Chapter 601 0596 [The Prime Minister Defiles Himself]
A donkey cart stopped at the side door of Zhang's house, and a young man in his twenties went to submit a business card.
The doorman was quite alert, because there were too many people visiting the prime minister, and Zhang Gen had already issued a death order not to receive messy guests.
"It turned out to be the eighth son of the Fan family!"
The doorman saw the name card clearly and immediately became enthusiastic: "Come in and have tea."
This eighth son of the Fan family was named Fan Jun. When his grandfather Fan E died, he was a special Guanglu doctor, Shangzhuguo, and Changshe County Duke.
His father Fan Jun is still alive today. When the old Song Dynasty fell, he was already a Jinzi Guanglu doctor, Shangzhuguo, Shaobao, Zizhengdian University Scholar, and Changshe County Founding Man. (In history, he was promoted to Rongguo Duke by Zhao Gou and Kaifu Yitong Sansi.)
He also has nine brothers, seven of whom have passed the imperial examination.
His third brother Fan Wei married Zhang Gen's fifth daughter, the fifth sister of Crown Princess Zhang Jinping.
His fifth brother Fan Hao married Wu Dian's fourth daughter, and Wu Dian was Li Gang's teacher, and Li Gang was Zhang Gen's son-in-law.
These are just the tip of the iceberg of the marriage relationship.
Fan Jun waited in the living room for a while, and Zhang Gen's youngest son Zhang Hun hurried to greet him: "When did you come to Beijing? Why didn't you inform me in advance?"
"Today," Fan Jun stood up and bowed, "Greetings, brother."
The two talked about the past, and Zhang Hun asked: "With your talent, if you pass the imperial examination, you will definitely pass it, and I'm afraid you can even be among the top. Why don't you participate in the imperial examination of the new dynasty?"
Fan Jun said: "I haven't taken the exam for Juren, and according to the rules, I can't take the exam of the Ministry of Rites."
Zhang Hun said: "This year, Zhejiang has loose management, and many people who didn't take the exam for Juren also came to Tokyo to pass the exam."
Fan Jun said: "A gentleman is cautious. You can deceive the sky above and the earth below, but you can't deceive your heart."
"My brother is really a true gentleman." Zhang Hun sighed.
Among the ten brothers of the Fan family, Fan Jun is the most talented, but he is unwilling to take the imperial examination.
Fan Jun said: "I came to Beijing this time to study. I heard that there is a complete set of "Dao Yong Ce" in Tokyo, and there are many great scholars compiling classics."
"All these books are available at home, my dear brother, please go to the study." Zhang Hun said with a smile.
The two went to the study together. Fan Jun got the "Dao Yong Ce" and immediately opened the book to read.
Zhang Hun knew what kind of character this gentleman was, shook his head and smiled bitterly and left silently.
In history, Fan Jun pioneered the Zhejiang East School. Zhu Xi visited him twice to seek advice but failed, so he could only copy his works and go home to study by himself, and quoted the ideas in the book and wrote it into "Mencius Annotations".
Just when Fan Jun was reading seriously, Zhang Gen finally came back from get off work.
"Father, Fan Jiabalang is here and is reading in the study." Zhang Hun said.
Zhang Gen nodded and said, "He has been a bookworm since he was a child, so let him go. Don't disturb him before dinner."
Zhang Xun asked, "I heard that the number of cabinet ministers has increased to seven?"
"Ah!"
Zhang Gen sighed, "It doesn't matter how many cabinet ministers there are, but the voting system restricts the prime minister's power to block and refute. The emperor is angry this time."
Zhang Xun asked curiously, "When we were still in Sichuan, the situation was so difficult, and the emperor and his father were able to get along well with each other. Why did they go to Beijing to establish a new dynasty, but instead..."
Zhang Gen said, "The emperor and the prince are too radical in their actions. Take the establishment of the Great Ming Dynasty as an example. There are hundreds of benefits and no harm. I don't know why the emperor has to abolish it."
