People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 528 Extra : Chinese Begonia Leaves Return to Unity

In February of the spring of the 25th year of the Qingli reign of the Song Dynasty, the Song army captured the Dali capital Yangzhumie City, destroyed the Yang regime, and took over Yunnan.

Over the years, Zhao Jun has been committed to unifying the leaves of Chinese begonias.

But Dali is the biggest obstacle.

The reason is simple. In the past few years, when the international situation of the Song Dynasty was extremely bad and even Goryeo abandoned it, only Dali still supported it.

Although this is related to geopolitics, Goryeo was indeed threatened by the Liao Kingdom, but Dali was located in the southwest and it was impossible for it to get too close to the Liao Kingdom. It could only follow the pace of the Song Dynasty.

However, no matter what, when even the Yue Dynasty dared to harass the border of the Song Dynasty, Dali has always pursued a policy of respecting the Song Dynasty, which is already very commendable.

Therefore, in terms of justice, the Song Dynasty could not take action against Dali and could only think of other ways.

But opportunities always come to those who are prepared.

The Dali Kingdom was not internally stable and monolithic. The powerful minister Gao controlled the government, and the Yang family was eyeing the country covetously. The king Duan Silian was no longer able to control the situation.

Finally, in the 1063rd year of the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty, in AD, the Yang family launched a rebellion and marched towards the capital of Dali with a mighty force.

Duan Silian was unable to stop it and could only ask Gao for help.

Compared to the Song Dynasty which had entered a new era, Dali's political environment was still based on the tribal system.

The Gao family and the Yang family were among the most powerful tribes in Dali. The other tribal leaders followed the lead of the king Duan family, the prime minister Gao family, and the Yang family, the descendants of the previous dynasty Dayining.

Later, the Duan and Yang families declined, while the Gao family rose strongly and controlled the power of the entire Dali Kingdom, making the Duan and Yang families very wary.

So the Yang family took a desperate measure, and the leader of the Yang family, Yang Yunxian, launched a rebellion and attacked the Gao family in the name of clearing the court of evil officials.

Historically, this rebellion was eventually suppressed by the Gao family and did not cause much trouble. It even helped the Gao family establish its regime. They briefly abolished the Duan family and established themselves as king.

However, this time, for some unknown reason, Yang had well-trained soldiers, sufficient food and equipment. After two years of fierce fighting with Gao, he finally defeated Gao, marched into Yangzhumie City, abolished Duan, and rebuilt Dayining State.

But before the Yang family could be happy for too long, the Song army descended from the sky and swept through the entire Yunnan province in just one month, destroying the Dayining Kingdom that the Yang family had revived.

The news quickly spread back to Bianliang.

In late February, heavy rain fell in Bianliang, with raindrops as big as beans falling and dark clouds covering the sky.

The tide surged up in a very short time, submerging the concrete embankment of the Bian River and even approaching the scenic area. The water level was less than ten feet from the shore.

However, thanks to the fact that the imperial court has renovated the river embankments along the Bian River in recent years, including the Huimin River, Xinqu River, Guangji Canal, Jinshui River and other rivers, both the previous canals and the newly built canals have been reinforced, so no floods occurred.

On the contrary, during the spring rainy season, willows flutter on both sides of the embankment, the morning breeze and the waning moon shine on the bank of the Painted Bridge, and there is an indescribable feeling when walking slowly along the bluestone-paved East Street holding an oil-paper umbrella.

There are very few ancient city areas left now, with only parts of East Street in the southeast corner of the inner city and Maxing Street outside Donghuamen remaining.

This part includes more than ten markets, including Tianshui Lane, Yulin Lane, Qingxuanfang, Qitao Market, Xiangguo Temple, Zhugan Market, Huihefang, and Guangfufang on Dongda Street and Maxing Street, with a total area of ​​about four to five square kilometers.

The rest of the places have basically been demolished and high-rise buildings have been built one after another.

It was Zhao Jun who insisted on preserving the remaining ancient streets and markets. Otherwise, according to the opinions of the court officials, they should have been demolished long ago.

Compared with the difficult reforms Zhao Jun undertook back then, the current court officials of the Song Dynasty are even more radical than him.

The reason is that demolition and large-scale construction can make a lot of money and quickly produce political achievements.

