In July of the first year of Qingli, the first batch of assessment reports were sent to Bianliang.

The new policy was promulgated in February, and due to the adaptation period given by the imperial court, inspections began in late May in various prefectures, road governments, and imperial history yamen.

The whole process of verification is as follows: on the side of the central court, each yamen has three books, one of which registers the affairs of the yamen as the base book, and some official affairs that are not necessary to be inspected are eliminated and placed in the inspection bill of the department.

The internal supervision of this department is not unique to later generations, it has existed since ancient times. For example, each of the three divisions has a procuratorial law, which is responsible for the discipline, supervision, and interrogation of its own department, and even has the power to adjudicate and adjudicate.

The prosecutor will supervise the personnel of the department to see if the task has been completed, and if the book in his hand is completed, he will cross out a book, and if he fails to complete it on time, he will hand it over to the Imperial Historical Observatory for processing.

Then two identical books were made, and the second book was placed in the hands of the imperial historian in charge of this department at the Imperial Historical Observatory, and checked with the inspection bill of the department.

Since the beginning of this year, in addition to the new policy, the Imperial Observatory has also been carried out. Each department has a special knowledge of this aspect of the imperial history to participate, such as the financial imperial history, the education imperial history, the engineering imperial history, the military imperial history, the judicial imperial history, the tuntian imperial history, the inspection imperial history, and so on.

If there is a problem in an internal investigation of a department, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Treasurer in charge of the Ministry of Finance will truthfully report the situation to the Constitutional Yuan, which will then punish the corresponding officials who have not completed the task.

As for the last book, it is naturally placed in the Constitutional Yuan, so that the people of the Constitutional Yuan can check it at any time. In this way, a system of passing the test is formed, and one thing is completed once a month.

Locally, it's different.

Although it is also three books, there is less internal picketing and more external supervision.

For example, there are three books in a county, one is in the local county yamen, one is in the yamen of the higher-level state capital, and the last one is in the local imperial history department.

The work of a county should be reported to the state government and responsible to the local imperial history department. The work of the state government yamen is reported to the Lu government, and it is also responsible to the local imperial history department. At the first level, it is reported to the imperial court and is responsible to the imperial court.

This means that the road level is basically jointly verified with the local imperial history department, supervises each other, cooperates with each other, reviews the lower prefectures, counties and other departments, and finally reports to the imperial court.

But the speed of verification is certainly not so fast.

The state capital, the road government and the imperial history of various places are investigated and reported layer by layer, back and forth, and then on the spot in the local field, it will take at least more than a month to find out, and then send the results to Bianliang.

By the time Bianliang's inspection of officials' performance was over, it was basically August, and then the June report came up again.

There's no way around it.

In ancient times, the transportation was inconvenient, the surrounding areas of Bianliang and along the canal were quite good, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, which were far away from Henan, and it was good to be able to deliver them in one month.

However, Fan Zhongyan also took this into account, the officials at the road level are often sent by the imperial court to inspect the officials, while the lower state and county governments of the remote roads, and the yamen and imperial history departments at the road level can handle it on their own.

For example, Yongzhou, Guangxi Road, that is, Nanning City in later generations, is 2,000 kilometers away from Fengfu, and under normal circumstances, unless it is 800 miles of expedited, it often takes more than a month for ordinary official documents to be delivered.

Isn't that?

Therefore, the affairs at the local county level, the pacification department, the transfer department, the criminal prison department, the Changping department, and the imperial history department at the road level can make decisions. If you can't make a decision, you will report it, and then summarize the things of several months and report it once after a while.

Moreover, these five supervision departments have the power to report to the Constitutional Yuan, and there is also the Imperial City Department at the local level, and the Imperial City Department also has a town control office at the road level, and the town care envoy is also responsible for supervision, supervision and other affairs.

Therefore, unless all the people along the way, including all the imperial history and the Imperial City Division, have rebelled and become corrupt officials. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, the senior officials along the road will be able to supervise each other and conduct strict inspections of the lower-level departments, so that there will be no problems due to traffic problems.

By July, the Qingli New Deal had already begun to bear fruit.

In late May, the internal offices of various departments in Bianliang produced results by early June, and more than 700 officials were disposed of in the first batch.

Among them, more than 400 people are corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and Zhao Jun has slipped through the net to investigate corruption.

