I am Da Song

Chapter 161 Hundreds of millions of people
The power struggle between the prime ministers was caused by Zhao Huan deliberately setting up the Zhengshitang to attack the three provinces.

Although the struggle was fierce, it didn't take long, only about two months.It takes two months to make a smooth transition, which is more relaxed and stable than Zhao Huan directly ordering the abolition of the three provinces.

At least the grievances of the officials of the three provinces are now on Li Gang, thinking that Li Gang has robbed the power of the three provinces.Even the high-level officials know that the reason why Zhengshitang is so strong now is because of the official support behind it.

If Zhao Huan directly ordered the abolition of the three provinces... As the saying goes, cutting off a person's money is like killing one's parents.Even if he is the emperor, he will inevitably be resented.

Today, the left and right ministers finally compromised and expressed their willingness to streamline the Menxia Province and the Zhongshu Province. Zhao Huan's goal of setting up the Zhengshitang was achieved.

Then he smiled and said to Sun Fu: "Your Prime Minister understands the righteousness, understands the general situation, and takes the overall situation into account. He is actually the pillar of my dynasty. From today onwards, my dynasty will abolish the three-province system and replace it with one-province system."

Hearing Zhao Huan's words, Sun Fu was overjoyed, Shang Shusheng was retained!The so-called right minister is Shangshu Youpushe, who was originally an official of Shangshu Province.As long as Shang Shusheng is not replaced, he is considered to have retained his fundamentals!

Li Gang was very nervous, and asked: "Officials, the power of Zhengshitang and Shangshu Province is highly overlapping, which is not conducive to streamlining the organization."

Zhao Huan waved his hand and said, "It's okay, the right minister told me personally just now that Shang Shuxing only implements the emperor's will. The Zhengshitang represents the prime minister's will. Right minister?"

Sun Fu was dumbfounded, and replied anxiously: "No, the official, I don't mean that, I mean..."

"En? No? The right minister means that he was deceiving the emperor just now? Life is a long road, I hope you don't take shortcuts."

Sun Fu instantly looked like an eggplant beaten by frost, and said dejectedly: "What your Majesty says is what I think."

The turn of events, Li Gang's face is full of happiness, and the Zhengshitang represents the will of the prime minister, which means that the Zhengshitang will completely replace the position of Shangshu Province in the future and become a legitimate institution of the prime minister.But Shang Shusheng returned to its original appearance, only conveying the will of the emperor.

Sun Fu was in a trance. After working hard for so long, he only kept the name of Shang Shusheng?The power of the prime minister belongs to the Zhengshitang?
But the next moment, Li Gang's smile also froze on his face.

Zhao Huan said with a faint smile: "I remember that the position of Shangshu came from the Shangshutai. There are five Cao Shangshu in Wei, namely Zuomin, Kecao, Wubing, and Duzhi. Since the Shangshu Province implements the will of the emperor, Don't take care of the six departments anymore, and the six departments will be directly responsible to me."

Most of the frustration on Sun Fu's face immediately disappeared, and he smiled unkindly.Although Shang Shusheng's authority was cut, this authority was not assigned to the Zhengshitang.On the contrary, Zhengshitang has also lost its prime minister status!What kind of prime minister is a prime minister who can't command the six ministries?The misfortune of others can always alleviate your own pain.

Pingzhang Zhengshi of the Zhengshitang lost his executive power, what should he be called if he is not a prime minister?That was obviously Daming's Chief Assistant.They have deliberative power, but no executive power.

But the prime minister of the Great Song Dynasty, at least still in his position, is still a senior member of the first rank, and handles the government affairs in a legitimate manner.

It's just that their handling opinions need to be approved by the emperor's seal and sent to the six ministries before they can become official national policies.

And Shangshusheng is Zhao Huan's tool to implement the will of the emperor, similar to the general administration envoy of later generations.Both received memorials and issued edicts.With their existence, Zhao Huan can guarantee that the emperor will receive all the memorials in the world first.There will no longer be the classic scene of the Song Dynasty, where the local officials reported urgent military affairs, but the prime minister concealed the memorial, and the court did not know about it.

Zhengshitang became Zhao Huan's advisory tool.If Zhao Huan is diligent, he can directly review the memorials without the intervention of the Zhengshitang.If you want to be lazy, order Yousi to deliver the memorial to the Zhengshitang, and then directly stamp the prime minister's opinion and approve it.

