In the blink of an eye, it has reached the middle of April, when spring and summer meet, and Kaifeng Mansion is once again shrouded in a light rain that lasts for several days.

The drizzle is overwhelming and disturbing. There is also a faint humidity in the air, which makes people feel a burst of coolness. Lu Benzhi went out of the back door of Taifu Siqing's mansion with an umbrella early in the morning, and he didn't bring his entourage, and walked briskly along a winding and deep alley alone. He walked very fast, turning his head to look around from time to time, dense beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his facial features were twisted, looking very nervous.

Because today he is going to do something that has never been done before - to take bribes!

For Lu Benzhi, who studied the sages since he was a child and aspired to be a Qing official like his father Lu Jiawen and the greatest prime minister of all time, Wang Anshi, the corrupt and bribed-taking official should be the most hated person in the world.

The gradual corruption of the Great Song Dynasty, the various setbacks encountered by the vigorous reform movement, and the inability of his father to develop his ambition for so many years are all rooted in corruption!

If all the officials of the Great Song Dynasty were public and law-abiding, how could the great country be so dilapidated? How can thieves be a disaster for decades? How could the Liao State occupy Yanyun for more than a hundred years? How can the new policy advocated by Wang Jinggong be anticlimactic?

Therefore, in Lu Benzhi's fantasy in the past, he himself would become a Qingtian and honest official who ruthlessly rectified profiteers; will become an iron-clad imperial history that is not afraid of the powerful and makes corrupt officials fearful; Will become a reformer like his father......

But ideals are always shattered by complete reality! He, Lu Benzhi, is going to take bribes now! And no one forced him to take a bribe with a knife, but he reached out and asked for money himself!

Because he already felt that his father might soon be planted on the demolition of the military camp in the north of the state. Although the four officials who were forced to act as minions have spared no effort these days to find trouble with the small traders living in the northern military camp of Zhoubei, they have indeed forced a dozen or twenty families to move in tears. However, most of the people living in the state-north military camp still resolutely refused to relocate, and did not have the slightest intention of wavering - not everyone in the state-north barracks was doing small business in the north of the city.

There are many people who are working as coolies, some are local ruffians, some are walking the rivers and lakes as bodyguards, and some are wrestlers...... In short, as long as you don't buy and sell by yourself, the municipal tax and peace case can't control others.

These people are like iron nails, stuck there stubbornly, and they can't pull them out, they are simply nail households!

Moreover, in April, there was another situation that Lu Jiawen, Lu Benzhi's father and son never dreamed of - the engineering team of the Dianzhai Repair Institute wanted to go to the Zhoubei Military Camp to demolish several houses that the residents had moved out, but they encountered heavily armed guards outside the gate of the Zhoubei Military Camp, which had been unguarded for I don't know how many years!

People won't let you go in and demolish the house, and you're justified! How can the barracks and miscellaneous people come to demolish the house? Is there an order from the Priest? If not, roll as far as you want!

If you don't get out, the spears and crossbows of the forbidden army will be beckoned.

This can frighten the people of the shopkeeper and repair office, and dozens of people will resign in a day...... Even if there is an official establishment, people don't dare to do it.

It's terrible!

Afterwards, Lu Jia went to find the palace marshal Cao Chan theory, but Cao Chan didn't buy it at all, and even beat a rake, saying that the people of Taifu Siqing forcibly demolished the military camp and wanted to pull Lu Jia to go to the palace to fight a lawsuit. In the end, Jiang Zhiqi, who knew the Privy Council, came to play the round, but the round returned to the round, and Jiang Zhiqi did not ask Cao Yu to give an order to cooperate with the demolition of the military camp in the north of the state. On the contrary, after the incident, Lu Jia asked (Jiang Zhiqi was a jinshi of the Renzong Dynasty and a veteran of officialdom), saying that he was not organized, and he knew that he was messing around!

After this incident, Lu Benzhi finally made up his mind that he must make a little money to prepare for his father's life after he stepped down - in order to fulfill his filial piety, he will be a corrupt official once!

Not to mention, this corrupt official thinks it is much easier than being a Qingtian capable minister who is not afraid of the powerful and is determined to reform.

He asked for money and asked, that is, the secretary of the city tax department. Yu Wendao immediately found a Taiyuan coal merchant (that is, the legendary coal boss), named Xia Yutian, who owned two coal mines in Zezhou on Hedong Road and Xiangzhou on Hebei West Road, and transported millions of catties of charcoal to Kaifeng Mansion every year, and at the same time bought a large amount of tea and silk from Kaifeng Mansion to sell in Hedong.

The coal trade in Kaifeng Prefecture is also controlled by the coal field under the jurisdiction of Taifu Siqing...... So to be able to tie up with the Taifu Temple's ya, of course, is not to ask for it.

Today, Lu Benzhi is going to meet this "coal boss" in Fanglou......

……

When Lu Benzhi was walking step by step towards the abyss of corruption and bribery, his father Lu Jia asked if he was participating in the Chongzheng Palace.

He is a "busy secretary" who rarely asks the right questions from the Chongzheng Palace, but today he is still busy because several low-level officials in the New Party camp, including Zhang Kegong, who supervised the imperial history, have recently played to impeach Wu Haogu for accepting bribes, selling official positions, sheltering hidden fields, and interfering in the local administration of Cangzhou.

