Chapter 300: The Constitutional Council's Work Report and New Plans

While the three of them were talking, Fan Zhongyan, Song Shou, Cai Qi, Jiang Tang, Zhang Shixun, Jia Changchao and other prime ministers also came in.

The weather has been cold recently. Both Wang Zeng and Lu Yijian have fallen ill and are recuperating at home.

Shengdu died of illness again.

The Constitutional Yuan suddenly lost three people and became much deserted.

The door opens, and the cold wind blows in from outside.

When Lao Fan came in and saw Zhao Jun, he was stunned for a moment and said, "Hanlong, didn't you go back and take a rest after the morning session?"

The morning morning session starts at four o'clock, but now the morning session is mainly about reporting work from various departments. There are no quarrels at the vegetable market as before, so the efficiency is much faster, and it usually ends at five or six o'clock.

Everyone in the Constitutional Yuan came to work at the last minute, which was around nine o'clock in the morning, and the prime ministers were given about three or four hours of rest in between.

Usually everyone goes back to squint a little at this time, even Zhao Jun was no exception in the past, but he didn't expect it to be so early today.

"I have slacked off at work after the New Year. From now on, I will not go back to rest early in the morning."

Zhao Jun unconsciously touched his right temple. Since Jingyou's four years of traveling around the world, he has had gray hair. He has been working harder and harder. The gray hair has been reduced in the past two years, but it has grown a lot more this year.

Even sometimes when he was lying in Cao Miaoxin's arms, his wife would sigh, help him pull out the gray hairs one by one, and persuade him to rest more and stay up less late.

After all, he is actually thirty-one years old this year.

"It's better to get some more rest."

Fan Zhongyan said.

"Forget it, Lao Lu and Lao Wang are resting at home now. There are so many important national affairs to deal with, so we can't afford to slack off."

Zhao Jun stood up from his seat and said, "Let's have a meeting when everyone is here."

Daily regular meetings.

Everyone tightened their clothes, closed the door of the Political Institute, and then followed Zhao Jun to the conference room at the back.

The attendants in the conference room made tea for each prime minister, then went out and closed the door tightly, and there was silence in the room.

Unlike later generations when government meetings were often filled with smoke, there was no tobacco at this time. Everyone held the tea cups in their hands and took a sip to warm themselves up.

"Let's first report on the domestic situation as usual."

Zhao Jun spoke first.

He turned his head and looked at Fan Zhongyan.

Except for Zhao Jun himself, who can manage all departments among the twelve prime ministers, the other prime ministers basically have departments they focus on as the direction of their responsibility.

For example, when the Minister of Finance was originally Cheng Lin, the Minister of War was Zhang Dexiang, and the Minister of Yushi Zhongcheng was Fan Xi, Lu Yijian was in charge of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of War, and the Yushitai.

As compensation, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites and the Admonition Platform were put under the control of Wang Zeng at that time, which was regarded as a separate matter from Lu Yijian.

Now the Minister of Finance has become Xia Song, and the Minister of War and Yushi Zhongcheng have also been replaced a long time ago, so the departments in charge of each prime minister have also changed.

For example, Fan Zhongyan is now in charge of the Ministry of War and presides over the overall military reform.

When Lao Fan saw him looking at him, he said, "Fu Bi briefly talked about it at the court meeting this morning, so I will talk about it in detail here."

"Now the military restructuring has been basically completed. The entire army has eliminated more than 200,000 old and weak people, and recruited more than 30,000 people, bringing the size of the Forbidden Army to 423,000."

"The Forbidden Army camp has been increased from the original 2,369 battalions to 1,143 battalions. Among them, there are 306 battalions on the Shaanxi Fifth Road, 423 battalions on the Hebei Road, and 423 battalions on the Hebei Road. Liang"

"In addition, there is the Xiang Army, which originally had more than 400,000 soldiers, but the actual number of registered soldiers is about 300,000. It was reduced by about 110,000, and another 20,000 were recruited, including landless refugees and young beggars from various places. , misdemeanor criminals, were temporarily included in the Xiang army, totaling 218,000 people."

"Including the Xiang army, the Song Dynasty originally had 1,259,000 registered people, but now it only has 641,000 people. The actual reduction is about 330,000 people, and the free salary is about 300,000 people. About 50,000 yuan, now all of them have been found out.”

"According to reports from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Statistics, our military expenditures in the first half of last year were still 29.75 million yuan, which included military expenditures for the manufacture of artillery, muskets, and grenades. But in the second half of the year, our expenditures dropped. It has been reduced to 14.19 million yuan."

