I studied in modern times

Chapter 969: The Post-Jiayou Era Begins

On the fourteenth day of the first month of the third year of Yuanyou, Hu Zongyu, the Imperial Censor, was appointed as the Palace Attendant Censor in charge of miscellaneous affairs, and Fan Bailu, the Secretary of the Central Secretariat and the Recorder of the Imperial Court, was transferred to the Imperial Censor.

Zhang Shangying, the Junior Secretary, was appointed as the Secretary of the Secretariat.

On the 18th day of the first lunar month, on the recommendation of the Left Prime Minister Lu Gongzhu, the Censor-in-Chief Feng Ji was appointed Doctor of the Imperial College.

Recommended by the Right Prime Minister Pu Zongmeng, Shu Tan, the former Chief Censor, was reinstated as the Right Counselor.

"Our right prime minister..." Zhao Xu wrote a "yes" on the recommendation letter for Pu Zongmeng, and then leaned back on the cushion: "He has a lot of little ideas!"

Shu Tan was a prominent figure during the Yuanfeng period.

He was very famous in the Censorate.

Pu Zongmeng chose to take the risk and recommend Shu Tan at this time. It can only be said that the political pressure from Cai Que on Pu Zongmeng was indeed very great!

After all, Shu Tan is the Little Lu Bu of the Song Dynasty!

He has stabbed in the back all those who promoted and recommended him!
Therefore, it would not be surprising if he stabbed Pu Zongmeng in the back in the future.

Zhao Xu put down the note in his hand and asked Shi Deyi who was standing beside him: "Duzhi, how is the health of Zuo Xiang?"

Shi Deyi immediately replied: "I'd like to inform everyone that Chen Yijian from the Imperial Medical Bureau said that the left prime minister is in very good health now. He just needs to stop working as hard as before and he will be fine!"

"Yes!" Zhao Xu nodded: "Tell Lu Xizhe and Lu Xichun..."

"If the left prime minister has a similar accident again, I will punish their brothers for being unfilial!"

"Yes!" Shi Deyi obeyed the order.

The health of the left prime minister, Lu Gongzhu, gradually deteriorated after the New Year.

He fell ill immediately after the New Year's Day court meeting in the third year of Yuanyou.

After seven or eight days of nursing, he was barely able to do his duties.

The imperial physician said that the left prime minister had overworked and exhausted himself, and that he would probably recover if he took good care of himself.

Because Lu Gongzhu was just sick, not dying.

Therefore, Zhao Xu had no way to leave the palace and visit Lu's residence in person to express his condolences.

Zhao Xu had no choice but to issue an imperial decree, allowing Lu Gongzhu to attend court only once every five days from now on, and also specially granted him a sedan chair, allowing him to follow the example of the Grand Tutor in the future.

This actually announced that Lu Gongzhu's term as left prime minister was coming to an end.

Starting from the third year of Yuanyou, the Song Dynasty was truly entering the post-Jiayou era.

Those veteran ministers during the Jiayou period will gradually fade away and leave the stage.

The stage of history will be dominated by the ministers of the Zhiping, Xining and Yuanfeng eras.

The right prime minister Pu Zongmeng naturally wanted to replace him as the left prime minister.

And what about Cai Que?

Of course I won’t be inferior to anyone!

These two people are now in the Bian Jing Yi Bao, debating behind closed doors about who is more suitable to assist the emperor and stabilize the country.

However, to the surprise of many people, Pu Zongmeng actually defeated Cai Que.

There is no way. The 'trickle-down economics' he invented under Zhao Xu's remote control is now very popular in Bianjing City.

Countless fans!
This is mainly because trickle-down economics has completely touched the sore spot of emerging industrial and commercial owners.

The fallacies and heresies that emerged from this, such as "do business with benevolence, get rich with righteousness, be a human being with loyalty and forgiveness", have become very popular in the public opinion field.

After all, wealthy businessmen are really willing to spend money to support a large group of frustrated literati and scholars waiting for the imperial examinations, and have them write articles for them.

So in this debate, Tsai is undoubtedly behind the times.

