Chapter 267 The Third Year of Qingli Has Arrived

After the first year of the Qingli period, the Song Dynasty officially entered the recuperation stage.

The court reduced corvée labor and taxes, relaxed commercial policies, abolished the monopoly system, and allowed agriculture and commerce to develop rapidly.

At the same time, the court allowed local governments to retain 30% of taxes for development and construction, and also established schools, confiscated the land of illegal landlords and rented it to the people, abolished iron money, and repaired rivers and built water conservancy facilities.

For example, in the second year of Baoyuan, Zhao Jun ordered Wang Yao, the transport envoy of Jinghu South Road, and Fan Shidao, the transport envoy of Guangnan East Road, to cooperate in dredging and expanding Lingqu Canal. The first round of construction was completed in the first year of Kangding.

This time, 2,000 civilians were used to complete the project, with a total of 60,850 workers and more than 50,000 strings of money. All the materials and materials were allocated by Xing'an, Lingui and Lingchuan counties. The method of "burning stones to attack, both guiding and clearing" was adopted to remove the reefs that hindered boats in the canal, and the number of steep gates in Lingqu Canal was increased to 36.

In the first year of the Qingli reign, the construction work started again. The court allocated more than 500,000 guan (100,000 guan in total), mobilized more than 8,000 civilians, and employed more than 300,000 workers to expand the Lingqu River and reinforce the 100-mile embankment along the coast. The flood discharge and shipping volume increased greatly, connecting Hunan and Guangdong, and laying the foundation for trade activities between Guangdong, Hunan, and Hubei.

In addition, in the first year of the Kangding reign, the court repaired the Bian River again and mobilized the people along the river to participate. In order to consolidate the embankment and use the Bian River to flush the sand in the river, 600 miles of wooden pillars and piles were laid on both sides of the Bian River to narrow the Bian River to the point where sand could be flushed, preparing to "bundle water to attack sand".

In fact, although it was still seven years before the Yellow River burst its dikes, the Song Dynasty government had already begun preparations. Starting from the fourth year of the Jingyou reign, the court allocated funds one after another to first clear sand from the tributaries on both sides of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

The problem of the Yellow River is actually soil erosion in the upper reaches, which leads to too much sand in the water, and the tributaries are slowly blocked. Once a flood occurs, the Yellow River will burst in an instant. Due to the accumulation of silt, the water will break through the river channel, thus spreading and flooding, and eventually turning the middle and lower reaches into a swamp.

Therefore, in ancient times, there has always been a saying that the Yellow River should be regulated by sand first.

At present, Zhao Jun plans to do three things. Taking advantage of the fact that the war is going smoothly now, unlike the five or six years of fighting in history, which led to the emptiness of the Song Dynasty's treasury, he will first sort out the various canals in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and dredge the various tributaries.

This work is always much easier than cleaning the silt of the Yellow River and digging a few more drainage channels, and the silt cleared can also be used as farming soil for the fields on both sides.

Then, wooden pillars and piles are installed in the Bianhe River and the downstream areas on both sides of the Yellow River. When a season with less water flow, dams are cast on large rivers such as the Yellow River and the Bianhe River to store water. After the dams are built, gunpowder is used to blow up the dams and suddenly discharge water and flush the sand.

The last solution is to dig a flood discharge channel. These three solutions are three-pronged and can ensure that the Yellow River is honest.

But it costs money!

These three solutions are the most cost-effective.

But according to the budget estimate of the Ministry of Finance, it is likely that hundreds of thousands of civilians will be mobilized, and the project volume is huge, and it is likely to cost tens of millions of strings of cash.

Although this amount of money can save some military expenses, it is inevitable that "sixth of the world's things, five-tenths of the army".

Even Zhao Jun has not yet taken action against the redundant army, a gold-eating beast, let alone saving some military expenses.

So for now, just like before the real start of the Qingli New Deal, only do the preliminary preparations, spend less money first, and then take it step by step.

At least now the Yellow River has left them seven years, and these seven years are enough to do a lot of things.

At the end of August, Cao Miaoxin gave birth to a big fat boy.

Zhao Zhen was very happy and named him Zhao Tan, and was accepted by Zhao Jun.

This is a sun character, just like Zhao Fang and others.

After getting the name approved, Zhao Zhen was even happier. He was a little too proud of himself and actually proposed to adopt him as an adopted son at the daily meeting in Chongzheng Hall, which almost made Zhao Jun roll his eyes.

Good guy.

His generation was estimated to be more than 30 generations lower in the family tree. If his son was adopted by Zhao Zhen, he would be the same generation as Song Yingzong Zhao Shu, which was simply the opposite of the heaven.

Later, Zhao Zhen remembered this matter after Yan Shu reminded him, and hurriedly said with regret that it seemed that adopting him as an adopted son would not work.

But to be reasonable, Zhao Jun's son was the nephew of Empress Cao, so he also became the nephew of Zhao Zhen, and the generation was still a little messed up.

Fortunately, this nephew was a cousin, but even so, it made Zhao Zhen very excited. In the end, he overcame all the opposition and conferred him the title of Xiangfu County Marquis, which shocked all the officials in the court and they all wrote to dissuade him.

