Inside the Chuigong Hall, hundreds of officials from various departments had already taken their positions. The three prime ministers and three councilors slowly walked to the front of the team. With Wang Shouzhong's loud "Your Majesty has arrived", all the officials bowed and saluted.

"No need to be polite!"

Zhao Zhen waved his hand.

After all the officials stood up, the palace chief officer shouted, "If you have something to report, please leave early. If you don't, please draw the curtain and leave the court."

"I have something to report."

Acting Censor Zhou Huairen said, "I accuse the Junior Secretary Fan Zhongyan of violating the law and being absent from work so many times. The Secretary has been here for several days and he hasn't been seen."

"I also have a report to make."

Censor Liu Tan said, "I impeach Yan Shu, the Chief Censor. Yan Shu, as the head of the Censorate, has neglected his duties and has been absent from duty all day. This has led to a massive backlog of documents at the Censorate, and a lack of supervision over all officials."

Censor Gong Dingchen said, "I impeach Lü Yijian, the Minister of the Secretariat, for disregarding state affairs and acting recklessly."

Right Censor Han Qi said, "I impeach Wang Sui, the co-minister of the Secretariat. He has served as prime minister for a year, but has been mediocre and unproductive. He is also the vice-minister of state affairs, with a suspicious and eccentric character who often excludes his colleagues!"

He Tan, the Imperial Censor in the Palace, bowed and said, "I impeach the co-ministers of the Secretariat, Lü Yijian, Wang Zeng, and Wang Sui, and the vice-chancellors, Song Shou, Cai Qi, and Sheng Du. They are insignificant and corrupt, and are often absent from the government hall all day. Now, when state affairs are in tatters, they are even late for the morning court. They are unfit to be prime ministers."

"I second the motion!"

"I second this motion!"

"I ask Your Majesty to severely punish these people!"

Several palace censors and remonstrators below spoke out one after another, attacking Fan Zhongyan, Yan Shu, Lu Yijian and others with great momentum.

There were simply too many officials in the Song Dynasty, and the Lu Party and the Fan Party were actually only a small part of it.

More officials are neither fence-sitters nor do nothing. Instead, they either have their own small circles or keep to themselves, neither currying favor with the powerful nor flattering them, and concentrate on doing their own things.

The most amazing thing about Fan Zhongyan and his friends was that the New Deal of Qingli unified the Song Dynasty officialdom, which was originally not united, into an opposing side. Everyone opposed his new deal, causing it to fail quickly.

Since the new policy has not yet been implemented, such a thing has not happened. After all, no matter how powerful Lü Yijian is, he cannot make thousands of officials in Bianliang City follow his orders.

Especially the censors of the Court of Censors and the Imperial Censorate, who were never afraid of offending the prime minister. After all, as long as the prime minister did something wrong, they would dare to attack him, no matter who he was. So, one after another, they would come forward to impeach the prime minister. If the impeachment was successful and the prime minister was dismissed, it would be a great honor for the censors.

Seeing this grand scene, Zhao Zhen felt a headache for a moment.

Now Yan Shu and Fan Zhongyan both lived in the back garden, accompanying Zhao Jun every day. They rarely appeared in their respective offices and court meetings. It was understandable that the censors impeached them on the grounds of absenteeism. According to Song Dynasty law, the at least result was dismissal from office.

He Tan was even more powerful. He directly impeached the three prime ministers and the three censors one by one. If they were really punished according to the impeachment of the censors, then state affairs would have been useless and the prime ministers would have to go home and farm.

He had to find a way to solve this matter.

"There's no need to be so angry. Fan Zhongyan was asked by me to compile classics, so he can just do it at home. Yan Shu was asked by me to do some things. As for you, the prime ministers."

Zhao Zhen paused, then found an excuse and said, "The prime ministers are old, so I have granted them permission to arrive a little later for the court meeting."

"Since Your Majesty has ordered them to compile classics and do other things, why didn't you draft the decree through the Secretariat?"

He Tan pressed on, "If it's just a verbal order, then they're still absent from work."

Zhao Zhen quickly looked at Lu Yijian.

Lü Yijian understood and winked at Li Min, the secretary of the Central Secretariat, who said, "This matter has been referred to the Central Secretariat."

"Since it has been approved by the Secretariat, why hasn't it been announced?"

He Tan asked again.

Lü Yijian said, "Having the secretary supervise the revision of the scriptures and having the Chief Censor investigate other cases is a minor matter. Do we really need to make it known to the world?"

He Tan was about to say something, but Zhao Zhen interrupted him, saying, "Alright, let's leave this matter at that. From now on, Fan Zhongyan will stay at home to edit the book. As for Yan Shu, he will be promoted to Minister of Revenue and Deputy Envoy of the Three Departments. The affairs of the Censorate will be handled by Jia Changchao and Yu Zhouxun. Where is Prime Minister Lu?"

"I am here."

"Draft an imperial edict and send it to the Secretariat."

"yes."

Lu Yijian agreed.

Seeing that the matter was settled, He Tan and others could only retreat in disappointment.

Then the court continued to discuss matters.

Zhang Yuan, a doctor in the Water Conservancy Bureau of the Ministry of Works, reported that the Baiqu Canal had been in disrepair for many years and was flooding day by day.

Zhao Zhen ordered the wing troops to build canals and control the flood.

Then he applied for the minting of new coins with the help of the judge of the Ministry of Revenue and the doctor of the Ministry of Works. He suggested using medicinal iron as a mixture, with three parts copper and six parts iron, to create a copper-iron alloy to fill the national treasury.

This suggestion actually caused serious discussion among all the officials. In the end, Cheng Lin, the Third Secretary, and Sun Zude, the Attendant of Tianzhang Pavilion, strongly opposed it and sternly stated the harm and serious consequences that iron coins brought to the country. Only then did the matter come to an end.

Otherwise, if Zhao Zhen really listened to Xu Shen's nonsense and cast iron coins, it would be a big joke.

The main reason is that the national treasury is indeed short of money. During the Renzong period, the annual fiscal deficit reached more than 2 million strings of cash, and the total accumulated amount was more than 30 million strings of cash.

Moreover, Li Zi was still implementing the cash-on-demand system, which was almost emptying the national treasury and making the court's finances even worse. That was why some people came up with bad ideas, and many people agreed with them.

Later, during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, iron coins were simply minted. There were small iron coins and large iron coins. During the Southern Song Dynasty, iron coins became the mainstream currency.

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