The struggle of the reborn prince

In the new year, Zhao Tang changed his habit of going on tour in the past few years, and stayed honestly in Bianjing, and lived a hectic life of going to the court every day to listen to the government, and paying his respects to the Supreme Emperor and his wife sooner or later.In March, the emperor summoned the commander of the navy and the four commanders of the navy, and ordered them to conduct long-distance voyage training and draw charts.And they were given a strange task, which was to put up monuments of the sovereignty of the Song Dynasty on the islands that the warships encountered no one or no country occupied, and marked them on the sea chart to declare their sovereignty.

Everyone felt very surprised. There are countless islands in the vast sea, but they are rarely inhabited, not suitable for human habitation, and can't send troops to guard them. I don't know what the emperor wants these deserted islands for?But Zhao Tuo understands that due to the limitation of technology and navigation technology, all countries don't know the rich resources and military value in the sea, but hundreds of years ago, when the world knew about it, they often fought over every reef, fighting to the death.

And Zhao Tun knows this truth from the future, according to the accepted norms in the future world, whoever discovers and names the island first will be the one.I act first now, taking advantage of the current lack of awareness of sea power in various countries, to take all the surrounding and farther islands of the Song Dynasty into my arms, and leave iron evidence, the "descendants" of the province are still fighting over these things , tossed and tossed about a few small islands for decades but still can't stand, can't win the lawsuit, and has to be pickled by the birds. In the future, I will be considered to have done a serious job, and I have never worn a red scarf for nothing in my previous life. ...In April, Ma Kuo sent news from Dali that Dali's affairs were peaceful, and the motion of returning to the Song Dynasty was unanimously passed at the "All Dali Tribal Conference". His subordinates have been expelled, and the culprit has been punished, Master Jin He's vengeance has been avenged.However, Zhao Tun had disagreements and disputes with several ministers when he ruled over Dali's implementation of policies.

According to the past practice of the Song Dynasty, the detention policy was often implemented for minority areas.Its essence is that "native officials govern native people" recognize the hereditary chief status of various ethnic groups, give them official positions and titles, and the government implements indirect rule.In fact, the imperial edict of the central government has not been truly implemented.On the other hand, Zhao Tun insisted on one step, and the government sent officials to directly implement the rule.Collect taxes, build cities, and set up schools in the same way as the inland states and counties; at the same time, abolish the original chieftain's tax and service system, and, like the inland areas, levy taxes on the basis of acres of land.

The two views were at odds for a while. After the founding of the Song Dynasty, the Jiji policy was implemented in the same way for the ethnic settlements in the Northwest and Southwest, and it did achieve good results under the historical conditions at that time.Increase the territory of the Song Dynasty and stabilize the border defense.In the early days of Zhao Tun's ruling in the Northwest, he also handled the newly harvested land in the same way.But it is not without disadvantages. Some native officials wantonly killed the people because of their hereditary reasons. They massacred the Han people and occupied their land in order to trouble the border.Some tribes fought, fought, or even surrendered to enemy countries because of competition for land or inheritance rights, and in turn became enemies of Song Dynasty.In fact, the rulers of the Song Dynasty were not all fools, and they were also aware of the disadvantages.After that, they also wanted to bring the land of custody under the government's management, but it often aroused strong opposition and even betrayal.In the end, only Linzhou in the northwest was successfully nationalized.On the contrary, when Zhao Tun was in charge of the Northwest, the tribes in Fuzhou and the river states gave up their "hereditary" and sincerely returned to the Song Dynasty.Because of the lessons learned, everyone was worried that Dali's deprivation of power as soon as it was attached would cause rebellion, and even arouse unrest among the tribes of the Qizhou Road and Guangxi South and North Routes, which would lead to turmoil.

Zhao Tong knew that the Ming and Qing dynasties of later generations also encountered similar situations, but they succeeded in reforming the land and returning to the bloc.Bringing the place of imprisonment under the management of the government, of course, there are some twists and turns.But in the end the reform was successful.Now the Song Dynasty is powerful and stable internally.Some small turmoil can be completely suppressed, but now that the Dali Kingdom has disintegrated and the biggest opposition force has been eliminated, it is a good time to implement reforms, and we cannot give up easily.In addition, the abolition of the hereditary system of custody can reduce the factors of rebellion, strengthen the government's rule over the frontier, and benefit the social and economic development of ethnic minority areas, so it should be promoted.

After several debates, everyone realized that time waits for no one, and Dali is still waiting for the opinions of the central government, so the two sides compromised with each other, and each made a concession. First, it will be tried in Dali, and the rest will be gradually implemented.So Zhao Tun issued a decree and Shang Shuxing issued a policy for Dali:

Retaining Duan and Yuwangjue, kings of Dali, and allowing one of his sons to inherit the nobility, but not opening a mansion and retaining the army, this is actually equivalent to leaving an honorary title.When the hereditary system of guarding officials was abolished, the patriarchs themselves were treated differently according to their attitudes.For those who hand in the seal automatically, rewards will be added as appropriate, either to the world position, or to the current military position.Those who resisted were punished, their property was confiscated, and they were relocated to the interior provinces, where they were given living arrangements in farms.While setting up prefectures and counties and dispatching officials, military institutions were added.In the area where the land was reformed, the household registration was checked, the land was measured, taxes were collected, cities were built, and schools were set up; at the same time, the original chieftain tax system was abolished, and taxes were levied per mu of land, just like in the interior, but they could enjoy certain preferential treatment.

