Fan Ning pondered for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, the minister wants to know, how much has the problem of redundant officials been solved after using the title to divert the fictitious officials?" ”

"About forty percent!"

"That's already a lot, if the financial pressure is not too great, the minister suggests that this matter should be considered in the long run."

"What do you mean by that?"

Fanning smiled slightly: "The reduction of officials cannot be solved in a day or two, it will take at least twenty years to solve it slowly, but as long as the system is established, with the passage of time, the officials will slowly be balanced." ”

Zhao Ji's eyes lit up, he understood what Fan Ning meant, first do not lay off officials, but establish a system, and then use the system to regulate, this is not to harm the interests of a certain part of the people, but to have a relationship with everyone.

"Fan Xianggong will talk about it specifically."

"Wechen suggested the implementation of a strict age retirement system, from the third grade above, sixty-five years old, from the third grade below, sixty years old, this is the use of the system to natural elimination, this is one, followed by the probationary officer of the regular system, Wechen knows, some officials have waited for 20 years without the opportunity to become a regular, this is not good, it is not fair, must set a certain time, such as five years, all new officials must be turned into regular after five years."

Zhao Ji nodded, "These two systems have already been proposed, but the problem now is that the number of officials will only increase, and as time goes by, there will only be more and more officials." ”

"This is the third system, the official balance system, whether it is the imperial examination, Taixue or the shadow official, there must be moderation, this is the unshirkable responsibility of the officials, every year the officials must account for the increase and decrease of officials, and then formulate the quota, not to increase the number of officials at will, as long as the officials are strictly controlled, the officials will basically not get out of control."

"I understand, is there a more practical plan for Xianggong?"

Fanning smiled: "There are two ways to solve the problem in the short term. ”

"Minister, please."

"One is to increase immigration and expand counties overseas, such as Baozhou, where there is only one county, but there are more than ten counties there, and there are at least ten prefectures and hundreds of counties in the southern continent.

Another way is to be promoted, the county of the charge and Xue Zheng to improve from the nine grades, each county has at least three charges, they are nominally officials, but their authority is very high, and they are called hidden officials by the people, the charge division is promoted from the nine grades, by the imperial examination scholars before the transfer of the right to serve, is conducive to let him have a deep understanding of the people's suffering, Xuezheng is also, should have been promoted from the nine grades a long time ago, in this way, a large number of imperial examination idle officials can be placed. ”

After a pause, Fan Ning said: "Since everyone is against setting up an official office at the township level, then you can also be flexible, set up a deputy county officer, also from the nine products, each township is stationed in one person, not the township head is not the town head, and on behalf of the county to manage the township, of course, there will be some black sheep in this, the key is how to inspect and supervise." ”

Zhao Ji sighed and said: "I was overwhelmed by this matter, as soon as Fan Xianggong came, he opened my mind, and it is estimated that there will be a lot of controversy in setting up a deputy county, but I think it is completely okay to promote Zhu Si and Xuezheng to the ninth grade, especially Xuezheng, and it is also feasible to increase the county overseas." ”

Fanning said again: "The minister came here today to ask His Majesty for a hundred days of vacation, the minister wants to go to sea in a private name to see the North Island, and he also wants to lease a fleet from the imperial court, hoping that His Majesty will approve it." ”

"Did the Queen Mother agree?"

Fanning nodded, "The Queen Mother has already approved it." ”

Zhao Ji looked at Fan Ning silently for a long time, and finally nodded, "I'm right!" ”

.........

Although Zhao Ji is still the original Zhao Ji, Fan Ning still feels a little rusty, this kind of strangeness does not come from Zhao Ji's coldness, but from his enthusiasm and tolerance, and even said that 'the disposal of the people of Western Xia must be decided by Fan Xianggong', this kind of words from the mouth of an emperor, it is a bit funny, does it mean that his authority exceeds him, and even he Zhao Ji can't decide?

Of course, Zhao Ji's enthusiasm is not necessarily hypocritical, just a kind of compensation, but whether it is hypocrisy or compensation, it exceeds common sense, and it makes people feel a little awkward.

Maybe Zhao Ji is better disguised, but the Empress Dowager Cao is a mirror, from the Empress Dowager Cao, Fan Ning gradually saw Zhao Ji's growing strength, and saw the Empress Dowager Cao's concession, the Empress Dowager Cao had already decided to remove Wang Anshi, but now Wang Anshi is fine, his power is increasing day by day, and he has ranked third in the Zhizheng Hall.

This is not that Empress Dowager Cao has changed her mind, but Zhao Ji resisted Empress Dowager Cao's right to appoint and dismiss.

It can be seen from the change of law that Empress Dowager Cao hated change the law the most before, and only passed one farmland water conservancy law and militia law in the past few years, and the militia law still persuaded her by herself, but in this year, the imperial court has successively passed the three major changes of Taixue reform, official system change, and virtual official change.

