In the Song Dynasty, There Was No Law or Order.

Chapter 301 Make a Long-Term Plan

In the next meeting, Zhao Jun talked with everyone about other plans.

For example, the opening of new canals.

In addition to Wu'an, steel mills should be built in other places.

The second steel mill Zhao Jun plans to set up in the Nanyang Basin.

The Nanyang Basin is rich in iron and coal resources, connected to the Han River and the Yangtze River in the south and Henan in the north, with convenient land transportation.

The most important thing is that there is a river called Baihe here. Although there is no canal directly to Bianliang, if it is transported by water, it is Xiangyang in the south, connected to Sichuan in the west through the Yangtze River, Zhejiang in the east, and Huguang in the south.

In this way, the south will have steel production capacity. In case, just in case, the Wu'an steel production base on the front line in Hebei has problems and is attacked by the Liao people, the south will also have sufficient steel production capacity to support it.

And after Nanyang has a steel mill, it will continue to lay out steel manufacturing in the south. When Guangdong has a steel mill one day in the future, the domestic steel industry will basically be fully laid out and blossom everywhere.

And almost at that time, steam engines had already been put into mass production, and the national steel industry blossomed. With the civilian use of steam engines, trains, steamships and even cars can be manufactured.

So we started to lay out the steel industry now, so that we can wait for rubber to take root and sprout in Guangdong, Hainan and other places in a few years, and lay it out early.

Then there were some other trivial matters about various departments. The meeting lasted from the end of Chenshi in the morning to the end of Sishi. We talked for more than an hour, and many official duties were not completed. Then we adjourned to deal with government affairs first.

At about 12 o'clock in the afternoon, everyone went to eat again.

Noon is a break time. We will go back to work at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We will work until about 5 o'clock and go to Chongzheng Hall on Zhao Zhen's side for a meeting. This is basically a one-day process.

Some prime ministers simply solved it in the Political System Institute, asked the Imperial Kitchen to send some food, and continued to work, or rested in the room behind the Political System Institute.

Some went home for lunch, and some simply went to restaurants outside. For example, Zhao Jun recently liked to eat at Fanlou.

The reason is that since the ocean-going fleet brought back peppers in August of the previous year, peppers have been planted in large quantities by the Ministry of Agriculture in the imperial farm outside the city as a cooking condiment, and then began to be supplied to some restaurants in the city.

Unfortunately, this thing does not suit the appetite of northerners, and the people of Kaifeng do not like it very much.

But Zhao Jun is from Hunan, and he has long been unaccustomed to the food of the Song Dynasty. Now that peppers appear, he naturally cannot let them go.

It's just that he just left the Political System Institute and was about to go to Fanlou for a good meal, and Lao Fan followed him like a tail.

"What?"

It was the middle of January in the lunar calendar, and tomorrow was the Lantern Festival, and the weather was still very cold.

Although it was not snowing outside, the cold wind was blowing, and Lao Fan was wearing a big cotton jacket with his hands in his sleeves, looking quite wretched.

Zhao Jun looked at him warily and said, "You are sneaking behind me and want to do something bad, right?"

Old Fan wiped his frozen snot and grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth - there were toothbrushes in the Song Dynasty, but no toothpaste, so they could only use salt or a little soap water to brush, which was not very effective.

He said with a smile, "I'll go with you to have a meal."

"I guess you have something to do."

Fan Zhongyan's ancestral home is Guanzhong, his household registration is Jiangsu, and he grew up in Shandong. None of these places have anything to do with eating spicy food, so Zhao Jun guessed his thoughts and said with a smile, "You want to come to me to ask about the next new policy?"

"Yes, anyway, I am the one who promotes the new policy, I am standing in front and taking the blame, I should know some inside information."

Fan Zhongyan did not hide it and said frankly.

Every time they promoted a new policy before, they actually discussed it privately, hiding it from Zhao Zhen, Lu Yijian and others, and only announced it after the equation was determined.

This is done to prevent the new policy from encountering resistance to the direction of the new policy reform before it has even started.

