People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 477: The Great Song Dynasty, Initial Control of the World

In late January of the twelfth year of the Qingli period, the imperial court issued a large number of new policies.

Many of them are closely related to the people.

For example, changing customs, cracking down on a large number of unreasonable customs, and promoting correct beliefs and ideas.

It also officially prohibits favoring boys over girls and criminalizes drowning babies.

This was done to prohibit marriage between close relatives in the future.

no way.

In ancient times, because of the idea of ​​favoring boys over girls, many people were unwilling to have girls.

Just as Wang Anshi, Chen Xiliang and others said.

In southern China, if parents give birth to several daughters in a row and cannot afford to raise them, they will even drown the baby girls in order to have a son.

Therefore, in ancient times, there were always more men than women in non-war periods.

It is not easy for many people to get married, and in order to reproduce offspring, it is common for them to marry close relatives with different surnames.

If the Song Dynasty did not have firearms, and simply strengthened its army through militarization reforms, it might have led to a situation where there were more men than women after the war.

However, the Song Dynasty had experienced rapid development in science and technology in recent years. In the era of firearms, there were continuous wars, including those with Western Xia, Liao, Yue Dynasty, Gaochang, and the Black Khanate, but there were not many casualties.

Without a balanced population ratio, it is naturally impossible to prohibit marriage between close relatives. Otherwise, the number of bachelors will increase greatly, seriously hindering national development.

However, Zhao Jun had no intention of continuing this bad habit. On the one hand, he asked the Ministry of Health to compile statistical data and investigate the proportion of deformed children born in close-kin marriages, and on the other hand, he planned to develop Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

He will immigrate a large number of people to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Because now the Southern Navy has established military bases in the Gulf Islands and Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia.

At this time, the Philippines was still in the primitive tribal period, but on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, a dynasty called the Srivijaya Kingdom emerged during this period.

This is a Buddhist country, where Buddhism was spread from India.

Its influence covers Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and parts of Java and western Kalimantan, and it controls the Straits of Malacca and Sunda Straits.

In the past, due to geographical factors, they had to collect tolls for trade between China and the West. However, after the Guangzhou Navy moved south, it established a military base in Pu Luozhong, which was later known as Singapore.

Srivijaya tried to attack them but was defeated by guns and cannons.

From then on, the control of the Strait of Malacca belonged to the Song Dynasty Navy, which truly monopolized Sino-Western trade and contributed to the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.

After the naval power expanded to the Malay Peninsula, the islands south of Guangzhou, such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc., all became the back garden of the Song Dynasty. If they were not developed now, when would they be able to do so?
After all, things are different now than they used to be. In the past, miasma was everywhere and plague was rampant, and the people of the Song Dynasty would not go out to sea to make a living unless they had no other choice.

Now is the Age of Discovery. Cinchona trees are widely planted in Hainan, Vietnam and other places and have long been harvested for medicine. Southern regions such as Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian have launched mosquito eradication campaigns many times. With the combined efforts of these two factors, the miasma-ridden environment in Lingnan has improved a lot.

Without the trouble of the epidemic, as long as higher salaries are offered, there will be a lot of people willing to go overseas to develop. Just like in history when Japan colonized the world, countless Japanese people flocked to the colonies to pan for gold.

Now, after years of development, people in the coastal areas of the Song Dynasty have already developed a spirit of overseas adventure, especially in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places, where the desire to go overseas is very strong.

I believe that under the influence of such policies, a large number of middle-aged men will go overseas, which will greatly alleviate the situation in which there are more men than women in the country.

At the same time, it can also occupy and develop Southeast Asia.

In addition to the government's forced abolition of a large number of bad habits and customs, guiding the people to go to sea, and actively developing people's livelihood, there were also many changes in other areas of the court.

Economically, we will open up local economic planning powers, allow local governments to actively attract investment, and allow local governments to grant certain powers to attract investment, such as preferential tax rates, land preferential treatment, policy loans, etc.