It was no surprise that he was pinned down and hung up and beaten by Pu Zongmeng.

However, Tsai did not sit idly by.

He found Shen Kuo, and now discussed the way of "investigating things to acquire knowledge" with Shen Kuo every day. He also visited and inspected many institutions including the Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau and the Hanlin Astronomical Bureau many times.

Cai Que has always been like this.

After he is beaten, he will reflect on himself, review his gains and losses, and then find a breakthrough. Once he finds this breakthrough, he will advance triumphantly.

Catch your political enemies and beat them to death!
Anyone who despises him will be killed by him.

Zhao Xu had no attitude towards the competition between the two people.

He just watched the show quietly.

On the contrary, Lu Gongzhu's illness and the ripples it caused made Zhao Xu feel deeply emotional.

"Heroes have always been like beauties!" Zhao Xu walked to the door of the palace, looked outside the palace, and saw the heavy snow still falling. He sighed, "I don't want to see gray hair in the world!"

In this first month of the year, heavy snow fell one after another in the city of Bianjing, without end.

Today is the sixth heavy snowfall in the third year of Yuanyou.

The extremely bad weather forced the court to find some scapegoats.

All the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture, including Qian Xie, the acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, and Jia Zhongmin of the Street Office, were punished.

Qian Xie was even fined copper and had his taxes increased because a prisoner died of illness in the prison in Kaifeng Prefecture.

In fact, this is becoming a scapegoat for the heavy snow.

It was to punish them in front of the people - it snowed every day and it had nothing to do with the court!

It was because they did not do their job well that God sent down heavy snow.

This kind of handling method had long become a routine in the Song Dynasty.

After all, since Jingyou, natural disasters and man-made disasters have occurred one after another.

Devastating natural disasters such as the Yellow River bursting and super-large earthquakes have occurred more than once.

The court had long been numb and accustomed to this, and had formed procedures for dealing with disasters.

Of course, in addition to finding a few scapegoats, punishing the people, paralyzing the people, and making people think that the court is still doing its job.

We do need to do something to provide disaster relief and disaster prevention.

Therefore, in recent days, the city has successively introduced a large number of policies that benefit and facilitate the people, and also provided several disaster relief measures.

For example, the exemption fees and travel fees that should have been paid this year by Kaifeng Prefecture, Jingxi Road, and Jingdong Road, which were affected by the snow disaster, were reduced or exempted.

For example, an imperial decree was issued to all government offices in the disaster-stricken areas to clear out the prisons.

All suspects will be released.

Even if there is irrefutable evidence against a criminal, his sentence will be reduced.

Except for the ten most heinous crimes, the death penalty will be commuted to re-exile, and re-exile to exile...

Zhao Xu himself also bled.

An imperial decree was issued to release money from the treasury to provide food, charcoal and firewood to the poor and widowed people on a daily basis throughout the Kaifeng Prefecture.

It also required the government offices in the areas affected by the snowstorm, including Jingxi Road and Jingdong Road, to do everything possible to accommodate the homeless people.

If there are unfortunate deaths, the government must bury them, and the imperially built temples and Taoist temples in the relevant areas should cooperate with the government to provide burial places for these unfortunate deaths.

At the same time, it was to alleviate the business difficulties of business owners and merchants in Bianjing due to the continuous heavy snow.

Zhao Xu asked Kaifeng Prefecture, the Street Office, the Capital Commercial Tax Bureau, and the Capital Music Bureau to provide all possible conveniences.

Including, but not limited to, stopping the collection of commercial taxes and stopping the collection of liquor money.

The Street Office and the Kaifeng Prefecture's left and right inspectors should try their best to keep the roads open and the logistics flowing.

In addition, the relevant workshops and workshop owners should do everything possible to maintain production.

And workers should be provided with heating facilities in the workshops.

To this end, Zhao Xu asked Kaifeng Prefecture to register all workshops.

Coal briquettes were provided to these workshops at half price, based on a heating ration of three briquettes per person per day.

After all these combined efforts, the situation in Bianjing City was stabilized.

(End of this chapter)