Chapter 120 Is it fair for you to perform meritorious service and for me to be promoted?

Everything is difficult at the beginning.

A successful start and the rest will be easy.

After signing the first contracting agreement, Bao Zheng simply held a meeting in Caizhou and summoned all the heads of legations around Caizhou to Caizhou to hold a unified contracting meeting.

The process of the conference was to introduce the contracting plan in detail, and then Pan Songshan gave his own experience and taught them how to expand their operations, improve service quality, etc. After the conference, the curators were very excited and signed one after another.

Make an agreement.

But not everyone is willing. Several embassy directors neither want to contract nor give up the embassy, ​​and plead not to make any changes.

But Bao Zheng was unwilling to do so and insisted on making rectifications. Those who were willing to participate in the contracting would do so. Those who were unwilling to participate would have their positions as curators removed and their deputies would take over the contracting. If neither the principal nor the deputies were willing, they would openly recruit from the public.

Under such threats, several curators could only accept it, but they still said strange things.

Bao Zheng warned: "It's okay to complain, but since you have signed a contract, you must strictly abide by it.

If you still have the same style as before, cheating, taking bribes, and making false accounts, if you are found out, you will be severely punished in accordance with the law. You'd better weigh the consequences.

I have contracted the embassy and allowed you to operate it for the private sector. The profits are very high, and I have given you enough space. If you are still not satisfied, you will have to deceive the superiors and conceal the good future, and you will have no one to blame..."

Bao Zheng's warning shocked some people, but Zhang Heng knew in his heart that Zhu Yuanzhang could not scare corrupt officials even if he peeled off his skin and planted grass, let alone Bao Zheng's few words of lightness, which could not scare the greedy heart.

However, Zhang Heng didn't care too much about this. While formulating the contracting system, he also formulated a supervision plan.

The supervision plan is relatively strict, combining regularization with surprises to deter greedy people.

But no matter what kind of supervision there are, there are loopholes. As long as most of the loopholes can be plugged, they can grasp the general direction.

Not to mention anything else, just by contracting out all the embassies, we can save more than one million yuan in expenses every year. This alone reduces the burden greatly.

Moreover, each embassy also had to charge a basic fee, which was 3,000 guan more or 1,000 guan less. A total of 656 embassies would be able to recover nearly 1 million guan.

It can be said that just by contracting out, without considering the subsequent proportional profits turned over, the savings plus the basic expenses recovered are enough to complete the accounting that Zhang Heng had initially calculated with Zhao Zhen.

Bao Zheng was very excited and said to Zhang Heng: "Just by doing this, we can save the Song Dynasty more than two million guan every year. With more than 2 million guan of free money, the national treasury will be much richer!"

Do you know that the treasury has been so empty in the past two years that even the salaries of officials cannot be paid. Before, some people went to the third division to make trouble. It is ridiculous to think about it. Officials who are dignified actually went to ask for their salaries. It is an insult to politeness.

!”

Zhang Heng just smiled.

Is the extra two million guan of free money useful to the entire Song Dynasty? Of course it is useful, but not as useful as imagined.

In today's Great Song Dynasty, various systems are like land that has been dry for many years. More than two million yuan of money is like a few buckets of water. When poured into this dry land, it will disappear without a trace in just a moment.

No trace, as if it had never appeared.

If the Song Dynasty were personified, it would have a big mouth like a monster, and then howl: "I'm hungry! I'm thirsty! I'm going to starve to death, I'm going to die of thirst!"

Because of the huge group of officials and the huge army in the Song Dynasty, which swallowed up huge amounts of funds, and corruption was rampant, joints everywhere were sluggish.

For example, if there is a flood in Henan, the imperial court squeezes out tens of thousands of guan in disaster relief funds. Of these tens of thousands of guan, only a few dozen guan may be left in the hands of the victims.

The local disaster relief personnel spent dozens of dollars to build a porridge shelter, then used hundreds of kilograms of rice to cook hundreds of buckets of porridge water, and then provided porridge for two days. The officials went over to inspect and nodded with satisfaction, then wrote a memorial and reported it, and that was it.

!

Just making money couldn't save the Song Dynasty, but Zhang Heng still insisted on doing it.

On the one hand, he needs to achieve political achievements and at least leave a deep impression on Zhao Zhen, which can allow him to be promoted quickly.

On the other hand, he wanted to try to do something to verify whether his later experience could be applied in this era, and to accumulate experience in doing things in this era.

And...he wanted to see what kind of reaction this system would have on people who have the courage to do things...

His test was necessary because the reaction soon came.

Zhang Heng and Bao Zheng headed south.

The contracting conference held in Caizhou was successfully held, and dozens of contracts were signed. Bao Zheng was greatly encouraged. On the one hand, he went to Zhao Zhen to report the results. On the other hand, he continued to go south and continued to hold conferences. Caizhou

After that, they went to Yangzhou, but before they arrived in Yangzhou, they were impeached.

The person who impeached them was Li Xing, a censor from Yushitai. There were several main charges for impeaching them.

