The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The servant brought Su Jin hurriedly to the imperial study and reported loudly. Zhao Zhen was pacing with his hands behind his back.

After saluting, Zhao Zhen pointed to the prepared seats and signaled Su Jin to sit down and talk. Huang Peisheng brought a tea tray and poured a cup of tea for Su Jin, then led the maids out of the room and closed it gently.

Zhao Zhen looked at Su Jin with a smile and said: "Su Aiqing, it is inconvenient for me to express my gratitude above the main hall. This time you have contributed a lot, not to mention frustrating the plot of the Liao people, and taking the opportunity to let the two tigers fight each other, weakening the Their strength has greatly boosted the morale of my Great Song Dynasty, and I am really happy in my heart."

Su Jin hurriedly said: "Thanks to the great blessing of the emperor, if there is no strong support from the imperial court, how could it have such an effect."

Zhao Zhen sighed: "To be honest, when I received your request to go to the Xia Kingdom to command the Xia Army to fight against the Liao Army, I really sweated for you. My reply was that you did not agree to go, but the official who passed the decree said that You have already set off at the front camp in Youzhou, which made me worry for a long time; now it seems that you are full of confidence, so I don't worry about you for nothing."

Su Jin secretly praised Zhao Zhen's method of enticing people. Zhao Zhen meant that he was worried about his own safety so he would not let him go, but the actual situation was that Zhao Zhen had no confidence in himself and was afraid that he would mess things up.

Su Jin didn't point it out, and said with a smile: "Thank you, the emperor, for your concern. I am very touched, but if you lose the battle against the Liao army with superior forces, wouldn't it be justified?"

Zhao Zhen laughed loudly and said, "That's right, I figured it out later, I didn't lose 12 against [-] in the battle of Weizhou, how could I lose this time, so I hoped day and night, and finally hoped that the Xia army would win I was so happy that I didn’t sleep all night, and I talked with Yan Xiang Du Shumi and the others all night, and I told them that there will be a successor to the Zaizhi in the Great Song Dynasty. In time, Su Aiqing will be able to stand alone and become my most powerful minister of the Zaizhi The reason why I let you take up the deputy positions of the Political Affairs Hall, the Privy Council, and the Third Division Yamen this time is because I have selfish motives."

Su Jin smiled and said: "How about guessing? The emperor wants me to practice a lot and understand the affairs of each yamen, so I can make up for my previous ignorance?"

Zhao Zhen laughed loudly and said: "What do you think of yourself? It's just that you have to learn about government affairs, military affairs, property, and not only in official affairs, but also in coordination between top and bottom, interpersonal affairs, and etiquette regulations. You learn, you know your own faults, but once you are a minister of the prime minister, you need to set an example for all officials, and your words and deeds will affect the hearts of the people; look at Lu Xiangyan, who is not mature and prudent, and his speech and behavior are both sophisticated and calm, That's your role model."

Su Jin smiled and said: "I understand, thank you, the emperor, for pointing out, I do have a lot of problems."

Zhao Zhen said: "No one is perfect, even I have shortcomings."

Su Jin can't talk about this topic, just serve tea and drink.

"But I bear the weight of the society, and I can't speak freely and clearly like you. Every decision I make will affect the happiness and anger of thousands of people in the Song Dynasty, so I have to be cautious. Perhaps in the eyes of many people, I am a person. An indecisive person, but no one can know my difficulties." Zhao Zhen heaved a sigh of relief, his expression a little gloomy.

Su Jin said: "Understood, the emperor doesn't need to care about other people's opinions. In the past, I was a little impatient and didn't understand the emperor's difficulties. There were also many angry words in my words. The emperor tolerated the past, which made me very grateful."

Zhao Zhen smiled and said: "I'm very pleased that you can say that. It shows that you are getting older. It seems that you are different after you become an adult. You have a beard on your jaw and you are careful in doing things. The old saying is that you can't deceive me."

Su Jin chuckled, deliberately repairing the relationship with Zhao Zhen may be a sign of her mature personality, she would never say such a thing before, especially after several disputes with Zhao Zhen, the rift between them is getting bigger and bigger Under the circumstances, it is even more impossible for him to take the initiative to show his favor; of course, Zhao Zhen can only believe [-]% of what he says, but Su Jin would rather believe that Zhao Zhen is sincere, and it may be a sign of maturity that he is rarely confused.

"On the night of Shangyuan, you bring the whole family into the palace to enjoy the lanterns. The queen mother and queen want to see your wives, concubines and children. It has been a long time since I watched the lanterns with anyone, because I have never been in the mood. This year is hard I'm in a better mood, so I naturally want to relax, but what you said in the hall today made me quite anxious, and I'm thinking, maybe I won't be in the mood to watch the lanterns again this year."

"Your Majesty, are you talking about the use of troops by the Liao Dynasty to win over the Xia people?"

"Yes, tell me, what are the chances of winning against Liao?"

Su Jin thought for a while and said, "If it's less than half, I might lose."

"Then you still suggest using troops against the Liao people?" Zhao Zhen said with wide-eyed eyes.

Su Jindao: "Of course, there will be a battle between Song and Liao sooner or later. Fighting late is worse than fighting early. Of course, if you want to increase your chances of winning, you must completely crush it in terms of military strength and national strength. Winning more with less can only happen by chance and cannot be forced. Generally speaking , It is a matter of course for the strong to win."

