Chapter 24 Chapter 23 Friend of the Common People

Su Dongpo struggled alone, trying to reform the bureaucratic system without success.He could not tell the government to take precautionary measures to relieve future famines in advance.But in the next two years, he continued to fight against the shadows, and finally saved the Chinese people from the scourge of Wang Anshi's nationalism.According to Su Tungpo, millions of people were ruined, imprisoned in debt, or left home to escape the burden of principal and interest.The government is rich and the country is bankrupt.The Chinese people are the government's debtors all year round. The government has seized too many collaterals, and it is hard to know how to collect debts from those who evade their debts and go away.Wang Anshi died, and after his death, he was bestowed the highest honor.Now it is up to Su Tungpo to get the government to announce a full moratorium on the people's debts so that their families will not be ruined.The dead are dead, and we can look at the unfathomable bureaucratic thinking with a detached and even curious eye, how cruel, indifferent, and ruthless the people were sniped in the old debt jungle raised by Wang Anshi.

When Su Dongpo returned to the capital, he was greeted with a series of fierce attacks and criticisms.The situation is very unfavorable for the Hebei faction.The queen called him back to Beijing, as if she wanted to make him prime minister.His younger brother has been promoted continuously, and now he is Shangshu Youcheng. Shangshu, Zhongshu, and Menxia are both one of the three provinces in the Song Dynasty government.In the seventh year of Yuanyou (1092), June Ziyou was promoted again, this time as the servant of the door.According to the wider saying at the time, he was also one of the "prime ministers".No wonder his political opponents are terrified.Now the Empress Dowager recalled his illustrious brother to the court.In order to protect themselves, the political enemies of the Su family had no choice but to fight decisively.

Both brothers held high positions of authority and had been arguing over who should go out of the capital to save the other from suspicion.Su Dongpo decided to leave Beijing, but Ziyou said that the younger brother should let the older brother.As soon as Su Dongpo came back, he was attacked by the censors and wanted to retreat even more, so he presented the fifth and sixth letters of resignation. The more Su Dongpo asked to leave Beijing, the more serious the political opponents felt.Cheng Yi's student, Jia Yi, said in the 15,000-word memorial that Su Dongpo submitted his resignation letter because he was under pressure to win a position.Anything that can derogate him, Jia Yi will not let it go.Two months after the death of the first emperor, he wrote a small poem on the wall of a temple in Yangzhou, which was also brought up when he went to court.The long embankment of the West Lake is said to be "no benefit to public or private".He was also accused of misreporting the disaster in Hangzhou.Su Dongpo wrote a "begging for foreign aid to avoid Jia Yi Zhazi" and said, "Yi waits but be quick to his personal grievances, Gou can surrender, that is, he will fall into the ravine regardless of one party's life."This was another public court quarrel.Among Su Tungpo's enemies were Jia Yi, who had turned his back on his own party after the collapse of the Henan faction, and Yang Wei, nicknamed "Three-faced Yang," who had betrayed Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Lu Dafang, and Fan Chunren successively. Constantly changing beliefs.But Su Dongpo has many friends in power.The battle is fair, but there is only one outcome, because both sides have the same goal.The enemy wanted him to leave, and Su Dongpo wanted to leave too. Regardless of whether there was famine or not, the political struggle came to an inevitable conclusion. Three months later, Su Dongpo was transferred to Yingzhou (Fuyang).

But his task is not yet complete.In the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091), the harvest was not good, and the disaster became more serious.He spent eight months in Yingzhou and seven months in Yangzhou, so he had the opportunity to see the situation in the countryside north of the Yangtze River.In the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091), he was in Yingzhou. Once he went out of the city and saw groups of victims marching from the southwest to the north bank of the Huaihe River.Farmers, he reported, began tearing off elm bark to cook porridge with purslane and wheat bran.Bandits breed, and Su Dongpo reports many cases of robbery.He predicted that it will be more serious in the future, when a large number of refugees will leave the south bank of the Yangtze River.The old and weak fell by the side of the road, and the young and strong joined the ranks of bandits.

