Chapter 517: Jurchen Rebellion and Civil Unrest in Liao.

After the New Year of the 13th year of the Qingli Period, the Song Dynasty was still developing in full swing.

By June, the data for the first half of the year were sent to the Political System Council, and the data were very encouraging.

The growth rates of steel production, economic development, fiscal revenue, and import and export trade were all extremely exaggerated.

Especially import and export trade.

Originally, the Song Dynasty's foreign trade was very large, but the celebration at the beginning of the year had a one-time trade volume of more than 100 million guan.

Adding the original trade volume in January and February, the export volume at the beginning of the year was about 400 million guan.

This is equivalent to the total export volume for half a year in the 12th year of the Qingli Period.

In the midsummer of June, a few days ago, there was a heavy rain in Bianliang, and it was not only Bianliang, but also the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Although the heavy rain lasted only two or three days, it still caused the water volume of the Bian River to surge.

That is to say, the river is well repaired now, and a lot of diversion canals have been dug. Otherwise, this heavy rain alone may cause a flood in Bianliang.

But even so, it slightly affected the canal business for a few days. Some ships capsized in the river due to the sudden heavy rain, blocking the river.

However, the current canal blockage is already a small problem for the Song Dynasty. Not to mention that there are people to deal with the river itself, the train runs 24 hours a day, which greatly relieves the freight pressure in Bianliang.

In the hot summer, the scorching sun shines on the earth, and the heat is unbearable. The Political System Institute finally got the second electrical appliance besides the electric light - several electric fans operated by electricity developed by the Electrical Equipment Research Institute under the School of Physics under the Academy of Sciences!

Although the technical content of electric fans is not high, in fact, the main development direction of science and technology in the entire Song Dynasty is mainly based on the steel, clothing and transportation industries, that is, steelmaking, textiles, and train industries, and the rest of the industries are extremely backward.

It is because the steel, textile and transportation industries have gradually got on the right track in recent years that the Song Dynasty can start to develop other industries with the whole country's strength. Otherwise, how can the wires and screws in this electric fan be so easy to make?

"Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo."

The electric fan was running at full power, and there were ice cubes in the room to cool down.

But every time the door of the Constitutional Court was opened, the heat waves outside would rush in. The alternation of cold and heat soon made several old prime ministers unable to bear it and went to the back room of the Constitutional Court to rest.

Zhao Jun was also sweating profusely. He suspected that the temperature during the day was at least above 35 degrees today, otherwise how could people be so hot and dizzy.

"It's so hot."

Yan Shu wiped the sweat from his forehead and panted: "The summers in recent years seem to be getting hotter and hotter."

"The Little Ice Age is over. As time goes by, the temperature will continue to rise. I remember that when we were there, there were frequent power outages in the 2000s, and we rolled on the floor in the summer nights because it was so hot."

Zhao Jun smiled.

Many people think that the post-2000s have never suffered. In fact, the country in later generations took off after 2008, but even before the take-off in 2010, there were power outages everywhere across the country.

When Zhao Jun was a child, he remembered that it was probably the summer of 2008 or 2009, when he was in elementary school. There was a power outage at night.

It was 40 degrees during the day, but it was over 30 degrees at night. There was no air conditioning or electric fans, so adults and children all lay on the floor and heated up the ceramic floor.

"Alas, you at least had air conditioning at that time. I'm afraid that we won't have air conditioning when I die."

Yan Shu sighed.

"Old people will get sick if they use air conditioning too much."

Zhao Jun casually said a few perfunctory words to him.

Zeng Gongliang took some official documents he had prepared and put them on his desk.

The political ecology of the Constitutional Court was headed by Zhao Jun.

Important official documents from all over the country and various ministries were submitted to the Constitutional Court for review.

But these things were definitely not something that Zhao Jun could handle alone, so each prime minister, in addition to being responsible for the affairs of each department, also had to make notes and instructions.

The notes that made the decisions were finally summarized to Zhao Jun. Zhao Jun read the prime ministers' handling methods and sent them out if there were no problems.

If there is a problem, he will correct it himself. If the other prime ministers have objections, they will discuss it together and come up with a charter.

Basically, unless Zhao Jun insists on doing it on his own, it will be mainly based on everyone's discussion. But if Zhao Jun really insists on doing it on his own, then it will be useless even if he brings trouble to Zhao Zhen.

He has the final say, it just depends on whether he is willing to exercise such power.

