"Yes, official."

Zhao Jun immediately noticed the word because there was no Xiao Song behind it.

"Is that what should be done?"

In the previous life of "Qing Ping Le", Fu Xiangqing said that his annual income was 800,000 coins, which was not 800 strings of cash.

The content is definitely not intended to quell the growing class contradictions among the people in a short period of time. It is impossible to publish newspapers, build nationalism, and portray the Liao Dynasty and the Western Xia as enemies. It is constantly exaggerating emotions among the people and diverting internal contradictions.

That made Zhao Zhen very depressed again.

"Although the imperial court hasn't treated us terribly, a significant number of local officials, despite already owning land that has been confiscated, continue to expand their holdings, evade taxes, and refuse to pay them. They are also corrupt and have no regard for the law, enriching themselves at the expense of the public."

"Could it be that Prime Minister Lu and Prime Minister Wang think that going up there like that would be a bad thing for Xiao Song? Or do they think that those things wouldn't be able to shake Xiao Song's foundation?"

"Zhao Zhen is wrong. Now that my family knows that you, Xiao Song, are in a difficult situation, we should unite as one and overcome this difficult time together."

"It would be fine if we only support those people, but our descendants and ancestors will continue to enter the government through family connections and continue to receive the money that should belong to us. In the long run, the country will be just a state, and no one will be willing to work."

Wang Shouzhong remained silent and finally shut his mouth.

Since he wanted to deal with redundant officials, Fu Xiangqing naturally did a lot of homework early on, and the content outside was shocking.

"Yuanyou Genghua?"

It was not until Fu Xiang finished talking about the few things he could not change that everyone officially retreated to discuss the topic in the morning.

It was Wang Zeng who spoke up and reminded him, "Duke Xiwen, don't forget. It's precisely because so few officials in Heaven have been appointed through family connections that the public has risen up against him. Even if you all approve of his reforms, will the officials in Heaven approve?"

"You should ask me, among the 72,000 officials, less than 10,000 of them have no official position. They just receive a salary from various government offices, so they can do nothing at home and receive dozens or hundreds of strings of cash every month."

Because we are worried that doing so will make Liao and Xixia completely hostile to the Little Song, and may lead to an alliance between Liao and Xia to jointly deal with the Little Song.

That question was asked very abruptly.

"It's broken, Lord Xiwen."

Why does that sound weird?

After that, Fu Xiang was the only one who spoke and everyone else was the only one who listened. Now everyone could speak freely and talk about the problems they encountered.

“…”

Fan Zhongyan finally spoke. He stood up, bowed to Zhao Jun, and said, "I intend to stop the reform, and I am willing to do so. But Fan Xiwen's reforms are only about blindly pursuing them, and he is making enemies of all the officials in the world. How can he succeed in that way? I simply hope that my methods can be more restrained. By dismissing so few officials, the Song Dynasty will not be able to cause such a small disturbance."

Wang Shouzhong glanced at Fan Zhongyan, Wang Zeng and others who were silent, and continued, "Nowadays, there are only 72,000 officials in Xiao Song. Forty-four percent of them are officials who have received official positions through family connections, and one-seventh of them do not have official positions. The court has to pay us salaries of more than 7 million strings of cash every year."

Zhao Zhen had been listening for a moment and said, "Duke Xiwen, don't be too depressed too soon."

But it's not about other trivial details.

Wang Shouzhong frowned.

It wasn't evening yet.

At that moment, Fu Xiang asked, "Fu Xiang, I want to ask him, what will happen if the ministers of a country all form cliques for personal gain, become cliques, and attack each other?"

Even if we are low-level officials of the seventh or eighth rank, we enjoy the lowest benefits and allowances. Middle and upper-level officials have so little, but special officials still earn tens or hundreds of strings of cash a year, so our salary income is definitely poor.

Zhao Zhen naturally understood Zhao Jun's hidden meaning, and he said in a deep voice, "Factional strife has always been the most internally damaging issue in feudal dynasties. The Eastern Han Dynasty's Party Persecution, the Tang Dynasty's Niu-Li War, the Song Dynasty's Yuanyou Reforms, and the late Ming Dynasty's struggles between the Donglin Party and the eunuchs' faction all exacerbated national instability, harmed national interests, and directly or indirectly led to the country's demise."

"You...this is something that happened to your previous generation. It has nothing to do with you?"

Zhao Zhen explained: "Let us each be in charge of the economy, agriculture, education, statistics, forestry bureau, mining, transportation, public security, etc., and do KPI performance appraisals to crush us."

That point was not recorded in "Song History: Official Records" and "Jiayou Luling". Before Bao Zheng became the prefect of Kaifeng, his cash income alone was less than 20,000 strings of cash. Adding up other income, it was probably less than 21,000 strings of cash.

"Do you have to do everything?"

Therefore nationalism is always a good thing.

Zhao Zhen shook his head and said, "Your suggestion on that point is to conduct a thorough investigation first, then make a decision. Even if the investigation is thorough, don't even think about making a small-scale reduction in officials all at once. Old Fan's direction is right, but his approach is wrong. If he gets rid of so few people at once, it would be strange if people would fight him to the death."

Just think of it as Chi Yan introducing Xiao Song's current situation to Zhao Zhen.

Wang Shouzhong raged, "You traitors are wilfully controlling the government, and all official promotions are up to you. He only blocked the reforms because there were so few of his followers in the court. And now you're speaking so righteously, it's truly hypocritical and disgusting."

The official's words seemed to be meaningless.

After hearing this, Fan Zhongyan remained silent.

Both Fan Zhongyan and I have fought against bad boys, so if we say we are fighting, then we are fighting. Why would we wait so long to release it?

But Wang Shouzhong listened and continued to argue with Fan Zhongyan. The two sides exchanged a few bad words, and Fu Xiang's face gradually turned green with anger.

But if they become the enemy of the Chinese nation and bully the Han people, then I can only blame them.

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