People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 472: Don’t be afraid of failure, be bold in trying and making mistakes!

After noon, it was still cloudy and rainy.

Early winter brings a chill.

In the afternoon, the regular meeting of Chongzheng Hall was held.

When Zhao Zhen learned that Di Qing had recovered the Western Regions, he was very happy. He appointed Di Qing as the Jiedushi of Zhanghua Army and also named Di Qing's wife Wei as Lady Dingguo.

This reward cannot be said to be meaningless, but it is better than nothing.

After all, this is about expanding territory.

During the reigns of Emperor Wu of Han or Li Shimin, he would at least be granted the title of marquis or duke, but in the Song Dynasty he was only given the empty title of Jiedushi.

But there really is no way.

Now Di Qing is already the Deputy Privy Councilor, and the senior officials of the Song Dynasty are all occupied, so it is difficult to get another position.

In terms of function, the Privy Council of the Song Dynasty had certain functions of the Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense in later generations. The current Privy Councilor Zhang Kang had made great contributions in the wars between Western Xia and Liao.

Di Qing first grew up under him. He couldn't let Di Qing replace the old boss. What should Zhang Kang do then?
The Ministry of War also had certain functions of the two departments in later generations, but the person in charge was not a general as the Minister of Defense as in later generations, but a bureaucrat who was responsible for the army's logistics, discipline, promotion, courts, resettlement, etc.

Simply put, the Privy Council is currently responsible for organizing conscription, organization, mobilization, training, formulating military regulations, cooperating with the Emperor of the Song Dynasty to issue decisions and orders, etc. It is the highest military institution of the Song Dynasty.

The Ministry of War cannot directly issue orders to dispatch troops, but it has the power of supervision, logistics, management, rewards and punishments, and can be understood as the military's supervisory logistics agency.

In this way, the power to train soldiers is still retained in the hands of the generals, but the power over the soldiers' food, wages, promotions, rewards and punishments is in the hands of the Ministry of War. The generals cannot decide the direct interests of the lower-level soldiers, and naturally cannot incite the soldiers to rebel.

Although the army is controlled so strictly, with no power to mobilize troops and various means of supervision, and the army is guarded to the core, there is no other way.

Not to mention the turmoil caused by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, just talking about the Republic of China period, heroes from all walks of life had guns and cannons and tore the Chinese land apart.

This era is a period of rapid change. Although guns and cannons are strictly controlled to prevent them from being lost to the people, the army always has guns. Once the army is not managed well and the generals rebel, the destructive power will be much greater than the rebellion with cold weapons.

Until there is a better solution, this is the only way for now.

Therefore, the current situation of the Song Dynasty is still that civil officials supervise military generals, but it is not as exaggerated and obvious as before. The Ministry of War is still the world of civil officials, and civil officials are used to supervise the army, so Di Qing naturally cannot go to the Ministry of War.

This means that unless Zhang Kang steps down, a large number of generals, including Di Qing, can only be promoted to deputy positions such as Deputy Privy Councilor, Co-director of the Privy Council, and Signatory of the Privy Council.

Promotion in the military is still difficult, and it seems that there has been no change in the military's embarrassing situation.

"I used to criticize the Song Dynasty for valuing culture over military. I was indeed too rash. I didn't study the history of the Song Dynasty well. I just cursed it based on my own preferences."

When talking about the military, Zhao Jun said frankly: "But as I said before, a country should develop both civil and military power. It is not a good thing to emphasize civil power over military power or military power over civil power. The Song Dynasty was too harsh in suppressing the military, which was also an overcorrection and a failure to take the lead. The hundreds of years of humiliation in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties were ultimately due to the excessive suppression of military power."

"Well, I agree with this. When I was reading a novel, there was a line that said, having a sword in your hand but not using it is not the same as having no sword in your hand."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "The army is a double-edged sword. Whether it hurts others or yourself depends on the person who uses the sword. If you are afraid of being hurt by the sword and dare not raise the sword to fight the enemy, the final result is nothing but death."

"Brother, you are indeed insightful. This is a thought-provoking article. I think we should write about it in the Song Daily and publish an article so that people all over the country can know your open-minded and profound views."

Zhao Jun immediately gave a thumbs up in praise.

Zhao Zhen's personality is like that of a golden retriever. As long as you are right, he won't dare to talk back or bark even if you scold him or punch him. He will just spit in your face and keep quiet, squatting aside cautiously, feeling aggrieved.

If you praise him a few times, he will be so proud that he can reach the sky, especially after being praised a few times, that happy smile will stretch to the back of his head.

At this time, even if you want to demolish his house, as long as the reason is justified, he will probably agree happily.

Sure enough, upon hearing Zhao Jun's praise, Zhao Zhen immediately grinned even wider and said, "In fact, it was Grandson who gave me the best advice. If it weren't for Grandson, I wouldn't have known these principles."

