Kaifeng, Tokyo.

Towards the end of the year, there has just been a heavy snowfall in Kaifeng Mansion. The thick snow in the city indicates a bumper harvest next year, and gives a little comfort to the monarchs and ministers who are suffering from this year's drought in the south. It's just that the snow on the streets and alleys of Tokyo can't stay for long, and soon the manpower of the Kaifeng Prefecture will be cleared, and pedestrians will not be obstructed. In particular, the royal street that extends from the main gate of the southern gate of the imperial city to the south to the state bridge, which is as wide as 200 steps, is a square at all, but there is no residual snow in sight.

The imperial palace of Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty is not large in terms of area, at least far inferior to the Daming Palace in Chang'an, Xijing in the Sui and Tang dynasties. When Zhu Wen established the capital in Kaifeng, Bianzhou had already become a resort, with more than 100,000 households, and there was no room for large-scale construction. And the five dynasties have risen and fallen one after another, and they have no time and wealth to work the palace. When Zhou Xing in the Song Dynasty arrived, Taizu Zhao Kuangyin reluctantly renovated the imperial city, and after Taizong Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne, he wanted to expand the palace, but he gave up because of the opposition of nearby people.

However, no matter how simple and narrow the palace room is, it will not save materials on the façade. Xuande Gate is the main gate of the imperial city, nearly ten zhang high, there are five doors in a horizontal row, 'the door is all gold nail vermilion lacquer, the wall is all brick and stone, engraved dragon and phoenix flying clouds. Mo Fei carved painting neem, steep cypress layer, covered with glazed tiles, curved ruler tower, Zhu Column color sill', not so much a city gate, but a beautifully built building, so it is also called Xuande Building. There are two auxiliary doors on both sides of Xuande Gate, which are called Left Door and Right Gate, and the shape is slightly smaller than Xuande Gate.

Behind the Xuande Gate, there is a square that can accommodate 10,000 people, and the giant palace behind the square is the main hall of the Kaifeng Imperial City - Daqing Palace. Daqing Hall is located on the central axis of the imperial city, and is the most majestic and magnificent building in the imperial city. However, the Daqing Hall will only be opened on the New Year's Day, the winter solstice, or the imperial court ceremony at the same level. Today's Shuowang Dynasty is only used in the Wende Hall on the west side of the Daqing Palace.

The fourth watch has just arrived, the sky is still dark, and the cold wind of the winter night is still biting, but the royal street in front of the imperial city has been lively. This day is the 15th day of the leap month of the second year of Xining, which is the day of the great pilgrimage of Shuowang, which is only one level lower than the great pilgrimage meeting of Zhengdan and the winter solstice. All the civil and military officials in Beijing who were above the eighth rank and had the right to participate in the court have set foot on the royal street and went to the imperial city to participate in the court meeting. The officials on the royal street include prime ministers and princes dressed in gold and purple and entourage of as many as 100 people, as well as green robes and green robes who ride alone. Even if you don't count the entourage, just the official body, there are as many as four or five hundred people in the bustle.

Because the court meeting got up so early, most of the officials and entourage walking on the royal street were empty. It's not that they don't fire in the kitchen before they come out, but because on both sides of the Royal Street, there is a thousand-step corridor, called the Imperial Corridor. In the corridor, there are many stalls doing breakfast business, rice, pork, dried meat, belly lungs, red white kidneys, north and south restaurants are dazzling, you can eat whatever you want, there is no need to evoke the cook or the Hun family at home. With the width of the Royal Street, there will be no congestion due to the fact that there are more vendors in the promenade.

When the officials had eaten and drunk enough in the imperial corridor and arrived at the foot of the imperial city one after another, they all dismounted. The five city gates of Xuande Gate, the main gate is usually closed, and it will only be opened when the Son of Heaven goes out on patrol or when the court ceremony. The officials all dismounted and entered the palace through the secondary gate next to the main gate of Xuande. The deacons also walked through the side door of Xuande, but they were able to ride alone. Zai Zhi bears the weight of the military state, and enjoys special gifts, he can go straight to the imperial city, and only dismount at the second gate.

