political views.
Make appropriate amendments to the new law to ease the opposition between the old and new parties in the court and the conflicts between the government and the people caused by the reform.
Of course, there is also the complete abandonment of reforms, which are not considered.
Another guest said: "How can Mr. Wang sincerely recommend Han Gong? If he really entrusted the new law, he would not recommend Lu Jifu to serve as counselor."
"Xiangong Wang recommended Mr. Han because Lu Jifu's prestige is currently insufficient. In two or three years, this person will make it possible for Mr. Han to become the prime minister, or even Mr. Wang himself will return to the court to become prime minister."
Everyone nodded.
Another person said: "What kind of person is this Lu Jifu? Everyone knows that this person cannot be trusted."
The original official who supported Lu Huiqing said: "Now in the two systems, Zhang Dun knows the imperial edicts and is also the direct academic academy, Deng Runfu knows the imperial edicts, and there are Deng Wan, Zhang Hong, and Shu Yu who are the admonishers and control the way of speech. , and there are many county guards in the world, and the guards were all promoted by Mr. Wang over the years."
"This time the emperor issued an edict asking for advice. Look at the county governors in the world. Do more of them support the reform? Or are there more opponents of the reform? Except for Sima Bachelor and Teng Zhizhou, there are hundreds of memorials to persuade Wang Xianggong to stay in this month. There are so many seals.”
After a few words from this person, the other guests were speechless for a while. The Han family is after the prime minister, and there are eight brothers and eight Jinshi. In terms of political background, apart from the Lu family, no other family can match the political power.
But……
One person said: "Zhang Duzhi is also trusted by the emperor, has great achievements in Xihe, and has many people under his command. If he wants to support Han Gong, he may not lose to Lu."
Han Jiang thought a lot. He thought that when he was sentenced to Daming Mansion, Su Shi once gave him a poem.
The poem says that success and fame are endless, numbers and crises come together, the countryside is not decided early, and the destination will be at peace in the end.
Su Shi's intention was to let Han Jiang go home and farm as soon as possible and not to get involved in the reform, otherwise he would be in trouble later in the year.
Han Jiang said to his left and right: "I didn't come to the court to fight for power. If Lu Jifu can really govern the world, it won't matter if I give him the position of prime minister."
"But how can I, my confidant and my brother, carry it away? Even if we are not safe in the later years, as officials, we are concerned about our posthumous affairs, not the rest of our lives."
…
At this moment, Zhang Yue, who was in Xihe, had received the order to enter Beijing.
The soldiers and horses on Xihe Road are temporarily commanded by Li Xian.
At the same time, the news that Zheng Xia resigned as minister, Wang Anshi resigned as prime minister, and Wen Yanbo resigned as privy envoy had reached Xihe.
At this moment, all the staff were looking to Zhang Yue, asking him to quickly enter the capital to fight for power.
You must know that after Wang Anshi resigned as Prime Minister and Wen Yanbo resigned as Privy Councilor, both the Central Secretary and the Privy Council will be vacant. When there is a drastic change in personnel affairs, your people must be in the capital immediately, where the emperor can see you.
If you enter Beijing too late, everyone will have divided it up, and you won’t be able to eat anything if you enter Beijing again.
However, Zhang Yue had a lot of time to take care of himself and settled matters in Xihe. After seeing the Yellow-headed Uighur and other envoys, he decided to leave for Beijing.
Everyone else was very anxious for Zhang Yue, but the other party was not in a hurry, and he didn't even mean to compress the timetable.
At this time, news came that Han Jiang had replaced Wang Anshi as prime minister, Wu Chong had replaced Wen Yanbo as privy envoy, and Lu Huiqing paid homage to political affairs.
The emperor also specially issued an imperial edict, Han Jiang ranked first in the book, and Lu Huiqing ranked second.
In other words, Lu Huiqing, who had only been a Hanlin scholar for two months, surpassed Feng Jing and Wang Gui in one fell swoop, and suddenly became the second-ranked prime minister in Zhongshu Province.
Feng Jing can forget it.
Poor Wang Gui, who is the same age as Wang Anshi, still has to suffer this humiliation at an advanced age.
When Lu Huiqing paid homage to the prime minister, rumors were flying all over the sky.
For example, on the day of Xuanma, there was a strong wind and haze in Beijing, and the loess fell an inch thick.
There is also a widely circulated story that Fu Bi and Shao Yong had a conversation while living in Luoyang.
One day Fu Bi looked sad. Shao Yong saw him and asked. Fu Bi said, sir, do you know what worries me?
Shao Yong said, if Wang Anshi retires as prime minister and Lu Huiqing joins politics, are you worried that Lu Huiqing will be more violent than Wang Anshi?
Fu Bi sighed, yes, that's it.
When Su Zhe saw that lowly people like Lu Huiqing had become prime ministers, one day he couldn't help but came to see Zhang Yue and asked, "Commander, Lu Huiqing has been appointed as counselor. When do you want to leave for Beijing?"
Zhang Yue couldn't help but laugh when he saw Su Che being so anxious.
"Ziyou, do you want me to argue with Lu Jifu?"
Su Zhe was stunned.
Zhang Yue thought to himself, there must be a lot of people in the world who think like Su Zhe.
