Dare to intimidate the superior's famous courtiers - Kou Zhun

In 991, in April of the second year of emperor Song Chunhua, a young official under the age of thirty was appointed as the privy councillor and deputy envoy, and after another three years, the official was promoted to the position of governor and became the youngest deputy prime minister of the Song Dynasty. As a young official with no background of origin, how can he worship a high position at such a young age?

This should start from the social background of the early Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty, as a country based on the chaotic five generations, in order to restore the scattered and dilapidated national order, since the Taizu era, it has attached great importance to the governance of internal affairs, especially in the Taizong era, in order to further enrich the national talent, Taizong on the one hand vigorously promoted the examination of the imperial examination, on the other hand, he also focused on improving the status of the national Chinese, and wanted to use cultural construction to eliminate the martial people left by the five generations of chaotic worlds. Kou Zhun, as a peer of the Imperial Song Dynasty, naturally stood above the node of the times, he participated in the scientific expedition at the age of 19, when many people reported a pessimistic attitude, because the five generations of legacy advocated the weak and the strong, and people generally respected the elderly to hold high positions. Taizong was influenced by the atmosphere of the times, and when he took the priesthood, "the young often quit", some people suggested that Kou Zhun falsely report his age to cope with Taizong's interview, but Kou Zhun did not think so, perhaps out of noble character, or maybe the newborn calf was not afraid of tigers, he replied: "The first time I face the saint, how can I deceive the emperor" If an upright person has a secondary illness, he is often more attractive. This charm undoubtedly attracted Emperor Taizong, so His Majesty the Emperor made a big stroke of the pen, Kou Zhunjinshi and the first, went to Badong County to serve as Zhi County, Kouzhi County did a very good job, under his administration, the residents under his jurisdiction every time they pay taxes, there is no need for the county to go to the door to urge, will consciously come to pay, when the second Cheng'anzhi County, just happened to have a war with the party members, the young Kouzhi County responded to the organizational arrangements, rushed to the northwest front to escort military food, for ordinary people, going to the front line to transport grain is a chore, But for Kou Zhun, it did not count, Kou Zhun took this opportunity to contact the personnel of the Northern Song Military Circles for the first time, and faced the severe situation on the northwest front. In 985, in the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty, as soon as Kou Zhun returned to the capital, he immediately held out a paper describing in detail what he saw and heard and various views on the front line, which was submitted to the palace, and Emperor Taizong read it and immediately became interested in Kou Zhun.

Later, Emperor Taizong personally wrote the question "Imperial Rong Ce" to test Kou Zhun in person, and Kou Zhun's answers were once again recognized by Emperor Taizong. Since then, the young Kou Zhun has become a rising star in the political arena of the Imperial Song Dynasty, but it is Song Taizong, who admires Kou Zhun the most, the two often clash in temperament, both of them are strong personalities, Emperor Taizong has been in power for more than twenty years, and the ministers cultivated around him are basically gentle and humble gentlemen, but only Kou Zhun likes to be tough in everything, when Kou Zhun was still serving as a privy councillor, Wang Huai, the younger brother of vice chancellor Wang Huai, embezzled huge sums of money, but because his brother was in a high position Song Taizong took Wang Huai's attention to Wang Huai's Ming Min and wanted to sell his personal feelings, so he turned a blind eye, but Kou Zhun could not see it, and when he went up, he compared Wang Huai with the incident of Zu Ji, another corrupt official who was punished by Ming Zheng, as an example, forcing Taizong to change his sentence against Wang Huai to a hundred rods and demote the distant lord Bo. Although this matter Kou Zhun did a little rough, but after all, it is on the side of justice, for the country, at the beginning of the establishment of the national dynasty, it is necessary to establish a reliable and just new order to open up the road of the new era, although Song Taizong is capable, but selfish, is in need of a direct subject to always advise, the existence of Kou Zhun is quite like the relationship between Wei Zheng and Tang Taizong, Song Taizong as an admirer of Tang Taizong, can also be regarded as happy to do it, when Emperor Taizong tried to ask Zai Zhi: "If you want to use Kou Zhun, what official should you give?" The prime minister saw that Kou Zhun was young and suggested that it would be more appropriate to be promoted to the post of governor of Kaifeng Province. Unexpectedly, Emperor Taizong was furious: "How can such an official position be worthy of Kou Zhun?" The Prime Minister had no choice but to reply, "Then do you want to be a Privy Counsellor?" Emperor Taizong pondered for a long time before nodding satisfactorily. After only two years, Kou Zhun was promoted to the Zaizhi team.

Emperor Taizong looked at Kou Zhun's integrity and fortitude, arrogant and arrogant, which brought a new atmosphere to the Song Dynasty, the reason why the Song Dynasty did not become the sixth short-lived dynasty after five generations, there were honest young people like Kou Zhun to join, is an important reason, but this lack of emotional intelligence modification of the straight, in the time of embarrassment or can make people wake up, in the time of peace is often out of place, people are jealous, there are constantly officials involved in the attack and frame Kou Zhun's team, these tosses are also various, One moment someone pulled Kou Zhun on the street shouting long live and splashed dirty water, and the next moment some people were dissatisfied with Kou Zhun's arrangement in the southern suburbs of the sacrifice and played a chapter of impeachment, at that time Kou Zhun was still too young after all, in the face of these accusations, of course, those who came did not refuse, one by one spread out when the dynasty scolded, Song Taizong looked at his court hall was about to become a vegetable market, and felt that he still needed to do something. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, Kou Zhun was degraded twice, and Emperor Taizong hoped to sharpen Kou Zhun's character by this, but unfortunately, Kou Zhun was good at everything, that is, his emotional intelligence was low, so that Emperor Taizong helplessly said to him: "Raising a sparrow can understand people's minds."

Of course, it is such a Kou Zhun who is not even as good as a "sparrow", but gradually showed his value at a time of national crisis. In his later years, Emperor Taizong faced the problem of succession, and although he chose yuan kanzai, he could not let go because of yuan kan's shallow political foundation. At this moment, he urgently summoned Kou Zhun, who was far away in Qingzhou, to return to Beijing to discuss countermeasures, and the monarch had not seen him for a long time, so he was naturally quite grateful. Emperor Taizong asked Kou Zhun, "How did you get back so late?" "The subject must not return to the Beijing Division unless he is summoned." Emperor Taizong then asked, "Who of my sons can be heirs?" At that time, Empress Li and the eunuch Wang Ji'en in the harem were both opposed to Li Yuankan as the crown prince, and close ministers such as Li Changling also had their own plans, and Kou Zhun knew the story, so he replied: "Your Majesty is choosing a monarch for the world, such an important matter, you can't ask the harem, eunuchs and close ministers, only those who Your Majesty personally favors are the monarchs who can be entrusted to the world." ”

It was only after a dialogue that Taizong's determination was strengthened.

As a result, the position of Prince Yuan Kan was fixed, and because of Kou Zhun's preparation, Lü Duan later had the courage to support Emperor Zhenzong to succeed to the throne and stabilize the situation. During this time, Emperor Taizong and Kou Zhun got along very well, and after a day of wine and banquet, Emperor Taizong was very excited and took out his only two rhinoceros belts, one for his own use, and the other was given to Kou Zhun, who also took this rhino strip with him until the last moment of his life.