Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 442 Greed
Han Zhang also refused to see anyone at first, but more and more officials came to him.

There were even some of his students and former officials, and since he was a high-ranking official, he couldn't hide at home all the time and not see anyone, so he had no choice but to meet them.

Facing these officials asking him to take the lead in persuading Zhao Xing to give up, Han Zhang said calmly: "Everyone, I don't think there is anything wrong with the assessment standards set by His Majesty. If you think it is inappropriate, you can write a letter to make suggestions."

"You are wrong, my Lord. The policy has not even been implemented yet, but it has already caused panic among the people. And since ancient times, as long as you don't make mistakes, no one has ever lost their job due to an evaluation."

It is said that being an official has a stable job, but the job of an official in the Song Dynasty was a golden job.

In later generations, even if you have a stable job, you can still resign on your own initiative.

But officials of the Song Dynasty, even if they were not given real positions, still received salaries. Even if they resigned, those who were honored officials were not affected and still received salaries.

However, Zhao Xing wanted to dismiss those who failed the evaluation.

There is a difference between being dismissed from office and resigning. Once you are dismissed from office, you will lose even your honors.

"That is why I think Your Majesty is right. It is shameful for you to accept the court salary when you cannot even do your own job well in your job duties!" Han Zhang said.

"this…"

Everyone looked a little embarrassed when they heard this.

The saying "Do your job well while you are in your position" is actually a proverb. The original saying is "Do your job well while you are in your position."

Even though it looks reversed, the meaning is the same.

This sentence comes from The Analects of Confucius.

Since the elimination of all schools of thought and the promotion of Confucianism alone, almost all literati in ancient times regarded themselves as Confucian scholars.

When advising emperors, he often quoted from Confucian classics.

But ironically, we selectively ignore the requirements for ourselves in Confucian classics.

It was difficult for them to refute what Han Zhang said at this time.

"Everyone, you might as well use this time to do your own parts. And let me remind you, the government is already being lenient. Now the government has given you three chances. If you continue to make trouble, the government will not give you even one chance. If you fail the evaluation, you will be dismissed directly. Don't blame me for not reminding you then." Han Zhang said lightly.

Everyone fell silent for a moment after hearing this.

Civil servants are powerful, and there are also factional struggles among them today. However, the current party struggles are more reflected in differences in political views.

It has not yet completely evolved into a struggle for interests and rights.

The ministers in the court were unwilling to intervene, there was a lack of leadership, and the combat effectiveness of the civil servants was also limited.

…………

What happened in Han Zhang's mansion soon reached Zhao Xing's ears.

After learning that those officials had dispersed, Zhao Xing sneered in his heart and didn't care.

There is one thing that is right about making use of civil servants, and that is that civil servants cannot make much waves.

No matter what the emperor wants to do, it seems that there is a lot of resistance, but in fact it all depends on whether the emperor is persistent enough.

This is well reflected in Renzong and Shenzong.

Renzong's new policies lasted less than two years, but Wang Anshi's reforms lasted for more than ten years.

Historically, if Prime Minister Fan had been born a few decades later and had received support from Emperor Shenzong during his reign, perhaps his new policies might have actually been successful.

However, Zhao Xing was not careless. Although those officials did not continue to make trouble, they might not give up so easily.

I don’t know what they are planning secretly, so I have to be careful.

"Your Majesty, the Minister of War, Lord Bian, wants to see you." A eunuch walked into the hall and bowed. "Let him in." Zhao Xing waved his hand.

"I pay my respects to Your Majesty!"

After a while, the Minister of War Bian Xihao walked into the hall and saluted.

"No need to be polite!" Zhao Xing waved his hand and said, "My dear, what is the matter with you?"

"Your Majesty, those grain transporters are unwilling to continue transporting grain to the north. After the beginning of spring, not only will the supply of grain for the people building the Great Wall in the north be a problem, but even the supply of grain for the border troops has become a problem. The court can only conscript civilians to transport grain." said Bian Xihao.

Zhao Xing frowned when he heard this and asked, "Why are they unwilling to transport grain?"

"Because of the construction of the Great Wall last year, a large amount of food and fodder needed to be transported to the north. Those merchants have already received a large number of salt and tea permits, and they simply cannot sell them all in a short period of time." said Bian Xihao.

"It's not that easy for these businessmen to quit after taking advantage!" Zhao Xing sneered.

The military expenditure of the Song Dynasty was becoming increasingly huge. The problem of border army pay was relatively easy to solve, but the problem of food and fodder was difficult. It was necessary to transport food to the border, which not only required the conscription of civilians for labor service, but also the dispatch of troops for escort and supervision, resulting in huge losses.

Even though the laborers doing corvée labor don't need to be paid, they should at least be provided with food, right?
Add to that the escort and supervision troops, and the consumption would be enormous.

In order to solve these problems, the imperial court formulated the Jiaoyin Law.

The so-called Jiaoyin method is to ask merchants to help transport grain to the border, and then use tea or salt permits to settle the bill.

Tea and salt are both government-run, so whether you want to become a salt merchant or a tea merchant, you need connections.

This is very attractive to businessmen.

This method is actually similar to the Kaizhong method used in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

However, the settlement using tea and salt vouchers cannot be calculated based on normal grain prices. After all, there will be losses during the grain transportation process, and a large amount of manpower needs to be hired.

If calculated at normal prices, even if tea salt can make money, the profit will be limited after offsetting the losses in the process.

If you want merchants to transport grain, you can only lure them with benefits.

For example, grain worth 80,000 taels of silver would be given as a salt or tea permit worth 100,000 taels of silver.

In this way, the court can reduce expenses and merchants can make profits, so everyone is happy.

However, as the demand for food and fodder increased at the border, and the exchange method required remote settlement, it became a long process from raising food to transporting it, and finally obtaining salt and tea permits.

Coupled with factors such as changes in grain prices, the imperial court had no choice but to increase benefits to merchants and encourage them to transport grain.

These merchants were blinded by greed and wanted greater profits, so they bribed officials and estimated the cost of grain, which was originally 80,000 taels, to 120,000 taels. The court then needed to pay 150,000 taels of tea and salt permits.

Some people may think that the imperial court is stupid. Since the cost is increasing, why not just recruit civilians to do the transportation themselves?

In fact, the imperial court thought about solving this problem, so it used the cash silver method.

The so-called cash method means that merchants transport grain and settle accounts with cash.

This method is feasible, but it requires a lot of cash.

At first glance, it seems to be no different from the salt and tea settlement, on the contrary, it saves money.

After all, after merchants transported grain to the border, they needed to settle accounts in other places, and part of the compensation was given for this.

But the problem was that the Song Dynasty's government was already running out of money.

Although merchants still had to spend money to buy tea and salt permits from the court, they only bought a certain amount at a time and would not buy too much in bulk.

This is just like purchasing goods. Originally, goods were purchased once a month. Tea permits and salt permits were equivalent to delivery notes. Trading with tea permits and salt permits was equivalent to giving the merchant delivery notes for several months or even a year at once.

(End of this chapter)