Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

When Fan Zhongyan arrived in Tokyo, the struggle between the Empress Dowager Party and the Kou Xiang Party reached a delicate balance, and the two sides temporarily died down during the intermission.

As an excellent political talent, he keenly smelled the residual smell of gunpowder in the air where the gunpowder smoke cleared.

Fan Zhongyan didn't care about the intrigue between the Queen Mother and Duke Lai.

In his view, whether it is the Empress Dowager gaining power or Kou Gong gaining power, there is no additional benefit to the common people in the world, it is just a useless and boring fight.

The nobles and dignitaries sitting firmly in the temple do not think about how to plead for the people every day, but devote their lives tirelessly to the struggle for power and profit.It is really sad that the taxation of the people actually feeds such a group of useless people.

He hated it.

At this time, Fan Zhongyan hoped that the little emperor could grow up immediately, take charge of the government immediately, and end this ridiculous and harmful struggle.

In the opinion of this loyal and patriotic Confucian scholar, the emperor's sageness will definitely clear away all the confusion and restore the sky in Taiping.

But at least for now, he can only hold his nose and endure the smog in the court, accept the appointment of the Queen Mother and Kou Gong as the Minister of Rites, and serve as the chief examiner in the imperial examination a few months later.

Because of this, Fan Zhongyan was depressed and unhappy.

On a certain holiday, Fan Zhongyan was sitting at home, reading Mandarin.

Having rejected the wooing of the Queen Mother and Kou Gong, he is in an embarrassing situation of being isolated by his colleagues.

However, the sparrow knows the lofty ambitions, and Fan Zhongyan enjoys himself by reading Mandarin at home.

Suddenly the old servant came to report: "Master, there is a father-in-law from the palace asking to see him."

Fan Zhongyan raised his head and couldn't help laughing: "How do you know he is the father-in-law in the palace?"

The old servant replied: "His chin is smooth and his complexion is as white as dough. Of course he is the father-in-law of the palace."

Fan Zhongyan frowned and said: "Since I entered Beijing, I have determined not to get involved in party disputes. I can avoid banquets with my colleagues. Now that the eunuch comes out of the palace and wants to see me, is it because the Queen Mother wants to intervene in the imperial examination?"

After thinking about it, he said to the old servant: "Go and tell the person outside the door that I feel cold occasionally and am bedridden. Tell him to go back."

The old servant took the order to go out, and came back after a while, holding a piece of paper in his hand: "The father-in-law refused to go back, saying that no matter what illness you get, master, you will be cured after seeing this piece of paper."

Fan Zhongyan took the piece of paper into his hand, looked at it carefully, and was startled: "Why..."

He hurriedly asked the old servant to welcome him to the main hall, and went back to the inner room to change into a suit of hospitality.

It turned out that there was a vermilion seal on the paper, which said "the emperor respectfully conferred the treasure of destiny".

This eunuch was sent by the emperor!

After Fan Zhongyan changed his clothes and came to the main hall, he saw a middle-aged man in his thirties standing in the hall, wearing royal blue satin clothes, tall and thin, with a white face and beardless, he was indeed an eunuch.

The eunuch claimed to be the eunuch in front of the emperor, named Liu En, who was ordered by the emperor to call Fan Zhongyan into the palace. He said that the emperor was very moved when he heard about his hard work when he was young, and wanted to see him in person.

As a Confucian official, Fan Zhongyan was naturally elated to be summoned by the emperor, so he changed into an official uniform and entered the palace.

Liu En said with a smile: "Don't bother, what the officials want to see is people, not clothes. Mr. Fan's outfit is very good, there is no need to change it."

So Fan Zhongyan entered the palace in a commoner suit and met Zhao Yiyi.

Zhao Yiyi looked curiously at Fan Zhongyan who was kneeling in front of him. This was the first time he saw a celebrity in a textbook.

He opened Fan Zhongyan's panel, looked at the wisdom, morality and loyalty approaching 100, and nodded with satisfaction.

It seems that he has found the right person, and this is the best candidate for the No. [-] figure of the Royalist Party.

Brother Xiwen, let's build a prosperous and powerful Song together with me!

"Fan Qing please stand up, Liu En, give Fan Qing a seat."

Liu En moved a stool for Fan Zhongyan, and Fan Zhongyan sat down neither humble nor overbearing.

I'm so excited to see the emperor, but I can't show it, I have to be calm, eh.

The emperor looks so young, he is really only 12 years old, and he doesn't know when he will be able to take charge of the government, alas.

Zhao Yiyi leaned forward slightly: "Fan Qing, it is said that you only drank a bowl of porridge and ate a little pickle every day when you were studying. Is it true?"

Fan Zhongyan said: "Don't dare to lie to the officials, the young ministers are poor, that's true."

Zhao Yiyi said: "I understand."

"Fan Qing is rich now, can he still refrain from extravagance and prefer frugality?"

Fan Zhongyan bowed his head and said: "Food and clothing, as long as you can satisfy your hunger and keep out the cold. Of course, I can't cook porridge like before, but I can still do it for non-guests who don't pay attention to meat and respect food."

Zhao Yiyi smiled: "Fan Qing, you are confused. You should have said just now that you are still as frugal as before, and only drink one bowl of porridge a day. Otherwise, I heard that you are eating meat now, and I think you are no longer frugal. But what should I do?"

Fan Zhongyan was stunned: "A subject cannot deceive the emperor."

Zhao Yiyi nodded: "I appreciate Fan Qing's ability to seek truth from facts. Because only those who seek truth from facts are the ones who can really do things."

