Prime Minister

Chapter 1046: Looking down on the officials

In the past, emperors had a fear that they would not be able to leave the palace.

For example, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was directly ignored by Cao Cao. He can make decisions only within the palace city, but not outside the palace city.

The officials of the Song Dynasty appointed scholars as prime ministers, suppressing groups such as relatives, military generals, aristocratic families, eunuchs, clans, etc., so that all orthodox dynasties in the Central Plains from the Song Dynasty found the trick, and the imperial power has firmly controlled the political power since then.

Yingzong and Shenzong all used small sects to become large sects, but they never let their power go aside.

This was the cleverness of the power design of the Song Dynasty. As soon as the new emperor took over, he immediately took control of the overall situation.

But for Han Jiang and Zhang Yue's new appointment, how can they take over the baton from Wang Anshi, fully control the government, and convince the people below?

When Emperor Yingzong came to the throne, he held a "Pu Yi" to confirm his legitimacy by recognizing his father.

Those who support Pu Yi are our own people and will be promoted. Those who do not support Pu Yi are not our own people and will be demoted. This is to clarify the 'ruling'.

Later Ming Shizong's "Great Rites Discussion" was exactly the same, and he also moved from a small sect to a large sect.

The only difference is that Jiajing won and Yingzong lost.

But what about the prime minister? What the prime minister upholds is the 'tradition'.

What is orthodoxy? That’s the meaning of scripture.

As long as Wang Anshi's new meaning of the Three Classics is established, the reform will continue.

Zhang Yue confirmed it by practicing "Mencius' Justice", telling the world that times have changed and the court's policy has changed.

Of course, the emperor has not yet issued the "Mencius' justice" to the world, but Zhang Yue has promoted Su Che to the middle school room to study official affairs.

But before Mencius' justice can be promulgated, Zhang Yue must first reform the law of service. After going through Tianzhang Pavilion's political inquiry, it was impossible for Zhang Yue to rashly throw out the "Tao Tong" without doing anything practical.

The difference between the new meaning of the Three Classics and Mencius' justice is the difference between "benefiting the country" and "benefiting the people".

The difference between the "Recruitment Law" in Wang An's stone version and the "Exemption from Service Law" in Han Jiang and Zhang Yue's version is also the difference between "benefiting the country" and "benefiting the people". This is also the reason why Han Jiang broke up with Wang Anshi in the first place.

If the reform of the service law cannot be implemented, then the promulgation of Mencius’ justice will be delayed or even rolled back. To be pragmatic is to act, and to be pragmatic is to know. This is like buttoning buttons one by one.

Ever since Shen Kuo thought that it was necessary to reform the recruitment law by implementing the concurrent recruitment and recruitment of servicemen, the court had been arguing for more than a year. Now the top-level design of the reform of the service law has finally been completed. The Zhongshu has approved it and the emperor has confirmed that the Third Division and Sinong Temple will no longer be If you object, the next step is for Sinong Temple to come up with detailed regulations.

As far as Zhang Yue knows, Cai Que has instructed Huang Yan, Liu Zuo and others to compile the regulations of Sinong Temple these days. Officials of Sinong Temple are very active in this matter. For example, the "Yuanfeng Sinong Edict" is almost completed and has been approved by the emperor. Appreciated.

However, Zhang Yue has not even seen the draft text of the charter for reforming the exemption law, let alone the detailed text and promulgated it to the world.

Why do Sinong Temple officials oppose it?

As I just said, Sinong Temple has an independent financial system.

For example, money for young crops, money for buying pigs, and money for exemptions from military service are all collected by Sinong Temple through the Changping Department, bypassing the Transfer Department, and then being collected to the center. Moreover, Sinong Temple has the right to assess the officials affiliated with Sinong Temple and the various promotions to Changping Division.

How is it assessed?

The KPI set by Sinong Temple is that whoever can receive more money from Sinong Temple's subordinate officials and various promotion departments will be able to get favorable reviews in terms of academic performance and be qualified for promotion.

