Since moving into the old man's Funing Palace, after a few days of adaptation, he has slowly become accustomed to the luxurious life of the inner court, and after the major policy of military restructuring has been determined, today he has convened all the ministers in the Vertical Arch Hall to discuss matters related to the economy of the Great Song Dynasty. In today's hall, there are not only Tong Guan and Cai Mao of the Privy Council, Bai Shizhong, Li Bangyan, Wang Hao, Prime Minister Bai Shizhong, Li Bangyan, Wang Hao, ruling Yu Wencuizhong, Zhang Bangchang, Yushi Zhao Ye, Young Master Cai You, Taifu Liang Shicheng, Taishi Cai Jing, and Li Yan, the chief administrator of Ouchi, etc., but also specially ordered Cai Jing to bring Li Chunnian, Wang Di, and Cai Ying.

Wang Di, the word Zhaoyi, is a native of Linchuan (now Shangchi Village, Dongxiang County, Jiangxi Province). Wang Anli's grandson. Wang Anshi's heir and grandson. Try Taimiao Zhailang, supplement the main book of Jinling County, Changzhou. He successively served as the magistrate of Jinling County, the general judgment of Henan Mansion, the service system of Xianmo Pavilion, and the pacification envoy of Kaide Mansion Road, and had in-depth research and inheritance of the ancestral Wang Anshi's reform.

Li Chunnian was born in a farming family in Toyota, Fuliang County, Raozhou. At first, he was promoted to Di Gonglang by virtue of his father's relationship, and later became a scholar and a first, at the age of 22. After the Zhongjin Shi, he was anxious to implement the average tax, and presented a note to the old man Song Huizong, "Asking for change, enriching the country and strengthening the people", because the old man felt that it was out of place, so Li Chunnian was not awarded in time, he lived at home, and he was summoned to Beijing through Cai Jing.

Cai Ying, a native of Putian Xianyou, Cai Jing's fifth son, is the commander of the horse, and his wife is Emperor Maode (brother-in-law), who has always been loyal to the imperial court, even if Cai Jing did evil before, he never participated, so he always advised his father Cai Jing to treat other ministers well.

The reason why the three of them participated in the audit was also to cultivate the three of them, after all, Cai Jing was old and did not have much energy to implement my economic restructuring policy, and in order to make Cai Jing feel at ease, among his many sons, he chose a loyal and related son Cai Ying to inherit Cai Jing's economic mantle, in addition, after Wang Anshi's economic policy of changing the law was practiced, it did play a good role in the economic development of the Great Song Dynasty. In the future, the three of them will be my economic team, and they are also further cultivating their cronies.

After everyone saluted briefly, I looked at the three people in the hall, only to see the three people standing in the back row, looking nervous and a little shy, and then I said: I summoned you Aiqing today to discuss the economic policy of the imperial court. If you want to smoothly promote the military restructuring, develop military strength, ensure people's livelihood, and let the people live and work in peace and contentment, economic development is the foundation, without a developed economy as the premise, everything else will be impossible to talk about, and it is also a castle in the air. There was a sense of seriousness in the playfulness, which enlivened the atmosphere of the scene, instead of looking tense, and in an instant, the ministers of the palace all smiled and relaxed.

Seeing the statement, Cai Jing has been in charge of the economy of the Great Song Dynasty for decades, of course, he is the most vocal, and he is also the first to stand up and take a stand, so he came out and saluted and said: Emperor Qi, the current economy of the imperial court, the first is agriculture, due to the introduction of Zhancheng rice from Fanwai (Vietnam) and large-scale planting in the south, a very good harvest has been obtained, especially in the Suhu area, the common people often say "Suhu is ripe, the world is full" is a metaphor for the scene of the rice harvest in Zhancheng, with a basic agricultural harvest, Then stabilize the people's jobs, after all, there is food in their hands and they don't panic. In recent years, due to frequent disasters in the north, the harvest of wheat has not been stable, so it has become the key to transfer grain and grass from the south to Jingshi and the north.

What Cai Jing said was to open the canal as soon as possible and transport the grain and grass from the south to Jingshi in a timely manner, but with the rise of Huashigang, the boats that were originally used to transport grain were requisitioned for transporting Huashigang, and the Huashigang Cao transport ships often blocked the canal, and the passing ships hindered the Huashigang of Jingshi, and they dared to be angry and dare not speak. Who knew that at this time, Prime Minister Wang Huang seized the opportunity and suddenly came out to salute: Qi Emperor, the lower officials have something to play. Seeing this, I nodded and motioned for him to continue.

So Wang Hao said: In the early days, the canal of the imperial court was unobstructed, and it had long connected the military and political center of gravity with the economic center of gravity in the south. However, now, due to various reasons, the canal has gradually lost its role as a link between the north and the south, so that the central government cannot receive a large amount of supplies from the Jianghuai River, and the national defense needs of the north and northwest cannot be satisfied. Under the circumstance that this main artery connecting the north and south gradually lost its function, the lack of food and grass led to the military defeat of the last reconquest of Yanjing, which directly caused the price of goods in Jingshi and other places to soar, resulting in a heavy burden on the people.

