"First, I will travel around the country to conduct in-depth investigations to understand the situation in the Song Dynasty, write an analytical report, and publish it in the future to find more like-minded partners."
Zhao Jun held up two fingers. "Second, you must travel to the northwest and defeat Li Yuanhao. Then, if the Liao Kingdom attacks, and Li Yuanhao is severely weakened by your defeat, you can win over Zuo Silu to contain him, and then travel to Hebei to fight the Liao army. The Liao Kingdom is also facing internal and external troubles. If we defeat the Liao, the Song Dynasty's external threats will be quelled within at least twenty years, giving Zhao Zhen more confidence to carry out reforms."
Actually, he didn't say one thing.
That is, he did not intend to pin his hopes on Zhao Zhen like Fan Zhongyan did.
Because after he figured out many things, he realized that Zhao Zhen was actually a cowardly paper tiger.
Zhao Zhen was afraid of the Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia, so he could only sign the humiliating "Qingli Peace Agreement" and "Chongxi Currency Increase" when facing the Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia.
Zhao Zhen was afraid of the civil service group, so in the face of the civil service group's increasing encroachment, he could only choose to be tolerant and, except for military power, increase the power of the civil service group without limit.
But he will never figure it out.
Tolerance will only lead to greed.
Therefore, after Zhao Jun recognized the reality, his mentality also changed.
At the beginning, he was indeed naive and thought that he could carry out reforms after entering the officialdom and holding great power.
Now I find out they are all fake.
As the great man once said, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. He decided to abandon his illusions about Zhao Zhen and officially begin the struggle.
The first step in the struggle is to have great power in your hands, including administrative and military power.
Fan Zhongyan could obtain certain military power, but Fan Zhongyan could not be trusted either.
Because Fan Zhongyan is now cooperating with him, it is clear that he only hopes to change the order of the officialdom. At most, he will investigate a large number of corrupt officials, causing serious damage to the civil service group, but will not completely renew the civil service group.
In order to achieve a brand new effect, it is necessary to reduce the power of the civil service, strengthen supervision over the civil service, and bring most of the local powers except for governance back to the central government.
They are not allowed to engage in corruption, they are not allowed to abuse their power to do business, most of their benefits are cut off, and they are forced to do what they should do.
Doing so is tantamount to breaking down the entire bureaucratic system and rebuilding a new one.
Fan Zhongyan himself was a person under the original order system. Perhaps he had the courage to kill those officials who harmed the people, but he definitely did not have the courage to completely break up a bureaucratic system.
Because he was essentially a bureaucrat under the imperial power, unlike Zhao Jun, who did not place himself under the imperial power.
So now Zhao Jun finally figured it out.
If you want to achieve your goals, you cannot always rely on others to give you power, but you must fight for power yourself.
Since Zhao Zhen is not trustworthy, then force him to compromise with you step by step.
Anyway, Zhao Zhen has already been unlimitedly tolerant of the Western Xia, Liao Kingdom and the civil service group, so what's the harm in adding one more person?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
