In the early period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were many famous figures, such as Zhao Pu, Li Ling, Kou Zhun, Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo and Sima Guang. They took on the important task of the pillars of the imperial court with extraordinary talents, which not only won personal honor, but also kept the country stable and prosperous. Wen Yanbo is a typical example of Fu Lushou. Let's see the elegance of this famous minister through some of his deeds.

Clever at an early age

Wen Yanbo was born in Jiexiu, Fenzhou (now Shanxi), and came from an official family. It is said that his ancestors can be traced back to Chen Gongzi's end in the Spring and Autumn Period, and his real name was Jing's. Later, he changed his surname to Wen because he avoided the emperor's taboo. Wen Yanbo showed extraordinary intelligence when he was a child. Once, he and his friends were playing with a ball. The ball accidentally fell into a tree hole, which was deep and could not be taken out smoothly. The other children scratched their heads and didn't come up with a good idea for a while. At this time, Wen Yanbo ran to one side, took water tools and poured water into the cave. As the water level in the cave rose, the ball naturally floated out of the hole. This story is as famous as the well-known story of Sima Guang's smashing the jar, which fully embodies the extraordinary features of the two children's calmness and agility, and can be called the prodigy story that is often said today.

when she was a little older, Wen Yanbo, Zhang C and Gao Ruone (both officials were involved in political affairs and Tang envoys) worshipped at the side of the great Confucian history in Yingchang, where Shi Yi learned the skill of reading faces. When she saw Wen Yanbo, she was greatly surprised and said, "This is a noble man!" Treat him very well.

At the age of 21, Wen Yanbo was admitted to Jinshi, and his official life began.

There is a way to be an official

It took Wen Yanbo only 2 years to be appointed as an advisor (i.e. prime minister) from the magistrate's county. It can be said that his official career was very smooth, and he was able to achieve such success. The objective reason is that the Northern Song Dynasty paid special attention to officials who were born in Jinshi, and the politics at that time was relatively clear, and those who were talented and capable did not worry about not having the opportunity to be promoted. The subjective reason is his personal talent. Although the writer is an official family, he has not been an official since he entered the Song Dynasty, so he has no background. Wen Yanbo's personal talents can be roughly summarized into three aspects: wit, courage to take responsibility and decisiveness.

Wen Yanbo tried a major case shortly after he became an official, which made him famous, that is, "trying the Ping Liu case". The Ping Liu case occurred during the first war between the Northern Song Dynasty and Xixia. At that time, Ping Liu, as a general in the border area, took the lead and fought bravely to kill the enemy. However, Huang Dehe, his supervisor, ran away from the battle and caused the whole army to be defeated. Although Ping Liu killed countless enemies, he was seriously injured and finally captured (Song thought Ping Liu had died in battle). This war ended in failure in the Northern Song Dynasty. In order to escape the guilt, Huang Dehe bought off Ping Liu's subordinates with a large sum of money and slandered Ping Liu's surrender to the conference semifinals, resulting in more than 2 people in Ping Liu being unjustly imprisoned. Wen Yanbo was appointed as the censor and was asked to investigate the case. After careful investigation, he finally found out the truth of the matter. However, Huang Dehe can't fight, but he is quite good at being an official. His henchmen are all over the court. In order to overturn the verdict, he actually persuaded the court to appoint other censors to replace Wen Yanbo. Wen Yanbo's rank was very low at that time, but he was fearless in the face of pressure. He said to the suggestion who came to take over: "The imperial court sent you instead because I was worried that I could not make a judgment. Now that I have made a judgment, if there is any mistake, I am willing to bear the responsibility for all the mistakes, which has nothing to do with you. " As a result, Huang Dehe and his bribed Ping Liu subordinates were all executed.

During the Qing Dynasty in Song Renzong, a peasant uprising led by Wang Ze broke out in Beizhou. The imperial court sent Minghao to lead the troops to suppress, and the wall of Beizhou was strong, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Minghao led his troops to attack for a long time and could not be broken. The imperial court intended to replace the commander-in-chief. At this moment, Wen Yanbo volunteered. On the one hand, he commanded officers and men to storm Beizhou North City, while on the other hand, he sent people to dig tunnels in the south of the city to lead to the city. The process of the war was very simple. It took only ten days, the tunnel was completed, the officers and men successfully breached Beizhou, Wang was arrested and the uprising was quelled. Therefore, Wen Yanbo was promoted to a bachelor's degree in Pingzhang and Jixian College.