Many people think that there were no titles in the Song Dynasty, but in fact, there were. For example, prime ministers and envoys were often given the title of Duke. Even if they were not given the title during their lifetime, they were often given the title after their death. Some were even given the title of King. For example, Cao Cong's brother Cao Qi was given the title of King of Wu.

But in most people's impression, it is true that there were not many titles in the Northern Song Dynasty. A large number of titles were mainly concentrated in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty and during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song. During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, only prime ministers were given titles.

It was shocking to give Zhao Jun the title of Duke of Song. Although he was the head of the prime ministers, it was normal to give him the title of Duke.

But firstly, all officials did not know him before and had no idea who he was.

Secondly, this was the Duke of Song.

If it was an ordinary Duke like the Duke of Qi or the Duke of Wei, it would be better.

Ordinary officials and royal family members were generally not given titles. Titles like marquis, earl, viscount, and baron were almost extinct before Emperor Huizong of Song.

Now Zhao Jun's son was suddenly given a title, which of course aroused everyone's opposition.

Although Zhao Jun had been the prime minister for five or six years and seemed to have accumulated a lot of prestige, there were many people in the court who were dissatisfied with him, and there were also many censors and remonstrators who often impeached him, but Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun just ignored them.

Now it's just another wave.

They are all used to it.

Just ignore it.

Under this wave of opposition, there was almost no storm, and Zhao Tan became the only county marquis who was conferred since the founding generals.

And time slowly came to the end of the second year of Qingli.

From the beginning of the new policy in February to the autumn tax in the second half of the year, it was surprising that although the agricultural tax was lower than before, only more than 5 million guan, the commercial tax increased a lot, reaching more than 33 million guan, of which about 19 million guan were commercial taxes and levies, and another 16 million guan were foreign trade.

You should know that according to historical records, foreign trade income during the Southern Song Dynasty only accounted for about 6% of the fiscal revenue. Based on the total annual income of the Southern Song Dynasty, which was about 100 million to 160 million guan, it basically maintained between 6 million and 10 million guan.

Among them, Guangzhou and Quanzhou were the main ones, with a total income of more than 2 million guan.

The total income of more than 20 ports such as Mingzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Jiangyin, and Xiuzhou was only a few million guan, which is a far cry from the current Northern Song Dynasty.

But the two are actually completely different.

First, the Southern Song Dynasty only counted the port trade income, and did not count the land trade income with the Jin Kingdom, Dali, Xixia and other countries.

Second, Japan had not discovered silver mines during the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was difficult to engage in huge trade with the Song Dynasty.

Now the Song Dynasty is not only doing foreign trade business in Central Asia, but also developing five trade routes with the Liao Kingdom, Xixia, and Dali at the same time. It also sent envoys to Central Asia to communicate more with Arab merchants in Central Asia and encourage maritime trade between the two sides.

So since last year, the growth of maritime trade has increased significantly.

The income of Guangzhou and Quanzhou alone reached more than 3 million guan, and the annual trade volume with Japan soared to 40 million taels of silver, eight times the original amount, and also brought the court about 4 million taels of silver.

In this way, taking into account other ports of the Maritime Customs, the annual maritime trade in the second year of the Qingli period basically had an income of nearly 10 million guan, reaching the highest level in the history of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Moreover, the Southern Song Dynasty did not deepen its communication with Central Asia, nor did it discover the silver mines in Japan, so the income of 10 million guan was the limit.

Now it is not the limit. With the increase in trade volume, it is very likely that the annual import and export of hundreds of millions of guan will reach 10 or 20 million guan in taxes alone. Therefore, it can be said that the current marine trade is booming and the future is promising.

In addition to maritime trade, the Silk Road, the Ancient Tea Horse Road, and the Liao-Song and Xia-Song trade also soared on the road. Last year, the Liao Kingdom alone imported 800,000 kilograms of sulfur from the Song Dynasty.

Because the Song Dynasty set up trade transit stations on Jeju Island and Tsushima Island and encouraged merchants to go to Japan for trade, the books, handicrafts, porcelain, and tea of ​​the Song Dynasty were almost snapped up in Japan.

The merchants of the Song Dynasty were almost going crazy for the sulfur, copper and iron in Japan.

Then the merchants of the Song Dynasty simply did not return to the Song Dynasty. They reported and replenished water and food on Jeju Island, and sailed directly to the Mizhou Maritime Customs in Shandong. After reporting and replenishing supplies at the Mizhou Maritime Customs, they pulled it to Qianfu County.

Qianfu County is Huanghua City in Hebei Province in the future. The Song Dynasty set up a port here, mainly for bulk trade with the Northeast Jurchens and the Liao Dynasty.

The merchants of the Song Dynasty transported the sulfur brought from Japan here, and then transported it northward by land to Niguzhai on the border of Liao and Song, which was probably the area of ​​Tianjin in the future. They sold it all to the Liao Dynasty in the border trade area between the two sides.