"This is because Han Long's salary for the Xiang Army has been raised to the level of the lower imperial guards. It is foreseeable that starting from next year, the military expenditure of the Song Dynasty will drop from the original 50 to 60 million yuan per year to a maximum of 3,000 yuan per year. Wan Guan.”

At the end of the sentence, Fan Zhongyan said with joy on his face: "This has been greatly improved for Red Army."

The number of soldiers in the Song Dynasty was 1,290,000 at the beginning. According to the envoys sent by the Ministry of War, the total number was finally reported, and the actual number was only about 900,000.

Among them, there are about 300,000 Xiang troops and about 600,000 Imperial troops. And at least one-third of them are old, weak, sick and disabled.

This means that the number of people who have been deprived of pay has reached 356,000, and nearly 400,000 people only have names on their military registrations, but in fact no such person has been found. Either escape, die, or disappear without a trace.

As for these 356,000 people, the Song Dynasty spent about 7 to 9 million yuan in salary expenditures for them every year, and in the end they all fell into the pockets of military generals or generals.

In addition, for the daily losses of the army, including weapons and equipment, food utensils, war horses, etc., the court also had to pay more than 10 million yuan every year.

Even if only one-third or even half of them are embezzled, resold, or destroyed, millions of dollars are lost every year.

In addition to the 330,000 people laid off, a salary of about 7-9 million guan will be paid. The obvious comparison between the army before and after the restructuring is that after one year, it can save about 20 million guan in treasury expenditure.

It can also be seen from here that in order to change the situation of redundant troops, Zhao Jun touched many people's cakes and interests. It is no wonder that those people even dared to rebel.

That is to say, his position is now stable, and Lao Fan won the battle in the northwest and Hebei, and overthrew the Xixia and Liao kingdoms, otherwise. If he had traveled through time, he would have reformed Sanruan immediately, fearing that the grass on his grave would be three feet high.

"OK."

Zhao Jun took the lead in applauding and said with a smile: "Starting from May last year to January this year, the nationwide military restructuring has finally been completed, and the results are gratifying."

Everyone also applauded, and Li Di also smiled and said: "Dali Temple and the Court of Justice are very busy during this period."

Criminals, unqualified generals, and old and weak soldiers who were previously found in corruption cases in the military are now completely eliminated. The old and weak soldiers are either converted into remaining members or into construction corps, or they are given resettlement allowances and land to return home for farming.

The rest of the criminal prisoners were handed over to the Dali Temple and the Senting Court, and the Ministry of War presided over the three-chamber trial, so now the Dali Temple and the Senting Court are really busy.

There are countless military cases tried this year alone. Cases are adjudicated every day, and countless people are beheaded, exiled, and imprisoned.

"It's a good thing to be busy. After a while, there will be fewer corrupt officials in the world and fewer moths and beetles in the army. Only then can the combat effectiveness of our army be guaranteed and the country be stable."

Zhao Jun smiled, and then said to Fan Zhongyan: "The Ministry of War must also take over the responsibility immediately. In the future, military courts will be the main internal affairs for military violations. Dali Temple and the Court of Justice will be in charge of civil and criminal matters. In this way, rewards and punishments will be distributed The Ministry of War can also make the army independent from outside affairs.”

"Well, the military court is already under construction. In the future, some officials who specialize in criminal matters will be selected to form a military court."

Fan Zhongyan said: "Currently, we plan to open them in Hebei, Shaanxi, and Kaifeng first, so that we don't have to send the soldiers and generals who committed crimes back to Kaifeng, and wait until the military regions are re-divided later to build new departments."

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction: "Very good."

As he spoke, he looked at Cai Qi again.

Wang Zeng is still in charge of the staff department, but he has been ill recently, and Cai Qi is now helping to take charge of it.

Cai Qi said: "This year, the number of officials across the country has increased again. This is because more than 300 officials have been admitted to the civil service examination. Together with the imperial examination, Jinshi and Menyin, the number of officials produced every year is about 1,000, which is much more than before. , but the number of official positions has increased, so there will not be a problem of idle officials.”

"It seems that the problem of redundant officials has been solved."

Zhao Jun spread his hands.

Just say it's not solved yet.

Although there are still so many officials.

There is even an increase.

But in the past, at least 10,000 of them had nothing to do, receiving their salaries and not working every day.

