Chapter 172 This Year's National Mission

Zhao Jun was handling government affairs at the Constitutional Yuan at this time.

The itinerary has been decided upon departure, and the first stop is to take a boat to Nanjing.

This Nanjing is not the Nanjing Jinling of later generations, but the Yingtian Mansion of Nanjing in the Song Dynasty, which is also the Shangqiu City of Henan in later generations.

Then take the land route to Bozhou on Huainan East Road.

Because it’s not too far from Bianliang, it probably only takes two or three days to get there.

When the time comes, I will wander around Huainan East Road and Huainan West Road and stay for two or three months to deal with matters in Huainan before going to Hangzhou.

Generally speaking, I will go to Huainan and Jiangdong first, and then I may go to Guangdong to inspect foreign trade. Finally, I will go from Guangzhou to Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan to inspect the agriculture and economy of the entire south.

Judging from the current situation, we cannot go to the north for the time being. There are few people in the border areas and there are many wars. His going there will only cause chaos. The south is the economic and agricultural center, so it is most suitable to go there.

When he learned that Bao Zheng was coming, Zhao Jun asked someone to take Bao Zheng to the Constitutional Yuan. After he asked someone to go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to get Bao Zheng's information, he went to the small conference room and waited while looking at the information.

Soon there was a knock on the door, and after saying "Please come in," the chamberlain opened the door and said, "Zhiyuan, Bao Zheng is here."

"Um."

Zhao Jun put the information in his hand aside and raised his head to look over.

Bao Zheng walked into the conference room.

He had traveled a long way, but still had a dazed look on his face. When he walked in and saw Zhao Jun, he was slightly surprised at first, and then he bowed his hands and said, "Bao Zheng has met the magistrate."

"sit."

Zhao Jun motioned for him to sit across from him, and then waited for Bao Zheng to sit down before starting to look at him.

There is no crescent moon on his forehead, and his face is indeed a little darker than ordinary people.

However, it is not that it is as black as coal as it was in history, but the skin color is slightly darker, and the overall skin color is still tending to be that of a yellow race person.

I think the folk are good at mythologizing people.

Because Bao Zheng was not afraid of the powerful in handling cases in Kaifeng Mansion and enforced the law impartially, people spread word of mouth because of his slightly darker skin, which later evolved into the image of black charcoal and crescent moon.

At least Zhao Jun now saw with his own eyes that the historical Bao Zheng was just an ordinary middle-aged man with slightly darker skin and a more serious and resolute face.

"Bao Zheng, when you were the magistrate of Jianchang County and the tax supervisor of Hezhou, you made outstanding achievements and outstanding talents. You are a rare talent for the imperial court."

Zhao Jun sighed, and then said: "It's a pity that you have only been in office for less than three years, and you have not been in office for more than seven years. You lack qualifications, which is a pity."

Bao Zheng said with a serious face: "Being filial to your parents is a matter of course. Bao Zheng does not regret that he spent less time in office. He just regrets that he did not spend enough time with his parents to fulfill his filial piety for a few more years."

"But your promotion will be affected. Remember, Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, and Wu Yu seem to be the same as you. They were all first-class Jinshis in the fifth year of Tiansheng."

Zhao Jun asked back: "Nowadays, all of these people are backbone officials. Han Qi is the right admonisher and is in charge of the admonishment platform. Wen Yanbo passed the judgment on Jiangzhou the year before last. At the end of last year, due to his outstanding political performance, he was already the supervisory censor. Wu Yu is also the head of the Audit Department, and they are all talented people. Don’t you regret it?”

"No regrets!"

Bao Zheng shook his head: "The tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop, and the son wants to be raised but cannot be loved. Compared with being an official, being filial to your parents is more important."

"good!"

Zhao Jun praised: "Filial piety comes first among all good deeds. This is the principle of human conduct. You can be so filial, which shows that you are of high moral character and worthy of the important responsibility I entrust to you."

The reason why Bao Zheng was still a junior official when he was nearly forty was not because he did not do well in exams or had poor political performance, but because he wanted to support his parents.

In fact, like Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, Wu Yu and others, he was a first-class Jinshi in the fifth year of Tiansheng.

But because his parents were old, he resigned and returned home after serving as a tax supervisor for less than a year to honor his parents. In the next few years, his parents died one after another, and he had to observe mourning for several years.

Repeatedly, it took a full eight years, and also made him lag far behind in terms of qualifications compared with Han Qi, Wenyanbo, Wu Yu and others who were on the same list.

Those people are currently around the fifth or sixth rank, equivalent to department-level cadres in later generations, and due to their seniority and political achievements, their future is bright.

In a few years, they will have the opportunity to enter the position of high-ranking officials in the five-pin red robe. For example, Han Qi became the deputy prime minister and participated in political affairs only five years later, Wu Yu also became the deputy prime minister seven years later, and Wen Yan Bo is ten years later.

It can be said that the reason why Bao Zheng never became a prime minister in history, and only served as a prime minister at the highest, was that in addition to being unselfish and offending many powerful colleagues, the lack of seniority in these eight years was also very important.

This is a rather regrettable place.