When Wen Yanbo was an official, he often encountered some unexpected events. Every time, he was calm and handled them properly, and some contradictions that might be intensified disappeared into the invisible. When he was appointed as the magistrate of Chengdu, he once feasted with guests on a snowy night until late at night. Some of the servants on duty were resentful, so they broke the official well field and gathered around to warm themselves. The officer told Wen Yanbo about the incident, and all his guests trembled with fear. Wen Yanbo said calmly: "The weather is really cold, so they can be allowed to burn well field to keep out the cold." After saying this, he looked comfortable and still drank and had fun with the guests. Those soldiers didn't expect Wen Yanbo to do this, and their anger was immediately reduced by half, so they couldn't continue to play splashing. The next day, Wen Yanbo asked the foot soldiers who took the lead in breaking well field, and sent him away with a rod (if you don't punish him, you will lose your prestige, but if you don't punish the public, you may still arouse contradictions if you deal with it too harshly), and a possible storm was thus calmed down. On another occasion, Wen Yanbo was playing ball games in his official office, and suddenly he heard the foot soldiers shouting loudly outside. He ordered someone to ask the reason. It turned out that a magistrate was scolding a soldier who violated discipline, but the soldier who was punished refused to accept the punishment. Wen Yanbo sent someone to call the soldier in and asked him to explain the reason for refusing to accept the disposal. The soldier couldn't say it, so Wen Yanbo ordered him to go out and continue to receive the staff. The soldier continued to make noise after going out. Wen Yanbo called him in again, cut off his head directly, and then continued to play ball.

Wen Yanbo, as an official, always has foresight. He can foresee the future development of some seemingly unremarkable things and make early preparations. When I was the deputy transport envoy of Hedong Road, I saw that ~ could, which was under the jurisdiction of Hedong Road, was adjacent to Xixia. However, the road to transport food to the city was circuitous and far away, making it difficult to walk. There is a road built in the Tang Dynasty by the Yincheng River outside the city, which is the nearest smooth road to ~ state. Unfortunately, it has been neglected for a long time and people never pass through it. After Wen Yanbo took office, he personally took people to repair this old road, making the road to ~ could be near and easy. At the same time, he ordered people to accumulate a lot of food and grass in the city, and local officials and people didn't understand the meaning of his move. Later, Yuan Hao of Xixia was really ready to lead an army to attack, but he saw that could was ready and had to withdraw.

at that time, when there was a military operation in the western border, it often happened that the general retired first when he got cold feet and hoped that the enemy would not advance. Wen Yanbo played in the imperial court and said: This phenomenon did not cause any great harm during the Taiping period, but if it is not rectified as soon as possible, what kind of fighting capacity will the army use to fight in case of war? This phenomenon is due to the lack of concentration of the general's power and the lack of strict discipline in the army. I hope the court will pay attention to it. Song Renzong adopted his opinion.

when Wen yanbo was prime minister, the northern song dynasty reached a peace agreement with Liao country. there was no major war in the country for decades, but the number of troops increased year by year. Wen Yanbo thinks that there is no need for the country to keep a huge army in peacetime. Too many troops will bring a heavy financial burden and cause the country's financial exhaustion. Therefore, he found Pang Ji, a Tang Dynasty envoy, to discuss the elimination of redundant soldiers and the reduction of redundant expenses. When disarmament was submitted to the court for discussion, many ministers raised objections. They pointed out that in previous years, the imperial court was worried that there would be riots by victims during the famine years, so it recruited troops on a large scale in the disaster areas. Now, if it insists on disarmament, I am afraid that these laid-off people will gather into thieves and endanger social stability. Song Renzong hesitated after hearing these two different opinions. Wen Yanbo said decisively: At present, the national public and private affairs are exhausted, and redundant soldiers are an important reason. If something happens because of redundant soldiers, I am willing to be punished by the court for my death. In the end, the court adopted Wen Yanbo's opinion, laid off as many as 8 thousand redundant soldiers, greatly relieved the country's financial resources, and there was no change after disarmament.

There was an important invention in the coin system in the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, the world's earliest paper money-Jiaozi. The Song Dynasty first tried it in Sichuan, replacing iron money with jiaozi, and felt that the effect was not bad, so it began to spread to the whole country. However, the paper money system at that time was not perfect enough, and most localities adopted the policy of simultaneous circulation of jiaozi and iron money in the promotion process. Some officials are eager for success, and they have asked the court to abolish the circulation of iron money in Shaanxi before giving up their lives (official name, taking charge of the emperor's daily life, remembering his words and deeds). Although the imperial court did not approve his invitation, the news spread, and the local people all knew about the waste of money, so they rushed to buy items with iron money, but the merchants refused to accept it. As a result, the market transactions in Chang' an were in chaos, and some merchants had to close temporarily. The official in charge asked the court to ban the strike, but Wen Yanbo objected. He thought that if the court came forward to ban it, it would only deepen the people's doubts and lead to greater confusion. After thinking, Wen Yanbo invited the owner of the silk shop in Chang 'an City to give them hundreds of silks in his home for sale, demanding that all the payment be converted into iron money. After the people knew this, they knew that the use of iron money would not be abolished, and market transactions soon returned to normal.

