I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 70: Auspicious signs appear frequently, and he takes office as the county magistrate

After successfully dragging the state's Tongpan Wei Xian into the water and making Wei Xian play the good guy, Zhao Zicheng's pressure was much less in the winter of the first year of Xuanhe.

As a county magistrate, he didn't have much to take care of. He was only in charge of corvée projects and the corresponding fundraising.

With Wei Xian helping him shoulder the hatred for this most important task, Zhao Zicheng only had to deal with the technical work.

As a result, the preparation work for the polder fields in Gusu County and even in Suzhou's other three counties, Changshu, Kunshan and Wujiang, went very smoothly this winter.

According to the final statistics, only much less money and grain were spent than in the same period of previous years, but the area of ​​​​polder was repaired, which was twice as much as in previous years.

This new building material, raw cement, was also widely used for the first time in low-end water conservancy projects. The soldiers and civilian laborers involved in the construction were very fond of this new material, which could replace large stones, as it greatly reduced the laborers' workload.

Although it is necessary to learn a lot of new operating techniques, which makes some civilians who don't like to learn quite uncomfortable, there are always many smart people who have flexible minds and are unwilling to work too hard.

After a period of natural selection, people will eventually be able to use their talents to the fullest. Those who are willing to use their brains will do the dexterous work, and those who are only willing to work hard will also have enough physical work to do.

The people are more relaxed, the gentry have to spend less money and grain on levies, and more work is done. This is a win-win situation brought about by technological progress.

Zhao Zi said that his own military training and expansion affairs, as well as the initial infrastructure investment in expanding the cement factory and iron wrought iron factory, were also successfully incorporated into these projects.

After the winter corvée work on the polder fields ended, the workshops built to provide tools and materials for the laborers could naturally be repurposed. They could then smoothly switch to producing weapons, or continue to produce cement for rapid wartime reinforcement of city defenses, both of which would be very useful.

Meanwhile, during these three months, Zhao Zicheng had also been busy encouraging people to engage in agriculture and sericulture. Because his innovative approach to building dikes with cement had become an instant success, discerning gentry and wealthy families in various counties of Suzhou were increasingly convinced of the feasibility of Zhao Zicheng's various initiatives.

Initially, Zhao Zi advised wealthy households, "Regardless of whether or not they need new mulberry cuttings, they should frequently prune the branches of their trees to ensure lush, lush leaves and increased yields." However, the wealthy households were hesitant to believe him. Some planned to wait and see for a year, observing the first-year results of other bold pilot projects before following suit in the second year.

Now that they see how successful cement dike repairs are, naturally more people are speculating that "County Magistrate Zhao might really be a sage who is born with knowledge. His cement method is successful, and his method of pruning the top branches of mulberry trees must also be really beneficial."

Once a person's credit and reputation are established, everything becomes easier. More and more hesitant and wealthy gentry join the ranks of those who trust him, and Gusu County's silkworm, vegetable, and fruit production will surely benefit from this in the coming year.

It’s a pity that many fruits and vegetables cannot be planted in winter, so for the time being we can only do some agricultural persuasion work on mulberry trees and fruit trees. The effectiveness of other work will not be seen until at least the beginning of spring.

However, even so, the Murong family, who were the first to unconditionally trust Zhao Zicheng, still prepared for him a lot of fruits and vegetables that were saved from last year's autumn harvest and grew particularly large using new technologies, which he could offer as auspicious gifts to consolidate his political achievements.

Whether local agricultural production had a good harvest, or whether it was an auspicious sign, was difficult to convince higher-ups with hard evidence. However, if the fruits and vegetables grew exceptionally large, unusually large, this was certainly not something that could be faked. As long as the actual evidence was submitted, higher-ups would undoubtedly acknowledge it as part of their political achievements.

……

Time passed quickly and it was the first month of the second year of Xuanhe.

A busy winter of farming is over, and Zhao Zicheng has also delivered an answer sheet that is satisfactory to all parties in his first year in office - of course, he actually only worked for more than three months in this first year of his term.

According to established precedent, the selection of officials after taking office, unless there were special circumstances, would be handled by the Ministry of Personnel after their respective terms had completed three years. However, the "Sui Ke" (yearly examination), the regular annual assessment of political performance, was conducted every year.

Since Wang Anshi's reforms, the requirements for annual taxes have become more detailed in theory.

The grades of annual examinations are divided into upper, middle and lower levels and recorded in the official's calendar, which is his resume as an official. When the selection is conducted after three years, all the annual examination calendars of the past three years will be taken out and comprehensively weighed before the final result is given.

However, if an annual assessment is extremely "outstanding" or there is a serious fault of obvious incompetence, he or she may be promoted or demoted immediately, and this is not subject to the three-year cycle.

By the time of Emperor Huizong, it was no longer uncommon for officials to be rapidly promoted or demoted if they offended someone, and the government was extremely chaotic. There were even cases of people who were good at flattering others rising from minor positions to the highest levels of government within two years.

Zhao Zicheng's situation was such that he had already made contributions before joining the government, and he should have been given a higher position. However, the system of selecting only the top two candidates for officialdom meant that his starting point was limited and he needed to convince the public. Therefore, after completing his work for the year, he had a good chance of being promoted.

If we report the relevant auspicious signs and the achievements in encouraging agriculture and sericulture and controlling floods to our superiors, it will basically be a done deal.

