People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 517: The Jurchens rebelled and the Liao Dynasty was in civil strife.

The New Year of the 13th year of the Qingli period has passed, and the Song Dynasty is still developing in full swing.

By June, the data for the first half of the year were sent to the Constitutional Yuan, and all the data were very encouraging.

The growth rates of steel production, economic development, fiscal revenue and import and export trade volume are all extremely exaggerated.

Especially import and export trade.

Originally, the foreign trade of the Song Dynasty was very large, but during the celebration at the beginning of the year, the trade volume reached more than 100 million guan at one time.

Adding the original trade volume in January and February, the export volume at the beginning of the year was about 400 million guan.

This is equivalent to the total export volume for half a year in the 12th year of the Qingli period.

In the middle of summer in June, there was a heavy rain in Bianliang a few days ago, and not only in Bianliang, but also in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Although the heavy rain only lasted for two or three days, it still caused the water level in the Bian River to surge.

That is to say, the river is well repaired now, and many diversion canals have been dug. Otherwise, this rainstorm alone might have caused a flood in Bianliang.

But even so, it slightly affected the canal business for a few days, as some ships capsized in the river due to sudden heavy rain, blocking the river.

However, the current blockage of the canal is no longer a big problem for the Song Dynasty. Not to mention that there are personnel to handle the river itself, the fact that trains run 24 hours a day has greatly alleviated the freight pressure in Bianliang.

It was a hot summer day. The scorching sun was shining on the earth and the heat was unbearable. The Constitutional Yuan finally got its second electrical appliance besides electric lights - several electric fans operated by electricity, developed by the Electrical Equipment Research and Development Institute under the School of Physics under the Academy of Sciences!

Although the technical content of electric fans is not high, in fact, the main development direction of science and technology in the entire Song Dynasty was mainly focused on the steel, clothing and transportation industries, that is, steelmaking, textiles, and railway industries, while other industries were extremely backward.

It was only in recent years that the steel, textile and transportation industries gradually got on the right track that the Song Dynasty was able to devote all its national strength to developing other industries. Otherwise, how could it be so easy to produce the wires and screws inside this electric fan?

"Hoo hoo hoo hoo."

The electric fan was running at full power and there was ice cubes in the room to cool off.

However, every time the door of the Constitutional Court was opened, the heat waves from outside would rush in. With the alternating cold and heat, several old prime ministers soon could not bear it and went to the back chamber of the Constitutional Court to rest.

Zhao Jun was also sweating profusely. He suspected that the daytime temperature today was at least above 35 degrees, otherwise how could he feel so hot and dizzy.

"It's so hot."

Yan Shu wiped the sweat from his forehead and panted, "The summers seem to be getting hotter in recent years."

"The Little Ice Age is over. As time goes by, the temperature will continue to rise. I remember that during our time, there were frequent power outages in the 2000s, and we rolled on the floor in the summer nights because it was so hot."

Zhao Jun smiled.

Many people think that those born in the 2000s have never suffered hardships. In fact, the country only took off after 2008. But even before it took off in 2010, there were power outages all over the country.

When Zhao Jun was a child, he remembered that it was probably the summer of 2008 or 2009, when he was in elementary school. There was a power outage one night.

It was 40 degrees Celsius during the day, but it was over 30 degrees Celsius at night. There was no air conditioning or electric fans, so adults and children all lay on the floor, heating up the ceramic floor.

"Well, at least you had air conditioning back then, but now, I'm afraid we won't even have air conditioning until I die."

Yan Shu sighed.

“Old people will get sick if they use air conditioning too much.”

Zhao Jun answered him casually with a few words.

Zeng Gongliang took some official documents he had prepared and placed them on his desk.

The political ecology of the Constitutional Yuan is headed by Zhao Jun.

Important official documents from all over the country and various ministries are submitted to the Constitutional Council for review.

But these things certainly could not be handled by Zhao Jun alone, so each prime minister, in addition to being responsible for the affairs of various departments, also had to issue memorials and give instructions.

The decision notes were finally summarized to Zhao Jun. After reading the prime ministers' handling methods, Zhao Jun sent them out if there were no problems.

If there were any problems, he would make the changes himself. If the other prime ministers had any objections, they would discuss it together and come up with a set of rules.

Basically, unless Zhao Jun insisted on doing it his own way, the discussion would be the main focus. But if Zhao Jun really insisted on doing it his own way, then it would be useless even if Zhao Zhen was involved.

He alone has the final say, it just depends on whether he is willing to exercise such power.