But even so, there are many difficulties.

In the past few years, in order to implement the new policy, Zhao Jun first won over the middle and lower-level officials, then gave benefits to interest groups, and finally eliminated many opposition officials, generals and nobles, and even suffered assassinations. It can be said that there were constant resistance.

But fortunately, everyone survived. Although there were conflicts in the positions of Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and other political institutions in the middle, everyone finally solved many problems and stood together again.

It’s just that reforms still need to be planned first, and the interests of many parties must be taken care of, so it’s better to hide it from them first. Unexpectedly, Lao Fan still followed secretly.

"Okay."

Zhao Jun thought that there was no need to hide it from Lao Fan. He was a reformist general and had to take the blame for himself, so he said: "Let’s talk while eating."

The two of them left the palace together. There was a carriage outside the palace to pick them up. The coachman was waiting like a driver every day.

After leaving Donghua Gate, the bustling streets are bustling with people, and the signs are swaying in the wind. Countless scholars, tourists, passers-by, and vendors are moving around freely, creating the scene of Renzong's prosperity.

In fact, in the past two years, officials have praised Zhao Zhen's rule, which has the scene of the Tang Dynasty's Zhenguan and Kaiyuan prosperity.

The people live and work in peace and contentment, have enough food and clothing, and the order is stable. Uprisings in various places are almost extinct. Except for the high housing prices in Kaifeng, other food prices, commodity prices, and local housing prices are very low.

Ordinary workers work in Bianliang for a few years, save dozens of strings of money, and return to their hometown to buy some real estate and land.

Even the number of beggars has decreased a lot, because the court has established welfare institutions such as the Charity Bureau, the Old Orphanage, the Futianyuan, and the Nursing Home to specifically accommodate these beggars and refugees.

If it is the kind of beggar who has hands and feet and is lazy and good at eating, the court will check his household registration to see if he has committed any crime.

If he has not committed any crime, he will be thrown directly into the Xiangjun.

If there is a criminal, he is a fugitive after committing a crime, and he will be punished according to the severity of the crime.

Those with serious crimes will be imprisoned, exiled, or even beheaded. Those with minor crimes will still be thrown into the Xiangjun for reform.

And those beggars with broken hands and feet who are really unable to work are placed in these welfare institutions. Those who can do a little work will be arranged to do some work, and those who really can't work will be supported by the court.

So beggars on the streets are almost extinct.

In addition, the local corvée and tax reduction have reduced the survival pressure of the lower-class people and the poor, and the whole social situation has become more active, no longer as dead as before.

Zhao Jun's carriage was quite recognizable. Under the protection of hundreds of guards, he passed Ma Xing Street and stepped into Fanlou.

Two powerful prime ministers came to eat, so Fanlou naturally prepared the best private room.

Under the personal reception of the owner of Fanlou, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan entered the private room, which was like a large attic. It not only had a living room and an inner room, but also a balcony, and they could directly see the scenery of Bianliang on the third floor.

Old Fan looked through the balcony and saw countless scholars coming and going on the street below. He couldn't help but sighed: "Another year of spring examination is coming soon, which makes people miss it."

"Miss the time when I was a scholar?"

"No, I miss the time when I was called out outside Donghua Gate."

"Sure enough, people only miss the time when they were most glorious, not the time when they suffered."

Zhao Jun rolled his eyes and sat at the round table.

The dishes were served almost when he just went upstairs, because when he left the palace, someone would come to Fanlou to report the news immediately.

Distinguished guests certainly can't wait for the dishes to be served, so often when they just sit down, the dishes have been served.

There are pepper fried pork, spicy chicken, stir-fried beef, tofu fried pork, etc.

Especially the pepper fried pork and tofu fried pork that he likes to eat. These dishes, Fanlou's chef studied hard every day, and copied the taste of his hometown.

After the dishes were served, everyone withdrew. There were three layers of guards in the private room, but only Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan were in the room.

