Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Just as the concerned courtiers guessed at this time, His Majesty first collected all the evidence in private and suddenly attacked the former prince teacher Xia Song in the court, which was just the beginning of a storm.

Before they had time to feel the sadness of the death of the rabbit, they watched the always low-key second assistant Wang Zeng and the newly appointed third assistant Lu Ci go into battle in person, raised the banner of rectifying redundant officials, and impeached nearly a hundred officials.

As soon as this chapter came out, apart from Kou Zhun and others who had heard about it for a long time, there was an uproar in the court!

This frighteningly long list is actually not complete: the relationship between civil servants who have the qualifications to rise to the court can be described as intricate, or they were friends in the same year, or they were related to each other.

Which family doesn't have a relative who is not good enough, who gets promoted through yin and yang, but who is unwilling to endure hardship?Which family doesn't have a valued student or son-in-law who doesn't want him to stay away from the capital and become an insignificant official, but stays in the middle of the capital, waiting for the day when the relationship will be cleared up?

If it's just to deal with Xia Song, it's fine, but Wang Zeng and Lu Ciyu are not surprised and die endlessly, their appetite is too great, they insist on stabbing the whole hornet's nest, and they are willing to bow their heads and admit the bad!

After being caught off guard by Wang and Lu, those who were impeached quickly became entangled. Among them, Wang Su, a privy clerk who had the right to know the Kaifeng mansion, spoke the most violently.

In objecting to this matter, he took a very slanted approach. Instead of directly speaking for the candidate, he pointed the finger at Lu Ci.

He first spread the word everywhere to build momentum: a few years ago, the imperial court set up a department to select generals, and won Di Qing, Zhong Shiheng and Yang Wenguang. west road.However, West Road clearly needs to attack powerful figures like Li Yuanhao, the Lord of Xia, but only a few mediocre generals are given to Fan Gong.After that, he deliberately sent General Cao Wei, who was powerful and famous because he was in the army, so that the unknowing people saw the sharp contrast and talked a lot. The public can't argue with it - such a scheming, it's really despicable and selfish!

And the reason why Lu Ci did this was not to take advantage of the "favor" given to the examiner in the past, so as to get the reward from his subordinates?He already has the power, so he transferred to this road with the position of prime minister, used the talent of the good general under his command in the past, and had all the surrounding roads fully cooperate to send food, grass and soldiers to provide assistance... How can he be invincible in supervising the battle like this? reason?If Fan Gong were to switch positions with him, he would surely win easily!

In the eyes of the young and arrogant Wang Su, compared with Wang Zeng, who came from the Wang family lineage in Taiyuan, Lu Ci came from a poor family. At such a young age, he was promoted to Jixianxiang.

Behind that seemingly lofty status, the background and foundation are extremely weak, and it is also the easiest to attack because of the fastest promotion and the lightest qualifications.

Wang Su had been jealous of Lu Ci for a long time, and he was even more resentful compared to him who was one year younger but had already been promoted to the position destined to be prosperous in Chengdu Road.

Facing this opportunity, after thinking about it for a while, he completely ignored Wang Zeng's leading role, and only grabbed Lu Ci and attacked with all his might.

——A few hours later, Wang Su regretted that his intestines were green.

Lu Ci, who has no in-laws, no background, and even his parents died early, is not at all what he thinks he is a strong outsider.

When Lu Ci was still unknown in Mizhou, he valued the maintenance of human relations. After entering the official career, how could he be lonely?

It’s just that he is different from relying on his in-laws to make friends with high-ranking officials, or attending the Yaji Poetry Club to make friends through literature. He focuses more on making friends with the colleagues he can get in touch with every time he is on a errand. .

He first made friends with the Song family and his son Yan Shu who "borrowed books and never returned them" when he was working in the pavilion, and they are still his close friends to this day.

In fact, Lu Ci didn't take Wang Suduo seriously: Compared with Ji Xianxiang who has real power, the so-called Privy Scholars have always been just a false title, and the affairs he can manage in the Kaifeng Mansion with his powers are only casual. On the surface, it's mostly trivial, big things... It's not his turn to come forward at all.

The reason why Wang Su, who has little power, jumps up and down is just that a small angry youth is driven by the small group behind him, so he will take it for granted to chase him and bite him non-stop, never thinking of the seriousness of offending him.

However, Lu Ci didn't care, and his friends couldn't sit still anymore—one size counts for one size, if you speak for those candidates who don't want to "give in easily" after ten years of hard work That's all, but Wang Su's fallacious and slanderous remarks are all irrational words to vent his prejudice, jealousy and dissatisfaction. ?

It was almost when Wang Su's momentum was first built up. Lu Ci's friends who were distributed in various institutions in central Beijing, except for occasionally going to teahouses to drink tea and chat with him, who had hardly met each other on weekdays, moved at the same time. up.

——In the early morning of the next day, Wang Su, who was full of ambition, had not had time to hand in the carefully written new booklet, but was flushed red with more mean and vicious words by Lu Ci's friends who appeared almost in line.

Although they are not the high and powerful people who can be seen at a glance, they are definitely not the humble people who can tolerate negligence.

Among them, Liu Qi, who is the most "brazen" and the most intimate with Lu Ci, even painted several copies of "Zhao Kuo Going to Battle" overnight, vividly depicting the enemy soldiers who were killed by Zhao Kuo holding a scroll and boasting. The scene of frightened shit, crying father and mother clearly alludes to Wang Su.

