Li Siye first went to visit Li Linfu, because of the illiterate judgment given by the other party in front of him, the right relative to him has weakened a lot of defense and hostility, and even the tone of his voice has become much softer, Li Siye often has the illusion that the person standing in front of him is a greasy man with a kind smile, this is the appearance of a traitorous and loyal person.

Li Linfu has a daughter named Li Tengkong, who is not interested in a luxurious life, and is completely indifferent to her father's struggle for power and profit. She entered Lushan to study medicine, and after a few years, she achieved a small success, often going out to the mountains to help and heal the people.

It can be seen from Li Tengkong's performance that her tutor since she was a child is still good, as for who taught it, it is up for debate.

Li Siye briefly reported on the recent situation in Beiting, especially the achievements he made after taking over last year. Li Linfu squinted his eyes as if he was pretending to sleep, but when he said the key point, he could always suddenly open his eyes, like a private school teacher who tested his students to memorize texts.

In ancient times, there were many illiterates, so public opinion liked to evaluate historical figures by merit and demerit, good and evil, and dramatic character stories can best arouse people's interest in political history. There are no grandfathers who hold cigarette bags at the entrance of the village, and illiterate farmers have few channels to understand the current situation. This has naturally become an important public opinion propaganda idea for the ancient feudal ruling class. The ancient scholars, who grew up with a strong Confucian sense of morality and political correctness, naturally focused on moral evaluation when they were in charge of historical writing. But what is really more worthy of attention in history is the big framework that no one can escape at the time - the system.

Li Linfu himself also knew that he was a traitor. Li Linfu's son once cried and persuaded him, saying that he had occupied a big position for a long time, and he had offended too many people, and in the future, he would be in trouble, and the whole family would not be able to be an ordinary person if they wanted to. Li Linfu is not ignorant of the situation, saying that the general trend is already like this, and he can't change it. Tang Xuanzong also knew that Li Linfu was treacherous, and after entering Shu, he recalled Li Linfu by chance and commented: This person is jealous and jealous, and he is unparalleled in the world. Therefore, he is basically known to everyone, otherwise Xuanzong would not have put him in the prime minister's seat for 16 years.

However, Li Linfu is indeed a capable minister. Li Linfu implemented a series of reform measures, including fiscal expenditure reduction, institutional reform, tax discount, soil tribute reform, military system reform, legal system reform, official election and imperial examination reform, and clarified the legal code system and the regulation of official governance.

In 734, Li Linfu was ordered to revise and organize all the legal codes. Together with a group of legal experts, he carried out a solid and thorough revision of the law. No less than 1,324 articles of irrelevance were deleted, and another 2,180 articles were amended. The revised code was sent to the emperor in 737 and consisted of: 12 volumes of the law and 30 volumes of the law; 30 volumes; formula 20 volumes; "New Kaiyuange" 10 volumes. These codes were promulgated nationwide in the autumn of 737. This proved to be a very important revision of the law, as it was the last time that the Tang Dynasty systematically recodified the entire code. This code was in operation for a particularly long time, as it remained authoritative until the beginning of the fourteenth century, although a number of minor revisions were made in the interim. But perhaps more importantly, this revision of the law was the last attempt by the Tang dynasty to provide standardized, nationally consistent administrative regulations included in the Linghe formula. During the reign of successive emperors after the Tang Dynasty, the increasing diversification of local activities made this work impossible. ——The Cambridge History of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China

In the "Old Tang Book", the record of Li Linfu is relatively polite, and even quite praised. In the final review:

"Lin Fu is dense, the city is deeply obstructed, and he has not seen his love and hatred in his complexion. Self-dealing with Taiheng, moving according to the order, clothes and scholars, very unadjusted to enter the door. Therefore, Bingjun has been in charge for 20 years, and the government and the opposition have looked sideways and feared their authority. and the country's loyalty is falsely framed, and the world thinks it is wronged. ”

Li Linfu is autocratic, but he respects the imperial power and "flatters", essentially because he is authoritarian, but he is actually the agent of the emperor's dictatorship. Li Linfu's reform measures are highly consistent with the system reform concept of the Xuanzong Dynasty. It's just that after experiencing many virtuous ministers in Kaiyuan, the reform has reached the period of Li Linfu, and it has entered the deep water area of deeply touching the pattern of interests. Li Linfu is hegemonic, moderate and fair on the surface, and in fact excludes dissidents by unscrupulous means, but similar to other reformers who have succeeded or failed in history, this kind of hegemony and dictatorship is also a coercive political method adopted to thoroughly implement his reform measures. The entire Xuanzong Dynasty, the two heavens of ice and fire before the opening of the heavens, was actually at a watershed in China's great history, and these system reforms were also forced by the situation to passively follow the pace of the times. Li Linfu's role in this radical change in political and social forms is not small at all.

For example, the reform of the conscription system, which directly determined the watershed of China's military system, now many netizens feel that this reform is the historical cause of the gradual decline of the Han army. But in fact, the military system and the scholar group that was the dominant class force in society between the Han and Tang dynasties had collapsed and collapsed in the early Tang Dynasty. This was related to the technological, media, political, and international developments in East Asian society at that time, and the reform of the conscription system was only a homeopathic reform in which a new law was formulated to straighten out the relationship between the military system and the institutional norms under the new situation without a clear fait accompli.

Therefore, in the "Old Tang Book", although there is also a derogatory connotation for his personality, Li Linfu's administrative ability and achievements are not hesitant to give "everything is too cautious, the public affairs are organized, the program is added and revised, and the relocation of China and foreign countries is constant", which is enough to praise the wording.

"I haven't seen love and hate in my complexion", Li Linfu, who is so deep in the city, will also make An Lushan, who has no discipline, feel awe. Li Linfu attaches great importance to the maintenance of the system model. In the end, he was framed by Yang Guozhong after his death, and everyone in the world felt wronged. It proves that Li Linfu had a certain degree of majesty and popularity at that time. Compared with Yang Guozhong, who has no bottom line and wantonly amassed wealth, Li Linfu is also a whole person behind his back, but he does the facts. Li Linfu is also ruthless, but he maintains the rules and processes. Li Linfu also amassed wealth, but through the innovation of the financial system of opening up sources and reducing expenditures, instead of squeezing out local finances through crude overdrafts, he looted the people's fat and ointment.

Li Linfu is moody and angry, and he often smiles gently when he sees people, showing respect. But the back makes the knife not soft. This kind of smile is harmonious enough on the surface, but in fact it is a "notorious and capable person" who can't make a bad party, how can Xuanzong not like it? But why is the evaluation of him still more pertinent in the "Old Tang Book", and in the "New Tang Dynasty Book" and "Zizhi Tongjian" of the Northern Song Dynasty, he basically only has a "honey in his mouth and a sword in his belly", an imperious villain's face? The scholars and doctors of the Northern Song Dynasty who "ruled the world with the emperor" did not need to say much about what kind of spiritual leaders they usually had. There is no need to say much about their attitude toward the reform of the law in this dynasty. Needless to say, whether they are more retreating or more pragmatic. Probably, in their eyes, Li Linfu is a morally inferior version of Wang Anshi. After all, the last pot of the Xuanzong Dynasty is also big enough.

So is Li Linfu worthy of admiration? Not in my mind. Why? Because one of his reforms, I think is really a historical regression, and the consequences are very serious. Which one?