I served as an admonisher in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 310 Su Liang’s mouth is like a gun, I will crush this iron rice bowl!

The sixteenth day of the first lunar month.

At the fourth watch, the forbidden door of the palace opened.

night sky.

The full moon is hanging in the west, there are many stars, but the sky is still dark.

Zhao Zhen sat on the chariot and headed towards the Reform Office with a group of internal servants.

Yesterday, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang argued and fought. Wang Yaochen and Su Liang broke up the fight. Then the four of them stayed in the Reform Department all night, and Zhao Zhen knew everything about it.

If you can't even see the minister working so hard, then he has become an official in vain.

After a while, the Reform Department.

Zhao Zhen strode into the courtyard, and the reform officials on night duty quickly bowed their hands and saluted.

Zhao Zhen waved his hand, indicating not to make any noise, and then walked towards the meeting hall.

Inside the meeting hall.

Wang Yaochen, the Third Chief of Staff, was lying on two mahogany chairs put together, covered with a quilt, sleeping soundly.

Wang Anshi and Sima Guang were crowded on a couch not far away, with their heads leaning against each other and sleeping together under the quilt.

There are still some bruises on his face.

Su Liang was lying on the long table, sleeping on his back, with ink stains on his sleeves.

Zhao Zhen could tell how tired the three of them were last night from their sleeping postures.

It was as if he didn't even have the strength to lift his feet and go home.

Zhao Zhen wanted to leave first, and then reward the four of them generously after they woke up.

However, at this moment.

Wang Yaochen opened his eyes in a daze, and suddenly saw the official family in front of him. He couldn't help being startled, and then sat up suddenly.

"The official family..."

The moment Wang Yaochen shouted, he accidentally kicked a chair nearby.

"Oh!"

The chair fell to the ground and made a noise.

This sound.

Wang Anshi, Sima Guang and Su Liang all woke up.

The three people stood up in a daze, and when they saw the official family here, they couldn't help but become energetic.

Wang Yaochen shouted: "Jingming, where is the memorial? Bring the memorial you wrote last night and let the officials take a look!"

Su Liang rubbed his eyes and got down from the table.

He picked up the "Tea Introduction Method" which was completed about two-quarters of an hour ago and presented it to Zhao Zhen.

"Officials, this is the new plan we came up with last night, please take a look at it!" Su Liang said.

Zhao Zhen took the memorial and did not read it immediately.

He looked at the four sleepy-looking people and said, "How can you sleep comfortably here? You all should go home and sleep. I will give you a day off. We will discuss this policy tomorrow."

"Guardian, we have nothing to do. We can come to court in the afternoon!" Wang Anshi said with his chest raised. He always slept less and was full of energy.

"Wang Jiefu, are you going to resist the decree?" Zhao Zhen couldn't help but laugh after saying this.

Immediately.

Zhao Zhen and Su Liang walked out of the meeting hall together.

It's still dark outside and a bit cold.

At this time, Zhao Zhen said: "Come, let me hold the candle and send you to the hospital. Then, each person will be given twelve candles, and the servant will take you back to the house!"

After saying that, Zhao Zhen took the golden lotus candle from the hand of the chamberlain and led the way for the four of them.

The four of them were flattered and quickly thanked them.

In the Song Dynasty, there was a system of giving candles.

It is a special way for emperors to express their favor and reliance on officials.

Among the officials in office at that time, only Fan Zhongyan enjoyed the treatment of "giving a candle and returning home".

This is a very high courtesy, which cannot be obtained except by important ministers and favored ministers.

Not to mention, this time Zhao Zhen will personally hold the golden lotus candle to lead the way for the four of them.

The four of them were particularly excited.

With such a generous official, how could he not work hard for the court?

Immediately, Zhao Zhen held the golden lotus candle and sent the four people outside the Reform Office. Then the four chamberlains took the imperial candle and sent the four people home.

This scene naturally fell in the eyes of the reform officials.

An hour later.

Just when Su Liang and the other two were sleeping soundly at home.

Newly appointed officials from various yamen heard one after another that "the officials personally sent the four Su Liangs out of the Reform Department with golden lotus candles, and then ordered the servants to give them candles and return to the hospital."

All the officials were envious.

This kind of holy grace is enough to bring glory to the family for three generations.

of course.

There are also jealous people who claim that the four people are just seeking fame and reputation and deliberately doing things in the Yamen on the first day of the Yuan Dynasty.

……

At this moment, inside the Chui Gong Hall.

Zhao Zhen is carefully reading "Tea Introduction" co-written by Su Liang and four others.

“Abolish the system of cross-border quotations, use tea quotations as evidence, allow tea merchants to trade directly with tea farmers, reduce tea officials, eliminate tea clerks, manage business through business, reduce the burden on the court, eliminate local private interests, and increase tea profits... "

After Zhao Zhen saw it, he frowned slightly.

He could see at a glance that the focus of this method was not on commerce, but on rectifying the administration of officials.

The fundamental problem of the selling system is the problem of official administration.

The benefits of this method are obvious.

