Back to the Song Dynasty as a tyrant

All the ministers were silent.

The most bluffing type of people on weekdays shrank their heads aside today, even breathing carefully.

For example, Li Chunyou was deeply afraid of getting involved.

After a moment of silence, Cai Mao came out and said, "Your Majesty Qizuo, I believe that this matter should indeed be strictly investigated, but the court must also make preparations for new officials to take office, and it cannot be as simple as a strict investigation."

Zhao Ning said: "Everything must have a cause before it can have an effect. If you want the original, you need to clear the source. Come and tell me, why did it become like this?"

"As His Majesty said, there is a problem at the source, the country's supervisory system has collapsed, and people are overstaffed."

"That's all?"

Zhao Ding came out, and he said: "Your Majesty Qizuo, from the current point of view, there are four problems reflected in this matter."

"First, there is indeed a problem with the supervision. The supervision from the local criminals and prisons to the capital's Yushitai has failed. At least it involves such a large and wide-ranging issue, but no one reported it."

"Second, the number of officials is redundant, and they push each other."

"Third, the financial audit of the household department is insufficient, and the financial accounts are chaotic and unclear."

"Fourth, the evaluation of officials from all walks of life is not strict, and the annual performance evaluation of officials at all levels is perfunctory."

"This kind of superposition has resulted in overstaffing, and there are countless embezzlers."

Zhao Ding deserves to be Zhao Ding.

What is a prime minister?

The prime minister is to assist the king in managing the state affairs.

The prime minister is not playing tricks every day as many laymen think.

If you are separated from the machinations of state affairs, it is not doing your job properly.

But in the vast government affairs, it is even more difficult to sort out a clear framework.

Ordinary people will only say that the laws of the country are not strict and that supervision needs to be strengthened, or that those officials are immoral and that they need to improve their integrity.

"What the great minister said is reasonable." Zhao Guanjia's voice was still cold.

"Just, why does the supervision fail?"

"Why are there redundant officials?"

"Why is there insufficient audit by the household department?"

"Why are officials not strictly assessed?

Zhao Guanjia asked four times in a row, and every time he asked, it was as if he was suppressed by a mighty force.

The ministers trembled in their hearts. It seems that Zhao Guan's family is really going to strip this matter away today.

When it comes to redundant officials in the Song Dynasty, some people will say that because of the high status of civil servants, many people are willing to be officials.

actually not!

The direct reason for the excess of redundant officials in the Song Dynasty is very strange.

Zhao Ding continued to answer: "The redundancy of officials is due to the excess number of Enyin."

As soon as he said this, the atmosphere in the hall was completely different.

The scope of the Enyin system in the Song Dynasty is wide, there are many names, and the amount is excessive, which is unprecedented.

The children, grandchildren, relatives, and even disciples of high-ranking officials are all likely to be promoted to nobles through grace, and the level of officials' positions determines the degree of grace and treatment they enjoy.

"The prime minister can shade ten people, six attendants, and four senior officials. In addition, after the death of the court minister, he can often shade many people at one time, and some people can shade more than 20 people."

"Such a flood of officials, without the imperial examination, are only favored, and the number has increased dramatically, but the number of positions is limited. Try a county with three county magistrates, four soldiers and cao join the army, and some prefectures even have six prefectures."

"That's why the number of officials in the country has never been greater than in ancient times."

"However, the harm of redundant officials is that there are too many people to cover each other, and the lack of auditing is because the Audit Office was established last year and the construction has not yet been completed."

"However, even if the construction is complete, there are so many officials, and the power of auditing will increase!"

"As for the lack of strict assessment, it is true that the chaos of official recommendation is endless. Some officials recommend the officials below to take the position. The recommended person has no political achievements after taking the position, but they live in peace."

This is not a big deal.

There were so many types of central departments in the Song Dynasty, and there were also all kinds of strange things.

It even appeared that a person was appointed to two completely different positions by the Privy Council and the Eastern Mansion at the same time.

After Zhao Ding said these words, the court hall was even more silent.

What is reform?

This is the deep water zone of reform.

self-innovation.

From the Qingli reform in Fan Zhongyan's era, it was discussing the abuse of redundant officials, to Wang Anshi's reform in Shenzong's era, which still cannot be resolved.

why?

Because the Song Dynasty relied on pleasing the scholar-bureaucrats to maintain its rule.

This is the root!

Not to mention that the Tang Dynasty was reasonable. The Tang Dynasty relied on a powerful family, and the poor family had no future.

The Song Dynasty relied on scholar-officials to govern the country, which itself is the progress of the times, but it is obviously overkill.

As for what Zhao Ding said today, in fact, everyone present knows it well, but because they are all vested interests, they will naturally pretend to be confused.

The so-called military and political reform, this time the corruption case is not just about pulling out corrupt officials.

It's just killing people, treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

If those with vested interests pretend to be confused, then Zhao Ning will be in the court and let people tear all the layers apart.

It is the most powerful to be torn apart by the prime minister.

This is what reformers do!

The admonisher Li Yu immediately came out and said: "Your Majesty, Zhao Xianggong has selfish intentions, and the government supports scholars in case of emergencies. Therefore, the contribution of scholar-bureaucrats cannot be denied."