Now that Zhang Yue is exempting the fifth-class households from the service money, he will inevitably be opposed by the officials of Sinong Temple and the Changping officials from all walks of life.

If the fifth-class households are exempted from the service fee, the service fee will be reduced by one yuan. The target of promoting officials from the Sinong Temple to the Changping Department this year will not be achieved.

So don't listen to what these Sinong Temple officials say.

He talks about doctrine, but his heart is all about business.

Shu Yu, Huang Yan and other Sinong Temple officials made a lot of excuses, and their reasons were all high-sounding, but Xiao Jiujiu didn't say anything in his heart.

These officials are very clever in their calculations.

Of course, this is all due to Wang Anshi.

In order to implement the exemption law, Wang Anshi established such a system, from Sinong Temple to Changping Division, to state and county officials, binding all the interests of officials with the interests of the court.

In order to encourage local officials to collect money, Wang Anshi allowed the remaining money for exemption from military service to be included in the local financial system. As a result, most state and county officials actually received 20% and 50%.

This is a new system.

In the political hall.

The court officials served tea soup to all the officials. After the discussion just now, everyone was a little thirsty.

Taking advantage of the tea break, Zhang Yue said to everyone: "You have worked hard just now. Before the recruitment law was promulgated, I ordered the officials to weigh their interests with the supervisors, prefectures and counties."

"However, the imperial court is open to the public, and officials all over the world can only see what they see. They cannot fully understand the court's laws and regulations, and they have the disadvantage of being able to see the leopard from the inside."

"Now I have changed the recruitment law to the exemption law. Doing it again will be a house-building conspiracy and will be difficult to achieve. I invite you all to come here to listen to me today. It can be said that you will benefit a lot." All the officials stood up and said: "Mr. Zhang Exalted!"

Zhang Yue pressed his hand and motioned for everyone to sit down.

Zhang Yue said to everyone: "I said that if the fifth-class households were exempted from the service fee, and then the remaining money for the exemption of the state and county was limited to 20%, what do you think?"

The officials fell silent.

Zhang Yue said again: "Every official has said many times, 'The affairs of Sinong Temple are very good, but it has not yet completed five points. If the affairs of Si Nong Temple are completed, the affairs of the world will be settled.'"

"The original intention of Prime Minister Han's participation was that the Conscription Law was to relieve the people's insecurities, but in the end it ended up making money with the people. The Conscription Law was set in the fourth year of Xining, and in the seventh year of Xining, the one-year revenue of the Conscription Law was reached. More than 10.4 million guan. Now in the Yuanfeng period, it is 18 million guan."

"Of course the immunity from service law is still a good law, there is no doubt about that."

Huang Yan said: "My lord, since the eighth year of Xining, the Shiyisi has been unable to make ends meet. Originally, the money for the heavy salary law came from the Shiyi money, and later it was changed to recruitment money. Now that the fifth-class households have less money, then the world's subordinate officials How can I make up for my salary?"

Exemption money is now the court's largest income, but this money is reserved for officials to fight in the northwest.

Wang Anshi implemented the Chonglu Law to increase the salary of subordinate officials. This money was the market change money collected after the Market Change Law. However, the Market Change Law has essentially failed in the eight years since Xining, and the Market Change Law can no longer collect money. Therefore, the exemption money was used to pay the salaries of subordinate officials.

Then we can only reduce the cost of using troops in the northwest.

Therefore, Fu Bi and Sima Guang still make sense. As long as the war in the northwest stops, the court can actually have a lot of money left.

Zhang Yue said: "The imperial court originally planned to collect 12.34 million guan as the exemption money and spend 925 guan, so there will be a surplus of 3 million guan every year."

