Five hundred and forty-seven chapters Zeng Gong and Zhang Yu
After Chen Xiang took up the post of Zhijian Yuan, repaired the daily life notes, and took charge of the Imperial College, he really caused a sensation in the officialdom.
Because there were not many such appointments in officialdom in the past.
After Wang Anshi returned to the court, he put forward two suggestions to the officials. One was to expand the enrollment in the Imperial College, and the other was to encourage local construction of water conservancy projects.
They all seem to be painless measures.
No one objects to the expansion of enrollment in the Imperial College. After all, it is a very difficult matter.
As for the edict issued to support local construction of water conservancy projects, it was only verbal encouragement. The court did not allocate a penny and wrote a blank check. It just hoped that state and county officials would be more attentive.
Therefore, everyone cannot see what Wang Anshi is doing to persuade officials.
However, Zhang Yue's advantage through time travel can be seen in a subtle way. The expansion of enrollment in the Imperial College is a precursor to the future reform of imperial examination schools. As for the construction of water conservancy, it will soon be transformed into the implementation of the farmland water conservancy law.
These are Wang Anshi's preliminary practices.
But through this incident, Zhang Yue gained a reputation as a knowledgeable person.
As the officials followed Wang Anshi's advice, everyone thought that it was only a matter of time before he became prime minister in the future.
Suddenly, there was an endless stream of officials and scholars from Zhang Yue who came to visit Wang Anshi in the capital, especially Wang Anshi's house.
Wang Anshi was on his way back to his hometown today. He heard something at court today.
The officials asked Zeng Gongliang and Tang Jie, the three ministers, if Wang Anshi could be the prime minister?
Of course Zeng Gongliang expressed his support on the spot without saying a word.
When asked about Tang Jie, the third envoy, Tang Jie objected: "Wang Anshi must not serve!"
Officials asked why? Wang Anshi couldn't be prime minister because of his literature, or because he couldn't be prime minister because of his classics, or because he couldn't be prime minister because of his official duties?
Tang Jie said that although Wang Anshi is very studious, he is old-fashioned, and although he likes to discuss, he is far-sighted. If you use such a person to govern, the world will be troubled in the future. The political affairs in the court will change today and will change tomorrow.
How can people trust the system if it is easily changed? This is a loss of trust among the people.
Wang Anshi didn't know about this, but after Tang Jie finished speaking, he went out of the hall and said in front of Zeng Gongliang and other officials: "If the emperor uses Wang Anshi as his prime minister, the world will be in trouble in the future. I will say this first."
I've said it before, so please listen to me and don't worry about what I say in the future."
After Wang Anshi returned home, his servant handed him a large pile of posts asking for an audience.
Wang Anshi didn't even look at the posts of these officials who came to ask for help, but asked: "Is Li Chengzhi here?"
The doorman Yu Hou reported: "We are already waiting in the hall."
Li Chengzhi is the son of former Prime Minister Li Di. When Mingzhou Judiciary joined the army, he was very successful in politics and tried to implement the exemption law.
After Wang Anshi learned about him, he summoned him to Beijing to discuss the exemption law with him.
After Wang Anshi met Li Cheng, the two sat down and talked about the exemption law.
This exemption law was first suggested by Zhang Yue. After Han Jiang adopted it, he planned to implement it. However, he was blocked by Sima Guang in the court. Wang Anshi did not say anything when he learned about it.
In fact, both Han Jiang and Sima Guang talked to him about the immunity from service law. Faced with the conflicting opinions of the two good friends, Wang Anshi did not express his position on the spot, but he was already inclined to support the immunity from service law in his heart.
However, he did not mention this matter because the conditions were not mature now, and he did not intend to follow Han Jiang's path. Instead, he wanted to put forward his own ideas and opinions, so that he could control everything in the future.
Therefore, he asked Li Chengzhi to discuss the details of the exemption law with him, and then tell the truth to the officials when the time was right.
