The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Seeing all the officials coming down to the court, the people kneeling on the ground suddenly cried out: "Your Majesty, I have been wronged, I beg the Emperor to make decisions for us."

"Your Majesty, we have served the Song Dynasty loyally. Some people have wronged us under your guise and forced us to have no way out. I beg you, my sage, to see clearly, and I can't let these people mess around anymore. It will be the day of eternal peace."

"Your majesty, my Liu family is a loyal family. When my ancestors followed Taizu on the saddle, and now they have ended up like this, don't you care about it, Your Majesty?"

"..."

The crowd yelled loudly, some beat their chests and feet with tears streaming down their faces, and some kowtowed on the ground like pounding garlic. [

Fan Zhongyan frowned and looked at everything in front of him. He understood that these people had made an appointment to come to the palace to make trouble, and their purpose was self-evident.

"The palace is important, but you come here to make noise. There is no law for the king? Where are the guards? Why are these people allowed to mess around here? Why don't they all be driven out." Han Qi shouted with a livid face.

The guards guarding the gate of Yide Gate didn't dare to be negligent when they saw the Deputy Privy Envoy's words, they all stepped forward and shouted loudly: "Private Han has an order, you are not allowed to make noise here, retreat quickly, otherwise I will not be polite."

Where the crowd was willing to disperse, they were still clamoring endlessly. The guards had no choice but to step forward and grab the few people who were kneeling closest to the city gate and drag them aside.

The few people struggled and shouted loudly, but the soldiers ignored them and dragged them to slide on the ground, their bodies were instantly embarrassed by the unmelted slush on the ground.

"Stop!" A majestic voice came, and the guards guarding the Yide Gate were startled, but when they saw Du Yan stepping forward from all the officials, his fat belly was full of anger.

"Who told you to do this? These were all officials of the imperial court, and their ancestors also served for the imperial court. They came here to meet the emperor with resentment in their hearts. What's wrong with begging the emperor for mercy? How dare you humiliate them like this? I think you are Blind."

"Private Du... the villain follows the order of Deputy Privy Han, and the villain has the guts to dare not act like a court official."

Du Yan snorted through his nose and said: "Who cares about his orders, after treating heroes like this, the former court officials are disrespectful."

Han Qi said coldly: "Secretary Du, what you said is not quite right, these people are all local officials who have been dismissed and liquidated, they gathered here obviously out of dissatisfaction and purposely causing trouble, how can we let them mess around? "

Du Yan sneered and said, "Are they making trouble on purpose? How do you know that they are making trouble on purpose? Maybe they really feel wronged. Vice envoy Han often claims to act in an upright way, and things should not be spoken to others. Since he is so open, why bother?" I am afraid that they will complain in front of the palace; even if the emperor is alarmed, under the emperor's holy eyes, he will naturally discern the truth, so why hide them and drag them away, is there really something hidden in it?"

Han Qi was speechless: "You..."

Du Yan said: "Is what I said unreasonable? Vice Envoy Han has led too many troops on the border, and he lacks the minimum of benevolence and forgiveness. The characters are all good and the flowers are popular. If you, Vice Envoy Han, one day What do you think if you end up cutting your job for the people, and others treat you like this?"

All the officials were touched after hearing Du Yan's words. Now that the new law is promulgated, everyone wants to protect themselves. The fate of the dismissed officials made the rabbit die and the fox felt sad, so they all nodded in agreement in low voices.

Han Qi's face was pale with anger. Fan Zhongyan knew that Han Qi was not Du Yan's opponent, and that today's incident must be instigated by insiders. These officials came from all over the Song Dynasty, and some were even deposed officials on Jiangnan Road and Fujian Road thousands of miles away. However, their gathering in the capital was obviously not coincidental, but an organized and premeditated action.

Before he can think of a countermeasure, any rash action may fall into the trap. Fan Zhongyan wanted to understand this, and immediately stepped forward and said: "You two adults don't need to argue. It's understandable, but it's really illegal to gather in the palace, if you have a grievance, you can go to the yamen such as the Yushitai of Dali Temple to appeal, this place is not a place to make trouble."

Du Yan said: "It's Mr. Fan who is reasonable. They have nothing to do with me. I don't need to say these things to me. I just think that dismissed officials should not be treated roughly. Even the emperor would not treat them like this here; Once a person gains power, he doesn't know what his surname is, and he has an attractive face, and Du just can't get used to this kind of person's face."

Han Qi said angrily: "Lord Du needs to point fingers at Sang and scold Huai, why is this official in his eyes?"