The Song Dynasty has reaped a lot of benefits over the years, both openly and secretly. It has made a lot of money from foreign trade, and private factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and the process of industrialization has been rapid.

From the third year of Jingyou, which was 1036 AD, to now in 1063, only 26 years have passed, and the Song Dynasty has been completely transformed.

The national treasury's annual revenue has been growing exponentially, and real estate demolition has played an indispensable role in this.

Bianliang had the fastest industrialization process, with countless factories of various kinds. The increase in factories attracted workers, causing a population explosion. Now there are already 10 million people, and the demand for houses is huge. The demolition has brought considerable financial benefits.

For example, the demolition cost of a market town would only cost several million guan, but if it were built into buildings, the habitable area would be greatly increased, and the cost could be recovered several times or even dozens of times by selling them.

However, Zhao Jun believes that demolition is indeed a huge profit, but it is only a short-term profit. In the long run, it is still necessary to build urban culture.

Because only by allowing the city to retain its cultural heritage, its style and characteristics, and allowing culture and characteristics to become its city's business card, can the city continue to burst with vitality.

Just like the Second Ring Road of Peking, the capital of our country in later generations, the alleys, courtyard houses and the Forbidden City that remain from the past allow people to experience the ancient charm of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Demolishing a large number of ancient buildings will only cause the city's business card to disappear and turn it into a cold forest made of steel and concrete.

Therefore, Zhao Jun preserved a large number of magnificent imperial palaces and some classic streets and markets, and renovated the ancient temples, temples, markets, and houses, making them the cultural heritage of the capital of the Song Dynasty.

As a result, the indigenous people cursed.

After all, it is just like the alleys and courtyard houses on the Second Ring Road. There is a price but no demand. If the houses are not demolished, the original residents cannot become the demolition households. And no one buys the old and dilapidated alleys and courtyard houses on the Second Ring Road. As a result, a group of Beijing original residents live in houses worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan, but live in poverty.

But compared with the original residents of the Second Ring Road in Beijing in later generations, the people of the Song Dynasty were much wilder, especially the people of Bianliang, who had no hesitation in blocking the prime ministers.

In the second half of last year, when they heard that the Political System Council had rejected the proposals of Kaifeng Prefecture and the Ministry of Urban Planning and Construction, many residents of Maxing Street and Dongda Street were unhappy, so they went to the residences of prime ministers such as Yang Cha, Yang Gao, Su Huan, Chen Xiliang, Zhao Yan, and Liang Shi to cause trouble.

The last few years were the years when Zhao Jun's power reached its peak. In 1056 AD, Fan Zhongyan, Yan Shu, Du Yan, Zheng Jian, Xia Song and others officially resigned, and Yang Cha, Yang Gao, Li Jianzhi and others were newly recruited.

By 1061, Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, Han Qi, Pang Ji, Zeng Gongliang, Song Xiang and others who had entered the academy in 1051 had also served their ten-year terms and resigned from their positions as prime ministers.

Considering that these people would be in their fifties or even less than sixty when they left office, it would be a loss for the court to let these experienced and energetic politicians retire. So Zhao Jun carried out reforms again, downsizing and expanding the Constitutional Council.

The so-called downsizing means reducing the number of prime ministers to eight. Except for Zhao Jun himself, there are currently only Yang Cha, Yang Gao, Li Jianzhi, and Su Huan, Chen Xiliang, Zhao Yan, and Liang Shi who were promoted the year before last.

External expansion means retaining the original prime minister, but no longer holding the position of prime minister. Instead, he will continue to stay in the Constitutional Council in the name of counselor of the Constitutional Council, advising the prime minister on state affairs without real power.

However, even though he has no real power, he used to be prime minister, so his influence is still there.

Secondly, they continue to stay at the highest power center. Although they seem to have no real power, whoever is closest to the power center has power, so their status is comparable to that of a deputy prime minister.

Anyway, the Song Dynasty has had no deputy prime minister since the establishment of the Political System Council, including the initial alternate Tongzhi who was only promoted to the first level of sixteen ministries, making them one level higher in rank. The missing level in the middle was just filled by the retired prime minister.

