I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 105 Li Qingzhao

...

Recently, Cai Jing, who is highly valued by Zhao Ya, has become extremely popular, even overshadowing his younger brother Cai Bian and catching up with Prime Minister Zhang Dun.

Some people speculate that Zhao Ya vigorously promoted Cai Jing, most likely to train Cai Jing to be Zhang Dun's successor.

This has almost become a common speculation among the government and the public.

In fact, the reason why the old party attacked the new party and Cai Jing so desperately during this period was that they wanted to prevent Cai Jing, a dangerous figure, from coming to power.

Cai Jing had a tough and decisive political style and was extremely experienced in politics.

A long time ago, Cai Jing advised Zhang Dun, who was already very tough, to be even more ruthless.

Cai Jing said to Zhang Dun: "The resistance to reform is great. We must learn from the experience of Prime Minister Wang's failed reform..."

In short, Cai Jing felt that in order to succeed in the reform, he had to start with politics and take drastic measures to completely eliminate the Yuanyou Party forces that opposed the reform.

Cai Jing even suggested to Zhao Xu and Zhang Dun that officials of the Yuanyou Party should be completely liquidated.

Specifically, all officials who were members of the Yuanyou Party, living or deceased, were demoted and exiled; all deceased officials were stripped of their official titles. Furthermore, the descendants of Yuanyou Party members were prohibited from remaining in the capital and from participating in the imperial examinations. The names of officials who were members of the Yuanyou Party were to be inscribed on stone tablets and placed on the east wall outside the Duanli Gate of the Wende Hall, to be announced to the nation and serve as a warning to all officials. Those named on the tablets would never be employed. Furthermore, the names of Yuanyou Party members were to be sent to all prefectures and counties, with instructions to follow the example of the capital and erect tablets to denounce their crimes.

However, Zhao Xu and Zhang Dun felt that Cai Jing's move was too far-reaching and too cruel, so they did not accept this suggestion.

Now, Cai Jing is so highly valued by Zhao Ya.

Many members of the old party were extremely worried, fearing that when Cai Jing became prime minister, their disaster would come.

Not long ago, in order to complete the Overseas Trade Options System, Cai Jing personally visited the ports of Mingzhou, Hangzhou, and Quanzhou to conduct on-site inspections. If he weren't so busy and couldn't spare the time, he would even have planned to visit Guangzhou Port himself.

Cai Jing made this personal trip because Zhao Ya told him, "I've heard that maritime merchants are wealthy, with fortunes exceeding one million guan abound. Some even made two hundred million guan in just over a decade in Southeast Asia, making them rich enough to rival a nation. From now on, the Song Dynasty can vigorously develop maritime trade."

This incident was told to Zhao Ya by a world financial historian named Song in his previous life. He was not actually talking about the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Southern Song Dynasty.

But it is true that maritime merchants made money, regardless of whether it was the Northern or Southern Song Dynasty.

At that time, Zhao Ya said this casually when talking about the "Overseas Trade Options System".

Unexpectedly, Cai Jing took this to heart.

After Cai Jing returned and investigated, he found that the Zhao Song Dynasty's silk, porcelain, tea and other commodities had a broad market overseas. Merchants in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other places had a strong demand for these commodities, and maritime merchants could make high profits by shipping these commodities overseas.

Furthermore, the Zhao Song Dynasty's ships were large and well-equipped for long-distance ocean voyages. The compass, used in navigation, significantly improved navigational safety and accuracy, reduced transportation costs, and increased trade opportunities, providing the foundation for the vigorous development of maritime trade.

Cai Jing keenly realized that if the imperial court encouraged maritime trade, set up institutions such as the Maritime Customs Office to manage and provide convenience for maritime merchants, rewarded maritime merchants who could attract foreign businessmen, and created a good business environment, this would definitely develop into an extremely considerable source of revenue.

So Cai Jing took some time out of his busy schedule to go and investigate in person.

As a result, Cai Jing did not find the super-rich sea merchant who had earned 200 million guan as Zhao Ya mentioned, but he found a sea merchant named Yang Erlang, who had made tens of millions guan in profit by doing maritime trade in just a few years, and there were indeed many sea merchants who made a lot of money by doing maritime trade.

