Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 104 The Head of the Imperial Prison

In the political landscape of the Tang Dynasty, the prime minister was undoubtedly a very important element.

The personality and style of the prime minister, as well as the policies he upheld, greatly influenced, and even directly determined, the political landscape of the time. This was particularly evident during the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Among the many prime ministers during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Li Yuanhong's deeds are not particularly prominent. He is best known for his fair judgment when he served as the registrar of Yongzhou, despite pressure from his superiors and Princess Taiping, which left behind the famous story of the "Iron Case of Nanshan".

As for his position as prime minister, aside from his frugal and upright conduct and conflicts with colleagues, there seems to be nothing particularly noteworthy about him. However, the Old Book of Tang does record one instance: Li Yuanhong's obstruction of the military-agricultural colonies in Guanzhong.

During the Kaiyuan era, Yuwen Rong was in charge of land and household registration. One of the policies for land registration was to abolish the official lands of all officials, both inside and outside the capital, and to return the land owed by runaway households and poor households.

However, after the official lands of the officials were abolished, each mu of land had to be compensated with two dou of millet. According to the data on official lands of the officials both inside and outside the capital during the Kaiyuan era, this expense alone amounted to two million shi of millet per year. And a large part of these official lands that needed to be compensated were concentrated in Guanzhong, especially the Guanzhong Plain near the capital.

Those who escaped the tax burden and received land were already considered light taxpayers, and the imperial court could not collect regular taxes from them for several years. As a result, the actual effect of this reform in the Guanzhong region was not worth the cost.

Therefore, some court officials suggested using the official lands of the officials as the basis for land reclamation in Guanzhong and Fuzhou, thereby directly generating income.

This approach is an extension and supplement to Yuwen Rong's land reclamation strategy. It involves exchanging official land scattered in prefectures and counties for private land through military farming, bringing these lands and people together, bypassing the jurisdiction of local governments, and implementing special management to conceal the fact that land reclamation in Guanzhong was not as expected.

Prime Minister Li Yuanhong rejected the proposal and put forward a very important point: "Military and national affairs are different, and China and foreign countries have different systems." He believed that blindly proceeding with the proposal would likely result in more harm than good and would endanger both the country and the people.

As a counterexample to this, Niu Xianke, who entered the court through officialdom in the late Kaiyuan period, disregarded the differences between the military and the state, as well as the different systems between China and foreign countries, and vigorously promoted the purchase of grain at the border, which caused a huge impact and damage to the financial system of the Tang Dynasty and the local administrative and economic ecology.

As for the other policy issue, the practice of using cloth to offset rent in Jiangnan is another old topic.

The root cause lies in the fact that the tax system of rent, labor service, and taxation, which was mainly based on the collection of goods in the early Tang Dynasty, was no longer suitable for the recovery of productivity and the development of the social economy of the unified Tang Dynasty. However, due to the lack of a sound monetary policy and sufficient money supply, it was difficult to carry out overall tax reform for a long time.

Although Li Yuanhong was the prime minister of the time, when it came to taking a high-level view of issues and pointing out the drawbacks of Tang Dynasty politics, his vision was indeed not as broad and thorough as Zhang Dai's.

When people talk about ancient people and events, they often have a kind of "awesome" filter over them.

In reality, most ancient people's experiences with people and events, the clashes of viewpoints they encountered, and their understanding of the world they lived in were less than what later generations received in a year, except for those who were constantly bombarded with severely censored opinions by marketing accounts.

Zhang Dai didn't know if anything or anyone would interrupt his exam, so he stopped being mysterious, took out paper and pen, and began to write furiously and answer the questions.

Zhang Jun was still outside, head down, plotting how to delay his response to the question. He could figure out that Li Yuanhong wasn't targeting his son, but him.

Therefore, if Zhang Dai's answer was unqualified and Li Yuanhong seized on this weakness, it would be secondary whether his son passed the examination or not; he himself would be severely criticized and might even find it difficult to continue serving in the Secretariat.

But just as he finished organizing his thoughts, he looked up and found that his son, instead of refusing, had already begun to write down his answers.

"This rebellious son is truly arrogant!"

He cursed inwardly and immediately stepped inside to stop them, but as soon as he reached the door, a provincial official raised his hand to stop him, saying, "Although Zhang She's family is well-mannered and upright, he is still a close relative of Zhang Lang, so we must avoid suspicion..."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jun retreated to the side in anger, and even his father at home began to complain.

I don't know what these two, grandfather and grandson, are up to. They've kept it all from him and show no consideration for the hardships he's facing in his position in the province. Now that things have escalated to this point, they still haven't shown any restraint. Both of them are just idle people, and in the end, he'll have to bear all the blame!
Not to mention Zhang Jun, who was hiding to the side full of complaints, Pei Dunfu and Xi Yu were also watching Zhang Dai, who was engrossed in answering questions, with some nervousness.

While his previous essays and poems were indeed brilliant and impressive, both of them knew that he must have made thorough preparations beforehand.

However, since the prime minister has set the topic at the last minute, it would be unacceptable if the performance before and after the topic differed too much, and the prime minister might even be directly accused of cheating.

The people involved were nervous, but Zhang Dai answered more and more smoothly.

Although there were no specific articles to copy from the policy essays, his own classical Chinese proficiency was enough to support him in clearly explaining his views and arguments. Perhaps it was not as eloquent as the famous policy essays of the ancients, but the important thing about this kind of article is not its literary style.

When discussing the military settlements in Guanzhong, he focused on the key point of "different systems for military and civilian purposes, and different systems for Chinese and foreign countries," and then continued to supplement his arguments.

