Chapter 197 Zhao Jun Is the Little Tyrant

Yang Chongxun was born in a military family.

His grandfather Yang Shoubin was the commander of Longjie during the reign of Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty.

His father Yang Quanmei was the commander of the palace during the reign of Emperor Taizong Zhao Guangyi of the Song Dynasty.

He was highly valued during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty.

At that time, Zhou Huaizheng, the deputy governor of the inner court, planned to enshrine Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty as the emperor and force him to pass the throne to Zhao Zhen. Yang Chongxun learned about it and told Ding Wei.

Ding Wei killed Zhou Huaizheng. Since then, Yang Chongxun has been promoted all the way, successively serving as the deputy commander of the cavalry, the commander of the palace, the governor of Zhenwu Army, the envoy of the Southern Court of Xuanhui and the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and finally the privy council.

However, with the fall of Ding Wei, Zhao Zhen gradually came to power. Yang Chongxun, who relied on Ding Wei to come to power, naturally became a thorn in the eyes of the privy council. He was impeached by Fan Feng, the then censor, and was dismissed as a local governor.

But this man had been one of the prime ministers, and he was also a prefect in the local area with the power of Tongpingzhangshi and Heyang Sancheng Jiedushi, and his status was very high.

It can be said that even in the local area, Yang Chongxun, relying on his previous identity and the title of "Tongpingzhangshi", was more powerful than the transport envoy. All local officials flattered him, and it was no problem for him to dominate the state.

What was unexpected was that this person's Chenzhou was located in the northwest of Beijing, but his hand reached the east of Huainan. However, historical records show that "Chongxun was greedy and had served in the military for a long time", and Chenzhou was close to Bozhou and Shouzhou, which might be understandable.

Zhao Jun even suspected that Yang Chongxun was behind the murder of many county magistrates in recent times. Only this person came from the military, and there might be a small army of dozens or hundreds of people around him.

After finding out the truth of the corruption case in Huainan Road, the next thing was natural.

Zhao Jun immediately ordered the arrest of these officials involved.

He personally sat in Huainan Road, and sent people to arrest all the officials involved in the case who continued to serve as officials in Huainan Road, Jiangzhe Road and other places.

If they have been transferred to the north, then send the list to the Political System Institute and let the court send people.

Soon it was June.

During this period, Zhao Jun was still conducting research in Huainan Road, traveling to several states, and inspecting the agricultural economy at the grassroots level of the Song Dynasty.

But the court was very busy.

First of all, the wars in the northwest were becoming more and more frequent. As mentioned before, although Li Yuanhao started to invade in 1038 AD, that is, the next year, he was beaten back head-on.

But before that, he kept sending the Dangxiang and Qiangdi tribes on the border to attack the border states of the Song Dynasty, and small-scale wars had never stopped.

Fan Zhongyan stepped up the construction of cities, training soldiers, and reclaiming border fields, so the court needed to raise a large amount of supplies and send all these materials to the border, resulting in a lot of rice prices in Bianliang during this period.

Secondly, the Political System Institute is promoting the reform of the national official system. The newly established departments will all establish branches in the roads, states, and counties across the country. For example, the court represented by the Dali Temple will establish a provincial high court in the road, a municipal intermediate court in the state, and a grassroots court in the county.

It is not possible to start directly like this, so after half a year of preparation, the Political System Institute decided to conduct a pilot project in the various roads of the Song Dynasty. First, the Dali Yamen will be established in each road, and it will be established in the seat of each road to temporarily manage the litigation cases in each road.

In other words, if the case personnel want to appeal the cases originally decided by the county and state yamen of each road, state, and county, they need to file a lawsuit in the Dali Yamen of each road for a retrial.

The function of the Criminal and Prison Department was changed to the Supervisory Institute, and the purpose was naturally to divide the trial power of the local county and state yamen.

In the future, when the Dali Yamen and the Supervisory Institute continue to set up state halls and county bureaus, the trial of cases will have nothing to do with the county and state magistrates. The power of investigating cases in the county government is handed over to the county lieutenant, the power of supervision is handed over to the Supervisory Yuan, and the trial is handed over to the Dali Temple, so that the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs are completely independent.

Finally, of course, the problems frequently reported by Zhao Jun, including the local conditions recorded by Zhao Jun, the living conditions of the people, and a large number of areas that need to be improved, are all the focus of the Political System Yuan.

So during this period, the old men were busy all over. The 69-year-old old man Shengdu almost died suddenly after working overtime.

Don't think that the workload of these things is not large. In fact, in addition to these things, the old men have to be busy with the government affairs of the whole country. This is equivalent to increasing their burden on the already heavy work, which naturally makes them a little unbearable.

If Zhao Jun had not reformed the official system of the Song Dynasty before leaving, which greatly alleviated the problem of inefficiency of officials in the Song Dynasty, many things were just opinions given by the Political System Yuan, and the specific implementation was handed over to the lower departments, the old men would still do everything by themselves as before, and they would be afraid that they would be exhausted.

