Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 263 Very popular among the people
For Xue Juzheng, being an official is not without its benefits.

As the first official in the Song Dynasty, and even in history, besides Yao and Shun to be truly "abdicated" and had no military power at all, he was definitely roasted on an iron plate. What would happen to the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty? No one can say a good thing about him as an official.

But it is certain that it will leave a lasting name in history, even with a lot of color.

And he doesn't plan to work until death. His current plan is to work for a few years and then retire and pass his position to the next generation of princes.

So since he himself retired as an official, can he still go back to serve as his third envoy?
To put it bluntly, there is only one place to go: the trading house.

In other words, being an official is a shortcut to becoming a shareholder of a commercial bank!

Of course, he can't just be a clay Bodhisattva at the mercy of others in the past few years, because what the Zhao family wants is not a clay Bodhisattva. Otherwise, why would their family retreat?An experiment, naturally it has to look like a test subject. What the Zhao family wants to see is what the official family can and cannot do in this environment.

Therefore, for Xue Juzheng, the best thing is to be able to accomplish a major event during his term of office, and when this major event is mentioned, people all over the world and history books will attribute it to him.

In this way, with such an achievement, he can retire peacefully and even have a seat on the board of directors. His descendants can even become the major shareholders of the company.

Qing Shi left his name, and he, Old Xue, had not been an official in vain, and his hard work for so many years had not been in vain.

In the current Song Dynasty, there are probably the following things that can be called strategic projects.

First, the court changed its etiquette, which meant that it completely abandoned the so-called Zhou etiquette and started to develop etiquette between monarch and ministers that was in line with the national conditions of the Song Dynasty. The current leader is Zhao Guangyi.

For convenience, Zhao Guangyi even served as the Minister of Rites himself.

To put it bluntly, is it necessary to restrict military power? For example, the current royal family's consumption has been firmly restricted. There is a budget for how much money is spent every year. All expenses, like other imperial yamen, must be handled by the Duzhi Division. Only Duzhisi The branch secretary agreed, so the money could be spent.

Although Xue Juzheng has been the Third Chief of Staff for more than ten years, and everyone from top to bottom of Duzhi Division is his people, in this matter, Shen Yilun fully demonstrated what it means to be rebellious, and faced with This old leader has almost all the money he can get stuck.

spend money?

What does it cost to be an emperor?

Harem concubine?

Zhao Kuangyin's daughters-in-law are now being taken care of by a business, so what do you spend on them?

The current situation of the East Factory, West Factory, and Nei Factory is also very embarrassing, but fortunately, Zhao Guangmei took the initiative and not only got the Du branch to agree to their annual financial allocation, but also used the power of the commercial bank to give them a certain industry, allowing them to Have a certain degree of financial autonomy.

There must be a certain degree of independence in the matter of anti-corruption, otherwise, it will be nonsense.

There are many similar measures. For example, Zhao Guangyi has been revisiting Menxia Province recently, focusing on improving the status of Yushitai and merging it with Menxia Province. Reclaim the right to refute.

It is also true that in the future, the emperor's orders must pass the review of the Menxia Province before they can be implemented in the world. The members of the Menxia Province include several prime ministers from the Political Hall and several political advisors. The person who is temporarily in charge of the affairs of the Menxia Province is the Yushitai. Zhang Ai.

Officials can finally criticize officials unscrupulously.

The second major event is the reform of the military, which means creating a navy and abolishing the imperial army.

But this matter was handled by Zhao Kuangyin himself. He, a so-called official, was nothing in front of the Supreme Emperor. This matter inside and outside had nothing to do with him.

It can be said that he cannot touch military matters.

There are still a few major events left, such as the development of the southwest led by Zhao Dezhao, or the attack on the Southern Tang Dynasty that Liu Guangyi and others are planning. In addition, there are also the southeast and northwest. Great achievements can be made in either direction.

Of course, there is also the issue of slave repatriation that Zhao Guangmei has been talking about now, which is also a major matter.

But with so many major events, he, as an official, has limited abilities, and it is impossible to take care of them all. Moreover, any policy has side effects, and in some cases, his role in it is also very limited.

The repatriation of slaves is a very troublesome matter. The Song Dynasty has become so rich that the surrounding foreign races will take the initiative to sell themselves. It is pure fantasy to want to solve this problem through a policy. This must be a huge project. It's not a matter of one or two years.

Moreover, this slave problem is clearly a distant concern, not a near-term problem. At least so far, these slaves are still very well-behaved, and most of them have not reached the period of freedom.

