Northern Song Dynasty: Starting from the son of Song Renzong

Chapter 390: Powerful Country
In the post-Li Yuan era, although the world as a whole was somewhat turbulent.

But these days are still bearable.

In terms of culture and governance, the literacy rate in the southeastern region of the Song Dynasty has exceeded 30%.

Therefore, novels and operas have developed to an unprecedented level.

Nowadays, there are even novels about fighting the waves and searching for treasure at sea.

And as the economy prospers, the economy related to women will naturally also flourish.

Although it is true that the southeast of the Song Dynasty is indeed very rich.

But there are also many cases of selling oneself as a prostitute.

And the reason.

All I can say is that there are all kinds of possibilities.

For example, failure in business.

For example, losing all the family property in gambling.

Or maybe an adult in the family died early due to illness.

I had to send my daughter to live with my aunt.

In the end, he was sold to a theater to learn opera by his money-hungry uncle.

Although the people of the Song Dynasty were generally able to achieve food and clothing.

however……

In the city, there are still many people who can only barely make ends meet.

But of course!
After all, the proportion of such people is smaller than at any time in the past.

and……

There are quite a few people who can go out to sea, to Australia or to America.

People may not be willing to go.

During holidays, one can see that all private and public gardens are filled with scholars and prostitutes.

There are works expressing the beauty of gardens one after another.

It didn't take long for the news to spread throughout the city.

Such a scene, of course, looks beautiful.

Even ordinary people could wear silk.

however……

Some businessmen do business abroad and make a lot of money.

It is also difficult to invest this money elsewhere.

In order to further increase their own wealth.

They bought land and lent money at high interest rates.

This is not a very good phenomenon.

Buying land will cause people to lose a large amount of land.

And loan sharking is often even more ruthless.

In order to guide this part of wealth, the imperial court released it as much as possible and also had to encourage various kinds of luxury consumption.

For example, spices, pearls, gems, gold, jewelry and so on.

however……

Even so, it is difficult to prevent wealth from accumulating in the hands of individuals.

Whenever he heard of a family whose wealth was squandered in a short period of time because their descendants were not good at managing money, he, as an official, would be extremely happy.

After all, as our ancestors said, when a whale dies, all things come to life.

But there are also some families, because they may have capable people or the support of their clans.

Therefore, it has not collapsed for decades, but has become more and more prosperous.

and……

The number of his employees and slaves numbered several thousand, or even tens of thousands.

These have become the cancer of the country.

On the other hand, they supported their children in studying for the imperial examinations. When they passed the examinations and became high-ranking officials, they could use this to control the court and conceal commercial taxes for those below them, thereby evading taxes.

As for their subordinates, whenever the imperial court sent people to inspect taxes, they could also control the laborers under their command and incite them to oppose the imperial court.

This phenomenon is not uncommon in the southeast region today.

To use the words that people in later generations like to say, this was actually the embryonic form of capitalism in the Song Dynasty.

There were some very wealthy businessmen, and then there was a good portion of hired laborers who didn't actually own an acre of land.

So what do you usually eat?
All depended on working for the landlords.

Once a natural disaster or man-made disaster occurs, or the sales of goods are not very good.

For some reason, this cloth, or sugar, or something else, in short, cannot be sold.

Then these people will have a very difficult life.

and……

It is often easy to cause riots.

Although there are not many such cases over the years, it does not mean that similar incidents have never happened.

The cause was a severe flood disaster one year.

This caused rice prices to rise and rice stocks in the city were insufficient.

Some merchants want to hoard goods and do not want to sell them at low prices.

At last……

Led by a weaver, two thousand people launched a workers' riot.

Of course!
Since rice was quickly transferred from other places, the riot was eventually dispersed quickly.

But this had to serve as a warning to the imperial court.

Some more conservative officials think that this phenomenon is very bad.

Because in this way, it would be too easy for the people below to cause trouble.

and……

The current situation in the Song Dynasty is that the Southeast has earned almost all the money from the Northwest.

The country's wealth is all concentrated in the southeast, which is not necessarily a good thing.

But if you really want to say, can you come up with a good way to reverse this situation?

can only say……

It is also quite difficult.

After all, whether a region can be rich is almost entirely determined by its geographical location and resource endowment.

But it’s true!

People living in the northwest work hard all year round but still earn very little money.

In the southeast of the Song Dynasty, it was common for families to own hundreds or thousands of acres of land.

The annual income of these small and medium landlords in the southeast is easily dozens or even hundreds of times that of those in the northwest.

Even for those workers who have lost their land, their quality of life is much better than that of farmers in the northwest due to the complete urban facilities.

Fortunately, the farmers in the northwest don’t know about the luxury and prosperity of the southeast.

As the saying goes, without comparison, there is no harm.

If they all knew about this, I wonder if they would feel unfair.

How to deal with the regional wealth gap...

can only say……

The development potential of the Northwest region can only be like that.

No matter how you come up with policies and stimulate, it probably won't make much sense.

The current imperial court can only roughly monitor the possibility of peasant uprisings breaking out in various places through various data.

Once a region exceeds a certain threshold.

So……

Those who need to emigrate must do so, and at the same time, we must think of other ways to reduce the burden on the farmers.

therefore……

The accuracy of the data is extremely important to the imperial court in governing the country.

In order to better govern the country.

Next…

The Song Dynasty also began to govern the country with digital technology.

This includes a comprehensive inventory of land and population across the country.

And various per capita possessions.

Then list the tables and charts.

These tables and charts can then be used to guide the country's policies and provide a reference for detecting corruption.

Regarding the issue of unbalanced development in the southeast.

There is also the problem of businessmen and small landowners trying to evade taxes whenever possible.

It is also necessary to strike hard.

