People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 473 Zhao Zhen's Joy

Times are changing, and systems must also change at any time. If you stick to the old ways, you will only fall behind others.

What Zhao Jun hoped was not that the Song Dynasty would always maintain its military firepower advantage to intimidate the whole world, and then rob and plunder wealth everywhere.

What he hoped was that the system of the Song Dynasty would change and progress all the time, rather than sticking to the old ways of the ancestors.

Because only in this way can the Song Dynasty continue to maintain its institutional advantages. With institutional advantages, it will not only have the firepower advantage of the army, but also will be ahead in all other aspects.

Just like this time the officialdom is being restructured.

If it remains the same as before, it will only change the previous problems of officials such as laziness, corruption, and buck-passing.

If this continues, it will be easy for officials to become redundant and only complete the tasks assigned by the performance evaluation law every day, ignoring other issues, and failing to solve the current situation of making their jurisdictions better.

So after discovering such a problem, we must change it.

Gradually abolish the original performance evaluation system, increase the term of office of officials, improve their enthusiasm and initiative, and lay the foundation for all-round development of the country.

This is the benefit of institutional advantages.

Inside the Constitutional Court at this moment.

Zhao Jun is still selling his grand blueprint, telling everyone how subversive this new policy change will be.

"The first Qingli New Deal had to solve the problem of official corruption and idleness, so the performance evaluation system was used at that time, which was a stick and carrot to force officials to do their work."

"But now the times have changed. We have completed the transition from a feudal agricultural society to the initial stage of the first industrialized society, so we must consider comprehensive industrialization."

"At present, there are only a few major cities in the Song Dynasty with industries. More than 95% of the country's production value comes from agriculture and handicraft manufacturing. The remaining 5% is still accounted for by the steel industry. The industrial level is still backward."

"This may have been enough in ancient society, but since our goal is to lead society first, we must not be satisfied with this."

"So we must continue to expand industrial output value, at least to fill the domestic market, and then occupy the market in surrounding regions such as East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia."

"After that, we will assimilate these markets, cultivate them carefully, spread our own culture, and complete the puzzle of assimilating Chinese civilization by integrating their markets and regions."

"If we can basically complete these points, our overall social development and national strength will be a gap. We may even be hundreds or even thousands of years ahead of the rest of the world."

"So how can we do that?"

"We must change the current relatively backward official order, turn passivity into initiative, and actively expand the country's industrialization level in order to achieve a leap-forward leap in overall national strength."

Facing the Emperor of the Song Dynasty and many prime ministers, Zhao Jun made an impassioned speech and outlined a bright future.

It was still raining heavily outside the window. On Zhao Zhen's desk was a notebook that had been there for fifteen years. It took only two minutes to boot up, but it was still working fine.

Zhao Zhen's hand habitually touched the mouse. The laptop had not been turned on for a long time. It was usually turned on once every few days to check whether it was good or not.

There was a charcoal fire burning in the house, and there was a stove at everyone's feet, making the house as warm as spring.

Everyone listened carefully to Zhao Jun's words. After he finished speaking, Fan Zhongyan was the first to applaud and said, "That's really exciting."

"Clap clap clap."

Everyone then high-fived.

This is already a tradition of the Constitutional Court, and it happens whenever someone expresses outstanding insights and is recognized by everyone.

of course.

Basically, apart from Zhao Jun, no one can express outstanding insights.

No one even knows whether this is a truly bright future. They just believe whatever Zhao Jun says.

Because there is no way not to believe it, they cannot come up with any reasons to refute it. Even if they want to refute it, they don’t know what to say. Things like comprehensive industrialization and technology being the primary productive forces are purely blind spots in knowledge.

Even if someone from the future gave them popular science, they would only have a partial understanding. After all, it was impossible for Zhao Jun to teach them 24 hours a day. At most, he could only explain some terms.

So basically they just need to know that this is the advanced system and experience of the future. Since it is advanced, it should be correct and they should also support it. This is always correct.

"it is good!"

Zhao Zhen clapped his hands and nodded repeatedly, saying, "To be honest, I only half understood what he said, but I know that Han Long would not speak without thinking. If he says he can do it, then he will definitely do it. I think we should do as Han Long says."

Zhao Jun asked: "What did you not understand?"

Zhao Zhen said: "It means market assimilation. What does this mean? I think the Western powers are all colonizing."