Each of them disgusted the Empress Dowager Cao, but she was powerless and unable to stop it, this was the weakening of the Empress Dowager Cao's power, which was also the fundamental reason why the Empress Dowager Cao was willing to let her brother Cao Tong leave, her idea of establishing the power of her relatives gradually failed, and she had to face the reality.

In the final analysis, the power of the queen mother is a side branch of the monarchy, which is attached to the main trunk of the monarchy, when the main trunk is weak, the side branch will of course flourish, and when the main trunk becomes strong, the side branch will be full of gloom, if she is still strong, the consequence will inevitably be pruning.

Historically, Song Shenzong was a very ambitious man, bent on making a career, he reused Wang Anshi, trying to use the monarchy to force change this society, and as a result, the entire Great Song Dynasty became his enemy, and their brutal way of change hurt everyone and gave too many weapons to political opponents.

Now Zhao Ji is still the same as the Song Shenzong in history, young and passionate, and he is still attracted by Wang Anshi's radical changes in his bones.

But because of his own existence, Zhao Ji was constantly awakened by himself, and was instilled with a large number of moderate reform ideas by himself, and it was this kind of thinking lurking in his mind that made Zhao Ji always hesitate when he decided to do something, and then gradually calmed down.

But it was not enough, Fanning would never allow the moderate changes he had gradually implemented for more than ten years to be interrupted by Wang Anshi's radical reforms, and he would also draw his salary from the bottom of the kettle to make Wang Anshi's changes lose their foundation.

Fan Ning came out of the palace, and then took a carriage to Shuyuan Street, he wanted to find the second uncle Fan Tiege, but unexpectedly, the door of the strange stone hall was closed, and there was a big lock, and the notice posted on it said that there was something at home, and it was closed for half a year, Fan Ning was a little strange, what happened to the second uncle?

As soon as he looked up, there was a small shop next to him with the North Island Recruitment Office written on it, it should be a shop separated from the Strange Stone Pavilion, Fanning asked a few attendants to wait outside, and he walked in.

There were a lot of people in the shop, seven or eight people who came to recruit to go to sea, and there seemed to be a family among them, a young woman in a cloth skirt was sitting on a chair next to her with a child in her arms, and a boy of seven or eight years old was next to her.

There was a middle-aged man in his forties sitting at the table, Fan Ning recognized it at a glance, it was Mingren's brother-in-law, that is, his mother-in-law's brother, called Zhang Cheng, who originally opened a small shop in Wu County, and later went to his brother-in-law and became a construction foreman.

"What's going on?" Fanning asked with a smile behind him.

Zhang Cheng saw Fan Ning at a glance, stood up in fright, and stammered, "Fan ...... Fan Xianggong, why are you here? ”

Everyone was startled, and they all got out of the way, and Xiao Fan Xianggong actually came.

Fanning smiled and waved his hand, "If everyone wants to go to Beidao, we will all be a family in the future, don't be so polite, everyone please sit down." ”

There were a lot of chairs in the room, and everyone sat down, and the family just now sat together.

"What difficulties are you having now?" Fan Ning asked Zhang Cheng with a smile.

"Fan Xianggong, that's right, the last fleet of this year has left last month, and the next one will not be until March next year, and everyone is very anxious."

"It's only the end of August, and shipping is over so early?"

Zhang Cheng scratched his head helplessly, "I don't know, Lao Fan told me this before leaving." ”

Fanning asked again, "My second uncle also went to the North Island?" ”

"Hmmm! The old couple went, and the men followed, bringing hundreds of people with them. ”

Fanning understood, he thought for a moment and asked, "How many people are signing up now?" ”

"There are about 120 people, and there are more than 20 families, in fact, most of them are families, and the few people who have signed up now want to move the whole family."

"Can you reach everyone?"

"It's okay, the farthest, you can get to the capital within ten days, it seems that there is also a group in Quanzhou, about three or four hundred people."

Fanning said to everyone: "Now there are two ways to go to the North Island, one is to take a boat to the South Island first, there is a regular boat to the North Island, there is a trip every few days, and the other way is to go with me, I plan to leave for the North Island in ten days, if you have time, you can take my fleet to go together,"

Everyone was overjoyed and expressed their willingness to follow Fanning with them.

"Good! Then everyone will continue to sign up. ”

Fan Ning said to Zhang Cheng again: "You will send a hurried hand to everyone's homes today, if they can reach the capital within ten days, then go together, if it is too late, it will not hurt to leave again in March next year, during this period, they will be compensated for a few yuan of firewood and rice every month." ”

"I see!"

Fanning gave him a few more words, and then got up and went to the Hong Kong Economic Journal.

。 m.