It is said that among the six poisonous insects that were able to escape after Hong Xin knocked over the Taoist boy and broke the pot, the largest one fled all the way to the mountains of Xianyou County, Xinghua Army.
This year, Youshi, the wife of Cai Zhun, the imperial minister, had not been pregnant for more than ten years, so she specially returned to her hometown to offer incense at the Zijin Temple in Chiling to pray for a child. On your way up the mountain, a long insect suddenly burst out from beside the sedan chair, causing the bearer to scream in surprise. The long insect was disturbed and got into the sedan chair and into Youshi's arms. When Youshi saw a long insect crawling into her arms, she was frightened to death on the spot. She woke up only after the maid called her. You asked the maid, "Have you seen a worm just got into my arms?" The maid shook her head and said, "I haven't seen it." You felt very suspicious and trembled all over, but she didn't see the worm in my arms. middle. After struggling for a long time, I went to Jinshan Temple to offer incense and pray for a son. After that, I went home. Later, You returned to Bianliang, Tokyo, and soon became pregnant. Ten months later, she gave birth to a fat boy.
The minister, Cai Zhun, was overjoyed when he got a son in his middle age. He named him Cai Jing, with the Chinese character Yuan long. Two years later, You gave birth to another son, named Cai Bian, with the courtesy name Yuandu. A few years later, You gave birth to several more daughters to Cai Zhun. Cai Zhun has two sons and a daughter. He is no longer motivated in his career and devotes all his energy to cultivating his two sons to become talents.
Cai Jing and Cai Bian inherited Cai Zhun's genes of high IQ. In the third year of Xining, they were both promoted to Jinshi. They were officials in the same dynasty. They were both members of Zhongshushe and were responsible for writing edicts. The court was proud of this. A few years later, Cai Bian was promoted to Minister Zuocheng, married Wang Anshi's daughter, and became Prime Minister Wang Anshi's son-in-law; Cai Jing changed the Longtuge service system and became aware of Kaifeng Mansion.
Cai Jing was profound in knowledge, full of economics, far-reaching ideas, and extraordinary insights; especially his calligraphy and painting, he was so skillful and self-contained that he could be called a great scholar, great calligrapher, and great statesman at that time.
If this Cai Jing is a man of noble character and devotes himself to the prosperity of the Song Dynasty based on his talents, the Song Dynasty will be blessed.
However, although Cai Jing was full of beautiful articles, good at calligraphy, and good at painting, and his talents were beyond words, he was helplessly a treacherous minister and sycophant.
During the Shenzong Dynasty, Cai Jing was appointed to Kaifeng Mansion by Longtuge, and encountered the then Prime Minister Wang Anshi vigorously promoting reforms.
Wang Anshi's reform consisted of six contents, namely the equalization of transportation law, the young crop law, the farmland water conservancy law, the exemption law, the square field equalization tax law, and the protection of armor law.
These reforms were still advanced at the time and addressed the shortcomings of the time. If implemented conscientiously, they would be able to achieve the goal of strengthening the country and enriching the people.
However, because the new law enacted by Wang Anshi touched the interests of big bureaucrats and big landowners, it was collectively boycotted by big bureaucrats and big landowners.
Fortunately, Emperor Shenzong had strong support behind Wang Anshi. Although the new law was strongly resisted by conservative ministers headed by Sima Guang during its implementation, because Emperor Shenzong strongly praised and firmly supported Wang Anshi's new law, Wang Anshi's new law was able to be enacted. Reluctantly and one after another, it was implemented in the imperial court.
Wang Anshi was a strong-willed person, and he was also a person who risked his life and family to do things to make the Song Dynasty strong and prosperous. However, Wang Anshi was paranoid, irritable, self-willed, and arbitrary. He was rich in Congo but not flexible enough in terms of interpersonal communication. There are shortcomings, so it has been collectively besieged by the Conservatives.
Faced with the collective siege of the conservatives, Wang Anshi was determined, moved forward with determination, and implemented his new law without fear. Wang Anshi placed his hope of changing other people's understanding on the effectiveness of the new law, thinking that after the new law was promoted and effective, other people would understand and support it, and the country would become stronger because of it. Therefore, in the face of the obstruction of interest groups, Wang Anshi did not give in, did not pay attention to methods, and was a bit eager for quick success and quick success in operation, which was simple and crude.
The more this happened, the more resolutely the conservative ministers headed by Sima Guang and Su Shi opposed it, claiming that Wang Anshi would harm the country and the people. For this reason, Sima Guang wrote to Wang Anshi three times, listing the disadvantages of implementing the new law, and asking Wang Anshi to abandon the new law and restore the old system. Wang Anshi received Sima Guang's letter and refuted it point by point, criticizing Sima Guang and others for being conservative and unwilling to make progress, further demonstrating his determination to adhere to the reform.
Seeing that Wang Anshi was determined to go his own way and that Emperor Shenzong also strongly supported it, Sima Guang and other conservative conservative officials appealed to the two empress dowagers Cisheng and Xuanren to intervene in the reform. That year, there was a severe drought in the world, hungry people were displaced, and some people even cut off their wrists to escape Baojia. Many ministers also left the imperial center because of disagreements with Wang Anshi. The two empresses Cisheng and Xuanren were worried, so they cried to Emperor Shenzong: "The laws of our ancestors are immutable. Wang Anshi insists on going his own way, which is causing chaos in our Zhao family's world!"
Emperor Shenzong was hesitant about this.
Wang Anshi believed that we should not give up eating because of choking. Even in the era of Yao and Shun, natural disasters were unavoidable, so we just sent people to control them.
In order to change the current situation of poverty and weakness in the country, Emperor Shenzong chose to support Wang Anshi's reform.
