bookrandom Chapter 1064: Civilian Servants
Chapter 1064: Civilian Servants
Chapter 1064: Civilian Servants
Zhang Yue was recuperating at home and didn't care about anything.
All matters major and minor in the Secretariat were discussed and presided over by Wang Gui and Yuan Jiang.
Wang Gui was extremely incompetent in his post as the head of the Secretariat. When Wang Zhongzheng was appointed as the official in charge of Jingyuan Road and Li Shunju was asked to supervise the military in Fuyan Road, all officials were in an uproar. Several young officials stopped Wang Zhongzheng who was about to leave the capital, and Li Shunju asked if this was okay.
Wang Zhongzheng was forced to flee on horseback, while Li Shunju was unwilling to go to Fuyan Road to supervise the army. And Lu Huiqing was not someone who could be easily dealt with.
Li Shunju was forced to report to Wang Gui in the Secretariat: "The troubles in the western suburbs are truly a disgrace to the literati."
"You are the Prime Minister now in power. Do you think it is appropriate to entrust the border defense to two eunuchs? Our duty as eunuchs is to sweep the courtyard and wipe the windows. Do you really think that you can use the two of us to lead the troops into battle?"
Wang Gui laughed loudly upon hearing this, and then said: "Why should you be so modest as a guard? I am using the guard to pacify the border and seek peace!"
Li Shunju couldn't believe that Wang Gui was so shameless and shameless, so he retreated silently.
After Li Shunju left, Wang Gui stroked his beard and pondered. After Han Jiang passed away, he had to win people's hearts as a prime minister. How to grant private favors on top of official duties, while not being too excessive and giving others a handle to criticize, this is a trick that every person in power must master.
Wang Gui knew the lessons learned from Han Jiang and Zhang Yue, so he did not dare to ask a single question about the government's plan to attack Xia and just expressed his support.
Wang Gui instructed Yuan Sui, "Write down the names of the officials who intercepted Wang Zhongzheng and Li Shunju today, and find a good job for them in the hall book."
Yuan Sui took note of it silently.
Eunuchs are the confidants of the emperor. If the emperor loses face, Wang Gui must regain it, but the officials below dare not punish him, otherwise they will be criticized.
Wang Gui thought to himself that as a prime minister he should govern with integrity, and such behavior was something he despised.
At that time, Wang Gui was no longer the Hanlin scholar who decisively rejected the imperial edict to appoint Emperor Yingzong as the crown prince.
Nor was he Wang Gui, who loudly called him "imperial uncle" instead of "imperial father" during the Puyi meeting.
Wang Gui knew that as prime minister, it was not enough to simply bribe ministers with small favors, cultivate confidants, and establish cliques. If he had no opinions on state affairs and could not accomplish major tasks, he would be criticized all day long, and the officials below would not respect him, which would lead to instability in his position as prime minister.
Wang Gui ordered others, "Let Cai Yuanchang come to see me!"
Soon Cai Jing came in.
During the period when Zhang Yue was not in the Secretariat, Cai Jing had a hard time. Wang Gui often found excuses or complicated tasks to "train" Cai Jing.
Cai Jing was "trained" by Wang Gui so that he had to work day and night. Even after he finished his job, Wang Gui would still find fault with him and scold him.
On the other hand, Wang Gui showed his goodwill to Cai Jing. He proposed to Cai Jing through Cai Que, wanting to marry his second daughter to Cai Jing's eldest son Cai You.
Cai Jing did not agree, so Wang Gui continued to "train" Cai Jing.
When Cai Jing came to see Wang Gui, he had just finished the task assigned by the other party and was reporting to him. Wang Gui listened to Cai Jing's report and thought to himself, this guy is really talented. He can handle such a difficult matter in an orderly manner.
This is Cai Jing's personality. The more you make things difficult for me, the better I will do.
Don't make the same mistake twice.
