Chapter 317: Heavy Thoughts
Zhao Xing's expression eased a lot after hearing this, but he was still a little dissatisfied with Han Zhang's idea.
"I remember that the Grand Master also participated in the New Deal, right?"
"That's right. I once assisted Prime Minister Fan in implementing the New Deal." Han Zhang said.
"So, what do you think of the new policies formulated by Prime Minister Fan back then?" Zhao Xing asked.
Han Zhang pondered for a while and said, "Since the new policy has failed, it means that there are flaws in the new policy."
"What does the Grand Chancellor consider to be the defect?"
“Too radical!”
"No!"
Zhao Xing shook his head and said, "In my opinion, the new policy formulated by Prime Minister Fan is very good. The reason why it failed is not that it was too radical, but that it was not radical enough."
There is an essential difference between Wang Anshi's reform and Fan Daxianggong's new policy.
Prime Minister Fan's reform proposals were to clearly define promotions and demotions, suppress luck, refine the imperial examinations, select officials, distribute public land equally, encourage agriculture and sericulture, improve military preparations, reduce corvée labor, show grace and trust, and emphasize orders.
The main goal of the New Deal was to rectify the bureaucracy. The first five and last two articles were in line with this spirit. The content was to eliminate corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats and restrict their promotion. The system of selecting officials was to ensure that those who were trustworthy would be rewarded and those who were not were punished.
Wang Anshi's reform proposal was to develop agricultural production by suppressing mergers and acquisitions, increase fiscal revenue, and thus enrich the country.
By repairing the military equipment and training the army, we can contain Liao and Xia, strengthen the army and reverse the situation of poverty and weakness.
The focus of Prime Minister Fan's new policy was to rectify the bureaucracy, starting with the administration of officials.
Wang Anshi took financial management as the core of the reform and started with the economy.
In comparison, Wang Anshi's reforms were more targeted, directly targeting the Northern Song Dynasty's "poverty and weakness". His measures were also more comprehensive, striving to reduce the surplus and make up for the deficiency, and achieved certain results in enriching the country and strengthening the military.
Although Wang Anshi's reforms resulted in a mess, they did ease the financial crisis of the Song Dynasty.
Later, the Song Dynasty had the financial resources to attack Western Xia, which was largely due to Wang Anshi's reforms.
But we can't just look at short-term benefits when looking at things.
And essentially, Wang Anshi's reforms would not have been successful if the problem of official administration was not resolved.
To curb land annexation and develop agriculture, it still depends on local officials.
This is indeed the case. The reason why Wang Anshi's reform failed was not because of opposition from officials in the court, but because of the local officials.
It was precisely because of the local officials' lip service that the new policies, while increasing the court's revenue, increased the burden on the people during implementation.
In Zhao Xing's view, Wang Anshi's reforms were just a temporary solution, and Prime Minister Fan's new policies were the best strategy.
Han Zhang was silent for a long time, then said, "Your Majesty, do you want to re-implement the new law that Grand Chancellor Fan formulated back then?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I meant." Zhao Xing nodded.
"But now Mr. Fan is no longer with us," said Han Zhang.
"Grand Prime Minister Fan is no longer with us, but isn't Grand Prime Minister still here? Didn't Grand Prime Minister also participate in the formulation of the new policy back then?" Zhao Xing said.
Han Zhang smiled bitterly when he heard this. Over the years, he has been thinking about why the new policy failed.
In the end, it was concluded that the new law faced too much resistance and the Song Dynasty could not withstand the turmoil.
Han Zhang also had some understanding of Wang Anshi's reform ideas.
In Han Zhang's opinion, it would be a good idea to first enrich the country, solve the Song Dynasty's dilemma of not making enough money to cover its expenditures, and then start to solve the problem of official administration.
Moreover, Zhao Xing highly valued Wang Anshi. According to his ideas, Zhao Xing should also be inclined to Wang Anshi's reform ideas.
However, Zhao Xing told him that he was not optimistic about Wang Anshi's reforms, but was optimistic about the new policies of Prime Minister Fan.
Moreover, Zhao Xing intended to let him take charge of this matter.
Han Zhang was silent for a long time, then said, "Your Majesty, the current situation is not suitable for reform."
"That's right." Zhao Xing nodded slightly and said, "My Lord, you can think carefully about what I just said, but I must kill that person." "Since Your Majesty respects My Lord Fan so much, why do you have to kill him?" Han Zhang sighed.
"The great master is wrong."
Zhao Xing said: "I just think that the new policy formulated by Grand Chancellor Fan is approved. I don't completely approve of other aspects of Grand Chancellor Fan. However, Grand Chancellor Fan has passed away. When a person dies, it is like a light going out. I don't want to comment on it."
When mentioning Mr. Fan, the first thing that comes to most people's mind is the saying "Worry about the world before you worry about yourself, and be happy about the world after you are happy about yourself."
Zhao Xing did not deny that Mr. Fan had noble character, but he was not as noble as many people imagined.
In his early years, Grand Prime Minister Fan had made great achievements in military affairs. The retired emperor actually intended to have him take up a military post, but Grand Prime Minister Fan did not agree.
This can also be understood as the Song Dynasty valuing civil officials over military officials. If he wants to realize his ideals and ambitions, he must become a civil servant to have a say.
However, the fact that he prevented the retired emperor from killing civil servants was a black mark that he could not erase.
The emperor was not killing people indiscriminately; he killed an official who bribed the rebels.
Prime Minister Fan strongly opposed it, and not killing civil servants became the tone from this time on.
As I said, merits are merits and faults are faults.
We cannot define a person as good or bad based on his merits and demerits.
What we need to look at is a person's merits and demerits, that is, the far-reaching impact of his merits and demerits.
Preventing the emperor from killing civil servants led to the ancestral rule that civil servants should not be killed. The harm caused by this was undoubtedly enormous.
Of course, Zhao Xing would not think that Prime Minister Fan was not a good person just because of this.
In fact, using good or bad to describe people is a very narrow-minded thing.
Human nature is complex; there are no saints.
However, Zhao Xing had no intention of debating these issues with Han Zhang.
"If you are okay, please go back first," said Zhao Xing.
"Yes!"
Han Zhang bowed and said, "I'll take my leave!"
…………
After leaving Longtu Pavilion, Han Zhang felt very heavy-hearted.
It was because he saw that Zhao Xing was determined to kill him this time that he came over to dissuade him.
However, not only did he fail to dissuade him, but he learned from Zhao Xing that he actually wanted to implement the new policies of Prime Minister Fan again.
Zhao Xing said that the reason the new policy failed was not because it was too radical, but because it was not radical enough. He naturally understood what this meant.
He supported the reform, but Zhao Xing was obviously prepared to kill people indiscriminately if there was too much resistance during the reform process.
Han Zhang knew it clearly, but was powerless to stop it.
Because he could see that Zhao Xing's attitude was very firm and he could not stop it.
If he strongly opposed, Zhao Xing would most likely force him to retire.
Han Zhang was not greedy for power, and given his age, he was almost at the age of retirement.
What he was worried about was that if he left the court, if Zhao Xing's methods were too cruel, there would be no one to persuade him and ease the relationship between Zhao Xing and the court officials.
Han Zhang returned to the Zhizheng Hall with a heavy heart. As soon as he entered the hall, a clerk came up to greet him.
"My Lord, Minister Hu from the Ministry of Personnel has arrived and has been waiting in your public room for quite some time."
"I see!"
Han Zhang waved his hand and came to the public housing unit.
(End of this chapter)