Until this time, some courtiers who did not have a deep understanding of the extent of Lu Ci's acquaintances realized that Lu Ci, who usually does not show his talents and has been impeached several times before, seems to have few people to help him, is actually very popular. .

As for Kou Zhun, who didn't even bother to go to the letter, he scorned him face to face: "What are you doing in the name of Duke Fan? What you want to say is probably 'If you go, you can win big', not Duke Fan." I thought, since I want to say 'send you', why don't I just make up some nonsense that sending a pig can win?"

Wang Su was ashamed and angry.

What completely crushed Wang Su's fighting spirit was a note specially written by Fan Yong, who was temporarily unemployed at home, after hearing about it several times.

Although Fan Yong had no achievements in the military, he was not pedantic. Especially after more than a year of suffering on the Western Front, he saw clearly that the real bloody battle was not something that could be dealt with on paper.

Although he was transferred away from the road, he was awkwardly in the position of returning to Beijing to find a job, but he quickly calmed down. While paying close attention to the battle against Xia, he grew flowers and wrote poems to relieve the lingering depression.

When the news of the two-line victory and Yuan Hao's death came, the big stone in his chest was completely put down, and he couldn't help but drink a few more glasses of wine to celebrate.

Wang Su used him as an excuse to criticize Lu Ci, but he was not willing to go into this muddy water!

In the excerpt, Fan Yong first sincerely introspects, and then praises General Cao Wei’s achievements in using soldiers like a god, Di Qing’s ability to predict the enemy’s opportunities first, and Lu Ci’s appointment of people. Even though the whole article does not really refute Wang Su’s words, but It is also enough to prove that he strongly disapproves of the absurd rhetoric of 'you can easily win by yourself'.

Wang Su retreated in despair.

Zhao Zhen listened patiently to their arguing, but he just listened.

He was very angry this time, and he was determined to follow Xia Song's bad vine to rectify this unhealthy trend, but he didn't show it at all on his face.

Only half a month later, when the new order was resolutely implemented, the mistakes made by Wang Su and other six family members who made the most trouble were shaken out in court.

Zhao Zhen, who has always turned a blind eye to the doctor's section, only left a little room for these six people this time: he didn't drag them away in court, and he didn't demote them to the end, but they were all demoted. To them, the punishment of being transferred to a border town as a magistrate is probably as uncomfortable as death.

Kou Zhun, who had discussed with several people in Zhongshu before, seized the right time and took the initiative to come forward when the two sides were at the most "stalemate", so as to soften the strict decree: from the original, once the foreign appointment is rejected without reason, the immediate The identity of the candidate is stripped, and the ten-year non-hiring clause is changed from ten years to three years, during which no salary will be paid; if more than two times of refusal to be appointed, not only the number of years will be accumulated, but a fine shall be imposed as appropriate.

Seeing that the goal was achieved, the result was much more than expected. Zhao Zhen resolutely followed the advice of the ministers and accepted it as soon as he saw it. Those who were sent to be 'disciplined' and paid the fine managed to be promoted to a higher level, and one of them had full qualifications, so he directly filled the vacancy left by Xia Song.

The government's clear rewards and punishments made the turmoil stop faster - for the really high-ranking and powerful families, the punishment of the new order is actually nothing, and the fine is even less worth mentioning.

But for most ambitious candidates who are not well-off and only expect a miracle to happen to them, it is enough to dispel their fluke mentality, obediently obey the assignment, and go to remote areas to work.

Of course, Zhao Zhen can't give much trust to these people who are greedy for pleasure and have high vision and low power, but the more remote the place, the less official management it is.

It is not allowed to entrust military power or important tasks, but it is more than enough to take over some tedious but indispensable errands.

Just after Zhao Zhen solved the long-standing malpractice of redundant staff, and a month later, the concluding battle of the Song-Tibetan coalition forces against the Xia army, which lost its lord and formed a mess of scattered sand, has also been accomplished.

In the early years, General Cao Wei, who had been regarded as the stronghold of the Song Dynasty because of his victory in a hundred battles, had reached the pinnacle this time and was full of glory. After Zhao Zhen issued an edict three times and asked four times, he finally passed the affairs on the day when the dust of the battle situation settled. Pass it on to the deputy general and return to Beijing first.

Cao Wei had long wanted to return to Beijing for the elderly. This time, Fa Xia originally thought that he was doomed to suffer hardships because he had to accept the mess left by Fan Yong, but unexpectedly, the Eastern Front had always played a strong and powerful containment role, making the progress of the war faster than he expected. Think too easily.

Accustomed to fighting alone and always on guard against open guns and hidden arrows, Cao Wei, who hadn't experienced such a hearty victory for a long time, missed his family in Beijing day and night for the first time, and unconsciously devoted himself to it.

It wasn't until the Xia Kingdom was destroyed and the land was roughly swallowed up by the Song and Tubo armies that he rekindled his longing for his family.

When he got the third edict to recall, Cao Wei finally chose to be kind and daring, and he was a bold man with a high degree of skill.

After [-] days and nights, I finally arrived at Kaifeng City, where the lotus in Jinming Pond was in full bloom in the hot summer of June.

Coincidentally, he and his friend for many years, the Liao Mission, arrived on the same day.