Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 94 Happy conversation
"You are right and wrong." Zhao Xing nodded, then shook his head and said.

"I wonder what's wrong with what I said?" Wang Anshi asked.

"I agree with what you said that the new policy will definitely fail. But I don't agree with what you said that the new policy has too many drawbacks and will eventually fail even if no one opposes it. On the contrary, I think even if the new policy has no drawbacks, it will eventually fail." Zhao Xing said.

"Why does Your Highness think so?" Wang Anshi frowned.

Could it be that he had misunderstood before, and Zhao Xing had no intention of reforming the law, and the reason he talked to him about this was because he kept submitting memorials, which displeased the emperor, so Zhao Xing was trying to persuade him in this way?
"In my opinion, reform is equivalent to dividing the pie. If the court and the people eat less of the pie, naturally some people will eat more. The so-called reform or innovation is to take some of the pie out of those people's mouths and give it to the court and the people. The court and the people will definitely be happy about this, but will those who originally had the pie in their mouths be willing? These people include landlords, gentry and officials all over the world. Your Majesty can decide who eats more and who eats less of the pie, but the specific implementation is still up to the officials. What do you think they will do?" Zhao Xing said.

In Zhao Xing's view, the success or failure of the reform has no direct relationship with whether there are drawbacks in the reform policies.

If there are drawbacks, just correct them. Reform itself is like crossing a river by feeling the stones. It is normal to have drawbacks.

Just like the establishment of a dynasty, the rules and laws that were initially formulated were also constantly revised and finally formed, and they are not static.

However, when it comes to reform, how come it becomes that if there are disadvantages, they will be directly cancelled?
Moreover, reform is just a general concept, not referring to a single thing.

The reform was carried out in many aspects including people's livelihood, officials and military. It doesn't make sense that all policies have drawbacks, right?
But after the new policy was stopped, everything was cut off and returned to the previous state.

This is enough to show that the so-called drawbacks are not at all the reason for the failure of the New Deal.

No matter how good the new policy is, there will always be a lot of people who jump out to oppose it.

The saying that he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world is sometimes not true.

Just like now, the powerful class and the landlord class in the whole world are all vested interests.

No matter how good the policy is, if they do not cooperate in its implementation and the people do not get any tangible benefits, how can we win their hearts and minds?
On the contrary, whatever local officials do will damage the reputation and credibility of the court.

Zhao Xing remembered that in history, Wang Anshi's reforms not only failed to benefit the people, but instead increased their burden.

Great men of later generations commented on Wang Anshi: Those who ended up in failure were those who had no general knowledge, did not fully understand the social conditions, and implemented inappropriate policies.

Basically, it means that he knew too little about the actual situation of the whole society and was inflexible. He was eager for quick results and blindly implemented a series of policies. Ultimately, due to the open and covert obstruction of many villains, he failed to achieve the desired results, which led to the failure of the reform.

Therefore, the success or failure of the reform depends on policy only one aspect; the most important thing is people.

Wang Anshi's expression did not change when he heard this. He said firmly, "Your Highness, I understand what you are talking about, but there are some things that we must do even if we know they are impossible."

Zhao Xing was stunned when he heard this, then he laughed at himself. Although Wang Anshi was stubborn, as a top figure of the era, how could he not think of these things?

He thought he was standing on the shoulders of giants. Although he was not as smart as Wang Anshi, he knew more than him and preached to others.

Perhaps this is a common problem among time travelers, who think they are knowledgeable and familiar with history.

But we forget that history is not as simple as it seems.

How many simple ones can leave their names in history?

It’s not that people don’t know, it’s that they know but can’t solve it.

After a long silence, Zhao Xing asked, "Since Wang Xima knows all this, has he never thought about how to solve it?"

"The solution lies with the emperor and His Highness, not with me. As long as the emperor and His Highness are willing to make a fresh start, these problems can be easily solved." Wang Anshi's tone was calm, but his words were earth-shattering.

Zhao Xing looked at Wang Anshi deeply for a long time, and suddenly smiled and said, "What Wang Xima said is exactly what I want."

Wang Anshi's meaning was very simple. As a minister, he could only solve the problem in this way. The factors of success or failure depended on the emperor and himself as the crown prince.

Wang Anshi naturally knew that there were many obstacles to reform, and he also knew that local officials would pretend to obey but actually disobey.

And the solution is to kill!

Of course, it does not mean to kill all those who oppose or pretend to obey, but to use killing to deter.

Doing so would likely cause major unrest, so he said that it depends on whether the emperor and Zhao Xing have the heart to reopen the Sun and Moon.

Only at this time did Zhao Xing truly get to know Wang Anshi.

Wang Anshi's statement that he knew it was impossible but still did it was enough to prove that he actually knew that the chances of success of the reform were slim.

But he was still willing to do it.

Perhaps that's why he is so stubborn.

Upon hearing this, Wang Anshi looked at Zhao Xing with a moved expression.

Zhao Xing said with a smile: "The Song Dynasty is the Song Dynasty of the Zhao family. I am the crown prince and will be the emperor of the world in the future. Wang Xima has the courage to go forward even if there are thousands of people against him. Don't I have the courage?"

"It is a blessing for the Song Dynasty to have Your Highness!" Wang Anshi stood up and bowed deeply.

"Wang Xima, please stand up quickly!" Zhao Xingqi stepped forward to help Wang Anshi up, and said solemnly: "Although I have made this determination, I still need the help of a good minister. I will have to trouble Wang Xima to help me in the future!"

"I will devote my life to the cause until my death!" Wang Anshi said solemnly.

"OK!"

Zhao Xing laughed and said, "Sit down and talk!"

Sitting back in his seat, Zhao Xing said, "I feel that the Qingmiao Law you mentioned before is inappropriate. Although this law can alleviate land annexation, land annexation is already very serious now, and there are not many people who own land, so it is not very meaningful. I saw someone trying to burn a baby girl in public before, and I was very angry. Later I heard that this kind of thing is very common, and the people are ignorant and think that burning a baby girl can give birth to a son. There are also many people who do this because they can't afford to raise a child. I was very sad after hearing this, and asked someone to investigate, and then I knew that land annexation has become so serious.

After much thought, I came up with a solution, which was to distribute all the taxes evenly among the fields in the world. In this way, the people without land would not have to pay taxes, while the people with more land would have to pay more taxes. I call this method "Dian Ding Ru Mu" (spread the tax on the land).

Wang Anshi's eyes lit up when he heard this. He savored it carefully and said excitedly, "Your Highness's method is a thousand times better than my Qingmiao method. I am just showing off my skills in front of an expert."

"I have lived in the deep palace for a long time and only have a rough idea. I am not very clear about the pros and cons of this method. I need to trouble Wang Xima to perfect this method for me." Zhao Xing said.

"Your Highness, please rest assured. I will do my best to perfect this method," said Wang Anshi.

"There's no rush. I'm still young and can't use it for the time being. You should improve it slowly and try your best to discover the hidden drawbacks in it so that there won't be any problems when you implement it in the future." Zhao Xing said.

"I understand!" Wang Anshi bowed.

Zhao Xing's words were equivalent to telling him that the reform could only be implemented after he ascended the throne in the future.

Wang Anshi also knew that reforms could not be achieved hastily, so he was not in a hurry.

Next, Zhao Xing had a long and detailed chat with Wang Anshi. He kept Wang Anshi in the East Palace for lunch before letting him go back.

(End of this chapter)