Not only could the court increase tea profits, but it could also save a lot of money on transportation, management, official salaries, etc.

However, for the reduced tea officials, other arrangements can be made for them to be dispatched, but for the officials, Su Liang and the other four unanimously agreed: they should be laid off completely and not be resettled.

This made Zhao Zhen hesitate.

There were many officials in the Song Dynasty, nearly 20,000 at present.

And there are more subordinate officials.

Most of the staff are selected by officials and can be divided into Beijing officials and local officials.

Among them, most of the officials in Beijing have salaries.

Most of the local subordinate officials have no salary, so the local government will entrust them with various tea services, wine services, salt services, etc., and they earn a certain fee from them.

For the lower-level states and counties in the Song Dynasty, officials were very important.

Officials change places every three to five years, but most of the officials stay in one place for life.

They know how to deal with the people better than the officials, and sometimes they can even bully the officials. Once upon a time, the Song Dynasty also laid off a number of officials.

But the officials who were responsible for the affairs were not touched because they were very important.

Now, the strategy of Su Liang and the four others, to use business to govern business and return trade power to the market, seems to destroy the iron rice bowl of these tea clerks.

Zhao Zhen was very troubled. He was worried that there would be a riot among officials.

He raised his head and looked at Su Liang's official uniform and official hat, which were placed on the clothes rail not far away.

Whenever he hesitated, he would look at this object.

After thinking for a while, he said to the eunuch on the side: "In the afternoon, we will summon the ministers of the two houses to discuss matters."

……

afternoon.

Eight people, Wen Yanbo, Xia Song, Zhang Fangping, Fan Zhongyan, Wu Yu, Song Xiang, Fu Bi and Zeng Gongliang, came to Chui Gong Hall.

Eight people carefully read "Tea Introduction" written by Su Liang and four others.

"My lords, what do you think?" Zhao Zhen asked.

Zhang Fangping was the first to speak: "At present, the tea quotation method is indeed full of disadvantages and should be reformed. I think this tea quotation method is feasible, but... I just laid off all the tea clerks without explaining how to arrange them. Is it a bit reckless or something else? Does it have a profound meaning?"

Immediately, Fan Zhongyan stood up and said: "The cross-citation law has caused unscrupulous businessmen to inflate their estimates and collude with lower-level subordinates, which has caused great harm. The money-seeking law of the year was a way to rectify this law, but it caused too many harms. The interests of merchants made the court's expenses too high, so it had no choice but to abolish it. The key to this method is to clarify the harm caused by subordinate officials, which is beneficial to both merchants and tea farmers, and it is considered a good policy."

"The key to whether this policy can be effective lies in the abolition of subordinate officials. I believe that one-size-fits-all approach should not be adopted for subordinate officials, otherwise it will easily cause subordinate officials to resist and even gather people to mutiny!" Fu Bi added.

……

Finally, Xia Song stood up slowly and said: "I think this method can be tried. But the premise is to arrange the whereabouts of subordinate officials, instead of eliminating them and ignoring them. Although they are not officials, they are not wrong. And the decision is actually not the guideline of my dynasty!"

"How to arrange them?" Zhao Zhen asked.

Xia Song thought for a while and replied: "Each local government needs a lot of subordinate staff, just assign them to other government affairs, so as to avoid future troubles."

After Xia Song finished speaking, Wen Yanbo stood up.

"For officials, I believe that in addition to increasing tea profits for the court, the biggest benefit of this method is to eliminate evil officials and clarify the order of tea affairs. If these officials are allowed to take charge of other tasks, the problem of too many officials will still exist."

Xia Song turned his face.

"Then according to what Wen Xiang said, there are tens of thousands of subordinate officials in the world, and they must be abolished to restore good order in trade? Wouldn't this force these people to rebel?"

At this time, Song Xiang stood up.

"In the official family, local subordinates are greedy because they have no salaries. It is better to streamline the subordinates and then provide salaries for subordinates to support integrity with their salaries!"

Hearing this, Fan Zhongyan shook his head.

"No, absolutely not. The high salary the court cannot afford, and the low salary is not enough to satisfy the subordinate officials. There are more than 100,000 subordinate officials in the world. Even if they are reduced by half, the court cannot afford to support them."

……

The ministers began to argue.

Zhao Zhen frowned slightly.

The differences among people are so great just because of the reduction of tea service staff. If redundant officials are reduced in the future, the contradictions may become even greater.

The ministers discussed the matter for more than an hour, but they did not come up with a satisfactory result to Zhao Zhen.

In the end, Zhao Zhen decided to discuss it again tomorrow to see what Su Liang and the others would say.

……

The next day, early in the morning.

The father-in-law of the two governments and three departments, and all the officials of the Reform Department came to Chui Gong Hall.

The content of yesterday’s public discussion.

Wang Yaochen, Liang Shi, Su Liang, Wang Anshi, and Sima Guang also basically knew it.

Zhao Zhen was the first to speak: "Today's discussion is about how to arrange the tea clerks after the implementation of the Tea Introduction Law. Su Qing, please stand up and tell me why you insist on laying off all tea clerks. Lose?"