Another huge cavalry team arrived in front of the Xuande Gate, and the team of more than 80 people was a little thinner than the 100-person prime minister's entourage, but it was far more than other civil and military officials, which was a treatment that only the ruling could enjoy. More than 80 people were guided by two Zhuyi officials with gold belts around their waists, and they opened up the green umbrellas that only Zaizhi had, and surrounded a middle-aged civil official wearing a purple square heart curved collar official uniform and a goldfish bag on his waist, and arrived in front of the imperial city.

As soon as they saw him on horseback, the officials who were still outside the imperial city avoided the road and saluted. Compared with seeing Chen Shengzhi, the prime minister who had just entered the palace, he was several times more respectful. But now he is the most favored by the Son of Heaven, and Wang Anshi, the governor of the political affairs department who has the heart to reverse the decline of the country and wash away the evils accumulated for a hundred years, has arrived.

Wang Anshi was riding on an ordinary gelding, and the purple color on the official uniform he was wearing had been washed away a lot. He was broad-shouldered and broad-bodied, tall and strong as an ox, but his face was dark, as if he hadn't been properly washed for many years. Some people once said that he and Wen Yanbo, who are also tall, are ox-shaped people who can carry heavy loads and go far, and they can be the prime ministers, but now Wen Yanbo and Wang Anshi, who are privy envoys, are incompatible, like mortal enemies.

At the Xuande Gate, Wang Anshi did not stop long, and rode his horse straight into the imperial city. He and the civil and military officials entered the imperial city from the Xuande Gate, and the square of the Daqing Hall was in front of it. Turn left and pass through a gate that divides the central and western parts of Miyagi to reach the front of the Wendeok Gate. Wang Anshi only dismounted at this point, and walked into the Wende Gate in a slow step.

Behind the Wende Gate, there is a hundred-step long imperial road, leading directly to the Wende Palace. On both sides of the royal road, the bell tower and the drum tower are facing each other across the road from the east and west. After the bell and drum tower, across the royal road is two corridor-type palace buildings, called the east and west pavilion gate. After the civil and military officials passed through the Wende Gate, they did not enter the palace directly, but were divided into two classes according to the civil and military affairs, and lined up at the upper cabinet gate in the east and west, waiting for the court.

Wang Anshi was already late, and most of the civil and military officials who needed to participate in the court meeting had already arrived, and the two pavilion doors were full of people, but they were silent and their breathing could be heard. No one dares to talk nonsense, and neither does the prime minister. The imperial history and the envoys of the cabinet were watching from the side, and if there was a loud noise, or standing on the wrong shift, they would either be reprimanded immediately, or they would be impeached and smashed on the head after the court meeting.

Wang Anshi walked forward from the back silently, and the officials of the eastern class each bowed down to make way for him. Wang Anshi's footsteps did not stop, only a little pause in the Hanlin bachelor's class, for some reason, only five of the six Hanlin bachelors, but Sima Guang, an old friend in the past and now his sworn enemy, was nowhere to be seen, and I don't know what he was against because he was sick.

Thinking of Sima Guang, Wang Anshi sighed secretly in his heart. With the gradual promulgation of the new law, the equalization law, the Qingmiao Law, and the farmland and water conservancy treaties were promulgated one by one, Sima Guang, Lu Gongshu, Teng Fu, these old friends also parted ways with themselves one by one, and even instigated the court to discuss the Qing Dynasty and oppose it. Those who originally supported the reform of the law are now silent because of the clear discussion.

Don't they know how difficult the Dao plan is?!

The accumulation of Taizu Taizong disappeared without a trace in the process of Emperor Zhenzong's Yingtianshu, sealing Mount Tai, and building the Shangqing Induction Palace. After Renzong ascended the throne, he finally had some savings, but due to the rebellion of the party to establish the country, he smashed into the bottomless pit on the border of Shaanxi that will never be filled. The treasury was barely supported by this point, but four years after Emperor Renzong's great trip, Yingzong died again, and the cost of the two national funerals finally ripped off the last fig leaf of the treasury.

What is Sima Guang's solution to this? Reduce the rewards given to courtiers who participate in the state funeral.

What a clever strategy!