Old Fan also came from the balcony and sat down. Zhao Jun looked at the Hunan dishes on the table, picked up chopsticks and smiled and said: "Our later peppers have been cultivated and improved in various ways, and there are many kinds. Now the ones brought back are a little worse, mostly ordinary green peppers and red peppers, but they are still okay."

Green peppers were originally produced in America. They were brought to Mexico and North America by Indians very early. Later, they changed from red to green, and the spiciness became much lighter. Fortunately, there were also red peppers, otherwise Zhao Jun would be a little disappointed.

Fan Zhongyan watched Zhao Jun stuff the green pepper into his mouth and eat it directly. He could feel a hot touch on his body unconsciously. A drop of sweat fell on his forehead. He hesitated to raise his chopsticks.

"Eat it, why not?"

Zhao Jun pointed at the dishes with chopsticks while chewing and said, "This spicy chicken is very delicious, don't you want to have a few bites?"

"Okay."

Old Fan was ready to die and picked up a piece and put it in his mouth.

He almost died of the spiciness.

Apparently, eating a bite of local specialties and thinking it is delicious can only appear in stories.

The reality is that people who can't eat spicy food will feel so sour and refreshing that they want to cry.

Anyway, Lao Fan was moved to tears. He swallowed the spicy chicken with tears in his eyes, then wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Let's talk about business first."

"What are your plans next?"

"What plans?"

Zhao Jun put down his chopsticks, thought for a while and said, "It's time to make a long-term plan."

Fan Zhongyan asked curiously, "Tell me more."

"Make a five-year plan."

Zhao Jun scooped himself a bowl of soup and said, "Steam engines need rubber. If everything goes well next year, the rubber will come back and start to be widely planted in Guangzhou, Hainan and other places. In addition, cinchona trees are very important. With cinchona frost, the miasma that has been entangled in Lingnan for thousands of years will be solved."

In ancient times, Lingnan was not suitable for living, so it became a place for exile of prisoners. The reason is that malaria is rampant, and it was called miasma in ancient times.

Although the native Artemisia annua in China can extract artemisinin to treat malaria, the problem is that if you want to extract artemisinin, you can't just crush the Artemisia annua to extract juice. It requires strict chemical experiments and complex extraction processes to do it.

First of all, Zhao Jun is not a chemistry major, so he doesn't have that ability.

Secondly, even if he has that ability, the Song Dynasty doesn't have the conditions for a laboratory.

On the other hand, cinchona is much simpler. It is the bark of the cinchona tree that is dried and crushed into powder. It has almost no technical content.

So with cinchona, there will be no more obstacles in the Lingnan region such as Guangdong and Fujian, and even Taiwan, which is now ravaged by miasma. It is not a problem for the Han people to travel all over Southeast Asia.

"Do you want to develop Lingnan?"

Fan Zhongyan asked.

"Not only that, this plan is still relatively large and grand, and it will take a while to explain it to you."

Zhao Jun took a sip of soup, then put down the bowl and said: "Let's talk about something simple first. After rubber flows into our country, the sealing problem of steam engines will be completely solved, and steam engines can be mass-produced. What do you think should be done?"

"Train! Ship!"

Fan Zhongyan was refreshed. He had seen western movies, and trains and ships were often seen in western movies. Those things not only made him yearn for it, but also the entire Political Yuan.

"wrong."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "It can achieve mass production, but it does not mean that it can be produced immediately. We brought back tens of thousands of kilograms of seeds for corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and peanuts, but to promote them nationwide, the Ministry of Agriculture will have to plant them on a large scale outside the city. It will take two seasons to produce millions of kilograms of seeds before they can be distributed. Can rubber trees do that?”

"Forehead."

Fan Zhongyan thought the same thing. Rubber trees are trees, and the growth cycle of trees is much slower than that of crops. It may take several years.

"Even if they get a lot of saplings and even finished trees on the ship, and use soil to plant them on the ship, which shortens the growth cycle, there are still many problems and troubles to solve when transplanting them to the south."

Zhao Jun pointed out the crux of the problem: "Let's not talk about the survival rate. Just say that even if you can survive and produce a lot of seeds, it will take at least several years or even more than ten years before they can be widely planted. So in During this time, we must plan for the first industrial revolution.”

