White-robed Minister

Chapter 246 0244 [Resolutely Implement Reform to Oppose Reform]

The Imperial Palace.

Zhao Xu asked Xu Lai, "How did the talks with the Liao and Xia envoys go?"

Xu Lai replied, "It is estimated that the military provisions that Liao Kingdom provided to Western Xia have been almost used up, and this year's wheat and millet have not yet been harvested. In addition, with the Song army constantly capturing fortified villages, the Western Xia envoys' tone has gradually softened. Now they only ask that the Song return Lanzhou and the Hengshan fortified village that was newly captured this year."

"The Liao envoy was unwilling to talk at all, and even refused to drink with me. It is estimated that he received a death order from the Liao emperor or the Liao Grand Tutor, and was determined to redraw the border with the Song Dynasty. Liao envoy Xiao Xi could not make the decision on his own; the Liao army had to be severely punished first."

Xu Lai is now the chief person in charge of diplomatic negotiations.

Han, the previous head of negotiations, has been transferred to serve as the military commissioner of Qinfeng Road. It is estimated that this is because his brother was dismissed from his post as prime minister after instigating a mutiny, and the emperor wanted to compensate the Han family, so he promoted Han Zhen to Qinfeng Road.

However, Han Zhen has already made a mess of things.

Han Zhen learned from his brother's mistake and believed that he should win over his civil and military officials and absolutely not provoke another mutiny. So after arriving in Qin Prefecture, he immediately hosted a banquet for the local officials, showing them concern and winning their hearts.

After the banquet, Commander Fu Qing, drunk, mistakenly entered the inner quarters of the Military Commissioner's residence and encountered Han Zhen's concubine. Han Zhen happened to be returning to rest as well, and the three bumped into each other.

Han Zhen was drunk and out of control. The alcohol and anger made him lose his mind, and he ordered his men to tie up Fu Qing and beat him to death on the spot.

Damn it, this guy has only been in office for less than ten days and he's already killed a commander at home.

Commander Fu Qing's wife was on her way to the capital, carrying her blood-stained clothes, when she came to Kaifeng to beat the Dengwen Drum.

After listening to Xu Lai's report, Zhao Xu asked, "The Western Xia have been severely defeated on several border routes in Shaanxi. Why are there still no reports of victory in Hebei and Hedong, which are dealing with the Liao Dynasty?"

Xu Lai replied, "The soldiers of Hebei have not fought in battle for a long time; it would be good enough if they could just hold the city."

Zhao Xu said, "But the Hebei troops are also frequently rotated with other routes. Even though a new law was promulgated at the end of last year, which no longer stipulates that they will rotate with the Imperial Guards in the capital, they will still rotate with other nearby routes."

"Your Majesty," Xu Lai explained, "the so-called rotational garrison in the past was completely ineffective. It wasn't a whole army rotating garrisons; instead, soldiers were sporadically drawn from other routes to relieve them." He continued, "This kind of rotational garrison did not improve the army's combat effectiveness in the slightest; on the contrary, it actually weakened it. After Prime Minister Wang's reforms, soldiers from each route were ordered to rotate garrisons (units of one thousand men) in nearby areas. While this had some benefits, they were minimal, barely better than nothing."

Zhao Xu remained silent, deep in thought.

Xu Lai added, "The situation of the troops on the east bank of the river is similar, but the terrain is more favorable to the defenders. Please be patient, Your Majesty. Cai Ting is currently training the troops on the east bank, and we should have good news by this summer at the latest."

Both Zhao Xu and Xu Lai trusted Cai Ting completely.

Because Cai Ting had served as an official on the border for many years, he had almost never suffered a defeat. He would defend the frontier while simultaneously training his troops, and then use the newly formed army to win battles. Moreover, Cai Ting was fair in his dealings, and the military officers were all willing to serve him.

Zhao Xu sighed and said, "Shaanxi suffered a severe drought last year, and this year we have to conscript laborers to transport grain and fodder. With the lean season approaching, famine is starting again. The war cannot be delayed any longer."

Xu Lai said, "I have read the intelligence reports for the past two months, and it seems that both the Liao and Western Xia kingdoms are experiencing famine."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xiang was both amused and exasperated.

