I am Da Song

Chapter 208 The country's thriving finances

In February of Yangchun, it is another year when the spring breeze is bright and the wind is smooth.

Even though the imperial court's surveillance and rectification actions are in full swing, this beautiful season can't help but make people feel comfortable and relax physically and mentally.

The way is natural. After the harsh winter, there will always be a new spring full of vitality and hope.

And in the center of the imperial court, the seeds of this hope have undoubtedly been gestated.

Officials walking in the Great Song Palace, from the prime minister to the ministers, down to the maids, all had festive smiles on their faces.

As the privileges of the literati were restricted, the wealth obtained from them made the whole country full of vigor.

In the first court meeting in February, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, and the Privy Council all participated in full energy, trying to win more words.

Even Zhao Huan, the emperor, got up early in the morning and was ready to participate in the whole process of court discussions.Because this court meeting is so important that everyone can't sleep a few days before the meeting and start preparing.

As the sun rises in the east, the bright sunlight shines on the majestic cornices of Wende Hall, making the interior of the hall warm and bright.

The most powerful prime ministers of the Song Dynasty have all arrived and are sitting in their seats.

"The officials are coming to the Wende Palace, and all the ministers greet you." The servant's voice sounded loud and clear.

All the ministers stood up at the same time, all the servants under the eaves outside the hall bowed their heads respectfully, and Yijia approached quickly with brisk footsteps.

"The ministers are waiting to meet the official family, and I wish you all the blessings." Zhao Huan walked into the house, and everyone saluted at the same time.

Zhao Huan had heard a lot of good news recently, so he was in a good mood, and his whole body was brisk. He sat on the dragon chair and replied with a light smile: "Your Excellencies, please take your seats."

Right Prime Minister Mei Zhi, as the supreme prime minister of the country, stood up and presided over the meeting.

Li Gang, the former prime minister of the right, failed in the Northern Expedition because of his ignorance of people, and the entire right army was wiped out.

As soon as Mei Zhili took office, he caught up with all kinds of good times. First, the Northern Expedition won a complete victory. The Song Dynasty wiped out the Jin Kingdom's East Route Army and beheaded tens of thousands. This was the biggest military victory of the Song Army in recent years.

What is even more exciting is that the Yanyun area, which has been longing for 200 years since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the Song Army also took back the Yizhou area in a dignified way, and it was as solid as gold.The Jin army no longer has the will to fight fiercely, and is planning peace talks between the two countries.

However, all of this is not worth mentioning in front of the content of today's court meeting.

Mei Zhili was in high spirits, and said to Zhao Huan: "Officials, today's topic is about Ding Tian's accounting, tax collection, and financial spending by the third auditor."

Zhao Huan put down his teacup with a faint smile, and said, "Since you have a charter, you can proceed according to the procedure."

"I take orders." Mei Zhili cupped his hands, then turned to the ministers and ministers who were sitting here, and said: "After last year's new coup d'état and this year's eradication of corruption, the three envoys have detailed the Song Dynasty's household registration, land loan, and taxes. Statistics, and the third envoy will give us a detailed introduction to the details of the country's finances."

The third envoy, that is, Ji Xiang Yang, got up vigorously, and he looked like he was ten years younger, full of energy and radiant.

He brought a booklet, opened it skillfully, and introduced to everyone: "After a year of statistics by our company, it is confirmed that we have 890 households in the dynasty. The 720 households over the six years of Yuanfeng are more than one million."

All the ministers nodded silently. Daguan was the reign title of the Supreme Emperor. At that time, although the army of the Song Dynasty was weak and the country was relatively corrupt, after all, the overall situation was stable for a hundred years, so the number of household registrations was the highest in this dynasty.As many as 2000 million households.

Since Jingkang, the country has been in turmoil. First, the Jin people invaded, causing the stench to be heard for hundreds of miles around the capital.There are also groups of robbers everywhere, and the disorderly army harassed one side, and the number of people will inevitably drop by a large amount.Although not nine out of ten houses were empty, nearly 200 million households were killed or injured, which is almost one out of every ten households.

It can be slightly higher than the level of Yuanfeng Six Years, at least the New Deal has a strong household registration guarantee.

The prime minister in charge of conscription is not interested in household registration, he is more concerned about the population, and asked: "How about the population statistics, especially the soldiers of the right age."

Yang Shi turned over a page of the manual in his hand, and introduced in detail: "I am afraid that the Privy Council will have to verify the issue of the Privy Council. Since our court has never paid attention to household registration statistics, and only counts the young and old, the household registration situation of my court is far different from that of previous dynasties. Forward."

"For example, both the Qin and Han Dynasties had one household with five members, but the year with the largest number of household registrations in our dynasty was the first year of Tiansheng (1023), and the average population per household was two and a half (2.57). The year with the lowest number of household registrations was in the Yuan Dynasty. In the third year of Fengfeng, the average population per household was only one and a half people (1.42).”

"However, at the request of the government, this time the three divisions strictly counted the number of people in the Song Dynasty, because there is no need to pay Ding Fu, and the hiding situation of the people is not serious. Therefore, the total registered population is 970 people."

"Every citizen's date of birth and place of household registration have been recorded in detail just like previous dynasties. The Privy Council recruits can be counted one by one against the household registration."

Zhang Shuye nodded slightly. With the rigorous data provided by the third envoy, the Privy Council's conscription will be easier than ever.

Da Song has a population of tens of millions.All the ministers and prime ministers were touched at this moment.This is such a huge number, it is simply exciting.It is these people in the hall who control the fate of tens of millions of people. All of them have a strong sense of pride and a heavy burden of responsibility.

To make these tens of millions of people have no worries about food and clothing, and move forward steadily in accordance with the direction planned by the imperial court, it is an extreme test of the wisdom of each of these ministers in the palace.

Ji Xiang Yang Shi continued: "In order to feed the 900 million people, our Great Song Dynasty has developed a total of 4000 million mu of fertile land."

Speaking of this number, the ministers and ministers in the hall couldn't help but feel chills running down their backs, as if the temperature in the entire hall had dropped a few degrees.

4000 million mu, which is 1000 million mu more than the figure calculated a few years ago.

In just three months, such a huge amount of extra money is the wealth that was cleared up after the elimination of countless scholar-bureaucrat families.

Moreover, within three months, the purge cannot be extended to the whole country.This means that number will climb rapidly.

By the end of the year, it will inevitably exceed [-] million, and may even exceed [-] million.

Everyone was lamented by the cruelty of this purge, but also saddened by the excessive greed of the scholar-officials.

They have as many as [-] million mu of land just for hiding, and how much land do they own?[-] million?[-] million?Even [-] million?
Except for Xiang Yang who looked down at the manual in his hand and said nothing, no minister could have imagined it.

But no matter which number it is, it is enough for hundreds of thousands of scholar-bureaucrats to live in luxury and live in dreams.But they are still greedy and extravagant. They insist on hiding land and making enemies with the imperial court, which overwhelms ordinary people and drags the whole country into the abyss. Then the officials can't be blamed for raising the butcher's knife.

(End of this chapter)