In the second year of Huihe, Wen Yanbo and Fu Bi were awarded the titles of Pingzhang Affairs under the Chinese Book School and the College of Zhaowen. At that time, scholars from all over the world celebrated each other by playing the crown to celebrate the choice of the prime minister by the imperial court. One day in the first month of three years, Song Renzong suddenly fell ill in the court and was immediately sent to ouchi for treatment. Wen Yanbo called Shi Zhicong, the squire eunuch of the emperor, and asked about the emperor's illness. Shi replied, "Don't keep secrets." Wen Yanbo was furious and scolded him, saying, You people serve the emperor and get in and out of the forbidden city, but you don't let the prime minister know the shape of the emperor's living. What do you want? From now on, you should report the development of the emperor's illness to us at any time, otherwise, I will deal with you by military law. Later, Wen Yanbo consulted with Liu Ling and Fu Bi (both ministers in charge of slaughter) and suggested that the three people live in the Forbidden Palace, so as to keep abreast of the emperor's illness and deal with the sudden * * * situation (Injong had no children, and Chu Jun was not pre-established. Once it was violent, the consequences were unpredictable), Shi Zhicong spoke out against it, saying that there was no precedent for this situation. Wen Yanbo pushed him back in one sentence: "Is this an evil story?" That night, Wang Su, the Kaifeng magistrate (chief executive of both capital city), requested to enter the palace late at night, claiming to report a rebellion plot. Wen Yanbo ordered not to open the palace door, and everything had to wait until the next day. The next day, when asked about the situation, it turned out that a foot soldier guarding the Palace Forbidden reported that Duyuhou (a senior officer of the Palace Suwei Army) wanted to rebel. Wen Yanbo called Duyuhou's superiors to command Xu Huaide and asked him about the defendant. Xu Huaide promised that Duyuhou would never rebel. Wen Yanbo's analysis: From this point of view, it must be that the foot soldier is usually dissatisfied with Duyuhou, so he took the opportunity to falsely accuse him. Now is an extraordinary moment, and it should be dealt with as soon as possible, so as not to shake the morale of the army. He invited Liu Ling to sign the verdict, and immediately ordered the foot soldiers to be killed. This incident fully demonstrated Wen Yanbo's political talents: smart-headed, calm and decisive. According to common sense, the palace guards are directly responsible for the safety of the emperor's life, and their senior generals are all selected by the emperor himself, so there should be no problem with loyalty. However, the theory of rebellion has always been sensitive. Once it is inquired in detail, it will certainly be difficult to close the case in a short time, and the object under review should also be suspended for review. Naturally, it is difficult to protect the temporarily selected agent. When the emperor was seriously ill, if anything happened, the consequences would be unimaginable. And please Liu Ling * * * with signature, it is to prevent the suspicion of his personal monopoly. Later, Liu Ling reported to Injong that Wen Yanbo had killed the accuser without authorization during the emperor's illness and prevented the investigation of the major rebellion case. Wen Yanbo took out the verdict signed by Liu Ling himself, "Emperor's intention is the solution".

Being well-behaved

Wen Yanbo has been in a high position for many years, but he is modest and generous, never proud of his power, regardless of personal gains and losses in front of right and wrong, and dares to speak frankly. In the second year of Xining, Song Shenzong worshipped Chen Shengzhi, when Wen Yanbo served as the Tang Dynasty (the highest military officer). The God Sect took Wen Yanbo as an important official in the imperial court, with old qualifications and great contributions. Therefore, the position of Chen Shengzhi's audience in the court was arranged behind Wen Yanbo (in the Song Dynasty, literature was valued over martial arts, and according to common sense, it should be the position of civilian before military attache). Wen Yanbo insisted on this preferential treatment. He said: Since the beginning of the dynasty, there has never been a Tang dynasty before the prime minister. Only Cao Liyong was arrogant when he was a Tang dynasty, and he stood in the forefront of the prime minister Wang Zeng and others. I know a little bit about etiquette myself, and I dare not follow his example and get into disorder.