If anyone is found to have deliberately evaded taxes, their property will be confiscated, and if any direct family member is an official, he or she must also be dismissed from office.

Although this will offend a considerable number of bureaucrats and landlords.

however……

In order to maintain long-term and healthy development, the Song Dynasty court had to do this.

As for who to send to do it.

It would be best to use people from the Academy of Sciences, because these people are all stubborn and believe in the same old principles.

of course!

You can also send some businessmen to assist.

Those who have become "royal merchants" no longer need to rely on tax evasion and shielding others to gain greater benefits.

Speaking of which...

Nowadays, clothes and other things in the Song Dynasty are becoming more and more fancy.

It feels like a Ming Dynasty style.

of course!

After all, the climate in the Song Dynasty was not as cold as that in the Ming Dynasty.

therefore……

In terms of thickness, it does not look as heavy as the clothes of the Ming Dynasty.

nowadays……

This ordinary cloth can no longer satisfy the people of the Song Dynasty.

You have to embroider various patterns on these cloths.

This will make it easier to sell.

And the more complex the embroidery pattern, the better.

It's the year.

The Song Dynasty put forward the slogan that one cannot govern the country without knowing numbers.

All localities are required to conduct further verification of various data.

The data after the inventory was also reported to the imperial court and the Academy of Sciences.

Let people from the Academy of Sciences save and analyze these data.

As soon as this slogan was shouted out, countless officials across the Song Dynasty became panic-stricken.

after all……

Should I report the embezzled land and hidden population?

it's over...

Although the system of public disclosure of officials' assets cannot be implemented.

but……

Subsequently, the imperial court abolished the system of officials reporting their property.

What it roughly means is that you have to be honest with the organization about how much property you have.

I'm giving you a chance to be honest. What happened before was not serious, so just turn a blind eye and let it go.

And for those who refuse to repent.

Since you want to be a parasite and destroy the stability of the country, of course, the court will not let you go.

But things like this...

If you want to check, you must first be able to keep yourself clean.

Why were many emperors in ancient times unable to investigate and punish corrupt officials? It was because the emperors themselves were not very clean.

of course!

Overall, it is still good for the descendants of the Zhao family.

After all, even if you are short of money, you still have your own property.

Industries like glass production and soap production were all royal industries.

Just using these is enough.

As for what you said...

Should the country impose taxes on glass and soap?

can only say……

How dare you say that.

But it’s true!

This still has some flavor of gray income in it.

in fact……

It’s not that the officials were completely unaware of this, it’s just that no one made it clear.

If the emperor really sent people to investigate official corruption, the officials might refuse to cooperate, or they might obstruct the investigation, which might even affect the imperial power.

This phenomenon is not too serious in the Song Dynasty today.

after all……

Take the military system of the Song Dynasty for example. Even if you, a civil servant, want to rebel, it would be difficult.

As for officials’ non-cooperation and even inaction.

The Song Dynasty also solved this problem better.

Since you are doing nothing and not cooperating, then I will just take away your official position.

I also saved money on salaries.

In the Song Dynasty, if you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will do it.

After all, there are still so many people queuing behind.

of course!

This only applies to civil servants.

Military officers and even the entire army must be investigated.

It’s just that after investigating the civil officials and waiting for the court to stabilize, they will investigate the military officials.

Like some people who are drawing a salary without working.

You have to do it too.

In addition, it would be best to pick out some of the old and weak and have them lose weight.

In fact, to be honest, there is no need to fight a war now, so there is really no need to reorganize the army.

only……

If we don't reorganize now, when the time comes, if any enemy really comes, it will be even more difficult to reorganize as we are trapped both internally and externally.

Today, the Song Dynasty’s enemies are mainly in the north.

Therefore, it is very necessary to check the number of horses in the army.

In addition...

He also needs to send another person he trusts to supervise the army.

Such a selection must be made with great care and caution.

If a good person is chosen, like Li Shiji, he can ensure peace in the north of the Tang Dynasty for more than ten years.

If the selection is not good and a corrupt official is brought in, the army will be ruined.

It would be fine if the army was abolished.

Anyway, as long as it doesn't pose a threat to me, it's fine.

The most feared thing is that the army will be forced to rebel.

After so many years of peaceful coexistence, the Song Dynasty often relocated those herders who could not survive from the Ugundile and other tribes.

Now these northern nomadic people are still relatively honest.

of course!

We should not be too careless about these northern nomadic peoples.

After all, the other side might encounter a snowstorm, and if the imperial court fails to provide adequate disaster relief, the other side might rebel.

The Song Dynasty was actually quite troubled by this matter.

Fortunately, railway transportation technology is now fully mature, so if anything happens, we can respond immediately.

However, in recent years, some officials have also stated that despite being supported in this way, the other party is not at all grateful to the Song Dynasty.

Then why should the Song Dynasty continue to support the other party?

in fact……

If you really want to say it, the Song Dynasty also obtained various wool products and mutton from the other side.

only……

This kind of mutually beneficial governance based on doing business is prone to problems over time.

and……

As external expansion is now slowing down, once the population on the grassland increases again, conflicts will inevitably arise in the future.

For this reason, the imperial court had to consider forcing the other party to implement family planning.

At the same time, the other party is also required to count its current population.

of course!

You definitely can’t say at the beginning that if you don’t do this, I will beat you.

You have to think about the problem from the other person's perspective.

For example, you tell the other party that you now have a thousand acres of grassland, and if you grow too much, then these thousand acres of grassland will not be enough to be divided.

If you encounter some natural disasters at that time, right? You can't always ask the court to save you.

at the same time……

If you have fewer children, you can live a more comfortable life.

To be honest, it doesn’t matter whether the other party listens or not.

Anyway...

If it doesn't work, then just fight.

(End of this chapter)