If you are lazy and don't want to stamp the seal, set up an official position, palm print female officer, and stamp it specially.

Similarly, this means that if the prime minister wants to be in charge of the government of a country, he must have the firm support of the emperor.Just like Wang Anshi, all his policies are recognized by the emperor and can be smoothly transformed into government affairs.

If the prime minister is not approved by the emperor, the political power in his hands is not as good as a piece of paper.

The Song Dynasty no longer needed to worry about the threat of the power of the ministers to the monarchy, and had to set up a large number of redundant officials to disperse the power of the officials.

This reform alone will reduce thousands of redundant officials in the central court.I am the nation, greatly strengthened.

The administrative structure of the imperial court will become clear, without too many redundant links.From decision-making to implementation, the division of labor is clear and organized.

Zhao Huan has worked so hard to organize the court into such an efficient manner, Zhao Huan did not put them there as a show, and immediately told Li Gang: "Since you are the governor of the country, you must take responsibility. The most urgent thing is to first manage How many household registrations does the Qing court control? As the prime minister of a country, you can’t even know the overall situation of the country.”

Li Gang immediately responded, and replied: "The official's golden and jade words, the country has experienced Jin people's invasion, experienced the chaos in the southeast, and the world has lost its order. The most urgent task at the moment is to restore the imperial court's overall control over the country. I plan to start from two aspects, On the one hand, the household registration population is counted, and on the other hand, the number of farmlands is counted.”

Zhao Huan nodded approvingly. It is indeed a very worry-free thing to have a capable minister handle government affairs for him.It is no wonder that all emperors tend to reuse a capable minister.

Although the Song Dynasty had a developed commercial economy, it was still at the level of a feudal small-scale peasant economy at this stage. It was the consensus of thousands of people, and no one could raise any objections.

In the era of feudal small-scale peasant economy, the most important manifestations of national strength are two points, one is population and the other is land.

Although Da Song is big, as long as he grasps these two points, he can basically control the situation of Da Song strongly.

Speaking of this, Zhao Huan smiled and comforted Li Gang: "Although the Jin people invaded and caused continuous wars in Hebei and Gyeonggi, the war only lasted for more than three months, or about a hundred days. The number of casualties will not hurt the fundamentals. , Tian Ren will not have any impact."

"And the imperial court sent Yue Fei and the most proficient Shenwu Youjun to the south as No. 1, in order to minimize the losses caused by the rebellion. By the end of the rebellion, the population will not drop too much. You must strictly count the household registration, as soon as possible restore national strength."

At the end of the speech, Zhao Huan specially emphasized: "This population census not only counts men, but also women, children, and the elderly and weak must be included in the household registration."

"The minister takes orders." Li Gang replied solemnly.

The statistical population of the Song Dynasty is different from that of the previous dynasty and the descendants. The Song Dynasty basically only counts the number of households and the young men.For example, in the sixth year of Xuanhe, the year when Zhao Huan cheap Laozi Song Huizong stepped down, there were more than 88 million households nationwide.

That's 2000 million households!

We must know that during the heyday of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population was only 6000 million.In ancient times, it was not a family of three.It is quite normal for a family to have several sons.Zhao Huan's father is very capable of giving birth, and has given birth to more than 80 children.Even a poor family like Han Powu had five children.

Therefore, the number of strong men registered in the Song Dynasty is 6703 million.

In contrast, the population of young women is probably around 3000 million to 4000 million.Coupled with the older generation of old people and immature children, the population of Song Dynasty easily exceeded [-] million.

Even according to the most typical small-scale peasant economy, one husband and five people manage a hundred acres of land, the population of the Song Dynasty is 440 million.Considering that the Song Dynasty had a developed economy and a large number of scholar-bureaucrats, the average population per household was definitely not the lowest figure during the Qin Dynasty thousands of years ago.

If calculated on the basis of six people per household, the population of Da Song Dynasty exceeded 2000 million.

After only three months of war, the population will not drop by 2000 million in any case.World War II wasn't that bad either.Without using the ultimate human weapon, it is impossible for human beings to kill 2000 million people in three months.

Zhao Huan is quite optimistic, maybe by the end of the first year he travels, he will be able to count the population of the Song Dynasty clearly, and it is very likely that he is an emperor with a population of over [-] million.

(End of this chapter)