Zhao Jun took the official documents approved by Zeng Gongliang and glanced at each one. Zeng Gongliang explained beside him: "This is a report from the Firearms Department, requiring the Bianliang Iron and Steel Plant to build two backward production lines."

"Let's build it."

Zhao Jun scratched his head.

The previously outdated production line was not actually dismantled.

But once new technologies mature, outdated production lines are useless and are left there to rust.

However, the technology and industrial workers are still there, so the old-fashioned large cannon barrels, small cannon barrels, and flintlock rifle barrels should still be able to be made.

This, combined with the production lines of Minié bullets and solid bullets, would form a complete, backward firearms industry process before World War I.

Who would have thought that the Song Dynasty, which already had smokeless gunpowder and artillery technology comparable to that of World War II, would still have to make antiques like those made before World War I?

"This is another report from the Firearms Department. They have developed blueprints for new weapons such as machine guns and revolvers. The Firearms Department hopes to send them to the steel mill for forging."

"Let them try."

"Then there are the data reported by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce this year. They hope to slightly reduce the liquor tax. There is too much grain now, and brewing more liquor can also help with tax revenue."

"Then let them decide on their own charter."

"Well, the Ministry of Industry has also submitted some reports on local projects, all of which are projects that benefit the country and the people."

"Let the Ministry of Industry send someone to take a look, confirm the plan, ensure it is foolproof, calculate how much the plan will cost, and then ask major companies to bid."

"Yes, and the Ministry of Revenue."

Zeng Gongliang reported all his official duties to Zhao Jun one by one.

Naturally, there was division of labor among the many prime ministers.

The imperial court currently has more than 50 ministries, 16 first-level departments, and about 30 second-level and third-level departments combined. There are 12 prime ministers, and basically each of them has to manage three to four departments, and the department they are in charge of is often the department they held before becoming prime minister.

For example, Zeng Gongliang once served as the Director of the Firearms Bureau, worked in the wine business in his early years, managed the Commercial Tax Bureau, served as a Langzhong in the Ministry of Works, then as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and finally was appointed Prime Minister from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

So he is currently mainly working in the Firearms Bureau, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Households, etc.

The others are similar. For example, Xia Song is now in charge of the Ministry of Finance, and also concurrently manages the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Culture, etc.

This was because he had edited classics when he was the director of Jixian Academy, had done engineering projects when he was the Pacifier of Qingzhou, had served as the deputy envoy when he was in Sansi, and finally served as the prime minister when he was the Minister of Finance.

Therefore, the prime ministers had clear division of labor and each had his own area of ​​expertise, so there was no situation where an amateur gave instructions to an expert. Zhao Jun was also in charge of all the reviewed notes, so if there were any unexpected events, everyone could discuss them together.

This political system has spawned a fairly reliable and efficient administration.

This is only because Zhao Jun, as a political strongman, is trusted by everyone, and the system can run perfectly around him. If his successor lacks prestige, it will be easy for wrangling and disagreements to occur, resulting in low administrative efficiency.

Fortunately, Zhao Jun just turned 40 this year and there is still a long time to solve these problems, so they are not the main contradiction at present.

The top priority now is to complete the national industrial accumulation as soon as possible and allow the national strength of the Song Dynasty to expand rapidly, to a speed that even if development stagnates, it will take the whole world a hundred years to catch up.

As for external conflicts, you can basically ignore them.

Zeng Gongliang finished today's official report, returned to his seat, packed up, and went to the various departments below to prepare for inspection.

This is also a system.

I have finished today's official business. If it is not time to get off work, I will go out for a walk. It is always a little more comfortable than sitting in the Constitutional Yuan.

"Hanlong, the Statistics Department has also handed in the data report for the first half of this year. Take a look."

Yan Shu handed over the document in his hand.

He had previously served as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, but the Ministry of Revenue was divided into the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Revenue. He was in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Statistics, the Ministry of Rites, etc.

Zhao Jun flipped through the data submitted by the Statistics Department.

Then Yan Shu said, "Since last year's steel production exceeded five million tons, this year's goal is to double it. Wu'an Steel Plant and Tangshan Steel Plant have increased their production capacity significantly."

"In the second half of last year, they hired more than 5,000 workers. In the first half of this year, they continued to expand their scale and strive to achieve an annual production capacity of 8 million tons this year."

"The steel industry in other regions is also developing rapidly. I estimate that it will be easy to exceed 10 million tons this year, and it may even reach more than 12 million tons."

