Chapter 471 The Song Dynasty Needs to Spread Civilization to the World

"Whoosh, whoosh!~"

The sound of rain outside the house was much louder at noon than in the morning.

When it was almost time to eat, several prime ministers sorted out the official documents on their desks and prepared to get up.

Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan had just finished the exchange of interests and also planned to go to dinner.

At this moment, the door to the Constitutional Yuan was pushed open with a bang.

The cold wind "swish" in from the door, causing several prime ministers present to raise their heads and look at the door in displeasure.

No one, not even the prime minister, would dare to push open the door of the Zhengyuan so boldly when it is closed in winter. Opening and closing lightly is the rule.

But after a while, everyone changed their faces, looked at each other, and laughed.

Because they saw that the door was not pushed open violently, but that someone slipped at the door, bumped into it and fell to the ground.

Especially that person is Jia Changchao.

Speaking of which, Jia Changchao is actually not too old. At fifty-five years old, he is considered young at least in the Political Yuan.

So the old men were overjoyed to see him, a man who was more than ten years younger than themselves, fall over.

Only Zhao Jun saw him fall and thought that Jia Changchao had really been worried about gains and losses recently, and he had become irritable when walking. He could probably guess that it was because he was retiring.

This year is also the end of Jia Changchao's second term. He became prime minister at the age of 45. In addition to standing in line with Lu Yijian, the more important thing is to be able to build rivers.

Otherwise, Zhao Jun wouldn’t be able to pass the test here.

But just because you are too young to take office and retire too young, fifty-five is already old in other positions, but it is the golden age in official circles.

Although during the Song Dynasty, many high-ranking officials became prime ministers in their forties. For example, Fan Zhongyan, Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others all became prime ministers in their forties, but who would be willing to serve only ten years?

This made Zhao Jun start to think about this issue.

It's not about increasing the prime minister's term, but what happens after the prime minister retires.

He had not thought about it before because many prime ministers died of illness during their term of office. Even if they could retire safely, Cai Qi, Song Shou and Jiang Tang were all in their sixties now.

In ancient times, this was considered a relatively long life, so many people in their 40s in later officialdoms were ups and downs at the department level, but in ancient times they could be prime ministers.

But we cannot ignore that some prime ministers lived longer than others, such as Zhang Shixun who lived to be more than 80 years old.

These people have rich management experience and even have various specialized abilities. For example, Jia Changchao has unique insights into river management. He is also a great scholar in the world and is proficient in exegesis of ancient texts.

If such people enter the Constitutional Yuan in their forties and retire in their fifties, it would be a waste of talent for the country.

At present, only Jia Changchao is facing the problem of retirement in his fifties.

Zhao Jun thought of this and thought that even if Jia Changchao retired, he would still have to be assigned a position to let him use his remaining talents, but he could not be allowed to retire and return home.

"It's time to replace the bluestone slab at the door. The more people come and go, the more slippery it becomes, and it's easy to fall on rainy days."

Jia Changchao didn't know whether he meant something or was really complaining. He stood up with the help of the clerk near the door, stretched out his right hand that had supported him when he fell to the ground, shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "Maybe I'm getting old. ”

"Jia Xiang is still young."

Du Yan stroked his beard and said, "Compared with me, I think Mr. Jia can be the father-in-law for another ten years."

This is true.

In the Constitutional Yuan, Jia Changchao is fifty-five years old and is the youngest after Zhao Jun. Then Zheng Jian has just turned 60, and the others are between 60-80.

After the eldest Zhang Shixun and the second eldest Li Di died of illness, the 74-year-old Du Yan is currently the oldest.

Therefore, it can be said that the Constitutional Yuan is currently in a state of gerontocracy.

To change this situation, we probably have to wait until this term changes and let "post-00s" like Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, and Han Qi come to power.

Hearing the conversation between the two, Zhao Jun rolled his eyes and joked with a smile: "I think Jia Xiang is indeed very young. It would be a pity if he leaves this time. I will go to the officials to ask for mercy. Let’s see if I can keep you here so that I can use my remaining energy.”

"Um?"

Fan Zhongyan frowned and said, "Wouldn't this break the rules?"

"Rules are also set by people. Besides, Mr. Jia's situation is quite special. Some things should be handled specially."

Zhao Jun winked at him and said: "Although I have recently decided that employees of state-owned enterprises should retire at the age of 50 and receive retirement wages, that is because the average life expectancy of people in the Song Dynasty is still relatively short. After promotion, the retirement time will be pushed back, but how can being an official be the same as working in a factory? It is impossible to retire and stay at home when you are only in your fifties. That would be a waste of talent. "

"That's true."

