Zhang said to make persistent efforts and propose the next Jianyi, he said:

Zhang Shuo pretended to be a good person and said to Zhang Jiazhen:

"The two of us are officials in the same dynasty, although there are some political disagreements, after all, it is because of different positions, which is understandable. The relevant information of today's incident has been submitted to the Imperial History Observatory, and someone will soon come forward to impeach, and you will probably be involved at that time, so it is better for you to face the saint in plain clothes (wearing white clothes, indicating that you are guilty) tomorrow, and surrender yourself before the impeachment of the Imperial History, which can reduce the guilt of your brothers. ”

Zhang Jiazhen couldn't think of a better way at once, so he agreed to do what Zhang said, and sure enough, the emperor relieved the two brothers of their guilt, and Zhang Jiazhen was sent to Youzhou (now south of Beijing) to be the assassin.

Zhang said that this time "being a ghost and catching a ghost", he was naturally very happy. After overthrowing Zhang Jiazhen, Zhang Shuo soon became the Zhongshu Ling, and in name and substance, he became the chief prime minister, and no one came to challenge him in the short term.

Speaking of Yu Wenrong again, after his success in "inspecting the fields" and "bracketing households", he was not only promoted several ranks, but also suddenly became the object of envy and attention of everyone in the court, which Zhang said could be seen.

But Zhang said that he didn't take Yu Wenrong to heart at this time, because Zhang said that he looked down on Yu Wenrong at all in his bones.

First of all, Yu Wenrong couldn't even pass the imperial examination, and for Zhang Shuo, a person who should be the first in the Chinese style (equivalent to taking the top prize), he was simply a nouveau riche, but he was only able to help the emperor earn a few pennies to become a fifth-grade official.

This kind of mentality is as obvious as the highly talented students of Peking University and Tsinghua University, who will naturally have an indelible sense of superiority in their bones when they see people who have graduated from private universities.

In addition, from a practical point of view, Zhang said that Yu Wenrong's cooperation is also needed at this time.

As mentioned earlier, Zhang said that he reduced the border guards by 200,000, and then changed the name of the government soldiers to recruit soldiers, and obtained 130,000 elite guards.

Judging by the brief arithmetic, minus 200,000 border guards, the guards raised 130,000. Raise 70,000 fewer soldiers, so that the burden on the country seems to be lightened?

Actually, that's not how the accounts are calculated! The 200,000 border guards who were minus were conscripted. When there is no war, the state will not provide military salaries, they have to be self-sufficient, and the state will not spend much money.

And the 130,000 soldiers recruited are genuine professional soldiers. They have to eat, they have to pay for the army, and even the weapons and horses have to be supplied by the state, and the original government soldiers, this qiē have to be brought by themselves, this is not my nonsense, I also look at Mulan's poem: "The east market buys horses, the west market buys saddles, and the south market buys bridles." Beishi buys a long whip", it can be seen that you have to bring your own, as for why you didn't buy knives and guns, buy bows and arrows, I guess the flower father originally had it!

Therefore, although the construction mentioned by Zhang has reduced the burden on military households, the state's financial support has definitely increased a lot. In this regard, perhaps Emperor Li Longji is not very clear at the moment, Zhang said that he must know it. Zhang said that he had dug such a big money pit. Of course, Yu Wenrong's cooperation is needed to help make up the pit.

Therefore, Zhang said that at this time, he decided to adopt a strategy of superficially wooing Yuwenrong and secretly guarding against him.

(Serial Update)

Zhang said that he let his cronie Li Cheng become a judge under Yu Wenrong. Assist Yuwenrong in the implementation of the policy of the household. On the one hand, he showed favor to Yu Wenrong, and on the other hand, he actually installed a nail in Yu Wenrong. Who is this Li Cheng? It's the husband of Zhang's sister-in-law's daughter (the relationship seems to be a bit complicated, but it's also easy to understand!) And Zhang said that when he was the ambassador of the Soldier Army, this Li Cheng was under his curtain, so he can be said to be a more hardcore henchman.

For Yu Wenrong. In addition to the support from Yuan Qianyao, the emperor's support, and now even Zhang Shuo supports him, of course, it is too late to be happy, and this Li Cheng is indeed very talented, and has practical experience, Yu Wenrong is a person who loves talents, so he also entrusts Li Cheng with important responsibilities.

In the leap November of the twelfth year of Kaiyuan, the imperial court decided to enshrine Zen in Mount Tai in November of the following year, that is, one year later. Since the beginning of the Taishan Feng Zen incident, the kings of all dynasties, as long as they feel that they have a little achievement, want to do it again. Even if he is as virtuous as Tang Taizong Li Shimin, he is not exempt from vulgarity, and Li Longji is of course unable to resist the temptation of sealing Zen, so this matter is settled.