Advisers, a super group in the Song Dynasty, were specially set up to check and balance the prime minister, and they were one of the ways in which the imperial power suppressed the prime minister.

Many prime ministers in the Song Dynasty were very afraid of admonishing officials. For example, the famous Wang Anshi was surrounded by admonishing officials.

The admonisher's voice is very important, it's not as simple as simply offering an opinion.

As soon as Li Zhuo came out, the atmosphere changed again. Many people took action when they saw the remonstrance court, intending to suppress Zhao Ding's remarks.

Obviously, now is not the time for right and wrong, it is a question of interests.

Zhao Guanjia was the first to say: "You step down first, the court of remonstrance is not allowed to speak today!"

"His Majesty……"

Zhao Ning slapped the Tianzi Sword on the table and said angrily, "Back off!"

Li Yu was so frightened that he hurriedly stepped aside, he did not expect Zhao Guan's family to go to court with swords today.

The rest of the officials who wanted to come out also shrank back.

Everyone knows that Zhao Guan's family smashed things in Wende Hall yesterday.

Zhao Guan's family is on fire, so it's better not to touch this bad luck.

Moreover, everyone thinks that it is justifiable for the officials to be angry, after all, such a big corruption case is here.

This is the mind trick in power tactics: I am angry, but I still want everyone to think that my anger is justifiable, rather than making trouble for no reason.

Zhao Ning glared for a week and said, "What Mr. Zhao said makes sense!"

"The Shaanxi pension corruption case has given me a wake-up call! If this continues, how can we continue to fight!"

"They want the gold men to level down Hebei and Shaanxi, and let the gold thieves come to the city again!"

"They did this to destroy the world!"

"Don't change it! The world is in danger!"

Gao Qiu was the first to shout: "Your Majesty is wise!"

Only then did the crowd come to their senses, and shouted: "Your Majesty is holy!"

"Lu Zai!"

Lu Zai came out: "Order the Audit Court to review all related accounts in Shaanxi!"

"The minister leads the order!"

"Qin Hui!"

"Chen is here!"

"All offenders will be sent to prison for trial!"

"The minister leads the order!"

"The Yushitai, the Ministry of Criminal Justice, the Dali Temple, the Military Governor's Mansion, and the Audit Office, let me investigate one by one, and you, Qin Hui, will preside over it!"

"The minister leads the order!"

"Zhao Ding!"

"Chen is here!"

"Fill the vacant officials within a time limit, order the East Mansion to submit the "Great Song Dynasty Redundant Officials Reduction Policy Theory" and "Jingkang Official Performance Appraisal Regulations"!"

"The minister leads the order!"

"Zhang Shen, Zhang Bi, Wang Xie, Yi clan!"

Chapter 348 The Huizhou Military Change (Part [-])

Some people say that the Zhao family relied on bullying the orphans and widows to get the position, so they did not get the right position, so they reused civil servants.

This kind of statement is basically a labeled stereotype based on only reading a certain excerpt from a textbook. It is an isolated view of history.

Chinese history is a set of social development history, Chinese people pay great attention to historical records, and pay attention to the collection of historical materials.

why?

Because the Chinese have long understood that historical materials are important documents for the continuation of civilization. Historical materials provide many pitfalls. The improvement of future generations, whether it is people's livelihood, politics or military affairs, requires reference to historical materials.

Therefore, Chinese history is a set of rigorous social evolution history, which is connected with each other through successive dynasties.

It is incomplete to see Song history in isolation.

After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the royal family ruled the country by powerful families.

But with the passage of time, the aristocratic family swelled and became rigid, completely blocking the upward channel of the poor family.

In a sense, the Anshi Rebellion was actually a class struggle, a war launched by poor scholars in the frontier who had nowhere to devote themselves to the monopoly of powerful families.

The Anshi Rebellion broke out in 755 AD, An Lushan died in 757, but the Anshi Rebellion lasted for eight years.

If this rebellion was just An Lushan's personal ambition, it would naturally disintegrate quickly with An Lushan's death.

But the real reason behind it is the concentrated outbreak of class contradictions.

Since then, the era of feudal separatism has ushered in.

Until the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao, a humble scholar who had no ambitions, killed all the thousand-year-old nobles with five surnames and seven wangs by the Yellow River, and the structure of ancient Chinese society suddenly broke down.

The aristocratic nobles who have inherited knowledge for thousands of years are gone.

There is a vacuum in the high ground of power, morality and public opinion in society.

As a result, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms entered the bloodiest and most brutal troubled times.

After almost every generation of emperors of the Central Plains came to power quickly, they wanted to reproduce the glory of the Tang Dynasty and rule the world.

However, none of them can solve a problem: how to govern the world when the nobles are gone?

Frequent coups and wars drained everyone's patience, and the emperors were unable to find a new system to fill the destroyed old system in the troubled times.

Until the appearance of Zhao Kuangyin.

Song Taizu can be included in that person, not only because he created the Great Song Dynasty.

After the disintegration of the decayed and disappeared old system, he recreated a new social structure.