Zhao Jun laughed and said, "Colonization is actually the lowest form of means. Because the Western powers themselves are small countries with small populations, they only completed industrialization first. With the industrial system, they crushed agriculture and primitive society. Only then could they colonize. But colonization itself is a form of predatory robbery. It is basically a one-time deal. Have you seen that the Western powers have colonized for hundreds of years? Have they plundered all the world's resources?"

"What does Hanlong mean?"

Yan Shu opened his eyes wide.

"Yes, this goes back to the East Asia One-Pole Strategy that I proposed in my early years. This is still a foreshadowing for the future."

Zhao Jun said: "While the national ideology and ethnic ideology have not yet emerged, we should speed up the upgrade of our own ethnic ideology and then export our culture and ideology. The whole of East Asia is a free labor force, and there are plenty of resources for us to grab. For example, there are large reserves of oil and natural gas resources in Southeast Asia and Siberia. It's just that compared with the oil and natural gas in the Middle East, the resources in these places are not easy to exploit and are not so easy to discover."

"But they can be used as reserve energy. In the future, we can establish a foothold in East Asia and explore the world. The whole of East Asia will be our territory, the whole of America will be our backyard, and the whole world will be in our pocket. The future of the Chinese nation will soar."

He said with firm eyes.

Everything Zhao Jun did was for the Eastern Pole strategy a hundred years later.

Maybe he can't see it.

But in his plan, the actual territory of Chinese civilization in the future will be the entire East Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as Australia and Russia's Far East.

This is probably the limit of what can be actually controlled.

As for America, it is too far away, but people can be sent there continuously, making the Chinese nation one of the main ethnic groups and forming a gathering place for Han people.

After completing the Eastern Pole strategy, it can also influence the pattern of South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and even the Middle East.

The only things left are basically Africa and Europe, which are beyond our reach.

But by that time, will it still matter whether Africa and Europe can be controlled or occupied?

Therefore, this blueprint is obviously grand and spectacular, which makes people look forward to it.

After listening to it, everyone couldn't help but applaud.

This time, everyone went from having only a vague understanding to fully understanding everything, and they also knew the great ideal in Zhao Jun's heart.

"It can be said that most of the Song Dynasty is now on the right track. After this new policy, it can last at least 30 years. The next step is to open up the market. The market is the life of the industry."

Zhao Jun was still not satisfied when he said, "During the first industrial revolution in Britain, their industrial products could only be sold because of their vast colonies around the world. We have an advantage, which is that we already have a large market in China."

"In the early stages of industrialization, we can fill the gap in the domestic market, but we will have to actively expand overseas. But don't worry too much about this, the early accumulation is not a big problem."

He looked around and smiled, "We have laid enough groundwork in the early stages. The entire East Asia region is already in our grasp. America is also a blue ocean that we have pioneered. Basically, once the industry is rolled out across the country, we will be able to take over the entire East smoothly."

"Well, judging from the current situation, no one in the entire East can rival us militarily. This is still a conservative estimate. Perhaps no one in the entire world can defeat us. If we spread out the plates, we can indeed have strong economic control." "It is also because Hanlong has spared no effort to teach us over the years. Otherwise, we still don't know what the market and economy are. Industry is the foundation of a strong country. We must move in this direction."

"Yes, I have been a feudal bureaucrat all my life, and only when I got old did I know how the future should develop. Perhaps this is what Confucius said, "If I hear the truth in the morning, I can die in the evening." It is a blessing to be able to see it."

Many prime ministers understood what Zhao Jun meant and were deeply moved.

They are all smart people and understand the principles, but they just don’t know what effects they will have.

Only Zhao Jun would explain these terms to everyone and then analyze in detail what benefits doing so would bring to the Song Dynasty.

This is also the motivation for them to promote reform.

"What I have said now is basically the impact of this reform on the general direction of the future. As for the specific content of the reform, there are too many and too complicated, so I will not continue to elaborate. I will sort out the content when the time comes."

Finally, Zhao Jun said, "There are still more than two months until the end of the year, and there are still about three months until the new policy is issued at the beginning of next year. By then, we will have a good discussion and make the final decision."

"That's it, it's getting late today, it's almost evening, I won't keep you all for dinner, today's meeting ends here."

Zhao Zhen saw that Zhao Jun didn't have much to say, so he nodded to adjourn the meeting.

In fact, meetings have been held every day in recent years, and the content of the meetings is generally for everyone to report to Zhao Zhen on the major events of the day.

