People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 305 Nong Zhigao surrenders

In the fifth year of Qingli, January 1045, AD, this was a special day for the Song Dynasty.

Because this is the time of year when various departments report totals.

Both the internal calculations of each department and the big data of the Statistics Department must be submitted to the Constitutional Yuan.

Among them, the Ministry of Finance reported that tax revenue increased by 7% last year compared with the previous year. The main reason was that the Liao Kingdom increased trade volume and the Song Dynasty severely cracked down on tax evasion in maritime trade.

In addition, the new industrial and commercial tax has been growing steadily every year. Although it is not as sweeping as the original commercial tax, the new commercial tax has greatly improved commercial activities and increased commercial trade. Today’s business is more prosperous than before. At least 30% higher.

In addition to finance, the growth of big data in the Department of Statistics is particularly obvious.

Population, agricultural development, economic development, education, military and even cultural development have all improved to varying degrees, especially the area of ​​cultivated land in agriculture.

According to calculations by the National Statistics Department, in the past year, more than 9.8 million acres of cultivated land were newly added, which is double the figure from the ninth year of Emperor Taizong's Kaibao to the fifth year of Emperor Zhenzong's Tianxi.

In the 2.95th year since Zhao Guangyi founded the country, the national cultivated land area is 5.25 million acres. In the fifth year of Zhao Heng's reign, the cultivated land area reached million acres.

In other words, during the past 511 years, the annual cultivated land increased to million acres.

However, it was the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi. After the war was settled, a large amount of abandoned farmland was reclaimed, which allowed for large-scale growth.

By the time of Zhao Zhen, the area of ​​cultivated land across the country had basically stabilized, and the rest of the cultivated land was at most a problem of hidden households and hidden property.

For example, in the fifth year of Tianxi's reign, it was 5.25 million acres. By the third year of Emperor Yingzong's reign forty-two years later, the cultivated land area had dropped to 4.4 million acres. At least million acres of farmland had disappeared during these forty years.

Then during the Yuanfeng period of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi carried out a reform to inventory the cultivated land across the country, and a large number of hidden households and hidden fields came to light. Only then did they discover that the cultivated land area of ​​the Song Dynasty actually amounted to 700 million acres.

It can be seen how serious the problem of hidden households and property was at that time.

A few years ago, Zhao Jun conducted a nationwide census, and the number of fields inventoried was about 6 million acres.

The method he used at that time was very simple, which was to reduce agricultural taxes on a large scale across the country, but every acre of land must be included in government statistics.

All county governments must regard this matter as a task and incorporate it into the official law, and strictly check how much land they have in their own county.

The past events of hiding property in a hidden household can be forgotten, but if no report is made, the government has the right to confiscate the land without property rights and turn it into local government land.

For a time, a large number of powerful landowners were forced to report their hidden fields, resulting in an explosive increase in the number of acres of cultivated land at that time.

And before the court lowered taxes, there were actually still a lot of wastelands. Because the taxes were too heavy at that time, many people simply gave up farming and went to work in the city.

Therefore, in addition to the hidden property of powerful landowners, local officials also cleared out a lot of unowned wasteland and turned it into official farmland to recruit tenants for farming.

The annual tax revenue generated by these nearly 70 million acres of new fields has largely made up for the fiscal deficit caused by the imperial government's tax reduction, and at the same time brought a lot of benefits to local finances.

However, from the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the present, it was a period of rapid development. It was normal to grow by five million acres per year, but it became difficult in the middle and late stages.

For example, in the fifth year of Tianxi (5.25 million acres) and in the third year of Yuanfeng (7 million acres), there was a gap of 60 years. That is to say, during these 60 years, the annual increase in cultivated land in the Song Dynasty was less than million acres.

Now it has grown to 6.4 million acres a year, which is twice what it was before Tianxi five years ago and three times what it was after five years of Tianxi. There are about million acres every year, bringing the total cultivated land area in the country to million acres. The growth rate is extremely fast.

The reason for this is first of all because under the policy of recuperation and recuperation, the government encourages people to open up more wasteland and cultivate new land.

Secondly, cultivated land requires means of production, such as water, agricultural tools, etc.

In recent years, the imperial court has asked local officials to use local finances to build more canals and incorporate them into their political achievements. At the same time, they have built steel plants to produce a large number of farm tools made of steel, ensuring that the people have enough means of production to open up wasteland.

Last but not least.

