The weather was hot in June, looking at the deep night sky, Xing'er said: "The night of Tianjie is as cold as water, and the sky must not be hot." ”

Zheng Lang laughed and said, "If it is at night, the world will definitely not be hot, not only is it not hot, but it is also very cold." ”

"How cold will it be?"

Zheng Lang laughed again, it was not clear to talk about this in the Song Dynasty.

The capital is still as prosperous as before, many people come out to enjoy the coolness, some shops are open until dawn overnight, and after the third watch, business is still prosperous. But at this time, the Song Dynasty was in the midst of a great crisis.

Years of battles have made the people of the whole country miserable, coupled with this sudden drought, the entire Song Dynasty is sitting in a crater. The reason is very simple, the king is benevolent and virtuous, although the ministers are intrigued, some people are very selfish, and they have not yet developed to the point of ignoring the life and death of the people. The whole big, bloated mechanism is still slowing down.

However, when he came to Zhongshu, Zheng Lang received some reports one after another, and he secretly called luck in his heart, the truth was more serious than he thought, fortunately the war was suspended, otherwise the Song Dynasty would face an unimaginable crisis this year.

The court didn't feel it yet, and the Wang Lun incident was covered up by the relevant officials, and it didn't alarm the court, and they thought that like other similar situations, it was just a group of bandits. The big man in the court continued to stare at the side affairs, first Ouyang Xiu wrote a book, and the court sent an envoy to make peace with the Western Thief, but the minister heard that the border ministers frequently obtained the northern boundary text and asked how the Western Xia peace was about. If this is the case, the matter is deeply worrying, and the minister thinks that the trouble of the world is not in Xirong, but in the northern enemy.

In half of the sentence, Western Xia did not have the ability to destroy the Song Dynasty, and it was in the north that could destroy the Song Dynasty, but Ouyang Xiu was only half right, not the Khitans who began to fall, but the more fierce Jurchens and Mongols.

The reason is even more wrong, after 40 years of reconciliation with the Khitan, the court will come to extort as soon as something happens, which shows the heart of the country. If you don't pick up such a good bargain, you can't be stupid? If peace is really precious, countries can use this slogan to confuse each other, but if you really think like this, the country is about to end. If it is replaced by Zheng Lang in Khitan, this time it will knock more.

Therefore, it is necessary to defend the north, but several ministers in the north are incompetent, calm all the way is Zhang Cun, in the past, in Yanzhou he could not be the main side and left, Dingzhou Wang Keji is mediocre and light, not a general. If you want to exchange for a powerful general, you have to go to the north to guard, you have to train the troops, you have to choose generals, you have to prepare the border, you can't wait for the Khitans to come, and it will be too late to regret it.

The heart of precaution should be there, but Ouyang Xiu sang the Black Khitan vigorously, making all the plants and trees in the court soldiers, so what happened later.

Then Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi showed a high degree of "tacit understanding" and kept writing together. First of all, I can't stop Xie Qianyao with 1,800 yuan of minister's money, that is, business trip expenses and recruitment expenses. This is a ritual system, 1,800 yuan, can only raise 18 soldiers, no matter how much you save this money to abolish the ceremony.

When the drought came, prices rose, and the cost of raising a soldier became 100 yuan, and then the troops of Western Xia and Khitan were prepared, and the forbidden army in the capital did not dare to cut ...... Purpose.

Then they joined hands again to write a book, and the number of troops in the west was huge, but because of the control of the Shaanxi transfer envoys, there were many inconveniences on the four roads on the edge, and this Zheng Lang could also feel it on Jingyuan Road, and only discussed with each other. Han Qi and Fan Zhong were drowned in the northwest, and in the bureau, it was difficult to say in order to avoid suspicion, until they came to the capital, and they didn't have to avoid suspicion before they said this bad habit. Therefore, let the four roads act cheaply, and all the tricks (referring to the conspirators) can be easily earned in a large amount, and can be rewarded according to the system in order to help military spending.

This is to find a way to open source, otherwise the country's economy is too tight. So Zhao Zhen once again agreed.

