People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 506: Tribute from All Nations (1)

"Shocked! The imperial seal that has been missing for a hundred years was found in Luoyang."

"From the end of the Qin Dynasty to the end of the Tang Dynasty, a detailed account of the past and present of the Imperial Seal."

"After being authenticated by the Grand Secretaries, the imperial seal recently discovered in Luoyang is authentic."

The next day.

The news of the appearance of the imperial seal quickly became the headlines of all newspapers in Bianliang.

Various newspapers reported on it.

In particular, the theory proposed by Zhao Jun that Ran Wei exchanged the jade seal for the Eastern Jin Dynasty was explained in detail.

I have to say that all newspapers today are full of talented people.

Not only did they study the authenticity of this set of reasoning in detail, they also produced various historical materials to support their claims.

The most intuitive example is that before Ran Wei, the jade seal had a clear lineage of circulation and no one questioned its authenticity.

As a result, after the reign of Ran Wei, the seal was passed to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The characters on the seal changed and was suspected by academicians of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to be a forged seal.

Moreover, the jade seal of the Northern Wei Dynasty was obtained from Yecheng. It happened that the capital of Ran Wei was Yecheng, which was besieged by the Former Yan.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Eastern Jin Dynasty from cheating the jade seal away, Ran Wei gave a fake one to Dai Shi, the prefect of Puyang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and it is reasonable that the real jade seal was hidden in a clay statue in a temple in Yecheng.

With such widespread coverage, the matter of the imperial seal quickly became the front-page headline in Bianliang, and was a hot topic among tea stalls and wine shops.

People didn't even notice when so many foreigners started to appear in the city.

At this time, the city of Bianliang was prosperous.

After the first batch of rubber trees matured, they brought a large number of steam engines to the Song Dynasty, which quickly promoted the development of the Industrial Revolution.

What followed was an increase in steel production by tons.

By the end of the 12th year of the Qingli period, the data obtained by the court had reached an annual output of 5 million tons.

At that time, the annual output of all other countries in the world combined was probably less than 100,000 tons of steel.

Such a huge steel output not only created a large number of steel processing plants, but also gave birth to many construction companies.

Cement factories and brick factories also sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. With more factories, they would inevitably attract a large number of workers to work in the city, and the court would have to start spending money lavishly.

By investing money, steel mills, cement plants and brick factories will have orders. Orders can support workers, and workers can go out to consume and drive economic growth.

So where does the money come from?

Naturally, it is the domestic consumer market plus foreign trade.

With the silver ore exported by Japan every year alone, the Song Dynasty could produce millions of silver coins.

And small-denomination banknotes can be printed continuously.

However, considering the country's current GDP, blindly printing money will lead to inflation, so the court has always controlled the issuance volume.

Then there was a series of adjustments.

For example, it is called Jiaoziwu, but it is actually the financial system of the bank.

When the Jiaozi office was first established, it was not intended to serve the people. It only issued extremely large amounts of Jiaozi to merchants for bulk trade. There was no interest paid on deposits, and a storage fee of about 4% per year was charged.

For big businessmen, this is extremely convenient. Compared to carrying a large amount of copper coins to trade, carrying Jiaozi is obviously more cost-effective.

At the beginning of the Qingli period, the Jiaozi Bureau was reformed and the custody fee was cancelled. After that, small-denomination silver coins and banknotes were issued one after another, and ordinary people were allowed to deposit money in the Jiaozi Bureau.

Today, Jiaozi services have spread across the country. In addition to major cities, various government offices, state capitals, and even local county towns are also gradually opening up their businesses.

The next step is to earn interest on deposits, recycle coins, ensure the integrity of the financial system, and provide lending services so that banks can have both inflows and outflows.

Under such a system, the economy of the Song Dynasty flourished for a time.

The imperial court invested heavily in construction.

The appearance of Bianliang can be said to be changing every day.

There is no need to say much about the outer city. High-rise buildings are rising from the ground, groups of bicycles are shuttling between them, walled factories are everywhere, and electric wires are crisscrossed.

There are tea stalls on the streets and alleys. In addition to the tea culture of Bianliang people who love drinking tea, the tea stalls near factories do the best business.

Especially the herbal tea. People in the factory are working in full swing and sweating profusely. After work, a bowl of cool herbal tea can cool off and quench thirst, which is the most comfortable thing.

The commercial street is filled with a wide variety of clothing and goods, and is crowded with people every day.

When summer comes, there are countless people sitting on reclining chairs and beds outside the courtyards of the residential areas, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans to cool off.

With the dim yellow light of the street lamps outside the city, the elderly and children can chat and play outside from the evening until the moon rises at night, and then go to bed at nine or ten o'clock.

However, it is winter now, and although it has not snowed in Bianliang recently, the temperature has dropped sharply.

During the day, the workers at the river docks outside the city were all wearing thick cotton-padded clothes. Some of them felt too hot when they were working, so they simply took off their cotton-padded clothes and worked in only long gowns, still panting.

Every afternoon, the sound of jingle bells rang out from various schools, and students in colorful school uniforms walked out one after another, everyone's face was filled with youthful smiles.

