No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 41 My money!
"Great painting!"

Zhao Zhen looked at the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" opened by the eunuch and expressed his sincere admiration.

This long scroll depicts the bustling market life in Bianjing City. The life scenes are vivid and the characters are lifelike. In particular, the Bian Bridge and the upper reaches of the Bian River in the scroll are exactly the same as in reality.

All of this is reflected in the painting, which gives people a huge shock.

Due to long-term military failures, the only thing the emperors of Zhao Song could show off was the so-called "civil governance".

Bianjing, a super city with a population exceeding that of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, has always been the pride of the Zhao Song royal family. Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin once compared the four rivers of Bianjing to a jade belt, boasting about the prosperity of the city under his rule.

Zhang Yaozuo lowered his head. When he saw this picture, he knew that it had touched the emperor's sore spot and that this picture would definitely satisfy the emperor.

"Bring it closer!"

After Zhao Zhen gave the order, the eunuch Zhang Maoze hurriedly took the young eunuch a few steps closer.

Zhao Zhen still felt unsatisfied, so he simply walked down the jade steps, came to the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and looked at it carefully.

But when you look closer, you will find that there are densely packed tiny characters on the picture. These characters even destroy the overall harmony of the picture and appear very abrupt.

Zhao Zhen moved closer again and realized that these tiny characters were all names.

Lu Gongbi?
Isn’t this Lu Yijian’s second son?

Zhao Zhen then saw a few more names, most of whom were children of important officials of the current dynasty. Zhao Zhen's face gradually turned cold.

He soon discovered that these names were written on the houses in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". What did this mean?
At this time, Zhang Yaozuo raised the Su Ze memorial in his hand and said to Zhao Zhen:

"The person who presented the map, Su Ze, has another memorial, please review it."

Zhang Maoze hurried over, took the memorial from Zhang Yaozuo, and handed it to Zhao Zhen.

"I, Su Ze, bow my head."

This time, the letter was written by Su Ze himself. He had also practiced calligraphy hard for a while during this period. Combined with his previous foundation, his handwriting was somewhat legible. However, compared with those of Wang Anshi and Zeng Gong, who were geniuses in calligraphy, his handwriting was still a little ugly.

However, Zhao Zhen did not pay attention to the handwriting, but read the contents of the memorial carefully.

After finishing reading, Zhao Zhen became furious. He came to the Qingming Shanghe Tu again. At this time, he finally understood what the names on the houses in the picture meant!

These names represent the owners of the houses!
In the city of Bianjing, near the Bian Bridge area, among the more than 30 houses painted in the scroll, five belonged to Lu Gongbi!

In addition, there are a large number of houses that belong to the powerful children of Lu Yijian’s party!

In his memorial, Su Ze also listed that there were more than 500 properties under Lu Gongbi's name in the city of Bianjing!

According to Su Ze’s statistics, the total number of properties controlled by these powerful children exceeds 5,000!
These properties, plus the properties of the shops and houses contracted out by Lu Gongbi, add up to nearly 10,000 properties controlled by Feng Shiyuan!

Su Ze also did some calculations. The monthly rent for a house in Bianjing City was at least 15 strings of cash. That was to say, the real estate controlled by Feng Shiyuan could bring in 150,000 strings of cash a month!

One guan of money is one liang of silver. The most heartbreaking thing about Su Ze is that he linked this amount of money to the annual tribute. You must know that the annual tribute to the Liao Kingdom under the "Chanyuan Alliance" is 200,000 pieces of silk and 100,000 liang of silver every year!

The annual rent income of powerful children like Lu Gongbi alone exceeded the annual tribute paid by the Song Dynasty to the Liao Dynasty!
Zhao Zhen's eyes turned red, and he even wanted to shout, these are all "my money"!
However, this official who had been in power for decades still controlled his emotions. He said to Zhang Maoze, the head of the eunuchs in charge of the Imperial Pharmacy,
"Call Li Yonghe in!"

After a while, Li Yonghe, wearing a red helmet, walked into the Chuigong Hall. After he saluted Zhao Zhen, Zhao Zhen directly asked the eunuch to carry the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" in front of him.

Li Yonghe was also amazed to see such a lifelike scene.

Zhao Zhen said in a cold voice:
"Can you see the small words on the picture?"

Li Yonghe looked carefully and saw a few names written in tiny calligraphy on the buildings.

"Sir, I saw it."

"Ask the Imperial City Bureau to investigate and see if the owners of these houses are the ones named in the small print."

Li Yonghe was the Jiedushi of the Palace Front Division, which was in charge of the Imperial City Division. The Imperial City Division itself had the responsibility of monitoring important officials.

Only then did he realize that the names listed here were all the sons of the conservative ministers headed by Lu Yijian.

Li Yonghe felt a chill all over his body. If these names were really confirmed, it would definitely be a super storm sweeping the court!

But he did not dare to disobey and could only accept Zhao Zhen's order. Two eunuchs carried the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and followed him out of the Chuigong Hall.

In Dengwen Drum Courtyard, although Su Ze was not clear about what happened in Chuigong Hall, he felt that as long as the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" was delivered to Zhao Zhen, the matter would probably be settled.

The Song Dynasty has always had a tradition of using pictures to persuade and admonish people.

For example, a few years ago, Fan Zhongyan submitted the "Chart of Officials" to impeach Lu Yijian.

Fan Zhongyan drew a picture of the promotion of officials in Beijing called "A Chart of All Officials", in which he listed all the officials who were promoted in violation of the court system, mocking the prime minister for his inability to select talented people.

Of course, this petition failed because Fan Zhongyan was assigned to be the judge of the Imperial College at that time, which was not a censor. Instead, Lu Yijian seized the opportunity and said that Fan Zhongyan was not a censor, but he exceeded his authority to impeach the prime minister. He also listed those who supported Fan Zhongyan as his accomplices, which eventually aroused Zhao Zhen's suspicion and he banished Fan Zhongyan from the capital.

An even more famous case of submitting a picture to offer advice in the Song Dynasty was when Wang Anshi's disciple Zheng Xia submitted the "Picture of Refugees" after Wang Anshi's reform.

At that time, Wang Anshi's reforms encountered resistance, and Guangzhou was hit by a severe drought and locust plague, and refugees fled to Beijing. Zheng Xia painted a picture of "Refugees" and wrote a memorial on the new law and the picture of refugees, requesting Wang Anshi to stop the new law.

After seeing the "Map of Refugees", Song Shenzong ordered to stop the "self-blaming edict" issued during the court session and immediately abolished the Fangtian, Baojia and Qingmiao laws.

This was a major setback for Wang Anshi's reform, and he was dismissed from his position as prime minister.

Using images to persuade and advise is more impactful than simply writing a petition. This is just like simple text reports in later generations, such as PPT, which are more intuitive and impactful.

With "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" as an introduction, the impact was naturally even greater. Su Ze did not make any comments in his memorial. He simply calculated the number of properties occupied by the yamen of Lu Yijian's party and compared their profits with the annual tribute of the "Treaty of Chanyuan".

However, this is enough.

(End of this chapter)