Now they always have something to do, and they are all functional departments with clear tasks, all working for Da Song.

It's much stronger than before.

Cai Qi couldn't laugh or cry: "However, there is still no reduction in official salary expenditures. Although it is similar to before, this goes against the problem of redundant officials that we originally wanted to solve."

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the average number of Menyin officials was more than 500 per year, and with the addition of more than 100 Jinshi officials, the number basically remained at about 600 per year.

Now that the official examination has been added, local officials can also take the examination to become officials, and the number of officials will be even greater.

Moreover, the salary level has not changed. Zhao Jun has cut off all the messy benefits, allowances, job opportunities, etc., but added them all into the performance, so he still has to pay the salary that should be paid.

The reason why expenditures are still about the same as before, at around 10 million yuan every year, is because Zhao Jun cut the salaries of superior officials.

There must be between three and four hundred people in the central and local areas of the imperial court, ranging from high-ranking officials of fourth rank and above to national-level officials.

There are four local ministers plus the boss of the Censorship Division, more than fifty ministers and ministers of the central government, more than ten cardinals and prime ministers from the Privy Council and the Constitutional Council, and the rest include Longtuge, Tianzhangge, Baowenge, and Hanlin. Bachelors from the academy.

The salaries of these people used to rise from 10,000 to 20,000 guan every year, and their annual expenses alone could reach millions of guan, which was the top income in the officialdom.

Zhao Jun directly cut them in half, and also slightly reduced the income of mid-level officials between the fifth and sixth grades, and used it to subsidize low-level officials below the seventh grade, so that the expenditure did not exceed the original level. .

But in everyone's eyes, this still seems to go against the essence of solving redundant officials.

But Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "Wrong, the problem with redundant officials is not that there are too many officials, but that there are too many officials who only receive salary every year and do nothing, and few who actually do practical things. Now there are more than 40,000 If officials are all working, then this is not redundant officials, but building a better future for the Song Dynasty!”

"All right."

Cai Qi had no choice but to say: "In terms of redundant expenditures, all parts of the country have streamlined expenditures. The local financial bureaus have recorded every expenditure and reconciled it with the Censor's Department and the Imperial City Department to reduce unnecessary expenditures. We also canceled a large number of royal sacrifices, celebrations and other activities, saving more than 2.4 million yuan this year."

“Where are the major expenses?”

Zhao Jun asked.

"On royal expenditures."

Cai Qi said awkwardly.

The main redundant financial expenditure in the Northern Song Dynasty was royal expenditure.

Few people dare to mention this.

Zhao Jun was so brave that he even canceled the Queen's birthday celebration and had a casual meal in the back garden instead.

"Well, this is an official's love for the people and diligent administration."

Zhao Jun arched his hands toward the Chongzheng Hall in the north, causing Zhao Zhen, who was playing on the computer there, to sneeze.

"It is the blessing of the Song Dynasty that officials can be considerate of all people in the world."

Zhao Jun continued: "We should also learn from the officials and avoid extravagance. Except for necessary expenditures, the government's fiscal expenditures should be reduced as much as possible."

"OK."

Everyone responded one after another. Although they didn't know how sincere they were, they still did what they should do.

Then Zhao Jun looked at Jiang Tang and said, "How is people's livelihood?"

There are more than fifty departments under the Constitutional Yuan, but they are divided into three levels.

The first-tier institutions include the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Police, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Taxation, the Admonition Platform, the Yushitai, and the six traditional ministries of Rites, Officials, Soldiers, Punishments, Households, and Industry.

After the title of Alternate Observer Fellow of the Constitutional Yuan was cancelled, the ministers of these thirteen departments were all given the title of Alternate Observer Fellow of the Constitutional Yuan, and their rank was still the second rank.

Then there are the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Dali Temple (Court), the Criminal Court (Procuratorate), the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Transportation, the Jinzou Yuan (Propaganda Department), the Statistics Department, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Geology, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department (unifying the National Information Office, Concierge House, Tongwen Hall, Duting West Station, Huaiyuan Station) and other general departments.

These departments are ministers of the third grade, and their weight is slightly lighter than the first-tier departments mentioned above. However, these departments pay more attention to people's livelihood.

For example, Jiang Tang is currently in charge of several major departments such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Taxation, and the Ministry of Agriculture, which are related to people's lives.

Seeing Zhao Jun asking him, Jiang Tang said: "In August of the previous year, after corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts and other crops came to our country in the Song Dynasty, the Ministry of Agriculture started experimental planting in the farmland of Huangzhuang outside the city. It took only four months. , after fertilizing, the yield can be one to three stones per mu.”