Anyway, most of the slaves in the city are female slaves. What big things can women do?Most of them estimate that nine out of ten people will still marry people from the Song Dynasty as concubines. As long as they become concubines, any problems will be related to family ethics. What does it have to do with the court?
Although the data shows that the number of divorced couples in the Song Dynasty is getting higher and higher, and Kaifeng Mansion has even begun to count the divorce rate, at least in Xue Juzheng's view, this is not a big deal at all.

His energy as an official is limited, and he only intends to work for a few years, no more than five years at most. Naturally, he cannot focus on such things that have no short-term results.

So first, Xue Juzheng planned to promote a large number of officials from the New Confucian school, and then find ways to get the court to allocate funds to increase investment in private education. In addition to Confucian classics such as the Six Classics, special emphasis should be placed on vocational education.

Zhao Guangmei and Zhao Kuangyin essentially withdrew from the court, but Zhao Guangyi is still in the court. This person is in court, which is a great constraint for his official family. If Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangmei don't care, he will basically have no choice but to Become the puppet of His Highness King Qi.

This is not the result that Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangmei want to see, and it has no experimental significance.

In addition to this matter, Xue Juzheng plans to focus on a series of agricultural production reforms such as the planting and promotion of new crops, the selection and cultivation of new grain varieties, and the promotion and use of expenditures.

The so-called stability of the country means a good harvest.

No matter how many grand narratives there are, the benefits that can be reflected on ordinary people by opening up new territories are not so obvious. Besides, Zhao Guangmei and Zhao Kuangyin Zhuyu are in front of him. No matter how many things he does, he is destined to be singled out. Picking and choosing will definitely give people the feeling that it’s no big deal.

After all, for a ruler who is completely centralized, any good thing he does will be remembered by the people. But for a ruler who cannot centralize power and comes to power through election and succession, he should do well and do poorly. If you do anything, you will be called a fool.

This is actually the reason why Zhao Song did not make a family in the world.

So, why doesn't he focus on things that can really bring immediate results?
Agricultural reform is relatively immediate, and this work is promoted by the Third Division, so he is familiar with it.

This matter actually conflicts with the slave repatriation system that Zhao Guangmei wants to implement, because those who actually do the harder farm work in the Song Dynasty, especially those responsible for farming in collective farms, are now out of town. Serfs come.

Any free release or repatriation at this time will definitely delay agricultural production. Some slaves may not want to be free. Most landowners have never thought about freeing slaves. There will definitely be trouble, and there will definitely be trouble. It would delay his new crop planting plan.

In other words, Xue Juzheng's political views conflict with Zhao Guangmei's, and now Xue Juzheng is an official, so Zhao Guangmei must listen to him on such government affairs.

It's equivalent to making yourself miserable.Of course, if he was really serious about it, Xue Juzheng would definitely have to listen to Zhao Guangmei's words, but in that case, the meaning of the experiment would be gone, and Zhao Guangmei would have no choice but to spread his hands and do as he pleases.

The serfs in the village can't move, and the slaves in the city... let's think of a way.

In fact, he had a plan, which was to further improve the labor management system in Kaifeng City and even other cities in the Song Dynasty, establish an insurance company, and force urban workers to be insured. At the same time, it would naturally require workers to be registered and increase their obligations. Investment in education and private education will extend the educational resources that were previously only enjoyed by the children of the Forbidden Army to all cities.

Spending money will definitely cost a lot more, but it can also greatly promote employment. It is not a big problem for the current Song Dynasty, but such a big thing must still be done by him personally.

So after thinking about it, Zhao Guangmei simply gave up the position of Kaifeng Governor and handed it over to Sun Liancheng, who was a merchant and his own staff became an official.

At the same time, he also resigned from his position as prime minister, who was a direct bachelor of the Privy Council and a subordinate of Zhongshu. It was a real job, but he had stopped working and did nothing.

He completely gave up his role as a court official and started setting up an insurance company.

Of course, the title is reserved, and he is still the King of Qin, but in fact he does not have a fiefdom at all. If nothing else happens, there will be no more nobles with fiefdoms in the Song Dynasty. If the prince is not a prince, there is a high probability that no one will be fiefdomed again. , it doesn’t matter if you seal it.

The Zhao family no longer recognizes that they are a royal family. There are only a few men in their hands who all share the company's stocks. For future generations, they can just pay out the shares from the stocks in their hands. It is impossible to give them to the country. Add more burden.

