Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

It was rare for Zhao Zhen to catch the young master, and he was willing to let him go only after he had made enough complaints.

If it wasn't for Queen Guo who also wanted to see Lu Sanyuan, she repeatedly asked the maid to find excuses to ask, and Zhao Zhen, who was keenly aware of her little thoughtfulness, had a childish monopoly...

Lu Ci was afraid that he would not be able to escape smoothly after supper, and most likely he would stay overnight in the palace.

After being sent out of the palace gate by Lin Neichen with enthusiasm and respect, riding on the royal horse, and then returned to the mansion under the escort of two Jin Wu guards, the first thing Lu Ci did was to put him in the hall. Di Qing and Liu Qi, who were chatting and waiting for him to return home, called into the study together.

"Help me pick out the books with the words 'Bao Zhu' and 'Yuan Que' on the spine, and put them on the desk."

After absent-mindedly dropping this sentence, Lu Ci first occupied a bookshelf and searched carefully.

Seeing his pensive look, Liu Qi, who was full of curiosity, didn't want to ask more questions. After looking at Di Qing who was also confused, he silently chose to obey his orders.

Although Lu Ci has been away from Beijing for a long time, in the past 15 years, he has served a total of five or six ministries in Beijing and China. The affairs and official documents he has been able to contact are countless.

In addition, he usually has the habit of copying old books and handwriting letters, which occupies the entire two-story study and warehouse, which can be said to be full of various documents, dazzling.

Although Liu Qi has always lived in Lu's residence, he seldom set foot in the sensitive study room, let alone go through Lu Ci's notes when he has nothing to do.

Facing this neatly arranged but frighteningly large pile of books, even Liu Qi felt his scalp tingle.

The three of them worked together, and it took an entire hour to find out all the materials with the 'poor note' and 'yuan que' requested by Lu Ci, and put them neatly on the filing table, making it a There are many hills that are daunting.

After being so busy for a while, the three of them were more or less ashamed. Liu Qi even felt that his arm, which hadn't held an object heavier than a pen for a long time, was so sore after so much tossing, so he simply sat down on the bench Going up, propping his chin with one hand, he asked leisurely: "I've already done this job with the little raccoon slave, so it's your turn to explain it, Yu Yu? Well done, what are you doing looking for these dusty old documents? It's not a good time to dry in the middle of the night."

While flipping through the pile of books, Lu Ci asked without raising his head, "Brother Liu, do you know how many post-paid officials in Beijing alone who have not been dispatched and paid nothing?"

Liu Qi was taken aback.

It's not like Teng Zongliang, who is in the ups and downs, who is still in the position of magistrate at the moment, nor is it like Fan Zhongyan, who is the same as the second transfer to the magistrate, who has asked for a military service and will be promoted in the near future. A "lonely and lonely" nonsense was tricked into entering Beijing, and he was lucky enough to pass the court examination. Since he entered the pavilion, his official career has been very smooth.

After avoiding the case of selling books not long ago, he fully learned his lesson and greatly reduced unnecessary human contacts. Apart from being good at writing articles as always, he mainly focused on steadily accumulating political achievements .

He is more and more cautious in his conduct, good popularity, and the experience of going to Tibet as an embassy, ​​and he is not lacking in the most important favor of officials... Finally, he successfully survived the unchanging post of the embassy, Not long ago, Shun Shun was selected to fill the vacancy of the middle school scholar.

Whether it is himself or his close friends, they are all in touch with those who are either waiting or running around in Beijing, so that after passing the four rounds of civil examinations held that year, they can be as soon as possible. Frustrated people who get the ministry of experience are too far away.

Facing Shang Luci's 'really so' gaze, Liu Qi was inexplicably guilty, and finally admitted it: "Brother Yu doesn't know."

Lu Ci didn't answer and asked again: "Brother Liu, do you know how many officials there are in Song Dynasty?"

Liu Qi hesitated and said, "Nearly ten thousand?"

"Wrong." Lu Ci patted the dossier he was looking for lightly, handed it to Di Qing, looked at Liu Qi and said, "50 years ago, there were only a little over 700 people, but when the late Emperor reigned, the number soared to 7000. Now, the number of staff has almost doubled to [-]."

"There are so many!"

Even Liu Qi, who had little idea about money, was completely taken aback by this number.

"Otherwise, why was I in such a hurry to turn against the Liao people?" Lu Ci joked, and said in a serious tone: "Most officials serve in the seventies, but His Majesty loves talents, and he will give a tribute every three years, and every time he is selected There are more and more cases... This number will only continue to increase. Not to mention the huge expenses caused by the war, the payment of salaries to officials alone will empty the treasury sooner or later .”

This sentence is really not alarmist.

"Source" is not easy to open, but "flow" is getting more and more complicated.

When Zhao Zhen first succeeded to the throne, he hadn't realized the seriousness of this problem, and even wanted to try out the "special name" system out of sympathy for those aged candidates.

As soon as it came out this year, Li Di, who was still the prime minister at the time, agreed very much, saying that His Majesty was kind and merciful, and asked the little emperor to go to Xin Luci to seek praise, but the next moment he was severely poured cold water.

Lu Ci didn't talk nonsense, and directly made a clear chart of the country's financial situation over the years, marked it with simple notes, and sent it back.

