White-robed Minister

Chapter 212 0210 [Demanding Benefits Amidst Court Infighting]

When Wang Anshi first became vice prime minister, he encouraged local officials to submit memorials to discuss the shortcomings of governance and offer good suggestions for reform.

During this discussion, Wang Anshi took the opportunity to promote talented individuals.

The "Young Sprouts Act" was first discussed behind closed doors, then opened to the public on a small scale, and then discussed on a larger scale.

The law caused an uproar during small-scale public discussions, with many centrists who had previously been ambiguous beginning to take a clear stance against it. Some centrists and reformists who had close personal relationships with Wang Anshi earnestly advised him to abandon or revise the law.

Due to the overwhelming public opinion and the overwhelming opposition, the emperor issued an edict to explain the new law to the officials.

The imperial edict explained: "The court established the Bureau of Regulations for the Three Offices to promote reforms—the original intention of the Green Sprouts Law was to use the money and grain from the Ever-Normal Granary to lend to farmers at low interest rates during the lean season, so as to prevent them from being exploited by landlords and powerful families through usury. At the same time, it can also stabilize prices. The court is not using this to profit."

The edict further stated: "Since the officials still have doubts, the nationwide implementation will not be promulgated for the time being. It can be piloted in Jingdong, Huainan, and Hebei. Farmers will voluntarily provide guarantees, and there will be no forced levies. After borrowing money, it will be repaid along with the summer and autumn taxes. If the price of grain is too high, it can be repaid in cash. The interest rate is very low (in fact, it is close to the legal interest rate ceiling)."

This edict can be understood as a public announcement and explanation document, rather than a direct order to promulgate a new law.

Furthermore, Wang Anshi also heeded some suggestions, such as not imposing forced levies and instead conducting local pilot programs first. However, the scope of the pilot programs was rather large.

Han Qi, who had been cleaning up Wang Anshi's messes and was serving as the Pacification Commissioner of Hebei Road, responsible for disaster relief and reconstruction, submitted a memorial stating that the detailed rules of the Green Sprouts Law were completely contrary to the original intention.

Han Qi raised his own doubts: "They say they won't force people to pay, but local officials will inevitably impose such payments under pressure."

"Allowing wealthy individuals to borrow money is tantamount to allowing the government to engage in usury in disguise. This is because the new law requires wealthy individuals to act as guarantors for the poor, which effectively forces the rich to borrow money."

"Impoverished farmers are already burdened with old debts. If they encounter a year of disaster and are unable to repay new debts, the poor will be pursued and punished by the government."

Wealthy guarantors would be required to pay compensation on their behalf. Regardless of wealth, everyone would suffer under the new law, and even the principal lent by the government might not be recovered.

"The imperial court already has old methods to stabilize prices, but now it's using the Green Sprouts Act instead. It's ostensibly for disaster relief, but in reality, it's for profit—"

"The original intention of the Green Sprouts Act was to relieve the burden on farmers, yet it allows urban residents to borrow money for the green sprouts. In the future, local officials will likely force urban residents to borrow money in order to meet their quotas—"

Zeng Gongliang, who supported Wang Anshi most of the time, also strongly opposed including urban residents in the calculation.

Chen Xu, who had not outwardly broken with Wang Anshi, now openly opposed the Green Sprouts Act. However, he still wanted to reconcile with Wang Anshi and only opposed urban residents borrowing Green Sprouts money.

Cheng Ti, who had just returned to Beijing from Chengdu, analyzed the situation based on local realities and opposed the implementation of the Green Sprouts Law in the Chengdu area.

Wen Yanbo was ostracized by Wang Anshi and Han Jiang, and in addition, he disapproved of the Green Sprouts Act, so he pretended to be sick and took leave from work, spending his days lying at home sleeping.

Because all the officials in the court opposed it, and even Zhao Xu raised questions, Wang Anshi became angry. He submitted a memorial requesting to resign from his position as vice prime minister and also claimed to be ill and unwilling to go to work.

Zhao Xu panicked.

First, he was frightened by the overwhelming public opinion in the court, and second, he was frightened by Wang Anshi's attitude.

Zhao Jing was initially influenced by public opinion and expressed his desire to abolish the Green Sprouts Act.

Zeng Gongliang and Chen Shengzhi agreed and planned to implement the emperor's opinion immediately.