As we all know, sealing Zen is a big bird affair that is complicated and laborious. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the whole project, the chief prime minister, Zhang Shuo, was appointed as the "Feng Chan envoy" to oversee all affairs of the entire event. However, because the loser was in charge of the money's household department mishandled the matter, the "branch was lost", which made the emperor very dissatisfied, and the two household servants Yang Ling and Bai Zhishen both fell from the horse with arrows and bowed down.

Feng Chan is a dream event after Li Longji ascended the throne, naturally no one is allowed to mess up, and he is determined to do this matter well, so he made a decision, let Yu Wenrong concurrently serve as the head of the household, and serve as the "deputy envoy of Feng Chan", he believes that such a dragon power, coupled with Zhang said Yu Wenrong's talent, will be able to do this well.

At this time, Yuwen Rong held the three positions of Yushi Zhongcheng/Persuading Peasant Envoy/Household Servant, not only in name and substance, but also because of the need to "enclose households" and "inspect fields" and the establishment of the Ten Persuasion Envoys, the imperial court ordered: "No matter how big or small, the states will first persuade the peasant envoys, and then apply for the book; The provincial magistrate will also be executed after the accusations." That is, in the connection between the original state and county and the central government, Yu Wenrong and the ten persuasion peasant envoys intervened horizontally, and became the distribution center for the states and counties to convey official documents. The information obtained by Zhongshu Province was also transferred out from here, and Shangshu Province also needed Yuwenrong to do a good job of judging (referring to the fake) before it could be handled, and Yuwenrong's power swelled again.

For this qiē, Zhang Shuo knew well, he naturally felt a little anxious, but he knew that Feng Chan was the top priority for the emperor, and he was the "Feng Chan envoy", at this critical juncture, there could be no problem, otherwise even if he was the chief prime minister, he would have to eat and walk around, so Zhang said that he could only endure at this time. But he was unwilling to do nothing, so after Yu Wenrong concurrently served as the head of the household department, Zhang said that he took the initiative to propose to Yu Wenrong that he wanted to promote Li Cheng to be the secretary of the household department Wailang (deputy director), the meaning of this is to nail a nail that was originally nailed to Yu Wenrong's side more firmly, although this may not necessarily have an effect, but at this stage, Zhang Shuo can only do this Cheng dù.

In November of the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan (725 AD), the ceremony of sealing Chan was carried out in a grand manner, and Li Longji led the emperor's relatives, civil and military officials, the chieftains and princes of the tribes, and the envoys of overseas countries. Let's start eastward from Chang'an. Every time they stopped to eat, people and horses and livestock were scattered all over the fields, and the vehicles loaded with supplies stretched for hundreds of miles. It's spectacular. (How many people fat and people's ointment!) ）

The ceremony of sealing the Zen was finally completed, luxurious and magnificent, far exceeding the previous generation. Li Longji was naturally very proud, so he promoted Zhang Shuo to the right prime minister of Shangshu and the middle secretary, and Yuan Qianyao to be the left prime minister of Shangshu and the servant. In recognition of their contributions. Zhang Shuo's political career has reached its peak at this point, and he himself is very complacent.

Zhang said that he was happy, but others were not happy at all, and even resentful.

It turned out that in the process of this Zen ceremony, Zhang said that a large number of his cronies in the two provinces under the Zhongshu Gate were sent to concurrently serve as positions related to the ceremonial ceremony, and climbed the mountain with the emperor. And its civil and military officials, almost no one has been promoted. In addition, the soldiers of the forbidden army who obeyed the emperor's enshrinement did not even get the rewarded items, which caused great resentment.

At this time, Zhang Shuo's protégé, Zhang Jiuling, a member of the Zhongshu Society, advised Zhang Shuo, saying: "The reward of the Zen Ceremony is a rare grace and should be fair." If it is not handled properly, it will lead to an uproar in public opinion and have an adverse impact on you. However, Zhang Shuo thought that Zhang Jiuling's words were "leisurely talk" and were not enough to mind. And such words were spread outside. As a result, the resentment and dissatisfaction with Zhang Shuo rose even more, and some people even said: "Zhang Gong's words are poisoned by capital punishment." ”

After the end of the ceremony, Zhang said that he began to think that he was no longer afraid of Yu Wenrong, and he didn't need to sell it to him. In order to suppress Yu Wenrong, Zhang said that the policy propositions put forward by Yu Wenrong were often dismissed, so that many affairs promoted by Yu Wenrong were suspended; Of particular importance was Yu Wenrong's plan to revise the legal provisions on land regulations, appropriately relax the Juntian Order, in line with the actual situation of society, and allow the imperial court to increase taxes, which was also blocked by Zhang Shuo.

