After Zhao Jun dealt with the salt case here, he made adjustments to the officials in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and then went to Yangzhou to inspect the Tongzhou Port.
At this critical juncture, Zhao Zhen's urgent oral order from eight hundred miles away reached him.
Zhao Jun was quite surprised to learn about what was happening in the court, but soon became angry. In a fit of rage, he discussed with his wife that he would ride back to Bianliang to handle affairs.
Unexpectedly, his wife was even more powerful than him and said she would ride a horse and take him back herself.
Then, under the escort of about a hundred cavalrymen, his wife rode in front and he held her in his arms behind, and they galloped all the way through the night, changing horses but not people at the counties along the way. They spent more than ten hours on the road every day, and in just five days, they ran more than 600 kilometers from Yangzhou to Kaifeng.
On the morning of October 24, the court was still in chaos. Lu Yijian and Sheng Du seemed to have aged ten years during this period. They didn't say a word in the court meetings and the Council of State every day, like clay puppets.
They knew very well what the consequences of doing this would be, but of course it didn't hurt if the flesh wasn't cut on someone else, but it would hurt if it was cut on their own body.
Caught between a rock and a hard place.
In fact, they did not really want to oppose Fan Zhongyan's new policies.
Instead, I hope that Lao Fan will show leniency.
However, Zheng Jian acted too drastically and lifted the lid, causing criticism from both the government and the public.
It is impossible for Old Fan to turn a blind eye to Lu Gongchuo, Lu Gongbi, Sheng Shenfu, Zhang Yuxi and others, otherwise how can the new policy be implemented?
oh.
The son of your prime minister can break the law knowingly, and you, the leader of a new policy, are protecting them?
When officials across the country saw this, they naturally followed suit.
The new policy will immediately become formalized.
So in this situation, Lao Fan can only hold on.
The two sides are at a stalemate.
The morning meeting was still like a vegetable market, with people going back and forth, arguing fiercely, and neither side giving up.
Among the crowd, Xia Song just watched coldly and became a neutral person.
This time he learned his lesson.
Historically, he opposed the New Deals of the Qingli Period because the main purpose of the New Deals of the Qingli Period was to eliminate a large number of officials who entered the government through family connections.
Xia Shuo himself entered the officialdom through family connections, and he also had to seek benefits for his descendants, so of course he refused.
It can be said that even though he and Lu Yijian had different political views, they were forced to come together because of common interests and became one of the main opponents of the new policy.
But things are different now.
Because the performance evaluation system does not eliminate officials who enter the government through family connections, it only regulates the behavior of officials in a reasonable, legal and compliant manner.
Simply put, it is like making a law that stipulates that officials are not allowed to take bribes or abuse their power, are not allowed to harm the people, should work hard and be positive, and then strictly require all officials to abide by this law.
Basically, as long as you work diligently every day and don't slack off at work, you can basically meet the requirements. Your superiors will not do anything to you, let alone lay you off.
Therefore, the new policy at this time was actually something that most officials could barely accept.
It's just that people generally want to live a comfortable life and not be so tired, which is why there is such strong opposition. But if we are to be reasonable, the current Qingli New Deal is much milder than the historical Qingli New Deal.
This is also one of the main reasons why Zhang Juzheng was able to promote the performance evaluation system.
Xia Song's character is not very good, but his work ability is worthy of recognition. There are no mistakes in his daily work. Therefore, facing this new policy that does not harm his interests, he remained silent.
The most important thing is that he has a bad relationship with Lu Yijian, and his relationship with Fan Zhongyan is just so-so. Seeing them fighting each other, Xia Song naturally feels comfortable, so now he has become a neutral party.
At this moment, there was a serious party dispute between the two factions in the court. Countless people on both sides impeached Fan Zhongyan and Lu Yijian, which made Zhao Zhen not want to attend the morning court every time. The court meeting had even been suspended for four days. Today, he had no choice but to hold it again.
"With such a harsh performance appraisal system and the heavy discipline of officials, the imperial court will eventually be weakened. This will instill fear in everyone, and no one in the officialdom will dare to truly do anything. Simply going through the motions will only harm themselves."
"That's better than doing nothing at all before. Just look at how many people showed up at the government offices before the 3:00-5:00 pm rush hour. And look at now. If the government's policies had gotten better, wouldn't the people of Bianliang be applauding?"
"This year, Bingzi, there was a strong wind and darkness during the day, which lasted for a few minutes. That night, a black cloud several feet long appeared in the southeast. This was a sign from heaven that something strange was happening in the country, that evil spirits were emerging. Under the new policies, people are in a state of panic. Isn't this a sign of a change from heaven?"
"Indeed, disasters and strange phenomena have been frequent in recent years. In April, there was news in Nanjing that a fire had broken out in the Divine Palace of Hongqing Palace. In May, there was a drought in Hedong. In August, Xichuan experienced no rain from summer to autumn, and the people suffered from severe famine. This is a warning from heaven. Your Majesty, please be cautious."
The opposition has recently begun to develop in the field of astronomical phenomena, which is almost the basic routine of the opposition.
For example, Wang Anshi's reforms in the Northern Song Dynasty and Zhang Juzheng's reforms in the Ming Dynasty first attacked the new policies, and when they saw that the attacks were ineffective, they attacked the rulers, and finally used ancestral laws and astronomical phenomena to attack.
The most famous one is Wang Anshi's line during his reforms: "Natural disasters are not to be feared, ancestors are not to be followed, and people's words are not to be pitied!"
After all, "The Analects of Confucius" says: Confucius said that a gentleman has three fears: fear of Heaven's will, fear of great men, and fear of the words of saints. In ancient Confucian classics, this sentence is regarded as a guiding principle.
So at that time, "three deficiencies" was a big political label, and Sima Guang wanted to make Wang Anshi a heretic.
Historically, Fan Zhongyan's reforms failed at the second step, as opponents used the term "clique" to suppress them. But now that Fan Zhongyan remained unmoved, he naturally began his third move, blaming the problem on natural disasters and unusual phenomena.
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