In this way, the Political System Council was composed of eight prime ministers and ten counselors including Fan Zhongyan, Yan Shu, Xia Song, Jia Changchao, Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo and others, forming a huge political group with Zhao Jun as the center.

Although there were certainly cliques and disagreements within this political group, for example, Fan Zhongyan and Yan Shu were highly respected and their words carried great weight, so most prime ministers had to seek their advice.

However, since six of the seven prime ministers were promoted by Zhao Jun, and the remaining one, Liang Shi, was also respectful and obedient, his power was unparalleled at the time.

There were rumors in the court.

After all, in the hundreds of years of the Song Dynasty, there has never been a prime minister with such great power.

But Zhao Jun worked very hard. Although he had great power, he never undermined Zhao Zhen. On the contrary, Zhao Zhen's power became unprecedentedly strong.

No matter what national-level occasion it was, it was always Zhao Zhen who attended, which gave Zhao Zhen enough face and power. Compared with Zhao Zhen, the presence of the Constitutional Council was relatively much smaller.

However, Zhao Zhen knew very well that he was not suited to governing the country, so he entrusted this power to the Political System Council. Therefore, even if there were some complaints, it could not change the nature of the Political System Council's governance of the entire Song Dynasty.

It was raining heavily outside the Constitutional Court at this moment. Last month was the New Year holiday, Tiansheng Festival and Lantern Festival. February was the time when Bianliang's economy was developing rapidly, but it rained heavily for four or five consecutive days.

There were several prime ministers in the room who were inspecting the various departments as usual. Zhao Jun sat in the main seat. He was 48 years old this year, but his temples were completely gray. His face and temperament remained elegant, but he looked a little old.

Everyone around sat down and dealt with official documents at their desks.

The Song Empire was growing larger and larger, and its population was growing rapidly. In just 26 years, its population had soared from around 80 million to more than 200 million today.

And the expansion of territory made the affairs of the empire even busier.

If Zhao Jun had not reformed the Political System Institute and established a huge government agency to handle the matter, it would have been impossible to respond in a timely manner to so many tedious matters.

"Last year, another 30,000 households were relocated in Northeast China. This is the list of resettlement expenses and migration costs from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Household Affairs."

"The planning for the railway from Ganzhou to Gaochang has been completed. This is the plan from the Ministry of Railways."

"The cost of the Bianhe River environmental improvement project is higher than expected, and the Ministry of Environment hopes to apply for more funds."

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs"

Just like before, after the prime ministers reviewed the memorials, they would report the matter to Zhao Jun.

It's basically just a process.

Because these things have already been planned and considered in advance, and opinions and notifications have been issued, the rest is left to the departments below to operate.

The department's operating process and the difficulties it encounters will still be handed over to the Constitutional Yuan. If there is a shortage of money, money will be approved; if there is a shortage of people, people will be transferred. It's that simple.

It is this mechanism that has greatly reduced the workload of the Council of Political Affairs. Otherwise, if the previous system of the Council of State was still in place, the prime ministers would have found it difficult to handle all the affairs of such a vast empire even if they worked themselves to death.

"Master, what happened this morning?"

After Yang Cha reported the affairs under his jurisdiction, he did not leave. Instead, he smiled bitterly and said to Zhao Jun: "No one dared to cause trouble at the gate of the Zhiyuan Mansion, but my family suffered."

As soon as he said this, Yang Gao, Chen Xiliang, Su Huan and others also complained bitterly.

"Yes, Dean Zhi, we still need to think of a way to deal with this matter."

"The court has always been fair. Other places have been demolished and the demolition compensation has been given, but the people in Maxing Street and Dongda Street have not been demolished. They must be unhappy."

"It's all about money. The treasury of the imperial court now has more than 1 billion strings of cash a year, but more money means more places to spend it. It's a good thing to demolish fewer streets."

"But we can't let them go on like this. There are so many newspapers out there watching us. We can't just ask Kaifeng Prefecture to send people to lock them up." Everyone was talking.

This matter is really difficult to deal with.

Zhao Jun insisted on preserving the city's culture and business card, but the residents of Maxing Street and Dongda Street would definitely not be happy.

After all, others have made a fortune from demolition. A house that they might have bought for a few strings of coins or at most a dozen strings of coins back then could be sold for seven or eight thousand strings of coins or even tens of thousands of strings of coins in just a few decades.

