I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 99: The First Year of Jianzhong
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After the New Year, that is, in 1100, the Zhao Song Dynasty officially changed its reign title to "Jianzhong".

To be honest, Zhao Ya didn't like this reign title. "Jianzhong" sounds a bit like "bastard" in Chinese.

Fortunately, this was destined to be a transitional reign title for just over a year. As long as Zhao Ya waited until Empress Dowager Xiang passed away, he could replace it and completely start his own reign.

Cai Bian is very efficient.

Years ago, the thirteen people, including Sima Guang, were convicted by Cai Bian, and the evidence was overwhelming.

From these thirteen families, nearly ten million strings of gold and silver were confiscated, and more than one million acres of land were confiscated. In some families, even the servants were dressed in brocade clothes and gold belts. In one family, more than thirty silver balls weighing fifty kilograms each were seized, and even gold balls weighing fifty kilograms each were found.

After receiving this result, Zhao Ya threw the list in front of the ministers who had been defending Sima Guang and others, and asked: "Is this what you call a gentleman who is devoted to the Song Dynasty?"

Faced with such a result, who would dare to defend Sima Guang and others for a moment?
In fact, to be honest, Sima Guang was really wronged.

The money and property seized from his family were not particularly large.

But his relatives relied on his power to levy heavy taxes and accumulate a large amount of wealth.

The key point is that Cai Bian investigated Sima Guang and the other twelve corrupt officials carefully selected by Zhao Ya together. Isn’t the total wealth of them added together shocking?
Cai Bian immediately requested that efforts be intensified to combat corruption.

It is obvious that the new party is preparing to take advantage of this opportunity to liquidate the old party.

In Zhao Ya's view, the biggest problem of the Zhao Song Dynasty now is not the problem of redundant troops, but the problem of redundant officials.

In order to prevent military generals from monopolizing power, the Zhao Song Dynasty implemented the policy of "governing the world together with the literati and officials" starting from the time of Zhao Kuangyin. The status of civil officials was raised to an extremely high level, leading to a vicious expansion of the bureaucracy.

During the reign of Emperor Zhao Kuangyin, the Song Dynasty had only two to three thousand officials. The bureaucracy was streamlined, with three provinces and six ministries at the central level and a two-tiered system of prefectures and counties at the local level, but it was still able to govern the country.

During the reign of Zhao Guangyi, the number of officials doubled. Moreover, the number of candidates admitted to each imperial examination increased tenfold from 10 to 30 during the reign of Zhao Kuangyin to 200 to 300, setting a precedent for the "Enke" system in later generations.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the number of students admitted to each subject increased to about 500.

Up to now, the number of students admitted to each subject has reached one thousand.

In fact, the problem of the imperial examination was not that big.

The real problem is that middle and senior officials can pass on their influence to their descendants and relatives. For example, a prime minister can pass on his influence to ten people, resulting in "one person entering the officialdom, and all descendants and relatives can get official positions."

In order to accommodate redundant officials, empty positions such as "Supervisor of Palaces and Temples" were set up starting from the time of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty. At that time, such idle officials already accounted for 10% of the total number of officials.

As these accumulated, by the time of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the number of officials in the Zhao Song Dynasty had reached more than 12,000.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the number had nearly doubled, and the number of officials in the Zhao Song Dynasty reached more than 21,000.

During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the number further reached more than 24,000.

But now, due to party struggles and other factors, the number of officials has reached nearly 40,000.

In the struggle between the old and new parties, each side that came to power engaged in large-scale purges of dissidents and installed their cronies. For example, when the new party came to power, old party officials were demoted or idled, but their salaries were retained.

Nowadays, the salaries of officials of the Zhao Song Dynasty account for 30% to 40% of fiscal expenditure. How much tax revenue can the Zhao Song Dynasty collect to withstand the consumption of this financial black hole?
In order to make up for the fiscal deficit, the imperial court had no choice but to increase taxes (for example, the "Equal Taxation Law for Square Fields" was distorted into a tool for making money), exacerbating social contradictions.

What is even more speechless is that the number of officials has increased dozens of times, but work efficiency has become even lower.

At present, the actual duties (assignments) of officials are out of line with their official ranks, forming a strange phenomenon of "officials without power" or "power without officials".

This has led to officials passing the buck to each other and sticking to the old ways, with not many people doing their jobs.

Su Shi severely criticized this phenomenon in his memorial to Zhao Ya, saying: "Today's officials dare not do anything..."

In addition, the opportunities for scholars from poor families to enter officialdom through the imperial examinations were squeezed out. A large number of talented people were unable to be promoted due to party struggles or the system of hereditary appointments. The ideal of the imperial examinations that "rich families do not need to buy fertile land, as books can provide them with thousands of bushels of grain" was shattered, while hereditary officials occupied high positions, creating a false prosperity of "the court is full of scholars".

The ice is three feet thick, and it didn't freeze overnight. This is not a problem that can be completely solved in a short period of time.