"Brother, you understand it well."

"My eldest grandson taught me well."

"."

Many prime ministers had blank expressions on their faces, having long been accustomed to the two men flattering each other.

From the earliest time when Zhao Jun chased Zhao Zhen and cursed him, to now when Zhao Jun holds great power and the country is peaceful and prosperous, the power and the country are stable, and there is no conflict of interest between the two sides. Isn't it a win-win for everyone, right?
"Then according to Han Long, what should we do with the military?"

Fan Zhongyan raised the issues that he was concerned about. After all, he had led an army and still had deep feelings for it, especially since he was the current military god of the Song Dynasty. Zhang Kang, Di Qing and others were all brought up by him.

"When I came to the Song Dynasty, I personally went to the grassroots and the army to understand the situation of the Song Dynasty army. Only then did I know where the problems of the Song Dynasty army are now."

Zhao Jun pondered and said, "Many of the troops are composed of captured refugees and criminals. They have low combat effectiveness and are just filling in the numbers. They have no faith in their hearts and only know how to muddle through life and wait for food. They don't know why they are fighting. Now a lot has changed. What remains is to slowly improve the quality of the army and its status in the hearts of the people. As long as the soldiers become sacred and have a sense of honor, then they will know that they are fighting for the country, and naturally they will dare to fight and are not afraid of war."

"Well, the measures Hanlong took to reform the army a few years ago did solve a lot of problems. Now it is indeed lacking ideological construction work."

Fan Zhongyan nodded.

After Zhao Jun came to the Song Dynasty, he found that there was still a big gap between his talk and reality.

The low status of the Song Dynasty’s army was not only due to the fact that it emphasized civil affairs over military affairs, but also due to many historical issues.

For example, in order to deal with the endless rebellions, all rebels who surrendered were divided into the imperial guards and the wing guards according to the young and strong and the old and weak.

There were also those criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to warrant exile or beheading, but were slightly more serious than corporal punishment. According to the law, they should be sentenced to several years in prison, but imprisonment wasted the country's food, so they were also stuffed into the army.

People like Di Qing and Zhang Yu became criminals because of fighting. If no one was killed or seriously injured, the most they would get would be a sentence of less than three years or a few months of detention.

In the Song Dynasty, all of them were sent into the army, which shows how bad the army of the Song Dynasty was.

Relying on such an army even if there are more than 1.2 million people is meaningless, they are all a mob.

But they are all unstable factors, so the Song Dynasty must exercise stricter supervision over the army.

Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the regime, the number of troops has increased. As the number of troops increases, stricter supervision is needed. Strict supervision requires the use of civil power to control the military. This vicious cycle will lead to the low status of military officers, won't it?

Therefore, Zhao Jun's initial military reform was to solve the army's chronic problems. First, he eliminated corruption in the army and dealt with internal tumors. Then he streamlined and eliminated them step by step, removing the dross and retaining the essence. He let the army have a certain combat effectiveness first, and then talked about the ideological construction of the army.

Now, after several large-scale military reforms, the number of military personnel has been sharply reduced, and almost all of them are young and strong people between the ages of 18 and 30. Generals are allowed to participate in daily training, and the combat effectiveness can be said to have been greatly improved.

Since the reform has been effective, it is time to do something further, strengthen the ideological education of the army, and avoid rebellion. Then Zhao Jun said: "Next year's new round of Qingli New Deal can be a military rank system to improve the military level, so that those generals with outstanding military achievements can be properly placed, and there will be no unclear rewards and punishments."

"Politics should be introduced into the military, and a literacy campaign should be carried out to teach soldiers how to read and write, so that each soldier can think independently, rather than just doing whatever his superiors tell him to do."

He looked around at the crowd and said in a resounding voice: "If we carry out ideological education for the army in this way for a long time, then the army will have the prototype of a modern military system in the future. In this way, the army will be able to implement the will of the country, rather than the country being eaten away by the army."

"Well"

Yan Shu nodded thoughtfully and said, "We don't actually have much say in this matter. If Hanlong and Xiwen think it's feasible, then we have no objection."

Zhao Zhen thought for a moment and said, "Then let's do everything according to what Grandson wants."

He was actually a little nervous.

After all, the authority of the Song Emperor comes from his absolute control over military power.

Zhao Zhen has now lost his right to govern, including domestic affairs, foreign affairs, and the economy, all of which have been handed over to the Council of Political System. If he loses his military power as well, he will be very worried.

However, based on Zhao Jun's PUA for him for many years and Zhao Jun's governance achievements over the past fifteen years, the overall improvement of the Song Dynasty also made Zhao Zhen fully trust Zhao Jun.

Because so far, everything Zhao Jun said and did has basically been realized, rather than being castles in the air that people can only look at but cannot eat.