Zhao Jun took the official documents approved by Zeng Gongliang and glanced at each one. Zeng Gongliang also explained beside him: "This is a report from the Firearms Department, asking the Bianliang Iron and Steel Plant to build two backward production lines."

"Build it."

Zhao Jun scratched his head.

The backward production lines before were not actually dismantled.

But after the new technology matured, the backward production lines were useless and were thrown there to rust.

However, the technology and industrial workers are still there, and the previous large cannon barrels, small cannon barrels and flintlock barrels should still be made.

In this way, with the production lines of Minié bullets and solid bullets, a complete backward gun and artillery industrial process before World War I can be formed.

Who would have thought that the Song Dynasty, which already had smokeless gunpowder and gun technology comparable to that of World War II, would have to make antiques like those before World War I?

"This is another report from the Firearms Department. They have developed drawings of new weapons such as machine guns and revolvers. The Firearms Department hopes to send them to the steel mills for manufacturing."

"Let them try."

"Then there is the data reported by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce this year. They hope to slightly lower the alcohol tax. There is too much food now, and more wine can also help tax revenue."

"Then let them decide on their own regulations."

"Well, the Ministry of Industry has also submitted reports on some local projects. They are all projects that benefit the country and the people."

"Let the Ministry of Industry send people to take a look, confirm the plan, make sure it is foolproof, calculate how much the plan will cost, and then ask major companies to bid."

"Yes, there is also the Hubu side."

Zeng Gongliang reported all his official duties to Zhao Jun one by one.

Naturally, many prime ministers have their own division of labor.

The imperial court currently has more than fifty ministries, sixteen first-level departments, and almost thirty second-level and third-level departments combined.

There are twelve prime ministers. Basically, each person has to manage three to four departments. The departments he is in charge of are often the department positions he held before becoming prime minister.

For example, Zeng Gongliang once served as the magistrate of the Department of Firearms. In his early years, he worked as a wine clerk, managed the Commercial and Taxation Institute, worked as a doctor in the Ministry of Industry, and then as a minister in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Finally, he was appointed as the prime minister in the position of Minister of Household Affairs.

Therefore, he currently works mainly in the Firearms Department, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Household Affairs.

The rest of the people are similar. For example, Xia Song is now in charge of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Culture, etc.

All because he had revised classics when he was sent to Jixian Yuan, worked on projects when he was the pacifier of Qingzhou, served as deputy envoy in the Third Division, and finally served as prime minister in the Ministry of Finance.

Therefore, many prime ministers have a clear division of labor, and each has his or her own specialties, and there is no need for an outsider to give advice to an expert. Zhao Jun is also in charge of the reviewed papers, and everyone can discuss them together if there are any surprises.

This political system has produced a fairly reliable and efficient administration.

This is just because Zhao Jun is convinced by all the prime ministers as a political strongman, and the system can be perfectly run around him. If the successor is not prestigious enough, it will be easy for disputes and disagreements to occur, resulting in low administrative efficiency.

Fortunately, Zhao Jun has just turned 40 this year and still has a long time to solve these problems, so it is not the main conflict at the moment.

The top priority now is to complete the country's industrial accumulation as soon as possible, so that the national power of the Song Dynasty can rapidly expand, to a speed that even if development stagnates, the whole world may not catch up with it for a hundred years.

As for external conflicts, you can basically ignore them.

Zeng Gongliang finished today's official report, returned to his seat, packed up, and went to the various ministries below to prepare for inspections.

This is also a system.

Today's official business has been taken care of. If it is not time to get off work, then go out and walk around. It will always be slightly more comfortable than sitting in the Constitutional Yuan.

"Hanlong, the Statistics Department has handed over the data report for the first half of this year. Take a look."

Yan Shu handed over the official document in his hand.

He had also been the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs before, but the Household Department was divided into the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Household Affairs. He was in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as well as the Department of Statistics, the Ministry of Rites, etc.

Zhao Jun flipped through the data submitted by the Statistics Department.

I heard Yan Shu say: "Since steel production exceeded 5 million tons last year, this year's goal is to continue doubling it. Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant and Tangshan Iron and Steel Plant have increased their production capacity significantly."

"In the second half of last year, they hired more than 5,000 workers alone. In the first half of this year, they continued to expand the scale and strive to achieve an annual production capacity of 8 million tons this year."

"The steel industry in other places is also developing rapidly. I estimate that it will easily exceed 10 million tons this year, and it may even reach more than 12 million tons."

