Just as Mei Zhili was about to go out, Zhao Guan's family stopped him.

"Is there any room for savings in official salaries?"

Mei Zhili said: "In the official family, the court's current rectification of officials has caused a lot of complaints. If the salary is reduced again, there may be something wrong."

"I didn't say I would reduce my salary."

It is very easy to raise salary, but very difficult to lower it.

Nowadays, we are adopting high-pressure measures against officials. We must not cut salaries at will, otherwise we will really offend the entire bureaucracy.

I'm afraid the New Dealers will all have complaints by then.

Saving money doesn't work that way.

While increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, we must also ensure that officials are motivated to do their jobs.

Mei Zhili hesitated and said nothing.

Zhao Ning said: "Retired officials can consider reducing all benefits as appropriate."

"Your Majesty, most of the retired officials of the imperial court are in Luojing and Yingtian. They still have a strong influence. If their retirement salaries are to be reduced, I am afraid..."

"how many?"

"The number of people is in the official department, but I don't have it here."

"I'm asking about money."

"The total number of retired officials is about two million dollars."

Two million dollars!

The Song Dynasty not only gave special treatment to serving officials, but also took special care of retired officials.

Zhao Ning will not really give no pension at all. After all, some people have dedicated their lives to the country, and pension is reasonable.

However, there was obviously something wrong with the pension system in the Song Dynasty. It was a bit ridiculously high.

Now Zhao Ding is rectifying the Enyin system, and the number of imperial officials will be reduced to a certain extent starting from this year.

In Zhao Ning's view, the leisurely life of retired officials should also be tightened up.

"Reduced to 500,000 guan, and the remaining 1.5 million guan will be invested in the Hedong front line."

"this……"

"This is a time when the country's expenditures are greatly increased. You can handle this matter without further discussion."

After coming out of the Wende Hall, Mei Zhili murmured in his heart: This is Shaanxi now. In the future, there is no guarantee that Hedong and Hebei will start printing banknotes to issue salaries.

He couldn't help but sigh, should he want to be Sang Hongyang?

You know, Sang Hongyang was used by Confucian scholars to criticize him every day.

After calculating the general accounts, Zhao Ning did one more thing. He promulgated benevolent policies for Shaanxi on the grounds that Shaanxi was suffering from war:

Exemption from head tax in Shaanxi Sixth Road and ten years of purchase.

As soon as this benevolent policy came out, it was immediately reported in all major newspapers, and the people all praised Zhao Guan's family as a benevolent monarch through the ages.

But everyone in the know knows that the Zhao Guan family is probably going to take action against Shaanxi's land policy.

Tax exemption is the prelude to the New Deal.

The New Deal is bound to offend people, so a benevolent policy must first stabilize the situation and win back Shaanxi's popularity.

As soon as Mei Zhili left, Qin Hui came.

"His Majesty."

"How about it?"

"This is the list of all those found so far involved in Shaanxi pension corruption." Qin Hui submitted a report, "The total money involved has exceeded 40 million yuan."

Zhao Ningzai looked at it carefully.

The number of officials has exceeded one thousand.

The number of people affected has exceeded 30,000.

"Your Majesty, I have something that I don't know whether to say or not."

"It doesn't matter if you say so."

"In the six months since I was reviewing this case, many officials have mentioned it to me and asked me to handle it as appropriate."

"It's reasonable to have so many people arrested at once, but you have to remember that many things must be done according to rules. Rules are used to manage people, and people cannot change them casually."

"Your Majesty is wise, I have learned the lesson, but..."

"Just what?"

"It's just that many officials from Luojing, Henan Prefecture were involved in the case. After these officials were arrested and imprisoned, it caused a great impact in Luojing."

"Oh, what's the impact?"

"Ministry of Punishment..." Qin Hui stopped talking.

"Speak directly if you have something to say."

"Many officials in the Ministry of Punishment are afraid of interrogating criminal officials in Luojing. As a result, many officials in Luojing cannot keep up with the interrogation progress, and things are squeezed here."

Zhao Ning suddenly became interested: "Why are officials from the Ministry of Justice afraid of officials from Luo Jing?"

"I went to inquire and found out that the officials from Luo Jing could not afford to offend me."

"Nonsense!" Zhao Guanjia's face immediately darkened.

Can Luojing officials afford to offend?

The dignified officials of the Criminal Department of the Imperial Capital did not dare to offend the officials from Luoyang who came to ask questions?

Qin Hui was startled and said quickly: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this matter is not groundless."

"Nonsense! Doesn't Luoyang still have an emperor?"

"Of course not."

"Then Luoyang is not my Luoyang?"

"Of course not."

"Then why do my officials from the Criminal Department dare not offend Luo Jing's officials?"

"Your Majesty, Luo Jing has a very high prestige in the literary world of the Song Dynasty today. Many famous families and literati gather here. The officials involved in the Shaanxi pension fund in Luo Jing this time have relatives and friends, and they have a deep influence among the scholars. Behind the scenes,

This power cannot be underestimated.”

Qin Hui's words are not alarmist. Luoyang was an extremely special place in the Song Dynasty.

Most famous officials would go to Luoyang after retirement, such as Ouyang Xiu and Sima Guang.

Moreover, there were three major literati groups in Luoyang, which had a profound influence on the Song Dynasty, which is unimaginable to ordinary people.

For example, in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Qian Weiyan, a descendant of the Southeast Qian family, formed the first literati group centered on him in Luoyang.

This group is a real literati group, you can think of them as forming a clique.

The second literati group is the literati group with Ouyang Xiu as the core, and even includes Su Xun, Wang Anshi and others.

The third one is the Sumen literati group, those students of Su Shi.

These people in Luoyang did not gather together to rebel or fight against the imperial court.

But the literati in the Northern Song Dynasty were naturally more arrogant. Everyone thought that they were literati and elegant guests. Luoyang was the ancient capital of the Celestial Dynasty and had a lot of cultural heritage, so the literati gathered here to travel around and write lyrics and compositions.

Over time, it developed a great influence.

For example, Cheng Yi of Luoyang formed the "Luo School". Luo Congyan, Yang Shi and other people with great influence in the academic world were all disciples of the Luo School.

The influence of ancient academic circles on the entire country was not that of an advisory group that gave advice in later generations.

The power of the ancient Chinese empire was divided into two lines. One was the administrative power line of the imperial power, which was the visible power to manage the country and form the army.

There is another line of power: Daotongquan, that is, Confucian orthodoxy, which interprets the orthodoxy of the emperor's legal principles.

They and the imperial power were interdependent, which originated from the original concept of "influence between heaven and man, and the divine right of kings".

When Qin Hui said that Luoyang had great influence, he did not mean that the officials in Luoyang had great power, but that in the literary world of the Song Dynasty, the official circles had great prestige.

Zhao Ning was keenly aware that this was not an issue with Shaanxi pension funds.

Not many officials in Luoyang were involved in the Shaanxi pension case, but the contradiction between two different ideologies behind the Luoyang incident may have begun to emerge.

Now that it has been implemented in the New Government School, the University of Tokyo, and a series of newspapers, the contradiction between the new ideology centered on Zhao Ning and the traditional Confucian ideology can no longer be concealed.
Chapter completed!