In the afternoon, a carriage slowly stopped in front of the famous Zhu Skull Teahouse in Tokyo. Zhang Xiaojie got out of the carriage and said to more than a dozen guard soldiers: "Let's wait for me here!"

He brought two close confidants into the teahouse. A tea girl tied him with Baiyutang. He said to the two confidants: "You don't have to go in. Wait here, and no one is allowed to disturb you."

"Abide by the order!"

Two strong confidants stood in front of the door, one with one strong body, one with one strong body, standing with their hands crossed.

Zhang Xiaojie walked into the tea hall. This was the suite. There was a tea boy cooking water outside. A beautiful tea girl was cooking tea in the inner room. She was sitting at the table. Fan Ning, the political affairs officer of the Song Dynasty.

"Let Xiao Fan wait for a long time."

Fan Ning smiled slightly and waved his hand and said, "Please sit down at the Prime Minister Zhang!"

Zhang Xiaojie sat down. At this time, the tea girl had already ordered a cup of tea. The foam was full and did not overflow, and the order was very perfect.

"This is Jingting Tea, ranking third in the Song Dynasty, second only to Dragon and Phoenix Tea. Zhang Xiangguo should be able to drink it in Shangjing!"

Zhang Xiaojie smiled bitterly and said, "There is Jingting tea, but the Liao Dynasty used boiled tea, add some salt, green onion and ginger, and finally drink it all to relieve the greasiness of beef and mutton. There is no such elegant tea order."

"Is there no literati among the Liao Dynasty?"

“There is sencha, but no tea.”

Zhang Xiaojie picked up the teacup and smelled it. The fragrance was scented. He sincerely praised: "The tea is good, and it is good to order."

Tea Girl smiled shyly and served Fanning with another cup of tea. Fanning smiled again and said, "Fry another pot of tea, and then you will be fine."

Cha Ji nodded and went down to Jiancha.

Fan Ning asked with a smile: "The negotiation is over, when will Mr. Zhang go back?"

"According to the plan, I'll go back tomorrow. Alas! I wanted to go to Mizhou this time, but I'm afraid there will be no chance."

"Is Xianggong Zhang's ancestral home in Mizhou?"

Zhang Xiaojie nodded, "My great-grandfather came to Youzhou sixty years ago. After his death, his family found a way to bury his bones back to his hometown in Mizhou. My grandfather and father were both buried in Youzhou. They always hoped that I could go back to Mizhou to sweep the graves and sacrifice to my great-grandfather, and I had to do the next time."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "I believe there will be another chance. For example, next negotiation, you can arrange it in Mizhou, so that Xianggong Zhang can get his wish."

"If that's the case, I'm really grateful."

At this time, the tea girl brought a pot of tea, and then both the tea boy left.

Fan Ning personally filled Zhang Xiaojie with tea and asked lightly: "My father-in-law said, Mr. Zhang had something to do with me, what would it be?"

Zhang Xiaojie pondered for a moment and said, "If I want to buy an island overseas, do you think it's possible?"

Fan Ning was stunned. They tried every means to lure Yelu Yixin to buy islands outside the sea. Unexpectedly, Zhang Xiaojie took the initiative to propose, which surprised Fan Ning.

"Zhang Xianggong, how do you say this?"

Zhang Xiaojie sighed, "Didn't you see that the deputy envoy Yelu Pinghui is actually responsible for monitoring me, just because I am a Han Chinese, Yelu Hongji does not trust me in his bones. Although he is the deputy prime minister, it is just that Yelu Hongji needs me, but my status in the court is not as good as a Khitan official who is two levels lower than me."

Fan Ning understood a little, "The cunning rabbit has three holes, and Xianggong Zhang wants to buy an island overseas, but in fact he wants to leave a way out for himself."

Zhang Xiaojie nodded, "I offended the prince Yelu Jun and the queen Xiao Guanyin. Once the prince ascended the throne, he will not tolerate me. I am afraid that my family will be slaughtered. Instead of being desperate at that time, it is better to leave a way out before now. The reason why I dare not talk to others about this is because I am afraid that people will talk too much and leak the secrets. At present, only you and I know. If it doesn't work, then I will say goodbye. If it works, then let's talk about it in detail."

Fan Ning pondered for a moment and said, "The Song Dynasty has controlled tens of thousands of overseas islands. It is okay to give Mr. Zhang a fertile and uninhabited island with a fertile land of hundreds of miles. However, this matter requires long-term consideration. In the end, Mr. Zhang can leave a token for me, and then I will send someone to Beijing to contact the son."

When Zhang Xiaojie heard that he was giving him an island, he was overjoyed and quickly took a jade pendant from his waist and put it on the table to push it to Fan Ning. "This is my jade pendant. Xiao Fan's husband can send his confidant to contact me, Zhang Zhou, the second son of my school in Liao Kingdom. No one else needs to find it. Please keep this matter confidential."

