Zhao Zhen slowly walked towards Chongzheng Hall from the shade of the trees under the corridor of the harem, with a look of slight joy on his face, because since Empress Cao and Concubine Zhang became pregnant at the end of September last year, it has been more than eight months now, almost nine months, and the delivery will be in about a month.
The time it takes to deliver two children should not exceed two weeks, so that he can have two heirs at the same time. As long as either of them is a healthy baby boy, then his historical problem of being childless will be completely solved.
This was naturally a great joy for Zhao Zhen.
After visiting the harem, Zhao Zhen chatted with Wang Shouzhong, talking about topics such as what name to give to the newborn baby, while walking. As soon as he arrived at the door of Chongzheng Hall, he saw Lu Yijian and others waiting at the door.
"Do you have any important business today?"
Seeing everyone gathered, Zhao Zhen walked over and asked curiously, "Are the Western bandits invading again? Or are there some local affairs?"
“Neither.”
Lu Yijian stepped forward, bowed, and said, "It's a letter from Hanlong."
"The eldest grandson finally wrote to me."
Zhao Zhen's spirits brightened, and he laughed heartily, "It's been over a month since I last wrote to the court. I almost thought my eldest grandson had forgotten all about us. It just so happens that I have good news for him. The Empress and Concubine Zhang are about to give birth, and he will have two more ancestors."
Good man, what an ethical joke!
Zhao Jun found out and didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
Everyone muttered something inwardly, and then Lu Yijian and the others followed Zhao Zhen into the house.
After passing through the hall outside Chongzheng Hall and entering the inner study room, Zhao Zhen sat behind the desk and asked everyone to sit down.
Today, Chongzheng Hall has replaced the original Guanjia Hall and become the place where people hold small meetings, so there are many armchairs here all year round for holding meetings.
After Zhao Zhen sat down, he looked around at everyone and said, "What did the eldest grandson say in the letter this time?"
"There are three letters."
Lu Yijian briefly recounted the letter, saying, "The first one describes the many problems he's discovered between local officials and the people, as he's been deeply involved in the people these days."
Zhao Zhen pondered, "It's the same old story. County magistrates rely on these clerks to govern. Once these clerks have all the information, they deceive their superiors and subordinates, embezzle and extort bribes, and this leads to numerous false cases and miscarriages of justice."
"Yes."
Lu Yijian nodded. "Han Long said that within less than six months of his departure, he had already discovered, heard about, and even witnessed numerous cases. For example, in Yingtian Prefecture, he saw a widow bring her son to sue her deceased husband's younger brother for embezzling her property. The clerk, bribed by the younger brother, had the widow arrested instead."
"This phenomenon is ubiquitous in the Song Dynasty. It occurs in almost every county. Han Long is extremely dissatisfied with this and has stated that civil service reforms must be implemented in the future to at least significantly reduce the occurrence of such incidents."
Wang Zeng also said: "I think we should consider making corresponding changes."
"Did the eldest grandson come up with a corresponding solution?"
Zhao Zhen asked.
In fact, Zhao Zhen was not unaware of this problem. In the past, upright officials often brought the problem of clerks to the table, but there had never been any solution.
The entire centralized feudal society, from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, has basically been a two-thousand-year problem.
It’s not that the ancients didn’t want to change, but there was really no way to change it.
"Hanlong said we could refer to the Western civil service system, distinguishing between officials and clerks and setting up ranks. They would be given corresponding salaries, and those who performed well and passed the assessment could become officials."
Lu Yijian repeated what Zhao Jun had said, but everyone had a helpless expression on their face.
Zhao Zhen even smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid this won't work."
"yes."
Cai Qi sighed, "The Song Dynasty has tens of thousands of officials, which has already led to excessive bureaucracy and excessive expenses. If we add salaries to the clerks, the expenses will be too high and the national treasury simply cannot afford it."
As Shen Kuo wrote in his Mengxi Bitan (Dream Pool Essays), "Officials throughout the world have no permanent salary and live solely on bribes."
Paying officials such high salaries will cause redundancy and unnecessary expenses, which will become a big problem. If we pay more for clerks, how can the court survive?
"Han Long is not unaware of this. He means to wait until the problems of redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses are solved, and then to increase productivity and import silver from Japan. Once the court has money, we can make plans later."
Lu Yijian added, "He believes that in the future, the imperial court's tax revenue should be primarily commercial, and agricultural taxes could be appropriately reduced. Most of the annual agricultural tax revenue should be retained locally to cover county government expenses. At that time, national and local taxes could be separated to facilitate fund management."
"Well, it's still the eldest grandson who thinks things through."
Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "He can still understand my difficulties."
"The second thing is that Hanlong visited Jiangsu and Zhejiang and found that there were many Japanese merchants in Hangzhou, Changzhou, Taizhou, Suzhou and other places. He suggested that we increase the number of trading ports in the surrounding areas and strengthen trade ties with Japan."
Wang Zeng said, "The influx of Japanese silver is an inevitable trend and the only way for the Song Dynasty to rise. If we develop commerce first, we won't attract the attention of the Liao Kingdom."
"Well, that's no problem."
Zhao Zhen thought for a moment and said, "How about I send a letter to Japan in the name of the country, hoping to intensify trade between the two sides?"
"But it's inappropriate."
Song Shou said, "Japan is vassal to the Liao Kingdom. If the Song Dynasty sends a letter, the Liao Kingdom will certainly be alert. If that happens, it will cause the Liao Kingdom to intervene, which will be bad."
"Yes, it would be better to intensify private trade contacts and continue to inquire about the situation in the Iwami region of Japan in preparation."
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