How did these people get caught?

Very simple.

That's it.

How to fill in the account if the public funds are in deficit?

Either make false accounts, or find a way to make up for it.

If you make up for it in time, you may be able to hide it, but it will be difficult to make false accounts.

This is because the former officials were superficial, firstly, they were accustomed to corruption, and secondly, they were too lazy to implement policies, and there was almost no follow-up and understanding of a matter.

Under the examination law, the imperial history and the pickets of various government offices have to get to the bottom of it, such as what is wrong in your account, what things you bought, why you didn't see it, where the money went, and you can definitely find out the problem after checking.

As a result, a large number of corrupt officials and corrupt officials have been dismissed, and this is only corrupt officials, and there are even more officials. At that time, the number of officials in the country was more than 500,000, and Song Zhenzong once laid off more than 190,000 officials.

The number of officials in the Yamen of Guangbianliang Capital can reach 30,000 or 40,000, and there are probably only a few who do not engage in corruption and bribery.

Except for the Kaifeng Mansion and the Imperial City Division, which are relatively clean, the remaining more than 50 departments have not found a few clean officials.

You must know that there are only more than 4,000 Beijing officials in Bianliang, and more than 400 corrupt officials were found at this time, almost one-tenth.

The officials are even more exaggerated, and there are tens of thousands of people in question.

The remaining 300-odd problematic officials simply failed to complete their tasks on time, and at most they were fined or given punishments, or in serious cases, they were demoted.

And these corrupt officials will be arrested and imprisoned.

For a while, the court exploded.

It's not that I'm shocked that there are so many corrupt officials hiding dirt and dirt in Kaifeng Mansion, but I'm shocked that the scope of the spread is so large, how can this be good.

So hundreds of officials wrote one after another, asking to stop taking the test.

The reason is simple.

Regardless of these more than 400 corrupt officials, tens of thousands of officials are a big problem.

Once these people are disposed of, not only will the imperial court be suspended, but I am afraid that the entire Bianliang will cause a huge commotion.

The most typical example is the strike of the entire Bianliang officials.

For example, in the first month of the third year of Jingyou, Du Yansha Tai was the third official in the imperial history. The officials were suspicious of their suggestions. Jihai, more than 500 people of the three ministers are noisy, and they are also noisy, and they are moving rubble."

In other words, in the third year of Jing You, the emperor ordered Du Yan in the imperial history to be responsible for cutting the three officials.

These officials suspected that Du Yan suggested this matter to the emperor, and they were very angry, and more than 500 officials first went to the prime minister's mansion such as Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng to make trouble, and then ran to the door of Du Yan's house in the imperial history to scold, throw tiles and stones, and protest.

Just the dismissal of 500 people is enough to make a fuss, let alone tens of thousands now.

Fortunately, Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Jun had already expected this, and as early as May this year, a new regulation was implemented, stipulating that the officials of Bianliang would become public officials and enjoy the treatment of a medium forbidden army, that is, an annual income of 30 yuan, and a monthly salary of about 2.5 yuan.

This salary is not high, because at that time, the price of private employees was about 50-100 yuan per day, and wharf workers could earn two or three hundred yuan a day, and they could earn four or five yuan a month.

However, the clerks also have other benefits, such as subsidies, allowances, meal subsidies, etc., which are converted to almost three or four times a month, and it is not a problem to feed the family.

Fan Zhongyan announced that in the past, they had no salary and no source of income, and they were forced to ask for bribes and bribes, and they could not be blamed in the past, but after the new law stipulated, if they asked for bribes from the people again, all the yamen would ask for them and ask for them, and they would all be held accountable.

In this inspection, the imperial court exonerated those who continued to make trouble after the new regulations came out, and those who committed serious crimes were even sent to prison for questioning.

This reduced Bianliang's original impact to tens of thousands of officials, but it was reduced to the thousands of officials who were still guilty after the new regulations came out in May.

Rao is like this, and there is still an endless stream of people who oppose the test method, and the resistance is beginning to grow.

There are no corrupt people who feel that they are tired to death after passing the examination, and they used to be officials who drank tea, ate and ate, and were prostitutes, but a day passed, and they could still receive a salary of more than 100 yuan every month, and their lives were cool and crooked.