Li Chengzhi did not expect that he would be appreciated by Wang Anshi, and he was also surprised. When he learned that Wang Anshi was interested in him for promoting the exemption law, the two hit it off.
After roughly finishing the conversation, Li Chengzhi asked: "Nowadays, both the government and the public are spreading rumors that the prince will pay homage to the prime minister. I wonder if the prince will be able to implement the exemption law by then."
Wang Anshi shook his head and said: "It is still too early to change the situation. The most urgent task now is to change the customs and legislate them! Customs are the people's hearts, and the law is to believe what they say. This was the truth when Shang Yang changed his money to wood."
Li Chengzhi said: "But I think that when it comes to reform, talents should be given priority."
Wang Anshi asked: "Yes, do you know of any officials with rich experience in serving as local officials and who are talented enough to recommend to me?"
Li Chengzhi smiled and said: "There are so many people outside the prince's gate, isn't it possible that no one is worthy of his attention?"
Wang Anshi said without hesitation: "I can't look down on anyone who is in favor of others."
Li Chengzhi laughed loudly, and then said: "I have heard for a long time that the prince's eyes are higher than the top, and now I have seen it. However, I know exactly one of the people the prince wants me to recommend."
"Please tell me."
Li Chengzhi said: "This man's name is Zhang Dun, whose courtesy name is Zihou. He was an official and wrote Zuolang. He now knows Wujin County."
When Wang Anshi heard this, he immediately said: "This person is not good. I heard that he is a man of great incompetence and is really useless."
Wang Anshi had heard many rumors about Zhang Dun. For example, he had outstanding appearance and was admired by many women, so he had many romantic affairs.
Li Chengzhi smiled and said: "What if the prince is not a talented official? The Zhang Dun recommended by a certain person is really a talented official. As for those who are not worthy of mentioning, if the prince talks to him after meeting, he will definitely like this person.
"
Wang Anshi said: "A few days ago, his father asked someone to come to me and asked me to recommend this person, but he was rejected by me face to face."
Li Chengzhi saw that Wang Anshi was unwilling to use it, so he gave up.
A few days later, Wang Anshi returned to the inner house and learned that his wife's brother Wu Yi had come to visit his sister.
Wu Yi's grandfather Wu Min and father Wu Rui were both Jinshi. He also learned from Ouyang Xiu in his early years. Later he followed Wang Anshi to Jinling and studied under him. Now he followed Wang Anshi back to Bianjing.
Wu Yi studied under Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi successively, and he was quite famous. When he was in Jianghuai, many people wanted to worship him as his teacher.
This time, after Wang Anshi suggested that the Imperial College expand its enrollment by 900 people, Tai student Chen Dong and others jointly submitted a petition to invite Wu Yi to be a teacher in the Imperial College.
The official asked Wang Anshi what he wanted, and Wang Anshi declined for him in order to avoid suspicion.
However, Wu Yi didn't like being an official, so it didn't matter that Wang Anshi declined the job after knowing it.
Wang Anshi and Wu Yi exchanged a few words. Wu said she wanted to cook some hometown dishes for her brother and left.
Wu Yi said to Wang Anshi: "Brother-in-law, I have recently accepted a disciple named Zhang Dun. This person is really talented, so I would like to recommend him to my brother-in-law."
Wang Anshi was stunned after hearing this and thought, although his brother-in-law is famous, Zhang Dun is also a high-ranking official, and he actually worships his brother-in-law.
This person is also willing to sacrifice his face like this.
…
After dinner, Wang Anshi talked about the matter with his wife.
Wu laughed and said, "That's not a beautiful thing."
Wang Anshi asked: "What a beautiful thing."
Wu sighed: "You are busy with national affairs all day long, and you have even forgotten your daughter's life-long events. I heard that Zhang Dun and Zhang Yue were brothers, and they later adopted each other. In this way, Zhang Dun and Zhang Zhi are also uncles and nephews.