"Fan Qing was born in Wu County, Suzhou, do you know anything about Jiangnan Tea Policy?"

Fan Zhongyan said: "I don't know much about it. I only know that the government has a mountain farm in the south of the Yangtze River. All the tea produced by the tea farmers is purchased by the government and then sold to merchants. I also know that there are disputes in the court today. It is easy to stick to the method of shooting." .”

In the Song Dynasty, the tea government adopted the government-buying system. The government set up mountain farms in tea-producing areas, and the tea farmers in the mountain farms were called garden households.

The government distributes "capital" to the garden households, and the garden households use the capital to produce, and the tea obtained is purchased by the government at a fixed price except for paying taxes, and private trading is not allowed.

The government bought tea from farmers at a low price and sold it to merchants at a high price.Merchants buy a voucher called "Jiaoyin" from the government, and use this voucher to go to the mountain farm or the tea transfer point designated by the government to collect tea.

The government played the role of second-hand traffickers in this kind of tea trading, and the profits were huge.

However, as we all know, redundant officials and excessive expenses in the Song Dynasty were very serious, and no matter how much the government earned, it was not enough to spend. Tea, as a commodity in short supply and a large part of the treasury's revenue, naturally had to undertake the important task of increasing revenue.

In the past, when the government was a second-hand trafficker, it still needed to pay some costs, such as the cost to the farmers, such as the freight for transporting the tea to the turnover place, and so on.

However, the sticking method that the imperial court is discussing now does not even plan to pay this little cost.

The government no longer distributes the capital, no longer buys and transports tea, merchants want to buy tea, it’s ok, come to the mountain farm to buy it from the tenants, and after the purchase, I will pay the difference to the government——

This price difference is the difference between the price the government bought from the tenants and the price sold to the merchants.

It is about equal to the white wolf with empty gloves.

Such shameless methods are naturally very popular in the court, and there is only one reason why they have not been finalized yet——

Kou Zhun and Liu E got into a fight again because of "who should be allowed to preside over the sticking method".

Zhao Yiyi nodded: "This can be regarded as understanding. In fact, to tell the truth to Fan Qing, the reason why I summoned Fan Qing is to entrust Fan Qing to preside over the sticking method."

Fan Zhongyan was shocked: "This..."

Zhao Yiyi waved his hand: "I know that Fan Qing is still burdened with the burden of being the examiner. Don't worry, the mother and master are still discussing the tea policy. It will take half a year to actually implement it. By then, the spring will be over, and Fan Qing will use it." The place of martial arts."

Fan Zhongyan hesitated and said, "I thank Your Majesty for using it again, I don't know..."

Zhao Yiyi smiled and said, "Fan Qing is afraid that I won't be able to be the master?"

Fan Zhongyan remained silent.

He had some expectations in his heart, but he was not very clear about what he was looking forward to.

Zhao Yiyi said: "Fan Qing thinks that there are so many great Confucian scholars who have read poetry and books in the imperial court, why they have to transfer you back from outside all the way, and let you be the chief examiner of this Chunwei?"

Fan Zhongyan said: "I don't know."

"Because they can't move."

Fan Zhongyan looked at the little emperor suspiciously.

"Fan Qing, have you heard the story of the fight between the snipe and the clam?"

Zhao Yiyi said slowly: "The mussel caught the beak of the water bird, and the water bird pecked at the flesh of the mussel. The two sides were evenly matched, and if one side backed down a little, it would lose its life. So they had to put all their strength into When it comes to fighting against the opponent, you can't do anything else."

"The same is true for the Queen Mother and the Duke of Lai. The two parties are evenly matched. They will not give in to each other in the court. No matter what the outcome is, no matter what one party intends to do, the other party will obstruct it. Therefore, they can't do anything but sink. for this struggle."

Of course, this is also the result of Zhao Yiyi's careful planning.

Let the strength of the two parties be wasted in the mutual struggle, so that he can take the opportunity to cultivate his own power.

"This was the case in the previous Chunwei Examination. The Empress Dowager wanted someone from the Queen Mother's party to be the main examiner, and Mr. Kou wanted someone from the Kou Gong's party to be the main examiner. But the two of them couldn't tell the difference, so they had to compromise with each other and hired an outsider. When you come back, it’s you, Fan Qing. And the next sticking method will be the same.”

"Fan Qing, you are an outsider to the two parties, so when they compromise again, they will all focus on you. At that time, you only need to fight a little bit, and you will be the host It's an errand."

Zhao Yiyi said meaningfully: "When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits. Why don't Fan Qing and I be the fisherman together."

Fan Zhongyan's back was wet with cold sweat, wishing he could pass out on the spot.

What did he hear!

The little emperor played the Queen Mother and Duke Kou in such an understatement!

He is only 12 years old, and he is still a child!

However, apart from fear, there was also excitement rising from his chest.

He knew what he was expecting.

He hoped that the emperor would really end this meaningless party struggle, as he said, by making the fisherman reap the rewards.

"Sir, thank you Lord Long En."

He kowtowed heavily and accepted the emperor's arrangement.

Zhao Yiyi smiled with satisfaction.

His royalist party finally had a leader.

He happily ordered Liu En to give Fan Zhongyan all the documents related to the tea policy that he had sorted out in the past few days - I have to say that the perfect AI presented by the system is really easy to use - let him study it at home during this time, and when the time comes Volunteer and take the job.

After sending Fan Zhongyan away, Zhao Yiyi stretched his waist and greeted Liu En: "Come on, let's go to the military camp to find the master and give him a surprise."

By the way, let's see how Kou Zhun has trained our imperial army.