"Little Sheren thinks too much."
Ren Baozhong knew that this newly joined minister was born with good fortune, but his talent was ordinary, and his father was dead after all, so he wanted to win him over, so he immediately responded. "This has nothing to do with temper, but with position... No matter what, Li Xianggong was driven out of the position of prime minister, so it is normal for him to be angry. As for the emperor, he also knows this, so why would he keep arguing with him? Believe it or not, as long as the emperor allows Li Xianggong to resume his position as prime minister immediately, the emperor and the minister will immediately...will have a happy marriage."
Zong Ying said "oh" and suddenly understood something, not sure whether he really understood it or just pretended to understand it.
Besides, according to reason and character setting, although there were only a few people in the side yard, only the old Dangxiang dog Ren Baozhong could say such a powerful statement... In fact, since Ren Baozhong said this, not to mention the others, Mei Li and Yu Yunwen, two good friends from the same class, looked at each other, and they both understood it in their hearts and suppressed some thoughts.
There was no other reason. Ren Baozhong was a powerful official in Western Xia in the past. After one defeat, he was idle for decades. Once the government invaded Hengshan, he surrendered directly. I guess he was putting himself in the other's shoes.
Of course, it's impossible to say this to someone's face.
However, Mei Li and Yu Yunwen were two young men who were not easy to talk to, but someone did not care. One of them spoke up immediately and showed no mercy at all. It was the Hanlin scholar Lu Benzhong:
"Ren Sheren, don't judge others by yourself! Even if a person like Li Xianggong cares about the gains and losses of the position of prime minister, he won't go to such an extent..."
"Please give me some advice, Master." Ren Baozhong bowed and responded without any anger.
The others knew that although Lü Benzhong was just a scholar from the imperial court, he was good at writing poems and running a good tabloid, but his politics were a mess...but everyone also knew that he had a good father...so when he opened his mouth, not only Ren Baozhong, but the others also pricked up their ears with some seriousness.
"You only know one side of the story, but not the other. For a person like Li Xianggong, the success or failure of his position is superficial, and the evaluation of his political career is fundamental." As expected, Lü Benzhong looked around and spoke eloquently. "In fact, the emperor and Li Xianggong had such a quarrel just now. Although they spoke little, they had already directly mentioned the key point, which is financial strategy... Financial strategy is the real reason why Hangzhou Xianggong Lü (Lü Yihao) replaced Li Xianggong, and it is also the real reason why the emperor asked us to investigate this time. It is also related to Li Xianggong's reputation after his death... It would be strange if he is not angry."
"What do you mean?" Ren Baozhong urged.
"What can I say?" Lü Benzhong shook his head with his hands behind his back, as if he was sighing. "When the emperor ascended the throne, Li Xianggong was in office. He built the court and cleaned up the situation. His contribution was great. But at that time, the country collapsed. There was no money or soldiers. Everything had to go through the finances. Li Xianggong's financial strategy is hard to describe. Whether he was in Nanjing or in the southeast, he only had two financial methods. One was called thrift, which made the court save money. This was speechless. The other was to let the rich people in the states and counties donate voluntarily to fill the gaps..."
Everyone was stunned for a moment.
Ren Baozhong was stunned, almost unbelievable: "Since ancient times, to make people pay, either the government has set laws and regulations to force them to pay, or like the government did in Yangzhou, they have been tempted with other things. Li Xianggong is also a Xianggong, why do you think that you can rely on donations from rich families to help the country get through the difficulties?"
"This is the real reason why Li Xianggong left."
Lü Benzhong shook his head more and more in response: "At a time when the world was falling apart, he had integrity, so he was able to stand out from the crowd, but when it came to doing practical things, he showed his inadequacy... In the battle of Taiyuan that day, Li Yanxian and Li Jiedu impeached him for not knowing how to fight. Today, the verdict has been made, so I won't say more; and at that time, the court and even the government were disappointed in him. First, he implemented such a ridiculous financial strategy in Nanjing, which was obviously not feasible; second, he still had no idea what to do after arriving in the southeast, and it was the then Prime Minister Lü (Lü Yihao) who stood up to clean up the salt and wine policies in the southeast and suggested collecting the Jingzhi money and the Liyuechun money... It just so happened that Li and Lü were incompatible in the southeast that day, so of course the court had to make a choice!"
"No wonder Lord Li just now said that Lord Lu's establishment of Jingzhi Money and Yuechun Money were not good. No wonder he said that he had no intention of protecting the rich, but he actually had his reasons for all that." Zong Ying seemed to be thinking about something.
"Of course, Jingzhi money and Yuechun money are not good." The third prime minister Fan Zongyin couldn't help but join in the conversation. "But if Prime Minister Lu hadn't hastily collected 6 million Jingzhi money in the southeast and brought it to Tokyo, how could there be no chaos after the troops were withdrawn from Heyin? And if Yuechun money hadn't been set as a regular practice later, causing the southeast to increase taxes by 3 million, and Jingxiang to increase taxes by 3 million shi, how could the Western Army be gathered and then win the battle at Yaoshan?! So looking back, no matter what, Prime Minister Lu was better than Prime Minister Li... The dispute between Lu and Li was decided on this tax, and Prime Minister Li will never get over this matter in his lifetime."
Ren Baozhong was impressed for a moment, and Zong Ying felt that the two scholars Fan and Lu were unfathomable, worthy of being the internal officials. Even the others who kept silent, such as Yang Yizhong, Yu Yunwen, and Mei Li, were all in awe for a moment, thinking that one should look at a scholar with new eyes after three days of absence... These three scholars had been secretly visiting Jiangnan for almost a month, and they had indeed been reborn.
But as for Mr. Lu, I don’t know if it was the same words that Prime Minister Lu said before leaving Beijing.
However, just when the scenery in the side yard was unique, suddenly, a person walked out of the next yard quickly, came to the side yard, waved the book in his hand and asked directly:
"Fan Zongyin! Is this the investigation you did?!"
Scholar Sanzhao was horrified, and the other close ministers were also startled. They saw Emperor Zhao, who had changed into casual clothes, walk up to Scholar Fan and point at the document in his hand with unabated anger, causing Liu Yan and several young officers behind him to hurriedly follow:
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