This made Cai Jing think more, and he prepared to attack these wealthy maritime merchant groups.

When Cai Jing returned, Zeng Bu sent his son to greet him ten miles outside the city gate, while Han Zhongyan sent his brother to greet him twenty miles outside the city gate.

Zeng Bu and Han Zhongyan were both prime ministers ranked above Cai Jing, but even they attached so much importance to Cai Jing that they even lowered themselves to win him over.

Not only these bigwigs in power are optimistic about Cai Jing's future, even some political bigwigs who have left the court and are from the old party are optimistic about Cai Jing.

For example, Lu Gongzhuo, who is already seventy years old.

Lu Gongzhu was definitely a veteran of the old party. When Gao Taotao was in power, he and Sima Guang worked together to assist in the administration and he was Sima Guang's important deputy.

Before Cai Jing left the capital, Lü Gongzhu warmly invited him to his home. He said to Cai Jing, "I have served in the court for many years and have seen countless people, but none of them is better than you! You will surely become prime minister in the future."

Lü Gongzhu also had his descendants line up and stand solemnly beside him, and said to Cai Jing sincerely: "Today I entrust all my descendants to you, I hope you will not refuse."

This shows how powerful Cai Jing is now.

Some members of the old party are very dissatisfied with this.

For example, Su Che once criticized Cai Jing as completely worthless, saying: "Jing has no strengths in literature or politics, his character is extremely poor, and scholars do not agree with him. If it were not for the relationship between Cai Bian and Wang Anshi, the brothers would not have been able to seize such a high position together."

Many people also brought up Cai Jing's political speculation and lack of political integrity.

The key point is that many people from the old party are worried that once Cai Jing becomes prime minister, it will be their disaster.

So they wanted to push someone out to defeat Cai Jing, or even help that person seize the position of prime minister, and then completely abolish the new law.

The old party members also knew that Zhao Ya liked people who could get things done. If they recommended ordinary people, they would not be in Zhao Ya's eyes at all, let alone defeat Cai Jing.

After much discussion, the old party members chose Zhao Tingzhi, the Minister of Personnel.

Strictly speaking, Zhao Tingzhi was not a member of the Old Party, but rather a member of the New Party. In his early years, Zhao Tingzhi firmly advocated inheriting and developing Wang Anshi's new laws. Against the backdrop of the fierce struggle between the Old and New Parties at the time, he strongly advocated the theory of inheriting and developing Wang Anshi's new laws, and spared no effort to exclude the Yuanyou ministers.

The reason why Zhao Tingzhi has become a member of the Old Party now is mainly due to the fact that Zhao Tingzhi has recently been very close to Li Kefei, one of the "Four Scholars after Su Shi", an important figure of the Old Party.

In his early years, when Zhao Tingzhi was in Dezhou, he implemented the market exchange law according to the will of the imperial court. Huang Tingjian was in charge of De'an Town at the time and believed that the people in the town were poor and could not bear the punishment.

Because Huang Tingjian had once teased Zhao Tingzhi, Zhao Tingzhi held a grudge against him. Later, he seized the opportunity to slander Huang Tingjian to Zhao Xu, causing Huang Tingjian to be demoted and eventually die in Yizhou.

When Zhao Tingzhi was summoned for the examination, Su Shi said, "Zhao Tingzhi is a mean man who hoards wealth. His knowledge and conduct are not desirable. How can he be suitable for this position?" He blocked Zhao Tingzhi's way.

Later, Zhao Tingzhi became the Censor-in-Chief. He submitted a memorial to impeach Su Shi for the sentence "The people are also tired" in his cursive script, believing that this was slander against the former emperor. Su Shi was later brought to justice, and this was one of the charges against him.

Because of these things, Zhao Tingzhi's relationship with the old party has always been very tense.

Unexpectedly, after Zhao Ya ascended the throne, he actually recalled Su Shi and Su Zhe to serve as prime ministers.

Moreover, judging from Zhao Ya's intention, he wanted to make use of the two brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe.

