The Conspiracy of the Ten Golden Kingdoms (4)

When Zhao Chen heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned, and said: "Listening to what my brother-in-law said, it can be seen how poisonous the Jin people's intentions are. ”

Yang Yan said: "May I ask the officials, now in the court, are there more officials who agree with it or those who oppose it?" ”

Zhao Chen thought for a while before he said: "The officials above the six Shangshu are roughly the same, but among the middle and lower-level officials, most of them agree. ”

Yang Yan nodded, and said, "Then what about the people?" ”

Zhao Chen said: "I don't know exactly what it is in the people. However, Ju Zhen knows that among the scholars of Zhongshan Academy, most of them agree with it, and few oppose it. From this, it can be seen that the same is probably true among the people. ”

Yang Yan said: "The ministers know, and the situation is roughly the same, can the officials know the reason?" ”

Zhao Chen nodded and said: "I know a little bit about this, because this proposal of the Jin State can avoid war and recover the lost land, so it is still very attractive to middle and lower-level officials, students, and ordinary people." ”

Yang Yan also nodded and said, "The official family is right, middle and lower-level officials, students, and ordinary people will not see so far-reaching, and they can't understand any big truths." Moreover, once a war starts, the first to suffer is the common people, who cannot help but be conscripted, conscripted, and may also increase taxes, so the people will definitely not support the war until they have no choice but to do so. Now, on the surface, the imperial court can avoid war, so if the official family boldly refuses the proposal of the Jin State, everyone will only think that the official family cherishes money and does not care about the life and death of the soldiers and the people. It is very damaging to the reputation of the official family and the imperial court! ”

When Zhao Chen heard this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly, and said, "According to what my brother-in-law said, it is difficult to agree to Jin Guo's proposal." ”

Yang Yan smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry about the officials, the ministers have their own ways to let Jin Guoself break his word." However, the minister wanted to ask the official family, if he really agreed to Jin Guo's proposal, then how much money could be taken out of the current treasury to redeem the lost land. ”

Zhao Chen thought for a while, shook his head and said: "Now the treasury is empty, and although the autumn tax has not yet been collected, the estimated expenditures have been set by the economy. And the imperial court can't leave any money left, so I'm afraid I won't be able to get a tael of silver this year. Even at the earliest, after the spring of next year, the spring tax will come up, and I am afraid there will be surplus money. ”

Yang Yan said: "Then how much money can be taken out of the official family's inner treasury." ”

Zhao Chen couldn't help laughing, when the Song army launched the Western Xia War, there was also a fierce battle with the Jin State on the Jianghuai front, at that time Zhao Chen had planned to use the treasury to make up for the lack of military spending, but because of the civil strife in the Jin State, the war on the Jianghuai line did not expand, so in the end he did not use the inner treasury. I can't imagine that Yang Yan seems to be playing the idea of the inner treasury, but the inner treasury is the emperor's private money outside the state finance, and ordinary ministers dare not ask about it, and only Yang Yan is qualified to ask about the inner treasury.

Zhao Chen said with a smile: "There is still a lot of money and property in the inner treasury, even if you want to take out 10 million yuan." Is there any use for brother-in-law? Although to put it bluntly, as long as it is for the prosperity of the Great Song Dynasty, I will never be stingy with this money. ”

Yang Yan also laughed and said: "Don't worry, the minister doesn't dare to fight the idea of the inner treasury, but as long as the inner treasury is rich, then things will be easy to do." ”

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Zhang Hu sat in the pavilion and drank tea very leisurely. In the past seven or eight days, the government and the opposition of the Great Song Dynasty have been arguing endlessly over the proposal of the Jin State to redeem the lost land with silver money, so no one has come to see Zhang Hu for a detailed discussion for the time being.

However, Zhang Hu never urged, only walked around the pavilion every day, either eating tea and listening to books in the teahouse, or going to Goolan tile shop to watch singing and dancing, very leisurely. It's just that during this period, Zhang Hu only went to Zhongshan Academy once and listened to the academy's debate, but he only pretended to be an ordinary scribe and did not reveal his identity. Other than that, it didn't go far.

When Wanyan Changzhi was stationed in Nanjing, he also stationed many spies in the Song Dynasty to inquire about the internal dynamics of the Song Dynasty, although the entire organizational structure was not as rigorous and thorough as the staff of the Song Dynasty, but after five or six years of arrangement, it also basically gained a firm foothold in the Song Dynasty and could carry out a certain range of activities. Therefore, the general major events that occurred within the Great Song Dynasty could not be concealed from their ears and eyes, and they could also be fed back to the Jin State in a timely manner to provide reference for the decision-making of the Jin State.

After Zhang Hu sent an envoy to the Song Dynasty, he also made contact with the spies who infiltrated the Great Song Dynasty at the first time, and appointed them to inquire about the reaction of all walks of life in the Great Song Dynasty to the Jin State's proposal to redeem the lost land with silver money. Therefore, although Zhang Hu has been sitting firmly in the pavilion in the past few days, he can understand the reactions of Da Song in all aspects.