Fan Zhongyan is no longer the stupid green-headed boy he once was. Seeing Zhao Jun's eyes, he probably understood that it was a lie to plead with Zhao Zhen, but it was true to keep Jia Changchao in a different position.

After all, Fan Zhongyan actually knew that since Zhao Jun proposed a ten-year term as prime minister, he must maintain this order.

Otherwise, if every prime minister can remain in office in the future, wouldn’t it mean that powerful ministers would appear?

There is even a high probability that after Zhao Jun dies, his successor will be in the position of magistrate for ten years at most, and it is impossible for him to control the government for a long time.

It can only be said that Zhao Jun is extremely special. Otherwise, according to the practice of the Song Dynasty, he would have been devolved to the local magistrate long ago. How could he still hold the position of magistrate for fifteen years like now?

"If this is really the case, then I would like to thank you Zhiyuan."

Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Jia Changchao was stunned at first, then showed ecstasy, and then quickly adjusted his facial expression and said: "I'm not obsessed with power, but I really can't worry about this Yellow River management project. Moreover, the Ministry of Industry has also been involved in the project in recent years. When exploring large rivers, if we can build water conservancy hubs and regulate water conservancy projects on large rivers, it will definitely benefit the people. "

"It's natural."

Zhao Jun smiled and was already thinking about what position he should give Jia Changchao.

Just as he was talking, Jia Changchao remembered the business, took out an official document from his arms and said, "By the way, I just passed by Jinzouyuan on the way here, and happened to meet them with an urgent document to deliver, so I took it. Come here."

"Oh? What urgent message?"

Zhao Jun became interested. Generally, ordinary official documents submitted to the central government from various places are not under the control of the Constitutional Yuan, but are sent to a certain department based on the content.

For example, a water conservancy department wants to plan a water conservancy project, such as a river dam, which requires a large amount of steel and cement.

But the productivity along the way is limited, and the central government needs to coordinate the deployment of steel and cement powder from Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant, Bianliang Cement Plant or other reinforced cement plants. So what should we do?

At this time, instead of reporting to the Constitutional Yuan, he went to his immediate superior, the Ministry of Water Resources.

The Ministry of Water Resources will send people to investigate and if they think the project is feasible, they will find the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Finance, Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant and Bianliang Cement Plant to negotiate, including costs, project design, production capacity supply, etc.

If these departments determine that there are no problems with the plan, they will jointly report it to the Constitutional Yuan.

When the Constitutional Yuan sees that these departments can provide supplies in terms of financial expenditure, project planning, and production capacity, they will sign and approve it. In this way, the project can be officially started.

This procedure seems cumbersome, but it also eliminates the need to report directly to the Constitutional Yuan. The Constitutional Yuan has to send several departments below to investigate and then jointly issue a report. This greatly reduces the work of the Constitutional Yuan, and it is not a single thing. It will take a long time to talk to the Constitutional Yuan.

To put it simply, it is to delegate power to the lower departments so that these departments can work freely. The Constitutional Yuan mainly controls the general direction and final instructions, review, verification and other powers.

Therefore, ordinary matters cannot actually reach the Constitutional Yuan at all. What can really be called urgent matters sent to the Constitutional Yuan are generally national events.

really.

I heard Jia Changchao hand over the official document and say: "It only took Di Qing half a day to defeat the main force of the Xizhou Uighurs, destroy the Xizhou Uighurs, and recover most of the Western Region."

"oh?"

When Zhao Jun heard about this, he raised his eyebrows and said immediately: "It's not the entire Western Region?"

"It's not that simple. This is not a future generation with developed transportation."

Fan Zhongyan smiled bitterly and said: "You have never been to the northwest, so you don't know how difficult it is to provide supplies because it is often deserted for thousands of miles."

"Of course I know that in future generations we will send countless construction corps to build Xinjiang."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "I just think that with Di Qing's ability, it should be no problem to regain the entire Western Region in a short time."

"Actually, it's not bad to say that we have recovered the entire Western Region."

Jia Changchao said: "Di Qing explained in the official document that most of the territory of the Black Khan Kingdom is not in our traditional Western Regions, but in Central Asia in later generations. It is thousands of miles away from Gaochang. Even if he wants to fight there, he can't. You have to go step by step.”

"I see."

Only then did Zhao Jun understand the reason. He had always thought that the Western Region was actually occupied by the Gaochang Uighurs and the Black Khan Kingdom.

Only now do we know that the Gaochang Uighurs actually occupied most of the Western Region, and the Black Khan Kingdom only occupied a small part of the Xinjiang border area in later generations of our country.

