Chapter 297 Defeat is due to arrogance and luxury

The reason for Zhao Heju's frustration is very simple, he has been on the throne for eight years, and although he has been conscientious, he is always worried, because of his own policies, suddenly one day a large group of soldiers rushed into the palace to depose him. For this reason, he promoted Cui Hehe, who had no foundation in the court, to become prime minister, transferred the guards to Lin'an, and used secret spies to reconnoiter the whereabouts of important ministers.

Now that he has finally come to this point, he promoted Chen Zicheng to the post of household servant, and no one can oppose it face-to-face, which not only means that the authority is increasing, but also means that these civil and military officials recognize or at least do not oppose his reform policy.

In the past eight years, no, it should be said that these more than 20 years, he has always been diligent, when he was a child, he did not have much family fun and childlike enjoyment, when he was a teenager, he had to endure the silence, when he finally ascended the throne as the son of heaven, he also had to sleep at night. He knows that people are easy to get lost when they are arrogant, so he still does not forget to reflect on himself every morning and evening. He was well aware of the weight of his mission, so he devoted almost all of his time to guiding scientific research, educating young people, and dealing with the government, rather than on the joy of singing, dancing and feasting in bed, and until now the number of people in his harem was still very limited.

"It's not the end goal, it's just the beginning." Zhao and Ju silently admonished themselves.

Before he crossed over, he was an almost Puritan idealist, willing to restrain his desires for his own ideas, which is why he read so many books and went to the most remote and difficult places to teach. Thus, after discovering his crossing, he decided for a short time that he was on a mission to lead the tenacious and resilient people of ancient wisdom out of the tragic fate she was about to face. For this, he could not allow his lower body to direct his brain and had to give up some enjoyment, which he has done so far.

"Gentlemen." After settling down, Zhao Heju took a deep breath slightly, and then showed a smile to the ministers: "All the secretaries are all talents for a while, and I am really happy to have the assistance of the secretaries." ”

"Ge Qing and Xue Qing have successfully retired, and he will naturally have the reputation of being a famous minister in Zhongxing." Zhao Heju said again: "Zhu Qing should be reluctant, and don't let the two of you specialize in beauty." ”

He said very shortly, but to the point, now the Great Song Dynasty is thriving, the national strength is strong, and all the countries are coming to the court, but the ministers do not have a sense of slackness in Wen Tian and Wuxi, and everyone feels that they are participating in an unprecedented history. The sense of mission of "opening peace for all generations" in Confucianism made the Manchu civil and military people excited.

"It's been eight years since I ascended to the pole." Zhao Heju continued: "Although I am not talented, I also have thoughts, and I share them with Zhuqing here. ”

The hall is quiet, only Zhao and Ju's voice is ringing, after eight years as the emperor, Zhao and Ju's voice brings the confidence and majesty of those who have been on the top for a long time, his eyes swept over the ministers, the ministers were concentrated, and no one dared to be perfunctory.

Zhao Heju paused, and then said: "'Tianxingjian, a gentleman is constantly striving for self-improvement', and I think about the way to govern the country, nothing more than this." 'The terrain is good, and the gentleman carries things with virtue', and the way to think about it is nothing more than this. ”

He saw that some of the ministers showed a knowing smile on their faces, and their hearts were also happy, and he said: "I hate the people who follow the rules the most, and the secretaries must be cautious about them, and they must be strong and promising in state affairs, and the people must be generous and benevolent, do not be arrogant and impatient, and work together with me to open peace for all generations." ”

This initial paragraph is just Zhao and Ju's request for officials to govern, and the next is the specific content of the shock, he looked at everyone with a smile, wondering whether they could accept it. But even if he doesn't accept it, it doesn't matter much, because no one dares to rebel against his authority in the court.

"I and all the kings will ...... for four years," Zhao and Ju said.

His four-year contract is actually a reversal of the previous bet with Zhen Dexiu, but this time it is not a bet, but the development goal of the Great Song Dynasty after four years. For example, in terms of fiscal revenue and expenditure, Zhao and Ju made it clear that after four years, the finances of the Great Song Dynasty should increase by 50% compared with the present, both in terms of fiscal revenue and fiscal expenditure.

At the beginning of the sixth year of the Yan and Huang Dynasty, the financial statistics of the Great Song Dynasty were more than 232.18 million guan and the fiscal expenditure was more than 215.64 million guan, and the fiscal growth rate had been above 10 percent for four consecutive years.

The goal of the Ministry of Industry is relatively more difficult, now the Great Song Dynasty has a railway mileage of 1,500 miles, and Zhao Youju set a goal of four years to reach a total railway mileage of 8,000 miles, which is equivalent to a distance of 1,500 miles every year. Investment is not a problem, with the opening of the railway from Jinling to Xuzhou, the huge profits of trade between the two places have made the railway a fat meat in the eyes of all the Song people who have some wealth. In the past two years, although the speed of railway construction has not been fast, it has trained as many as 200,000 experienced construction workers, most of whom are captured soldiers of the Jin Kingdom, and has also trained more than 8,000 managers and more than 3,000 engineers and technicians. Materials are not a problem, the first three phases of the Jinling smelter have been completed, and more than a dozen large open-hearth furnaces are working day and night to provide a steady stream of rails needed for the railway.