But there is one good thing, that is, Zhao Ya is not afraid that if he punishes these corrupt officials too harshly, there will be no one left to use.

Let me put it this way, the current officials of the Zhao Song Dynasty are enough to replace those corrupt officials hundreds of times.

Moreover, the Zhao Song Dynasty was still using the imperial examination system to recruit officials, and the system of hereditary appointments was still prevalent. In addition, the Zhao Song Dynasty also had the Imperial Academy, where a large number of students were lining up to become officials.

Under such circumstances, if Zhao Ya supported the fight against corruption, not only would no one stop him, but those officials who were waiting to gain real power to realize their political ambitions would be eager to support him wholeheartedly.

So, Zhao Ya waved his hand and continued...

After receiving Zhao Ya's imperial edict, the New Party members rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

However, there was one thing that Zhao Ya was very strict about, that is, he did not give these vacant positions to anyone's confidants, but gave them to the talents selected by Zhao Ya and Zhang Chun.

In other words, by using the new party to purge the old party and combat corruption, Zhao Ya promoted a large number of capable officials.

Of course, because it is the New Party that has been in charge of combating corruption during this period, most of the capable officials who have taken office recently are from the New Party.

In this regard, Zhao Ya chose to turn a blind eye.

Because only in this way can the New Party have the motivation to vigorously combat corruption.

During this process, a large amount of stolen money was continuously transported to the court.

Zhao Ya ignored the opposition and paid the long-overdue military expenses first, including the rewards owed to meritorious soldiers by the court.

This led to strong support from the military for the anti-corruption campaign and Zhao Ya himself.

In addition, Zhao Ya also began to pay the salaries owed to officials.

In other words, everyone benefited greatly from the downfall of these corrupt officials. Therefore, the fight against corruption must continue. Anyone who opposes this will become an enemy of the majority of both the military and the government.

Some members of the old party who were "persecuted" during this process went to see Empress Dowager Xiang, hoping that she would step in to resolve the issue of the suppression of the old party.

But Empress Dowager Xiang told these old party members that Zhao Ya was not suppressing the old party, he was just solving the imminent problems facing the court.

This is indeed the case.

This time, Zhao Ya asked Zhang Shangying, Li Qingchen and Su Shi to select a large number of capable officials.

Anyone can see that Zhao Ya is preparing to replace those corrupt officials with these capable officials.

Those incompetent officials who occupied the toilet but did not do anything were also removed.

——Under the repeated suggestions of the New Party that wanted to "grab territory", Zhao Ya abolished the performance appraisal system and comprehensively evaluated the performance of officials from all regions. Officials who failed the performance appraisal were required to step down and make way for more capable people. The previous practice of automatic promotion based on seniority regardless of performance was completely eliminated. In the future, the atmosphere would be that the capable would be promoted and the incompetent would be demoted.

People from the old party also understood that Zhao Ya was not really targeting the old party.

You should know that the capable officials selected this time are not all from the New Party, but from both the New and Old Parties. Strictly speaking, because the total number of Old Party officials is greater than that of the New Party officials, there are even more talents selected by Zhao Ya and Zhang Chun who belong to the Old Party.

However, it is the New Party that is currently cracking down on corruption. Even if they clean up those corrupt officials and drive away those incompetent officials, they will only select talents from the New Party selected by Zhao Ya and Zhang Chun.

This has led to some states and counties being filled with New Party officials.

Seeing the new party's "conquering cities and seizing territories" like this, the old party became really anxious and could only look for Empress Dowager Xiang again and again.

Empress Dowager Xiang had no choice but to seek help from Zhao Ya for a solution.

"Under pressure from Empress Dowager Xiang," Zhao Ya had no choice but to let Su Che be responsible for combating corruption.

When the old party took action, they were no weaker than the new party. They did not show any mercy just because most of the officials they wanted to deal with were from the old party. Their main point was, if you don’t step down, how can I step up?

I have to say, this trick of "using the successor to investigate the predecessor, and if any problems are found, then replacing the predecessor" is really too cruel.

Of course, we must admit that in this process, there were inevitably some successors who were jealous and framed others in order to take over their predecessors' official positions.

In this regard, Zhao Ya's purpose was to strictly implement the false accusation and prosecution, and at this point, it was not the New Party or the Old Party that investigated the case, but the Imperial City Division and the East Factory, which Zhao Ya established specifically for this matter, that was responsible for the strict investigation.

In order to reduce the resistance to the establishment of the East Factory, Zhao Ya appointed Yang Jian, the eunuch who was a confidant of Empress Dowager Xiang, as the head of the factory, while the main body of the East Factory was composed of eunuchs.

This was also Zhang Chun's advice to Zhao Ya, and the purpose was naturally to help Zhao Ya strengthen imperial power and centralization.

In fact, needless to say, these are the Jinyiwei and Dongchang of the Ming Dynasty.