"
"If he can gain your appreciation, our daughter's life-long affairs will be settled."
Wang Anshi shook his head and said: "This is what I hate the most in my life. If Zhang Dun is really a person of unscrupulous conduct, how can I recommend him to the officials? This is not letting down the officials' respect for me."
Wu said: "It doesn't matter if the officials look at each other, it's hard to say that they just like each other."
Wang Anshi couldn't help but hesitate after hearing this.
At this moment, Zhang Yu was sighing at home.
Zhang Dun failed twice in his attempts to become a court official. Once he was thwarted by Tao, the king of imperial edicts.
The other time was when he was impeached by Yushi Lu Jing and Jiang Zhiqi.
Yes, he, Zhang Yu, has not been in the palace since he became an official, but it doesn't matter to him. However, as Zhang Dun's fifth Jinshi status, not being in the palace is simply a shame and a great humiliation.
All this is due to Ouyang Xiu's recommendation.
Despite this, Zhang Yu still felt unwilling to do so.
This time Wang Anshi returned to the court, and even a blind man could see that Wang Anshi was about to be of great use.
So Zhang Yu wanted to follow Wang Anshi's path and asked him to recommend Zhang Dun to the library.
It happened that Zhang Dun, the uncle of Zhang Dun's wife, had a personal relationship with Wang Anshi, so he asked Zhang Dun to come to Wang Anshi to introduce Zhang Dun. Unexpectedly, Wang Anshi refused without mercy.
Later, I asked Li Chengzhi to recommend him to Wang Anshi. Li Chengzhi was not related to the Zhang family, but he admired Zhang Dun very much, so he recommended him to Wang Anshi.
But I heard that Wang Anshi rejected it again and said, "There is no way to do it."
This incident made Zhang Yu so angry that he almost vomited blood. Has Zhang Dun been unable to come forward?
Zhang Yu looked at the harmonious scene between the Yang family and Zhang Dun's wife and children in the inner courtyard, and felt deeply that he was really sorry for them.
At this moment, a servant from the mansion hurriedly entered the house and said, "Sir, a man from outside came here. He said he was holding a post from a Hanlin scholar. He asked the great man to come to the mansion for a chat."
Hanlin bachelor, which Hanlin bachelor?
Zhang Yu was overjoyed when he picked up the post and saw it... Isn't this Wang Anshi, who is now highly appreciated by the officials?
Zhang Yu was overjoyed and hurriedly took the post to find Zhang Dun, saying in a trembling voice: "Brother Dun, Brother Dun..."
…
And this time.
In front of the Zhang Mansion, Zeng Gong, the inspector of the pavilion, was followed by a young man.
Zeng Gong has been proofreading books in the Guanwen Pavilion in recent years, such as "Warring States Policy", "Shuo Yuan", "New Preface", "Liang Shu", "Chen Shu", "Tang Ling", "Collection of Li Taibai", "Collected Poems of Bao Rong" and
Ancient books such as "The Biography of Women" were proofread by him.
As for Zhang Mansion, he often came here. Although he did not marry his sister to Zhang Yue, Zeng Gong always regarded Zhang Yue as his brother-in-law in his heart.
This young man's appearance is somewhat similar to Zeng Gong's, and he appears to be somewhat honest and honest.
Zeng Gong said to the young man: "Zhang Duzhi is one of the best in the world in terms of talent and character. You must not neglect him when you meet him!"
The young man said respectfully: "Brother, don't worry."
The young man felt strange in his heart. He had just come to Beijing to take up an official position, but why did his brother come to see Zhang Yue instead of dragging him to meet his in-law Wang Anshi, who was now a Hanlin scholar?
This young man didn't know that Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi had different opinions about Xue Xiang, and they gradually stopped dating. Zeng Gong, however, always followed his mentor Ouyang Xiu.
As for the political differences between Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi over the years, they used to talk about everything as close friends, but now they are becoming more and more distant.