"One to three stones is about 200 kilograms. Although it is not as high as Hanlong said, the yield per mu can reach thousands or even thousands of kilograms, but this is autumn and winter farming. We have carried out spring farming since the beginning of last year, and half a year later, the yield per mu reached The yield is four to five stones, and the maximum yield per acre is more than 700 kilograms.”

"So starting from the second half of last year, the Constitutional Yuan has included the promotion of sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes, peanuts and other crops into the test method. After more than half a year of hard work, the first batch of sweet potatoes, corns and other crops across the country have been The crops have basically been harvested.”

"In terms of yield, these things are only a little higher than the rice and wheat we usually eat. The yield of our rice and wheat is basically between two and four stones. However, the advantages are obvious. Their survivability is extremely strong. As long as they are watered It can survive with water, and if fertilizer is applied, the yield will be much higher, which greatly improves our productivity. "

"The Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs began conducting surveys and summaries in counties and states across the country in the second half of last year. Now, sales of sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and peanuts have begun to appear on the market, and the prices are much lower than those of grains, but ordinary People don’t eat much, and a lot of it goes to pigs.”

At the end of the sentence, Jiang Tang felt dumbfounded.

The emergence of Champa rice can actually fully meet the current population needs of the Song Dynasty. The birth of sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and other things can allow the Qing Dynasty to have a population of 400 million. This shows that if these things are promoted now, the food output will completely exceed people's needs. need.

If the imperial court hadn't spent money every year to purchase grain and put it in the Changping warehouse as a disaster relief reserve grain, and also exported it to Xixia, Liao, Korea, and Japan, I'm afraid the current price of grain would have been incredibly low.

Therefore, the emergence of new crops cannot change anything. Unless policies are adjusted to encourage more births and fertility, and allow the population to grow explosively, the problem of increased grain production can be alleviated.

"But I heard that many poor people still eat these things. Although these things are originally eaten as food, it is difficult for most people to change their living habits within a period of time. If rice and noodles are available, no one will choose to eat them. Sweet potatoes and potatoes.”

Fan Zhongyan objected: "This seems to indicate some fundamental issues."

"yes."

Jiang Tang sighed: "Although the imperial court has lightened corvees and reduced taxes in recent years, there are still many poor people, especially in mountainous areas. Even though the grain output is enough to feed several times that of Dingkou in the Song Dynasty, there are still quite a lot of people." Struggling on the verge of life and death.”

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "This is a problem of uneven distribution of social wealth. Starting from this year, the court will continue to implement the New Deal. Various policies must be changed frequently in the future, and we cannot stick to the rules."

"Do you have any idea?"

Yan Shu asked.

"We must truly improve the problem of poor people."

Zhao Jun pointed out: "Many mountainous areas have inconvenient transportation, underdeveloped information, and strong clan power and old-fashioned ways. Even if there are good policies, it is difficult to communicate them. We must increase publicity work at the grassroots level."

Now there is enough food for people to eat. People in many plain areas, such as the North China Plain in Henan and Hebei, can easily obtain channels and information no matter how difficult their lives are.

They can go to work in Henan Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, Daming Prefecture, Yingtian Prefecture and other nearby places, and the remuneration they receive is more than enough to support a family.

Moreover, as the economy developed, the handicraft manufacturing industry became more prosperous, and various workshops sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The problem of labor shortage gradually came to light, and businessmen began to compete with the landlords for people, causing the landlord class to be forced to reduce land rents to save the tenant population.

In a way, this is definitely a virtuous cycle. Whether landlords lower land rents or bosses raise wages, it is good news for farmers and workers.

However, this is only limited to economically and agriculturally developed areas such as Hebei, Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The situation in remote mountainous areas such as Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guizhou is not so good. Many mountains still maintain the previous ecology and poor people live. cannot be improved.

Perhaps the only change is that after crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes, and peanuts became popular, they were originally struggling on the edge of life and death. Now, even if they are charged high land rents in mountainous areas, at least they can still eat, and the situation of starving to death has changed. Much less.

Zhao Jun also emphasized: "The best way to truly improve people's livelihood is the construction of infrastructure. The imperial court can only urge local governments to work hard to improve people's livelihood and pull poor people from the line of life and death to the line of poverty. If we want to achieve prosperity, we there's still a long way to go."

Fan Zhongyan asked: "Hanlong, what do you think our next step should be?"