The middlemen made a lot of money. They almost directly produced it from Japan, labeled it as the Song Dynasty, and pulled it to the border of the Liao Dynasty for sale.

Under such circumstances, the agriculture and economy of the Song Dynasty can be said to have improved rapidly, and the economic circulation has grown explosively. Although the Audit Bureau has not yet given the growth data, just looking at the tax revenue can understand how fast the business has grown.

As a result, the autumn tax of the Song Dynasty this year reached 39 million guan, which is more than 2 million guan higher than the summer tax this year, and the total tax revenue is about 76 million guan.

This figure is still much lower than last year, about 25 million guan less, and about 30 million guan less than the previous years.

Because since the fourth year of Jingyou, Zhao Jun has been generating income for the court.

Crack down on corruption, confiscate all the property of corrupt officials, sell state-owned assets, reform tea mountains and salt fields, etc.

Especially in the latter two, a large number of tea mountains and salt fields have been privatized, allowing private merchants to participate in a large number of shares, and eliminating the corruption that used to be done in the state-owned market, which brings more than 10 million guan of income to the court every year.

But with the national agricultural tax reduced by two-thirds, this is obviously far beyond expectations.

The five major trade routes that Zhao Jun had envisioned at the beginning have begun to take effect. This year, the total foreign trade income is about 27 million guan, and the ocean trade is close to the peak level of 10 million guan in the Southern Song Dynasty. The land trade has reached 17 million guan, and the growth is gratifying.

Although the domestic business has been restructured, making it easier to evade taxes, it cannot withstand the fierce tax army. The court mobilized local wing troops and imperial troops, about 200,000 people across the country, plus more than 100,000 imperial city officials to form a law enforcement force.

Almost every county's county government, national tax bureau, and censor's office strictly enforce taxation. Once tax evasion is caught, the goods will be confiscated and a certain amount of fines will be imposed. In serious cases, all property will be confiscated, and there will be imprisonment.

For a time, merchants were in a panic. Except for a few who took risks, most merchants paid taxes honestly and became glorious taxpayers.

In fact, Zhao Jun wanted to exile all criminals to Taiwan at this time to develop Taiwan.

Although my country has been involved in Taiwan since the Three Kingdoms period.

However, Taiwan was full of miasma and dense forests at that time, and a large number of people were needed to cut down trees and develop the plains to gradually make it suitable for human survival.

Most of Taiwan's indigenous mountain tribes also migrated there slowly from the Qin and Han Baiyue period, but their number was small and they had no advanced production experience, so they had always maintained a tribal life of eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Therefore, until the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, when the Mongols approached, a large number of Han people moved to Taiwan, bringing advanced technology, production tools, forging technology, etc., which made Taiwan a little more populated. Finally, it was easily taken over by the Mongols, and the Xuanfu Division was established here, and it was incorporated into my country's territory.

So from this point of view, Zhao Jun only needs to send a ship and a few officials to announce that Taiwan has become an inseparable territory of our country, which is basically a piece of cake.

In fact, it is not only Taiwan, but also Australia.

But your announcement is useless.

There must be people above.

What's the point of your announcement for some primitive tribes?

Just like Lingnan was cultivated by generations of criminals exiled to Lingnan, this method is actually quite effective.

But in the end, Zhao Jun gave up the idea.

The main reason is that the mortality rate is too high.

I am afraid that only one out of ten people will survive after being exiled, and a lot of manpower and material resources will be spent, but the result is not very good.

It is better to wait until the productivity is improved in the future, the land tax is distributed, and the population grows explosively, and then send a large number of people to open up, which is much better than piling up human lives now.

This year, the Song Dynasty was not good, but because of the existence of the new policy, the people lived a much better life.

This year, commercial restrictions were relaxed, the tax model was changed, and private commerce became more prosperous, and the number of people engaged in commercial activities increased day by day.

This year, the Song Dynasty's internal and foreign affairs were stable, and it traded frequently with merchants from Xixia, Liao, Japan, Goryeo, Tubo, Dali, and Central Asian countries, and its export volume soared sharply.

This year, the Song Dynasty built canals all over the country, carried out large-scale construction, built schools, promoted science education, and laid the foundation for mathematics, physics, and chemistry from elementary school to junior high school.

This year, the newly appointed Jinshi Su Song was very interested in the steam engine being studied by the Institute, and took the initiative to request to be transferred to the Institute to join in scientific research.

This year, the court cast more than 200 copper cannons, and had begun to invest in the research and development of firearms such as iron cannons and flintlocks.

This year, Zhao Jun drew a circle in Handan City, Hebei Province, requiring a canal to be built between Wu'an and Mingshui, and then a steel plant to be built here, officially starting the large-scale steelmaking experiment.

This year, since Jiaozi shops had been established in major commercial cities across the country, a large number of merchants deposited copper coins in Jiaozi shops to facilitate trade, and the court used silver imported from Japan as an anchor, gradually replacing copper coins, and gradually easing the shortage of money in the market.

Although it was not completely solved, it was much better and promoted business development.

In this increasingly better hustle and bustle.

The third year of Qingli arrived.