For example, today Di Qing went to the Western Regions, or a natural disaster occurred in a certain place and they had issued an order to send people to provide disaster relief, or the king of a certain country sent an envoy to come to meet him, etc.

As the head of state, Zhao Zhen's current tasks include not only doing scientific research tasks every day, managing the Academy of Sciences part-time, serving as the honorary president of Bianliang University, etc., but sometimes he also has to receive foreign guests and talk about international topics.

He has real power, but he does not know how to use it. This can be regarded as the tacit understanding between the imperial power and the power of the Council of Political Affairs. Zhao Jun has formed a good balance lever in the middle, making both sides as stable as Mount Tai.

Therefore, although the meetings are held every day, sometimes the time is longer and sometimes it is shorter, which depends entirely on what other topics Zhao Jun wants to talk about after today's government affairs are completed.

"Then I will take my leave."

"Officials, please go to bed early."

"I'm waiting to retire."

Everyone finished today's meeting and stood up to leave.

Only when Zhao Jun got up and saw Zhao Zhen waving at him, did he sit down again.

After a while, everyone left, leaving only the grandparents and grandchildren in the room.

It was getting darker outside.

The steam engine in the back garden rumbled and the lights in the room came on.

After everyone left, Zhao Jun asked, "What's wrong, brother?"

Zhao Zhen sat there.

He is 42 years old this year. Compared with the 27-year-old and even slightly immature young man fifteen years ago, he is now a middle-aged man with a slender figure, a slightly thin face and two mustaches.

His personality has not changed over the years, he is sentimental and a good guy.

But it also reveals sincerity and kindness.

He just sat there, his eyes a little dazed, and then he said softly: "It just feels a little unreal."

"What's not true?"

Zhao Jun asked.

After asking, he remembered the reason and said with a smile: "Brother, you are thinking about the Western Regions."

"Yes."

Zhao Zhen also laughed, and then his face became more excited. He put his hands on the table and said, "There were so many people around just now, and I was just laughing and happy for a while, but now I..."

He stood up and walked to the empty space nearby, then started jumping and waving his hands, saying, "I really want to do something to express my excitement. I really want to hammer the table, but I'm afraid of the pain."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

Zhao Jun laughed and said, "Brother, you are too easily satisfied. But I can understand. I am calm because the Western Regions have always been our inherent territory in the future. During Zuo Zongtang's reign, Xinjiang was recovered, which allowed us to keep our territory largely intact. Then I would definitely want to jump up and find something to hit it with."

"what!"

Zhao Zhen felt like he was about to let out a burst of rage, and he punched the desk hard, then screamed, "Ouch."

"Hahahahaha!"

Zhao Jun was overjoyed, and then he thought,

This thing really is a different state of mind.

Zhao Zhen was happy because the merit of expanding territory was the highest merit among any emperor in ancient times.

Second only to the founding contribution.

And now it is not just this little bit of territory, but a vast land of more than one million square kilometers, so it is not just as simple as expanding the territory.

Why is Li Longji so highly regarded in history?

You have to know that he was a complete tyrant in his later years. He released power to treacherous ministers, ignored court officials, lived a dissolute life, and even robbed his daughter-in-law. He also believed false accusations and killed his three sons in one day. Not only did he go against human nature, but he also killed his own flesh and blood.

Although this situation would definitely be considered a relatively normal emperor in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it would definitely be considered a very low-ranking incompetent or tyrannical ruler in other dynasties.

However, these things do not affect his historical status as a wise ruler.

The reason is that his first half of life was so glorious, so glorious that if he had died in the late Kaiyuan period instead of the Tianbao period, his evaluation might even have ranked second in the Tang Dynasty and in the top ten in history.

This is what Zhao Zhen is like now.

Li Longji didn't care about the evaluation of future generations, he only cared about his own desires, so he collapsed in the end.

But Zhao Zhen already knew how future generations would evaluate former emperors, comment on their achievements, and even discuss them online, so he would have to do better than history.

In history, he was not even as good as Li Longji. At least Li Longji had been glorious, while he could only be regarded as a tall man among short ones in the Northern Song Dynasty.

It is a miracle that he was obviously a mediocre ruler, but he could be ranked among the top three emperors of the Song Dynasty.

And now.

Everything has changed.

Even the title of Song Renzong is no longer worthy of its name.

Not worthy of his achievements.

As an emperor, how could he not be excited?
(End of this chapter)