It is New Year's Eve.Su Dongpo and Zhao Lingjuan, the descendant of the royal family, went up to the tower to watch the refugees wading through the deep snow.Zhao Lingjuan said that he was woken up by Su Dongpo before dawn the next day. "I can't sleep all night," Su Dongpo told him, "I will find a way to help these victims. Maybe we can allocate some government food and make wheat cakes for them to eat. My wife said that when we passed through Chenzhou, Fu Qinzhi made great contributions to the relief. .We forgot to ask him how to help. So I came to you. Do you have an idea?"

"I've thought about it," said Zhao Lingjuan. "What the victims need is food and firewood. There are thousands of stones in the righteous storehouse, which can be distributed immediately. There are hundreds of thousands of scales of coal in the liquor office - which can be distributed to the poor." "Okay," said Su Dongpo, "we'll do it right away." As a result, nearby victims received temporary relief.However, officials in Huainan District still collected grain tax and firewood tax. Su Dongpo wrote to ask the government to stop this foolish practice. Now firewood and rice need to be transported freely.

In February of the seventh year of Yuanyou (1092), Su Dongpo was transferred to Yangzhou.His eldest son works abroad.But on the way to Yangzhou, he took his youngest son to visit various places in Anhui.He sent his attendants away to chat with the people in the countryside.He saw an unbelievable scene.The earth is full of green wheat fields, but many farmhouses are empty.Farmers are most afraid of a good year, because local officials and soldiers will come to force them to repay the principal and interest of the loan, and arrest them and put them in prison.When Su Dongpo arrived in Yangzhou, he said in his thank you letter that "every abundance and evil are all diseases".Chinese farmers and businessmen cannot advance or retreat.They had to choose between famine in bad years and prison in good years.

This is the legacy of Wang Anshi's reform.During Su Dongpo's stay in Hangzhou, in addition to urging the government to allocate money and food for disaster relief, he also put on a long form asking the court to let go of the people's debts.Trade was paralyzed, and even rich families collapsed.The government requires cash to pay taxes, and there is no currency in the market.The wealth of the country is completely concentrated in the treasury and used as war expenses in the Northwest.Compared with 20 years ago, only 40% to 50% of the people in Hangzhou District remain.The government itself has also suffered. Su Dongpo pointed out that the income from the liquor business has dropped from 300,000 guan a year to less than 200,000 guan.The Act of Exchanges made the small merchant obsolete.The system in which the rich guaranty their poor neighbors has bankrupted many of the rich.The number of lawsuits and problems at BIBS is unimaginable.Some people borrow money under false names, and they may even get the acquiescence of officials.Some of the victims had nothing to do with the loan, and some did not exist at all.Government records are in disarray.There are thousands of mortgaged properties in his hands, some of which have been confiscated.Are these confiscated goods enough for the principal, enough for the principal plus interest?How is the interest calculated?Many people have gone to prison for buying properties in litigation, and no one can figure out who the rightful owner is.Everyone is in debt to each other.Courts are too busy dealing with government debts to adjudicate private debt cases.Business has always relied on credit, but now that no one's credit is reliable, business has to come to a standstill.At the same time the bureaucracy is unbelievably corrupt.Every year, Hangzhou would send a batch of silk to the emperor.Desperate to receive the full amount of tribute, tax collectors often discarded damaged silk.The lost money has to be replaced; it all depends on the eunuchs to make money from bad silk, and then force the people to buy it at a good price.The prefect was oppressed by the chief, and the officials below were raised by debts - like sheep grazing on grass - domineering.

The indifference and delay of the central government is astonishing.As far back as May in the fifth year of Yuanyou (1090), Su Dongpo had drafted a petition asking the court to let go of all official debts.When a newcomer came to power, Sima Guang's government began to return the confiscated property.But the original intention of the imperial court was often blocked by bureaucrats.It is not possible to elaborate on all the arguments Su Dongpo was angry with here.Some bureaucrats insisted that the confiscated property ordered by the imperial court was limited to the property "received" after the third appraisal, and did not include the cases of "confiscated" by the government on the spot.There is a subtle difference between the two, where bureaucrats believe that those who immediately accept the government's "rebate" have recognized the valuation as fair and therefore do not have to return their property.Su Dongpo was quite indignant at this division, thinking that it was not in line with the original intention of the imperial edict.