Special fields such as terraces, silt fields, sand fields, shelf fields, and lake fields appeared on a large scale in the Song Dynasty. Coupled with Zhao Zhen's discovery of indigenous fertilizers, the cultivated land area and grain production naturally increased greatly.

The area of ​​cultivated land and grain output have skyrocketed, and grain prices have naturally plummeted. At the same time, the prices of livestock meat such as pigs, chickens, ducks, and sheep have also plummeted.

Especially pork, which used to be 27 Wen per pound a few years ago, has dropped to 15 Wen per pound now.

Back in the Song Zhenzong period, 5 cents per pound was just around the corner.

After all, pigs in the Song Dynasty often ate pig grass, but they would not grow fast or big. This is different when eating rice and wheat. Rice and wheat are originally one of the pig feeds, providing more carbohydrates and growing faster.

Zhao Zhen also issued an edict, requiring local governments to teach people how to castrate pigs so that the pigs could concentrate on cooking. The growth cycle and obesity rate soared.

When grain prices are low, there will be more rice and wheat to feed pigs, and naturally there will be more pork.

The only thing that is relatively strong is the price of beef. In the Song Dynasty, it was expressly prohibited to kill cattle. Cattle were used to plow the land. Only those who died of old age or accidents could be eaten, which caused the price to remain high.

The low prices for basic subsistence and high wages for working in the cities obviously caused the overall economic situation of the Song Dynasty to develop in an excellent direction.

If there were developed countries in the feudal agricultural society, then the Song Dynasty should be the only developed country in the world today.

In addition, the reporting work of various departments is also satisfactory.

Da Song's basic education has been in development for four years. Although the first batch of students have not yet successfully graduated, more and more students are being recruited, and there will be more and more science and engineering talents in the future.

Zhao Jun not only created a science system of mathematics, physics and chemistry, but also created a certain industrial system.

For example, there are strict regulations on the manufacture of artillery and muskets. The length of the artillery, the thickness of the material, the quantity of the musket, the shooting method, etc. are all systematically specified.

After the mass production of steam engines in the future, assembly line operations will also appear simultaneously.

The business growth is also gratifying. After the business reform, business prosperity has increased day by day, the domestic commodity economy has circulated rapidly, the canal carrying capacity has increased significantly, and blockages have occurred frequently.

For this reason, the imperial court allocated money to allow local officials to dredge and expand the section of the canal within their own territory, which once again greatly increased the carrying capacity of the canal.

Strictly speaking, the first development direction of logistics in the future must be trains. In fact, we should no longer pay attention to such backward transportation methods as canals.

But after analysis, Zhao Jun found that the canal, at least not yet, has not reached the stage of elimination.

After all, it would be difficult to open the country to trains in a short period of time. It took countless Chinese laborers to build more than 1860 kilometers of railways in the fifty years from 1910 to 50.

In our future generations, in 2021, the total railway mileage will only be 16 kilometers.

Therefore, Zhao Jun believes that the canal will still be useful for at least fifty years.

It would be fifty years before railways could cover all parts of the country, so continuing to build canals now was not a short-sighted thing.

In addition to development in various places, explosive growth in the military is particularly critical.

More than 1.2 million people were eliminated to only more than 600,000 people. The generals stayed in the military camps for daily training, which greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the soldiers.

In addition, in accordance with the instructions of the Constitutional Yuan, after the army carried out rectification in the second half of last year, a group of elite soldiers, about 30,000 people, were selected and began to be equipped with firearms. They have been training for more than two months and are quite large-scale.

In this way, the situation of the Song Dynasty's army is obvious.

Among them, the 80,000 firearms force, taking an army of 5,000 as an example, has three artillery battalions. Each artillery battalion has ten heavy artillery, each cannon is equipped with 20 people, and 60 small steel cannons, each cannon is equipped with Five people.

In this way, the entire army has forty-eight artillery battalions, four hundred and eighty heavy artillery pieces, and nearly three thousand small steel cannons. At the same time, there are 56,000 musketeers with sufficient firepower.

The only drawback is that the artillery is too heavy, and it needs to be pulled by a large carriage, and twenty gun crew members must work together to operate the large artillery.

But even so, when fighting in the field, he is basically invincible.

Once a 5,000-man firearms corps is in position, 3,500 musketeers will cover the artillery positions behind them. As long as they occupy favorable terrain, there is no problem in blocking the charge of a cavalry team of tens of thousands.

In addition to these 80,000 firearms troops, the remaining more than 400,000 people are also elite cold weapon troops. The weapons they use are all steel weapons, and their armors have also been remade.