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Lao Fan also understood it, mainly because he didn't know much about rubber trees, so he made a mistake.

Zhao Jun said: "So when the first industrial revolution really begins, it is not just about building a few steel plants, but also about improving productivity and production efficiency. I predict that it will take at least ten years for steam engines to become popular, and within these ten years What preparations do we need to make?”

"Tell me about it, you are good at these things."

Fan Zhongyan was too lazy to guess. Anyway, he couldn't think of it with his ability.

"The first is population. The arrival of the industrial age will inevitably require a large number of people to work in factories. Now the productivity and food of the Song Dynasty can feed one to two hundred million people. As long as the planting area of ​​sweet potatoes and other crops continues to expand, to three to four billion people More than enough, so why isn’t our population growing explosively?”

Zhao Jun asked back.

"Do you want to share the same income?"

Fan Zhongyan asked tentatively.

"This is just one of them. Sharing a small family home can indeed stimulate people to have children, but there are also many hidden households."

Zhao Jun said: "In the last census, some hidden households were willing to come out. That was because the court exempted them from taxes and distributed land. But most of the hidden households were still willing to live a black life, which means that many hidden households were actually It’s still hidden.”

"Well"

Fan Zhongyan nodded thoughtfully.

“Besides that, there is a serious problem of land annexation.”

Zhao Jun continued: "A large amount of land is concentrated in the hands of landlords, and the people are poor and cannot raise more children. Naturally, the population will not explode. Therefore, only by starting from these two aspects, there will be a wave of prosperity in the Song Dynasty in the next few years. The baby boom will coincide with the great development period of the Song Dynasty twenty years later and contribute to national construction. "

"The time has finally come."

Fan Zhongyan was a little excited and slapped the table: "Hanlong, tell me what to do."

"It is definitely necessary to have a small share of the land."

Zhao Jun showed a solemn expression, "As for the land annexation issue, I have three solutions."

"Tell me about it?"

"this"

Fan Zhongyan was shocked and said: "I'm afraid all landowners across the country will rebel."

"Yeah, this one is too radical."

"What about the second one?"

“Article 2 prohibits land sales.”

Zhao Jun continued: "The imperial court was only allowed to repurchase the land, and then local governments began to build roads, canals, canals, and mine minerals. They recruited tenants from the landowners in each county and left them homeless. People can farm.”

Fan Zhongyan frowned and said: "I'm afraid there are a lot of problems inside. All I can think of is that the financial expenditure will definitely explode. Moreover, the tenants are controlled by the landlord through contracts and have no way to leave."

"This kind of large-scale infrastructure construction is definitely going to explode, but haven't we just solved the three redundancy problems? At present, our fiscal revenue is rising steadily, although it has not yet reached the level of more than 100 million yuan per year before tax reduction and exemption, but trade throughput With the surge in sales and the huge stimulus to the domestic economy, it will be a matter of time before the annual fiscal revenue exceeds 100 million yuan in the next few years.”

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "After deducting about 30 million guan for a year's military expenditure, nearly 20 million guan for official expenses and miscellaneous expenses, the imperial court still has 30 to 40 million guan left. In addition, various places already have local tax revenue, which is several million guan every year. If we continue to do so and carry out projects like crazy, we can not only stimulate the economy more, but also draw away the young and strong labor force.”

"As for the contract issue."

He touched his chin and said: "The imperial court should promulgate a law to stipulate how much interest is considered usury. Anyone who dares to engage in usury will be imprisoned, exiled, confiscated property, and beheaded. They will not be allowed to restrict personal freedom and severely crack down on any slavery system. Give Officials everywhere issued death orders."

"This is to punish the landlords to death."

Fan Zhongyan was quite shocked when he heard this combination of punches.

Although they did not explicitly take away their land, they took away the tenants and young people in their hands. There is no one to cultivate the land, and it is useless for them to guard the land. It is deserted, but won't they have to be forced to sell it to the government in the end?