Zhang Gen really couldn't figure it out. He actively promoted the establishment of virtue in order to consolidate the Zhu family's rule.
Now he has angered the emperor because of this, making him a nobody inside and outside.
"Could it be..." Zhang Yun guessed, "Could it be that the government is suspicious of our Zhang family? Otherwise, Uncle Fan is so respected, how come he is not even a minister now?"
"Don't talk nonsense!" Zhang Gen scolded.
Uncle Fan here is Fan Jun's father Fan Jun, the Grand Secretary of the Zizheng Palace in the old Song Dynasty.
After Zhu Guoxiang ascended the throne, Fan Jun, as the son-in-law of Prime Minister Zhang Gen, was only appointed as the prefect. It was not until Li Bao conquered Fujian that Fan Jun was appointed as the Right Governor of Fujian.
Right Governor, the second in command.
At Fan Jun's current age, it is almost impossible for him to become a minister, let alone enter the cabinet as a prime minister.
This appointment seems very reasonable, and it seems to be guarding against Zhang Gen.
Zhang Gen was very vigilant and deliberately suppressed his son.
The eldest son Zhang Tao was a Tanhualang, and was originally appointed as the prefect by Zhu Ming, but Zhang Gen forced his son to be the county magistrate first on the grounds of insufficient qualifications.
The second son did not even get the county magistrate, and is currently collecting liquor taxes in the local area.
The third, fourth, and fifth sons were not officials and would not take the imperial examinations for the time being.
His sons could be deliberately suppressed, but Zhang Gen could not suppress his own relatives in law.
His father-in-law, Huang Fu, had been a prime minister before.
Huang Fu was unwilling to get involved in party disputes, but when he was a local official, he believed that the new law had just been implemented and should not be changed overnight, so he supported Wang Anshi's reform in the local area. Later, he found problems in the new law and petitioned to correct the market exchange law, but was suppressed by the reformists.
Back and forth, he offended both the old and new parties.
When the old party came to power, Huang Fu was suppressed again because he had a good personal relationship with the new party.
Huang Fu was highly valued in the early years of Huizong's reign, but soon died of illness, and his descendants were excluded by Wang Fu. In terms of talent and virtue, they should all be reused, and Zhang Gen had no reason to suppress his brothers-in-law.
And those sons-in-law, and the sons of the in-laws.
Fan Yun's ten sons alone have already produced seven Jinshi, and one or two more may continue to pass the exams in the future.
A lot of my father-in-law's relatives are officials.
A lot of my children's relatives are officials too.
These people also have their own students, old officials, relatives and friends.
In addition to the officials promoted by Zhang Gen, Zhang Gen has unknowingly built a huge civil service faction in the court and the local areas.
Although it is only invisible, and they may not even listen to Zhang Gen, it is enough to make the emperor and the prince wary.
Cai Jing and Wang Fu, these powerful ministers, are not far away. Now Zhu Guoxiang has adjusted the cabinet again, and Zhang Gen can't help but feel worried.
After all, he has to face two founding monarchs!
…
A boat came from the south, and the boat was full of Fujian peasant army leaders who were recruited.
In addition to Fan Jizhong and Fan Ruwei, there are Liu Shiju, Liao Gongzhao, Yu Sheng, Zhang Wanquan, Zhang Yi, Ye Tie and others.
Last winter, half of Fujian was blown up!
Fujian is mountainous and the people are poor.
Farmers were originally exploited by temples and gentry, and Song Huizong was there to levy heavy taxes, forcing many self-cultivating farmers and small landlords to go bankrupt.
Li Bao killed and quickly detonated the gunpowder barrel.
Even the Zhejiang soldiers stationed in northern Fujian were defeated by the peasant uprising army.
Moreover, the uprising army in Fujian was more "brutal" than the Zhejiang uprising army. Not only did they kill officials and rebel, but they also attacked gentry and temples at the same time. To put it bluntly, they killed landlords and divided their land.