On the other hand, Zhao Tingzhi had always disliked Cai Jing and had repeatedly exposed Cai Jing's evil deeds.

Now that Cai Jing is prospering, Zhao Tingzhi is naturally afraid of being retaliated by Cai Jing.

Therefore, Zhao Tingzhi felt that he should repair his relationship with the old party, or even directly join the old party. Otherwise, when Cai Jing dealt with him, there might not even be anyone to speak for him.

Based on this, Zhao Tingzhi took the initiative to make friends with Li Kefei.

Li Kefei admired Zhao Tingzhi's ability and recommended him to his teacher Su Shi. After being transferred back by Zhao Ya and promoted to Prime Minister and entrusted with the important task of assessing talents, Su Shi, who had been depressed and frustrated, felt a sense of relief and a second spring in his life. He looked much younger.

At this time, Su Shi, who was full of vigor and ambition, was determined to repay Zhao Ya's kindness and needed talents like Zhao Tingzhi to help him.

The key point is that Su Shi was an open-minded and generous person. He could even forgive Zhang Dun, who drove him out of the court he loved, let alone Zhao Tingzhi?

In this way, Zhao Tingzhi changed his allegiance and became a member of the old party.

Not long after, the old party wanted to find someone to challenge Cai Jing.

But the old party has no shortage of literary masters, and propaganda is their forte. They also have many people who can govern a region step by step, but they don’t have any talent in economics.

This is normal. The old party has always advocated abiding by the old laws of their ancestors. Their economic policies are usually cost-saving methods such as reducing expenditures, rather than allowing outstanding economic talents to stimulate the economy and make money. In their view, that is too radical. How can they retain economic talents?
There was no other way, so the old party could only choose a general from among the short men, and finally chose Zhao Tingzhi, who had just joined the old party.

Zhao Tingzhi had rich political experience, and his political achievements in his early years were always outstanding. He had also been an envoy to the Liao Kingdom and was a political enemy of Cai Jing. The key point was that he was already the Minister of Personnel, a high enough position.

It is worth mentioning that Zhao Tingzhi has always opposed Cai Jing’s views on currency law.

He believed that currency regulations could not be arbitrarily changed, and that Cai Jing's proposal to mint coins worth five or ten coins should not be implemented. While this had the advantages of increasing fiscal revenue, regulating the currency market, and facilitating portability and transactions in the short term, it could also lead to inflation, disrupt market order, harm the interests of the people, and exacerbate social conflicts.

Therefore, when the old party learned that Zhao Ya was preparing to reform the currency system, they planned to push Zhao Tingzhi to replace Cai Jing, take on this important task, and enter Zhao Ya's vision.

At this time, Zhao Ya said: "I want to reform the currency system, who is qualified to do it?"

Zhao Tingzhi took the lead and stepped forward to recommend himself: "I would like to give it a try."

Zhao Ya didn't have a very good impression of Zhao Tingzhi.

This is mainly because, in history, Zhao Tingzhi once ousted Cai Jing and became the prime minister himself. Then, like Sima Guang, he wanted to abolish all the reforms implemented by Cai Jing regardless of the consequences, including Cai Jing's measures to benefit the people, such as building schools, promoting rituals and music, and setting up nursing homes and relief homes. He made the Zhao Song Dynasty at that time a mess. As a result, he was driven out of office by his subjects after only eight months as prime minister.

Moreover, Zhao Ya was very clear that Zhao Tingzhi was a pure political opportunist at heart, just like Cai Jing. He had a flexible political stance and poor character. He could make things happen at will and had no political integrity.

In fact, in Zhao Ya's opinion, Zhao Tingzhi's character is not as good as Cai Jing's.

But then again, Zhao Tingzhi was capable of becoming a prime minister and leaving a mark in history. He also had an impressive resume, and it was not impossible to consider him simply based on his conduct, regardless of his character.

Also, although Cai Jing was very knowledgeable about currency reform, it was precisely because he knew too much about it that if he were to carry out currency reform, he would definitely bring in a lot of income for the court, but at the same time, he would also definitely cause inflation and currency depreciation, putting greater pressure on the people.

