Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

In the midst of gloom and gloom, when it was hit by the fire, Chongwen Academy, which should have suffered the most due to the nature of the books, was able to retreat almost completely. The fact that it only hurt the skin is particularly eye-catching.

Moreover, after the inventory was made, the losses everywhere were shocking, lest the emperor would be furious and punish the related caretakers, including the provincial official who personally reported the disaster to the government, all let go of their concern for this man who was destined to take this opportunity. The jealousy of the handsome man who was blown by the east wind, he was determined that if the officials asked him in detail, he would not hide anything, and he would praise him greatly.

Sure enough, Zhao Heng and Wang Dan, who were mentally prepared for the worst, couldn't help but look overjoyed when they first heard the news.

Wang Dan realized that he was ahead of His Majesty, and after asking that sentence out of composure, he fell silent again.

The official didn't notice the slight gaffe of the usually prudent prime minister, and kept asking the official about how the Chongwen Academy managed to keep the countless schools under the leadership of Lu Ci, who was only a second-ranking official. Book collectors come.

The official was also taken aback when he heard the good news. In order to prevent the people of Chongwen Academy from talking nonsense for fear of being punished, he took extra care when he personally inspected and counted the losses.

After knowing that this statement was true, Fang Fang carefully asked about the situation at that time, and naturally it was impossible to miss Lu Ci's excellent performance.

Whether it is planning for a rainy day, or not being afraid in the face of danger, and organizing the on-duty personnel without hesitation, fighting the fire in an orderly manner, and even not forgetting to rush back to rescue the other two museums when there is leisure, all of them are extremely eye-catching.

Even if the truth is not exaggerated, just plain and straightforward, it is enough for Zhao Heng to listen with gusto.

Zhao Heng tirelessly asked him to tell the story of Lu Ci's firefighting four or five times over and over again, and he had obviously figured out all the details, but he still had something to say, so he looked at Wang Dan with a smile and said, "Xiang Wang, what a fellow!" A hero is born in a boy! At first, I only thought that although he was young, he was talented and handsome, and he looked like a celebrity, so I looked at him differently. Looking at it now, this rare and precious courage is not the spirit of Zaifu? No I blame you for saying that Beidi is so handsome, with this little cunning boy, it is worth thousands of people!"

Now that the results are in front of his eyes, Chongwen Academy is almost intact. In Zhao Heng's eyes, Lu Ci, who has always been admired and promoted by him, has become extremely pleasing to the eye.

Wang Dan saw that the official's Long Yan was very happy, and he was no longer gloomy before, and his heart was completely at ease.

In contrast, he paid more attention to Lu Ci's character revealed from this incident.

Only in the position of a small official of Jixian School, he dared to stand up in times of crisis and turn the tide. The difficulties of Su Quanyuan showed that he had a sincere heart and extraordinary ability.

Moreover, a few months ago, Lu Ci was repeatedly made things difficult by his superiors, even impeached, but he never felt any anger.

Not to mention that he never played to defend himself and complained about his grievances, which led to intensified conflicts.

Just do what's within your bounds without being humble or overbearing, and keep things in peace, so that the courtyard can continue to operate peacefully.

At such a young age, not only is he not competitive, he is greedy for fame, and he is willing to take responsibility for his superiors. Quite a national style.

——Wang Dan, who had a huge misunderstanding, naturally had no way of knowing, eating, drinking and meeting friends with Lu Ci's public funds was calm and happy, of course he didn't feel wronged from the beginning to the end, so he didn't care about him.

He smiled slightly and said: "Fortunately, with His Majesty's benevolent government, clear political principles, and many talented people in the world, there is a chance to stand out."

Zhao Heng naturally liked to hear these words, and laughed "haha" happily: "If I forget to reward him, Prime Minister Wang needs to remind me."

Wang Dan responded graciously.

Lu Ci knew nothing about this conversation.

Even if rewards and punishments are to be made based on merits and demerits, it will take a long time. At least the court and the middle will have to argue vigorously for ten and a half months before the emperor can make a decision and draw a specific conclusion.

He is very satisfied with a leisurely life with imperial meals every two days and without the constraints of his immediate superiors, and he doesn't care about promotion or not.