At the time when the two sides were in tension, another incident occurred, and the two sides clashed in an all-out way.

There was a fixed procedure for the selection of officials in the Tang Dynasty, which was the so-called "three notes and three singing", that is, it had to go through three procedures, each of which had to be called once, and after the procedure was completed, the results had to be registered, which was a relatively cumbersome process.

Due to the large number of officials, the annual election process starts on October 1 of the previous year and ends on March 31 of the following year, which takes half a year.

In the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan, this election encountered a big problem. Because this year in the country is just in the preparation for the aforementioned Feng Chan ceremony, the Feng Chan ceremony began in November of that year, probably at the end of the year barely ended, almost all the officials of the Ministry of Officials were mobilized to assist in the Feng Chan ceremony, and when these officials returned to the Ministry of Officials and began to handle the selection matters, there were only three months left, that is, only half of the original time.

The time is so short, and the manpower of the officials cannot be increased all at once, so they have to shorten the time of each process, and even skip some processes, so that they can be completed within the time, but it must be known that the selection is related to the promotion of most middle and lower officials, and now the procedure has changed or shortened the time, which inevitably makes many people who originally doubted whether the process is fair, and even felt that there were ghosts in it, so the rumors began to spread everywhere, and even Li Longji heard it several times, and he couldn't help but think that this election, whether " The selection test is unfair".

Yu Wenrong is now the emperor's favorite minister, and when he sees this, on the one hand, he wants to help the emperor solve the problem, on the other hand, he also wants to take the opportunity to expand his power, and more importantly, I think it is a kind of compensation mentality.

Yu Wenrong himself is a victim of bureaucracy, according to the standard selection model of the ministry, can only elect some mediocre, not too many mistakes of the officials, everyone according to the seniority of the station, capable people can not get a special promotion, can only be buried in the group mixed qualifications, just like himself, if it is not for the excavation of Yuan Qianyao, now may still continue to boil the qualifications in the local states and counties. Therefore, Yu Wenrong proposed to the emperor a new way of selecting officials.

(Serial Update)

He whispered to the Emperor: "There is not much time left, and the work of the selection must be done within time, and it must be fair to the outside world." My proposal is that the emperor appoints ten capable and prestigious ministers to select the officials separately. In this way, the speed can be accelerated, and in addition, each official is selected by the minister in advance, and the method of drawing lots is adopted, so as to take into account the principle of fairness. ”

After listening to Yu Wenrong's suggestion, the emperor felt that this mention was very good, so he ordered to proceed according to this construction yì, and called this method "Shiquan". In view of the fact that the officials could not come up with an effective solution before, which made the emperor himself very troubled, he ordered this election, and the officials and servants were excluded from the list of ministers of the "Shiquan" to show a light punishment.

The final list of the ten ministers appointed is as follows:

Ministry of Rites: Su Ying

Criminal Department Shangshu: Wei Kang

Ministry of Works: Lu Congyuan

Right Scattered Cavalry Attendant: Xu Jian

Imperial History Zhongcheng and Household Servant: Yu Wenrong

Puzhou Thorn History: Cui Lin

History of Weizhou Thorn: Cui Wei

History of the Governor of Jingzhou: Wei is modest

History of Zhengzhou Thorn: Jia Zeng

Huaizhou Thorn History: Wang Qiu

Judging from this list, the appointed people are still relatively appropriate, taking into account the balance between the central and local governments, and the people selected are also relatively important and prestigious ministers in the DPRK and China.

Judging from the evaluation of the society, the reform of the selection method this time is also relatively successful, such as Cui Wei and Wang Qiu, who are very praised: "The people are clear and clear, and Qiu Shanjie is directly connected to the sky", and the whole process makes Li Longji very satisfied.

Li Longji was very satisfied, but Zhang said that he was 100% dissatisfied!

Zhang said that as the right prime minister of Shangshu, the Ministry of Officials is the most important department of the six departments of Shangshu Province, known as the "first department of Tianzi", and now the authority of the first department of Tianzi has been abolished, he really wants to cry without tears.

The two most important things in the country are money and power, Yu Wenrong has mastered the household department, that is, he has mastered the country's money bag, and now he is meddling in the ministry and the appointment of officials, that is, he wants to be in power; If these two things are mastered by Yu Wenrong, then I Zhang said that there will only be an empty shell left. Zhang said that when he thought of this, he couldn't help but be angry, you Yuwenrong is on my shoulder, I want you to taste the taste of frustration. (To be continued.) )