Zhao Bian insisted on waiting for Wang Anshi to return, hoping that Wang Anshi would abolish the Green Sprouts Act himself, and that no one would take action against him behind his back while he was away.

The prime ministers started arguing for no apparent reason.

Some officials also hoped to retain Wang Anshi and prevent him from resigning. These officials came from a diverse background.

For example, Wang Zishao was a two-faced person. He was promoted after being recommended by Wang Anshi, and supported the new laws in front of the emperor and Wang Anshi, but privately he joined the opponents in slandering the new laws. He was afraid that he would lose his patron after Wang Anshi resigned, so he asked to retain Wang Anshi.

Officials such as Cheng Hao and Li Chang were old friends of Wang Anshi. Although they strongly opposed the Green Sprouts Act, they still held expectations for Wang Anshi's reforms. They hoped that Wang Anshi could abolish the evil laws and promulgate good ones, ultimately achieving the goal of enriching the country and strengthening the people.

Emperor Zhao Xu was so annoyed by the clamor of his ministers that he sent Han Jiang to invite Wang Anshi back to work.

Wang Anshi originally intended to force the emperor to pass the Green Sprouts Act by resigning. However, upon seeing that the emperor planned to abolish the new law, he was too frightened to feign illness and hurriedly went to see the emperor.

Because of the Green Sprouts Act, the conflicts in the court quickly intensified, and Wang Anshi completely abandoned his illusions, becoming increasingly tough in his attitude and methods.

In any case, the Green Sprouts Act cannot be implemented on a large scale for the time being.

Xu Lai's proposal to establish new official salt-producing areas was passed without any fanfare. Compared to the Green Sprouts Act, this was a trivial matter.

Even when it came to the selection of the person in charge of salt affairs in Qinfeng Road, Xu Lai took the opportunity to recommend Zhang, and the emperor and the prime minister readily approved it.

The new official salt-producing area, encompassing Qinfeng, Xihe, and Jingyuan, was dedicated to selling well salt produced in the newly restored Xulai region. This not only generated revenue for the border region but also suppressed the production of Qingbai salt by the Western Xia.

Both sides in the conflict are trying to win over Xu Lai!

Sensing this situation, Xu Lai made further demands, hoping to recruit archers from Yongxing Army Road. The emperor readily agreed, the prime ministers did not object, the censors were busy impeaching him, and Wen Yanbo was on strike, yet the court actually approved it.

Xu Lai definitely took advantage of the situation.

On the Yongxing military road, they were ordered to recruit 6000 archers and send them to Xihe.

The third year of the Xining era.

Before the snow had completely melted, Xu Lai urged Zhang Heng to quickly transport grain and fodder.

By the time truckloads of grain arrived, spring plowing had already begun in Xizhou.

Whenever he had a spare moment, Xu Lai would ride out of the city to inspect the area, and Ding Xiang would follow him on horseback.

The number of oxen for plowing was still insufficient, so a large number of inferior horses and draft horses were lent to the people for land reclamation. No rent was charged, but the people had to provide the livestock with concentrated feed while they were cultivating the land.

The concentrated feed for these livestock was also provided by the government through interest-free loans.

Xu Lai rode his horse along the river valley, looking at the reclamation site with great joy: "Everything is being revitalized, it's really lively, this year will surely be a bumper harvest."

The Han archers and civilians, as well as the Qiang people who were registered as commoners, were mostly allocated fertile fields in the river valleys.

The Qiang leaders who surrendered to the Song Dynasty after their defeat led a small number of their people to migrate to narrower river valleys. As for many small Qiang tribes, they were relegated to more barren lands to cultivate.

This greatly displeased many Qiang tribal leaders, and there was definitely a risk of rebellion.

Wang Shao objected, arguing that there was no need to migrate too many Han Chinese; instead, the priority should be to appease the Qiang chieftains and then have them cooperate with the Song army in continuing the war.

Not only Wang Shao, but most of the officials under the Military Commissioner made the same suggestion to Xu Lai.

Their idea was simple:

First, the immigration of Han Chinese is too costly in terms of money and resources, which may lead to insufficient food supplies for military expeditions.

Secondly, it could lead to discontent among the Qiang people. Qiang leaders might rebel, and the Qiang people might harbor hatred towards the Han people.