Even in his opinion, if the losses in other places are so severe, the officials will be extremely distressed. If they can escape without reward or punishment, everyone will be happy.

Chongwenyuan is undoubtedly the least affected building among the many buildings involved in the fire. Not only did it preserve the out-of-print ancient books, but the engraving blocks of those burned books are still there.

However, Chongwenyuan itself, which was designed by Emperor Taizong himself and promoted by people to build it, has stood among the palaces for decades and made the people of Beijing proud. However, it was still burned down to nothing but an empty frame, broken bricks and broken tiles.

The imperial court opened up the list and recruited craftsmen, and the supply of craftsmen suddenly became short of demand, and they would inevitably give priority to rebuilding the Rongwang Mansion, the palace gate and other places that were the source of the fire.

For the Chongwen Academy, it has to be a little slower.

The thousands of books rescued could not withstand the wind and the sun, so they temporarily built several outer courts beside the original Chongwen Institute, which were enough to shelter from the wind and rain and store books.

However, the place for library staff to handle official business has become extremely crude.

However, in such a plummeting working environment, the busyness has increased greatly.

The work of arranging the engravings and reprinting the burned books alone was enough to keep everyone busy without touching the ground, and there was no hope of returning to the leisurely state that Lu Ci was looking forward to.

After all, the sources of the original official editions include Guozijian, Chongwenyuan, Secretaryjian, Sitianjian, and Correction Medical Bookstore.

There was a fire that directly burned down the Chongwen Academy and the Secretary Prison, but the number of engraved books increased sharply.

Lu Ci made a rough calculation, ignoring the other two libraries and not talking about it. The collection of books in Jixian Yuan alone will have to wait until at least April next year to complete the work of reprinting.

Because the other two halls were presided over by academicians, they both rushed to the Imperial College in person, obviously trying to scramble to print the engravings in their own halls first.

However, Su Song, an academician of the Chongwen Academy, was dismissed, and the remaining few academicians, of course, could not compete with those two academicians.

Song Shou watched helplessly as the new engraved books from the other two halls were continuously sent out from the Imperial College, while those belonging to the Jixian Academy were repeatedly put on hold.

Unavoidably feeling a little resentful and full of complaints, he resigned to Lu: "If you have to fight like this, how can you be an academician with this kind of attitude?"

Although he is a nerd, he still knows that there are some things to say, so he barely holds back.

Otherwise, he really wanted to scold those people for being ungrateful, how long did it take before Lu Ci led the officials in the Jixian Academy to help rescue the books of the other two libraries, and only then did the third library become a dangerous nest and finish laying eggs? He forgot all about it, and relied on his official position to overwhelm Lu Ci openly.

But Lu Ci didn't care, and comforted him calmly: "Although Jixian Academy has the largest collection of books, it doesn't have a side job like the other two libraries. When the superiors urged them, they were anxious, and they inevitably lost their temper when they were fighting. , is inevitable. Ziyuan please be more considerate."

Song Shou took a deep look at Lu Ci who was still smiling gently at this time, and sighed long.

This Lu Yuyu, who has been in his eyes since he first came, and whom he considers a good friend in recent days, is really too good-tempered.

If it were someone else, just the scenery of the three yuan and the first place would soon be able to raise their tails to the sky, not to mention that they are so highly favored by His Majesty, so they can be pushed into the pavilion without trying, and they will receive the second-class one as soon as they arrive. Ministry.

However, Lu Ci has no arrogance, and only does things in obscurity, which can be called aloof from the world.Even if it is this time leading the library staff to rescue books and preserve most of the merits, they only do their duties and never mention it, let alone ask for credit.

With such a soft and kind temperament, he is always bullied and made things difficult by those people, and suffers repeatedly.

No, facing this blatant act of grabbing credit, the other party was not in a hurry, but he was so angry that he couldn't stand it anymore.

When Song Shou couldn't help worrying about his friend who was too good-natured, Lu Ci happily sneaked out of his busy schedule, doing his own copying, proofreading, copying, etc. every day, and doing a steady progress. quiet salted fish.

From Lu Ci's point of view, it is obviously too slow and strenuous to complete such a huge workload just by relying on the dozens of people currently serving regularly in the pavilion.