It's worth noting that, given the significant differences between the original Imperial City Division and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Zhao Ya redefined the Imperial City Division's responsibilities, assigning it direct responsibility for investigating cases designated by the emperor and apprehending important criminals without requiring conventional judicial procedures. Furthermore, as Zhao Ya's personal guard, the Imperial City Division was responsible for guarding ceremonial guards, patrolling the imperial city, and protecting the imperial family. Furthermore, the Imperial City Division was independent of the Six Ministries and could directly impeach officials to Zhao Ya. The key thrust was to completely transform the Imperial City Division into the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The East Factory was also independent of the Six Ministries and reported directly to Zhao Ya. Its functions included monitoring officials, civilians and the Imperial City Administration, becoming Zhao Ya's eyes and ears to prevent power from being monopolized by the bureaucratic group. It could also check and balance each other with the Imperial City Administration to avoid excessive power of a single institution.

Since the Imperial City Bureau and the East Factory could bypass the cumbersome judicial process and respond quickly to Zhao Ya's instructions, several problems that arose during the process of rectifying corrupt officials were handled by the Imperial City Bureau and the East Factory, which reduced the bureaucratic system's buck-passing and procrastination. All problems were handled efficiently and properly, fully and quickly implementing the will of Emperor Zhao Ya, ensuring that the rectification of corruption and inaction could proceed smoothly.

The Imperial City Bureau and the Eastern Depot, especially the latter, became famous in one battle.

There were knowledgeable people in both the New Party and the Old Party who realized that Zhao Ya's purpose in strengthening the authority of the Imperial City Bureau and establishing the East Factory was not simple.

But at the current stage, the biggest enemies of the new party and the old party are each other, and they cannot take care of Zhao Ya's little tricks for the time being.

More importantly, neither the New Party nor the Old Party realized that this was an institution targeting them. After all, the Imperial City Bureau already existed, and the East Factory was a "small institution" newly established to resolve their party disputes.

Therefore, for a while, officials from both the old and new parties, who were deeply involved in the factional struggle, did not take the Imperial City Bureau and the East Factory seriously.
This also gave the Imperial City Bureau and the East Factory the opportunity to grow rapidly.

As for waiting for people from both the new and old parties to react?
At that time, the Imperial City Bureau and the East Factory had grown into entities that they could not shake, and Zhao Ya had become even more powerful. Without the constraints of Empress Dowager Xiang, their opposition was no longer effective.

After the crackdown on corruption, and with the three economic strategies of Ye Shiyun, led by Cai Jing, beginning to take effect, a steady stream of wealth flowed into the capital. In just a few months, the court began to turn losses into profits and accumulated some savings.

Recently, Cai Jing has given Zhao Ya advice to carry out reforms in the economic system, especially the reforms of the tea and salt laws.

Ye Shiyun reminded Zhao Ya at the first time that Cai Jing's reforms were actually a double-edged sword. Although they could make money, they would also exacerbate social contradictions. They could be used for a period of time, but not all the time, otherwise they would cause considerable harm.

Military aspect.

After such a long period of mobilization, 70,000 Song troops have gathered near Daming Prefecture and can march north at any time.

In addition, the Shenji Left Army and the Shenji Right Army recruited by Zhao Yata under Zong Ze, Zhang Shuye, Wang Bing and He Guan have also gathered in Bianliang City and are now training in the training ground of Kaifeng Prefecture.

Zhao Ya adopted Li Lin's suggestion and implemented a dual-chief system for these two armies: a military supervisor would oversee the troops' ideological and political work, ensuring their obedience to Zhao Ya and the court's command; while the commander-in-chief would focus on combat command and training. The two, working together, would ensure the troops' combat effectiveness while preventing them from escaping the control of imperial power and the court.

Let me explain it briefly.

Zhao Ya put Tong Guan (and Li Lin behind him) in charge of establishing and training the Shen Ji Left Army and the Shen Ji Right Army.

Zong Ze served as the commander of the Shenji Left Army, and Wang Bing served as the commander-in-chief of the Shenji Left Army.
Zhang Shuye served as the chief commander of the Shenji Right Army, and He Guan served as the chief general of the Shenji Right Army.

Both the Shenji Left Army and the Shenji Right Army were mainly equipped with weapons such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon, the Sky-Bomb, and the Shenbi Bow, and both adopted the organization of 4,000 infantry and 1,000 light cavalry.

In addition, the equipment of the Shenji Left Army and the Shenji Right Army is the best. Zhao Ya equipped these two armies with whatever good things the Zhao Song Dynasty had. The cavalry of the Shenji Left Army and the Shenji Right Army is even more luxurious, with one person having three horses (about half war horses and half draft horses, which can enhance the mobility of the Shenji Army when necessary).

In addition, at Tong Guan's suggestion, Zhao Ya assembled another 10,000 troops, as well as a large number of mules, camels, and carts to serve as auxiliary troops for the Shenji Left Army and the Shenji Right Army.

In a word, the Zhao Song Dynasty was really prepared to fight at all costs.

Next, I don't know how Liao and Xia will respond...

……

(End of this chapter)