At least Zhao Jun felt that he needed someone with strong principles like Bao Zheng as his assistant, so that he would be able to handle many things much more easily in the future.

But this is also the charm of Bao Zheng.

Filial piety.

Upright.

just.

Principled.

Otherwise, he would not be Bao Zheng and Bao Qingtian, who will leave his name in history.

At this moment, Bao Zheng still maintained a resolute expression, and did not look happy because he had received the attention of the President of the Constitutional Yuan.

For him, the most important thing about being an official is to complete his duties, rather than to seek out tricks, please his superiors, and gain greater power.

I saw Zhao Jun pondering for a moment, and then said: "You can go to Kaifeng Mansion to serve as a judge first."

"yes."

Bao Zheng agreed.

The judge of Kaifeng Prefecture is a seventh-rank official, and his previous tax supervisor was from the eighth rank. This is obviously a promotion, and he was promoted to three levels in a row.

However, this is not considered a leapfrog promotion, because the normal promotion is to grant the redundant official positions such as being a supervisor and Dali judge after passing the Jinshi examination.

Then, when there are real vacancies in places, they will be sent out to serve as county magistrates or officials, or serve as lower-level officials of the eighth or ninth grade in various ministries.

If his political performance is good, he can be promoted to a local magistrate or magistrate, or he can be transferred back to the central government to work as a seventh- or eighth-grade lower-level official in the Third Division, Yushitai, Jiantai, or Jiusi Sixth Supervisor, or he can go to various libraries to compile history.

After two more years of accumulation, they will basically be able to become the backbone officials of the fifth and sixth grades like Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, and Wu Yu now.

Therefore, sending Bao Zheng to Kaifeng Mansion can be regarded as a promotion for outstanding political performance.

Regarding Bao Zheng's future career, Zhao Jun has already considered it. He will first go to Kaifeng Prefecture for training, then be sent to the state magistrate, and then transferred back to the central government to serve as the powerful magistrate of Kaifeng Prefecture.

As for whether it will be transferred to the police department as the highest law enforcement agency, or the Dali Temple as the highest law enforcement agency, or the trial court as the Supreme People's Procuratorate, we will see at that time.

After all, Bao Zheng is still the same Bao Zheng, but it cannot be said that because of the different life trajectories, his political achievements have also become different. We need to observe him in the future to see his political achievements and actions before we can make a decision.

"alright."

After Zhao Jun conferred the post on Bao Zheng, he encouraged him: "Nowadays, officials in various parts of the Song Dynasty are corrupt, and corrupt officials are rampant. Upright officials like you, Bao Zheng, are extremely rare. First, work hard in Kaifeng Mansion and make achievements. I Only then can I continue to promote you.”

"yes."

Bao Zheng stood up again and bowed his hands.

"Go ahead."

Zhao Jun waved his hand to signal him to leave.

Although Lao Bao is older, Zhao Junsheng knows how to make good use of people and can put talents in the right positions. There should be no problem with this arrangement.

The only pity is that he has wiped out all the cancer in Kaifeng Mansion, so Lao Bao probably doesn't have much room to show his strength.

However, the people will still litigate normally. Now that Fan Zhongyan has gone to the northwest, Lao Bao can enforce the law impartially in Kaifeng Mansion, so that the kind of officials who are fatuous and misjudge cases will not happen.

Let him be released to Zhizhou later.

After arranging Bao Zheng, Zhao Jun returned to the political room. Not much happened today. Except that Li Di came over from time to time to hang out, which made Lu Yijian feel sick, nothing else happened.

As a former prime minister, Li Di is well aware of the truth that whoever is closer to the center of power can control power, so he just hangs out in front of Zhao Jun when he has nothing to do.

Zhao Jun naturally understood what he meant, but it would not be good for him to be promoted soon after Li Di was transferred back to Bianliang, so he put it on hold until there was a vacancy in the Constitutional Yuan in the future, or Li Di had good political performance, and then transferred him to the Constitutional Yuan.

Compared to the group of veterans in the Constitutional Yuan, how can anyone personally promote people to work? After all, Li Di and Lu Yijian are on the same page. If Li Di doesn't cling to Zhao Jun's lap when he enters the Constitutional Yuan, without Zhao Jun's support, I believe Lu Yijian won't mind clearing him out again.

In the afternoon.

Zhao Jun went to the back garden, where Zhao Zhen was watching a movie.

Now Zhao Zhen is proficient in using a laptop, at least he can click the mouse, and he knows exactly which files are in which folders.

Zhao Jun hid things that should not be shown to him in the system solid-state disk, and frantically created hundreds of sub-folders, plus the hundreds that were already in the system disk, it can be said that there are layers of nesting dolls. Hidden, can't be found at all.

As for why you don't set a password for the folder, it's simple.

He will not.

However, Zhao Jun had already threatened Zhao Zhen, telling him not to touch the contents of the system disk, telling him that it was the system hard disk. Once it was touched, it would cause the system to crash and damage the laptop.

