In September of the third year of Qing Dynasty (1043), Fan Zhongyan put forward the famous New Deal program "Answer Ten Things of Chen" and put forward ten reform suggestions.
The breadth and depth of reform are often directly proportional to the resistance it encounters. A large number of old-school bureaucrats began to talk privately. Among the officials of Yushitai, some people attacked some provincial judges-saying "Three Tigers in Jiangdong" and "Four Promises in Shandong". Fan Zhongyan's aides on the frontier line were also secretly investigated and encountered many troubles. Ouyang Xiu and other "four remonstrances" attempted to get rid of these conservative minions and replace them with several Taiwan Province officials. But they soon discovered that there were more powerful people behind Taiwan Province officials. Ouyang Xiu himself was secretly withdrawn by Ming Sheng and left Beijing for Hedong. Fan Zhongyan had a hunch that things were not as simple as Shijie praised: there were many hidden dangers on the road of reform; The future of the New Deal is also in jeopardy.
In the midsummer of the fourth year of Li Qing (1044), Taiwan officials suddenly announced that they had uncovered a major rebellion. Shi Jie and Fu Bi are directly related to this case. Injong doesn't believe this will happen. Stone, rich second, is even more puzzling. However, Taiwan Province officials have a personal letter from Shijie to Fu Bi to testify; There is an intention to depose Renzong in the letter. Shi Jie denied this. Fu Bi was frightened before he could refute this false accusation. In fact, this incident was purely caused by Xia Song. Since he was removed from the post of envoy of the Tang Dynasty and denounced as a "traitor" by Shijie, he secretly bribed his maid to copy Shijie's handwriting. It hasn't been a day since the maid wrote a letter.
The case was raging and rumors were everywhere; Later, it even implicated Fan Zhongyan's sincerity in reform and even had the intention of expanding relative power. Although Song Renzong didn't believe all this, he began to waver when he saw that the force against innovation was so strong. At this time, the Song and Xia Dynasties had formally made peace: the political crisis was basically eliminated. Injong's interest in reform has gradually faded. In order to avoid suspicion, Fu Bi asked to go to the border. Fan Zhongyan also knew that he was boring and took a job to inspect Hedong and Shaanxi.
Premier Zhang Dexiang and Vice Premier Jia Changchao once echoed Fan Zhongyan's New Deal. But in practice, they are obedient and disobedient. When the New Deal was frustrated and the reformers were falsely accused, they immediately defected. After Fan and Fu left Beijing, they simply joined forces with conservative forces to throw stones at Fan Zhongyan and others. And through Taiwan Province officials to create new unjust cases, to eliminate Beijing's innovative figures.
At the beginning of the fifth year of Li Qing (1045), Song Renzong, who had been impassioned and wanted to do a great job, finally completely retreated. He wrote to give up all reform measures, and Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi were removed from important military and political posts. All kinds of new policies that have been implemented for just over a year have also been banned. The dignitaries and their children inside and outside the capital are still singing and dancing. Fan Zhongyan's painstaking efforts to get rid of graft were wasted in an instant. He was transferred to that state (now Binxian County, Shaanxi Province) to be a magistrate, ready to do something good for the birthplace of Fan Zu.
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