Fanning nodded, "I will report this to the emperor, and then we will contact each other in a single line, and no one else will know about it."

Zhang Xiaojie stood up and said, "It will make Yelu Pinghui suspicious when he is outside for too long. I will say goodbye first. Please give up Xiao Fan's husband for this matter."

"Don't worry! I will arrange the island as soon as possible."

.........

After leaving the teahouse, Fan Ning came directly to the palace and sought to see the emperor outside the Ziwei Palace.

After a moment, a eunuch led him into the imperial study. Zhao Xu put down his pen and said with a smile: "Why do you think of coming to see me today?"

"Your Majesty, there is something very unexpected today."

Fan Ning told Zhao Xu about Zhang Xiaojie's intention to buy an island overseas and arrange a way out for himself.

Zhao Xu was surprised that the Song Dynasty's development overseas attracted so many people's attention, and even the Liao ministers were paying attention. He thought for a while and said, "My husband thinks we should deal with it."

"Your Majesty, I have been considering Yelu Yixin these days. He is also quite moved by overseas islands. At first, I considered giving Danzhou to him, but Danzhou was to be the logistics base for flat islands. I considered giving him an island from the Little Liuqiu Islands. Zhang Xiaojie was the same. He could give him an island from the Little Liuqiu Islands, provided that he wanted to serve us."

Zhao Xu nodded. He understood Fan Ning's strategy and needed to dismantle the Liao Kingdom from the inside and lay nails in the heart of the Liao Kingdom as much as possible. Therefore, he took advantage of Yelu Yixin's greed and wanted to use Zhang Xiaojie to find a way out for himself. If these two people could make full use of it, they would indeed bring huge losses to the Liao Kingdom. Zhao Xu did not object to this matter.

Zhao Xu smiled and said, "I will leave this matter to my husband. You can handle it with all your powers, and you don't have to report it to me anymore. The same is true for Yelu Yixin."

"Thank you for your trust!"

Zhao Xu took out another draft and handed it to Fan Ning, "This is Wang Xianggong proposed two reform plans, one is to reform the official school and the other is to reduce redundant officials. Please ask Mr. Fan to take a look."

Fan Ning took the report and sat down to take a closer look. Wang Anshi wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of establishing a college of engineering to reform the official school system again.

Basically, like the historical plan, it attaches importance to the training of official schools, expands the number of Tai students, establishes external colleges, and reduces the imperial examinations to select students. In name, it seems to be reforming the education system, but in fact it has deep political intentions.

In the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination was nominally given a chance to rise for poor children, but in fact, every time they passed the imperial examination, they were basically children from famous families. Moreover, children from a family were admitted in a series of examinations. The imperial examination was fair, but they were not fair in terms of educational resources. The children of famous families occupied the best educational resources, and their children certainly had a great advantage over poor children.

Wang Anshi wanted to reform educational resources and strengthen the expansion of official schools. After graduation, Tai students entered the officialdom and gradually reduced the number of scholars who were admitted to the imperial examination.

Historically, Wang Anshi's educational reform was relatively successful, but it was also in education reform that Wang Anshi encountered the biggest reputation crisis. All Confucian classics used by students must use his annotations. In fact, he seized the right to interpret Confucianism and promoted himself to a position with Dong Zhongshu, Zhu Xi and others.

It was this incident that caused him to be strongly criticized from all sides. Just imagine how the literati of the Song Dynasty allowed Wang Anshi to monopolize the Confucian power of interpretation. Wang Anshi's reputation was corrupted and he died of depression within a few years.

Wang Anshi did not mention the issue of textbooks in the draft, and Fan Ning was not in a hurry to express his opinion. He looked at the second draft to cut redundant officials.

At present, the three redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant soldiers are the best solution. There are a lot of resources to resettle retired soldiers, cut down the wing army, promote the militia law, and replace the labor service law.

The redundant fees were also well solved. In addition to the government's firm control, wine, sugar, tea, spices, and mining were gradually relaxed, but it was not completely relaxed. Instead, the former model of profit-making by the government and a small number of merchants was changed to the model of profit-making by the government and most merchants. In fact, the interests of the government did not decrease, but the interests of a small number of people were diluted.

The biggest problem is the redundant officials. There are too many officials in the Song Dynasty. The children of powerful officials need to be taken care of, the children of high officials need to be given to their families, the graduates of Imperial College need to be placed, and the titles of the children of the royal family, not to mention the six or seven hundred Jinshi every three years.

In addition to military expenditure, the second major factor in the finances of the Song Dynasty was the various salaries and benefits of officials. However, the salaries of officials in the Song Dynasty were very high, which has been overwhelmed by the court for many years. However, in the past decade, with the expansion of overseas financial resources and the vigorous layoffs in the past two years, the court's finances began to become more abundant.
Chapter completed!