armyinform Chapter 1244: Don't Enter This Gate
Chapter 1244: Don't Enter This Gate
Chapter 1244: Don't Enter This Gate
Zhang Yue felt very familiar with the feeling of returning to the Imperial College.
Although the time to return home in glory has long passed, I still had deep feelings when I saw my students again.
When he first entered the Imperial College, Zhang Yue felt that the students were a little restrained, completely different from what they were in the past.
He was worried that Wang Anshi's system of three dormitories, upper, middle and lower, would create too much competition among the students. In the previous Imperial College Yu Fan case, the students who had always been noble had also become competitive, bribing and currying favor with the lecturers and assistants in order to stand out in the exams.
After all, students from the upper classes can directly become officials or take the provincial examination without taking the metropolitan examination, or at least they can be exempted from the pre-examination examination.
He would rather have students ask questions that are full of mistakes than just obey them submissively.
But fortunately, Zhang Yue did not worry too much, and these students still dared to speak out.
In the Zhishan Hall, the emperor sat with his back bowed, Zhang Yue sat on the side, and the judge and the direct lecturer sat next to Zhang Yue.
Also attending on his left and right were ministers such as Cai Jing, the Director of the Academy of Scholars, and Cai Bian, the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, and below him were students of the Imperial College wearing robes.
Now it is the brothers Cai Jing and Cai Bian who are very popular and have won the trust of the emperor. Today's inspection of the Imperial College is mostly arranged by these two brothers. As for Zhang Yue, except for the dialogue between the emperor and his subjects, he is mostly silent.
He has long gone beyond the scope of handling specific affairs and has focused more on central decision-making.
Now Zhang Yue sat beside the emperor, not in the same position as the other ministers. He was in a high position, second only to the emperor, but he had to be more frugal with his words. At least in front of the other ministers, he had to keep in line with the emperor.
Under imperial power, the most feared thing is that one's achievements become too great and threaten the ruler, or that one's height attracts the wind.
The imperial power is like felling trees. If the trees are tall, they will be felled. If there are no tall trees, the tallest trees will be felled. They will be felled one by one. When all the trees are felled, even the taller grass will be cut down as trees.
Emperor Renzong was a rare benevolent emperor throughout history. Since Fan Zhongyan's reforms threatened the imperial power, they were stopped.
This is the alienation of human nature by power.
Zhang Yue knew the true meaning of it, so even as a prime minister, sometimes he shouldn't take things too seriously.
The longer one serves as an official, the more one realizes that one has to switch between being in the world and being out of it at any time. So why are officials in such a hurry to come to the Imperial College?
It is because power cannot be given away lightly. Someone must have suggested that Zhang Yue appointed the Imperial College students as the commanders. Is this because he wanted to manipulate the troops of the three prefectures? Zhang Yue could guess it.
The government has come here to make the students loyal and useful, and to show them kindness.
The emperor personally bestowed money, gifts, and clothes on each student. He gave each student five strings of cash, a piece of cotton cloth, and a set of writing brushes, ink, and paper.
It is to make you serve the emperor faithfully. Now he is pretending to be close to the people and listening to the demands of the students.
A student said, "Your Majesty, the court has indeed set up the army in the three prefectures. The drawbacks of the recruitment system have always been criticized. A large number of idle people in the market are used as soldiers, which has led to the decline of military discipline. From the perspective of ordinary people, it seems that it is not as good as the recruitment system in the Tang Dynasty and the Qubu system in the Jin and Han Dynasties."
This issue was also of concern to the government and the public. The baojia system supported successively by Wang Anshi and Zhang Dun was intended to restore the system in which sons of good families could join the army.
The emperor smiled and nodded, seeming to encourage the students to speak up.
The students below were eager to try when they saw that the emperor was so close to the people and open to opinions. Zhang Yue smiled secretly. The emperor did open to opinions when he first came to power, but the longer he was in office, the more he was unwilling to listen. Now there are very few people who can talk to him.
Cai Jing, a scholar, immediately stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, please allow me to answer this question."
The official nodded in agreement.
Cai Jing was known among officials for his eloquence, but he said: "Before the Five Dynasties, the generals had the intention of combining soldiers with farmers. Now that the court has sufficient taxes, there is no need to recruit soldiers as in the past."
"The soldiers recruited by the court are loyal to your majesty and the court, not the private troops of the generals in the past."
Cai Jing's answer could be regarded as a textbook answer in officialdom, and it exactly fit the emperor's thoughts.
At this time, a student stood up and said, "Your Majesty, please allow me to report that the soldiers that Cai Xueshi just mentioned are the soldiers of the court, not the soldiers of the generals. However, as far as I know, there are many generals who use soldiers as slaves to do business. How can this be explained?"
At this point, the ministers' faces turned a little ugly.
Cheng Yi, who was speaking at the beginning, looked indifferent and did not think there was anything offensive in the student's question.
Cai Jing said calmly: "You are only talking about the actions of individual generals. If there are such acts of driving soldiers into slavery, the court will definitely investigate it thoroughly."
This matter should end here. Cai Bian said, "Your Majesty, you can leave and return to the palace."
The emperor waved his hand and said, "I want to continue listening."
Seeing the emperor like this, Zhang Yue continued to sit silently beside the emperor.
"Whatever you have to say, please feel free to speak up!" The emperor is still not in the mood today.
Hearing the emperor say this, all the students were shocked.
A student stood up and said, "Your Majesty, during the reign of Emperor Taizu, Guo Jin was appointed to Xingzhou, Li Hanchao to Guannan, He Jiyun to Zhending, He Weizhong to Yizhou, Li Qianpu to Xizhou, Yao Neibin to Qingzhou, Dong Zunhui to Tongyuanjun, and Wang Yansheng to Yuanzhou. They were only given the title of border inspectors, without the title of field commanders, and they were all appointed for more than ten years."