So trust is accumulated in this way. As long as Zhao Jun can keep the Song Dynasty developing at such a high speed, everyone will unite around him and will not waver.

"Thank you for your trust, brother. I promise this matter will be handled properly."

Zhao Jun patted his chest and said, "When the time comes, I will definitely make the entire army look brand new, with a brand new look, and let the former bandit soldiers of the Song Dynasty become the people's soldiers!"

"Let's talk about other reforms."

Seeing that the matter had been settled, Fan Zhongyan was afraid that something unexpected would happen, causing Zhao Zhen to have wild thoughts, so he immediately changed the subject and said, "A new round of officialdom reform is a big deal, right?"

"Well, it's a big deal indeed."

Zhao Jun also said.

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen didn't know the specific details of the reform yet, so he asked, "Has Grandson completed the new round of reforms?"

"Yeah, it's almost over."

Zhao Jun nodded.

He was on a tour of the country for two years and only returned in March this year. The new round of Qingli New Policies will not be announced until next year or even the year after.

Because many things need to be finalized and many specific details need to be analyzed specifically. You can't just see a problem, think of a solution, and then implement it immediately.

What if you assume your solution will work, but it turns out to have the opposite effect when you actually implement it?
Just like Wang Anshi’s Qingmiao Law.

Although the Qingmiao Law was not a decision made on a whim, the deeper problems of official administration were not resolved and the Qingmiao Law was ultimately just a mirage.

Therefore, any plan must be studied and discussed from multiple aspects.

This includes experienced old politicians such as Fan Zhongyan, Yan Shu, Song Shou, and Cai Qi, as well as young and energetic new generations such as Wang Anshi, Chen Xiliang, and Zhao Yan. All parties need to participate and brainstorm to come up with better plans and results.

This is also a reflection of Zhao Jun's increasingly mature politician.

Then Zhao Jun said, "I gained a lot from this trip. I have been traveling around the world for two years, visiting all the roads, states, and counties. I have discovered a very serious problem."

"what is the problem?"

Everyone was curious.

"The changes in the Song Dynasty are only in Bianliang. The changes in other places are very few. Even if there are changes, they are often in industrial and economic centers such as Wu'an and Hangzhou."

Zhao Jun said: "There is very little development in other places. Even if the Constitutional Council issued opinions and notices that counties, states, and roads should actively explore their own resources, develop industrial capacity, and carry out new construction, it has almost no effect. It is still the same as before."

"Well"

Everyone fell silent. Without investigation, they had no right to speak. They had never been to the grassroots level, so naturally they did not know the situation there.

Zhao Jun continued, "I have also investigated the reasons behind this. First, officials have short terms and heavy tasks. Second, the performance evaluation system has restrained their corruption and improved work efficiency, but it has limited their subjective initiative, which is greatly detrimental to regional development."

Now everyone knows what subjective initiative is. Yan Shu sighed, "We have all been promoted step by step from the local level. We also know that our daily work arrangements are bound by the examination and evaluation regulations. It is indeed difficult to consider other things."

“So now that we have discovered the problem, we need to solve it.”

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "It's another round of new reforms in the officialdom. I have decided to reduce the burden on officials and increase their enthusiasm, so that they can exert their subjective initiative and vigorously develop the local areas."

"How to do it exactly?"

"Increase the term of office of officials, reduce the workload of the performance appraisal system, and eventually gradually abolish the performance appraisal system. The Constitutional Yuan will issue guidance to encourage local officials to think more about the direction of local development and do more practical work, focusing on the development of agriculture, commerce, and industry."

"It's just that officials in the world today have no experience in this area."

Yan Shu expressed his concerns: "To put it bluntly, the officials in the world today are all officials from the feudal period. Even if many officials do not have bureaucratic ideas, they are willing to play the role of moral models and go to the countryside to care for the people. But if they are asked to do things they have never touched before, they may end up making things worse."

"wrong."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "Everything is difficult at the beginning. It is easy to go from one to a hundred, but it is as difficult as ascending to heaven to go from nothing to one. So the court encourages them to do it boldly, even if it wastes local finances and turns out to be useless. As long as they are wholeheartedly for the people and local development, and do not break the law or harm the interests of the people, they should not be afraid of trial and error. The court gives them space for trial and error, just as a way to accumulate experience."

This is also the same path for future generations.

For decades since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have been crossing the river by learning from the advanced experiences of other countries.

Be a student first and then a teacher. Only after being beaten can you understand the truth.

Therefore, our country also experienced a long period of pain at the beginning.

But after the reform and opening up, China finally found a development path that suits its national conditions, and it soared into the sky, catching up with Britain and the United States and becoming a world leader.

Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of making mistakes in many cases. If you make a mistake, you can gain experience and summarize the lessons of failure. There will always be a day of success!
(End of this chapter)