Prime Minister

Chapter 1035 Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers

Zhang Yue carefully looked at the appearance of the three late emperors.

The royal appearance of Taizu Zhao Kuangyin. Taizu wore a white robe, had a dark face, a long body and a strong body. His eyes were like red phoenixes, and his nose was like hanging gallbladder. This is the appearance of a dragon or a phoenix among people.

In addition to the imperial portrait of Taizu kept in the palace, Zhang Yue also saw it in Dingli Courtyard, and the two paintings were similar.

Taizu spent his whole life in the army, so his skin was dark.

As for the imperial appearance of Taizong Zhao Kuangyi, his complexion was much fairer. Compared with the Emperor Taizu who founded the country as a martial artist, he looked like a white-faced scholar. In terms of appearance, he was prettier than Taizu and had a bit more elegance.

It was from Emperor Taizong that the Song Dynasty embarked on the road of governing the country with culture.

Taizong's Annals describes how Emperor Shen made decisive decisions and had the ambition to level the world. However, a great man of later generations added three words after this description: "but incompetent".

The third one is Emperor Zhenzong. Emperor Zhenzong was wearing a red robe and had a smile on his face. He was very blessed.

Emperor Zhenzong turned bad luck into good fortune throughout his life. He also likes articles and art the most.

The papers of the top scholars of all ages will be burned in his shadow hall.

It was he who built the Longtu Pavilion and collected countless collections here. Later, Emperor Renzong built the Tianzhang Pavilion.

These three emperors, plus Zhang Yue, who met Emperor Renzong and Emperor Yingzong, are the six emperors of Zhao and Song Dynasties.

In the Tianzhang Pavilion built in the fifth year of Tianxi's reign, in front of the portraits of the three late emperors, Han Jiang and Zhang Yue were covered with notes and ink.

Han Jiang said to Zhang Yue: "It's up to you to write it!"

Zhang Yue hurriedly gave way and said: "Prime Minister, this is absolutely unacceptable."

Han Jiang said: "As a matter of fact, I was a Jinshi in the second year of Qingli. At that time, the whole world was abuzz with discussions about the Battle of Xixia and Duke Fan Wenzheng. At that time, our Jinshi was young and vigorous, but he also had a lot of reform experience in his mind. worldly aspirations."

"In August of the following year, Tianzhang Pavilion was opened in the Ren Temple, and Fan Wenzheng and Fu Zheng were given seats, asking them to come up with strategies for reforming the world. Only then did the Qingli New Deal come into being. Today's officials followed this move because you did it yesterday. I'm afraid that you won't be able to explain what I've discussed in detail, so I asked you to write it down in detail on paper."

"So if you have any knowledge in your mind, just write it down on paper. As for me, I am getting old. I have become a bit like the old man in recent years. Like Mr. Fu Zheng who was in this pavilion back then, he has lost his vitality."

Zhang Yue said: "Why did the prime minister say this? I remember when Renmiao ordered the prime minister to be the censor, he once said that you were promoted by me and you should speak out about the country's ills."

Han Jiang seemed to recall Emperor Renzong's instructions back then and said with a smile: "Yes. In fact, what Renmiao told me at that time was that we could neither accommodate temporarily nor be too aggressive, but we should keep the general rule of the court and make it feasible. But Han But he didn't listen, and in the end he offended someone and was dismissed. Fortunately, although Han did not have the opportunity to serve with Fan Wenzheng, he was appreciated by Han Wei Gong and learned the character of a Qingli gentleman from him."

Zhang Yue said: "Ouyang Wenzhong is as kind as a mountain to me."

Han Jiang nodded and said, "Yes, although you and I were not involved in the Qingli New Deal thirty years ago, Han Wei Gong and Ouyang Wenzhong taught you and me a lot."

Zhang Yue said: "How dare I compete with the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister was the right-hand man of Han Wei Gong at that time, and I am just a junior member of Ouyang Wenzhong's family."

