Fanning sighed slightly, "Your Majesty has actually found a counterbalance, but you just don't realize it. ”

Zhao Ji perked up, immediately turned around and clasped his fists and saluted: "Please teach me!" ”

Fan Ning smiled and waved his hand, "The minister doesn't dare to accept His Majesty's gift, in fact, isn't the court meeting a good way to check and balance!" ”

Zhao Ji said thoughtfully: "Xiangguo means that the court will be used to check and balance the power of the prime minister?" ”

Fanning nodded, "Your Majesty just needs to change your mind, just like a jar of strong soju, if the shopkeeper keeps pouring water into the jar, is this jar of soju still strong?" ”

Zhao Ji couldn't help laughing, this is a good metaphor, let the hundred officials debate military affairs in the court, isn't it diluting the power of Xiangguo?

"Your Majesty, let the prime minister's power be open and transparent, and let every minister have the opportunity to participate in the formulation of military affairs, although it dilutes power, but Weichen thinks it is a good thing."

After a pause, Fanning continued: "Taking a step back, the proposal power of the court meeting is in the hands of His Majesty, this is the key, what is discussed at the court meeting every day is decided by His Majesty, isn't this the embodiment of the monarch's power?" Once the debate between the prefect and the hundred officials reaches an impasse, in the end, His Majesty needs to make a final decision, and what if the prefect passes the resolution? ”

Zhao Ji suddenly opened his mouth, slapped his forehead and said: "It's easy for me to think about the problem, thanks to the mutual understanding!" ”

Fan Ning saw that he was almost done, so he smiled and said: "Wechen is going to Yangzhou tomorrow, the Han people of Liao are going to the southern continent, and Wechen is going to take a look, and he may come back in ten days." ”

Zhao Ji suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said: "In a few days, the draft of the official system reform law will be officially introduced, can the minister give an opinion?" ”

Fan Ning said lightly: "Your Majesty wants to listen to the truth?" ”

"Listen to the truth, of course!"

Fanning said unceremoniously: "Just four words to tell the truth, you must fail!" ”

Zhao Ji was stunned, "Why did Xianggong say that?" ”

Fanning shook his head, "Your Majesty forgot, why can the title change be successful?" What is the key to success in getting everyone's unanimous support? ”

"You mean benefits?"

Fan Ning nodded, "It's interests, Wei Chen thinks that the draft made by Wang Xianggong is not called the official system to change the law, but should be called the draft of accountability, how many people's vital interests will be involved, if Your Majesty finally finds that all the ministers are guilty and should be severely punished, what should I do at that time?" ”

"But..... If I don't clean it up, I'll have a fire in my heart! ”

Fan Ning sighed, and said seriously: "Your Majesty, when the water is clear, there are no fish, Your Majesty wants to clean up the fish tank, you can, but you can't kill all the fish in the end, Your Majesty, back then, we implemented the Xiang Army Mutiny Law in Yingtianfu to clean up the generals' corruption and military affairs, how did we succeed in the end, didn't we kill a few big fish, and let the other small fish go?" What His Majesty personally did back then, now forget it? ”

"Then what should I do according to Xianggong's wishes?"

"It's very simple, all the contracts signed by the imperial court will be recognized, if there is really an unfair contract to investigate, if necessary, catch one or two officials who are too greedy and punish them severely, make a gesture, so that the resistance to changing the law will be small, and after the official reform is successful, it will take ten years to track them one by one, and let them spit out the stolen goods swallowed in their stomachs one by one."

Zhao Ji quickly recorded it with a pen, and finally nodded: "I know what to do?" ”

Fan Ning smiled again: "Regarding the disposal of redundant officials, Weichen can also put forward a suggestion, or an idea. ”

Zhao Ji hurriedly picked up the pen and said, "Xianggong, please speak!" ”

"Last time, Wechen said that it would take time to slowly eliminate bloated bureaucrats, but then Wechen considered that it was not realistic to take too long, maybe we could change our thinking and make a fuss from the structure of the bureaucracy, with some officials to increase and some to reduce.

Specifically, it is necessary to increase the number of officials in the nine temples and five prisons, they are doing specific things, and increasing the number of people can be done more detailed, while reducing the number of secretaries, provincial officials, pavilion scholars, and so on.