"In the seventh year of Xining, Sinong Temple collected 10.43 million guan from the service fee, spent 6.48 million guan, and had a surplus of 3.95 million. In the ninth year of Xining, the imperial court received 1,200 qian from the service fee. 100,000 guan, with an expenditure of 6.59 million guan and a surplus of 5.51 million guan. Next year, which is also the second year of Yuanfeng, the income from the exemption money will reach 18.5 million guan, but the expenditure will still be six. The number is close to 1.6 million guans, with a surplus of nearly 120 million guans."

"This shows how loyal you and all the officials who promoted Chang Ping are to the affairs of the state."

The increase from 10.43 million guan of exemption money to 18 million guan shows how actively the officials of the Changping Division below Sinong Temple are implementing their goals. For mining private money, it can be described as digging three feet into the ground.

Zhang Yue said: "I and the third envoy have calculated before. If the fifth-class households are subtracted, there will be a shortage of nine million yuan in exemption money. Moreover, if the fifth-class households use their strength to replace the service, the expenditure can also be greatly reduced. In the end, it will still be enough." A surplus of three million dollars!"

"By the way, the third envoy has just agreed to waive the fifth-class household service fee and limit the remaining service fee to 20%."

By saying this, Zhang Yue told everyone that the Third Division fully agreed with his reform.

Prefectures and counties all over the country will only charge 20% of the remaining leniency money, instead of floating between 50% and 20%.

The exemption of labor exemption money for the fifth-class households is an attack on Sinong Temple, and the restriction of 20% of the remaining exemption money is an attack on the third-level si.

Zhang Yue used his knife to cut down both Sinong Temple and Sansi. He cut down both sides, leaving you speechless.

The opposition of the Third Division was not as firm as that of Sinong Temple. Shen Kuo, the envoy of the Third Division, was dismissed after raising this matter. After all, there are only so many local tax sources. Sinong Temple takes the lion's share, and the Third Division takes the small part as compensation. In the end, the pressure of taxation is still given to the Third Division.

Therefore, the three envoys in the past dynasties all left because of their opposition to the new law. Xue Xiang was dismissed by Wang Anshi, Zeng Bu was dismissed by Lu Huiqing, and Shen Kuo was dismissed by Cai Que.

Even Xue Xiang, Zeng Bu, and Shen Kuo were all from the New Party, and they all ended up being slapped in the face.

At this moment, Zhang Yue seemed to be telling the officials of Sinong Temple, Sansina has fully supported me, and I will put all the pressure on you.

If you continue to object, you are being ignorant.

Cai Que, Xiong Ben saw Zhang Yue step by step, and personally 'persuaded' with the respect of participating in politics, but they were all silent. It's hard for them to talk. It depends on whether the Sinong Temple officials are willing to accept this new set of rules.

Zhang Yue saw that all the officials were already giving in, and he threw out the last trump card: "I know that the affairs of Sinong Temple are very complicated, and the minister's money can be increased from the original three thousand five hundred guan to 5,000 guan. As for the additional money, please The house money is also paid at twice the rate of the same official."

The official money of Kaifeng Prefecture and the Third Secretary's Envoy was only 10,000 guan. When Sinong Temple increased to 5,000 guan, it was second only to the Second Yamen.

As for additional money and house money, they are also benefits for officials. Sinong Temple has a huge workload, so Zhang Yue's stroke of a pen on this is also a favor.

"As for your performance this year, don't worry too much. I, together with Xiong and Cai, have discussed and drafted the plan to not only make a profit but also reduce the burden on the people. But the ugly words are ahead. If there is anything wrong with these two things, If you are strong, this ginseng will give you a serious treatment!

Sinong Temple officials were most concerned about their grades. Now that they heard that Zhang Yue wanted to personally assess his grades, it struck a chord in his mind.

"Do you have any objections?"

Having said this, Zhang Yue glanced at everyone with a look of disdain.

Shu Yu, Huang Yan and other officials were all upset. Just now Zhang Yue had been talking to them nicely, but now they know how powerful the prime minister is.

……

That night, Sinong Temple officials rushed to draft the details of the exemption law and submitted them to Zhang Yue's desk the next day.

Ps: There will be more updates tomorrow!