This time, Wang Gui made an exception and did not blame Cai Jing but said: "Yuan Chang is a talented person!"
Cai Jing said, "You are too kind, Prime Minister. Since the Sixth Emperor ruled the country, the number of households and people has increased in each dynasty. By the reign of Emperor Zhiping, there were 12.9 million households and 29 million people in the country."
“But by the first year of Yuanfeng, there were 16 million main customers, while there were only 24 million people.”
"In the heyday of the country, the registered population has dropped by six million, accounting for one sixth of the country's population!"
Wang Gui said with a smile: "Twenty to sixty years old are considered men. In the past, prefectures and counties did not count these people. As long as they were men, they were all included in the statistics. There was little turnover. Now they are all included."
Cai Jing said: "Prime Minister, you are wise. In the Tang and Han dynasties, ten households had fifty people, and about twenty males. The number of households in the world today is not due to war or famine, but there are reasons for their separation and combination. It is not appropriate to use the number of households as a sign of prosperity or decline. In the past, people combined to avoid taxes and labor service, so the number of households was small; now they are divided to avoid the number of fields, so the number of households is large."
Wang Gui said, "Not really. This dynasty has implemented the Baojia system to compile the number of local households, so there won't be any omissions. Besides, the laws of this dynasty stipulate that when grandparents and parents are still alive, descendants cannot divide households and property, so how can they divide households without authorization? So it's just that the household clerks of the previous dynasty made a mistake in the statistics, and mistakenly counted men as adult men."
"It's a pity that the fire at the Sansi burned all these account books, otherwise they should be re-checked."
Cai Jing shook his head. The household statistics during the Han and Tang dynasties were around ten households with fifty people and twenty men. Now it has become ten households with fifteen men. No matter how the household statistics method changes, the ratio of one to two men will not change.
However, Wang Gui always said that in the past, all men were counted as Ding, instead of today when only those between the ages of 20 and 60 are counted as Ding.
The population is the basis of taxation and labor service. Wang Gui turned a blind eye to the problem of such a huge matter.
Cai Jing couldn't help but feel disappointed.
Wang Gui smiled slightly, pointed to a potted plant on the long table and said, "Yuanchang, this pot has beautiful branches, but there are no good flowers to match it. Isn't it a pity?"
Cai Jing's heart moved, and he knew what Wang Gui was hinting at. He struggled for a while in his heart, and finally pretended to be ignorant, answered a few words, and then took his leave.
Wang Gui looked at Cai Jing's back and thought that the reason why there were so many fewer male populations must be due to the conscription law. Before, the fifth-class households had to pay exemption money and perform military service, so the people must have falsely named themselves sub-households (split one household into multiple households and lowered the household rank), or bribed the county officials to hide the number of male population, or directly became vagrants, or did business without capital.
People boasted about the prosperous Xining era every day, and the national treasury had mountains of savings, but in the end the population decreased by 6 million, which was really embarrassing (in the first year of Yuanyou, Sima Guang changed the law, and the population was 40 million, and in seven years the population increased by 16 million).
But Wang Gui couldn't say that, because wouldn't it make Zhang Yue seem right and bring shame to the emperor?
Therefore, he had to make up an excuse that the previous dynasty had made an error in calculating the population to cover it up. Of course, there were also reasons for the confusion in local statistics, as they reported the number of adults at one moment, the number of people at another, and the number of men at another.
When the imperial court was in urgent need of labor, local governments would often only report the number of male adults or even conceal some of the numbers. When a famine occurred, local governments would report the number of people, including all the people in the county.
The imperial court would not investigate so carefully. If the water is too clear, there will be no fish.
Wang Gui thought of Zhang Yue, and it was a pity. If this student was willing to assist him, why would he need Cai Jing? However, Zhang Yue had resolutely stood with Han Jiang over the years, which inevitably alienated him as a teacher.