Li Bao led his troops northward. Due to their strong combat effectiveness, they only recovered one county town, and the uncle and nephew of the Fan family ran to the mountains to fight guerrilla warfare.
There were more than 200,000 such uprising armies, and there were more than ten groups of different sizes.
It was too troublesome to clear them all by force, so they could only recruit them, and those who were really disobedient could only be beaten.
"Brother Fan, I always feel uneasy." Ye Tie looked at the Tokyo city wall.
Fan Ruwei said: "Since we are here, can they still kill us all?"
Liao Gongzhao said: "If they want to kill us, we will die in Fujian, and they will not recruit us to the capital."
Liu Shiju said: "It is more dangerous to stay in Fujian. How many gentry have you and I killed? Those remnants will definitely take revenge."
"That's right." Fan Ruwei nodded.
Fan Jizhong had some expectations in his heart. As the biggest rebel leader in Fujian, he actually just wanted to live a stable life at first.
Unfortunately, his family's land was sold out, so he had to switch to selling private salt.
Song Huizong re-ascended the throne in Hangzhou and stepped up the exploitation of the southeast, while also rectifying various ills. For example, the crackdown on private salt was very strict, and the smuggling business became more and more difficult.
His nephew Fan Ruwei repeatedly instigated rebellion, and Fan Jizhong was always hesitant.
So, Fan Ruwei instructed his men to murder officials, forcing Fan Jizhong to rebel.
Even at this time, Fan Jizhong still wanted to be amnestyed, so he strictly restrained the behavior of the rebels. But as the number of the rebels increased, the situation quickly got out of control. The soldiers killed the gentry when they saw them, and demolished the temples when they saw them.
Fan Jizhong and Fan Ruwei, uncle and nephew, did not dare to go against the collective will of the rebels, so they simply followed the trend and shouted the slogan of equal distribution of land.
They were very scared, and Li Bao used both suppression and appeasement, and it took half a year before they were completely amnestyed.
Fan Jizhong used to be a small landlord. He didn't have much ambition and was satisfied with being a county chief.
Ye Tie, however, was full of ambition. He was the most powerful general of the Fujian peasant army. He was also a bankrupt small landlord and private salt dealer. He wanted to be a general and show his ambition with his martial arts!
These people were taken to the north of Tokyo and placed next to the military camp.
Upon learning that they had arrived in Beijing, officials from Fujian in Beijing and Fujian Jinshi who were observing politics all submitted petitions requesting severe punishment for the murderers.
They had killed too many gentry. Even if they had been pardoned, they could not be easily forgiven, let alone given an official position casually.
Facing the surging public sentiment, Zhang Gen suddenly submitted a petition.
Zhu Guoxiang carefully read Zhang Gen's petition and said with a playful smile: "My relative is actually playing the trick of self-desecration."
Zhang Gen's petition was written very uprightly. The new dynasty was just established and surrounded by enemies. It was not allowed to kill the thieves who were recruited without permission, nor could it be broken-hearted and damage the reputation of the court. Since these rebel leaders have accepted the amnesty, they should be properly arranged.
This memorial offended most of the officials and scholars from Fujian!
Even officials from Jiangxi and Zhejiang were secretly dissatisfied with Zhang Gen.
Especially officials in northern Fujian, many of their clansmen were killed, and they also hated Zhang Gen.
After returning home exhausted, Zhang Xun said impatiently: "Why did father intercede for those bandits?"
Zhang Gen glared at his son: "Since you have been amnestyed, how can you go back on your word? The way to govern a country is to be upright. You can go back to your hometown to prepare for the exam. If you fail to pass the exam in three years, I will see how I will deal with you then!"
Zhang Xun asked: "Didn't father not let the child take the imperial examination? How come he can take the exam suddenly?"
"This is a different time, and you will know it in the future." Zhang Gen was too lazy to explain so much.