Du Yan flicked his sleeves and said: "I'm beautiful, please name your Vice Envoy Han, as Vice Envoy Han can't afford to be seated." Turning his head to the officials kneeling on the ground, he said: "Everyone, there is no way for you to make such a fuss. It’s not worthwhile to lose your life for a bad body, the court just dismissed your posts, but didn’t want your lives.”[

A disused official with a gray beard kowtowed and shouted: "Private Du, I beg you to inform me that I want to have an audience with the Holy Majesty, and I must confide my grievances to the Emperor."

Du Yan looked at him and said, "Are you from Liumei Village, the prefect of Raozhou? I remember you. When you went to Beijing to meet the emperor the year before last, I was there."

/>

The old man cried bitterly and said: "Master Du has good eyesight, this old man is Liumei Village."

Du Yan said in astonishment: "How did you end up in this situation? What did you do?"

Liu Meicun gritted his teeth and said: "This old man also wants to ask me what I did wrong. It doesn't count if I am dismissed from the official position of the prefect. I will also dismiss all my Liu family's nephews and nephews. Three generations of my Liu family ancestors have worked for the Great Song Dynasty. Even when the emperor met the old man, he personally said that my Liu family has made great achievements, and that future generations will be blessed with grace, but now I can kill everything with one sentence. When the old man sees the emperor, he wants to ask the emperor face to face, what the holy words Jinkou said Does the word count?"

Du Yan said indignantly: "How can there be such an unjust case? I also remember what the emperor said. Your Liu family's ancestors have been everywhere since the Taizu dynasty and made great contributions to the Song Dynasty. There must be something wrong with this matter."

Han Qi said coldly: "What's the fallacy? In the reform, it is clearly stated that the appointment and dismissal of officials will be based on political performance. Liumei Village has served as the magistrate of Raozhou for three years. How can a mediocre person be a dead man? Just because of his deeds, he should be dismissed on the spot; his descendants, grandchildren and nephews did not participate in the imperial examination, but they filled key positions. retreat."

Du Yan shook his head and said: "It's overcorrected, overcorrected, I haven't raised any opinions on the new law, but now it seems that there are many disadvantages. The Liu family has been loyal and good for generations, and the ancestors have been kind and the descendants Fuji. Is this also wrong? Besides, Liumei Village is neither corrupt nor corrupt in office. Don't break the law, and your descendants are allowed to take up official positions, which is also allowed by the court's previous laws, so if you beat them to death like this, won't the hearts of the people in the world be chilled?"

"That's... that's right, what kind of bullshit new law is this, it's simply self-destructing the city wall. The emperor's grace has been so great that the world has been made extremely mean and ungrateful by this bullshit new law." Everyone shouted in agreement.

Fan Zhongyan said in a cold voice, "Private Du, I would like to remind you that the new law was promulgated by the emperor, and public defamation of the new law is public defamation of the imperial court. You should know this better than me."

Du Yan sneered and said: "Don't put a big hat on me. I didn't say that the new law is wrong. I just said that it's overcorrected. The law is nothing more than human feelings. If the Holy One often does things that are extrajudicial, you can't." Is there any room for doing things?"

Fan Zhongyan said solemnly: "The law is not merciful, how can we do things that are merciful outside the law? If so, what kind of law is it? Everyone has his or her own differences. If you forgive his illegal actions because of this, then the law What's the use?"

Du Yan waved his hand and said: "I won't argue with you, but I will definitely report this matter to the emperor. I don't care about others. I must take care of Liumei Village. I can't let the emperor keep his name in the dark. Although you I feel so-called, but I have to think about the Holy One.”

Liumei village kept shouting: "Master Du, Du Qingtian, fortunately there are people like Du Qingtian in the imperial court, the emperor will not be deceived by others."

The rest of the officials shouted loudly: "Lord Du, please help us too, we were wronged too..."

Du Yan sighed and said: "Everyone, I can do anything. I, Du Yan, am not going to do the law reform. I can't protect myself. It's not like you don't know, and the admonishers in the admonition court don't know who they are. Every day I want to find out my mistakes and drive me out of the court, this time I have tried my best to help Mr. Liu, and I don't know what kind of slander I have incurred afterwards."

Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fubi and others looked at Du Yan pretending to be pitiful and acting in public, all of them paled in anger, but there was nothing they could do; since the promulgation of the new law, Du Yan had enumerated the benefits of the new law more than once in the court, and today was uncharacteristically Using this as a bait to make generous nonsense and say these words in front of hundreds of civil and military officials and thousands of onlookers is obviously well-prepared; perhaps the farce of the crippled officials kneeling on the ground crying out for grievances is the He designed it.

"Master Fan, what should we do?" Fu Bi asked quietly in Fan Zhongyan's ear.

Fan Zhongyan said quietly: "Don't worry about him, let's do what we should do, everything else is up to the emperor to decide, but please feel ashamed." After saying that, he stepped forward and walked out calmly under the vicious eyes, his own coachman drove over, Fan Zhongyan Get on the carriage and drive away.