In short, the crime is very big, and the evidence is conclusive - Cangzhou General Sentence Lu Yihao and Cangzhou Judicial Army Officer Ji Yi jointly signed a chapter exposing Wu Haogu's crimes!

I'm afraid Wu Haogu won't have to run now......

Zhao Ji sat behind the imperial case, his brows furrowed deeply, of course he had seen those impeachments and exposés of Wu Haogu, and he also knew that the problems referred to existed. Because Wu Hao had already secretly entered the text and asked him about "exchanging land for knights".

Zhao Ji, on the other hand, adopted the method of "permission from the central order". Because he knew that it was impossible to agree to this kind of behavior that looked like selling officials through the Zhongshumen edict - in fact, this matter was not a betrayal of officials, the knights in front of the palace were a kind of feudal military service, Zhao Ji gave land (to buy land), and the knights' family sent people out of horses and equipment to serve in Kaifeng Mansion, and these knights were strictly Zhao Ji's vassals.

Therefore, Wu Haogu's "selling knights" cannot be viewed with bureaucratic thinking at all.

In the election of bureaucrats, it is necessary to stress some fairness, to take the imperial examination, and to make everyone equal in front of the examination papers, so that they can convince the public.

But the generation of vassals does not need to serve the public at all, this matter is a transaction between the feudal monarch and the vassals, just like the folding family will be the capital of the town of the city, and the Tusi town of the Yang family will be in the state. There is no need to take the exam at all, as long as the Zhao family, the Zhi family, and the Yang family are satisfied. Or, both sides have a need, and that's fine!

But the problem is that by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was not much real "feudal thinking" in China, and some were bureaucratic thinking and official standards! Therefore, when everyone sees the matter of Wu Hao Gu selling knights, they will be extremely unhappy.

"Have you seen the formation diagram sent by Murong Forget?"

Zhao Ji was still thinking about how to exonerate Wu Haogu, so he first mentioned the "Buke Riding Formation Diagram" that Murong Wangwu had just sent. According to the different types of troops, this set of formations lists a total of three series, namely "Gun Shield Spear Bow Crossbow Formation", "Sword and Shield Spear Bow Crossbow Formation" and "Equipment Vehicle Bow and Crossbow Gun Shield Formation".

These three series are not just three arrays, but three sets of more than a dozen arrays each, listing various variations, which seem very complicated.

However, no matter how complicated the formation is, it is only used to command a group of infantry, and it cannot be used in a big battle at all. In the eyes of the rulers of the eastern and western provinces, it really has little value.

"Your Majesty," said An Tao, the Privy Councillor, "The minister has seen the formation map, and the battle methods listed in these three sets of formation maps are all things that the generals and team leaders need to master, and maybe they can let the front team of the palace follow the drills." ”

Jiang Zhiqi, who also knew the Privy Council, also played: "Your Majesty, the ministers also feel that the pictures on Murong Military Studies are all the way of martial artists, and the ministers and other civil officials are not the enemies of these hundreds or thousands. ”

"Oh." Zhao Ji nodded, a little disappointed, he originally thought that Murong Wuwu was a very powerful art of war, but he didn't expect that there would only be hundreds or thousands of enemies.

"Then collect the formation diagram in the Privy Council Editing Division." Zhao Ji paused, "As for Murong forgetting worries...... After all, he is a person who has returned from the north, and he still needs preferential treatment, so it is better to let him train the knights in front of the palace again, and then raise the palace view. ”

Letting Murong forget his worries and help train the former knight was also Wu Haogu's suggestion in the secret text. It's not that I'm worried that the knights' riding skills are too poor, but I want Murong to give full play to the residual heat of the military academy to help promote the method of grass field rotation, and at the same time help the knights who have been entitled to settle their families in Beicangzhou.

The ministers had no objection to such an arrangement. For the officialdom of the Northern Song Dynasty, Murong Forget worries was just an outsider and a small episode. The first emperor Zhao Xu and the then prime minister Zhang Dian looked up to him, so they let him do something. Fortunately, this person is also quite interesting, and his sense of existence is not high, and now he is raising the palace view, and it is not a big deal to enjoy wealth for the rest of his life.

As for the Yanyun Han Haoqiang, who came from the same path as him, it is better to come to the Great Song Dynasty officialdom less in the future to cause chaos!

"Zhao Qing." Zhao Ji named Zhao Tingzhi in the imperial history at this time.

"The minister is here!"

Zhao Tingzhi immediately got up.

"Now there are a lot of Wu Haogu who have been impeached and sent to Cangzhou to do business, what do you think?"

"Wu Haogu sells the official mantle, the evidence is conclusive." Zhao Tingzhi said coldly, "He should be handed over to the guilty department." ”

Zhao Ji asked: "Does Zhao Qing think that the imperial knight is an official?" ”

Zhao Tingzhi thought for a while and shook his head, "It's not an official, the imperial knight has no official status, he should be a soldier of the forbidden army...... But it is also a sin to give and receive privately when recruiting the forbidden army. ”

"Oh," Zhao Ji looked at Zhao Tingzhi, "Then according to Qing, how are the soldiers of the forbidden army recruited?" How were the upper, middle, and lower ranks of the soldiers of the forbidden army determined? Are they all strictly enforcing the law now? ”