The opposition of Sima Guang and other old ministers became more intense, and they were determined not to give up until Wang Anshi was dismissed as prime minister and the new law was not repealed.
Faced with the difficulties faced by the conservative ministers headed by Sima Guang and Su Shi, Wang Anshi was also very decisive. Those who supported him would do it, and those who did not support him would pack up and leave.
Therefore, a large number of conservatives were demoted to other places by Wang Anshi because of their opposition to the new law, away from the important places in the capital, thus reducing the resistance in the implementation of the new law.
Regarding Wang Anshi's new law, this was the case in the court, and local officials also violated it openly and covertly, making it impossible for the new law to be implemented smoothly.
Judging from the situation at the time, if Wang Anshi had been a little softer, the new law would have basically died.
At the critical moment when Wang Anshi's reform encountered strong resistance, Cai Jing, who was good at speculation, stepped forward to support Wang Anshi, thus promoting Wang Anshi's reform.
Cai Jingnai was born as a Jinshi, and he was supposed to have the nobility and integrity of an intellectual. However, since Cai Jing became an official, he has been born with a philistine spirit. He does not have the nobility and backbone of intellectuals, but has more speculation from philistines and bureaucrats.
Cai Jing is very good at judging the situation.
At the beginning, Wang Anshi, who was involved in political affairs, was highly trusted by Emperor Shenzong because of the political reform, and was soon promoted to the prime minister of the dynasty. Cai Jing saw that Wang Anshi was deeply favored by Emperor Shenzong and was a popular figure around the emperor. However, in the implementation of the new law, he was blocked by Sima Guang, Su Shi and other conservative ministers, and was unable to implement it for a while. Cai Jing felt that the time had come to speculate. Cai Jing thought, if in this situation, I step forward and strongly support Wang Anshi's reform, I will definitely be reused by Wang Anshi. Furthermore, I can also win the attention of Emperor Shenzong, who strongly supports the reform, and maybe I can be promoted in the future. Create opportunities!
Therefore, Cai Jing decided to step forward at the critical moment and strongly support Wang Anshi's reform.
One day at the court meeting, Emperor Shenzong summoned all ministers to discuss the implementation of the new law.
Sure enough, as soon as the implementation of the new law was mentioned, all the ministers in the hall began to argue over the implementation of the new law; especially the opposition, whose voices were loud and powerful, and everyone spoke in unison, all opposed to the reform.
When Emperor Shenzong was helpless and Wang Anshi was isolated and helpless, Cai Jing stepped forward.
At that time, in the ministerial train, Cai Jing of Kaifeng Prefecture proudly stood out and said loudly: "Long live my emperor! Cai Jing firmly supports the prime minister's new law! I am thinking of the prime minister, thinking of the country, foresight, forgetting to sleep and eat, and vigorously promote the new law. , it is truly a great blessing for our government! Why can’t such a good new law be implemented? How come it is so obstructed? In my opinion, it is all obstructed by those with existing interests. Based on this, I, Cai Jing, am willing to take the lead. Implement the new law. My emperor is above, and my minister Cai Jing is here to express his position. However, all reforms that cannot be implemented start from my Kaifeng Mansion. I don’t believe that such a good law can not be implemented?!"
Emperor Shenzong was frustrated that the new law was not supported by his ministers. Suddenly seeing Cai Jing expressing his attitude so clearly, he was in a good mood and was very happy.
Wang Anshi, who was isolated and helpless, felt as if he had been injected with a shot of cardiotonic, and he immediately became excited and praised Cai Jing for his general knowledge and Gu Daquan, who was actually a minister of the imperial court's rejuvenation.
When he returned to the mansion that day, it happened that Cai Bian took Wang Anshi's daughter back to her parents' home. Wang Anshi said to Cai Bian excitedly: "In my opinion, apart from my son Yuanze, the only people who can hold the position of prime minister after me are Brother Ru, you have grown up." This shows Wang Anshi's appreciation for Cai Jing.
At this point, Cai Jing became the vanguard of the reformists in the imperial court and a rising dazzling pearl in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty.
In the following period, under the leadership of Cai Jing, the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, Wang Anshi's new laws were implemented one after another.
Later, during the implementation of the new law, some problems arose. For example, some local officials took advantage of the opportunity of implementing the new law to amass money; another example is that in the process of implementing the Young Crops Law, borrowers who were willing to borrow money were forced to lend money to those who were unwilling to borrow money, and the loan targets were also extended to cities. citizens.
Just think about it, city streets are not cultivated land, how can we get green crops? City residents don’t cultivate land, so why do they need to lend money to it? Isn’t this a way to plunder people’s wealth?
In fact, Qingmiaofa's loan period is not long, but the interest rate is not low. The loan is repaid in the spring and autumn, with a capital of one thousand and an interest rate increase of three hundred. It is for this reason that some local officials saw the flaws in the new law and found ways to be greedy for money, so they expanded the Qingmiao Law's lending targets in order to make money from it.
Because of the shortcomings of the Young Crops Law and the fact that some unscrupulous officials have enriched their own pockets, the society has been filled with complaints and some unscrupulous officials have become fat and happy.
Sima Guang and Su Shi were both men of noble moral character, knowledgeable, and wise. How could they not see such a big problem? As a result, conservative ministers such as Sima Guang and Su Shi seized this opportunity during the implementation of the Qingmiao Law and besieged Wang Anshi, hoping to kill the new law.
Seeing that the opposition from both the government and the opposition was too strong and the people's resentment was too deep, Emperor Shenzong also hesitated. In the end, he had to temporarily stop the reform, dismissed Wang Anshi as prime minister, and sent him to a local post.