The deficit of 15 million yuan can finally save hundreds of thousands!

said solemnly that the gentleman did not say profit, and he did not see them resign and donate their wealth. If all the ministers come to a gentleman and do not say anything, the deficit of tens of millions of yuan per year may really be filled.

But is it possible?!

Does Sima Guang dare to propose this?!

Redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses are the main reasons for the difficulty of the Great Song Dynasty's financial plan. Among them, the million-strong army raised by the imperial court devoured eighty percent of the financial expenditure. Its combat effectiveness may not be as good as the 100,000 forbidden troops under the command of Emperor Taizu when the country was founded.

In order to reduce the huge military expenditure, Pang Yi, the prime minister of the Renzong Dynasty, once presided over the arduous task of disarming 80,000 people. He issued a military order, and if any of the retrenched soldiers rebelled because of this, he was willing to be punished with death. But Sima Guang, who regarded Pang as his father, never had the courage to say a word about disarmament and cost saving, but just asked the Son of Heaven to save and save.

There are not enough successes and more failures, Wang Anshi has already seen through these clear streams.

Passing past the group of Hanlin Scholars, he continued to move forward, until he reached the front of the line. Standing in his position in the East Class, Wang Anshi held a wat board in his hand, closed his eyes and waited for the start of the court meeting. Now in front of him, there are only the two prime ministers in the back, and one step further, they are extremely human ministers.

Wang Anshi didn't wait long, most of the officials who participated in the court meeting had already arrived, and the time for the court had arrived. The envoy of the east cabinet and the envoy of the west cabinet counted the number of people, as the official who supervised the etiquette of the courtiers, the imperial history of Cheng Lu Gongshu led the two palace servants to enter the palace first.

They passed by with the Zai Zhiban without squinting, but Lu Gongzhu glanced at Wang Anshi, flashing a trace of disgust. His position in the imperial history can even be said to have come because of Wang Anshi, but Lu Gongshu was not happy at all. Because Wang Anshi did not mean well, his purpose was only to drive his brother Lu Gongbi, who was then a privy envoy, out of the capital.

As a privy envoy, Lu Gongbi was in charge of the military and political affairs of the DPRK and China, and his favorite words were to calm down and value peace, and he greatly opposed Wang Anshi's policy of expanding the border to the northwest. sang with another privy envoy, Wen Yanbo, and even almost returned Suide City, which he had finally won, to the Western Xia people. Later, the border commander objected, but the matter was unsuccessful, so he demoted the seed that seized Suide to Suizhou to settle down to appease the Western Xia. Wang Anshi could not tolerate two huge stumbling blocks that continued to stand in the way, otherwise his next reform of the military system and the horse system of the art of war and the law of protecting horses would inevitably be constrained.

Wen Yanbo's qualifications are too old to be shaken for a while, and although Lu Gongbi is the eldest son of Lu Yijian, the former minister of power, his background is far worse than Wen Yanbo, who has been in power for decades, not to mention that he also has a younger brother Lu Gongshu who is a bachelor of Hanlin. So not long ago, Lu Gong was recommended as the imperial historian and began to lead the Taiwan admonition system in the court.

In order to prevent the courtiers from gaining power and controlling the government, there are usually no brothers, fathers and sons or close relatives in the deacons and the eunuchs. Once this happens, a person who has been in power for a long time will inevitably resign from the position and be released as an official, without exception. If someone wants to stay on the line, the imperial historians will have something to do, and sometimes even the in-laws will appear in the two prefectures and Taiwan at the same time, and they will be attacked by the imperial historians. This is an unwritten convention, few people dare to violate it, Lu Gongshu is the middle of the imperial history, how can he be unright, so his eldest brother Lu Gongbi will not have long in the Privy Council.

ps: An important supporting actor appeared, and the old and new party struggles throughout the second half of the Northern Song Dynasty also staged a prologue at this time. Since ancient times, it has not been easy to change, whether it is Shang Ying or Chao Cuo, it has not ended well. If you change the system, you will offend the original interest groups, and Wang Anshi's old friends are also against him one by one.

This paragraph is a foreshadowing, and it is also a necessary description of the background of the times. Han San will take a break now and will be back later.

The third watch, red ticket, collection.