On June 11, outside the Chongzheng Hall of the Imperial Palace in Kaifeng Prefecture, Zhao Zhen had just visited the harem and was now on his way back to the study.

During this period, he has restrained himself a lot and has gradually quit playing games, novels and movies. It's not that he doesn't play anymore, but he has set strict time limits.

For example, after finishing the government affairs today, Zhao Zhen will gather everyone in Chongzheng Hall to look at the popular science knowledge in the notebook. When the old men get off work and go home, he will use the limited time to play a few games, never greedy.

Reasonable time planning, not forgetting entertainment and life after work, is much better than before when he only knew how to indulge in games and novels. It is a combination of work and rest, and he can relax a little after work.

It was late summer, the weather was clear, the sun was high in the sky, and the earth was so hot that it made people sweat profusely even when standing in the shade.

Zhao Zhen slowly walked towards the Chongzheng Hall from the shade of the harem corridor, with a slightly joyful look on his face, because it had been more than eight months since Empress Cao and Zhang Meiren were pregnant at the end of September last year, almost nine months. , due to give birth in about a month.

The delivery time of the two children should be no more than two weeks, so that he can have two children at the same time. As long as either one of them is a healthy baby boy, then his problem of having no children in history will be completely solved.

This is naturally a great joy for Zhao Zhen.

After visiting the harem, Zhao Zhen was chatting with Wang Shouzhong, talking about topics such as what name should be given to the new born child, while walking forward. As soon as he arrived at the entrance of Chongzheng Hall, he saw Lu Yijian and others waiting at the door.

"Do you have anything important to do today?"

When Zhao Zhen saw everyone gathered, he walked over and wondered: "Are the Western thieves coming to invade again? Or is there some local government affairs?"

"neither."

Lu Yijian stepped forward, cupped his hands and said, "It's a letter from Han Long."

"Grandson finally received a letter."

Zhao Zhen perked up and laughed: "I haven't written to the court for almost a month. I thought my eldest grandson had forgotten all of us. It just so happened that I also had good news to tell him. The queen and Zhang Meiren are about to give birth. , he will have two more ancestors."

Hey guys, what ethical joke?

Zhao Jun knew it and didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

Everyone sneered, and Lu Yijian and others followed Zhao Zhen into the house.

After passing through the hall outside Chongzheng Hall and walking into the study room inside, Zhao Zhen sat behind the desk and asked everyone to sit down as well.

Nowadays, Chongzheng Hall has replaced the original Guanjia Hall and has become a place for people to hold small meetings. Therefore, there are many Taishi chairs here all year round for holding meetings.

After Zhao Zhen sat down, he looked around at everyone and said, "What did the great grandson say in the letter this time?"

"There are three letters."

Lu Yijian gave a brief summary and said: "The first letter writes that he has gone deep into the people these days and investigated the many problems that exist between local officials and the people."

Zhao Zhen said thoughtfully: "It's still a commonplace thing. Local county magistrates need to rely on these subordinate officials for management. After the subordinate officials have a comprehensive report, they deceive the superiors and deceive the subordinates, embezzle and extort bribes, resulting in many unjust, false and wrong cases in the local area."

"Yes."

Lu Yijian nodded: "Hanlong said that in less than half a year since he went out, he found, heard, and even saw many cases. For example, in Yingtian Mansion, he saw a widow and her son suing her late husband's brother for embezzlement. The subordinate officials were bribed by her late husband's brother to arrest the widow instead. "

"This kind of phenomenon can be said to be everywhere in the Song Dynasty. It happened in almost every county. Therefore, Hanlong was extremely dissatisfied with this point and pointed out that in the future, officials must be reformed, at least to reduce such things on a large scale. It just happens.”

Wang Zeng also said: "I feel that maybe we really need to consider making corresponding changes."

"Then did Dasun give a corresponding solution?"

Zhao Zhen asked.

In fact, Zhao Zhen is not unaware of this problem. In the past, upright officials often put the issue of subordinate officials on the table, but there was no solution.

In the entire centralized feudal society, from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, this was basically a two-thousand-year-old problem.

It’s not that the ancients didn’t want to change, it’s just that there was really no way to change.

"Hanlong said that we can refer to the Western civil service system to distinguish between officials and officials, and also set up grades. They should be given corresponding salaries, and those with outstanding performance can become officials after passing the assessment."

Lu Yijian repeated what Zhao Jun said, but everyone had a look of helplessness on their faces.

Zhao Zhen even smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid this won't work."

"yes."

Cai Qi sighed: "The tens of thousands of officials in the Song Dynasty have already resulted in redundant officials and redundant expenses. If we give additional salaries to subordinate officials, the expenses will be heavy and the state treasury cannot afford it."

As Shen Kuo wrote in "Mengxi Bi Tan": "The officials in the world are not always well-paid, and they can only make a living by being bribed."

