Zhao Zhen was said to be in the sore spot, not only did he not get angry, but he cheered up, thinking that Su Jin would not be able to say one, two, three, four, but unexpectedly, he immediately grasped the point.

"Freezing three feet is not a day's cold, I also know that my Great Song Dynasty is indeed taking it but using it excessively, and when I encounter sudden natural disasters, I am a little powerless; I have asked the ministers many times, but there are many suggestions, but few are feasible; I think that Song Zijing's theory of 'three redundancies and three fees' in the book is quite pertinent, but my Great Song Dynasty has followed the ancestral system to this day, and I have forgiven the scholars, and because it is a state of etiquette, I am unwilling to abolish it, so that now there is a tendency to accumulate and it is difficult to return, even if I want to change, I can't change. ”

Zhao Zhen said what he said in his heart, since the time when Taizu established the Great Song Dynasty, after the Great Seal, the Zhou Wang clan rewarded them with good land and food, and treated them with generous money, in the eyes of the people of the world, it was natural to win a good reputation, saying that the Taizu was merciful and forgiving, and the official family of the Great Song Dynasty would be humane; This led to the subsequent dynasties to follow suit, and gradually formed rules; So much so that there are many officials, soldiers, and expenses, but they have never been able to throw away this burden for this good reputation.

The court is not without people of insight, and the three redundancies and three expenses mentioned in Song Qi's book are to the point, but it is difficult to do this matter under the difficulty of changing habits. As soon as it was changed, the cake of the vested interests was moved, and a large group of people were going to read books and make noise, and some did not hesitate to run to the palace to hang themselves, crying bitterly about the previous emperors, and how they are now, which made Zhao Zhen very annoyed.

Zhao Zhen is also an emperor who doesn't like to kill people, his political philosophy is to rule by inaction, and he never wants to make people angry.

Su Jin understands the truth here, haven't you ever eaten pork and never seen a pig run? In later generations, we are also in a century of great change, and the government is also engaged in reform and opening up, but many reform measures sound very beautiful, but once they are implemented, they will be reduced to a dead letter. System.

"Your Majesty, what you said can be understood by the minister, but the minister thinks that since it is difficult to advance head-on, why not change the way of thinking?"

Zhao Zhen widened his eyes and asked, "How do you change your thinking?" ”

Su Jindao: "Now these problems, fundamentally speaking, there is a problem with the fiscal and taxation system, according to the minister's observation, the emperor has been pursuing a policy of light taxation and light servitude, and wants to hide the wealth from the people, is this so?" ”

Zhao Zhen nodded and said: "Sure enough, you can guess my thoughts, I always think that only when the people are rich can the country be strong, so what I have adopted is to reduce the taxes of the people, so that the people can get rich." ”

Su Jin said: "The emperor's idea is right, but the effect is very average, the people have not become rich, but the corrupt officials and officials are so rich that when the disaster comes, the people have no power to protect themselves." ”

Zhao Zhen sighed: "I am also very puzzled, what is the reason for this? ”

Su Jindao: "Weichen believes that the root of this problem lies in the problem of the emperor's official purchase of fiscal and taxation systems, and the number of official materials purchased by the states of the Great Song Dynasty every year is more than a huge amount, in addition to the arrival of money and silver, all the materials for clothing, food, housing and transportation are purchased by the states, and the imperial court allows the state governments to withhold the purchase funds for local procurement, and then uniformly allocate them to the places where they are needed, which in the eyes of the ministers both breeds corruption and is not appropriate; To put it vulgarly, this is taking off your pants and farting, which is a lot of trouble. ”

Zhao Zhen didn't blame Su Jin for being disrespectful, but asked with interest, "How can you see it?" ”

Su Jindao: "For example, the Northwest soldiers change their clothes twice a year, not to mention the armor of the soldiers, and generally can't change them once every two years. ”

Zhao Zhen said: "If that's the case, what's wrong with this?" They are actively vying to be the first to buy for the imperial court, is there anything wrong with it? ”

Su Jin almost took Zhao Zhen for an idiot, this emperor was afraid that he had lived in a honey pot since he was a child, and he didn't even notice the thoughts of those guys, which surprised Su Jin very much.

Su Jin decided to ruin Zhao Zhen's childhood and ruthlessly reveal the reality to him.

"The minister doesn't think that they are competing to serve the court, and the minister thinks that they are competing to make money."