This obviously frightened Zhao Zhen, so much so that even if he keeps his computer next to him every day these days, he doesn't dare to touch it casually. He doesn't even dare to click on the software icons on the desktop. He only dares to follow the steps taught by Zhao Jun and open D The data folder of the disk, either look at the data or watch movies.

"Grandson is here."

Seeing Zhao Jun coming over, Zhao Zhen turned off the movie, and then asked, "I heard that Bao Zheng is back?"

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "He just arrived in Bianliang today."

"I'm curious about what this person in history who spits on me looks like."

Zhao Zhen said with a smile: "Is it true as you said, his face is as black as coal and there is a crescent moon on his forehead."

"My face is indeed a bit dark, but it's just a normal tan. It should be from a suntan."

Zhao Jun shrugged and said: "There is no crescent moon. It's a rumor among the people. There is no record of Bao Zheng's appearance in history."

"I would like to meet you next time."

"There will be a chance in the future."

"Where was Bao Zheng placed?"

Zhao Zhen asked again.

"Let's serve as a promotion officer in Kaifeng Mansion first."

Zhao Jun said: "His qualifications are too junior and it's really hard to mention him."

"Well, that's fine too."

Zhao Zhen replied.

As the two people talked, Lu Yijian and others also came over.

In addition to reporting on some state affairs today, this should also be Zhao Jun's last lecture.

Not forever, but probably this year.

Zhao Jun expected that he would have to go away for at least a year, so this time was not only a lecture, but also the last explanation before leaving.

Everyone sat down as usual.

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "Dasun, what are you going to talk about today?"

"There are many things to talk about in later generations, and there are many things to talk about in history. I have said a lot, and it's time for you to digest it."

Zhao Jun said: "Today I think it is better to talk about this year's plan. After all, the new year is coming, and every year should have goals to be achieved every year."

"oh?"

Lu Yijian asked: "What should we do this year?"

Zhao Jun thought: "This year's task is to extend the reform of the Political System Yuan to the entire Song Dynasty. According to what I have decided before, each road, state, and county will begin to decentralize power, and separate the public security, prosecution, and law. From now on, the governors of various regions will only have administrative power. At the same time, the Imperial City Division will also begin to expand.”

"Is it going to start this year?"

Lu Yijian was surprised.

He had asked before how to promote efficiency to the whole country. Zhao Jun said at the time that it was not the time yet, so why did he change it in the blink of an eye?

But Lu Yijian obviously didn't know that when Zhao Jun said it was not the right time, he did not mean restructuring, but reform.

At that time, Lu Yijian asked how to improve efficiency.

However, the current restructuring only divides the powers of local officials and clarifies their responsibilities, rather than improving their efficiency.

In essence, it is still the same as Bianliang. Due to the decentralization of officials, more departments have been added, resulting in more positions, and the original redundant officials can take up their posts.

But there is no direct connection between the appointment of officials and efficiency improvement. Without supervision and encouragement, officials will still be lazy regardless of their laziness.

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Starting this year, it must be completed before the middle of the year. New departments across the country must be established. I believe that except for the local governor, no other local officials will object."

"That's natural. If I were a training envoy of a certain regiment who was idle in a certain state, and it was just a redundant and fictitious position, but now I can become a real official, it would be too late to be happy."

Wang Zeng said with a smile.

Zhao Jun continued: "In addition to extending the system to the whole country, we cannot relax the economy. I suggest setting up special zones in Quanzhou and Guangzhou. In the future, these two states will no longer be under local jurisdiction. The status of the prefect is comparable to that of a transit envoy, directly under the leadership of the imperial court. "To make statistics on overseas trade, it is best to send envoys in person to visit places such as Southeast Asia, India, Central Asia, West Asia and even Africa."

"oh?"

Everyone was puzzled, and Sheng Du was puzzled and said: "Why do we have to go to sea with so much trouble? We have set up a fleet to go to America since last year, and it is estimated that we may set off this year. If we build another fleet, the cost will be huge. I’m afraid the court can’t afford it.”

"It's very simple. The essence of the industrial revolution is to improve manufacturing capabilities through machines so as to export goods. In this era, the West favors our tea, silk, porcelain, spices, etc. But the textile industry is the starting point of industry, and we must also Examine whether the West can form a market and accept our textile industry.”

Zhao Jun explained: "In addition, we must also take a look at their minerals and their national strength. Without fully improving its industrial capabilities, the Song Dynasty could not occupy many places with its army. So the local People need to dig the minerals, and people need to collect the local raw materials. So for us, we export the goods and they export the raw materials.”

The export of raw materials is actually the export of resources. Now the Song Dynasty cannot be said to have taken off. It was just through handicraft manufacturing, using tea, silk, porcelain, and spices to dominate the Maritime Silk Road, and then allowing gold, silver, and copper from the West to flow into the East.

But if industry is opened up and trade exports increase greatly, then in the future it will not only be gold, silver and copper, but also other resources.

Such as wood, iron, coal, aluminum, etc.

Therefore, preliminary inspections are necessary. At least you have to understand the other party's situation before you can produce what kind of industrial output. At least Zhao Jun feels that in the East, he must turn those monkeys in Japan into mining islanders to be considered a qualified industrial start.