With the imperial court's emphasis on the collection of books, it is impossible to ignore this point.

If what he expected is not bad, after the specific rewards and punishments for this fire come down, the imperial court should soon take corresponding countermeasures, and select "students" from all over the country to take up the secondary task of book collection and collection. duty.

While Lu Ci was dawdling with peace of mind, Chaozhong was also arguing about the fire.

Recently, officials have been worried about this matter, and they can't even practice immortality. They just sit on the dragon chair with their eyes open all day long, listlessly listening to the endless arguments of the people below.

Wang Dan's previous statement that he wanted to take all the responsibility on himself was not half false. Once he was sure that the officials were happy with Lu Ci Yiqun, and he had no intention of killing, he would calmly declare "to be punished" and wait in the mansion. Waiting for the hair to fall.

The officials have always attached great importance to Wang Dan, and they have to consult the other party's opinion before making a decision in everything. Of course, they are reluctant to let the "crime" of this natural disaster fall on them, so that they will lose capable people around them.

After weighing the two, he simply gave up some face, and openly issued an edict of guilt, counting the mistakes of the past few years, and wanted to cover up this matter.

Unexpectedly, only a few days after the Edict of Guilt was issued, it was finally found out that the fire in the Rong Palace was not a natural disaster, but man-made.

Since it is man-made, it is necessary to determine the responsibility and punish it.

After the detailed investigation, it was concluded that if the crimes of this shocking event were to be specifically measured, there were more than 100 people who would be subject to the death penalty.

In the face of these more than 100 lives, Zhao Heng, who has always followed the ancestor's "following the foolishness of the benevolent and never regretting it", inevitably hesitated.

And Wang Dan, who was waiting for the crime quietly, couldn't sit still for a moment when he heard about this sudden change. He hurriedly put on the form and said: "Just for this matter, not only the minister has submitted the form to wait for the crime, but even your majesty has already sent the form to the court." The crime has been edicted, and it has been made known to the world. Only a few days later, he suddenly blamed others for the cause of the disaster.

The privy envoy Kou Zhun, who had been silent for a while, also stood up and said, "In Yichen's opinion, although the fire started because of people, it is hard to put out, and it spread quickly due to the strong wind. Isn't it a 'scourge'? ?”

Zhao Heng thought so too.

He was actually dissatisfied with these officials who moved too slowly and had quarreled for several days before finally figuring out that it was man-made rather than a natural disaster.

He has already taken the responsibility for the crime and lost face before he figured out what's going on. Doesn't it seem that he doesn't know the truth of the matter and is wasting his time in vain?

So he gave up the idea of ​​pursuing responsibility, and simply avoided the crimes of the incumbent on the grounds of "saving Zuyong".

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. In the Song Dynasty, there were many engraving units of the central government, including Guozijian, Chongwenyuan, Secretaryjian, Sitianjian, and Correction Medical Bookstore.Among them, the "Jianben" engraved by Guozijian is the most and most famous. ("Cultural History of the Song Dynasty")

2. Kindness:

Wang Dan, like Zaifu of the Great Song Dynasty since Zhao Pu, is a person with the moral responsibility of "taking the world as his own responsibility".Together with Emperor Song, they paid special attention to "harmony" when deducing the peace of the world.Therefore, compared with previous dynasties, the Song Empire was the least cruel and hostile era. Cruel schemes such as "decapitation" and "destruction of the family" seem to be difficult to come from the mouths of the imperial elite.It is difficult for them to say "pull out and kill", or wave their hands and say "should be killed, should be caught", even though they have this power.In this regard, just like the words Wang Fuzhi used to comment on Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, "The benevolent are foolish but never regret", they would rather fall into the "benevolent fool" than show off their "violent spirit"; Because of the "foolishness of the benevolent", good opportunities are missed, and in the face of accidents, and the ridicule of future generations as "pedantic", they are not willing to start murder at the moment. ("300 Years of the Great Song Empire 7-Zhenzong Zhao Hengxia")

3. The specific process of pursuing responsibility is as mentioned in the article, because Lu Ci’s influence in it is limited to Jixian Academy, so there is no change.