I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 52 Cai Jing
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Cai Jing was bright and studious from a young age, ambitious, energetic, and quick-witted. He relished pomp and circumstance, was sociable, outspoken, decisive, and fearless of offending others. While studying at the Imperial College in Tokyo with his younger brother, Cai Bian, he gained a reputation for his erudition and versatility.

In the third year of Xining, Cai Jing and Cai Bian both became Jinshi, which became a good story at the time.

During the Xining period, Wang Anshi's reforms were in full swing.

Cai Bian studied under Wang Anshi and married Wang Anshi's second daughter, becoming Wang Anshi's son-in-law.

Cai Jing therefore joined the New Party camp and actively promoted the new laws.

Wang Anshi once believed that there were four people who might be able to inherit his theories and assist the emperor in carrying out reforms.

These four people are his son Wang Yuanze, Cai Bian, Cai Jing, and Lu Huiqing.

Wang Yuanze died of a strange illness long before Wang Anshi was dismissed from his position as prime minister.

Lu Huiqing was Wang Anshi's main assistant during the reform and the second-in-command of Wang Anshi's reform. He made many contributions to promoting the reform and had a master-disciple relationship with Wang Anshi. However, he later broke with Wang Anshi because of hatred for each other.

Only the brothers Cai Jing and Cai Bian lived up to Wang Anshi's high hopes and adhered to Wang Anshi's reform theories throughout their lives.

Especially Cai Jing, who historically served as prime minister for a long time during the Zhao Ji era. He not only inherited but also further developed Wang Anshi's ideas of reform in practice.

At the beginning, when he was less than 30 years old, Cai Jing was transferred from the local area to the court by Wang Anshi, where he held an important position and was highly valued.

Cai Jing's political career saw ups and downs over the past thirty years, as the old and new political parties battled against each other. He held nearly every position in the Zhao Song dynasty, including prefect, governor, and shipping envoy in nine provinces, as well as acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture. He also served as an envoy to the Liao Kingdom, where his talent and demeanor earned him widespread praise from the Liao emperor and his ministers.

It is no exaggeration to say that Cai Jing has received sufficient experience and has extremely rich experience in politics and reform.

Zhao Xu took power and ordered the implementation of the Yuanfeng New Law. He dismissed the old party promoted by Gao Taotao and appointed new party leaders such as Zhang Dun, Zeng Bu and Cai Bian as prime ministers. Cai Jing was also recalled to the court by Zhao Xu to serve as the Minister of Revenue. He actively cooperated with Zhang Dun and others to implement the new law.

Soon, Cai Jing was appointed as a Hanlin scholar and attendant tutor, and later promoted to a Hanlin scholar and imperial edict clerk. He was responsible for drafting imperial edicts for Zhao Xu and was in charge of the confidential matters of the palace, and was deeply trusted by Zhao Xu.

However, Cai Jing's position has never been as high as his younger brother, Shangshu Zuocheng Cai Bian, nor has he been as respected as Cai Bian.

The reason is not only that Cai Bian is Wang Anshi's son-in-law but also his successor, nor is it that Cai Jing's ability is inferior to Cai Bian's, but that Cai Jing has two major problems:
The first problem is that Cai Jing's political stance is flexible, which means he is suspected of being a fence-sitter. Many New Party members suspect that he is an outright political opportunist.

At the beginning, the first thing Gao Taotao did after taking power was to immediately appoint Sima Guang, Wang Anshi's political rival and leader of the old party, as prime minister.

Immediately after Sima Guang took office, he ordered the abolition of the new law and required all relevant departments to complete it within five days.

All the ministers said that the task was impossible to complete, but Cai Jing completed it within five days. He changed the recruitment of laborers in Kaifeng Prefecture into regular laborers, showing strong administrative skills and a vigorous and iron-fisted style of work, which won the praise of Sima Guang.

From this we can see that Cai Jing is indeed a person of bad character. He can make things happen at will and has no political integrity.

The second problem is that Cai Jing was greedy for money and liked luxury, which was different from the morally noble Wang Anshi.

