Chapter 1254 Three years of silence (two updates combined into one)

This night.

Chen Mu, Cai Jing, Cai Bian, Huang Lu, Su Song and other more than ten senior officials from the Mingzhang Party were all sitting in Wang Anli's house, the political advisor.

The night drain outside the hall is dripping water.

The female envoy at Wang Anli's residence had already changed several bowls of tea soup and drinks for everyone.

Wang Anli said: "According to Prime Minister Sun, the imperial court wants to abandon Xi'an Prefecture, exchange Huaide's army and one prefecture for Liangzhou, and then give a sum of money to the Khitan party to pay for the redemption of Liangzhou!"

As soon as this statement came out, Chen Mu, Cai Jing, Cai Bian, Huang Lu, Su Song and others were in an uproar.

Cai Jing slapped the table and stood up and said: "Instead of ceding territory to others, it is better to advise your majesty to complete the victory in one battle and send out six armies to capture Xingling. First, eliminate future troubles, and then embarrass the Liao Kingdom!"

As soon as Cai Jing's shocking theory came out, Huang Luxian put his hands on his hands and laughed and said: "Okay! This is exactly the truth!"

Su Zhe then said with a lewd expression: "To take Xingling directly, this is a crazy statement!"

Cai Jing defended Su Che with a sharp look in his eyes. He and Su Che were at odds. This was an open secret behind Zhang Yue's curtain.

Seeing that the two of them were about to quarrel, Su Song immediately held his ground and said: "It is absolutely impossible to send six more troops to capture Xia. The time is not ripe yet."

"But in Xi'an Prefecture, the Huaide Army was also a territory that this dynasty spent an unknown amount of money on food, soldiers and horses. Now that it has been abandoned, it will never dare to look back on other matters."

Cai Jingdao: "You don't need to say more, we two brothers have already made an opinion on this matter, and we will see the outcome within a few days."

Wang Anli pushed the chair and said, "What do you two brothers have to say?"

Su Che sneered: "Isn't this another method of roosters and dogs stealing?"

Cai Jing said with a smile: "Whether it is a method of roosters and dogs stealing, we will find out in a few days!"

Su Zhe said: "In my opinion, it's not a dirty trick like spreading rumors, making some prophecies, or being a storyteller!"

Cai Jing was mostly convinced by Su Che's words. His smile was a bit cool and a bit sarcastic: "Su Ziyou, don't look down on these methods. The emperor still avoids the changes of heaven. Don't the people hear this."

Wang Anli said: "As long as it can be used, it will be fine. Don't wait to cede two states and make the ship a done deal. Then wait for the whole court to be in an uproar before making arguments."

Su Song said: "Now that the Prime Minister is not in the court, please take charge of everything!"

Wang Anli was not confident after hearing this.

After all, he and Zhang Yue were both Jinshi in the sixth year of Jiayou's reign, and they had only served as officials for twenty years. In the past, they listened to their elder brother Wang Anshi, and later they followed Zhang Yue's lead.

In fact, his attitude towards reform and unchanging laws is somewhere between acceptable and unacceptable. Now he is pulled into the camp by Zhang Yue. He was previously the deputy privy envoy, and now after Xue Xiang's death, he was replaced as the counselor of political affairs.

However, no matter whether he was a Hanlin bachelor, a deputy privy envoy or a counselor in political affairs, neither the emperor nor the government and the public had high hopes for him.

Only on the matter of rescuing Su Shi, Wang Anli expressed a firm attitude.

Wang Anli immediately said after hearing this: "Xi'an Prefecture, the Huaide Army must not abandon it. I will deal with this matter with all my strength."

Everyone said happily: "It all depends on Da Shen's advice!"

After Cai Jing left Wang Anli's house, he said to Cai Bian: "Now that the Prime Minister is away from the court, we can only recommend Wang Dashen, who has the highest official position, to take the lead."

"But it's not enough to rely on Wang Dashen alone to stabilize the inner court. As for the outer court, we need to arrange some officials to help."

Cai Bian listened to Cai Jing's words and said: "Brother, don't worry, I will arrange this!"

Cai Jing laughed and said: "Then I will create public opinion among the Imperial Academy and the people!"

Cai Bian looked at Cai Jing, as if Zhang Yue was not in court, Cai Jing was as comfortable as a fish in water and was extremely active.

Cai Jing glanced at Cai Bian and guessed what he was thinking in his heart.

"A-Bian, the prime minister often talks about the art of emperors. What is the art of emperors? That is Xunzi's 'The Han family has its own system, which is mixed with the king's domineering way'. If you want to follow the king's way, you must do it with domineering means."

"If you want to be domineering, you have to do it in the name of kingship! Su Ziyou is a scholar. He has read a lot of books, but he has no means. Su Zizhan is also average."

"Why create public opinion? You can tell the truth to smart people, but you must tell lies to ordinary people! Right and wrong, black and white, will kill people!"

Cai Bian scolded: "What kind of crooked way is this! The Prime Minister has never said this."

Cai Jing smiled and said: "Although the Prime Minister never said that, he is watching it, like a bright mirror in his heart!"

Cai Bian knew that Zhang Yue was loose on the outside and tight on the inside when controlling people. He may seem to give you a lot of space, but there is always a pair of eyes staring at you closely behind him.

…

Dingli Temple.

In front of a three-bay Zen room.

The monks were cleaning the courtyard, making a rustling sound when the brooms were waved.

The bright spring light shines through the gaps in the leaves and sprinkles on the moss on the stone steps of the Zen room.