"Make a plan."

Zhao Jun said: "Everyone knows that at the end of last year, in order to appease the surrendered generals, the imperial court had formed a new voyage fleet to set off. It is expected that they will come back next year. This time my goal for them is to bring back rubber trees. and cinchona trees.”

"The current problem facing the steam engine is that the sealing quality has not been solved, so it cannot be mass-produced. However, the overall structure and power have fully achieved the results I want, and it can be put into production almost as soon as it is completed."

"If the steam engine is put into use, the cement plant will be able to realize automatic mixing and trains will be built. At that time, the Song Dynasty will carry out infrastructure construction nationwide."

“It is expected that in five years we will be able to start major infrastructure construction, which will require a very large population, so I think starting from this year, we need to plan in advance to finish the battles that need to be fought and the reforms that need to be done well. Let the Song Dynasty enter a period of rapid development.”

Zhao Zhen found a complete description of Watt's improved steam engine from historical novels, including that the Academy of Sciences actually built several prototypes, and the combustion efficiency, steam pressure, exhaust system, piston bridge, etc. were all perfected.

But so far, it has not been put into mass production. It is not a technical problem, but simply the lack of rubber as a material.

Many people think that steam engines can be used without rubber and do not necessarily need rubber. This is actually a misunderstanding caused by insufficient understanding of the structure of steam engines and its development history.

In fact, before there was rubber, the role of steam engines was extremely limited and could basically only be used to draw water.

Because without the rubber gasket, the previous lead ring was not tightly sealed, resulting in a large amount of steam leakage, low power efficiency, and easy steam explosion.

The most important part of Watt's improved steam engine was to change the original sealing ring from a lead ring to a rubber gasket, which greatly improved work efficiency and safety, allowing steam engines to appear on trains and cars.

If Zhao Jun mass-produces steam engines now without rubber, the only consequence would be various explosions in the steam engine factory and "bang bang bang" explosions in the train station.

So although the principle of the steam engine is simple, and even Zhao Zhen simply found a way to make a steam engine, without rubber, there is no way to complete the mass production of the steam engine.

In the end, we cannot develop the steam industry step by step, and then progress to the era of oil and gas industry and electrical industry.

After all, the industrial system must proceed step by step.

It is a holistic thing. You cannot just slap your head and say, since the steam era is so bad, I can just skip the development and develop into the oil and gas era.

That is impossible.

Many times, going from one to ten is easy, but going from zero to one is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

For example, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, my country skipped the steam era and went directly to the oil, gas and electrical era. This was because there were ready-made oil, gas and electrical industries all over the world. Big Brother helped and introduced them himself, so he could always find a way out.

But when the whole world is a feudal agricultural society, if you want to enter the age of oil, gas and electricity, where will your industrial base come from? Where did the material come from? Where did the technology and system come from?

Extracting compounds from petroleum rubber requires basic chemical industry capabilities and countless experiments, principle exploration, etc.

Therefore, Zhao Jun can only develop the steam industry first. With the steam industry as the foundation, the future road will be much smoother. He may be able to see mankind enter the second industrial revolution in his lifetime.

"What, are the new policies going to start again this year?"

Fan Zhongyan was eager to try.

"Well, it's time to plan carefully."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "The most difficult road was the third Qingli New Deal, but we finally got through it. Even if it was a palace assassination, we withstood the pressure and will get better and better in the future."

"What are you going to do?"

“Let’s start planning for the Fourth New Deal.”

"What's the specific content?"

"I will do it in these two days, and we will discuss it later."

"Um."

Fan Zhongyan responded, very excited.

Since the restructuring of Zhao Jun and Jingyou, their new policies have been implemented.

First, in the first year of Qingli, the law was passed and officialdom and officials were rectified.

Then in the second year of the Qingli reign, the country reduced its burdens, lightened corvée labor, reduced taxes, encouraged commerce, and stabilized people's livelihood.

Then in May of the fourth year of the Qingli reign, the national army was restructured, and then redundant expenses were eliminated, the army was reduced, development was promoted, and science was emphasized.

The entire country, from top to bottom, from officialdom to the army, from the people to the court, was almost completely renewed.

The only reform that has not been completed yet is to solve the problem of land annexation.

This thing is also a big thunder. Once it is not handled properly, it is possible that the landlords across the country will protest on a large scale or even revolt.

So Zhao Jun did not take action immediately, just like dealing with redundant troops.

Now.

It's almost time.