For example, the disruption to the people and agricultural work caused by the public-private land exchange, the destruction of self-cultivating farmers by the conscription of military laborers, and the excessive levies of corvée labor—if these problems are not given sufficient attention and properly resolved, then the seemingly expanded production and increased income of the military farms are actually built on greater oppression of the common people, and will further exacerbate land annexation. As for the use of cloth to offset rent in Jiangnan, he addressed the issue by saying "the emperor governs the people according to their own convenience," which actually still adhered to the pre-Qin idea of ​​"light taxation based on local conditions," that is, the government collects whatever the people can produce and contribute.

However, his views are not limited to the single idea of ​​natural economy. The concept of governing people includes not only the people, but also the officials. It is not only about what the common people can contribute, but also about what the officials can accomplish.

Taxes should be collected in a centralized manner as much as possible, rather than being frequently levied at each level, which increases the burden on both the people and the administration.

As for how to maintain this balance, he didn't know either!

Isn't that obvious? If he could analyze every problem thoroughly and propose comprehensive and appropriate solutions, he would have gone directly to the Secretariat and become the prime minister. Why would he need to take the civil service exam here?
He truly had knowledge and genuinely thought about these issues. After picking up his pen, he wrote several thousand words in one go, with almost no long pauses, quickly filling several large sheets of paper.

Aside from Zhang Jun, who was complaining in frustration outside the corridor, Xi Yu and Pei Dunfu, who were supervising the exam in the room, were both taken aback when they saw Zhang Dai's demeanor. They were unsure whether this kid really had something to offer or was just putting on an act.
Despite their immense curiosity, they dared not approach and disturb Zhang Dai, lest they disrupt his train of thought. They simply stood aside, observing the young man writing furiously, exchanging glances and unspoken emotions.

Finally, Zhang Dai stopped writing, slowly exhaled, and placed the brush on the side of the inkstone.

Xi Yu and Pei Dunfu could no longer contain themselves and rushed forward, each grabbing a sheet of answer sheets from the table and reading them quickly. However, they discovered that neither of them had the beginning of the answer sheet. Just as they were about to look down again, the officials of the Secretariat hurried forward, collected all the answer sheets, and sent them to the chief secretary.

"Finished answering?"

Zhang Jun also noticed the change and hurriedly stepped forward, grabbing Zhang Dai who was stretching and walking out of the annex. He scolded in a low voice, "Didn't I teach you to procrastinate? How did you answer the questions..."

Zhang Dai glanced at him but didn't say anything. He strode towards the office, wanting to see what Li Yuanhong's expression would be after seeing his two policy essays.

Li Yuanhong was reviewing documents and files in the main hall. The matter in the outer hall was not worth his time. When he heard the clerk report that Zhang Dai had already answered the two policy questions, he was slightly surprised. He looked outside and saw that there was still some time before sunset. He immediately frowned and said, "So fast?"

It should be noted that these political issues involve many aspects, and even many court officials cannot reach a consensus. It usually takes candidates a long time to figure out the questions to be asked.

However, this young man answered both questions in less than two hours. He either gave random, perfunctory answers or demonstrated extraordinary talent and profound insight.

Judging from the current situation, the former is obviously more likely. So Li Yuanhong was already prepared to be angry even before he saw the policy essay. However, when he took the policy essay and began to read it, the expression on his face suddenly froze. The eight words "different for military and national affairs, different systems for China and foreign countries" stung his eyes.

He quickly rummaged through a pile of documents and found his own reply to the memorial. After comparing the two documents, he found that the content was about 80 or 90 percent similar and the viewpoints were completely consistent.

If this reply hadn't been drafted by him personally this morning, and he hadn't left the office since, he would have suspected that he might have copied this boy's policy essay.

Li Yuanhong held Zhang Dai's policy essay in his hands for a long time without saying a word, while the people waiting outside the hall were uneasy, as they were all unsure how well Zhang Dai had answered the policy essay.

Zhang Dai knew exactly what was going on. He was quite curious to see what Li Yuanhong's expression would be, so he peeked inside. However, the Zhongshu Sheng Zhitang (Secretariat's main hall) was deep and wide, and he could only see a blurry outline of the hall from outside the door.

After a long while, Li Yuanhong stood up from the hall, took Zhang Dai's answer sheet and walked out of the hall. He came to the door, carefully looked the young man over, and then said in a deep voice, "He is indeed an outstanding talent, a promising young man."

He could have simply invalidated the boy's answer sheet without even asking what happened, but since his own approval was to be discussed tomorrow, what he was rejecting was no longer the boy's policy proposal, but rather that Li Yuanhong was unfit to be prime minister!

"The selection of officials by the Jingzhao Prefecture is fair and just, and Pei Gongcao is commendable for his diligence!"

Li Yuanhong then returned Zhang Dai's answer sheet to Pei Dunfu, and then waved his hand to indicate that they could leave the Secretariat. He had no further objections to the matter.

"Your Excellency's keen insight and upright conduct have deeply influenced us officials!"

Pei Dunfu and the others were unaware of what Li Yuanhong was thinking. They assumed that this Minister Li was also impressed by the young man's talent, so they quickly bowed and said so as well.

The group took their leave together. At this time, a number of people had gathered outside the Secretariat, because the candidates' earlier commotion and subsequent recitation of their magnificent essays had already spread throughout the capital.

It was nearly evening, and with everyone at home, people couldn't resist coming over to see what was going on.

Pei Dunfu appeared even more excited than Zhang Dai. Standing on the steps in front of the Secretariat, looking at the crowd outside, he suddenly grabbed Zhang Dai's arm and raised it high, shouting loudly at the officials and candidates: "Zhang Lang is the head of the Imperial Examination Hall in the capital!"

(End of this chapter)