In agriculture, the imperial farm where various agricultural experiments were originally conducted was converted into an agricultural university, which recruited agricultural students, carried out large-scale scientific agricultural experiments, improved grain production, studied various types of fruits and vegetables, and actively carried out scientific research in the field of biology.

In diplomacy, the United States subdued neighboring countries, destroyed those that should be destroyed, and beat them up when necessary. It even exercised military control over Japan and Vietnam. It sent a large number of envoys to distant countries, which seemed to have a sense of making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones.

In terms of system, the performance evaluation system will be gradually abolished, the term of office of officials will be increased, and officials will be given greater local development arrangements, but at the same time, supervision will continue to be increased to prevent officials from increasing their power and acting recklessly.

In the medical field, a medical university was established, famous doctors with high moral character were recruited from across the country, and a medical research institute was set up under the organization and preparation of the Ministry of Health. High rewards were offered to death row prisoners across the country to voluntarily donate their bodies for anatomical experiments.

In finance, the policy of only allowing Jiaozi to keep large sums of money was relaxed, and the savings business was fully opened to ordinary people. The storage fee was cancelled and no interest was provided, that is, the interest rate was 0, and it was purely savings.

This is because the current shortage of money in the Song Dynasty has been basically solved by paper money and silver coins, but the trade volume is growing every year, resulting in a shortage of paper money and silver coins. Even neighboring countries use the currency of the Song Dynasty. Every year, the Song Dynasty exports a large number of paper money, silver dollars, and copper coins, and does not need to recover the currency by raising interest rates to maintain inflation, so it only provides deposits and withdrawals, but does not provide interest.

In education, a number of normal colleges were opened across the country. Starting from the 13th year of the Qingli period, a national college entrance examination would be formally organized, and students would be admitted by local universities based on their scores.

Now there is more than one university in the Song Dynasty, Bianliang University. Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Education in recent years, in addition to Bianliang University, basically every province has built a higher education institution, and the teaching staff are basically produced by Bianliang University.

As a result, many outstanding teachers of Bianliang University were transferred away, which was a serious blow to the university.

But it's all worth it.

After years of training, the basic framework of a university has been barely established. The basic education in mathematics, physics and chemistry has also been perfected, and there are a large number of laboratory equipment to train more scientific research talents for the Song Dynasty.

The overall education system is also relatively complete. The Song Dynasty is mainly centered on Bianliang University, which will be the only top-level special school in the country. Graduates will be guaranteed jobs. If you are interested in becoming an official, there will be a special selection exam. After passing the exam, you will become a Jinshi.

The various higher education universities were first-level universities established with faculty drawn from Bianliang University as their backbone. They were also guaranteed jobs upon graduation, but they could not take selection exams after graduation. Only by continuing to pursue postgraduate studies could they participate in the Special Operations Department.

In addition to the first-tier universities, the policy this time is to establish a number of general colleges and universities. These colleges and universities are not the first- or second-tier schools of later generations, but tend to be professional counterparts.

Such as education-related normal colleges, literacy night schools, engineering and construction technology training schools, etc.

Simply put, it is a skill training school that teaches people how to read, drive screws, and do plastering on construction sites. In later generations, such schools have the lowest academic qualifications and the lowest value, and are discriminated against.

But in the Song Dynasty, if you could graduate from such a school, you would be considered a highly educated talent and would become a manager in various factories and construction sites.

Just like a junior college degree was nothing in the new era, but was considered a very high level of education in the 80s and 90s.

Therefore, the current education system of the Song Dynasty is at two extremes.

At the top level is Bianliang University, which specializes in scientific research, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and political and military research, and the only higher-level university in all the provinces.

At the lowest level are the professional lip-syncing and technical and cultural popularization colleges aimed at literacy.