So far, the various reactions of the Song Dynasty and the opposition are basically within Zhang Hu's expectations. This plan to redeem the lost land with silver money seems simple, but in fact, it took Wanyan Changzhi, Wanyan Fushou, Na Yan Ming'an and several others to come up with a plan that temporarily delayed the Southern Song Dynasty after several days of repeated deliberation, discussion, and research. And now the reaction from all walks of life in the Great Song Dynasty is strong, and some of them are also the result of some spies from the Jin State in it.

The ideal outcome for Dajin would be that the Song Dynasty would be embroiled in a debate over whether to accept the proposal, and even lead to party strife, resulting in more than one internal conflict. Or loosen the armament and redeem the lost land with the money. Even if this goal is not achieved, as long as the Southern Song Dynasty accepts this proposal, it can also use some less important state capitals on the border, such as the thirteen counties around Qinfeng Road, to exchange huge amounts of money from the Song Dynasty to make up for domestic needs, and can stabilize the Southern Song Dynasty, first go all out to deal with Mongolia, and Dajin also has enough time to change the tax system and eliminate the malpractices left by the previous dynasty.

It was also a very good result for Daikin. After defeating Mongolia, only the Great Song Dynasty is left, and it will be easy to deal with, and the lost land can be regained.

At this time, Zhang Hu couldn't help but think that when he left the central capital, Wanyan Changzhi was appointed to pay the responsibility of Na Yan Ming'an, and began to check the land and find out the hidden land and households. I don't know how well I am doing in preparing for the change in the tax system. Finding out how much land there is in the country is a crucial factor in the success or failure of this tax reform. It's not a sloppy thing at all. And now he has to continue to stay in the Southern Song Dynasty, and he has to put on a leisurely and complacent appearance, in fact, he can't wait to return to the Central Capital immediately and start working.

Zhang Hu was thinking about it, when suddenly someone came to report that the Ministry of Rites sent someone to invite the Dajin delegation to the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites for a meeting. Zhang Hu immediately understood in his heart, it seems that the Southern Song Dynasty finally couldn't help it. Yuli Zhang Hu immediately changed into his official uniform, took the deputy envoy Aliban and other cadres, accompanied by the comers, and went to the Ministry of Rites.

The person who met Zhang Hu was Zhang Yan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites. At the meeting, although the Song Dynasty did not explicitly agree to the proposal of the Jin State, it began to discuss with the Jin delegation the details of the procedures for redeeming the lost land, such as the payment method of the silver money, the procedure for recovering the land, the price of copper coins, silk and other items if they were converted into silver, and the fact that the Jin State could not withdraw and return the people to the state capital, the treasury, and so on.

All this is not out of Zhang Hu's expectations, Zhang Hu did full preparation work before leaving, and for these details, he has an answer to deal with it, which can basically ensure that both parties are fair. Therefore, the talks between the two sides also went very smoothly, and it took only one day to negotiate all the details of the handover, and initialled an agreement to redeem the land with money, and laid out the detailed rules.

After everything was negotiated, Zhang Yan told Zhang Hu that the Great Song Dynasty would have to discuss the proposal of the Jin State again before making a final decision, and it would be difficult to have a result for a while, so he asked the envoys of the Jin State to return to China first, and if the Great Song Dynasty accepted the proposal after discussion, he would immediately send an embassy to Jin to formally sign an agreement with the Jin State.

Zhang Hu was amused in his heart, of course he knew that when it came to this step, the Southern Song Dynasty actually agreed to the proposal of the Jin State with the scriptures, but did not confirm it finally, because if the agreement was formally signed, a part of the state capital should be redeemed immediately. According to the financial revenue and expenditure of the Southern Song Dynasty, the scale of the Southern Song Dynasty's use of troops last year, and the investigation of spy personnel, the Jin State can basically be assured, and the Southern Song Dynasty cannot come up with money in the treasury at present. If you want to redeem the first batch of state capitals, you can only wait until after the beginning of spring next year to collect spring taxes. It's just that this situation can't be explained to the Jin delegation, so I have to discuss it again.

Although he knew it in his heart, Zhang Hu did not say anything, and he also showed a very understanding appearance, repeatedly saying to Zhang Yan that the matter was very important and that it should be discussed well, and at the same time emphasized that the Jin State hoped to maintain friendship with the Song Dynasty and settle the territorial dispute between the two sides peacefully. Then he followed Zhang Yan's words, saying that he would return to China first, waiting for the good news of the Song Dynasty and other words. Then he bowed his hand to Zhang Yan.

And after listening to Zhang Yan's report on the whole process of the talks, Zhao Chen couldn't help laughing out loud, and said to Yang Yan: "Brother-in-law, it seems that your clever plan has succeeded, Zhang Hu and the Jin people are still in the valley, thinking that they have a plan." ”

Because staying in Jiankang any longer, there was no point in using the scriptures, and Zhang Hu was also anxious to return to Zhongdu to deal with the matter of checking land and reforming the tax system, so three days later, the Jin delegation really submitted his resignation to the Great Song Dynasty and set off from Jiankang to return to China. And the Great Song Emperor Zhao Chen ordered Honglu Temple to hold a banquet to see off the Jin delegation, and also sent people to send them across the Yangtze River. The etiquette is very thorough.