Finally, Han Fan and the others began to really speak, focusing on the counties and towns of the world, and the shepherd is the most important, and if you gain it, you will be transformed, and if you lose it, you will call for chaos...... The ministers and other ministers want to beg for the edict of the Holy Mercy, and the ministers of the Privy Council are to recommend three people who can be appointed as the lord among the courtiers, and wait for the name, that is, each person will be given a piece of edict, so that the person who has been raised in the general judgment has been given a member to be a member of the Zhizhou, and the person who has been raised in the county has been a member to be a member of the general judgment, and a person who has been born in the three or more examinations and a member of the four examinations without a background has been appointed as an official magistrate of the county, or a person who has been raised in the official order of the post of five or more exams to be appointed as the official magistrate of Beijing. If the person recommended by Yu Ming clearly states that he will be judged to be good in the future, he will be rewarded by the main party, and if he ignores the stolen goods and harms the people harshly, he will be punished with the same crime.

Why the country has come to this point, it is the incompetence of the ministers, so the ministers must sponsor, to sit together, the people who protect are meritorious, and the people who are not good are equally guilty, and they are connected and take responsibility, so that all the talents can be allocated from the people.

There are some prototypes of the Qingli New Deal's "selection of officials".

But how to judge whether Guan Jian is good or bad?

It is also an opportunity for Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi, the country is brewing a huge crisis, Zhao Zhen is very anxious, as long as there is a good strategy, he wants to try it, so he said to the auxiliary ministers: "Since the use of the army, there have been many officials who have been tested and tested, and there is no good way to do anything. ”

At this time, Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi's steps were still very small, and when they entered the center for the first time, they didn't know what to do, and they didn't dare to say it. In order to reduce the pressure of the people, Zhao Zhen proposed to relax the ban on tea and salt and reduce business taxes. Fan Zhongyan said: "Tea and salt, the income of commercial taxes, the state has more than enough, you should first leniently enslave, and then with the merchants, it is not the first thing to relax the ban." ”

The state money is not enough, at this time can not loosen the tea and salt and commercial taxes, if there is surplus money, the most important thing is to subtract the people's servitude first. It makes sense, what if you don't have money? But at this time, Fan Zhongyan skipped the conservative, and at this time, if he reformed, many drawbacks of the tea and salt policy could be eliminated. It doesn't matter if the problem is not eliminated, the biggest crisis is the uprisings everywhere. Finally, Wang Lun's news reached the capital.

We were stunned together, how far was it from Yizhou to Gaoyou, and how many troops, van soldiers and catchers were stationed along the way, how could they be at ease for more than a thousand miles?

Ouyang Xiujin said: "Recently, there have been more and more thieves in the Quartet, all of which have been unprepared by the state, and the officials cannot reward and punish them. The skin problems of the ministers who are said to be Yidi can still be treated. The thief's bloody heart is deeply worried. The court did not deal with it properly...... Today, the Yizhou army thief Wang Lun, passed through Chu, Tai and other states, even rode and raised the flag, as if walking in the realm of no one, and the inspection, the county lieutenant went to the thief call, his clothes, armor, and equipment were all tied up, if Wang Lun traveled around the rivers and seas, swept Fujian in the south and broke the big ridge, entered the Baxia in the west and peeped into the two Shu, killed the officials, according to the city, who is the fierce emperor? This can be described as a big worry for the henchmen. For those who plan today, they must first enforce the law, and if the law is strict, people will know what they are afraid of, and they will attack the thief by themselves. From now on, the thieves will take their clothes and armor from the prefectures and counties, the officials will chase the officials and stop them, the inspectors and county lieutenants will still be removed, and the army will be self-effective, and the thieves will be allowed to ......"

This letter exposed Ouyang Xiu's essence.

It's not a matter of Junfa, why did Wang Lun launch an uprising?

After many years of official career, Ouyang Xiu truly completed the transformation from a poor child to a scholar, but he also forgot the roots and took the initiative to stand on the side of the powerful.

is not only Wang Lun, but also, this is where Zheng Lang called luck. Yu Jing said again: "The court is so powerful that the world, the handle of rewards and punishments, today down to the big and the officials are relaxed, and the small people gather to become thieves, and those who can't be forbidden should not be rewarded and punished...... Nanjing, the other capital of the Son of Heaven, thieves enter the city and cut out, the thieves of Jiezhou and Chizhou are only ten people, openly enter the city to capture and plunder people's households, and the thieves of Dengzhou are less than 20 people, and they cannot be obtained for several years. The Qingping army thieves entered the city to make a mutiny, and the master cried, and the military envoy refused to go out behind closed doors. What I heard is like this, and the officials are not seriously punished, ** thieves and thieves are declining, how can they get it? Today, there are 570 thieves in Jingdong, 30 or 20 thieves in Guiyang, and more than 400 thieves in Jianchang......