The first thing he talked about was steel production capacity. Since the development of steel technology, production capacity has been increasing every year through new steelmaking methods.

Due to the excellent performance of steel, it was quickly introduced to the market. A large amount of steel did not even flow into the private sector, but was absorbed by various newly built steel processing plants near major steel mills.

The result is that supply exceeds demand. As state-owned enterprises, steel mills continue to make profits, so they can naturally continue to expand their production capacity and increase output.

This is very different from the long-term losses of steel mills in later generations in my country.

After all, due to some special reasons in the early days of our country, there was no commodity market in the country, and steel mills belonged to the pure service industry. It was naturally difficult for them to grow without profits.

Today, the domestic market of the Song Dynasty itself is huge, with a population of more than 100 million and strong demand. Coupled with prosperous productivity and a developed economy, once the problem of money shortage is solved, the people will only become richer.

The demand for various steel products naturally increased, not to mention that the imperial court also needed a large amount of steel for infrastructure construction. It would be strange if it could not make a lot of profit and continued to expand production capacity.

"Ah."

After hearing what Yan Shu said, Zhao Jun flipped through the official documents and said, "We should proceed steadily and pursue efficiency. It is not good for the steel industry to develop too fast. There will be too much production capacity, and the market will not be able to absorb it all at once. A large amount of waste steel will have to be stored and rust. It is not good to develop too slowly either. Steel construction will be needed everywhere, causing steel prices to soar, affecting people's livelihood and the construction speed of the court. Now it is the best, which just meets the efficiency requirements. However, I think starting from next year, we will have to expand the production capacity again, from 10 million tons to at least 50 million tons."

"So fast?"

Yan Shu was surprised.

In the 2.5th year of the Qingli period, the production capacity was only million tons, but last year it reached million tons, which is times the previous level.

If it increases 2.5 times this year, it will be almost 1200 million tons. However, it will reach more than 5000 million tons by next year, which is a direct 4-fold increase.

"Ah."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "The reason why the growth rate doubles every year is because the national strength and GDP growth rate of the Song Dynasty were so fast in the past. It is meaningless to double it too much. But starting from this year, our growth rate will explode, so we naturally have to keep up with the pace."

"Yes, although we did business with various countries in the past, the scale of business varied, and there was a lack of official promotion. Our influence could only radiate to East Asia at most, and it would not work if it went too far."

Although Yan Shu was old, he was not confused. He quickly understood the reason and said with a smile, "This year, governments around the world have been vigorously promoting trade with us. It is equivalent to us taking over the entire global market. The growth rate is indeed going to increase rapidly."

Although the global population is small and the market size is not large, there is only one exporting country and a small population but abundant natural resources.

This means that on a global scale, the Song Dynasty, as an industrial exporting country, is faced with countless resource-oriented export products around the world. It is not that there are too many wolves and little meat, but that there is only one wolf and sheep everywhere. It would be strange if it didn't get too full.

"So we have to prepare for a rainy day."

Zhao Jun smiled, read the document that Yan Shu brought over, and approved it if there was no problem.

Soon Fu Bi finished his official business and handed it over to Zhao Jun.

He said, "Minister, there is not much to do at the Ministry of War, Kaifeng Prefecture, and the Dali Temple today, but there was an official document delivered to the Ministry of War this morning. Perhaps you can take a look at it."

As he said this, he pointed to the document at the top.

Zhao Jun opened it curiously and saw a secret report from the Imperial City Bureau.

Generally speaking, the memorials from the Imperial City Division were not handed over to the Ministry of War, but to the Chief of the Imperial City Division, and finally transferred to Zhao Jun.

However, due to the special nature of the Imperial City Bureau, over-reliance on it would be tantamount to governing the country like spies. Therefore, unless it was a particularly big matter, they would basically pick up some important matters and take them home to look at after get off work in the afternoon.

Although it may cause a slight delay in the news, it doesn't matter if it is a minor matter, as long as he is made aware of the important events first.

The only information that can be handed over to the Ministry of War is military intelligence.

Because the functions of the Ministry of War are now gradually tending towards the functions of the Ministry of National Defense in later generations, it often has to study relations with enemy countries and major national defense issues, so naturally it has to pay attention to military affairs first.

"Wanyan Wugunai has rebelled, has captured Changchun Prefecture, and is threatening Linhuang Prefecture."

Zhao Jun looked at the information in his hand, narrowed his eyes and said, "It's quite interesting."

(End of this chapter)