One is to impeach them for selling the court assets at a low price and selling the assets that originally belonged to the court to private individuals;

The second is to impeach them for allowing the legation to compete with the people for profit;

Third, during the contracting process, Bao Zheng and Zhang Heng negotiated privately, sold the court assets at low prices, and secretly collected large amounts of bribes.

Good guy.

When Zhang Heng saw the impeachment charge, he had to admire the talent of the censor Li Xing.

These three crimes are each more serious and more twisted than the last.

The embassy was contracted to an individual to operate. In fact, the assets still belonged to the court and were not sold. However, in his words, the assets were sold at a low price;

But when it comes to the charge of competing with the people for profit, it becomes even if the government agencies compete with the people for profit;

As for giving and receiving bribes in private, there is really no way to investigate this, and of course there is no way to prove one's innocence. It is equivalent to having mud in your crotch, which is either shit or shit.

Bao Zheng, Zhang Heng and others were intercepted at the ferry. Bao Maolun looked very panicked. He looked at Bao Zheng and Zhang Heng and said, "Bao Tongpan, Zhang Qianpan, what should we do next?"

There was panic in his tone and panic in his eyes.

Bao Zheng and Zhang Heng looked at each other and smiled, and said at the same time: "Of course we will continue south to Yangzhou!"

Bao Maolun was surprised and said: "But we have been impeached. According to the usual practice, don't we have to hang up and wait for review?"

Zhang Heng nodded and said: "This is indeed the case."

Bao Maolun asked: "Then, then, we should continue to go south?"

Zhang Heng said with a smile: "It's true that I was impeached, but I didn't know it, so I still continued to do things. It won't be too late to find out when I'm done."

Bao Zheng said: "Impeachment is impeachment. Rules are rules. Officials who want to be shameless can follow the rules. If they are shameless, they can not follow the rules. I am not a very shameless person, so let's finish the matter first.

Bar."

Zhang Heng and Bao Zheng looked at each other and laughed.

Bao Maolun looked at the old and the young in disbelief. One was covering his ears and the other was doing it knowingly, but yet he was so heroic.

Zhang Heng smiled and said, "Can't you understand?"

Bao Maolun nodded, he really didn't understand.

Zhang Heng smiled and said: "Then do you think it will be beneficial to the court to contract this matter?"

Bao Maolun immediately said: "Of course it is beneficial, hugely beneficial!"

Zhang Heng asked again: "Will this contract be beneficial to the people?"

Bao Maolun said: "It is naturally beneficial. The embassy is safe and provides good services. It also provides an extra layer of protection for people traveling, so it is naturally good."

Zhang Heng nodded and said: "Since it is good for the court, good for the people, and a good thing for the contractor, in other words, this is something that everyone is happy with, so why can't we continue doing it?"

Bao Maolun said: "But, but we were impeached..."

Bao Zheng snorted and said: "The career of an official in the Song Dynasty is incomplete without being impeached."

Bao Maolun: "..."

A few days later, the contracting conference in Yangzhou was held like this.

A few days later, the Contracting Conference in Hangzhou was also held.

Probably after hearing about the impeachment of Bao Zheng and Zhang Heng, some people had doubts, and some were very impatient, fearing that the contract would stop. Some people came from further away to attend the conference, eager to sign the contract.

, but accelerated the progress.

There are even people from outside looking for a contract.

Seeing this situation, Bao Zheng simply asked the people from the Treasury Department and Bibu who came with him to go to each state to host the contracting conference. As long as they were willing to sign the contract, they would all sign it.

In this way, the progress has been greatly improved. By the end of September, Jiangnan Road has basically completed the contract signing. Of course, there are still people waiting and watching. Bao Zheng and Zhang Heng did not force it, because at this time the imperial censor sent by the imperial court also

Caught them.

As of this time, most of the embassies across the country have signed.

Bao Zheng and Zhang Heng returned home contentedly.

After returning to the capital, it was already autumn in Bianjing, and the autumn wind was bleak. When passing by the Huai River, it felt like the wind was blowing and the Huai River was cold. Bao Zheng warned Zhang Heng: "When you return to the capital, if the censor or others hear the news, you will

Just put all the responsibilities on me. This is not guilt, this is merit. Don't take away my credit, you know?"

Zhang Heng smiled and said: "Young man also wants to share some of the credit..."

Bao Zheng glared at Zhang Heng coldly and said: "You want me to make this trip in vain, don't you? I can tell you that if you are so careless, then we will never have contact with each other in the future."

Zhang Heng said helplessly: "Chengcheng, I listen to you."

Only then did Bao Zheng nod with satisfaction: "That's why my trip is not in vain!"

After returning to Bianjing City, Zhang Heng returned to the government office to hand over the work, and then hid in Zeng Gongliang's house to wait for the court's disposal. However, after hiding for only a few days, Zhao Zhen let him enter the palace.

After two months, I saw Zhao Zhen again. Zhao Zhen looked very happy.
To be continued...