Su Liang strode out and said, "Guan family, there are two reasons."

"First, after the implementation of the Tea Introduction Law, many tea service yamen will be abolished. Naturally, these officials will not be able to continue to operate tea services and will be left useless. Moreover, many local officials are already redundant. In order to provide local officials with The government officials reduced their burdens and improved their efficiency, so they were cut.”

"Second, kill the chicken to scare the monkey. This policy has no way of relocating the tea clerks after they are abolished, but it is deliberately done by the ministers. In recent years, the contradiction between the subordinate officials and the people has become more and more serious. Officials are all relatives of officials and members of powerful local clans. If ordinary businessmen want to do business well, they must take care of their subordinates. Some subordinates can even bully and threaten officials, and the evil is getting bigger and bigger!"

"I know that it is not realistic to punish all subordinate officials in the world at the moment, so I want to take advantage of the "Tea Yin Law" to attack these tea officials first, so as to frighten the corrupt officials in the world and correct the injustice of the current officials. The wind!"

Zhao Zhen nodded slightly.

Su Liang's starting point was not wrong.

At this time, Song Xiang stood up.

"Jingming, your idea is not wrong, but have you ever thought about it. There are at least 20,000 tea clerks. If they were to be abolished all of a sudden and they lost their livelihood, would there be riots and would it cause unrest at the bottom? ?”

Su Liang had already thought about this concern.

He replied: "The riots of tea servants are the worst consequences that the Tea Yin Law can cause. But if the Tea Yin Law is not implemented, not only will the court lose tea profits, but if things go on like this, the bottom class will be full of evil officials and profiteers. Once the atmosphere deteriorates, the roots of our Song Dynasty will be completely rotten, and I am afraid that the people will be the ones to rebel!"

"The 20,000 people seem to be a lot, but they are actually scattered everywhere. I believe that as long as the local government strictly controls the situation, the problem will be solved. If it cannot be solved, we will send troops to suppress it!"

"This is the result of those officials reaping the consequences. If they had not colluded with profiteers, how could they have caused the collapse of the cross-reference law? They should bear this problem! Moreover, the family conditions and income of subordinate officials are much higher than those of the people at the bottom. If The imperial court is taking a tough stance, so the possibility of them rebelling is not high!"

Su Liang's words were extremely tough, a change from his previous policy of being gentle towards the grassroots during the reform.

Hearing this, Xia Song was a little dissatisfied.

"Su Yushi, according to your words, isn't it still difficult to solve the sequelae left by the "Cha Yin Fa"?"

"Isn't it okay to assign those subordinate officials to other yamen? If you have to force them into desperation, you think you are punishing the subordinate officials, but you are forcing the bottom level to become more chaotic!"

Su Liang looked at Xia Song.

"Xia Shuxiang, the reform is not to turn a chicken's nest into a duck's nest, or a duck's nest to turn into a chicken's nest. We know clearly that there is a problem among subordinate subordinates at the bottom, and this problem will accumulate and become more serious. Why can't we scrape the bones to heal the wounds?"

Xia Song retorted: "You...you are making generalizations. Not all tea clerks are evil officials. Why should they all be fired? Aren't those who did nothing wrong wronged?"

Su Liang shook his head.

"Unjustly? How can we avoid being stained in a quagmire? It's just a matter of time. What we have to do now is to dig out the soil that breeds the greed of the local tea service staff, not the good or bad of a certain person!"

"In terms of good and bad, is it the interests of the people of the world that are more important, or the interests of a few subordinate officials? Doesn't Prime Minister Xia have no idea which is more important?"

"What we have to consider in the reform of the entire Song Dynasty is the overall gain and loss. If we do nothing because of flaws, it will be difficult to achieve anything!"

……

Immediately, Su Liang looked at Zhao Zhen, cupped his hands and said: "Guan family, I not only think that we should be tougher and decisive this time, but also in the future, we should resolutely destroy those officials who have nothing to do with their bodies, such as salt affairs, wine affairs, etc." Even officials can be dismissed directly if they have an iron rice bowl!"

"Reform is something that offends people. Today we are afraid of riots by the people, tomorrow we are afraid of opposition from officials, and the day after tomorrow we are afraid of strikes by wealthy businessmen. So why should we change the law? Why don't I go home and comfort my children!"

"This is just the beginning. Not only do I advocate the abolition of subordinate staff, but I will also advocate the abolition of officials in the future. Those useless officials cannot achieve anything. Can a rebellion be successful?"

……

Maybe I had a better rest yesterday.

Su Liang's mouth was like a firearm from a firearms camp, and every sentence contained huge energy.

Today, he insisted on smashing the iron rice bowls of the tea service staff.

At this moment, Zhao Zhen and the ministers all saw it.

Su Liangzhi not only wanted to lay off subordinate staff, but also intended to lay off officials. However, the time has not yet come, and I am afraid that when it does, there will be another bloody storm.

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(End of this chapter)