Li Kui sat on a small bench in front of the Zen room and read a book. The windows and doors of the Zen room behind him were closed tightly.

Zhang Yue lives in a Buddhist monastery. Although he never leaves home, he is well aware of various officials and the dynamics of government affairs.

All news was delivered through Li Kui on his behalf.

Of course, deep down in Zhang Yue's heart, he would rate the officials below him while he was away from the government.

To use a very classic saying, "The leader doesn't say anything on the surface, but he knows everything deep down." Zhang Yue is also a veteran. The understanding and speculation of him by the officials below him is the same as his own speculation at the top. Don't think that the leaders can't see it.

The leaders may not know what to do in the local area.

Zhang Yue looked at what the people below him could do if he was not in court.

He was not surprised at all that Huang Lu defeated Wang Gui in the Third Division, and even the emperor was not surprised at all. His friendship with Huang Lu and Han Zhongyan had passed the test of time.

But Lu Huiqing's sudden advance in Hedong was indeed beyond his expectation.

Lu Huiqing's judgment on matters often comes when the matter is still unclear. When everyone is still hesitant, Lu Huiqing, who is in Taiyuan, is so concerned about the affairs of the court and appears to be more anxious than himself.

This also made Zhang Yue's judgment correct, and he should stop with silence. As long as you are not in a hurry, there will always be someone who is more anxious than you.

Opposing peace talks with Liao was not Zhang Yue's fault alone.

…

This is not the most important thing at the moment. Zhang Yue is in Dingli Temple, far away from the hustle and bustle of the world and withdrawing from his daily heavy official duties.

This also gave him an opportunity to think about the future and make plans for the future.

For example, Zhang Yue has been working hard on ‘Song A’.

There are currently five stocks in Song A, and there are also futures such as Yanchao, Jiaozi, Tea, Cotton and Cloth that can be speculated, and the atmosphere of financial speculation is quite strong. Of course, this is also such a large income for the court, and another large item is the salt improved by Zhang Yue.

The banknotes and banknotes are equivalent to the bank's official treasury in later generations.

These were all ignored during the Xining administration of Wang Anshi, especially the quality warehouse. Wang Anshi was considered to be at the end of his career. He once celebrated that the merger and acquisition house was under the compression of market changes and laws, and now it can only manage quality warehouses in despair.

Paved.

Any reform must be supported by a theoretical system.

The great thing about Wang Anshi is that he provided a complete theoretical system. He pioneered the reform and broke the system of three generations of scholars and officials, from the previous king to the present day.

This is where Xining's reform was successful, and the actual operation of the reform was still handled by Lu Huiqing. Lu Huiqing was not as good as Lao Wang in terms of theory, but he was one of the few geniuses in both economic and military operations.

.

However, Wang Anshi was wrong about the quality warehouse, salt banknotes, and Jiaozi. On the contrary, Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing both realized that this could bring huge profits to the court.

Wang Anshi's reform said that "the people are not endowed but the state is fully utilized", and its purpose was to destroy annexation and help the poor. However, in actual implementation, the labor value of the value was overestimated, and the value of marginal utility was ignored.

However, the impact of Xining's reform was too large, and the annexers may not be defeated, but a large number of middle class people were affected by it.

Zhang Yue followed Wang Anshi's reform. He adopted David Ricardo's land rent theory for Xining's exploration and the theoretical guidance of Yuanfeng's New Deal.

The theory of land rent divides the value of items into wages (labor value), profits (the balance other than wages), and land rent (the balance other than wages and profits).

Wages correspond to the proletariat, profits correspond to the bourgeoisie, and land rent corresponds to the landlord class (big bourgeoisie).

For example, in the current cotton textile industry, employees earn wages, textile owners earn profits, and leasing land and capital to textile owners is rent earned by the landlord class.

The so-called ground rent is the profit earned purely from assets.

Zhang Yue distributed the income from private wages and profits to private citizens and business owners as much as possible to encourage their labor enthusiasm and promote labor efficiency, while incorporating land and capital into state-owned enterprises or imposing heavy taxes.

Therefore, using theory to guide reform is as easy as doing multiple-choice questions. You can easily know what to do and what not to do.

For example, the treasury (bank) and the exchange exchange must be resolutely state-owned or mixed-run, which can not only increase the income of the court, but also prevent the emergence of a big bourgeoisie that could destabilize the country.

From Xining's destruction of mergers to suppression of mergers.

Gradually, state-run warehouses were used to replace the Changping bureaus set up by Sinong Temple in various places to collect young crop money and market exchange money. In addition, the court still tried its best to control its own hands and not to make profits that did not belong to itself.

Precisely because Wang Anshi looked down upon the profits of the salt banknote exchange and the quality warehouse, the court must attach absolute importance to it and must not operate with the mentality of killing the goose to get the eggs.

For example, Zhang Yue has mainly done two things since he became Prime Minister. One is to crack down on private coinage and forgery of salt banknotes. The other is to prohibit official coins from being used as two coins for three coins, or even five coins for ten coins.

As we all know, there is a money shortage these days.

Under the money shortage, all dynasties have had the habit of privately minting currency. This is not only privately minted by powerful people, but also by many officials and wealthy businessmen. Privately minted currency and counterfeiting have severely affected the imperial salt banknotes.

Promotion.

The imperial court's practice of treating five coins as ten coins was, to put it bluntly, stealing money from the people. Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty frequently used this trick in order to support the military campaign against Xixia. The official coins were also worse than the previous year. In the end, not only was the credibility of the official coins severely damaged,
To be continued...