By the end of the first lunar month, the annual tax performance reports of all prefectures in Jiangnan had been submitted to the Ministry of Personnel in Tokyo. The Ministry of Personnel's emergency response was generally issued in February, and the conclusions could be distributed to the localities by March.

……

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

In the first month of the second year of Xuanhe, Tokyo Bianliang.

The day after the Lantern Festival and receiving congratulations from his ministers, Emperor Zhao Ji could not resist leaving the palace to visit Genyue. He instructed Liang Shicheng to arrange for Li Shishi to accompany him on the tour. Historically, the construction of Genyue was not completed until the beginning of the fourth year of the Xuanhe reign. Zhao Ji even wrote an "Imperial Record of Genyue" for the occasion. Therefore, if no new construction technology had been developed, the project could have dragged on for another two years.

Of course, construction was partially halted for over a year due to the Fang La Rebellion. Historically, after Fang La's rebellion, Emperor Zhao Ji temporarily suspended the Flower and Stone Gang to appease public anger. Without the raw materials provided by the Flower and Stone Gang, construction on Genyue could not proceed. Ultimately, to complete the project, the incompetent Emperor Zhao Ji resumed the Flower and Stone Gang after Fang La's demise. However, the suspension was brief, and after half a year, Genyue was finally hastily completed.

Today, Genyue is about 70% to 80% complete. Zhao Zi claims that the butterfly effect has somewhat accelerated the construction schedule. Even if the construction supervisor doesn't dare to overuse cement, the artificial pruning and induced growth of exotic flowers and trees will speed up the garden's decoration.

Zhao Ji came back to enjoy the scenery after several months, originally intending only to see the snowy scenery, but he did not expect that Genyue had changed so much since his last visit. He was so happy that he called several officials from the Ministry of Works and praised them, which made the relevant officials flattered.

"You are really attentive. The atmosphere of Genyue is very different from half a year ago."

"This is all due to Your Majesty's great blessings. The world is peaceful and prosperous, and all four sides are working together..."

Zhao Ji waved his hand, too lazy to listen to these flattering words, and soon immersed himself in his own garden banquet.

Not long after, he and Li Shishi went on a tour and felt a little tired, so they wanted some fruits. The eunuchs present them with fresh fruits from all over the country in time.

Zhao Ji just took a glance and became curious.

"These fruits are really big. Can oranges be this big? And it's already the first month of the year, and there are still such fresh fruits. Where did they come from?"

How could the attendants answer these questions? They just said that these were tributes from various states arranged by General Liang.

Zhao Ji became interested, so he ordered Liang Shicheng to be called again and questioned in person.

Liang Shicheng quickly said, "This is the latest tribute from the Jiangnan Yingfeng Bureau. Zhu Jie collected a lot of fruits and vegetables in Suzhou last year. They are all larger than usual, and even in the middle of winter, they look like fresh fruits.

I heard it was produced in Gusu County. Last year, Gusu County promoted agriculture and sericulture, and achieved remarkable results, with many auspicious signs being presented.”

Sadly, Zhao Zicheng's political achievements were intended to attract the emperor's attention so that he could promote the new agricultural technology on a large scale as quickly as possible and benefit the people more quickly.

However, he did not have the power to pay tribute directly. Even if there was an auspicious sign, it had to be reported to the higher authorities step by step, which was a slow process. In order to pursue speed and avoid offending people, he could only complete this matter through Zhu Zhen's Hua Shi Gang channel.

Zhao Zicheng's ultimate goal was to deal with Zhu Jie, but it was really ironic that he had to use Zhu Jie's channels until this moment.

Zhao Ji, intrigued by the auspicious omen, asked Liang Shicheng to bring him a report. Liang Shicheng knew the emperor's impulsiveness, so he wasn't surprised. After some effort, the report finally reached Zhao Ji.

These minor matters had actually already been approved by the relevant officials, and Zhao Ji only looked at the backup archives.

After reading it, Zhao Ji finally remembered the distant cousin he met by chance last summer.

"Zhao Zicheng has been the magistrate of Gusu County for over four months now. It's true that a capable person can do anything. He has so many clever ideas and has achieved so many political achievements in encouraging agriculture and sericulture so quickly.

If we prune mulberry trees, pinch fruit vines, and pick cotton flowers, we can increase the fruit and yield, and spread it throughout the country, and feed many more people."

After casually expressing his feelings, Zhao Ji then asked about Zhao Zicheng's recent situation and the Ministry of Personnel's annual evaluation of him.

Liang Shicheng had done his homework. Before he came, he heard that the emperor was concerned about these tributes, so he learned about the surrounding information in advance and answered questions fluently.

Zhao Ji was very satisfied. He said a few words of praise and let Liang Shicheng go.

Liang Shicheng understood what he meant and knew that the emperor still had a good impression of his distant nephew, so he decided to help him again.

At the end of the month, the Ministry of Personnel's annual assessment was completed.

Among the annual taxes of various counties in Suzhou, Zhao Zicheng's political achievements were the only one that was commented as "outstanding", and he was promoted to the magistrate of Suzhou on the spot.

A month later, the official document from the Ministry of Personnel was sent to Suzhou.

-

PS: Since everyone doesn’t like to read about farming and officialdom, and it’s hard to write about the conflicts, I’ll just fast-forward the timeline a bit and get to Fang La’s rebellion as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)