Han Zong's face was as gloomy as water. He said, "Your Majesty, by doing this, is violating the laws of our ancestors. I think we must contact all the officials in the court, and ask Prime Minister Lu, Prime Minister Wang, and all the officials in the court to petition the emperor together. Even if the two Ma brothers have committed dereliction of duty, they should be tried by the Dali Temple, not the Imperial City Bureau!"
According to Lu You's "Miscellaneous Notes on Bishu", this incident is the origin of the Song Dynasty's policy of not executing scholars and officials. During the reign of Emperor Zhao Kuang, a stele was erected stating that scholars and officials should not be executed. However, he himself did not abide by this and executed many corrupt officials.
However, through the efforts of the literati and officials during the reigns of Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Heng and Zhao Zhen, they finally fooled Zhao Heng and Zhao Zhen into treating them better and better.
Basically, except for military power and the power to appoint and dismiss senior officials, all other powers belonged to the literati. So now that Zhao Zhen gave the Imperial City Administration power, he was actually snatching the power of the literati, which had already made the literati very dissatisfied.
But this incident was not engraved on Taizu's stone tablet. Therefore, no matter how much trouble it caused, under the suppression of imperial power, it barely caused any major consequences.
But once the precedent of killing scholars and officials is set, they will be furious.
After all, everyone hopes that they will not be held accountable after committing corruption and committing evil deeds. Even if they are just demoted, it is better than being killed.
Therefore, once the two scholar-officials Ma Yuan and Ma Zhongfu were killed, serious consequences would inevitably occur.
Han Zong felt that he could encourage all the scholars and officials to unite and put pressure on Zhao Zhen. Even if he could not force the emperor to withdraw the Imperial City Bureau immediately, he should let the Imperial City Bureau hand over the person to the Dali Temple for trial. As long as the Dali Temple took the case and the officials protected each other, wouldn't everything be easy to deal with?
But what Han Zong didn't expect was that Han Yi glared at him fiercely and said, "You're stupid! The government hates those who form cliques and pursue personal interests the most. If all the officials in the court were to oppose this, do you know what the consequences would be?"
Han Zong stubbornly said, "The law cannot punish the masses. No matter what, this is a matter of life and death for all the scholars and officials in the world. I don't believe that everyone will put life and death aside."
"Alright, just do as I say and test the officials first. You absolutely cannot do this."
Han Yi is still rational.
The reason why the literati and officials of the Song Dynasty were able to receive preferential treatment was that they were not united, so the emperor was willing to give them preferential treatment in exchange for their internal fighting among themselves, in order to consolidate the imperial power.
If all the scholars and officials unite, the emperor will probably feel frightened. Once he feels that the imperial power is threatened, even the best people will raise their butcher knives.
After all, the position of the official is the emperor, and the emperor's position is the concern of the regime. Han Zong couldn't understand it, but Han Yi, as the deputy prime minister, must understand this.
Therefore, whether it was the three prime ministers and three councilors, or the three commissioners, the Privy Council, and other senior officials, they rarely formed alliances, but only formed groups of twos and threes. Only when more than twenty or thirty senior officials formed seven or eight groups to oppose each other could the emperor feel at ease.
If what Han Zong said were to happen, even if the emperor didn't want to target the Han family, he would still have to. Han Yi didn't want to take this risky move, so he would never agree to Han Zong's request.
"Remember, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. Even if the emperor is benevolent, he is still a tiger. There are some things you can listen to and see, but you must never do them. Do you understand?"
Han Yi was a little worried and reminded his son again.
Han Zong said helplessly: "Yes, the child knows."
"Come back and live here these days."
Han Yi thought for a moment and said, "Even if Zhao Jun is so arrogant, as long as the emperor doesn't say anything, I don't think he will come to my house to arrest people."
"yes."
Han Zong agreed.
The Han family immediately started to take action and sent people to contact the Ma family's students and former officials, as well as friends of Ma Yuan and Ma Zhongfu, asking them to continue submitting letters.
These were relatively common methods used in the court. Censors were in power in the Song Dynasty, and many senior officials had censors under their command. They relied on these people to attack and bite each other. Later, they participated in the New Deal of Qingli and Wang Anshi's Reforms.
Just as the Han family continued to use the old tricks to make trouble, on September 1, the third year of Jingyou, Zhao Jun, who had just captured the two Mas yesterday, did not rush to interrogate them, but went to Fan Zhongyan's house.
Zhao Jun stayed at Fan Zhongyan's house until the afternoon before leaving.
By evening, Fan Zhongyan's mansion became lively. In the past, when Zhao Jun came, there were few people in the mansion. Apart from a few hired servants and officials, there were only two old servants brought by the Fan family.
But today, the Fan Mansion was decorated with lanterns and colorful lights. As the afternoon grew darker, sedan chairs stopped outside the Fan Mansion, and young officials stepped out and entered the mansion.
When Lao Fan invited people to dinner, he specially prepared a large table with a hot pot on it, using rabbit meat as the main ingredient. It was called "Bo Xia Gong" at that time.
More than ten friends came to show their support, including Secretary Yu Jing, Prince's Assistant Yin Zhu, Minister of Works Wu Zunlu, Imperial Library proofreaders Ouyang Xiu and Cai Xiang, Longtu Pavilion Direct Scholar Li Hong, Jixian Academy Proofreader Wang Zhi, History Museum Reviewer Wang Zhu, and Director of the Censorate Fu Bi.
Since Ding Du, the acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, was dismissed and demoted and transferred to be the governor of another place, Zhao Zhen was forced to let Old Fan take over temporarily to stabilize the situation, so everyone thought that today's banquet was to celebrate Fan Zhongyan's reinstatement.
But unexpectedly, when everyone said they were celebrating for him, Fan Zhongyan said that today's banquet was not to celebrate his return to Kaifeng Prefecture, which was puzzling.
"Duke Xiwen, congratulations! I brought two bottles of wine to celebrate your reinstatement."
"Today is about something else, not a celebration."
"Really? That's fine. I'm going to drink anyway, so I can't waste these bottles of aged Hua Diao."
"Please sit down first."
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