This amount of money is not considered wealthy in the inner city or even the outer city, but if you move out of the city, you can become a millionaire in an instant.

This is what it means to be wealthy.

After all, the currency of the Song Dynasty has not depreciated much over the years, and even the introduction of paper money has not reduced the purchasing power of Song currency.

The reason is that the commodity economy is very prosperous, and coupled with large-scale exports overseas, there has been no oversupply of domestic commodities, and the buyer's market and the seller's market are very close to balance.

This will cause neither inflation nor deflation, and the purchasing power of Song coins will remain very strong, comparable to the US dollar in the 80s and 90s.

This shows how strong the credibility of the US dollar was in that era.

Therefore, compared to living in a house in the inner city that is priced but not sold, it is better to sell the house and move out of the city.

It is equivalent to selling your house in Beijing worth 20 million yuan in the future, and taking the 20 million yuan to move to the suburbs of Beijing. The interest earned from depositing this money in the bank is enough to live on for a lifetime.

What's more, the current situation in Bianliang is very special. It is in a stage of rapid development and growth, and a large number of relocated households in the city have gone out of the city to purchase shops and properties.

As the number of foreign population continues to increase, these shops and properties will become more valuable, so the residents of Maxing Street and Dongda Street must feel unbalanced when they see others getting rich.

“Well, this issue is indeed up for discussion, but my opinion on preserving the city’s culture and style will not change.”

Zhao Jun pondered for a moment and said to Su Huan, "Ask the Urban Construction Department to count how many shops and residential houses there are on Maxing Street and East Street, and then come up with a plan."

Su Huan asked, "What does the dean mean?"

"The court can buy their houses, but demolishing them is definitely not an option. Otherwise, there will be nowhere to go for urban tourism. Scholars will have to walk in reinforced concrete buildings with umbrellas when they go outings. That would be a real eyesore."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Riding a boat on the lake, walking on the bluestone road under the arch bridge, with willow trees on both sides, shops and restaurants, and signs everywhere, that's what we call artistic conception. I believe these places will definitely become the most distinctive business cards of Bianliang in the future, and tourists will come in an endless stream. It's just that the local residents are short-sighted and only care about the immediate interests and can't see the future. In this case, let the court acquire it."

The scenery of Bianliang before was still very beautiful, which is recorded in "Dongjing Menghualu" and "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".

There are all kinds of things, such as flowing water under small bridges, ancient temples and pagodas, willow-lined embankments, and red-sleeved prostitutes.

Among them, Ma Xing Street and East Street are the most popular.

Ma Xing Street has always been the city center of Bianliang and the most developed commercial area on the street. It is also known as Kaifeng East Market. It has a dense population and a very good economy.

East Street is no less impressive. There is the Xiangguo Temple Market nearby and it is close to the Bian River. It has beautiful scenery and willows on both sides of the river.

Not to mention the ancients, even people in later generations, if they want to go out for a trip to relax, they will definitely want to go to a place with beautiful scenery compared to the bustling city center with skyscrapers.

Ma Xing Street and Dongda Street are not only the city center, but also retain a large number of ancient buildings and ancient charm. Zhao Jun believes that there will be a huge market in the future.

Because the positioning of Beijing’s Second Ring Road is different from that of later generations.

Most of the ancient buildings in the Second Ring Road of Beijing are courtyard houses and alley-type residences, with few shops, making it difficult to develop them commercially, thus becoming a historical legacy issue.

The streets in Bianliang were originally commercial streets with many shops, so it is entirely possible to commercialize the ancient city.

It is obvious that the local residents are too short-sighted. They only want to get the demolition compensation and make a fortune, but they don’t know that if these two places are developed into ancient cities in the future, they will receive a lot of rent just from the shops there.

However, since they were unwilling to keep them, Zhao Jun didn't mind taking them back. After all, it was only a temporary loss, and these places would make huge profits in a few decades.

"Then arrange for a state-owned enterprise to operate it on your behalf."

