"Given the barbarity of the Jin people and the weakness of the Liao Kingdom, if there had not been a maritime alliance, would the Jin people not be able to see the weakness of the Song Dynasty and not come to attack in the future? This kind of lucky statement that pushes the internal situation to the surface... is not what the most pragmatic Prime Minister Xu should say?"
Xu Jingheng remained silent for a long time, and finally did not refute. However, when the official gestured for everyone to sit down, he did not sit down, but stood there motionless.
Of course Zhao Jiu knew what the other party meant... In fact, it has been almost a year since he came here, and Zhao Jiu's political discernment is not as low as it was at the beginning.
Just like the current topic, from the perspective of personality and how he does things, the pragmatic Xu Jingheng is the last person who should be refuted. But a person, especially a prime minister, is bound to have complex characteristics, and it is impossible to simply label him with just personality, morality, and a few positions.
Let’s take Xu Jingheng as an example:
First, he was a war advocate. In the initial struggle between Li Gang and Huang Qianshan, he chose to support Li Gang without hesitation, and did not waver in the most important major issues.
However, although he advocated war, he was conservative. From the beginning, he hoped that Xingzai would go to Yangzhou instead of agreeing with Li Gang to go to Nanyang. Of course, he was also firmly opposed to crossing the Yangtze River to the southeast.
At the same time, he was a pragmatist. He remained silent after Li Gang was dismissed from his post, thus firmly occupying the position of Chief Censor. Even Huang Qianshan ignored him. In the process, he tried his best to protect Li Gang and Zong Ze... until someone climbed out of the well and suddenly kicked him out and replaced him with Zhang Jun.
Moreover, he is a rare capable minister who works hard without complaint and never complains despite the huge burden on his shoulders. He is really useful.
Finally, Xu Jingheng and Lu Haowen, as well as Ma Shen, the governor of Jinghu North Road, were all followers of Cheng School, or Luo School. Luoyang was the former base camp of the old party. Cheng School itself rose to prominence by criticizing Wang Anshi's new school.
Only by understanding this can you understand why Xu Jingheng behaved so fiercely, and the reason is self-evident... It would be fine if the emperor talked nonsense on ordinary days, but today the emperor is likely to directly express his position on the Yuanyou Party, the core members of the new and old parties. Then, if Lu Haowen hesitated, he would naturally step forward and express his position and pressure in advance in the toughest way, so that the emperor and the officials who arrived today would have some concerns.
As for the fact that the entry point violated his code of conduct and was blocked by the emperor with words, it was not his fault, because since the Xining Reform of Emperor Shenzong, the two factions had been in constant conflict and had long been incompatible... The matter was of great importance and Prime Minister Xu could not care so much.
In fact, Xu Jingheng's action was successful. Regardless of whether the emperor was frightened or not, at least after this incident, no official dared to take the risk of completely opposing a powerful minister and make blind speculations.
"Okay." Zhao Jiu waved his hand to signal everyone to sit down, and seeing Xu Jingheng stiffening his neck, he couldn't help but laugh again. "I said the three words 'great unification' just to make fun of it. Why are you so serious and even going so far..."
Are you kidding me?
As soon as these words came out, countless people on the riverbank cursed in their hearts, if you, Lord Zhao, were just trying to please him, why did you bother to ask Scholar Xiaolin for his opinion? He was obviously trying to test her with this, but was pushed back by Lord Xu, so he was just trying to please her.
"That's what I want to say." Zhao Jiu ignored Xu Xianggong standing there and continued, "Compared with the Han and Tang dynasties, our dynasty is indeed inferior in terms of territory, scholar style, and martial arts. Otherwise, the Liao people would not have called it the Southern Dynasty for so many years... But in terms of culture and elegance, our dynasty is not inferior to the Han and Tang dynasties."
Everyone looked a little worried, and then they were stunned, because the next few words of Emperor Zhao were like making history:
"Let's not talk about Tang poetry and Song lyrics. Just talking about the basic articles, since the Tang Dynasty, prose has swept away the extravagance of parallel prose. Among prose, there are eight great writers in Tang and Song, and our dynasty alone has six of them... Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan in the Tang Dynasty made great contributions to the creation, but in our dynasty, Wang Shu, Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu, the three Su brothers, and Zeng Gong reached the pinnacle and completely set the pattern."
"Your Majesty's words are very insightful." Su Shi's four grandsons all bowed down to express their gratitude. The Minister of Works Ye Mengde also spoke carefully. "These eight people are enough to determine the top of prose... But if we rank them by age, how can Wang Shu be ahead of Ouyang Gong? If we rank them by achievements, how can they be ahead of the great scholar Su?"
"That's right." Zhao Jiu readily agreed. "In terms of literary achievement, the great scholar Su Shi and Ouyang Xiu are the top ones, on par with the two founders Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, while the other four are slightly inferior."
As soon as this was said, people started talking about it... For example, some people thought that Zeng Gong's articles were better, and some people said that Wang Anshi's articles were not inferior to Ouyang Xiu's, but generally speaking, more people recognized Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi. In other words, the official's summary was quite insightful?
Of course, Zhao Jiu's idea was simple... How could he know who was higher? But besides the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasty, the saying of the Four Great Masters of Literature was also often heard.
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