The Song, Liao, and Xia dynasties just kept at it, seeing who would give up first.

Unable to continue the discussion on military matters, Zhao Xu changed the subject, saying, "I read 'The Sound of the Bell' a couple of days ago, and the articles in it were quite brilliant. Why are there no articles discussing reforms?"

Xu Lai said, "If I were to write an article about the new laws, it would certainly contain mostly questions and criticisms."

Zhao Xu said, "The opinions of the ministers regarding the Green Sprouts Act are varied, and I really don't know who to believe."

"They are all telling the truth," Xu Lai replied.

"They're both telling the truth, so why are they so contradictory?" Zhao Xu couldn't understand.

Xu Lai repeated the same principles he had explained to Wang Hou that day to Zhao Xu, making them even more detailed and easier to understand.

After listening, Zhao Xu suddenly realized, "If it weren't for Mr. Xu's explanation today, I'm afraid I would never have understood. The Green Sprouts Law has so many loopholes, what methods do you have to remedy them?"

Xu Lai said, "The biggest flaw in the Green Sprouts Act is that it uses the implementation of this law as a measure of the performance of local officials. However, the evaluation of performance is not based on whether the people benefit, but on how much Green Sprouts money was lent out and how much interest was earned."

"Local officials, in order to gain political achievements, will inevitably impose quotas and taxes, regardless of the consequences. Because no matter what bad consequences occur, they will not be held responsible. As long as enough money is lent out for seedlings and enough profits are made, local officials can achieve outstanding political achievements."

"To be frank, even if all the farmers in a certain county starve to death, the local magistrate can still be promoted because of his good performance!"

Zhao Xu planned to talk to Wang Anshi.

They had noticed this problem before and therefore ordered local officials not to impose quotas. However, Wang Anshi's use of the Green Sprouts Law to evaluate performance seemed to force local officials to impose quotas.

Xu Lai continued, "I support reform, but it shouldn't be done this way. Regardless of the content of the reform, at the very least, official documents and regulations should not contradict each other."

"What's the contradiction?" Zhao Xu asked.

Xu Lai said, "Take the exemption from corvée labor law as an example. On one hand, it stipulates that households of the fourth class and below are exempt from paying corvée labor fees; on the other hand, it stipulates the total amount of corvée labor fees that each county must pay. Does Your Majesty know what will happen?"

Zhao Xu asked, "What happened?"

Xu Lai said, "The Ministry of Agriculture sets the number of households for each level based on the registered households in each county, completely disregarding the local situation. Moreover, the number of middle and upper-class households is set too high. In order to complete their tasks, local officials have to forcibly upgrade some fourth-class households to third-class households. The exemption from corvée labor law is meant to reduce the burden on the poor, but doing it this way will only increase the burden on the poor."

"When I discussed the ten-year plan to destroy the Western Xia, I said that the court only needed to formulate a general strategy. The specific methods of fighting the Western Xia could be devised and implemented by the civil and military officials at the front. The same applies to the reforms. The geography and customs of the North and South are different. How can a single law be applied to both? Even within the same prefecture, different counties have different regulations. How can the Ministry of Agriculture stipulate the number of households? Do the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture know the specific number of households in a certain county in Guangxi or a certain county in Shaanxi? Allowing the Ministry of Agriculture to forcibly define these numbers is tantamount to forcing local officials to harm the people."

Zhao Xu said, "If the imperial court does not set clear boundaries, local officials may shirk their responsibilities, which would be very detrimental to the promotion of the new laws."

Xu Lai asked, "Your Majesty's reforms, are they truly for the sake of reform, or are they intended to improve the lives of the people?"

"Of course, it's to make life better for the people," Zhao Xu said.

Xu Lai questioned, "But judging from the current implementation, doesn't it seem like reform is being implemented for the sake of reform?"

Zhao Xu was taken aback.

The book "Duo Sheng" spread widely in Kaifeng, and not only did students buy and copy it, but officials at all levels also sent people to buy the book.

Xu Lai printed only 500 copies in the first phase, which were sold in bookstores in Tokyo.