"Those who have made contributions to the frontier are rewarded greatly, and their official rank is no higher than that of an inspector. The northern Xinjiang and the western Tibetans dare not invade the border, and have sent envoys to seek peace many times. If Your Majesty can follow the old example of Taizu, carefully select famous officials to manage the border counties; abolish the title of generals, so that they do not rule over each other; establish the title of inspectors, so that they can help each other. In this way, we can win in the field and hold the city firmly. In a few years, the Khitan and the Tangut can be pacified."
The emperor nodded slowly upon hearing this and said to Zhang Yue, "This is a profound idea."
Zhang Yue thought to himself, what a brilliant idea.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, Qian Xuanjing (Qian Ruoshui) once advised the Emperor Renzong about this."
The emperor said, "It turns out that someone has already discussed this. If this method can really resist Liao, I am not afraid to give up my power!"
At this time, a heroic student stood up and said, "What a fallacy! Where can we find generals like Guo Jin and Li Hanchao?"
"As everyone knows, Taizu only governed the border at the state level, not at the military level."
That's right, at the state level, he used trusted and famous generals like Guo Jin and Li Hanchao to lead the army. Song Taizu gave these generals all the power, and all matters related to money, grain and personnel in the country were up to them, and they even followed orders instead of announcements. At that time, they relied on these border generals to resist the invasion of the Khitan for more than ten years.
The other party continued: "However, this theory has a premise, that is, Taizu's 100,000 imperial guards are the most elite troops in the world."
Zhang Yue nodded. This was the right argument. Only under the threat of 100,000 imperial guards would the generals on the front line dare not have second thoughts. This was the confidence that only an emperor like Zhao Kuangyin, who had won the world on the cusp of war, could have.
Otherwise, no matter how close the relationship is, it cannot be trusted. If you don't believe it, look at the history of Guo Yaoshi. And the Southern Ming Dynasty's Jiangbei Four Towns, Zuo Liangyu will know.
Guo Jin was in Xishan for twenty years, Li Hanchao was in Qizhou for seventeen years, and nowadays, the term of office of a military governor is no more than three years.
Now the elite imperial guards of the Song Dynasty had all been sent in the two northern expeditions of Emperor Taizong. If the imperial guards could be used, what was the point of setting up the Three Auxiliary Prefectures?
The official was very depressed when he heard this.
He looked at the group of heroic students in the field and suddenly felt exhausted. Zhang Yue also noticed the emperor's mood. The emperor was determined to restore the prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties, but the conditions were like this.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, please return to the palace first."
The official said somewhat bleakly: "That's exactly what I meant."
The emperor set out on his journey, and the official walked out of Zhishan Hall and looked at the students who were watching him see him off.
The emperor suddenly stopped and said, "I don't understand. Emperor Taizu had only 190,000 soldiers and horses, and the world was in awe of him. Now I have a million soldiers, why is the world still in turmoil? First, the Tanguts humiliated the emperor, and now the Liao people are humiliating me again and again!"
Everyone present was moved when they heard this.
All the ministers bowed their heads and said, "Your Majesty, I am ashamed!"
The students of the Imperial Academy also prostrated themselves and said, "Your Majesty."
Zhang Yue was the only one who didn't speak.
The official had been feeling depressed and frustrated for a long time. He looked at Zhang Yue and asked, "Why don't you say anything?"
Zhang Yue took a deep breath and said, "Your Majesty, the matter of setting up the Three Auxiliary Armies has been discussed many times by the ministers in the court. The court's troops are indeed exhausted, and everyone knows it. The ministers present here, and even the students of the Imperial Academy, also understand it."
"At present, the Liao Kingdom has hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in Yunzhong and Youyan, and the border troops in Hedong, Hebei, and Shaanxi are also on high alert. I think the only hope for the court right now is to train a strong army, which may be able to defeat one or two of them. At least it can let the Liao people know that I am prepared, and even a little wary."
"If the day comes when hundreds of thousands of Khitan cavalry invade and their horses drink from the Yellow River... I will have no choice but to help!"
The ministers and students were all silent.
This scene is also what the ministers are most worried about these days, and it is also the most criticized aspect since Zhang Yue became the prime minister.
Do you, Zhang Yue, really want to drag the entire country along with you in gambling?
The emperor was a little confused, and some of his ministers were also confused.
Zhang Yue knew this feeling very well: it is lonely at the top, and at the moment of making a decision, you will realize how lonely you are.
Zhang Yue looked at the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, if such a day really comes, I mean if..."
"I have received the grace of three dynasties. The Imperial Academy is the place where the court nurtures scholars, and the Three Auxiliary Armies are the backbone of the court. If that day really comes, I will lead them to stand up and die in front of the king to repay your majesty for your kindness!"
The emperor was silent after hearing this, and he regretted what he had said. Zhang Yue worked so hard as a prime minister, and it was also for the sake of the country.
Zhang Yue looked at the students in the hall and said, "I want to tell you something here. Some people try to get lucky and think that this is a place where they can rise to prominence. I know their thoughts very well. But today I am putting my words here. This is a dead end. But so what? If you have the ambition to serve the country, then if you are afraid of death, don't enter this door. If you want to get promoted and make money, please go somewhere else! If you don't have this ambition, please go somewhere else. I am ashamed to be with you!"
Wherever Zhang Yue's eyes passed, all the students present were startled.
When several students heard "If you are afraid of death, please don't enter this door; if you want to get promoted and make money, please go elsewhere", they thought, isn't this what a real man should do?