"How so? Every year, the money withheld must be reconciled and audited after purchase, and it is not for them to spend it in vain. ”

Su Jin shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, you should go down for a while." Nowadays, these people have a variety of means, and it is good that the money withheld is used for purchase; The imperial court audit is also based on the market price, which is no problem; But after these people won this errand, there were too many tricks in the local procurement process; The most common is to buy at a lower price to earn the difference; The market price is consistent, they are afraid that what they buy from the people is only 500 Wen, and the current officials are not as good as the current management, as soon as the notice comes out, the officials are like wolves and tigers under the banner of the imperial court's purchase, which people dare not sell to the officials obediently? As a result, the price difference arose, and His Majesty's policy of hiding the wealth from the people came to naught. ”

Zhao Zhen was stunned, lowered his head and thought about it: "It makes sense, if this is really the case, it is really difficult to audit, unless the people report it." ”

Su Jinsun said: "Which people have nothing to do to sue the official? Moreover, in order to show the prestige of the officials, the imperial court has stipulated an unwritten rule, whether the civil prosecutor is justified or unreasonable, he will beat the fifteen boards first, and who will run to give others a spanking when he is full? And it doesn't do much good to win the lawsuit, at most it is to compensate for the loss, and the defendant official is dismissed from office, but the people will have a reputation for suing the official to make trouble, and after the next official arrives, will he have good fruit to eat? Not even his native country could tolerate him; In short, the cost of suing the official is too great, no one will do it, and occasionally those who do it will end up miserable. ”

Zhao Zhen sweated on his forehead when he heard this, and said angrily: "There are still these doorways." Why didn't I know about it? ”

Su Jin said: "There are many means, in addition to exploiting the people for profit, they will also collude with officials and businessmen to make profits." ”

Zhao Zhen said: "It's unlikely, buy from merchants at a low price, that's called exploiting businessmen, how can you collude." ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the minister's family is from Luzhou businessmen, and the cloth sold by my family has a total of ten products from second to good, and the raw materials for printing and dyeing of the first cloth weavers are all excellent, one horse costs thirty times, and the most inferior ten products of cloth are only a consistent money, and the price difference between the cloth of the same color is thirty times; If the imperial court purchases military uniforms at the official price of five and one horse, I will sell two pieces of cloth to him as a cloth with the price of six and one horse, and I can make more than three pieces of cloth each; Then I only took 500 wen for this batch of huge profits, and guess who do you give the remaining two 500 wen? ”

Zhao Zhen took a breath of cold air and said, "For the local government to purchase?" ”

Su Jin asked again: "Will the government hand over this excess money to the imperial court?" ”

Zhao Zhen was silent, shook his head incessantly, gritted his teeth and said: "I see, I have been kept in the dark, but none of the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty have told me that it is tolerable to let these people do nonsense." ”

Su Jin waved his hand and said, "Your Majesty, you misunderstood them, and they don't know either; Do you think that every year, the three divisions and the relevant yamen have people to go down to inspect the purchase, why can't the audit come out? It cannot be ruled out that there are reasons why audit officials are bribed, but every year, several batches of dozens of people make a special trip to audit and reconcile accounts, and it is impossible for all of them to be bought; If it is audited, how can it not be reported? And Yan Sansi, Lu Xiang and others are also diligent and loyal ministers, how could they hide this matter; The truth is that everyone is kept in the dark, and these people are absolutely clever in their methods of cheating. ”

Zhao Zhen nodded and said: "It is reasonable, it must be an article on the official purchase bills, and when the goods are accepted, they must also steal the beams and change the columns, after all, the delivery after the acceptance is still responsible for the local government, and they will be transferred back." ”

Su Jin found that Zhao Zhen was really a good student, and he got started so quickly; It can be seen that it is difficult to learn well and everyone will learn badly.

"What the imperial court buys every year is not only military uniforms, but also grain, oil, grain and grass, cloth, livestock, wood and stone, and medicinal materials, in short, at least a huge amount of money and silver must be intercepted by the local government every year, and the minister does not know how much of this money will eventually become equivalent goods."

Zhao Zhen was almost crying, and he couldn't vent his anger in his stomach, and his breathing became heavy.

Seeing this, Su Jin hurriedly poured him a cup of tea, waited for him to drink it, and comforted: "Your Majesty, don't worry, since you know these things, the only way to deal with them is to deal with them." ”

Zhao Zhen breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly asked, "How did you learn this?" ”

Su Jin smiled and said, "Didn't Weichen just arrest a prefect?" Zhu Shiyong, the prefect of Luzhou, is a veteran, and when he was arrested, he found an account book in his home, and the private accounts listed on it were clear, and based on this, the truth was revealed to the world; According to this, the ministers draw inferences from one case to another, and come to the above results, or there are small mistakes, and there should be no big difference. ”