According to the minister's understanding, the reason why the canal could not give full play to its role was mainly due to the abandonment of the transshipment law that had been implemented for a long time since Pei Yaoqing reformed Cao Yun in the Tang Dynasty. In the past, because the canal could only be navigated half of the time a year, and at the same time, because the water was shallow, it was impossible to sail ships with a deeper draft like the Yangtze River, so the most effective way to transport water was the most effective way to transport water. However, this method, which had been adopted more than 300 years ago, was abandoned by the imperial court in the third year of the reign of Taishi Cai in Chongning, and changed to the direct method, that is, regardless of the difference in the depth of the river along the way, the rice was transported to Jingshi by boat from the southeast six roads. At this time, the imperial court changed the general method to the direct method, mainly due to the disappearance of the shipping department, and the salt monopoly law was changed to the banknote salt law. However, the previous method of turning to the general method can be effectively used, because the developed division has a huge amount of money to buy rice and grain at the time and place of the agricultural harvest, so that when the various roads cannot transport the rice to Jinju and other places according to the specified time due to a poor harvest, and the time for the canal to be opened to navigation has just come, there is still rice to the Jingshi.

However, when Hu Shiwen, a close confidant of Taishi Cai, was the shipping department, he gave this large amount of money that was originally used to buy grain and grass to the imperial court as a surplus, so that the shipping department had no money to buy rice to distribute on behalf of him. In addition, when the general law was implemented at that time, the imperial court adopted a monopoly policy in terms of salt to cooperate with it, so the ships that transported rice to Zhenzhou by various routes could load the rice and sell it back after unloading it. In the second year of Chongning, Cai Taishi changed the salt monopoly law to the banknote and salt law, stipulating that after merchants bought salt banknotes with money at the "Rong Goods Buying Office" in Beijing, they could exchange them for salt in the salt-producing areas and transfer them to a certain place for sale. As a result, since the merchants were selling salt on behalf of the government, the boats that transported rice to Jinju by various routes had to travel empty-ton on the way back. This has greatly increased the cost of transportation, which has led to the gradual non-transportation of rice to Zhenzhou and other places, which has further led to the abandonment of the transshipment law.

Therefore, the lower officials suggested that the crimes of Cai Taishi and his henchman Hu Shiwen in destroying the country's capital should be strictly investigated, which has led to the soaring price of grain in Beijing, and the people are full of complaints, making the people's livelihood miserable. In addition, the minister suggested that the imperial court should restore the general method and transport the grain and grass from the south to Jingshi in time to stabilize the price of grain in Jingshi and the north.

And Wang Hao's counterattack directly aimed at Cai Jing again. Cai Jing was forced by the pressure of the old man, in order to get money for the old man to build Yanfu Palace and the royal garden Genyue, he used salt as a financial derivative and sold it in the form of futures, that is, the imperial court sold the salt in the form of salt money in advance according to the output of salt. The merchants were very profit-oriented, which led to the soaring price of salt, and through the salt money method, the imperial court achieved the purpose of quickly accumulating wealth to meet the needs of the old man for money at that time.

Cai Jing just now alluded to the matter of Hua Shigang that Prime Minister Wang Hao was still insinuating, Wang Hao beat him up, and he still impeached himself directly to the emperor in front of the ministers. Thinking of this, he also saluted very unceremoniously: Qi played the emperor, until the time when Tong Taiwei led the army to pacify the south, the imperial court also found that the Huashigang policy had brought many disasters to the people in the south, so as to abolish the Huashigang, and Wang Hao and others for selfish desires, actually instigated the emperor to use the Huashigang again, during which he also distorted the facts and accused Tong Taiwei of issuing an edict in the name of the emperor when he was quelling the rebellion in the south, blaming the emperor for all the faults and taking all the credit for himself.

Wang Hao and others took advantage of the restarted Huashigang project to incorporate a large number of southern belongings into their mansions and transport them to their hometowns, and offered one-tenth of the southern offerings to the imperial court, and the rest were filled with private pockets, according to the estimates of the ministers and others, there were nearly 100 million yuan. What's even more hateful is that because of the transportation of these flowers and stones, the ships used to transport the flowers and stones are all forcibly requisitioned to transport grain, and since the ships of the flowers and stones are crowded on the canal on a large scale, these remaining ships that carry rice will naturally be greatly hindered in their navigation there. Therefore, due to the transportation of the flower stone class, the annual traffic of the canal has decreased sharply. Therefore, the lower officials suggested that the emperor strictly investigate the crime of instigation by Prime Minister Wang, and strictly deal with the crime of Prime Minister Wang's greed for ink.

Cai Jing's counterattack was also a direct hit to Wang Huang's death hole, and at the same time pulled Tong Guan, Tan Zhi and others into the united front. As Cai Jing escalated the contradiction with his words, Tong Guan, Tan Zhi and others came out to join Cai Jing and demanded that Prime Minister Wang Hao be dealt with strictly. At this time, I had no choice but to express my position, so I said to the ministers: Today, I convened you Aiqing to discuss economic policies, in order to better develop the economy, I said before I ascended the throne, I will not hold you accountable for your previous mistakes. However, I deeply agree with the facts of Taishi Cai and Prime Minister Wang, after all, only by raising the problem and finding the essence can there be a solution. The two of them are also right things and not people, everyone in the court closes the door, even if there is a quarrel, once the door is opened, they are still colleagues who are ministers, and everything is precious.