Zhao Zhen frowned and said: "How can complete crushing be achieved? The national power of the Great Song Dynasty has recovered, but the Liao people have been operating for a long time, unlike the war against Xia that my Great Song Dynasty experienced for several years. Natural disasters also occur from time to time. Consumption If they didn't lose more than 20 horses this time, it would be really hard to judge who is strong and who is weak."

Su Jin smiled and said: "The emperor is right, so if we want to win the battle with the Liao people, the first thing we need is to speed up the strengthening of our strength. If we continue to develop slowly, the Liao people are also recovering. In a few years, the Liao people will become even more difficult to deal with."

Zhao Zhen sighed: "It's easier said than done, easier said than done."

Su Jin said: "Your Majesty, don't blame me for bringing up old things again. Originally, the New Deal was an opportunity, but it is a pity that it was too hasty and ended in failure. If we can gradually implement it, the situation will definitely be very different now."

Zhao Zhen's expression changed slightly, he looked at Su Jin and said, "I can't give up something more important for the New Deal, you don't need to argue about this."

Su Jindao: "I'm not justifying this matter, what I mean is that if we want to develop rapidly, we still need extraordinary measures."

"You mean reopening the New Deal?" Zhao Zhen was surprised.

Su Jin shook his head and said: "Good horses don't turn their backs. The New Deal is already a thing of the past, so why mention it again."

"Then what can you do?"

Su Jin thought for a while and said: "The emperor should take some time to go to the Northwest Fourth Road for a tour to see how the minister's achievements in the Northwest are. He is accompanied by Mr. Li, the chief warehouse officer of the Northwest Fourth Road. Where does he have some specific figures? If the emperor can summon him to listen to his presentation, he will know the general situation of the Fourth Northwest Road."

Zhao Zhendao: "I know the situation of Northwest Fourth Road. The third department has made statistics. Compared with the second year of Qingli, the number of people in Northwest Fourth Road has increased from 12 to 19, and the population has increased by 50; the cultivated land has increased from 20 hectares to 50 hectares, it is indeed a rapid development, and it has only been five years, and I often say that Su Aiqing is an all-rounder, regardless of whether it is military, political or financial."

Su Jin smiled and said: "The emperor praised it absurdly, but the emperor has not yet mentioned the place I am most proud of, that is the business on the Northwest Fourth Road, 19 households, and nearly [-] households have already left the land to do business, so that the land can be opened. Other common people have a large amount of land to plant, with an average of [-] mu per household, and most of them are paddy fields; the fields around Qinzhou have dug ditches and ditches for irrigation, and they have become like the north and south of the Yangtze River. In the past, it was said that a large amount of rice was produced in the northwest. Who can believe it? Merchants are more profitable. The Pearl City, Qinzhou, Yanzhou and other places have become huge distribution centers for merchants. In the past, it was said that the Northwest was a must for merchants. Who would believe it? Northwest Fourth Road The tax revenue has long been more than self-sufficient. This time to aid Xia in the fight against the Liao Dynasty, part of the military supplies were paid by the ministers from the finance and taxes of the Northwest Fourth Road. By next year, the Northwest Fourth Road will provide more taxes to the court. It worked out."

Zhao Zhen said excitedly: "There is such a miraculous effect? ​​What method did you use?"

Su Jindao: "I have explored a set of methods, and the trial in the northwest is also very successful. I plan to ask the emperor for permission to promote it throughout the country. I dare say that within two years, the Song Dynasty will have a new look. Then we can fight the Liao people."

Zhao Zhen said: "Tell me about it in detail."

Su Jin then told Zhao Zhen about his ideas and steps of operating in the Northwest, and new terms kept popping up in his mouth, such as "special economic zone" or "to radiate" and "no business, no wealth". If you want to get rich, build roads first""Cultivate land for private use" and so on, Zhao Zhen was confused and found it very novel. The most important thing is that none of these things proposed by Su Jin involved government affairs, and they were not concerned with the inherent policies. Zhao Zhen was relieved that he basically did not touch them. What Zhao Zhen was most afraid of was that Su Jin's method would touch the interests of officials and cause opposition from everyone. Now it seems that Su Jin carefully circumvented this point.

Su Jin talked for nearly an hour, Zhao Zhen listened with gusto, and finally decided to summon Li Chong to discuss the matter, because the specific implementation is Li Chong's business, and Su Jin just moved some development models of later generations to tell Li Chong that Li Chong is the real practice Or, in a sense, Li Chong is an expert, while Su Jin is just a theory seller.

After leaving the palace, Su Jin breathed a sigh of relief. All of this was carefully planned by him, from the analysis of the current situation in the main hall to the astonishing proposal to fight the Liao people. The dream in Su Jin's heart, he will not carry out reforms from top to bottom like Fan Zhongyan and others, that has been proven to be a failure, starting from a perspective that does not touch interest groups, to carry out economic and cultural changes, On the contrary, it is a safe and effective method. Perhaps such a change is not thorough, but Su Jin's goal is to make the lives of the people of the Song Dynasty better, and the people's wisdom is slightly opened, so that they will not live like ants. This is enough up.