Bookstores are now sold out and are hoping Xu Lai can reprint the magazine. But Xu Lai seems not to hear, and won't reprint a single issue.

What you can't have is always the best!

Commonly known as: monkey show.

Many scholars who entered the literary world later found that they couldn't buy magazines and had to borrow books to copy them. The wealthy hired people to copy books, while the poor copied them themselves. The more they copied, the more popular it became, eventually reaching the point where everyone was talking about it.

Some people even went out of their way to buy "Mathematics" and "Geometry" after reading related articles in the magazines.

These two books used to be copied, but now they have special woodblock printing because they are textbooks for students.

However, they were hard to buy on the market, mainly because sales were poor. The woodblocks were kept at the Imperial College, and each year, the Imperial College would print as many sets of "Mathematics" and "Geometry" textbooks as the number of students enrolled in the school.

Now that they've discovered there's a lot of demand, the artisans at the Imperial Academy decided to secretly print them to make some extra money. After all, the printing blocks are there; might as well print them.

Meanwhile, booksellers in Kaifeng contacted the mint in the capital, hoping to purchase the official movable type.

The Mint told booksellers to wait. The first batch of movable type had already been allocated to the Imperial Academy, the second batch to the Printing House, and the third batch would be sold to private booksellers.

Kaifeng Prefecture, Dongming County.

Magistrate Jia Fan was Fan Zhongyan's son-in-law and Wen Yanbo's student.

This man, upon assuming office, began to promote the exemption from corvée labor laws with great fanfare, declaring his full support for Wang Anshi. He also ordered his subordinates to implement the new laws without any compromise.

The registrar came to complain: "Sir, the Ministry of Agriculture has designated more than 30% more households as the top three in the county than the actual number."

Jia Fan rebuked him, saying, "After the abolition of the Three Offices Regulations Office, the Ministry of Agriculture became Prime Minister Wang's reform office. How could Prime Minister Wang be wrong? It must be that many unruly people in this county have colluded with clerks to secretly lower the household registration status. Go and immediately raise the household registration status of those unruly people back to normal!"

The registrar's scalp tingled: "My lord, even if there are unruly people secretly surrendering their households, it's impossible for the number to reach thirty percent. If we implement the quota set by the Ministry of Agriculture, it might incite a popular uprising."

Jia Fan's face twisted in a grimace: "Do you dare question whether Prime Minister Wang is wrong?"

The registrar finally understood: Jia Fan was not a reformist at all, but was using loopholes in the new laws to cause trouble.

Jia Fan was a county magistrate, a government official in the capital.

How could a lowly registrar disobey the county magistrate's orders? He could only obey.

After the registrar left, Jia Fan sat in the second hall of the county government office and sneered.

Wang Anshi was messing things up, wasn't he?

Okay, I'll follow your decree and implement the new law for you without any compromise.

Dongming County is very close to Kaifeng City. Let's see how you, Wang Anshi, will handle the mess if you cause trouble here!

Do you dare punish me for this?

I have done nothing wrong; I am meticulously implementing your new law. I am now a reformist, more enthusiastic about reform than anyone else.

Before Xu Lai's second issue of "Duo Sheng" was even published, trouble broke out in Dongming County.

Many fourth-class households were unwittingly promoted to third-class households. They were not required to pay labor service fees before, but now they had to, making their burden even heavier than before.

Many third-class households went to the county government to demand an explanation, and Jia Fan always received them warmly.

At the same time, Jia Fan complained that he had no choice but to act on Wang Anshi's orders. He suggested that if the people had any objections to the new laws, they could appeal to the Kaifeng Prefecture.

Jia Fan was a wicked fellow. Normally, how could ordinary people dare to go to Kaifeng? But after being repeatedly instigated by him, the people secretly made arrangements, and more than a thousand people flocked to Kaifeng.

The Kaifeng Prefecture refused to accept the case.

More than a thousand people stood outside the government office gate, unsure of what to do.

Suddenly someone shouted, "If the Kaifeng Prefecture won't handle this, then we'll go and reason with Minister Wang!"

More than a thousand people, after finding out the address, stormed into Wang Anshi's residence in a fit of rage.