Zhang Dun and Cai Bian, who were equally morally upright, therefore looked down upon Cai Jing.

However, at the same time, there were also many knowledgeable people, from both the old and new parties, and all of them were bigwigs, who believed that Cai Jing had the ability to be a prime minister and that only Cai Jing could save the Zhao Song Dynasty.

At this critical moment, Zhao Ya recommended Cai Jing to raise funds for the court. It can be said that this was both unexpected and reasonable. Zhao Xu was very satisfied that Zhao Ya chose Cai Jing, whom he trusted, to carry out this task, rather than relying on his own talent and usefulness to jump the red line of not interfering in government affairs and interfere in state affairs.

When the ministers saw that Zhao Ya chose Cai Jing, who was capable and had a flexible political stance, to raise money for the court, they had nothing to say.

Cai Jing felt that there was nothing wrong with Zhao Ya recommending him, because Empress Dowager Xiang admired his talent very much, he had a close relationship with the Xiang family, and Zhao Ya was now almost like Empress Dowager Xiang's own son, so it was normal for Zhao Ya to recommend him.

As for why Zhao Ya recommended Cai Jing to do this?
Besides the fact that this trick belonged to Cai Jing, Cai Jing was particularly good at financial management, so there would probably be no problem if this matter was handed over to Cai Jing.

Moreover, you can say that Cai Jing is treacherous, but you cannot say that Cai Jing is incompetent. He has been to most places in the Zhao Song Dynasty, held many positions, and has rich experience in administration. He has a very deep understanding of the pros and cons of the Zhao Song court's policies and the people's livelihood. He has been fully tempered in his thoughts and is extremely mature politically. If Zhao Ya wanted to carry out drastic reforms to the Zhao Song Dynasty, Cai Jing would definitely be the most capable general, without a doubt.

Haven’t you seen that among the five capable ministers that Zhang Chun gave to Zhao Ya, Cai Jing was ranked first?

Therefore, if there is an opportunity and there are no adverse effects, Zhao Ya should establish contact with this important official of his.

After the court was dismissed, Cai Jing took the initiative to come to Prince Shen's mansion and thank Zhao Ya: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"

Zhao Ya waved his hand: "If I don't hand it over to you, I won't feel at ease. After all, I'm the one who guaranteed it."

Next, Zhao Ya and Cai Jing talked about how to make this happen.

With Cai Jing's experience, it was impossible for him not to see that Zhao Ya was not familiar with the specific personnel involved, but Cai Jing discovered that Zhao Ya was particularly good at focusing on the big things and letting go of the small things, so he would also delegate power to him.

Moreover, Cai Jing was shocked to find that in terms of macro aspects, whether it was the economy, the malpractices of the Zhao Song Dynasty, or the situation around the Zhao Song Dynasty, Zhao Ya was very knowledgeable.

The key is that Zhao Ya knows many things more clearly and understands them more deeply than he does.

Cai Jing was horrified! He finally understood why Empress Dowager Xiang liked Zhao Ya so much, and why Zhao Xu and the other ministers were so looking forward to Zhao Ya.

At this time, Cai Jing and Zhang Dun felt the same regret: "What a pity, Prince Shen is only a prince!"

The two chatted until late.

Cai Jing benefited a lot.

Just as Cai Jing was about to leave, Zhao Ya had his glassware brought to him and said to Cai Jing, "Please accept my order and sell them together."

Cai Jing had already learned from Xiang Zonghui and Xiang Zongliang that Zhao Ya had presented a lot of glass products to Empress Dowager Xiang, which were said to be very magical.

Now that he had personally tried all the glass products Zhao Ya had brought out, Cai Jing was shocked to find that these glass products were far more magical than he had heard.

When Cai Jing asked about the price, even the knowledgeable Cai Jing was stunned.

The question of whether Zhao Ya’s glass products are expensive is no longer a question of whether they are expensive or not, but rather that the prices are too outrageous.

But when Cai Jing took off his glasses and couldn't see clearly anymore, he couldn't help but think: "Only 30,000 strings of cash can help me see everything clearly again. It doesn't seem... expensive."

……

(End of this chapter)