This is like a person exercising, the fat on the stomach and buttocks should be reduced, but the muscles and bones on the arms and legs should be increased, and in the end, the weight of the person has not decreased, but the body has become very strong, what does Your Majesty think? ”

Fanning's metaphor is very vivid and easy to understand, Zhao Ji put down his pen, nodded and smiled: "It seems that it is necessary to postpone the introduction of the official position change for a few more months." ”

.........

Before dawn the next day, Fanning said goodbye to his wife and children, and went to Yangzhou by boat on business, he took a steam passenger ship of 3,000 stones, and his brother-in-law Zhu Qi was on the same boat, and his affairs in the imperial court had been done, and he went to Yangzhou to prepare to go to Beidao.

The ship sailed out of Bianliang and went south along the Bianhe River, the steam engine made a sudden sound on the surface of the river, and at this time, a steam engine ship also came on the opposite side, pulling a long flat sand boat behind it, full of goods.

There are a lot of ships in the Bianhe River, but there are not a few steam engine ships, such as the steam engine passenger ship that Fanning takes, only the official ship is used, and the private is more luxurious, and the private steam engine ship has a situation, that is, the first ship of the tugboat fleet opposite, which tows a long series of flat sand boats, although the money saved for pulling fiber is about the same as the cost of fuel, but the speed is fast, which is beneficial to the merchants.

"Big brother, there are basically steamships on the North Island, and you can't see ordinary manpower ships, but Da Song is the opposite, and I didn't see a steamship when I came."

Fan Ning stood on the deck and looked at the fleet sailing in front of him, and smiled: "Of course, there is a reason for this, there are only four workshops in the Great Song Dynasty that can make steam engines, one has been moved to Beidao, and the other three are all government-run workshops, to meet the needs of the army, and the private orders are not accepted, like the old steam engine ship opposite just now, it was still made in our workshop in the early days, just look at the volume of the steam engine." ”

Zhu Qi scratched his head and smiled: "I thought that coke was very expensive, and I refused to use the steam engine because I was reluctant to use it." ”

Fan Ning said with a smile: "The use of coke is only so luxurious for long-distance shipping, and the inland shipping is directly made of charcoal, which can be replenished at any time along the coast, like the big ship just now, didn't you pay attention to the smoke coming out of it?" It doesn't even use charcoal, it just uses chopping wood. ”

"This time I came to Da Song, I basically had no sense of belonging, I felt that this was no longer my home, and now I am like an arrow, I just want to return to Beidao as soon as possible."

Fan Ning nodded, he could understand Zhu Qi's feelings, his wife and children were pregnant, of course he was in a hurry to rush back.

"This time the affairs of the court have been done?" Fanning asked with another smile.

"It's very smooth, the Ordnance Supervision received 500,000 catties of stainless steel from us, and gave us 1.6 million catties of ordinary pig iron as money for the goods.

"What else did you do besides replacing pig iron?"

Zhu Qi said with a smile: "I also recruited a group of artists, about more than 100 people, singing puppet shows, acting in acrobatics, singing and earning, shadow plays, dancing, acrobatics, storytelling, etc., there is a lack of these on the North Island, several counties in the North Island usually organize Keju competitions, archery competitions, horse riding competitions, but there is still a lack of some entertainment, this time to recruit this group of artists, it should be very popular." ”

Fan Ning said happily: "This is the right reason, like puppet shows and shadow plays, children like it very much, try to rehearse some wonderful and interesting stories, perform regularly in special greenhouses, artists have a good income, and also enrich the lives of children, there are more bookstores in Yangzhou, you simply buy more fairies and monsters to go back, leisure and entertainment are very important to ordinary people, this is called living and working in peace and contentment." ”

"I remember, this time when I went back, I was also going to run a newspaper, and my aunt provided us with a movable type printing machine and two skilled typesetters."

"If you want to start a newspaper, do you have that paper?" Fanning asked with a smile.

"Yes! There is a small private paper mill in Yuecheng County, and the quality of the paper produced is very high, although the amount is not large, but it is enough for us. ”

At this time, Fanning suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "What happened to the four crops I left in the North Island last year?" You didn't tell me. ”

Zhu Qi slapped his head hard and scolded: "I really deserve to die, I forgot the important things that the third uncle gave me, and all four things were planted, I brought sunflowers, peanuts, tobacco leaves and potato eggs, and I brought them in the ice storage on the Yangzhou ship, but I forgot to bring them when I entered Beijing." ”

"It's okay, don't blame yourself, I want to know, how is the planting?"