If you pay such high wages to officials, redundant officials and excessive expenses will be a big problem. If you pay such high wages to officials, how can the court persist?

"Hanlong is not ignorant of this truth. What he means is to wait until the problems of redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses are solved, then increase productivity, introduce silver from Japan, and then make further calculations after the court has money."

Lu Yijian added, and then said: "He believes that in the future, the imperial tax will be mainly commercial tax, and the agricultural tax can be appropriately reduced, and most of the annual agricultural tax revenue will be retained in the local area to be used for county government expenses. At that time, the national tax will be Separate from local taxes to facilitate fund management.”

"Well, the eldest grandson is still thoughtful."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "He can still understand my difficulties."

"The second thing is that Hanlong inspected the trade in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and found that there are many Japanese businessmen in Hangzhou, Changzhou, Taizhou, Suzhou and other places. He suggested that we add more treaty ports in the surrounding areas and strengthen business ties with Japan."

Wang Zeng said: "The inward flow of Japanese silver is the general trend and the only way for the Song Dynasty to rise. If we develop through trade first, it will not attract the attention of the Liao Kingdom."

"Well, that's not a problem."

Zhao Zhen thought for a while and said: "How about I send letters of credence to Japan in the name of the country, hoping to strengthen trade between the two parties?"

"But it's inappropriate."

Song Shou said: "Japan is vassalized by Liao. If the Song Dynasty sends a letter, Liao will certainly be alert. It will be bad if Liao intervenes."

"Yes, it is better to step up private trade contacts and continue to inquire about the situation in Iwami, Japan, to prepare."

Sheng Du also said.

"Okay then."

Zhao Zhen nodded.

"The third thing."

Lv Yijian saw that the first two things were almost discussed, and then he hesitated and said: "This matter is still of great importance."

"What is it?"

"Hanlong has found out the truth about the corruption in Huainan disaster relief."

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen frowned and said: "Who are they?"

Lv Yijian explained the situation.

When Huainan was hit by drought, the court issued millions of hu of grain from the Changping warehouse and the national treasury to relieve the disaster victims.

To be honest, this rice can only help the victims for a while, not for a lifetime.

But these things are for emergency use. First, fill the stomachs of the disaster victims, then slowly build water conservancy projects, dig channels, and find ways to ensure grain production in the next quarter.

But Yang Chongxun, Huang Wei, Guo Chengyou, Sun Mian and others are quite greedy. They are not good people in the local area. They happen to be near Huainan West Road and have similar tastes.

After the disaster relief grain came down, these people saw so much grain. According to the usual practice, they would just take a few hundred guan to show their appreciation.

However, Yang Chongxun was not satisfied, so under his instigation, everyone simply made a lot of money, and also dragged many officials into the water. There were more than a dozen officials from the sixth rank and above in the Huainan West Road Transport and Shipping Office alone.

The result was that after the emergency grain originally given to the disaster victims was resold by them, many people starved to death in the other five counties except Anfeng County, which was slightly better because of the concealment and false reporting.

Tens of thousands of people died in the disaster, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. Fang Caixia, who Zhao Jun met in Bozhou, was from Shouzhou. Because of the drought at that time, she was forced to flee Shouzhou with her family and go north to Yingtianfu to make a living.

The culprit of all this was a large group of corrupt officials headed by Yang Chongxun, Huang Wei, Guo Chengyou, and Sun Mian.

Zhao Jun was furious. He arrested more than a dozen officials involved in the case in Huainan, and the rest of more than 20 were transferred and scattered all over the country, so Zhao Jun wrote to the court to ask them to be arrested and dealt with.

Hearing this, Zhao Zhen suddenly had an old problem, hesitated, and asked: "What does the eldest grandson mean. How to deal with these people?"

In fact, there is no need to think about it. Basically, they are killed. After all, they have harmed hundreds of thousands of people in Huainan.

Sure enough.

Lu Yijian smiled bitterly and said, "Of course, they will be beheaded and their homes will be confiscated."

"Kill them all?"

"Kill them all."

"Hiss"

Zhao Zhen took a deep breath and his face began to change.

If Zhao Jun were here, he probably wouldn't be so hesitant.

But his character was born like this, hesitant and soft-hearted.

He couldn't bear to think that so many officials were going to be killed again.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhao Zhen asked Lü Yijian and the others, "What do you think, gentlemen?"

Lü Yijian and the others stopped talking, and looked at each other.

Still, Yan Shu said, "Why does the emperor have to ask us what we think? He should ask Han Long's opinion. If we say he can't kill him, Han Long will come back and attack us, and we can't afford to offend him."

"Then do it according to Da Sun's opinion."

Zhao Zhen also smiled bitterly.

That's right.

Zhao Jun is now a little tyrant.

If he really doesn't do it according to his opinion, he will probably return to Bianliang immediately, rush into the palace, grab his collar and ask him why he didn't kill those corrupt officials who harmed the people.