Chapter 227 Venting his father's anger
At noon, Zhang Guifen was hosting a banquet for the officials and their families. It was not convenient for Zhao Xing to go there, so he stayed with Sheng Shulan to share the meal.
I got up after taking a nap and was thinking about what to do in the afternoon when Sanshui walked in.
"Your Highness, someone from the palace said that the banquet in the palace tonight has been cancelled." Sanshui bowed.
“Cancelled?”
Zhao Xing was stunned when he heard this and said in surprise: "Why cancel it?"
It is tradition to hold banquets to entertain ministers during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Lantern Festival. If it is canceled suddenly, something big must have happened.
“This morning, many officials headed by Mr. Zhou came to the palace to see His Majesty. They talked about the matter of clearing the world’s land. They said that Mr. Yu’s methods were too drastic and wanted to ask Your Majesty to temporarily stop or change someone else to take charge. The official was furious, and soon he sent someone to cancel the banquet in the palace tonight!" Sanshui said.
"When did it happen? Is Father okay?" Zhao Xing asked anxiously.
“His Highness had just fallen asleep when I received the news. The servant asked and said that Your Majesty was fine, so I did not wake Him up.”
Zhao Xing breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this and said, "Let me prepare the car. I want to go to the palace."
"Yes!" Sanshui responded and retreated.
"Shulan, I can't accompany you this afternoon." Zhao Xing said apologetically.
"Your Highness has been with me all morning, and I am already very happy. Business is important. Your Highness, please go quickly." Shulan smiled and stepped forward to straighten Zhao Xing's clothes.
“Hmm!”
Zhao Xing reached out and touched Shulan's face, bowed his head and kissed her on the forehead, turned around and left.
…………
Zhao Xing came to the palace and learned that his father was in the palace, Funing Hall, so he took a chariot directly to Funing Hall.
"My son pays homage to my father!"
After passing the news, Zhao Xing walked into the hall and bowed in salute.
"Fu'er is here." The official saw Zhao Xing smiling, but his tone was a bit bleak.
"Father, are you okay?" Zhao Xing looked at his father who looked a little haggard and worried.
"Come, sit down next to me and say." The official waved.
"Yes!"
A eunuch moved a stool and placed it next to the official. Zhao Xing stepped forward and sat down.
"You all go down." The official waved his hand.
The maids and eunuchs in the palace bowed, bowed, and retreated.
The official looked at his energetic son and said in a daze: "I succeeded to the throne at the age of thirteen. When I first ascended the throne, the Queen Mother arranged many mentors for me. I studied very seriously and determined to do something good. A wise king. After taking office, I have always governed with virtue, and the world was relatively peaceful.
At that time, I was actually somewhat proud of myself. Even though I was not as good as my ancestors, I did not bring shame to them.
But after the war with Xixia, I realized that all of this was just an appearance. After I took over, the tax revenue of the Song Dynasty increased every year, even exceeding that of our ancestors. However, after the defeat in the war with Xixia, the pension was almost exhausted. Treasury.”
"I was very puzzled at that time. Taizu Taizong had made many Northern Expeditions. At that time, tax revenue was not as good as it is now. Why did I empty out the treasury after just losing one game?
I went to find out, and then I discovered The various long-standing shortcomings in the Song Dynasty have become very serious.
I think it can’t go on like this. I have to find a way to solve it, so I asked the officials.
What Fan Wenzhenggong said is the best. I also proposed a solution, so I promoted him to be the Prime Minister and asked him to preside over the New Deal. "
"Because I was too anxious, the New Deal was implemented in a hurry, and various problems arose, and there was also opposition and resistance. Very big. Not long after the defeat of Xixia in the First World War, the Xixia and Liao Kingdoms were watching, and there was no internal chaos in the Song Dynasty, so I had to stop the New Deal. "
"Those people asked me to punish Xianggong Fan, who presided over the New Deal. I felt sorry for them, so how could I be willing to punish them.
However, Xianggong Fan and others understood my difficulties, and many people asked themselves to be demoted."
The official talked a lot, and Zhao Xing listened quietly without disturbing him.
At this point, the official stopped and laughed at himself: "Maybe they are disappointed with me."
Zhao Xing still didn't speak. In fact, there is no way to say this. Who is right and who is wrong.
Did your father make a mistake?
There must be some. The fault lies in not being firm enough in the stance and failing to anticipate the turmoil that the reform will cause.
My father said that he was determined to be a wise king. In Zhao Xing's view, his father's definition of a wise king in his heart was actually being able to safeguard the inheritance left by his ancestors.
To put it simply, it is the country of the Song Dynasty.
The reform was to stabilize the rule of the Song Dynasty, and the same was true for the suspension.
In his opinion, the cost of reform has exceeded his expectations, so there is no need for reform.
In these respects, he is definitely wrong.
But that reform was too hasty and had many problems.
Calling a stop is actually not wrong.
If you really stick to it, the disadvantages will be even greater.
Because the reform direction was wrong from the beginning.
The Song Dynasty had many shortcomings, and the most urgent thing at that time was to solve the problem of lack of money.
To solve this problem, it is nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
There were many officials in the Song Dynasty and their salaries were very high.
Official salaries alone account for a large part of the court's annual expenditures.
The reformists headed by Mr. Fan Daxian first streamlined the various agencies of the imperial court, conducted performance appraisals of officials, eliminated some unqualified officials, and established strict promotion and elimination mechanisms, limiting recruitment quotas, etc.