Of course, the most important thing is that as long as nothing big happens in the future, he will no longer be able to hinder Xue Juzheng.

Retreat, just retreat completely.

When he finished the formalities and walked out of the palace alone with a few guards, he saw that all the civil and military officials in the court had gathered outside the palace wall at some point, and their feet were full of blackness. There were hundreds of people.

After taking a quick look, I found that most of them were unfamiliar. I only knew the heads and heads standing in front of them. Most of them were civil servants. It could be said that they had been Zhao Guangmei's enemies for many years.

The officials were divided into two factions. After Zhao Guangmei came out, it was Zhao Pu who took the lead. Everyone bowed down to him in a rare ceremony.

"The king of Qin is a wise man, even the Duke of Zhou and Guan Zhong are incomparable. He should be regarded as a sage. Please be worshiped!"

Having said that, he prostrated himself on the ground.

You know, kneeling was rare in the Song Dynasty, but it was true that kneeling was rare on non-important occasions, especially after Xue Juzheng came to power, Zhao Guangyi reconsidered the etiquette of monarchs and ministers, let alone kneeling, when court officials faced officials I sat on the sofa all the time.

As a result, looking around now, all these Beijing officials were kneeling.

And it seems that at least [-]% of the officials in the capital are here, probably all of them.

Walking out of the palace wall, it was Yang Ye, with Dang advancing in front, leading two divisions of forbidden troops. They were so dark and dense that they seemed to have brought everyone here.

They didn't say anything, they just kowtowed to him in unison.

The military formations were so dense that you couldn't see beyond them after you knelt down, and there seemed to be many civilians following behind.

Of course, the civilians in Luoyang are basically military relatives.

"Get up. When you are wearing armor, you won't have to pay me such a full courtesy."

All the soldiers were still kneeling, and no one got up.

The so-called "I can't give you a full salute when I'm wearing armor". To put it bluntly, it's just that I have a sword and don't want to give you a full salute. If you really want to do it, you can still do it if you endure it.

"Hey~, okay, I'm leaving. From now on, I will depend on you for the country of the Song Dynasty. I will go make money, hahahahaha."

After that, he mounted his horse and left with his own guards.

Unexpectedly, this long queue actually stretched all the way to the city gate. After leaving the city gate, people lined up to greet them even outside the city. Although it was far less dense than inside the city, there was a steady stream of people ten miles outside the city. .

Passing merchants, hawkers in Daopang, and even farmers in nearby villages would watch the excitement and ask what was going on, and then they would spontaneously join in, standing on both sides of the road, waiting for who knows how long. The time was just to wait for Zhao Guangmei's guard of honor and pomp to take a look and salute when they passed by.

I don’t know who said it, saying that after Zhao Guangmei returns to Kaifeng this time, he may not come to Luoyang again, so if he doesn’t worship him this time, he may not be able to worship him in the future.

Three miles, five miles, ten miles, twenty miles, thirty miles, when Zhao Guangmei reached thirty miles, her scalp became numb.

What is going on? Am I dead?Is this a return to the soul?

Thirty miles away, there are still people seeing each other off. This is too scary.

Moreover, with such a treatment, he couldn't hurry up, so he had to sit back in his carriage, without opening the curtain, and just walked slowly to Kaifeng under the protection of the guards.

As a result, after Zhao Guangmei walked out for fifty miles, the number of people seeing him off on the road became noticeably less. All the way to Yingchuan, the people who received the news one after another were actually damn good.

Because Yingchuan was actually a special economic zone for the Khitans and the Han people of the Liao Kingdom. By the time of Yingchuan, there were actually many Liao people, and even Khitans among the Liao people, walking across the road.

There were even those who cried loudly.

It seems that he is more popular among these Liao people than among the Han people.

Originally, he heard that Xiao Chuo was in Yingchuan now, and wanted to see his son. After all, his relationship with Xiao Chuo was awkward, and they were both so busy, and Xiao Chuo refused to let him see his son alone. , afraid that he would take the child away, so that his son might not be able to see him for several months.

Now, this is nothing. There may be many people waiting in front.

In fact, this kind of farewell procession did not stop until the gate of Kaifeng City, and it was obvious that the closer to Kaifeng, the more people lined the streets to welcome him.

Zhao Kuangyin himself was drinking on the top of the city while watching Zhao Guangmei enter the city. Seeing this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and said: "I just stepped down from the position of emperor before, and I didn't get this kind of treatment. What the hell is this third child doing?" It wins the hearts of the people."

(End of this chapter)