Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 93 Wang Anshi’s Stubbornness
Zhao Xing smiled and said, "No need for formalities. Someone, please give Wang Xima a seat."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Wang Anshi bowed and said, "Your Highness is still young, so it's better for you to drink less. Besides, brewing wine requires grain. Your Highness is the crown prince. If Your Highness loves wine, it will surely lead to others following suit and alcoholism will become a trend, which is not good for the country."

Zhao Xing: "..."

He had some understanding of Wang Anshi. Wang Anshi had a very stubborn character. He would insist on what he thought was right, and was known as the Stubborn Prime Minister.

As soon as they met, he started to lecture the prince. Only he knew Wang Anshi's character, otherwise he would definitely be unhappy and distance himself from him.

No wonder my father disliked Wang Anshi, but brought Wang Anshi to his side.

"I've taken note of what Wang Xima said." Zhao Xing nodded slightly.

Wang Anshi was a little surprised when he heard this. He knew that what he had just said was not pleasing to the eye, but because of his personality, he still said it even though he knew it.

When he said this, he was prepared for Zhao Xing to get angry, but he didn't expect that Zhao Xing didn't seem angry at all.

The bad impression that I had when I smelled the alcohol before has also faded a lot.

"Wang Xi Ma has shown me your father's Zhazi. There are some parts that I don't quite understand. I wonder if Wang Xi Ma could explain it to me in detail?" Zhao Xing said with a smile.

Wang Anshi was stunned. Even though he was usually calm and composed, he felt a little excited when he heard this.

Learn literary and martial arts, and sell them to the imperial family.

For a minister, especially one with ideals and ambitions like Wang Anshi, he very much desires for his ideals and ambitions to be recognized by the monarch.

He submitted memorials many times, suggesting reforms, but all of them fell on deaf ears and the government ignored them.

As the crown prince and the only son of the emperor, Zhao Xing will surely ascend the throne in the future.

Compared with the emperor, he was more eager to gain the recognition and support of Zhao Xing, the crown prince.

The problems of the Song Dynasty were too deep, and Wang Anshi was not optimistic that the reform would be effective soon.

After all, the government is old, and it will take a long time for the reform to transition from implementation to stability.

Only by maintaining policy stability can reform be successful.

Zhao Xing was still young. If he could firmly support the reform, he could completely solve the long-standing problems of the Song Dynasty in a few decades.

Wang Anshi quickly calmed down and told Zhao Xing about what he had seen and heard in the local area over the years.

Wang Anshi was born into an official family and followed his father on official tours since he was a child. After becoming an official, he served as a county magistrate in many places and understood the sufferings of the people.

He first recounted what he had seen and heard over the years, and then pointed out the various shortcomings of the court.

Finally, he elaborated in detail on several reform measures he had come up with - the Green Sprouts Law, the Farmland and Irrigation Law, the Exemption from Military Service Law, the Market Exchange Law, the Equal Taxation Law for Square Fields, and the Horse Protection Law.

Zhao Xing remembered that there should be some left, but considering the current time, it was normal.

At this time, there were still many years before Wang Anshi presided over the reform, and the rest should have been something he thought of adding later.

Through Wang Anshi's detailed narration, Zhao Xing also had a deeper understanding of Wang Anshi's reform proposals.

The Qingmiao Law actually means that when the people are facing a food shortage or have no money to buy grain, the government will lend money and grain to the people at extremely low interest rates to help them get through the difficult times.

This can prevent local landlords from exploiting the people and also prevent land annexation.

Common people always have difficulties in life due to various reasons and need to borrow money from landlords. However, the interest rates charged by landlords are very high, and the interest is compounded, so most people are unable to repay.

In the end, they could only sell fields, land, children and daughters to repay the debt.

This was the most common means of land annexation in ancient times.

The Agricultural Land Irrigation Law and the Square Field Equal Taxation Law were intended to develop water conservancy projects and thoroughly investigate hidden fields, respectively.

Needless to say, the former is also a very common phenomenon in ancient times.

At the beginning of a dynasty, the land of the country would be measured. However, in the middle and late stages, the amount of land recorded by the court would be much less than at the beginning of the founding of the country.

That part is hidden.

Some people may say that the imperial court is not stupid. The number of acres of land recorded in the books has clearly decreased. Can’t they notice it?

It is indeed impossible to find them because the hidden fields are all legal.

For example, fields near a river bank could be removed from government records as long as they were reported as being frequently flooded and uncultivable.

The landlords and powerful people colluded with the government and used various excuses to turn fertile farmland into wasteland in order to hide the farmland.

The exemption law requires paying money to be exempted from corvee labor, and the government can use the money to recruit corvee labor.

In this way, the rich can avoid performing labor service, and the poor people can have more ways to make money in their spare time.

As for the Horse Protection Law, it was to distribute foals to the people in the north and let them raise horses for the court in order to offset taxes.

By doing this, the imperial court could save a lot of manpower and material resources, the people could also benefit, and it could provide the army with a steady supply of horses.

At first glance, these suggestions put forward by Wang Anshi are all good ideas.

However, there are also many disadvantages.

Take the horse protection method for example. Zhao Xing remembered that the Ming Dynasty seemed to have used a similar method, but it made the people in the north suffer terribly.

As the saying goes, a fortune is worthless if it doesn’t have hair.

Horses can definitely get sick. If the foal given by the court died of illness, who would be responsible?
If it was counted as the people's, how could they afford the compensation given the price of the horses?
If it was the imperial court's business, the people would not be attentive, and some even killed the horses on purpose.

There is also the Qingmiao Law, which had good intentions in its original form, but land annexation has become very serious nowadays and there are not many people in the world who own land.

How much significance does it have to implement the Qingmiao Law at this time?

Zhao Xing pointed out these drawbacks to Wang Anshi one by one.

After listening to this, Wang Anshi said, "Your Highness, any policy has its pros and cons. It is impossible to be perfect. As long as the court does a good job of supervision, the pros outweigh the cons. We can't just throw the baby out with the bathwater, can we?"

Zhao Xing frowned slightly, and he had a deeper understanding of Wang Anshi's stubbornness.

Normally, when someone points out the drawbacks, the person making the suggestions should think about how to solve these drawbacks.

But Wang Anshi's meaning seemed to be that he was unwilling to reform as soon as he saw any drawbacks.

Zhao Xing admitted that what Wang Anshi said made sense. Any policy has its pros and cons, but isn't it necessary to improve it as much as possible before implementing it?
"I understand what Wang Xima said. But have you ever thought about the resistance? Putting aside other things, have you ever thought about why the new policy failed in the first place, Wang Xima?" Zhao Xing asked.

"It is precisely because the accumulated problems are too deep that we need to reform them. In my opinion, the Song Dynasty at this time is like a person who is already seriously ill and must take strong medicine to be effective. As for your Highness's question about why the new policy failed, I have also thought about it. The new policy was implemented too hastily and had many drawbacks. Those voices of opposition were just a catalyst. Even if no one opposed it, the new policy would still fail under the circumstances at the time." Wang Anshi said.

(End of this chapter)