The city has not been completely unchanged.

The imperial court is finally starting to officially engage in real estate, spending large sums of money on demolition and house expropriation.

Just collecting taxes from Xihua Gate to Zhao Shiwan Street cost tens of millions of strings of cash, which was equivalent to half of the tax revenue during the Jingyou period, and only a small half of the inner city was demolished.

no way.

When my country first started to carry out demolition, land and housing prices were not expensive at all. A street could be demolished for a few million yuan, and the price increased by tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan. That was after 2010.

The soaring housing prices at that time naturally led to a soaring cost of land demolition, so that in later generations, there were many second-generation demolition workers in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places.

However, the national conditions of the Song Dynasty were different. The housing prices in Bianliang soared first, and then the real estate development began.

This means that if you want to demolish the inner city and the outer city, you will have to spend a huge amount of money.

The only good news is that during the Northern Song Dynasty, houses were not built next to each other, and there were many vacant lots in the city. These lands belonged to the imperial court, and buying and selling had been prohibited in previous years, so only houses needed to be compensated.

Although housing prices in the inner and outer cities have skyrocketed in recent years, it is also largely due to the fact that the imperial court no longer allows these vacant lands to be sold.

But it can also be said that blessings and misfortunes go hand in hand.

Otherwise, if even the land was to be expropriated, the money that would be spent on the entire inner and outer cities would be an astronomical figure, and the tax revenue of the Song Dynasty for several years would have to be spent on it.

After several years of demolition and construction, six market towns including Jingmingfang, Huihefang and Guangfufang from Donghuamen to Zhaoshiwan Street have been demolished, high-rise buildings have sprung up, and various stores and shops have emerged.

Just from this project, the state-owned enterprise that contracted it made a lot of profit, and the imperial court also received a large amount of value-added tax from it, not only making back the investment but even making a profit.

Because the project was contracted by a state-owned enterprise rather than a private enterprise, the cost for private enterprises to engage in real estate is not low, including land cost, construction cost, sales cost and tax cost. After selling the house, the profit is often only between 10% and 30%.

The main expense of the court in this project was only the cost of land expropriation and demolition. The rest of the construction costs were relatively low. There was no need for elevators or so many facilities and equipment. They were just six or seven-story tube buildings anyway.

In addition, after the construction of the tube-shaped buildings, the inner city's geographical location was advantageous, and housing prices did not drop much. Even the sales costs did not cost a penny. There was no need to advertise, and rich people came in droves to buy the buildings.

Therefore, the profit margin is huge.

Although the time cost is indeed longer, it is still a business that is sure to make money.

It is no wonder that in later generations, not to mention the big cities, even the local counties had to raise municipal bonds to build houses. It can only be said that acquiring land is indeed a way to make a fortune.

“Is this Bianliang?”

"There are so many people."

“The temperature is also colder than ours.”

"But they don't feel cold at all when they wear these cotton coats. They are very comfortable."

"Look, look, the buildings over there are so tall." "Much taller than the buildings in Xiangyang."

At Bianliang South Railway Station, a group of short, dark-skinned people got off the train and walked out of the station under the guidance of staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They looked around curiously. Although they had been to Guangzhou and Xiangyang, they were still shocked when they arrived in Bianliang.

Although Xiangyang developed relying on railways, it is not as good as Bianliang in terms of development level and urbanization process.

Today, except for the outer city and two-thirds of the inner city, the rest of Kaifeng Prefecture is full of buildings, including the other two-thirds of the inner city, which are also being prepared for demolition.

Therefore, most areas of Kaifeng have now been urbanized, and the overall architectural style is not the Shanghai style of the 30s, but the Beijing style of the 70s and 80s.

After all, because there are too many foreigners in Shanghai, the architectural style tends to be Westernized, while the oriental characteristics have always been the square tube-shaped buildings.

Moreover, there are certain differences between these tube-shaped buildings and the later tube-shaped buildings. As the traditional architectural culture of the Song Dynasty has not been lost, these tube-shaped buildings have eaves and brackets on top, and each floor also has protruding carved buildings.

It is similar to the protruding brackets on the beams of buildings in the Northern Song Dynasty, except that the original wooden structure has been replaced with a reinforced concrete structure, with white walls and a foundation, which further demonstrates the heritage and profoundness of Chinese culture.

Those who got off the train were envoys from Brunei.

In addition to the King of Brunei, Xilimanuo, he also brought several important ministers, the queen and concubines.

As a king he shouldn't have come here.

Once he is not in the country, for small countries like theirs, if a rebellion occurs, the country may be destroyed in an instant.

But the Song Dynasty guaranteed him the security of its regime.

If someone really dared to let him destroy his country, then the Song Dynasty’s navy in the South China Sea would personally take him to restore his country.

So Xilimano naturally accepted the invitation with pleasure.

This time, the tribute from all nations began as early as early November, with neighboring countries such as Goryeo, Liao, Dali, Vietnam, Champa and others having already arrived one after another.

By the end of November and the beginning of December, the kings of Southeast Asian countries such as Pagan, Aladdin, Kharipanchaeus, Sina, Angkor, and Pegu, as well as the Emperor of Japan, arrived in the Song Dynasty.