In the fourth year of Jiayou's reign, Han Jiang was already a general under Han Qi and served as the censor Zhongcheng, while Zhang Yue was only a student of the Imperial Academy and had just been appreciated by Ouyang Xiu.

In terms of qualifications, he can't catch up with Han Jiang no matter how hard he tries.

Han Jiang smiled at Zhang Yue and said, "I looked at it this way when I was your age."

"But after so many years, I have seen one thing: changing the law is not necessarily right, and changing the law is not necessarily wrong."

"The system of the imperial court was designed after countless trade-offs. All the disadvantages you see actually have causes and effects that are unknown to you."

"We have made some changes, but the result is often not for the better, but for the worse." "I have read a lot about this restoration, and it seems that Lu Wenjing (Lv Yijian) is against the new law. Uncle Ouyang Yong It is said that he ruined the world during his twenty years in power. During his reign, he exclusively seized state power and threatened China and foreign countries. Everyone was afraid of him."

"It is supposed to be bad for Lu Wenjing to be like this, but Renmiao has high expectations for him, otherwise it would not have cut off his beard to treat him when he was seriously ill."

"I am also getting older. The more I read now, the more I feel that Lu Wenjing was right, but Fan Wenzheng was wrong back then."

After listening to Han Jiang's words, Zhang Yue knew why he stopped writing.

Han Jiang's biggest problem now is that his Taoist heart has been shaken, and he is just a few steps away from having his Taoist heart broken.

After Zhang Yue became Prime Minister, he also felt something.

What kind of opponents does he face in power?

There is no opponent, just like a ball of air. You swing your fists in all directions but can't hit the opponent. Instead, you are beaten hard by the opponent's fists coming out of nowhere.

For example, Lu Yijian, Feng Jing, and Sima Guang interfered with the reform. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they were enemies, but the truth was far from that.

Lu Yijian, Feng Jing, and Sima Guang represent the inertia and inertia of the bureaucratic group.

The operation of the system has its own rules. The existing system is "balanced" after countless games. There is no room for Pareto improvement. Any change at any point will cause someone's interests to be harmed.

Those so-called shortcomings that can be seen clearly at a glance are actually the beauty of "everything is missing" in the eyes of some people.

Lu Yijian, Sima Guang and others represent rules and human nature's greed for profit. No one wants to suffer the slightest loss of their own interests, and would rather watch the national affairs fail to recover.

It's like a person is stuck in a swamp. The more he struggles, the faster he sinks. If he doesn't struggle, he can live a little longer.

Can you fight against the rules and human nature?

Therefore, Lu Yijian and Sima Guang did not need to do any dirty work, offend anyone (except the emperor), or even play any tricks, so they could always stand in a position where they would not be criticized.

Then with a backhand slap, those who want to challenge the rules and do not know the heights of the world will be knocked to the ground.

So this is the biggest problem encountered by the reform.

When Han Jiang realized that every time she made reforms and changes, things would not get better, but instead get worse. When his original intention of benefiting the country and the people turns out to be harmful to the country and the people, it is inevitable that he does not know what to do.

The same goes for Fu Bi and Sima Guang, who were also very upright back then.

Han Jiang became more conservative every time he returned to the prime minister for the third time, and even Wang Anshi was more conservative than the first time when he returned to the prime minister for the second time.

So what Han Jiang means is, I give you the pen and you write it!

He really didn't know how to write. How would he take this road in the future? Where would the world go? Han Jiang really didn't know that after decades of serving as an official, when he was young, he would rather be outspoken than to be dismissed from office. He had also been "tamed".

Zhang Yue once heard a saying that only those who are newborn calves and are not afraid of tigers dare to do anything in the world, and only they can succeed.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yue no longer gave in to Han Jiang, but wrote without hesitation.

Before he even picked up a pen, Zhang Yue already had a thousand words in his mind, and now he wrote them down without thinking.

Ps: There will be more updates tomorrow!