Chapter 442 Greed
Han Zhang also stayed behind closed doors at first, but more and more officials came to see him.
There were even some of his disciples and former officials, and since he was the Grand Prime Minister, he couldn't hide at home all the time, so he had no choice but to see them.
Facing these officials who asked him to take the lead in persuading Zhao Xing to give up, Han Zhang looked calm and said: "Everyone, I don't think there is anything wrong with the assessment standards set by your Majesty. If you feel it is inappropriate, just write a letter and comment on it yourself."< br>
"The Prime Minister's words are wrong. Now the policy has not been implemented yet, and people are already panicking. And since ancient times, as long as they make no mistakes, no one has ever lost his official position due to evaluation."
It is said that officials have an iron rice bowl, but the officials in the Song Dynasty had a golden rice bowl.
In future generations, even if you have an iron job, you can still resign on your own initiative.
But officials in the Song Dynasty still received salaries even if they were not given actual duties. Even if you resign, those who are honorary officers will not be affected and will still receive their salaries.
However, Zhao Xing wanted to be dismissed from office if he failed to pass the evaluation.
There is a difference between dismissal from office and resignation. Once dismissed from office, even the honorary title is gone.
"It's precisely because of this that I feel that your Majesty is right. How shameful it would be to receive a salary from the imperial court despite being unable to do his job well in his political planning and position!" Han Zhang said.
"This..."
Everyone looked a little embarrassed when they heard this.
The phrase "in your position, seek your government" is actually a proverb. The original saying is "in your position, seek your position."
Although it looks like they are reversed, the meaning is the same.
And this sentence comes from "The Analects of Confucius".
After deposing hundreds of schools of thought and only respecting Confucianism, ancient literati almost all regarded themselves as Confucian scholars.
When admonishing emperors, they often quoted Confucian classics.
But the irony is that the requirements for oneself in Confucian classics have been selectively ignored.
When Han Zhang said this, it was really hard for them to refute.
"Everyone, if you have this time, why not do your own thing well? And I would like to remind you that the official family is tolerant of this. Now the official family has given you three chances. If you continue to make trouble, the official family will Don't blame me for not reminding you if you fail the assessment without giving me a chance." Han Zhang said calmly.
Everyone was silent for a while after hearing this.
Civil servants are powerful, and today's civil servants also have party disputes, but today's party disputes are more reflected in political disagreements.
It has not completely evolved into a struggle for interests and rights.
The princes in the court were unwilling to intervene, there was a lack of leaders, and the fighting power of the civil servants was also limited.
…………
What happened at Han Zhang's house soon reached Zhao Xing's ears.
After learning that the officials had dispersed, Zhao Xing sneered in his heart and didn't care.
There is one thing that is right about reusing civil servants, and that is that civil servants cannot afford to make much trouble.
There seems to be a lot of resistance to what the emperor wants to do, but in fact it depends on whether the emperor is persistent enough.
This is well reflected in Renzong and Shenzong.
Renzong's New Deal stopped after less than two years, but Wang Anshi's reform lasted for more than ten years.
Historically, if Prime Minister Fan had been born a few decades later and had received support from Shenzong during his reign, the New Deal might have been successful.
However, Zhao Xing was not careless. Although those officials did not continue to make trouble, they may not give up so easily.
I don’t know what I’m thinking secretly, so I have to be careful.
"Your Majesty, Sir Bian, the Minister of War, would like to see you." A chamberlain walked into the hall and bowed. "Let him in." Zhao Xing waved his hand.
"I pay my respects to Your Majesty!"
After a while, Bian Xi Hao, Minister of the Ministry of War, walked into the hall and saluted.
"No courtesy!" Zhao Xing waved his hand and said, "Ai Qing, why are you here?"
"Back to Your Majesty, those traders who transport grain are no longer willing to continue transporting grain to the north. After the spring, not to mention the supply of grain and grass for the people building the Great Wall in the north, even the supply of grain and grass for the border army has become a problem. The only way the court can give warning to the people is to transport grain. Yes." Bian Xihao said.
Zhao Xing frowned when he heard this and said, "Why don't they want to transport food?"
"Because of the construction of the Great Wall last year, a large amount of grain and grass needed to be transported to the north. Those merchants have already obtained a large amount of salt and tea. They cannot sell them all in a short time." Bian Xihao said.
"It's not that easy for these businessmen to quit after taking advantage of them!" Zhao Xing sneered.
The military expenditure of the Song Dynasty was increasing day by day. The problem of paying the border troops was relatively easy to solve, but the problem of food and grass was difficult. Food needed to be transported to the border. Not only did civilians have to be mobilized for corvee work, but also troops needed to be escorted and supervised. The losses in the process were very large.
Although civilians do corvee work and don’t need to be paid, they still have to take care of their food, right?
Coupled with the escort and supervision of the troops, the consumption will be huge.
In order to solve these problems, the imperial court formulated the Cross-Citation Law.
Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!
The so-called cross-quotation method is to let merchants help transport grain to the border, and then use tea or salt to settle the settlement.
Tea and salt are both government-run, and whether you want to become a salt merchant or a tea merchant, you need connections.
This is very attractive to businessmen.
This method is actually similar to the opening method used in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
However, settlement using tea and salt cannot be calculated based on normal grain prices. After all, merchants suffer losses in the process of transporting grain and need to hire a lot of manpower.
If calculated based on normal prices, even if tea salt can make money, the profit will be limited to offset the losses in the process.
If you want merchants to transport grain, you can only induce them with benefits.
For example, grain worth 80,000 taels will be given salt or tea worth 100,000 taels.
In this way, the court can reduce expenses, businessmen can make profits, and everyone is happy.
However, as the demand for grain and grass increased at the border, and the exchange method was a remote settlement, there was a long process from grain collection to transportation to finally getting salt and tea.
Coupled with factors such as changes in grain prices, the court could only increase the benefits to merchants and let them transport grain.
These businessmen were greedy for profit and wanted greater profits. They bribed officials and estimated the cost of the originally 80,000 taels of grain to 120,000 taels, and the court had to pay 150,000 taels for tea and salt.
Some people may think that the court is a fool. The cost will increase, so why not just call in the civilians to transport it.
In fact, the imperial court thought about solving this problem, so it was time to use the cash method.
The so-called cash silver method means that merchants transport grain and settle in cash.
This method is feasible, but it requires a lot of cash.
At first glance, it seems that there is no difference from the settlement of Shiohikichabai. On the contrary, it saves money.
After all, after merchants originally transported grain to the border, they needed to settle accounts elsewhere, and part of this was compensated.
But the problem is that the Song Dynasty court's finances have been unable to make ends meet.
Although merchants still had to spend money to buy tea and salt from the court, they only bought a certain amount at one time and did not buy too much in bulk.
This is just like following up on goods. Originally, Chayin and Yanyin were delivered once a month, and Chayin and Yanyin were equivalent to the bill of lading. Trading with Chayin and Yanyin was equivalent to giving the merchant a bill of lading for several months or even a year at once.
(End of chapter)