Prime Minister

Chapter 1185: Rectification of Atmosphere

Chapter 1185: Rectification of Atmosphere

After hearing what Lu Gongzhu said, Zhang Yue was speechless for a moment.

Lu Gongzhu had always opposed the Song Dynasty's war against Western Xia, not only before but also after the two-pronged attack on Xia.

When I asked Lu Gongzhu to go on a diplomatic mission to Dangxiang, Lu Gongzhu asked myself very bluntly, you Zhang Yue and the emperor have no real intention of making peace with Western Xia, so why did you send me, Lu Gongzhu, to negotiate peace?

Zhang Yue admitted that he used some rhetoric in his discussions with Lu Gongzhu.

Of course, it is not appropriate to say that it is a lie. We can only use the skill of talking, which is similar to a salesperson who sells products.

Of course, Lu Gongzhu was not so stupid. He was considering that they were relatives, so it was difficult for him to refuse Zhang Yue's request, and Zhang Yue did oppose the use of troops against the Tanguts.

If it were an ordinary person, Zhang Yue would have scolded him long ago. You, Lü Gongzhu, are now the Deputy Privy Councilor. I helped you get your position in the two ministries through the peace talks. Didn't you get the benefits?

You are now the Deputy Privy Councilor. Isn't that great?

Why are you talking nonsense to me?

But when Zhang Yue said this and even revealed this intention, Lu Gongzhu immediately turned away and told him not to ask him to do anything for him in the future.

So it is said that a gentleman is a slow learner, but a gentleman is also one who is capable of accomplishing things. Otherwise, why would Zhang Yue find Lu Gongzhu? If someone else wanted to go, Zhang Yue would not want them to go.

Zhang Yue said: "Lü Gong, politics is not either this or that. It is different at different times. The relationship between the imperial court and the Tanguts is no different."

"Lü Gong cared about the people of the world and hoped that the war between Song and Tangut could be stopped so that the people would no longer suffer from the disaster of war. This really made me respect him."

"But I have always been pragmatic in my dealings. Only when we can fight can we make peace, and only when we can make peace can we fight."

Lu Gongzhu said: "Prime Minister, the Tanguts do not want peace. Now their ruler has already abolished the power of the Liang clan, adopted the Han system, and appointed Li Qing as prime minister. Once the war is restarted, the ruler will certainly appoint the Liang clan. At that time, both sides will be in constant war."

"Master Zhang, do you know what will happen if the people's hearts are stirred up? This is like playing with fire!"

Zhang Yue wanted to refute when he heard this, but he held himself back.

He thought about it carefully.

In another time and space in history, Bismarck launched a war to unify Germany.

Most of the parliament was against it, so Bismarck forcibly dissolved the parliament. Later, he sent people to monitor the speeches of the parliamentarians.

In the decisive Battle of Sadowa in the Austro-Prussian War, it was generally believed that the Austrian army was stronger than the Prussian army. At the critical moment of the decisive battle, the Prussian Crown Prince led reinforcements to defeat the Austrian army.

At that time, someone told Bismarck that if the crown prince's army had arrived later, he would be a sinner of Prussia, but now he is a great man.

After the victory over Austria, all the people who had opposed Bismarck became supporters of him. Every day, thousands of people waited in front of Bismarck's official residence and cheered him when he went out.

In the subsequent Prussian elections, most of the MPs who had originally opposed the war were replaced by those who advocated it. However, Bismarck suppressed speech, abolished newspapers, and swept away the opposition, which also planted the seeds of militarism in the later empire.

In fact, Zhang Yue has always been following Bismarck's path.

But what Lu Gongzhu said was right. Establishing the political correctness of attacking the Dangxiang and getting the whole country from top to bottom to support his war against the Dangxiang was like playing with fire.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yue asked, "Then I would like to ask Lu Gong, what should I do?"

Lü Gongzhu was slightly surprised when he heard this and said, "It is better to handle this with caution. The Tanguts do want to make peace with our dynasty and stop fighting, but if we insist on giving in, the Tanguts will think we are easy to bully."

Zhang Yue smiled slightly when he heard this. Now that the matter has come to him, he will kick the ball back.

He repeatedly insisted on attacking Western Xia, which would inevitably be opposed by Lu Gongzhu, but he let Lu Gongzhu make his own decision and resumed his middle ground.

Zhang Yue said: "Lü Gong is right. The Dangxiang are indeed the kind of people who are always pushing for more."

Lu Gong wrote: "Do it with reason. I am in a big country, so I should still uphold etiquette and uphold morality."

Zhang Yue nodded and said, "This is good advice."

After Lu Gongzhu left, Zhang Yue watched his back.

Yes, I want to follow Wang Anshi's "one morality", but one morality does not mean that I have to reject different opinions.

There must be good dissenting opinions in the court.

It seems that when everyone is cursing and arguing about things, they are all on the rise. But when everyone stops talking and is too lazy to express their opinions, knowing that it is useless to speak up, or even being retaliated against, then they usually start to go downhill.

How can we hold the middle ground while maintaining the political correctness of attacking the Tanguts and maintaining dissenting opinions?

……

Zhang Yue returned to the West Hall of the Secretariat, but saw Cai Bian, who seemed to have been waiting for a long time. Seeing Zhang Yue coming, he said, "Prime Minister, Sun Lu, the inspector of Qinfeng Road, secretly reported that 132 officials in Qinfeng Road were derelict in their duties and corrupt."

He told me in one breath that there were problems with 132 officials in Xihe Road.

When Zhang Yue read the letter, he found that nearly half of the officials were involved in a conspiracy.

