In the third year of Jingyou, on April 12, 1036 A.D., at the beginning of the fifth watch in the early morning, the sky was not yet bright, and the Great Song Emperor Zhao Zhen went to court with great interest.

In the Tang Dynasty, Beijing officials had to go to court every day, but in the Song Dynasty, there were many Beijing officials, and it was too troublesome to go to court every day, so certain institutional changes were made.

Except for the officials above the Provincial Julang of Menxia, the Jusheren of Zhongshu Province, the Shilang of Shangshu Province, and the Zhongcheng of Yushi, there is no rule for the rest of the officials to go to the court, and they often come to the court if they have something to report.

Therefore, according to past habits, Yan Shu, as the middle of the imperial history, is responsible for picketing every word and deed of hundreds of officials, and Wen Jian's deeds, which should be done every day.

But what is more surprising is that it is not here today, only a few imperial historians of the Imperial History Observatory are on duty, staring at the officials who walked into the vertical arch hall, meticulously looking for their mistakes.

The officials entered the hall in turn, and Chao Zongyu, a bachelor of Hanlin and a bachelor of Longtu Pavilion, had a good relationship with Yan Shu, and when he saw that Yan Shu was not here today, he was a little puzzled and said to Jia Changchao, a doctor and a member of the imperial history next to him: "Old Jia, why didn't Uncle Yan Tong go to court today?" ”

Jia Changchao was also wondering, and said to Chao Zongyu: "Uncle Yan Tong has been mysterious and mysterious these days, and he has not come to Yushitai, and I am in charge of the affairs of Yushitai, and he won't even come to the court today, and I don't know what he is doing." ”

"Lu Xianggong, they have also been mysterious recently." Guo Zhi, a member of the Shangshu Criminal Department, glanced at King Lu Yijian, who was standing at the front of the hundred officials in the distance, and said in a low voice: "The Privy Council, Zhongshu Province, and the Metropolitan Hall have not been to the Privy Council, Zhongshu Province, and the Metropolitan Hall, and now they are all Duke Li, Wang Gong, Han Gong, Zhang Gong, and Cheng Gong who are handling official business. ”

Zhang Gong Li Gong and Cheng Gong in Guo Zhi's mouth refer to Li Zheng, who knows the Privy Council, Wang Deyong and Han Yi, who also know the Privy Council, Zhang Dexiang, the deputy privy envoy, and Cheng Lin, the third envoy.

The three ministers and three counselors often serve as the chief officials of the Privy Council, the Zhongshu Province, and the Metropolitan Affairs Hall, and are responsible for national government affairs, while the deputies of the three ministers and three counselors belong to the second and third leaders of the political affairs yamen, and sometimes they are also called vice ministers, and belong to one of the most senior officials of the Great Song Dynasty. Now that the three phases and three references are not there, these deputies can only be in charge.

"Guo Yuanwailang!"

A royal historian on duty not far away glared at Guo Zhen, and he had no choice but to close his mouth and stand obediently in the court.

"Your Majesty has arrived."

With the shouts of the eunuchs, many officials from Zhongshu Province, the Privy Council, the Three Divisions, Menxia Province, Kaifeng Mansion, and the Criminal Court bowed their hands and asked the officials to do something.

In ancient times, there were no lights, and the ancients got up early and greedy for darkness, worked before dawn, and went to sleep when the sun went down, so the courtiers clocked in early.

It's half past four in the morning, and many people are sleepy-eyed and yawning, no wonder Ouyang Xiu wants to "remember when Chuzhou slept enough".

There are golden dragons coiled on the pillars on both sides, and there are trays on the dragon's claws, and candles are lit on the trays, at the entrance of the hall, under Zhao Zhen's dragon chair, and on the walls on the left and right sides, illuminating the house brightly.

In the past, Zhao Zhen would take a short rest in the Wende Hall before going to the court, cheer up, and then go to the court.

But because I used to work on the great cause of my heirs and slept with my concubines, even if I slept early, my spirit was still very poor, and I often yawned for days, and only went to the back to make up for sleep after the court meeting.

However, today's Great Song official family is rarely in good spirits, and the whole person is as excited as if he has been beaten with chicken blood, and walks to the edge of the dragon chair with brisk steps and sits down.

"See Your Majesty!"

The ministers bowed and bowed.

The ministers of the imperial court would still call the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty His Majesty on such a formal occasion as the court meeting, and only in private would they call the official family.