It can be said that the current Song Dynasty's army, whether it is firearms or cold weapons, has very obvious equipment advantages when facing the Liao Kingdom and Xixia. The only flaw is that there are relatively few cavalry. In the entire army of more than 16 people, there are currently only 4 cavalry on duty. Among them, firearms corps, cavalry corps, shoot on horses, and the rest are infantry firearms corps.

This is the result of the Song Dynasty being able to trade horses with the Liao Kingdom and Xixia in recent years. Otherwise, before the army was restructured, all the materials in the army were resold, and the number of cavalry would only be smaller.

With the overall strength of the Song Dynasty greatly improving in all aspects, the Constitutional Yuan sent a reply letter to Nong Zhigao, who was far away in Andezhou, Guangnan West Road, at the end of January.

When this letter reached Nong Zhigao, it was actually almost the end of February.

At this time, the Song Dynasty was vigorously preparing to launch a new round of Qingli New Deal. This was already the fourth round.

The previous rounds of New Deals laid a lot of groundwork, but only the third and fourth rounds of New Deals were more dangerous. One was to deal with redundant troops, and the other was to deal with land annexation.

However, the specific policy has not yet been formulated at this time. Although Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan discussed the first draft, it is still under discussion by the Constitutional Yuan. It is estimated that it may not be officially issued until March or April.

At this time, Nong Zhigao happily received the news from Da Song.

Anderson.

In the palace of the so-called King of Nantian Kingdom, Nong Zhigao, who had just turned twenty this year, was discussing with his close confidants Huang Wei, Huang Shimi, Nong Jianhou, Nong Zhizhong and others.

The palace is very simple. It is actually the house occupied by Nong Zhigao, a wealthy local family.

Moreover, this place is surrounded by mountains and hills. Although they are all small hills, the forest is extremely dense and it is surrounded by a vast primitive jungle. It is said to be a state, but more like a larger town.

Because in later generations this was a town, called Ande Town, located northwest of Jingxi City, Baise City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and southeast of Napo County.

In the Song Dynasty, it was one of the forty-eight Jisi prefectures on Guangnan West Road.

The border Jisi Prefecture in the Song Dynasty was not as large as the local prefecture. It governed several counties and had an administrative level like a city in later generations. Instead, they are located close together like villages on the border.

Therefore, no matter in terms of form, regional size or even population distribution, these Jizhou prefectures are more like a certain town, a certain township, or even a certain village in later generations.

However, these Jizhou prefectures range from large to small, and the largest and most prosperous ones can be compared to counties.

Among them are Guangyuan Prefecture and Ande Prefecture.

Therefore, in a sense, Nong Zhigao used only a few counties and dozens of villages in his hands, with a population of perhaps less than 200,000, to deal with Vietnam, which has a population of millions. In the end, he even rebelled against Vietnam with nearly 100,000 people. The war between the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, which had a population of 100 million, was also a miracle.

"Your Majesty."

After Huang Wei and others arrived, they asked, "Why did you call me here?"

Nong Zhigao said: "Brother Jing, brother Congfu, you came at the right time."

As he spoke, he handed over the letter in his hand and said, "The imperial court finally replied."

"Did you reply?"

Huang Wei and Huang Shimi suddenly became excited.

Nong Zhigao nodded: "The imperial court said that the southwest is remote. In recent years, because of the war with the Liao Kingdom and Xixia, there has been no time to pay attention to the southwest. Now that the Liao Kingdom and Xixia are defeated, free up the hands, we will destroy the Yue Dynasty."

"Destroy the Yue Dynasty?"

Several people were shocked. They didn't expect that the imperial court was going to take serious measures this time and directly wanted to destroy the Yue Dynasty.

Huang Wei took the letter and glanced at it immediately.

The content of the letter is actually very simple. First of all, it affirms Nong Zhigao's struggle against Vietnam in the southwest over the years, but at the same time it criticizes Nong Zhigao's ambition to establish a country without authorization. The Constitutional Yuan's first request is to immediately revoke the country's title. Return to the banner of the Song Dynasty.

This is actually not difficult, because the founding of Nong Zhigao was originally to fight against Vietnam and North Korea. He needed to set up a flag in the southwest and win over the ethnic minorities who were oppressed by Vietnam and North Korea to unite for warmth.

He had written to the court several times before, always asking for surrender. Therefore, it is not difficult to realize the requirements of the imperial court.