The Hexi Corridor from Qinfeng Road to Liangzhou is the Silk Road. Now Zhang Yue wants to open up the Western Regions, and has recovered thousands of miles of Xihe Road. In addition, the Song Dynasty also has Beijibu, which is almost equivalent to silk.

Now the Song Dynasty's northwest foreign trade has increased dramatically.

Now Sun Lu has discovered that this conspiracy was caused by foreign trade. According to Sun Lu's statistics, the customs duties received by Xihe Road are only one tenth of the actual customs duties.

The rest were either smuggled or embezzled by officials during normal customs declaration.

Zhang Yue couldn't help but sneer when he saw it. There is really nothing new under the sun.

He saw a joke: How should the three heroes of the Qing Dynasty's restoration be ranked?

There was one person who ranked higher than Zeng, Li and Zuo. This person was not from the Qing Dynasty, but a foreigner named Hart.

Under Hart's management, the Qing Dynasty's customs revenue increased from less than 5 million taels a year to 20 million taels. It was this money that maintained the shaky Qing Dynasty.

In fact, Hart did not have any extraordinary means. He just discovered a problem. The biggest problem in the Qing Dynasty's foreign trade was smuggling, and it was the smuggling of normal goods.

For example, the smuggling of arms and luxury goods is relatively normal, because either the arms are not allowed by customs, or the tariffs on luxury goods are too high.

But why do normal goods have to be smuggled during customs clearance?

Because the customs clearance procedures are too complicated and there are bribes at every level, merchants can make higher profits by smuggling normal goods.

So Hurd reformed the tax system and put an end to corruption.

It was originally a humiliating thing, but the Qing Dynasty was able to accept it. Later, Britain wanted to return the tariffs to the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing Dynasty refused. Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang by using the Qing Dynasty's tariffs as collateral to raise funds from foreign banks.

Zhang Yue looked at the list carefully. In addition to Sun Lu's signature, there was also the signature of Fan Yu, the Qinfeng Road Transport Commissioner, which obviously had been confirmed.

I know half of the people here.

In fact, a large part of them were those who had once shed blood and suffered injuries on Xihe Road, and they had worked together to build the empire of Xihe Road.

They were once his subordinates, and the rest are also his subordinates' subordinates.

Cai Bian said: "Prime Minister, the officialdom has been like this for a long time."

"Fortunately, Sun Lu was sent to Xihe Road by the Prime Minister. Otherwise, this matter would have been used by outsiders or even Cai Que, and the consequences would have been disastrous."

"At the same time, Fan Yu and Sun Lu did not come from the prime minister's staff, nor did they follow the prime minister. Their words must also be reviewed."

Zhang Yue said: "I think it's 90% true."

"It is precisely because Fan Yu and Sun Lu are not from my staff and have never followed me that most of what they say is true."

Cai Bian knew that this was indeed as Zhang Yue had guessed. Xihe Road was all built by Zhang Yue alone, and most of the officials serving here had close ties with Zhang Yue.

This is how the officialdom is. When one person rises, he will promote another, and the person being promoted will then promote the next person.

Therefore, the officials of Xihe Road were not promoted by Zhang Yue himself. Many of them were promoted by officials he had promoted before, and they were all his disciples.

However, Fan Yu and Sun Lu had offended Zhang Yue before, but had no relationship with the people under Zhang Yue. That's why they dared to bring them out one by one, and finally it broke into a group of cases.

Zhang Yue said: "These people on the list have followed me. They think that after I become the prime minister, they can enjoy the shade under the big tree and act without any scruples!"

Cai Bian said: "Sun Lu's meaning is that these people have made contributions to the court, and as long as they can pay back the embezzled money, they can be forgiven."

Zhang Yue said: "Punish Wang Hou first!"

"Wang Hou is not strict with his subordinates, so first remove him from his position as the commander of the Xihe Road Army! The rest of them should either be placed under supervision, demoted, or even exiled. They should not be allowed to stay in their original positions."

"Yuan Du, pack up and go to Xihe Road tomorrow. Inspect the local area in the name of the Official System Detailed Department! Those who voluntarily surrender their bribes can be punished, and those who have made contributions in the past can also be considered. You can handle these by yourself, and don't be afraid of others saying that I, Zhang San, don't remember the old friendship. This prime minister wants to rectify the customs of the world, and he should start with the customs of Xihe Road. I will write a letter to Wang Hou to tell him that your words are my intentions."

Cai Bian said yes, knowing that Zhang Yue was very angry this time.

At the same time, Cai Bian felt delighted. Being entrusted by Zhang Yue with full authority to handle such matters showed Zhang Yue's trust in him.

Especially this sentence "Your words are what I mean", it was almost as if Zhang Yue was the spokesperson handling the matter.

Of course, Cai Bian also knew that this matter was indeed thorny. These officials were all old friends of Zhang Yue. He wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey and rectify the atmosphere of the officialdom in Xihe Road. At the same time, he also had to consider the old relationship. These people also made contributions to the development of Xihe Road.

Everyone in the officialdom knows that Zhang Yue is a man who cherishes old friendships.

So does Zhang Yue believe that Cai Bian can make a decision for him?

Even Zhang Yue hinted that he intended to hand over the government to Cai Bian. Wang Hou was Zhang Yue's second disciple, and they had a teacher-student relationship.

If this matter is handled well, Wang Hou will also do Cai Bian a favor. Apart from anything else, with Wang Hou's support, Cai Bian's status in the Zhang Party will also rise.

Of course, all this is just Cai Bian's speculation. Zhang Yue is still young, and he has at least ten years to serve as prime minister before defeating the Dangxiang.

There's no reason to be thinking about a replacement so early.