This also stems from the fact that the ancients did not understand the situation in the Western Regions. Even later generations often relied on archaeology to make discoveries, so he did not know that the situation in this country, which was almost four thousand kilometers away from him in a straight line, was also normal.

Zhao Jun then read the official document submitted by Di Qing, which detailed the situation in the Western Regions. At present, Di Qing plans to continue moving forward and station troops in the direction of Kucha, which will be located in the area of ​​Kuqa City in Xinjiang later.

Once the Black Khan Kingdom refuses to submit to the Song Dynasty, and if the Black Khan King does not go to Bianliang to meet His Majesty the Song Emperor, then the Song Dynasty's army will continue to march westward, even if it is thousands of miles away, it will destroy the Black Khan.

"Di Qing has the style of Han and Tang Dynasties."

Zhao Jun finished reading the official document and said with a smile: "The Song Dynasty lacks such a culture now?"

"What's wrong?"

Fan Zhongyan asked curiously.

Zhao Jun said: "The Han ministers have already gone to Qiuci. If King Black Khan does not go to Bianliang to pay homage, he will send troops to destroy Black Khan. It is quite a bit like His Majesty the Tang Dynasty issued an edict and all nations came to worship Mianqi."

"Yes, in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, all the nations came to court, but only King Qu Wentai of Gaochang was absent. So Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty said to his envoys: "In the past few years in Gaochang, tribute has been neglected and there has been no ceremony for ministers. The official title allows me to have hundreds of officials and serve as ministers to others. How can it be like this! At the beginning of this year, all nations are coming to court, but Wentai is not here. Zengcheng has a deep moat and is preparing for a crusade. "

Zheng Jian sighed: "If you don't come to worship your country, you will be destroyed. This is the foundation of the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties."

"Yes, although the Song Dynasty has become stronger now, it has been weak for too long and has not straightened its back. What we need is this kind of spirit and courage."

Zhao Jun looked around and said: "The reason why the Han and Tang Dynasties were so powerful was the frequent military activities. They destroyed the Xiongnu and fought against the Turks. However, there were still dissenters in the Western Regions. Even Dawan and Tuqishi thousands of miles away could not escape death. . Now it’s time for us, the Song Dynasty, to revive the style of the Han and Tang Dynasties.”

"It seems we have achieved it."

Xia Song, who had been silent for a long time, smiled and said: "Under the leadership of Zhiyuan, we defeated Yue Li in the south, conquered the Japanese in the east, defeated the Liao Kingdom in the north, destroyed the traitorous Xia in the west, and now the Gaochang Kingdom has been destroyed. Who is our opponent in the world?" ?”

"Forehead"

Zhao Jun was speechless for a moment. Thinking about it carefully, although Xia Song was flattering, there was nothing wrong with flattering him.

The Han and Tang dynasties were so powerful that they defeated the surrounding heroes to surrender.

Coupled with the vast and profound Chinese culture, the surrounding countries surrendered to the force of the Han and Tang Dynasties while being obsessed with the culture of the Han and Tang Dynasties, so they volunteered all nations to come to the DPRK.

Now the Song Dynasty is no worse than the Han and Tang Dynasties in terms of military force.

After conquering the surrounding countries without any rivals, the only thing left is probably to destroy the Liao Kingdom in a few years, eat the entire northern grassland and the vast northeastern region, and restore the peak territory of the Tang Dynasty.

In terms of military force, there seems to be nothing that can be done more brilliantly than the Han and Tang Dynasties.

"Then go to the Middle East."

Zhao Jun said: "The Tang Dynasty asked all the wandering ghost countries in the Kamchatka Peninsula to come to worship. There is no reason why we can't be powerful in places farther away. Even if we can't destroy the country, we still have to see if there are any countries that provoke the Song Dynasty, and then a ship destroys it. Their regime serves as a deterrent.”

“Last year, even the Fatimid dynasty came to worship. According to the world map of later generations, they were Egypt, Libya, Algeria in northern Africa, and Saudi Arabia in West Asia. They also brought many black slaves, saying He was going to be killed and sacrificed to us, which almost made the officials angry. "

Xia Song said.

"I didn't come back last year, how could I know about this?"

Zhao Jun was also speechless.

West Asia, North Africa, and Europe still need civilization and enlightenment.

In particular, Europe is still in the Middle Ages, and Africa and America are still at the primitive tribal level.

It seemed that the Song Dynasty could not stop its conquest.

It is necessary to bring more advanced civilization and more brilliant knowledge to the world to make them realize their backwardness and ignorance.