Although he almost forgot all the history he had learned, he had long been extremely pessimistic about the turbulent border situation in the middle of it. To plan for a rainy day, he naturally paid close attention to the news from the Ji Division.

As soon as the system of special performances comes out, although the selection of the candidates depends entirely on the court's decision, it will definitely bring about a bad atmosphere of "study to the end and don't work hard".

Most of these elderly and talented scholars, even if they were selected by special performances, could no longer serve the country.

Due to his soft-spoken nature, although Lu Ci was not optimistic about the financial aspect, he still tried his best to obtain some basic data from friends who worked in the Ministry of Finance, and then sorted it out by himself.

Looking at the amount of money and food in various places, which was only barely at the same level and was still vaguely falling, Zhao Zhen, who had always been frugal, felt chills in his heart instantly, and completely dispelled his tenderness.

Even though the Song Dynasty was the most affluent fertile land in the eyes of the world, it had to pay the Liao coins, send rewards to the dependent forces, continuous natural disasters and man-made disasters, and wars that lasted for more than two years...all of which made the treasury It's getting tighter and tighter, and I can't make ends meet.

Thanks to the complete victory against Xia Guo, the next part of the loss can be made up by sharing the results with Tubo.

"The 7000 manpower does not include those who have not been dispatched." Lu Ci shook his head and said: "Although most of them have low official ranks and low salaries, they are too large to be ignored. However Although Beijing is full of officials, whenever the government wants to send more officials to Guangnan Road, which is located in a remote location, the weather is terrible, and the folk customs are tough, most of the families with a little wealth will stay away. I'm afraid it's too late."

They would rather continue to wait idle in the capital, waiting to snatch a good job that will be vacated at some point, rather than risk leaving the capital. Only then can he return to Beijing.

Such a cycle has gradually formed an embarrassing situation where there is a serious redundancy in the central government, and there is a shortage of officials in the remote areas.

Liu Qi's face was serious, and the more he listened to it, the more startled he became, at this moment he couldn't help asking: "Does Yu Yu have a clever plan?"

"For this stubborn disease, we should use strong medicine and ruthless hands." Lu Ci said flatly: "First, let's kill the chickens to scare the monkeys."

"Who?" Liu Qi asked subconsciously.

Lu Ci remained silent, and just pushed forward another case file in his hand.

Liu Qi took a closer look, and it turned out that the unlucky 'chicken' being targeted by his friends was none other than Xia Song.

He vaguely felt a little strange, and explored: "I rarely see you hate others deeply."

Except for Wang Qinruo and Han Zhongcheng, even Ding Wei, who has always been diametrically opposed, is probably not as disgusted as Xia Song in Lu Ci's mind.

Liu Qi couldn't help feeling puzzled.

However, it is well known that although Xia Song's poems are quite good, his reputation among scholars has always been bad - his method of framing his colleagues and insisting on killing them all once he makes a move is the main reason .

What Liu Qi despises most about him is Xia Song, who is an adopted orphan. After his adoptive father was killed in a night battle against the Liao army, he failed to gain half of his adoptive father's blood. At the time of Khitan, the emperor said: "When the father died, the king's affairs, the body and the mother were worried. If the righteousness does not honor the sky, it is difficult to go down to worship in the dome; the ceremony is a pillow, and I can hear the sound of barbarian music" and insisted on refusing to go.

Even if this watch can be called the perfect combination of four or six couples and is appreciated and praised by others, it can hardly conceal his nature of greed for life and fear of death.

It is also inevitable to remind people how he, who was awarded the military post of the third class by relying on the pension of his adoptive father who died in the post, stopped the prime minister Li Hang's car, impressing him with his poetry collection, so he turned from martial arts to writing, and finally became the director of Danyang County post.

Compared with Zhang Kang, who was willing to abandon literature and pursue martial arts, Lu Ci, who has been in town for many years, has been sent to Tubo many times, and single-handedly promoted the Song-Tibet alliance, is far behind.

As the target of Lu Ci's operation, the reason of "crying and refusing to go to Khitan" is obvious, but Liu Qi finally noticed some subtleties.

Lu Ci didn't say why, but fell into deep thought.

After Xia Song refused to go to Khitan in a high-sounding manner, he was able to be promoted to a noble all the way, and it went smoothly. Of course, he did not rely on his mediocre political achievements, nor was he just good at writing and writing.

What really benefited him was the year when he served as the prince and Taifu.

Zhao Zhenzhai has a kind heart and always misses the old love. Apart from his favorite "little master" Lu Ci, he has always been respectful and caressed several former mentors.

From the day he ascended the throne, Xia Song was promoted to the doctor of the household department, and then successively served as the magistrate of Shouzhou, Anzhou and Hongzhou.

Because of this relationship, Xia Song is the best candidate to take the knife when rectifying the atmosphere: if the emperor has always been gentle, humble, and considerate of his subjects, this time even the old teacher has punished him, which shows his determination.

In this way, those ordinary candidates who only dare to wait and see naturally dare not act rashly.

And this is the most difficult point - one can imagine the difficulty of convincing the soft-hearted little emperor to severely punish his former wife.

After thinking about it all night, Lu Ci took Di Qing with him the next night, but he went to visit Wang Zeng.