If Bianliang University is regarded as Tsinghua University and Peking University, all the first-level universities are regarded as 985 and 211, and the College of Technology and Popular Culture is regarded as a technical college.

So what the Song Dynasty lacks now are the first, second and third tier colleges and universities.

But there is nothing that can be done about it.

At present, there are only so many educational resources, and we can only focus on grassroots literacy education and high-level elite education.

Middle-level education also needs the comprehensive popularization of grassroots education and then upgrading upwards, and then elite education will extend higher knowledge downwards. Only when the two sides converge can they be fully developed.

So this is the only way now.

In terms of military affairs, a military academy was established, criminals and ruffians were no longer accepted, and a recruitment system was adopted. The Ministry of War would recruit soldiers at a unified time every year, and good family members and young and strong people of the Song Dynasty could sign up and become soldiers after passing the physical examination. The military officers would also adopt a rank system, divided into lieutenants, colonels, and generals, and the first grand conferment of ranks in the Song Dynasty would be held in the New Year of the 1053th year of the Qingli period, that is, in AD, when all nations came to pay tribute.

At that time, the Song Dynasty will not only invite envoys from all countries that can be invited to participate, but will also hold a grand military parade to demonstrate its military power and national strength, allowing the Song Dynasty to roar to the world.

In addition, there have been innovations and changes to varying degrees in many areas such as diplomacy, culture, science and technology, transportation, industry, resources, and ideology.

At one time, all parts of the Song Dynasty began to vigorously reform and develop.

Actively promote local construction and comprehensive improvement.

soon.

By March of the twelfth year of the Qingli period, when the spring breeze of reform blew across the country, the people of the Song Dynasty ushered in a new life.

The news that Di Qing had conquered Gaochang, defeated the Black Khan, and recovered the entire Western Regions also came back.

When Zhao Zhen learned about this, he was so happy that he went crazy in the palace.

Because with the conquest of the Western Regions, the Song Dynasty gained nearly 300 million square kilometers of land.

Although in later generations Xinjiang only had 166 million square kilometers.

However, what the Song Dynasty recovered this time was not only Xinjiang, but the entire Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, of which Gaochang Kingdom alone was most of Xinjiang.

In addition, the Kara Khanate, which was larger than Gaochang, had its territory extending to later Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and part of Kazakhstan.

The total area reached 300 million square kilometers, 280 square kilometers more than the previous Northern Song Dynasty's 20 million square kilometers.

Now the area of ​​the Song Dynasty has reached 400 million square kilometers, and the total area is 700 million square kilometers.

This means that the territory of the Song Dynasty expanded by 1.5 times under Zhao Zhen's rule.

His current achievements alone have surpassed all the emperors of the Song Dynasty, and even when compared with the emperors of all previous dynasties, he would be ranked at least in the top five.

More importantly, Zhao Zhen is only 42 years old this year.

Even if he died in 1063 AD as in history, he still had 11 years as emperor.

In the first 16 years, the Song Dynasty went from nothing to something, from being militarily weak to being invincible all over the world, creating such brilliant achievements. No one dares to imagine what the Song Dynasty would become in the remaining 11 years.

For a time, the twelfth year of the Qingli period, 1052 AD, became the most prosperous moment since the founding of the Song Dynasty.

Whether in terms of national strength or land area, it has reached the peak of a prosperous dynasty!

Against this backdrop, the country prospered and foreign trade continued. Envoys sent by the Song Dynasty traveled as far as the Persian Gulf on merchant ships and informed the Middle Eastern countries of the grand event that the Song Dynasty was going to hold.

Now many poor guys in the Middle East depend on the Song Dynasty for survival, and the vassal states of the Arab Empire, which had long since collapsed, have all expressed their willingness to send envoys.

Even the Eastern Roman Empire, which was far away in the borders of Turkey in later generations, knew about this matter and sent envoys to contact them.

At that time, the envoys sent by the Song Dynasty to the Middle East were stationed in Baghdad of the Abbasid Dynasty.