You must know that Wang Gui has always been dissatisfied with Han Jiang in his heart, and Zhang Yue's views on "benefiting the country" and "benefiting the people" are inconsistent with the emperor's national policy.
Now Zhang Yue simply took sick leave and stayed at home.
In this case, Wang Gui had no way to help Zhang Yue.
……
At this moment, Zhang Yue was recuperating in his house.
There is a saying that goes, "Others are the butchers and I am the meat."
You are either at the table or on the table, so officials dare not leave their power easily.
But Zhang Yue didn't care. He looked as if he was saying "you can do what I want" and took good care of himself in the mansion, eating and sleeping as usual.
In addition to Zhongshu Hufang Jianzheng Cai Jing, Sansi Envoy Huang Lu, and Kaifeng Prefecture Governor Xu Jiang, the three of them would send their confidants to report the matter to Zhang Yue, who was "recuperating", from time to time.
Zhang Yue just knew it, but didn't make any plans.
Then, every now and then, the emperor, Empress Dowager Cao, and Empress Dowager Gao would send people to express their condolences.
Zhang Yue ordered his men to apply turmeric water on their faces as a pretense. People who came to inquire about him could see that Zhang Yue spoke with a strong voice and was obviously pretending to be sick.
In terms of whether to take office or not, Zhang Yue’s choice is between wooden geese. In terms of whether to be sick or not, the choice is between pretending or not. There is a kind of "disease" that you know I am not sick, and I also know that you know I am not sick, but I still want to pretend to be sick.
The visitor had done his job and had no choice but to report back.
The Emperor, Empress Dowager Gao, and Empress Dowager Cao certainly understood the root of Zhang Yue's problem.
Today, the uncle Cao Yi came to visit Zhang Yue on behalf of the Queen Mother Cao. Zhang Yue has always known that the Queen Mother Cao values him. And Cao Yi really cares about Zhang Yue.
Cao Yi went in and saw Zhang Yue lying on the couch and asked, "Are you feeling better today, sir?"
Zhang Yue sighed and said, "It's still not going well. I'm anxious and short of breath."
Cao Yi laughed when he heard this and sat down beside Zhang Yue's couch and said with a smile: "I have a medicine that can cure your illness!"
Zhang Yue asked: "What medicine?"
Cao Yi smiled and said, "Your Excellency's anxiety is due to your concern for the people, but how can you worry about the people if you are not in the position? In my opinion, the troubles in the world today are not the complicated problems, nor the lack of laws, but the officials' carelessness, who only care about their positions and not the people."
"What you said about Mencius's people-oriented is actually two words I can read as 'people's servants'."
Zhang Yue was delighted when he heard this and said, "My uncle is truly an expert! He spoke my mind in one sentence."
The word "civil servant" comes from Liu Zongyuan's "Preface to Sending Off Xue Cunyi".
There is a sentence in it: "The people's service is not just to serve the people. All the food that the people eat from the land is paid to the officials, so that the officials can be fair to me."
We officials are servants of the common people, not slaves of them. It is the common people who work in the fields and pay one tenth of their wages to employ us so that we can govern the local areas.
To put it bluntly, Liu Zongyuan's words are that all officials in the world are "people's servants" and you are people employed by the common people.
This is consistent with what Zhang Yue had said before: Is the court a government hired by the people to work for them, or is the court a violent agency that collects protection fees from the people?
Zhang Yue said: "In today's world, good officials are called parents of the people, and bad officials are called thieves of the people. But I am an official, how can I be the parents of the people? This is impossible. I dare not be a thief of the people. So I am called a servant of the people. This is the original meaning of being an official."
Good officials are called parents, and bad officials are called traitors to the people.
But parents are high above us, so how can we officials really be called parents? We can only say that we are employed by the common people, and this identity is the most appropriate.
The theory of civilian servants further implemented the idea of "people-centeredness".
This is also the government’s idea. Why?
Because the sixth prince was also named Yong.
(End of this chapter)