At present, although the salary of senior officials has been cut from the top of the fifth grade, the middle and lower-level officials below the fifth rank still maintain the original high salary level.

I can't stand this volume.

Those who are corrupt are even more panicked, but they didn't expect this test law to be so strict, so that they have nothing to hide, and they have no chance to be corrupt.

For a while, everyone took advantage of this turmoil to oppose the continued implementation of the examination law on various grounds.

However, Fan Zhongyan, who presided over the new policy, did not back down at all.

It was not Zhao Jun who gave him confidence, but that the treasury is indeed very rich now.

Historically, the imperial court fought the Western Xia War for several years, and signed a Qingli currency increase with the Liao State, causing a financial deficit and a serious deficit.

However, this time not only was the war fought for a short time, and it was quickly resolved within two years, but it was also more well prepared.

First of all, Zhao Jun inspected the whole country, investigated many corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and contributed tens of millions of yuan to the national treasury.

Secondly, after several years of development, Jiaozipu has been expanding in major commercial cities across the country.

For example, Luoyang, Fuzhou, Jiangning (Nanjing), Chang'an, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangling, Mingzhou (Ningbo), Quanzhou, Mizhou (Qingdao) and other places have opened, and the money deposited in Jiaozi has been tens of millions.

In addition, after the reform of state-owned enterprises, a large number of state-owned assets were sold to private traders, and tens of millions of yuan were obtained, and the state-owned enterprises became shareholders, and there were also a large number of dividends every year.

Last but not least, from the end of last year when the imperial court signed a trade agreement with Japan, to now, more than half a year has passed, and the trade volume between Song and Japan has reached more than 10 million, and the trade volume continues to increase.

At that time, shipping was a huge risk, there were many difficulties, and the tax rate was low, only 10%, so the trade volume between Song and Japan skyrocketed about three to four times in a year, and the tax revenue alone reached more than one million yuan, and the imperial court collected silver, about one million taels of silver.

It doesn't look like much, but it's already a huge step forward.

The main foreign trade income of the Song Dynasty was Guangzhou and Quanzhou, and the "Miscellaneous Records of the Government and the Opposition since the Establishment of Yan" recorded: "In the 32nd year of Shaoxing, the net tax income of Quanzhou and Guangzhou increased to 2 million. ”

That is to say, the tax revenue of Guangzhou and Quanzhou is 2 million guan per year, and the trade volume is about more than 20 million guan. On the Japanese side, the Song Dynasty mainly imported sulfur and copper, and Japan closed off the country, and the trade volume between the two sides before the Southern Song Dynasty was not large.

Now it has skyrocketed so much, plus other states and cities, as well as the land Silk Road, the ancient tea and horse road, and the Liao-Song Dynasty trade, the annual tax revenue adds up to tens of millions of yuan, which greatly makes up for the financial deficit.

Therefore, under the circumstance of increasing revenue so much, with the collection of taxes while fighting wars in recent years, the surplus of the treasury of the Great Song Dynasty has increased instead of decreasing, not only filling up the previous financial deficit, but now there is still a surplus of 70 or 80 million yuan in the treasury, which is equivalent to more than half a year's fiscal revenue.

And with the coming up of the summer tax revenue, the treasury may have more than 100 million guan this year, plus the autumn tax, minus the annual expenditure, and it will not be a problem to have tens of millions left.

After having money, you can pay salaries to the officials of Bianliang, rectify the governance of the officials of Bianliang, and implement the two-tax system in the whole Song Dynasty in the future, divide the land tax and the national tax, and start the division of the national officials, and the officials will be included in the public office, enjoy the national salary, and there will be a promotion channel for the officials to raise their talents and take the examination of officials, which will greatly encourage the officials to work hard.

Therefore, under various conditions, Fan Zhongyan has the confidence to carry out the reform to the end, even if the first round of assessment has touched the interests of many people and found out many corrupt officials, he also stands above the court, and many colleagues are at odds with each other, and resolutely refuses to give up!

This time, the Constitutional Yuan stood on Fan Zhongyan's side and confronted many officials from various ministries, and Zhao Zhen also withstood the pressure and said that he would not severely punish these corrupt officials.

It's just that the two sides are arguing and arguing, and a lot of time is wasted.