Because at this time the Seljuks, descendants of the Turks, had risen and annexed most of the territories of the Ghaznavid Empire and the Buyid Empire.

Historically, they entered Baghdad in 1055 AD and established the vast Seljuk Empire.

So the situation in the Middle East was in chaos at this time.

However, after the envoys from the Song Dynasty arrived, the Seljuk invasion stopped and neighboring countries sent envoys to Baghdad to meet with the envoys from the Song Dynasty.

All of a sudden, Baghdad became like Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty in the Middle East, with nations coming to pay tribute, even from as far away as Europe.

In fact, people in the Middle East and Europe are not unaware of the existence of the Song Dynasty.

Since the Han Dynasty, the wealth of the East has spread to the West, and the Silk Road has become an important hub connecting the Eurasian continent.

However, the journey was so long that, except for merchants from the Middle East, Westerners had no idea what the East looked like.

This situation improved somewhat during the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty directly invaded the Middle East, occupied the Transoxiana region, and bordered directly on the Arab Empire at that time.

That period was also the heyday of the Eastern Roman Empire, so the Tang Dynasty, the Arab Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire were the three major empires on par with each other, and the power of the Tang Dynasty naturally spread far and wide to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Now the Song Dynasty has fought its way to the Western Regions, destroyed the Kara Khanate, and bordered the current Seljuk Empire. It has a huge momentum, and its economy and trade are far stronger than those of the Tang Dynasty.

Naturally, the West was shocked by the Song Dynasty's strength and was quite flattering to it.

The main thing is.

Europe was now in the darkest Middle Ages. It had not yet colonized America and did not have enough money to buy products from the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, most of the Song Dynasty's goods are mainly circulated in countries around the Mediterranean. They currently focus on harvesting in Africa, mainly in North Africa, West Africa and East Africa.

These places had already seen dynasties established by colonists from Eurasia during the Song Dynasty, such as the Fatimid Caliphate, the Makurian Kingdom, the Kanem Empire, the Almoravid Caliphate, and so on.

Many dynasties were Christian and Islamic countries established by white Europeans and Arabs from the Middle East, who ruled the black people here for hundreds or thousands of years.

Unable to exploit America, they could only exploit African blacks in a sustainable way in exchange for goods from the Song Dynasty.

But even so, in the trade with the Song Dynasty, the degree of involution among Western countries was quite high. Each country needed to seize the market, exploit raw materials in Africa, and import all kinds of goods from the Song Dynasty.

Once you offend the Song Dynasty and your supply of goods is cut off, there will be only one outcome - being kicked out of the brutal business competition.

Just like in the era of globalized supply chains in later generations, a large technology company must have countless suppliers.

If a supplier offends this big technology company and cuts off the supply of your products, the direct consequence may very likely be the bankruptcy of your company.

This is the situation that many small countries that split from the Arab Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire are facing now.

Therefore, when facing the envoys sent by the Song Dynasty, the Western countries had to try their best to please them in order to avoid being cut off from goods by the Song Dynasty, which would cause the domestic economy to collapse.

then.

This is the current global situation.

After more than ten years of operation and development, the Song Dynasty punched the Liao Kingdom and kicked the Western Xia in the East, and controlled most of the countries in the East by force, forming a monopoly situation.

In the West, they took advantage of their own industrial and handicraft manufacturing advantages to export silk, tea, porcelain, clothing, currency, paper, pencils and other handicrafts or industrial products in exchange for large amounts of raw materials.

In addition, the Song Dynasty currently sends ships to America every year to immigrate people to America and gradually exercise control over America. It can be said that most areas of the world have been influenced by the Song Dynasty.

In just sixteen years, the Song Dynasty had established a vast and prosperous empire and had completed direct or indirect control over the entire world!
The prosperous era of the Song Dynasty thus began!

(End of this chapter)