Zhao Jun said: "Moreover, with the deepening of industrialization, traditional handmade manufacturing is gradually dying out. The things handed down by our ancestors should be preserved. These handmade products can be protected and moved into these two ancient streets to make small but exquisite luxury goods. In this way, the mechanical manufacturing industry will produce general goods for the public and focus on the low-end and mid-end markets. The handmade manufacturing industry will focus on the high-end market and cater to the luxury brands of the rich."

"The dean is still very thoughtful."

Yang Gao boasted.

"hehe."

Zhao Jun smiled.

The luxury goods industry is a highly profitable industry.

After industrialization, manual manufacturing will definitely die out and decline.

It would be better to carry out industrial layout earlier, let the traditional handmade manufacturing industry shine and become the spokesperson for luxury brands, rather than being overtaken by the West in the future.

As they were talking, the newly appointed Director of the Imperial Decree Office came in hurriedly to report: "Director, the Ministry of War has urgent news from the southwest."

"what happened?"

"The matter of Dali has been settled."

"Oh?"

Zhao Jun immediately stood up from his chair.

The attention of everyone around was instantly attracted.

"Another piece of land has been recovered."

Yan Shu walked over, stroked his beard and said.

Historically, he would have died of illness at this time.

However, thanks to advances in medical technology, his life span has been extended and he is still able to contribute to the Constitutional Yuan.

Zhao Jun took the map from the bookshelf in the courtyard and spread it out on his desk.

Everyone gathered around.

I saw that this was a map of East Asia. Within and outside the borders of the Song Dynasty, there was a line that outlined a beautiful leaf. At first glance, it looked like a begonia leaf.

This has always been Zhao Jun’s dream – to unify the leaves of Chinese begonias.

Now most of this line has been filled, including the Northeast and Outer Northeast, Taiwan, Inner Mongolia and parts of Outer Mongolia, as well as the surrounding areas of Xinjiang.

Now that part of Yunnan has been recovered, the only thing missing is part of Myanmar, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and part of Outer Mongolia.

Even if we include the Vietnamese and North Korean parts, the northern part of North Korea and the Ferghan Basin in Central Asia, the area of ​​this begonia leaf will be larger than that during the Qing Dynasty.

"Good good."

Zhao Jun said happily: "My efforts over the years have paid off."

"Yunnan has been recovered, what should the Duan family do with it?"

"This time we are nominally helping Dali's rebellion, but the Duan clan still exists."

"It's simple. Just give them some rewards and let them move to Bianliang like the Qian family did and become wealthy. Anyway, I heard that many of the Duan family's children don't want to go back. They would rather come to the Buddhist temple in Bianliang than stay in Dali."

"Then let's do it."

Zhao Jun glanced across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and found that the Outer Mongolia region was actually easy to deal with.

The Song Dynasty has been working hard to build railways in recent years. Starting from the first railway built in the fifth year of the Qingli period, more than 1 billion strings of cash have been invested to build a total of 70,000 to 80,000 kilometers of railways.

Although it was still half of the 16 kilometers of later generations, it only took more than ten years, and the technology for building railways was already very mature.

It would not be difficult to build a railway from the north to the prairie, and even continue exploring all the way north to Siberia.

The only problem is the plateau environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Otherwise, during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau only belonged to the central government in name, but was actually under a tributary rule. In the Qing Dynasty, control was only further strengthened without complete control. Real control only came in the new era.

Therefore, with the capabilities of ancient times, it was very difficult to truly and completely control the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, send officials there, and implement central government orders.

Zhao Jun still hasn't fully grasped this point.

The main reason is that even my country's development of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was not until after the millennium, when my country's strength and economy grew stronger, that the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was completed in 2006.

The Song Dynasty was far from reaching the heights of my country after the millennium and was still in a period of rapid development. Construction and development were taking place everywhere in the country. It was easy to mobilize troops to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, but it was difficult to complete the construction.

Therefore, taking over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau now is a thankless task.

"Let the Northwest Military Region enter Tibet."

Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "Let's take it down first, and deal with the problem later. We will first destroy the local ruling class, then change the local grassroots ecology and carry out grassroots governance. When the national strength of the country is further improved in the future, we can build a railway to the plateau and complete actual control."

It is better to conquer it and then govern it than to let it fend for itself.

Once the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is conquered, the Song Dynasty will be officially unified, and Outer Mongolia should also be put on the agenda.

(End of this chapter)