Third, they wanted the Qiang chieftains to wholeheartedly cooperate with the Song Dynasty in sending troops, so that they could continue to expand their territory in a short period of time and everyone could quickly make meritorious contributions and be promoted.

The frontline military commanders in various states shared the same views as the civil officials.

Xu Lai was similar to Wang Anshi, almost single-mindedly pursuing the immigration policy. However, they shared a common interest (gaining merit and promotion), and once the immigration work was finalized, both civil and military officials on the front lines could only strive to implement it.

"Wow, so many people. Don't they grow rice here?" Dingxiang asked a seemingly absurd question.

Xu Lai laughed heartily.

Wang Hou and Chen Xiaoyi chuckled to themselves: This new lady, though beautiful, knew absolutely nothing about worldly affairs.

Dingxiang then asked, "Is there not enough water?"

Xu Lai explained, "There are also climatic reasons, but the main reason is insufficient water resources."

It turns out that rice can indeed be grown in Xizhou. Twenty years later, Liu Fang even wrote a poem called "A Trip to Xizhou": "Who knew that rice could be grown on the Tao River, and that all that lies beyond Liangzhou is white wheat."

But that was the result of the gradual increase in the number of Han people and the stabilization of Xizhou.

Not yet.

The Qiang people did not value water conservancy projects, and the government had to organize the digging of irrigation canals. Moreover, if they wanted to grow rice, someone had to know the planting techniques.

Xu Lai said, "Whether we grow rice, wheat, or millet, we need to build water conservancy projects. Once the new immigrants have settled down and the border fortresses have been completed, we can organize the digging of irrigation canals."

At this time, the Xihe area had more abundant water and more lush vegetation than in later generations. With careful management, it could be completely self-sufficient and would not need to request the court to continuously provide money and grain—provided that there were no frequent wars.

Therefore, it is necessary to both operate and expand simultaneously, turning Xihe, which is located on the front line, into a rear base.

If they don't work hard to manage things, they won't be able to be self-sufficient, and they might even force Han archers and civilians to flee.

Xu Lai had just returned to the city after inspecting spring plowing when he received news that Li Xian and Wang Zhongzheng had arrived.

Eunuchs, regardless of their character, should be won over first.

Xu Lai hosted a banquet that very evening and invited the two of them.

"Please forgive us, gentlemen from the border region, but we are short of provisions in Xihe," Xu Lai explained. "Although a batch of grain was transported in after the spring, we still have to use it sparingly. The same goes for the wine; most of it is transported to the border fortresses. Today, the three of us can only share one liter of wine."

Li Xian laughed and said, "With wine, meat, and millet, this is already an extremely sumptuous feast."

Xu Lai explained, "This is wild game hunted by the Qiang people and brought to the city to sell. It lacks spices, so it might taste a bit fishy or gamey."

"Haha, it has a unique flavor." Li Xian laughed heartily.

Wang Zhongzheng was somewhat displeased. The millet porridge, the murky wine, and the gamey, fishy smell were all extremely unpalatable to him. For a dignified military commissioner to serve such food and drink to his guests was clearly a sign of contempt for the eunuchs.

However, Xu Lai was a favorite of the emperor, and Wang Zhongzheng couldn't directly turn against him. He planned to find an opportunity to report him behind his back after returning to the capital.

The banquet has ended.

Xu Lai then brought some money: "Xihe is severely short of food, but we can still spare some money. You two have had a long and arduous journey, so please don't refuse."

Having received the money, Wang Zhongzheng felt a little better and decided to continue observing the situation, without necessarily reporting it to the authorities.

Li Xian accepted the money, but then said to Xu, "Master Xu, may I travel to the border fortresses to familiarize myself with the geography and military affairs of Xihe?"

Wang Zhongzheng also said, "As the commander of the army, I also need to visit the various fortified villages."

Xu Lai had no choice but to agree and send Wang Hou to accompany them.

A dozen days later, Wang Hou sent back a secret letter: Li Xian was usable, had not done anything out of line, and had been doing his job properly. Wang Zhongzheng did nothing of substance, liked to give orders, would scold border generals if he didn't eat well, and secretly demanded bribes from them.

After reading the letter, Xu Lai was immediately enraged.

He immediately wrote to the emperor, denouncing Wang Zhongzheng's various crimes and saying that the eunuch had made a mess of the border. At the same time, he praised Li Xian, saying that he was humble and cautious, and that every question he asked about the border was of great importance.

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