"At least I gave them the power to sell it to the government."

Zhao Jun spread his hands and said: "Actually, there is another trick here, that is, land with title deeds is recognized as owned by landlords and private individuals. In the future, private reclamation of cultivated land is prohibited. The government organizes manpower to build canals, reclaim the land themselves, and then use these The land was leased to tenants as official land, and the same system of anti-slavery and indenture contracts were used.”

"Good guy, then the landlord may not even have the power to sell his land to the government."

Fan Zhongyan was even more shocked.

Zhao Jun is black.

The hands are really dark.

If this system continues, landlords all over the country will have to shed their skins even if they don't die.

"There is no other way. We have to think of ways to get the land back from these landlords. Besides, I didn't let them suffer. The local governments bought it with real money and financial resources."

Zhao Jun shook his head.

In order to prevent the landlords from rebelling, it would be good if he did not openly rob them. He spent money to take back most of the idle land from the landlords. Then these tenants would become official tenants in the future, and the problem of land annexation could be greatly alleviated.

The main reason why this method can be used is that the Song Dynasty really has money, especially in recent years, foreign trade has been booming, and Japan has millions of taels of silver flowing in every year.

The Liao Kingdom was even more exaggerated.

In order to make firearms, millions of pounds of sulfur were purchased every year. This alone could bring tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenue to the Song Dynasty.

In addition, many trade routes such as the Maritime Silk Road, the Land Silk Road, and the Tea-Horse Road are booming. When conducting medium-amount trade, people gradually began to use silver, instead of having to carry several strings or several strings with them as before. Thousands of copper coins went out.

Therefore, Zhao Jun also gave the landlords of the Song Dynasty the last trace of dignity, that is, forcing them to sell their land to local governments at a low price, freeing their tenants, and at least they can exchange for some coins.

otherwise.

If they don't want to show their dignity, the imperial court may directly help them show their dignity.

"What about the last one?"

Fan Zhongyan asked again.

"The last thing is to let nature take its course."

Zhao Jun shrugged and said: "When the industry officially starts, a large number of young people will go to the city to work, leaving the landowners with no one to farm. They are forced to either sell their land or transform into factory owners and businessmen. Naturally, the land will slowly decline." Taken back."

Fan Zhongyan thought for a moment and said, "This seems to be the method you originally mentioned."

"yes."

Zhao Jun said: "This is also a common method used by the first-mover countries in the early stages of the industrial revolution. After all, they certainly cannot see the future direction and cannot make correct judgments. And there are definitely die-hards in this method, but it is relatively mild and will not cause any problems. Large-scale opposition. The only disadvantage is that it takes too long and may not allow the demographic dividend to catch up with the era of great development.”

The last method is typical of the British sheep cannibalism incident. After the advent of the Industrial Revolution, wool raw materials were in short supply. As soon as the aristocratic landowners saw the profits, they immediately changed the land to pasture sheep. The result was the enclosure movement, and a large number of farmers lost their land. , were forced to work in cities, which actually promoted industrial growth.

This is the case in the Song Dynasty now. Once the industrial revolution comes, even with the size of the Song Dynasty, a large amount of land will not be converted into pasture. However, the income of working in the city is higher than that of farming, which will inevitably attract people to the city, leaving no one to farm in the countryside.

As a result, landowners in the Song Dynasty either took the initiative or were forced to sell their fields, introduce machinery, and become capitalists or businessmen, which can be regarded as easing the problem of land annexation to a certain extent.

However, this would take too long and would not eliminate the disadvantages.

Zhao Jun's real purpose is to recover a large amount of private land, so as not to build a high-speed railway like India later. Landowners along the way opposed it and it took more than ten years to build it, which seriously hindered the development of the country.

Now that the size of the Song Dynasty is not particularly large, with a territory of less than 3 million kilometers and a population of more than one billion, the restructuring is completed, so that whether it is building trains or roads, it will be smooth. .

Chapter 305/535
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In the Song Dynasty, There Was No Law or Order.Ch.305/535 [57.01%]