Northern Song Dynasty: Starting from the son of Song Renzong

Chapter 214 Is this reasonable?

In the court, Zhao Zhen spoke the story very calmly to everyone.

He said: "The so-called free market is actually very easy to understand literally."

“It means that everyone can buy and sell freely in the market.”

"If your products are expensive, people won't come to buy from you."

"If your products are cheap and of good quality, then people will naturally be more willing to come to you."

"I've heard that the interest rates for private lending are very high."

"In fact, many people in the Song Dynasty are unwilling to borrow money."

"Because I borrowed it, I guess I will end up spending more than I earn."

"But there is really no rice left at home, so I have no choice but to borrow it."

"If you don't lend it, you will starve to death."

"Although the court can use its decree to force all lenders to pay no higher interest than a certain amount."

"But we never see any effect. No one even takes it seriously."

"However, if we continue like this, there will only be more and more people in this world who can't even pay the interest on their loans."

"I am the ruler of the country. How can I watch so many people being torn apart from their wives and children, dying of starvation and disease?"

“Since the situation cannot be changed by government decrees, I thought it would be better to introduce the free market.”

"Bring the food produced in the most prosperous countries to the market and compete with that produced in other places."

"In this way, the people may be able to borrow cheap grain and grain seeds without the need for an imperial decree."

"This may even be more effective than my next decree."

"Therefore... I need to clarify that this is not because Zui Xinglai wants to abuse his power for personal gain, but because I am responsible for the people of the Song Dynasty."

"As for what Censor Liang said, it was the common people who lent the money."

"There are no such people in our Song Dynasty."

"Because I heard that they dared to threaten the poor people who came to borrow money, and even threatened to break their legs."

"The world is in trouble now, and natural disasters are still frequent. It is a time when we need to share the hardship. Even I have to take out money from the inner treasury to help the people from time to time."

“And these people, when the people are almost starving to death, refuse to lend money to others, and even say that we can only borrow from them.”

"To put it mildly, they are forcing people to buy and sell. To put it more seriously, they are taking human lives for the sake of profit."

"In fact... the reason why the Song Dynasty is so turbulent now and the people are repeatedly forced to rebel, I think, is because of these people."

“At first, I also wondered if the free market was allowed to run rampant, it would be bad for the people.”

"But now it seems... I think it is very necessary to do this."

"Moreover...order local governments to rectify similar forced purchases and sales."

"If any local official knows about this and fails to correct it, he will be demoted three levels."

"As for what Mr. Liang mentioned about abusing power for personal gain."

"The Song Dynasty and the Liyuan Republic are in a cooperative relationship, so this is cooperation, and naturally there is no problem of abusing power for personal gain."

"On the contrary, I think this kind of cooperation can make Song Dynasty better and should be encouraged more."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

……

Good guy!
Everyone was stunned.

Should they then say that the government is abusing its power for personal gain?
Isn't this considered as shielding?

but……

In fact, the ministers had no way to prove whether this was the idea of ​​His Royal Highness Prince Yu or the emperor.

This was definitely a new way of reform that they had never seen before in all the history books they had read.

Other reforms have to please the literati.

The scholars and officials were not satisfied and so they did not dare to do it.

But the government doesn't need it! Because the government has already prepared a retreat for itself!
In the Li Yuan Republic, we have both the people and the soldiers.

Anyway...

If the Song Dynasty were to perish, it would be fine as long as His Royal Highness Prince Yu's country survived.

That's it!
You really can't do anything to him.

The emperor's move of starting a new business is definitely more clever than any other emperor in history.

of course!

Not everyone can do this.

First of all, you must be infinitely tolerant of your son, and not even afraid that he will take your place.

Secondly, your son must also have the ability to govern the country without relying on the literati in the court, or only relying on a small number of people.

Then look at His Royal Highness the Prince of Yu today. Does he need the scholars and officials to help him?
Only a few like Ouyang Xiu are needed, the others are not needed at all.

As for what you said...

Since the government is so shameless, can you go on strike? Say I won't do it anymore!

Then you really can't do it.

Because if you really don't want to do it, the government is eager to dismiss all those who should be dismissed as soon as possible.

The country was in trouble before.

If the emperor wants to carry out reforms.

As long as the scholars and officials do not cooperate, the country will not be able to thrive.

But now...

If the scholars and officials do not cooperate, then the Li Yuan army will let you know what cooperation means.

As for whether Ouyang Xiu and Zhao Xun would stand with the literati of the Song Dynasty, you are overthinking!

Some people might even want His Royal Highness Prince Yu to take over the entire Song Dynasty as soon as possible.

Xia Song is not young anymore this year.

As I saw half of my body was about to be buried in the ground, I thought of this relationship.

I couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

you say……

Could it be that the government is really hoping for this day?

But after thinking about it, Xia Song quickly shook his head again.

After all, how could such a far-sighted person exist in this world? The only most likely explanation is that His Royal Highness Prince Yu is too evil and he accidentally brought this matter to fruition without realizing it.

At this moment...

People like Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan seemed to have gradually realized the benefits of dividing the country into two.

Not only did it reduce the interest on loans for the people of the Song Dynasty by half, but more importantly, because it was cooperation with other countries, it did not involve its own reforms.

The imperial court did not even need to issue any decrees to reduce the burden on the people by half.

But let me be frank!

Is this closure legal?
This is another issue to be discussed.

Although since ancient times, the emperor has always been casual in granting land to princes, and they can do it as long as they want to.

but……

When they arrived in the Song Dynasty, the opinions of the literati might be different.

After all, the emperor at this moment has lost his sacredness. Even the emperor himself is so timid that he only dares to call himself "official" instead of the previous "emperor" or "Your Majesty". This has prompted some people to start wondering, who owns the world?

Why can the government just hand over the land and the people to His Royal Highness Prince Yu so easily?

Is this reasonable?

(End of this chapter)