It can be said that except for the Liao King Yelu Chongyuan, all the kings of countries within 1000 kilometers of the Song Dynasty were present.

Led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the people of Brunei walked out of the train station.

Dozens of people in the group looked around one by one, some with desire in their eyes, while others touched their cotton coats and lowered their heads, feeling a little inferior.

They were all powerful and wealthy in their own countries, and they all wore luxurious silk clothes, but compared with the people of the Song Dynasty, they were like monkeys in human clothes, because every Song person here wore expensive cotton or down jackets.

As long as the people here have legitimate jobs and professions and work hard, their annual income can be as much as all the assets of the powerful people in these small countries.

It can be said that except for houses in the inner and outer cities, they can afford any kind of life, even high-end entertainment venues such as Fanlou.

In comparison, even if they are powerful and wealthy, whether in terms of entertainment life or normal life, they may not live as well as a commoner in Bianliang of the Song Dynasty.

This is the gap between a superpower and a small country with a population of perhaps only a few hundred thousand.

It’s like in the 60s and 70s in later generations, an ordinary worker could live a middle-class life, could afford a villa, live in a Western-style building, support a family of three, and even have a dog in the villa.

However, those countries in Africa live like primitive societies.

After coming out of the train station, the group was led to the carriage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As foreign guests, it was naturally impossible for them to walk on foot.

But cars had not yet been invented and trolleybuses had not been researched, so naturally only traditional horse-drawn carriages could be used.

Soon, more than ten carriages carrying the Brunei envoys slowly headed towards the outer city. At noon, they passed through the Nanxun Gate and headed towards the inner city.

With the major renovation of Bianliang and the expansion of the imperial palace, the area from the north of the Bian River to Xuande Gate is now almost entirely the imperial palace, with a large number of state organs and departments.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is just outside Zuoye Gate. Due to its expansion, the current Zuoye Gate has occupied the Secretariat that was previously outside Zuoye Gate. Originally, across the street from the Secretariat was Qianming Temple, which is now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

There are not only many institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here, but also some buildings, one of which is called Bianliang Restaurant, which is specially used to entertain foreign guests.

Although there is no elevator, the hotel is luxuriously decorated, making it appear like a great country.

However, the convoy encountered trouble as soon as it entered Nanxun Gate.

Although the streets in the city are as wide as six roads, the increasingly prosperous business still causes traffic congestion in the city.

The traffic congestion problem itself was evident during the reign of Zhao Guangyi, and became increasingly obvious during the reign of Zhao Heng. It is even more congested today, with various vendors, people, horse-drawn carriages and bicycles making the road move slowly.

This has nothing to do with traffic order, it's simply that there are too many people. There may be tens of thousands of people on one street, and the carriages at the back can only move slowly with the crowd. There is no other way.

"There are too many people here."

Xilimano lifted the carriage curtain and looked out, only to see a sea of ​​people.

A short, dark-skinned man nearby glanced at Xilima in the carriage next to him and said to the people around him in a strange language: "Where did this country bumpkin come from again?"

When Xilimanuo heard the voice, he looked over and saw that the other party looked similar to him, so he said in broken Chinese: "Where are you from?"

"We are envoys from Goryeo!"

The man also answered in Chinese, but the language was much better.

After all, as a native of Brunei, Xilimano only started learning Chinese this year and has only been learning it for less than a year.

However, the dignitaries in Japan, Goryeo and other countries had to learn Chinese and use Chinese characters starting from the Tang Dynasty, which was naturally different.

"Goryeo?"

Xili Ma No asked doubtfully, "Is it far?"

"It's very close to the Song Dynasty."

The Goryeo envoy said proudly: "You should be very far away from the Song Dynasty."

"Yes, very far."

Xilimanuo answered honestly: "It will take a month on the sea."

"We'll be there in just ten days."

The Goryeo envoys were very proud.

“Are there so many people in Goryeo as well?”

Xilimano asked again.

The Goryeo envoy paused for a moment, then said even more proudly: "Goryeo doesn't have so many people, but Goryeo is the most important vassal state of the Song Dynasty. Under the Song Dynasty, Goryeo is the most powerful country!"

"awesome."

Xilimanuo nodded repeatedly and said, "If I have the chance, I would also like to visit Goryeo."

"Welcome to our Goryeo."

"Then can you tell me how many people are here?"

"It is said that there are millions of them."

"There are too many people. The population of our entire country combined is not as large as the population of this city."

"This is the Song Dynasty, the most powerful country in the world."

"How powerful is the Song Dynasty?"

"No one knows how powerful we are. I only know that under the Song Dynasty, our Goryeo is the strongest."

Taking advantage of the traffic jam, the Goryeo envoy explained the situation to Xilimano in a vivid way.

Not only did he brag about himself, but he also introduced to the other party the customs and culture of Bianliang, as well as its magnificent events.

At this moment, he completely forgot that this was actually his first time in the Song Dynasty, and he had only been in the Song Dynasty for a little over half a month.

(End of this chapter)