Why is this happening?

Is it really something that can be solved with a cool method?

Fan Zhongyan also said that there are nearly 200,000 people in the Shaanxi forbidden army, and the autumn is approaching, so they must be nurtured and trained in order to succeed...... Where does this money come from, grain and grass, gold and silver money, and 10,000 and Nanjian to pay money, 20,000 and Shangzuoguan, 30,000 Beijing officials to Shi, if it should be raised to the province, and from a bachelor's degree, except for the family and officials.

There was no choice but to sell his official position to make money.

Zheng Lang couldn't help but be very stunned when he heard that the strategy of selling officials actually came out of Fan Zhongyan's mouth, rubbed his temples, and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that as long as the lord is wise and virtuous, there is no need to worry about internal troubles, but it is still external enemies to worry about." Although there are times when the years are bad and the people are forced to become thieves, our dynasty is the country with the most important internal rule, so these thieves will not be in deep trouble. ”

It is better to say the opposite with Ouyang Correction.

"The Western Xia is weak and cannot subvert our dynasty, but its ambitions are difficult to change, and now the Western Xia is forced by the Khitan to make peace with our dynasty, and it can win a short period of a few years or more than ten years of peace. About peace, our dynasty must use money to buy their hearts, plus their internal rest and recuperation, more than ten years will definitely come to invade our dynasty again. I didn't know that there would be a war for several years, and it was repeated over and over again, although it was the pain of scabies, but this scabies was too big and too deep, the war was protracted, and the people were not able to make a living, if there was another large-scale disaster, Your Majesty would be benevolent, and the people would not complain despite the suffering, and the thieves would be difficult to become powerful. But can Your Majesty guarantee that future generations will be like Your Majesty? Internal and external difficulties, that is the most painful time. As for Ouyang Xiu's Khitan heart, we must not guard against it, nor can we exaggerate it, and we don't need to carry out large-scale military training and increase troops, first, the country has no money to maintain, and second, we can't let the Khitan people think that our dynasty is hostile. The reason why I asked about the peace negotiations between our dynasty and the Tangut people was that they had agreed at the beginning, and second, they also wanted to judge the situation and trend of the Three Kingdoms. The Khitan has degenerated, and the ministers are not worried about the Khitan, but the more barbaric Tatars and Jurchens in the north, and these peoples will replace the Khitan and will surely become the greatest enemies of our dynasty. ”

After a pause, he said: "The Guiyang prison thieves are mainly smugglers of smuggled salt, and the government is not satisfied with the capture of prisoners and initiates a riot. The rest of the thieves, some of them were caused by the malpractices of the army, and some of them were ordinary people, and after four years of heavy pressure and drought, their lives could not be maintained, so they had the audacity to commit crimes. But don't these people know that rebellion is bound to death? Why do you want to take risks, the officials force the people to rebel, some officials do not do a good job, and they are poor, so they take risks. Xu Yuan has gone to the south to raise grain, and if he doesn't say that the grain can reach Beijing or Shandong, His Majesty can issue an order to let the state and county officials open warehouses to release grain as appropriate to help the people. Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, and Ouyang Xiu proposed to send envoys to inspect the officials of various states and counties, but the ministers thought that it was better to send a few good officials to inspect the states and counties, supervise the officials to release grain, and first reassure the people. The people take food as the sky, and do not ask them to be full, at least one and a half full, the common people will not stand up and take risks, and without the participation of hungry and displaced people, even if there are some thieves who are troubled, sooner or later they will be exterminated by the imperial court. Your Majesty, those who govern the country are righteous and benevolent. In order to support the national war, the common people suffered for nearly four years, and it was time for the imperial court to repay them. ”

Zhao Zhen was moved and said, "Quasi." ”

Zheng Lang said again: "There are several thieves, only Wang Lun is the strongest, let the minister take a battalion of fierce troops to the south, and in less than a month, this thief can be exterminated." ”

The Hanyuan army is those Jurchen cavalry, after coming to the capital, everything is divided into two, divided into two battalions, each battalion has more than 200 generals. Before they were completely degraded by the life of the capital, they were still the most powerful military branch of the Song Dynasty.