The plan of the Ministry of Rites is to improve the literacy rate, and the Ministry of Rites has not yet published the literacy rate data covering the whole country, but there is a detailed data on Liangzhelu and Lin'an Mansion, and the literacy rate of adult men has reached a surprising 27 percent, which is related to the fact that Zhao Youju has spared no effort to open various night schools in recent years, and almost all adult men who work in factories know that if they want to be promoted and raised, literacy is an important plus standard. In addition to the literacy rate, another important element is arithmetic, which is lower than the literacy rate of 20 per cent. Zhao and Ju demanded that after four years, the training rate of the two Zhejiang and Lin'an prefectures should reach 40 percent, and the arithmetic rate should reach 35 percent. In his heart, he is still a little dissatisfied with these two data, this so-called literacy is only based on the recognition of 500 commonly used words as the standard, as long as the arithmetic can be added or subtracted within 100,000 as the standard, it is really a bit low.

After several years of hard work, the current standing strength of the Great Song Dynasty is 1.8 million, and Zhao Heju made it clear that this number should be reduced to 1.2 million -- of these 1.2 million, 200,000 are well-equipped firearms troops, and 1 million are elite soldiers who can use firearms but are also cold weapons. After achieving this goal, the Great Song Dynasty except for the 200,000 people of the Central Military Region who guarded Lin'an, the number of other military regions was about 100,000, and they were stationed in places conducive to the transportation of grain supplies and were responsible for guarding the frontier.

In addition to being responsible for fiscal revenue and expenditure, the household department also has a function, which is to complete the first census of the Great Song Dynasty since Zhao Heju ascended the throne. Judging from the inaccurate data available at present, there were more than 17,834,000 households in the entire Great Song Dynasty, excluding the Jin ruling area and the east of Huaijing, and more than 22,684,000 households including Huaibei, Jingdong, and the population of the territories recovered from the Jin Kingdom, which is more than 144,336,000 people. A considerable part of them are newly born babies after Zhao Youju ascended the throne and vigorously promoted basic medical care and safe childbirth. Zhao and Ju hope to increase the total population to more than 170 million in four years, and more than 200 million in eight years – and more than 400 million in 20 years.

Several things are indispensable to sustain this high population growth: adequate food, a certain level of medical care and knowledge of maternal and child health, and subsidies for population growth. Zhao Youju used all the money saved by the elimination of weak soldiers on the subsidy for population growth, and also supported it from the growing revenue of the state treasury, according to his calculations, the amount of money used for population subsidies was no less than 5 million yuan a year, and this number continues to grow.

Since Zhao Youju reformed the court meeting system, there has never been such a long court meeting, and a series of plans and goals have been read out of his mouth, and the chief officials of the six departments have already known and approved of this plan. The meeting lasted for three and a half hours, and it was not until 12 o'clock at noon that the hundred officials dispersed with a little exhaustion.

When Chen Zicheng was about to leave the palace, he was called by the inner attendant, and he knew that the Son of Heaven wanted to keep him down and give other instructions, so he followed the inner servant into the inner house. When I arrived at Boya Building, I found that in addition to him, the three Zaifu and Hubu Shangshu Fan Zhong were also there. He respectfully saluted the rest of the officials, he was humble, and he was not as sharp as Yelu Chucai and Chen Zhaoxia, but he was very praised by these officials, and felt that he was a good person to deal with.

"Please be here, and I will prepare a family banquet for you." Zhao Youju was also a little tired, and his voice was a little hoarse, but he was still in good spirits. After everyone exchanged a few words, he smiled and said, "The imperial chef is already making preparations, before serving the food, do you have anything to add to the strategy I announced today?" ”

"I want to confirm something." Wei Liaoweng frowned, and hurriedly spoke: "There were many people at the court meeting, and the minister never asked, I originally wanted to ask to see the right person, but it happened that His Majesty left the minister." ”

"Has Your Majesty decided to conquer Meng Yuan?" After a pause, Wei Liaoweng asked again.

In Zhao Heju's plan to the Ministry of Industry, the planned railway will go directly to Yanjing, and now Yanjing is still in the hands of Meng Yuan. In the thousand-mile-long railway construction plan, this is only one of the unnoticed ones, but Wei Liaoweng and the people who have a heart realize that the Son of Heaven is ready to use troops again after more than two years.

"Yes." Zhao and Ju gave Wei Liaoweng an affirmative answer.