In order to solve the long-standing disadvantages of chieftain separatism in other areas, two methods were adopted: one is to change the government from top to bottom, and then change the state.The second is to seize all favorable opportunities. If some native officials have no heirs and no successors, or clans fight for attack, they will send tribal officials to take over; After an official committed a crime, or was suppressed against the dynasty, he was dismissed for his crime and replaced by a low-ranking official.If some aboriginal people applied to the government to change the land to return to the natives, they would follow the wishes of the people and abolish the hereditary leaders and change them to exiled officials.In short, once you have the opportunity, immediately change the flow...

In May, another good news came. The new type of gunpowder developed by 'Gen Yuan' was successfully trial-produced and many problems in mass production were solved.

Zhao Tong went to watch the test explosion in person, and after rewarding the meritorious service, he ordered the workshop to send people to learn to take over the production immediately.When Zhao Tun came up with the formula of black powder, he knew that it was not powerful enough for military use, but he could not manufacture it due to his limited knowledge of other types of explosives. At least he knew about the nitric acid used to produce nitro powder. How to get it out in the laboratory can not be used for mass production.

However, Zhao Tong knew that in the eighth century, western alchemists could produce nitric acid, and they invited these 'talents' to Song Dynasty during the expedition to Arabia.At the same time, based on what I know, as long as ammonium nitrate is produced and then diesel and wood chips are added to produce 'earth gunpowder', the power must be much worse than modern production, but it is much more powerful than black gunpowder.But this can also be called epoch-making progress.

It is a pity that the quality of steel is not yet able to withstand the power of the new gunpowder, that is to say, it cannot be used as a propellant, otherwise it will cause the guns to explode and cause the tragedy of gun destruction.However, the new type of gunpowder is much more powerful than black gunpowder under the same weight. It can be used to load explosive shells, or made into explosive packs to increase the lethality and destructive power of shells, and become a new weapon for attacking cities and villages.

While Zhao Tun was happy to get another sharp weapon, he was still a little worried about keeping it secret.Now all countries know that the reason why the Song army was invincible and invincible is because of the emperor's head and the sharpness of firearms, one of which can destroy the Song Dynasty.Therefore, since the birth of firearms, confidentiality has become the top priority, and Zhao Tuo has also made various arrangements to prevent leakage of secrets.But back then, he had less than a thousand soldiers and no more than ten thousand guns, so keeping a close eye on him would ensure that the secrets would not be leaked.

But with the growth of the team, the increase of weapons and the more and more battles were fought, the number of people familiar with weapons also increased hundreds of times.Although Zhao Tong has repeatedly emphasized the management of firearms, and used strict military laws to restrain them, and pay attention to restraining lost weapons and equipment after the war.But there are all kinds of birds in the forest, and some people still take risks and steal guns for huge profits.In addition, foreign spies tried their best to collect firearms from battlefields and workshops, and bought craftsmen, hoping to crack the secrets. Those methods are really hard to guard against, hard to block...

"Your Majesty, my subordinates have sent people to keep an eye on those who research and come into contact with new types of gunpowder. Anyone who has had contact with them will be recorded!" Li Jun reported to the emperor. Since those Arabs entered Genyuan, the emperor These people were handed over to him, not only to be responsible for safety, but also to prevent them from communicating with outsiders and leaking secrets, although the chance of this is very small.

"Well, it's okay for others to say that the two alchemists who study 'water' have to be careful. As long as the secret of making water is not revealed, even if they get something, they can't make gunpowder." Zhao Tan nodded and said, Of course, the fewer people who know about this kind of secret related to national security, the better, and only these two people and themselves have a complete grasp of the materials and methods needed to make water. In fact, killing people to silence is the best way, but Zhao Tama felt that these two people were still useful, so he just kept a close watch on them.

"Yes, Your Majesty's idea is very clever. You process all the materials you need in different places. Some of them are real and some are fake, and they are ground into powder. The color and weight are similar, and it is impossible for non-professionals to distinguish them. And the manufacturing The steps are also personally responsible, they want to get the truth, unless they can turn all the people in the workshop, otherwise they will not be able to get what they need!" Li Jun said with a smile. The method is extremely admired.

"Last time you reported the disappearance of the two gun makers in the workshop. Have you found out where they are now?" Zhao Tong asked suddenly.

"Your Majesty, your subordinates have already found out that those two guys are now in the upper capital of the Kingdom of Jin. They were bought by the Jurchens with a lot of money to abscond with the samples of gun parts they collected, and they crossed the border with the spies from the Kingdom of Jin!" Li Jun report...