As a result, these more than 400 corrupt officials were only temporarily relieved of their posts and did not go to prison to be questioned, and as a result, in August, many problems were found in the localities around Bianliang, and there was an uproar.

At this time, not only did most of the Beijing officials in Bianliang oppose it, but the officials in the surrounding places also wrote to the imperial court to ask for a stop to take the test.

The commotion has spread more than the Qingli New Deal in history.

After all, in history, the Qingli New Deal was only aimed at eighty or ninety percent of the officialdom, and those who were born in Jinshi were assessed, and the large-scale elimination of those who entered the ranks of the door shade was removed.

And this time it involves the assessment of officials all over the world, and everyone wants to live a comfortable life, and they don't want to be so rolled.

So even if you are not a corrupt official, you want to continue to maintain your previous comfortable life.

However, Lao Fan was resolute and refused to back down.

Even if the opposition from the court to the court was higher than the wave, he resolutely urged the procuratorial offices of various ministries and the imperial history platform to continue to pass the examination.

The two sides pulled, and the time came to October of the first year of Qingli, eight months after the implementation of the new law.

On this day, Zheng Jian, a member of the Imperial History, sat in the Imperial History Observatory with a serious face.

Standing beside him were Yu Jing, Yin Zhu, Ouyang Xiu, Cai Xiang, Li Hong, Wang Zhen, Wang Zhu, Wang Su, Yang Cha, Zhao Luan, Chen Xiliang and other more than 20 Yushitai backbones.

Among them, his left and right hand servants, Yu Shi, Cai Xiang and Yin Zhu, their faces were even more ugly.

Because just now, Yushitai found a big case, involving Cheng Lin, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and Lu Yijian, the prime minister, and Sheng Du!

Cai Xiang and Yin Su were Fan Zhongyan's men, and Lü Yijian and Sheng Du were now supporting Fan Zhongyan's reforms.

If a case involving them appears at this juncture, it is very likely that Lu Yijian and Sheng Du will change their attitude towards Fan Zhongyan.

Once that's the case, something big is wrong.

However, at this time, they were helpless, because Zheng Jian found out about this matter, he was iron-faced and selfless, and this time he convened many colleagues to discuss directly, just to give the matter a given.

I heard Zheng Jian look around and say in a deep voice: "For such a big case, Yushitai has the responsibility to do it, so let's talk about what to do." ”

Zhao Luan immediately said: "Yushitai is now responsible for supervising the officials of the world, and the prefect has repeatedly reaffirmed that he will govern the country and do things according to the law. If this matter is retreated because it involves the Prime Minister's monk's book, where is the majesty of the Imperial Historical Observatory and where is the legal system? ”

Ouyang Xiu didn't understand the joints, and shouted: "Xia Guan thinks that it should be punished!" Not to mention that it only involves the son of the prime minister, even if it is the prime minister himself, he must not escape responsibility! ”

Cai Xiang and Yin Zhu almost didn't give Ouyang Xiu a punch at that time.

This pig teammate.

He also didn't want to think that now Fan Zhongyan can promote reform, all relying on the support of the Constitutional Yuan.

If Fan Zhongyan can't gain a foothold in the Constitutional Yuan because of this incident, what should be done about the new policy, and what should be done about the reform of the imperial court in the future?

But at this time, the two of them are helpless.

After all, Zheng Jian didn't tell them in private, which meant that the matter could only be poked out, so they had to remain silent.

They didn't speak, but the rest of them expressed their support for Zhao Luan and Ouyang Xiu.

Wang Su did not hesitate: "It must be brought to justice." ”

Yang Cha said: "The new policy is issued, the Son of Heaven is guilty of the same crime as the common people, how can we bend the law for personal gain when we wait for the Yushitai to shoulder the mission?" ”

Chen Xiliang said: "This case can also serve as a reminder to officials all over the world, even if it is the secretary of the ministry and the prime minister, they cannot escape responsibility, and the lower officials feel that only in this way can the spirit of the rule of law often said by the prefect be maintained!" ”

"Good!"

Zheng Jian saw that his subordinates Fan Dang and Zhao Dang were supportive, so he patted the case and said: "Then do it, follow me to get people!" ”

At the moment, under the leadership of Zheng Jian, he summoned the officials of the Imperial Shitai Office, and went straight to the Lu Mansion!

(End of chapter)