To his surprise, Wei Liaoweng sat silently after receiving this answer, although his brows were furrowed, he had no intention of admonishing. Zhao and Ju and Cui glanced at each other, both feeling a little surprised, Cui He shook his head, saying that he had not tried to convince Wei Liaoweng.

"Didn't Wei Qing want to advise me?" Zhao Youju asked curiously.

"Recovering Yanyun is the last wish of Taizu Taizong, how dare the ministers advise?" Wei Liaoweng shook his head and said: "Besides, since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the border provocations have not been broken, most of them stem from the loss of Yanyun, the Liao people go south, the Jin people go south, and the Meng Yuan go south, all have something to do with this." Your Majesty's Northern Expedition is a move that obeys the fate of the heavens, and the merit is beneficial in the present and the future, how can the minister advise? ”

"Naqing confirmed to me that it was for ......," Zhao and Ju said.

"After the minister is confirmed, he will discuss with Fan Shangshu and arrange the transportation of money and grain." Wei Liaoweng said: "The three armies have not moved the grain and grass first, and they must not miss His Majesty's plan because of this." ”

Zhao Youju nodded, watched the waiter start to arrange the dishes, and beckoned the ministers to take the table. Because it was just a table, it was not located in the Yanxi Palace, and on the small table in front of each minister, four dishes and a pot of soup were quickly placed, and Zhao Heju himself was no exception.

The dish is very simple, three vegetarian and one rice, and the soup is corn stewed pork ribs, which is very simple for the Son of Heaven and the minister. Cui He saw this and remembered something, and said with a slight smile: "Your Majesty, there is a young cook in the minister's family, I heard that there are quite a few people in Your Majesty's imperial kitchen complaining, saying that they have not made a few decent dishes since Your Majesty ascended to the pole, and now their skills are declining, Your Majesty is so stingy, it is better to send two to the ministers - anyway, the ministers have a lot of salaries, and they don't plan to save anything for their descendants." ”

Listening to what he said was interesting, everyone was smiling, Cui He liked to ask the Son of Heaven for things, this matter was known all over the court, and some officials even attacked him with this, but he was maintained by Zhao and Ju. But begging for the imperial chef like this is still a bit ridiculous, Zhao Heju put down his chopsticks and said with a smile: "Okay, I will send two imperial chefs to Qing, both of whom are good at making nourishing medicinal food." ”

Cui He originally tactfully advised Zhao and Ju to spend money when they wanted, and not to be too frugal, so as not to lose the royal dignity, but Zhao Heju really gave him two imperial chefs, and he did not refuse, and thanked him with a smile.

"Is there enough food in the official warehouses everywhere, Fan Qing, you were in charge of food when you were an official in the household department, you know the most in your heart."

After eating, Zhao and Ju asked Fan Zhong.

Fan Zhong understood that Zhao Youju was not asking if there was enough food to eat on this peaceful day, but asking if there was enough food to eat if he fought with Meng Yuan. He pondered slightly in his heart for a while, and then said: "Xuzhou has had a bumper grain harvest for two consecutive years, and in order to facilitate the relief of the Central Plains, the minister has transferred the grain to Xuzhou for storage three years ago, so only Xuzhou has stored grain, which is enough to meet the needs of 500,000 troops for three years. ”

Speaking of this, Fan Zhong was also faintly proud, he was originally an errand in the Criminal Department, and because of his older age after being transferred to the Household Department, many people thought that he could not learn the new arithmetic and accounting methods of the Household Department, but it took him three months to master all this, and he was quite proud of persuading agriculture and grain storage and transportation.

"What if you add to appease the people and the displaced people?" Zhao Youju asked again.

Including Cui You, everyone was stunned again, because Zhao Youju revealed another piece of news in this sentence.

Note 1: The data of 17,834,000 households is calculated based on 14,100,000 households in the 16th year of Jiading, and this data comes from the article "The Development Process of the Population of the Southern Song Dynasty" on the Internet. In the second year of Zhangzong Taihe (1207), the Jin Kingdom had 8,413,000 households ("Jin History and Geographical Chronicles"), but the war at the end of the Jin Dynasty caused the population to drop sharply, and in the eighth year of Taizong of the Mengyuan Dynasty (1236), there were only more than 1.1 million households left, and the number of Menghu massacres was not less than 30 million. In this book, the Song and Menghu jointly destroyed the Jin, the scope of the Menghu ravages was controlled, and the post-war relief and reconstruction were carried out in a timely manner, so that the population was reduced by 3 million households—Rao, which shows the cruelty of the war. When calculating the total population, it was not possible to find out the specific population of each household, so the ratio of population to the number of households in the second year of Jin Guozhang Zongtaihe was used, which was about 6.3629 per household. In addition, in ancient data, the word "mouth" often referred to the number of men, which is different from the current population, and if any reader sees that the data says 24 million men in 11 million households, it may mean that there are 24 million men in those 11 million households.