The first thing he talked about was steel production capacity. Since the development of steel technology, production capacity has been increasing every year through new steel-making methods.

Due to the excellent performance of steel, it was quickly introduced to the market. A large amount of steel did not even flow into the private sector, but was absorbed by various newly built steel processing plants near major steel plants.

The result is that supply exceeds demand. As a state-owned enterprise, the steel plant continues to make profits, so it will naturally be able to continuously expand production capacity and increase output.

This is still very different from the perennial losses of steel plants in later generations of our country.

After all, due to some special reasons in the early days of our country, there was no domestic commodity market. The steel plant was a pure service industry, and it was naturally difficult to grow without profitability.

Nowadays, the Song Dynasty itself has a huge domestic market. The population of more than 100 million people has strong demand. Coupled with the prosperity of productivity and the development of the economy, after the problem of money shortage is solved, the people will only become richer.

The demand for various steel products has naturally increased, not to mention that the imperial court also needs a large amount of steel for infrastructure construction. It would be strange to continue to expand production capacity without making a lot of profits.

"Um."

Hearing Yan Shu's words, Zhao Jun flipped through the official documents and said: "Play steadily and pursue efficiency. It is not good for the steel industry to develop too fast. There is too much production capacity and the market cannot bear it for a while. A large amount of discarded steel can only be accumulated and rust. It won't work if it's too slow. Steel construction is required everywhere, causing steel prices to rise sharply and affecting people's livelihood and the construction speed of the court. This is best now, just enough to meet the efficiency. But I think starting from next year, we will need to expand the scale of production again. From the 10-million-ton level, it needs to skyrocket to at least 50 million-ton level.”

"So fast?"

Yan Shu was surprised.

In the 11th year of Qingli, the production capacity was only 2 million tons. Last year, it increased 2.5 times to 5 million tons.

This year's 2.5-fold increase is almost 12 million tons, and next year it will reach more than 50 million tons, which is a direct 4-fold increase.

"Yeah."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "The annual doubling of the development speed is because the national strength and GDP growth rate of the Song Dynasty were so large in the past, and it is meaningless to increase too much. But starting from this year, our growth rate will explode, and we must keep up with the pace."

"Yes, although we did business with various countries in the past, the scale of business was large and small, and there was a lack of official promotion. Our influence radiated to East Asia at most, and it would not work if it was too far away."

Although Yan Shu was old, he was not confused. He quickly understood the reason and smiled: "Starting this year, the governments of all countries in the world have vigorously promoted trade with us, which is equivalent to us taking over the entire global market. This growth rate is indeed going to increase rapidly."

Don't look at the small population and small market size of the world now. But firstly, there is only one exporting country, and secondly, the population is small but the natural resources are very abundant.

This means that globally, the Song Dynasty, an industrial exporting country, faces countless resource-oriented exports around the world. It is not that there are too many wolves and little meat, but there is only one wolf, but sheep are everywhere. It would be strange if they don't eat too much.

"So we have to prepare for a rainy day."

Zhao Jun smiled, read the official document brought by Yan Shu, and approved it if there was no problem.

Soon Fu Bi also finished his official business and handed it to Zhao Jun.

He said: "Zhiyuan, there are not many things in the Ministry of War, Kaifeng Prefecture, and Dali Temple today, but there was a document sent to the Ministry of War this morning. Zhiyuan may take a look."

As he said that, he pointed to the top document.

Zhao Jun opened it curiously and saw that it was a secret report from the Imperial City Department.

Generally speaking, the Imperial City Department's notes are not handed over to the Ministry of War, but to the Imperial City Department Zhisi, and finally transferred to Zhao Jun.

However, due to the special nature of the Imperial City Department, relying too much on it would be like a spy ruling the country. Therefore, unless it is a particularly big thing, basically I will pick up some important things and take them home after get off work in the afternoon.

Although it may cause a slight delay in the news, it doesn’t matter if it is delayed for trivial things, as long as he knows the important things first.

And the only information that can be transferred to the Ministry of War is military intelligence.

Because the functions of the Ministry of War are now gradually tending to the functions of the Ministry of National Defense in later generations, they often have to study the relationship with enemy countries and national defense events, so naturally they have to pay attention to military affairs first.

"Wanyan Wugunai rebelled, has captured Changchun Prefecture, and threatened Linhuang Prefecture."

Zhao Jun looked at the information in his hand, squinted his eyes and said, "It's interesting."