The reason why Zhao Ya wanted to reform the monetary system was to maintain currency stability, promote economic development, increase fiscal revenue, and prevent inflation and currency depreciation.

From this perspective, it seems appropriate to let the conservative Zhao Tingzhi carry out financial law reform.

As for the fact that Zhao Tingzhi’s ability is not as good as Cai Jing’s, that is also easy to deal with.

Zhao Ya also has two talented people who understand economics, Zhao Kai and Zhang Que, who can completely replace Cai Jing's role.

Besides, as an emperor, you cannot put all your eggs in one basket.

Afterwards, ministers of the old party came forward to recommend Zhao Tingzhi, believing that he would definitely be able to handle the currency reform.

Zhao Ya thought about it and decided that he had been too supportive of the New Party today. He might as well give the Old Party a little something to eat, so that they wouldn't jump off the wall before he was ready. So he said to Zhao Tingzhi: "My dear, come and see me in the Chuigong Palace later."

Zhao Tingzhi was overjoyed and bowed to the ground: "I accept your command and thank you."

After letting Zhao Tingzhi go back, the morning court session continued...

Only then did Cai Jing give Zhao Tingzhi, the man who had stolen his job, a subtle glance. The feud between him and Zhao Tingzhi was complete...

After a period of adjustment, Zhao Ya has completely adapted to the identity of emperor.

At this stage, Zhao Ya has inherited the past and carried forward all the fine traditions created by Zhao Xu. He has also made use of new talents and initiated reforms. He is resolute but not conservative, steady but also dares to innovate.

Although no one could tell how far Zhao Ya would go in the future, both the New Party and the Old Party could see that under Zhao Ya's leadership, the road of the Zhao Song Dynasty was getting wider and wider...

……

After leaving the court.

Li Kefei returned home and saw his beloved daughter, sixteen-year-old Li Qingzhao.

At this moment, Li Qingzhao lay in a rocking chair in the courtyard, scroll in hand, lazily reading a volume of Shishuo Xinyu. A gentle breeze blew, her hair fluttering as she immersed herself in the world of the book, sometimes frowning slightly, lamenting the joys and sorrows it depicted; sometimes, the corners of her mouth curled up, delighted by the exquisite words.

Seeing her father coming back, Li Qingzhao immediately stood up and flew over like a happy little butterfly.

When Li Qingzhao was six years old, she went to live in Tokyo Bianliang City with her father Li Kefei to learn culture. She was influenced by her family and was smart and intelligent, so she became talented and soon made her mark in the literary world.

Not long ago, she wrote the poem "Ru Meng Ling: Last night the rain was sparse and the wind was strong", which was widely recited by later generations.

As soon as this poem was published, it caused a sensation in the entire capital.

All the scholars at that time applauded and praised her, and no one could describe it in words. Even Li Qingzhao's master Su Shi praised Li Qingzhao for her spirituality.

Li Kefei is particularly fond of his daughter and is very proud of her.

Seeing Li Qingzhao running over, Li Kefei scolded her with a stern face: "You are already a grown-up girl, yet you are still so impulsive. How will you get married in the future?"

"If I can't get married, I'll stay by my father's side and be filial to him." Li Qingzhao was not afraid of Li Kefei at all. She asked curiously, "Have you met His Majesty?"

"I saw it." Li Kefei said as he walked into the yard.

——Li Kefei had just been transferred back to the court to serve as a deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites. Today was his first time meeting Zhao Ya.

"How?" Li Qingzhao asked.

Li Kefei stopped and said in awe, "Amazing."

"What do you mean?" Li Qingzhao became even more curious.

Li Kefei looked at Li Qingzhao and said, "Your Majesty is calm and measured, knows when to advance and when to retreat, and makes decisions with reason. You are a wise ruler. Our Song Dynasty has hope for revival."

Li Qingzhao did not expect that her father would give such a high evaluation of the little emperor, which made her even more curious about Zhao Ya.

Li Qingzhao's eyes rolled as she came up with a plan. She said, "Father, I heard that the palace will hold an imperial examination. This will be handled by the Ministry of Rites. Do you have any ideas for me to learn from?"

……

(End of this chapter)