This is just an example of bureaucrats defrauding the rights and interests of the people.Su Dongpo pointed out one by one that the imperial edict was misunderstood and misused, which was not good for the people.His big argument is that the blood and sweat of the people is exhausted, so what's the use of the government collecting bad debts that are twenty years old from people who can't pay them back?For example, among the 1,433 cases of liquor debts, after 20 years of urging by the government, there were still 404 cases that caused people to flee their homes and dare not return. The amount of money involved was only 13,400. Pass left and right.If things continue, the government will never receive the 13,400 guan.Why doesn't the government cancel the debt immediately and win the gratitude of the people?

Su Dongpo waited for 108 days without hearing from him. In September of that year, he sent another memorial, asking what was the result of the previous letter.This is a confidential letter addressed to the Empress Dowager. On December 8, the Empress Dowager handed the letter to the Ministry of Secretary-General, telling them to take action.On December 19, the Ministry of Household Affairs wrote to Su Dongpo, saying that the form was lost and asking him to write another one.On January 9th, the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091), Su Dongpo sent a copy, and added that the trade had been paralyzed for 20 years, and the government could only increase its annual income by restoring people's credit and savings.This is the final statement.Nearly two years later, the government has still not acted. At this time, the lake area and Hangzhou failed again and again, and the famine in the seventh year of Yuanyou (1092) was very miserable.According to Su Dongpo, more than half of the residents in Suzhou, Huzhou (Wuxing), Xiuzhou (Jiaxing) and other districts are now dead.A large number of disaster victims crossed the Yangtze River.Although the stagnant water gradually receded, the field boundary was completely washed away. "There are fields but no one, some people have no food, there are food but no seeds, there are seeds but no cattle. After death, people are like ghosts."According to Su Dongpo, it will take ten years for these areas to recover with the government's full support.He pointed out that if the government had adopted the measures he proposed earlier, the funds spent on disaster relief would have been less than half of today's disaster relief. "A villain's humble opinion is that he only cherishes money for the court, not the people for the sake of the emperor and father."What about the suffering people all over the world? On May 16, the seventh year of Yuanyou (1092), Su Dongpo raised the issue of money lending again.Unlike other officials, he abides by the imperial decree in his jurisdiction and forgives all cases raised by the imperial decree. Suspicious cases with unknown circumstances are postponed for one year to wait for the government to decide.He believed that unless the credit of the people was restored, the situation could not be eased, nor could trade be restored.Heavy debts and high interest rates are like stone shackles on the people's necks.Once the people's credit is destroyed, commerce and trade are also paralyzed.This is the origin of all evil.He submitted a 5,000-word memorial detailing the solution to the bad debts.Some people owed debts by selling public properties, such as young crop debts, official grain debts, spring tax and autumn tax debts, and some people owed debts to the Shiyi organization, and the Shiyi organization has been abolished, and the government ordered that the old debt be repaid in ten installments (every half a year) , Some people owe new debts because they haven't come out.These situations, together with the four kinds of debts mentioned in the above table in Hangzhou, make a total of ten kinds, and the government has ordered the cancellation of them individually.Su Dongpo reviewed the whole situation and wrote down detailed suggestions.Finally he said: One month after sending this letter, he wrote another private letter to the queen mother, suggesting that she make an edict as follows: "I heard that Huai and Zhejiang have the most debts. Years of disasters and injuries. They belong to each other. Now it is only in Huainan Yimai, the west of Zhejiang has not been rich and fierce. In response to Huainan, East and West Zhejiang, and West Beijing, all kinds of debts, regardless of the old and new, have the old official books, and have special rights to live and urge them for one year. Let the people who have been in poverty for a long time know a little Have a good time." Then he advised the Empress Dowager to legislate separately on money lending according to his previous detailed memorial. In July of the seventh year of Yuanyou (1092), Su Dongpo's proposal was formally promulgated.His wish came true, and all the public debts mentioned in the memorial were pardoned by the imperial court.