"All Aiqing, please get up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

After the daily rituals, the eunuch Wang Shouzhong shouted: "A hundred officials are doing things." ”

According to the usual practice, the prime minister and the officials should first report on the major national events to be reported today, and then the yamen should report on the affairs of their own yamen.

But today, Prime Minister Lu Yijian was the first to write and said: "Your Majesty, Zhao Yuanhao made it difficult for the envoys of the Heavenly Dynasty, he had the heart of not being subordinate, and it was rumored that he seemed to be called the emperor, once he really called the emperor, he would definitely attack my Great Song Dynasty, and the ministers asked Your Majesty to adjudicate." ”

Zhao Zhen immediately responded to him and said, "What does Lu Xiang think will ruling? ”

Lu Yijian said: "Now that the northwest is lax, the Shaanxi Road transfer makes Fan Yong not very familiar with the military, once the war starts, it is extremely unfavorable to our army, so please ask Your Majesty to appoint a civil and military official who knows about military affairs, can lead troops and can calm the people, rush to the northwest to take up his post, so as to rectify military affairs and deter Zhao Yuanhao from daring to act rashly." ”

"Hmm."

Zhao Zhen nodded, and according to the previous plan in situ, his gaze swept towards the ministers, locked on Fan Zhongyan's figure, and just opened his mouth to say the word "Fan".

I saw Fan Zhongyan stand up and say, "Your Majesty, the minister has a performance!" ”

.....．

.....．

Yan Shu woke up early this morning, earlier than the chickens.

In the Song Dynasty, there was no precedent for a prime minister to stay in the palace, so he had to go out and enter the palace at two or three o'clock in the morning.

In fact, if Zhao Jun wasn't blind, and the door was full of guards watching, according to the law, he would have either been kicked out of the palace, or he would have been given Ka, the kind of eunuch.

At this time, Zhao Jun was temporarily blind and lost the concept of time, according to the three meals sent by Yan Shu every day, he estimated that the dinner was at five or six o'clock, so he thought it was five or six o'clock, and lay on the bed and thought about it for an hour or two before going to sleep.

But what he didn't know was that the time of each meal was four o'clock in the afternoon, and according to the ancients, when he called for feeding, he would lie in bed for an hour or two before going to sleep, basically getting up at two or three o'clock in the middle of the night.

At about four o'clock in the morning, Yan Shu would bring him breakfast, and then start talking. When the cliché is over, an old doctor will come and give him a needle.

The old doctor was like a dumb man, he didn't say anything when he asked him, if it weren't for the rough feeling he felt from his hand, Zhao Jun wouldn't know how old the other party was.

He has been living this life for five days, and the injuries on his body are much better, but his eyes still can't see.

Zhao Jun was about to lose his sense of time, and the whole person looked very haggard.

"Crunch."

Hearing the sound of opening the door again today, Zhao Jun suddenly became energetic and said excitedly: "Uncle Lari." ”

He really wished he had someone to talk to him now.

"Yes."

Yan Shu came in with food.

Zhao Jun immediately said: "Uncle, I feel a lot better today, can you take me to the village for a walk?" ”

Yan Shu said: "This is not in a hurry, the rain has been a little lighter recently, but it is still raining outside, and it is not good for your health to go out on a rainy day." ”

"But it's very uncomfortable to be stuffy in the room, and it's very uncomfortable for the eyes."

"That's how you can take care of your body, and no one can do anything."

"Okay, what's going to be eaten today?"

"It's still porridge, but there are buns and pork filling."

"That's a good feeling."

Zhao Jun was happy, and finally had some meat to eat.

Groping with his hand to take the bowl and bun handed over by Yan Shu, he said vaguely: "Isn't the branch secretary okay?" ”

"You also said that he broke his waist, as the saying goes, it takes a hundred days to break his muscles and bones, and a waist fall is not a thing that can be better in a day or two."

"That's just as well."

"By the way, yesterday you said that Fan Zhongyan was reforming, continue to talk about it."

Yan Shu took the opportunity to say.

"If you like to hear it, I'll move on. Lao Fan is a good person, but he is too upright. ”

Zhao Jun began to point out and said: "Didn't he say the "Lingwu Fu" he wrote? Rather die than live silently. The so-called too rigid and easy to break, if you have a strong personality, it is easy to drill the horns. ”

"Hmm."

Yan Shu nodded in agreement, Fan Zhongyan is like this, his personality is a bull's temper, and he can't pull it back.