In fact, when officials first appointed Fan Daxiangong to reform, most officials held a wait-and-see attitude.
Some questions even think that reforming them can still be profitable and benefit from it.
However, after Mr. Fan’s troubles, officials found that their promotion space has become smaller, wages and benefits have dropped, scholars have found it difficult to find jobs, and landlords have found that their land has decreased. So the officials were unhappy, the scholars were unhappy, and the landlords were unhappy. Since everyone is unhappy, we cannot make you happy.
If the reform is like the layoffs of later companies, it can be solved by just finding some excuses or losing some money, and it is not that troublesome.
However, it is not ordinary employees who are to be laid off, but middle and senior leaders.
When these people make a fuss, the company will be paralyzed.
The big boss Guan Jia saw that this was not going to work. Even if the company originally had problems, it would not collapse.
He might collapse if he continues to make trouble like this. Although it is not certain, he does not dare to gamble.
So it was stopped!
"Last time I backed down, but this time I won't!"
When the official said this, his expression was extremely firm.
"Father, don't think too much about it. Most people have selfish motives. In fact, the impact of counting the acres on the officials' interests is not that great. They are just worried that the father's inspection of the acres will be the implementation of the New Deal again. That's why I tried every means to stop him, but I didn't think he was very determined. Moreover, I had a way to make them anxious and didn't want to pay attention to it." Zhao Xing said.
The previous New Deal left a bad impression on most people.
They prevent the inventory of fields, not necessarily because their own interests are harmed.
But they are worried that the officials will implement new policies in the future and affect their interests, so if there is any sign of this, those officials will stop it.
But if we say how determined they will be, in fact they are not.
Otherwise there would have been a lot of opposition.
How can it be possible that the commotion is only happening now?
"What can be done?" The official asked after hearing this.
"Father, let Erchen go out of his way, you will know when the time comes." Zhao Xing said with a smile.
His method is a bit obscene to say the least. His father was influenced by Confucianism and was somewhat corrupt, so he might not agree with it.
The official said seriously: "Fu'er, you can't mess around."
Although he didn't know what Zhao Xing's so-called method was, he knew his son better than his father, and Zhao Xing didn't If he is willing to speak out, he will know that Zhao Xing is not holding anything back.
"Father, don't worry, I won't mess around." Zhao Xing said with a smile.
The official muttered: "I canceled the banquet in the palace today just to scare those people. They will not make trouble for the time being. As long as Mr. Yu and the others make some progress, no one can stop it. I and What you said is just to tell you that if you want to reform in the future, you must think carefully. Once you decide to do it, you must not hesitate."
"Father, don't worry, I know this. Serious." Zhao Xing said.
Having said that, he did not waver.
No matter how future generations evaluate him, his father is still very good to his son.
These people made his father so angry, Zhao Xing wanted to vent his anger on his father no matter what.
Moreover, the father pretended to be angry and wanted to scare those people, but it was of little use in Zhao Xing's opinion.
"Let's not talk about this anymore. There is no banquet in the palace today, and the festival still has to be celebrated. You go back and take the princess with you, and come to the palace to have dinner with me and the queen and admire the moon." The official said.
"Yes, I will go back first." Zhao Xing stood up and saluted.
"Go ahead." The official waved his hand.
Although the officials were not very relieved after hearing this, Zhao Xing repeatedly assured him that if he could say anything else, he could only send someone to keep an eye on it.
…………
After returning to the East Palace, he learned that all the official family members had left, and Zhao Xing went directly to Chunhe Palace.
“Your Highness!” Zhang Guifen saluted.
"How does it feel to entertain those official family members?" Zhao Xing came to the top and sat down on the soft couch of the red sandalwood Arhat bed and asked with a smile.
"Your Highness, don't mention it, I'm almost bored to death." Zhang Guifen came to the edge and sat down, feeling a little headache.
The people who came to visit her were some officials from the East Palace and the wives of some of the legitimate sons of high-ranking lords.
Of course these people can't be harmonious, and they don't dare to argue in front of her, but there is definitely a lot of sarcasm in their words.
Zhang Guifen has a relatively indifferent temperament, and these messy things give her a headache.
Zhao Xing smiled, there was nothing he could do about this kind of thing.
In the future, when he ascends the throne and Zhang Guifen becomes the queen, there will be many more things than this.
The queen is not only in charge of the harem, although she does not have the right to directly manage the official family members.
However, we also have to meet with some wives who come to visit us, and we often have to organize some activities and invite officials and family members to participate to show the royal favor.
"By the way, Siyu seems to have had a conflict with her official, and she is reluctant to talk about it when asked." Zhang Guifen said.
"Since she didn't say anything, it shouldn't be a big deal, so just leave it alone." Zhao Xing said.
Cao Siyu married the eldest son of the Marquis of Anyang. Although the Cao family belonged to the Duke's family or were relatives, marrying the eldest son of the Marquis' family was not considered a lowly marriage.
With the status of the Cao family, the Anyang Marquis Mansion would not treat her lightly. It was probably just a minor conflict between the couple.
"Yeah." Zhang Guifen nodded.
"What is this?"
Zhao Xing saw a prick on the short table and picked it up curiously.
"This is what my sister-in-law gave to me when she left. She said that my father asked her to bring it to me and give it to your highness. I didn't dare to read what was written," Zhang Guifen said.
"My father-in-law is true. If you have anything to do, just ask Gu directly. He also wrote a note and sent it in a roundabout way." Zhao Xing shook his head.
(End of this chapter)