Secondly, the imperial court granted Nong Zhigao the same background as a Jinshi, and he was appointed Tongzhi of Yongzhou.

The current magistrate of Yongzhou, Wang Chu, was transferred, and the court appointed a new magistrate, Zhao Wenzuo, the former magistrate of Gaozhou.

In addition, the transfer envoy of Guangnan West Road has also been changed, becoming Yang Cha, the former supervisory censor.

The court also explained the reason in the letter.

Wang Chu and others were afraid that the affairs of Yue Dynasty and the border area would be reported to the court and affect their political performance, so most of Nong Zhigao's letters to the court were withheld by them.

If it weren't for the Imperial City Secretary on Guangnan West Road, I'm afraid the court wouldn't even know about this matter.

This is not just Wang Chu, his successor Chen Gong, the magistrate of Yongzhou, also did this. Chen Gong was very disgusted with Nong Zhigao. Later, Nong Zhigao rebelled in anger and killed Chen Gong. Only then did he find out that his letters were from It was never sent to the court.

Finally, the imperial court officially issued a notice saying that the southwest would be transferred to Jisi Prefecture and returned to the territory of the Song Dynasty. In the future, they, the leaders of ethnic minorities, would serve as local officials and must obey the imperial court's dispatches.

And not only Nong Zhigao, Huang Wei and others were also awarded positions such as county magistrate and defense envoy.

Huang Wei and Huang Shimi, brothers from the clan, were born in Jinshi. They met Nong Zhigao when they were taking the exam together in Bianliang. By luck, they got to the bottom of the Jinshi exam, but Nong Zhigao failed.

Therefore, Nong Zhigao is still a profession in which many heroes come out - no less talented people.

This means that their knowledge and ability are much higher than ordinary people. Huang Wei saw the clue immediately and said in a deep voice: "The imperial court wants to annex the Yue Dynasty and completely transform Guangxi and the Yue Dynasty. It became the territory of the Song Dynasty."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

Nong Zhigao nodded and said: "It seems that the imperial court is very determined this time. The letter says that if the Yue people kill one Han person, ten Yue people will be destroyed. If one Han people are annexed, the Yue Dynasty will be destroyed!"

Marquis Nong Jian said: "Your Majesty, the court wants us to abolish the country. Does that mean we can no longer be kings in the future?"

"Of course it is."

Nong Zhigao glanced at him and said: "We will be officials of the Song Dynasty from now on, just like those who are officials."

Nong Zhizhong said dissatisfied: "What's so good about being an official in the imperial court? It's not as good as building our own country. Besides, they didn't care much about us before, so why should we care about them?"

"Confused!"

Nong Zhigao slapped the two clan brothers and said: "Now that the Song Dynasty is strong and powerful, it has defeated the Liao Kingdom in the north and the Xia rebels in the west. It is at its peak. We founded the country privately, which has made the court dissatisfied. Moreover, the court plans to annex the Yue Dynasty. , will you still allow a small country on the border? If you don't obey the edict, I'm afraid it will be wiped out in an instant."

At this time, Nong Zhigao was still very weak. Historically, he built a country, raised a banner, and gathered ethnic minorities from various tribes around him. Only then did he manage to gather tens of thousands of people, and launched a mighty resistance war. The Yue Dynasty rebelled against the Song Dynasty.

But at this time, Nong Zhigao had not yet reached his later stage. His territory was Guangyuan Prefecture, Guihua Prefecture, Ande Prefecture and other Jisi Prefectures, with tens of thousands of tribesmen and only a few thousand troops. Compared with the Song Dynasty, it was a world away. The difference.

Therefore, he had no thoughts of rebellion at all, but was very happy because he was appointed to an official position by the court.

He looked around and said to Huang Shimi and Huang Wei: "Jingzhi, Congfu, the imperial court has appointed you as the magistrate of Wuyuan County and the defense envoy of Yongzhou. Let us go to Yongzhou immediately to wait for the new transfer envoy of Guangnan West Road and the magistrate of Yongzhou. Come on, what do you think?"

Huang Shimi said with a smile: "Your Majesty has already become a co-president of the same place as soon as he reached the weak crown, and before the new magistrate of Yongzhou comes, your Majesty will be in charge of Yongzhou. If you don't go now, how long will it take?"

"Let's go, let's go to Yongzhou to take office immediately."

Nong Zhigao thought so too.

I suddenly became excited.

Now he is temporarily the boss of Yongzhou.

(End of this chapter)