Zhao Jun continued: "As the saying goes, everything has to pay attention to methods, although Lao Fan and they initiated the Qingli New Deal is indeed for the country and the people, but the approach is too tough, which is also related to Lao Fan's character, and it should be much better if it is a little detour." ”

"Not to mention anything else, just the first few Ming and dethroned, suppressing luck, and Jing Gongju, it seems good to want to change the status quo of redundant officials. But the problem is that this will directly lead to at least more than 50% of officials losing their posts, and these lists of layoffs still need to be carried out by those who have lost their positions, which is equivalent to cutting off their own heads with knives, how is this possible? ”

Therefore, as soon as these three articles came out, they were resisted by almost ninety percent of the officials, and those who were affected by the reduction of favor and strict influence began to slander the new policy, accusing Fan Zhongyan and others of being "friends", which made Song Renzong suspicious, and from the top leader, Fan Zhongyan gradually lost his supporters. ”

"Fan Zhongyan's reform will make those who have become officials lose their positions, let those who are favored and enter the government lose their way to rise, and let those who were originally not good at school, but because of the low difficulty of the exam, they will not be able to be promoted. In this way, he offended not a single interest group, but the scholars of the world and the entire class of scholars and doctors, as well as their families. ”

"Uncle Lari, you said that if you want to sell the fields in the village and not leave a penny to the villagers, but want to use the money to build the village and develop the village better, do you think the villagers will agree?"

"Of course not."

Yan Shu replied almost without thinking.

"That's it, you want to use the money from the sale of the land to build a village and make life better for the villagers, but the villagers have formed an interest group, and they only want money."

Zhao Jun shrugged: "That's the problem of three redundancies, and there are more than one or two interest groups, if you want to change, you will be against the entire scholar class, and you can imagine how difficult it is." ”

Yan Shu frowned: "Didn't Fan Zhongyan know that this would happen?" Won't he change his strategy? ”

"He can't change it, he just has that temper."

Zhao Jun drank the porridge and added at the end: "Otherwise, why would he dare to go against Lu Yijian?" The "Hundred Officials Map" directly put Lu Yijian, who was in power, in an embarrassing situation, and Jing You was dismissed in four years. ”

""Hundred Officials"?"

Yan Shu's face suddenly turned the color of pig liver, and the whole person became panicked for a moment.

"Yes, "Hundred Officials", what is the promotion map of hundreds of officials, it is said that they are all Lu Yijian's friends, so that Fan Zhongyan was attacked by the Lu Party, and was finally demoted to Raozhou."

Zhao Jun answered.

But Yan Shu obviously didn't have the heart to listen any longer, so he ran away, braving a slight drizzle, and rushed towards the Vertical Arch Palace.

.....．

.....．

"Fan Qing, I was about to call you, but you came out by yourself."

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "I plan to let you ....."

"Your Majesty!"

Fan Zhongyan interrupted him, presented a picture scroll in his hand, and then held up Chao Wat and said, "Minister, please upload this picture." ”

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen didn't know what Fan Zhongyan wanted to do, so he wondered, and said to the eunuch next to him, "Take it." ”

The eunuch went to take the scroll, and the two eunuchs unfolded it on the left and the right, and put the contents of the painting in front of Zhao Zhen.

I saw that dozens of officials were drawn in that picture scroll, and the expressions and expressions of each official in it were all lifelike and quite vivid.

Zhao Zhen was puzzled and asked, "Fan Qing, what is this?" ”

Fan Zhongyan arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, this is the "Hundred Officials Promotion Order Chart" to show the order of the promotion of hundreds of officials in the imperial court today. Since Lu Yijian controlled the important affairs of conferring officials, nepotism, factionalism, and even the ministers of the harem had their eyes and ears, those who went against their will, even if they were queens, could not escape depose. ”

As soon as this sentence came out, not only Lu Yijian's face changed suddenly, but even Zhao Zhen was shocked.

However, Fan Zhongyan continued, he said: "The law of conferring officials in the imperial court, such as the detailed rules for punishment and praise, and the order of promotion and demotion, Your Majesty should know it well, and it is not appropriate to rely on the prime minister. ”

Lu Yijian's hand holding Chao Wat was already trembling.

"Your Majesty!"

At this moment, a voice sounded outside the door, shouting, "Is Fan Zhongyan here today!" ”

When he entered the door, he saw a picture in front of Zhao Zhen, Fan Zhongyan standing in the middle, and Lu Yijian on the right with a pale face, he knew that the situation was wrong.

Yan Shu sat down almost instinctively, muttering to himself: "It's over, it's over, it's late, something big has happened!" ”