While the three of them were talking, the prime ministers outside Fan Zhongyan, Song Shou, Cai Qi, Jiang Tang, Zhang Shixun, Jia Changchao and other prime ministers also came in.

Recently, the weather was cold, and Wang Zeng and Lu Yijian were both sick and recuperating at home.

Sheng Du fell ill and died again.

The Constitutional Yuan suddenly lost three people, but it was much more deserted.

The door opened, and a cold breeze blew in from outside.

When Lao Fan came in, he saw Zhao Jun and was stunned for a moment and said, "Hanlong, didn't you go back to rest after the morning and then?" ”

The early dynasty starts at four o'clock, but now the early dynasty mainly reports to various departments, and does not quarrel in the vegetable market as often as before, so the efficiency is much faster, and it usually ends at five or six o'clock.

Everyone in the Constitutional Yuan came to work at the end of the morning, that is, at nine o'clock in the morning, and the prime ministers were given about three or four hours of rest in between.

Usually at this time, everyone goes back to squint a little, even Zhao Jun was no exception before, but I didn't expect it to be so early today.

"After the year, I will be a little slack in my work, and I will not go back to rest in the future."

Zhao Jun unconsciously touched his right sideburn, since Jing Yu traveled the world for four years, he has grown gray hair, and he has been working harder and harder, and the occurrence of white has decreased in the past two years, but this year it has grown a lot.

Even sometimes when he was lying in Cao Miaoxin's arms, his wife would sigh and help him pull out the white hair from his hair one by one, persuading him to rest more on weekdays and stay up less late.

After all, he is actually thirty-one years old this year.

"It's better to take a break."

Fan Zhongyan said.

"Forget it, now that Lao Lu and Lao Wang are resting at home, there are so many major national affairs to deal with, and they can't be slack."

Zhao Jun got up from his position and said, "Let's have a meeting when we are all here." ”

Daily regular meetings.

Everyone tightened their clothes, closed the door of the Constitutional Academy, and then followed Zhao Jun to the conference room at the back.

The attendants in the meeting room had made tea for each prime minister, and went out to close the door, and the room was silent.

Unlike the smoky meetings of later generations, there was no tobacco at this time, and everyone grabbed the teacup in their hands and took a sip to warm their bodies.

"Let's report on the situation in the country as a regular practice."

Zhao Jun spoke first.

He turned his head to look at Fan Zhongyan.

Except for Zhao Jun himself, who can manage any department, the other prime ministers basically have departments that they focus on, and take this as the direction of their responsibility.

For example, when the Ministry of Finance was Cheng Lin, the Ministry of War was Zhang Dexiang, and the Imperial History was Fan Shi, Lu Yijian was in charge of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of War and the Imperial Historical Observatory.

As compensation, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Rites were under the control of Wang Zeng at that time, which was regarded as a division with Lu Yijian.

Now the Ministry of Finance has become Xia Zhu, and the Ministry of War and the Imperial History have long been replaced, so the departments in charge of each prime minister have also changed.

For example, Fan Zhongyan is now in charge of the Ministry of Military Affairs and is in charge of the overall situation of military reform.

When Lao Fan saw him looking at him, he said, "Fu Bi also briefly said it at the court meeting this morning, so I will talk about it in detail here." ”

"Now that the reform of the army has been basically completed, the whole army has eliminated more than 200,000 old and weak, and recruited more than 30,000 people, bringing the scale of the forbidden army to 423,000."

"The forbidden army camp has grown from the original 2,369 battalions to 1,143 battalions, of which there are 306 battalions on the 5th Shaanxi Road, 423 battalions on the Hebei Road, and Bianliang."

In addition, there are more than 400,000 soldiers in the original Xiang Army, and the actual number of registered soldiers is about 300,000. About 110,000 were reduced, and another 20,000 were recruited, including landless and displaced people, young and strong beggars, and petty crime criminals, all of whom were temporarily included in the Xiang army, totaling 218,000 people. ”

"With the addition of the Xiang Army, the original number of 1,259,000 people in the Great Song Dynasty is now only 641,000, and the actual reduction is about 330,000, and the empty salary is about 350,000, and now all of them have been investigated."

"According to the reports of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Statistics, in the first half of last year, our military expenditure was still 29.75 million yuan, including the military expenditure on the manufacture of artillery, muskets, and grenades. But by the second half of the year, our expenses had shrunk to 14.19 million. ”

"This is still Hanlong's contribution to the Xiang army to the level of the inferior forbidden army, and it is foreseeable that from next year, the military expenditure of the Great Song Dynasty will drop from the original 50 or 60 million yuan per year to a maximum of 30 million yuan per year."

In the end, Fan Zhongyan said with a smile on his face: "This has been greatly improved for the redundant army. ”

At the beginning of the Great Song Dynasty, the number of soldiers was 1,290,000, and according to the envoys sent by the Ministry of War, the total number was finally reported, and the actual number was only about 900,000.

Among them, there were about 300,000 Xiang troops and about 600,000 forbidden troops. And at least a third of them are old, weak, sick and disabled.

This means that the number of people who have been paid empty salaries has reached 3560,000, and nearly 400,000 people have only names on their military registers, and in fact there are no such people. Flee, die, or disappear without a trace.

And these 3560,000 people, the Great Song Dynasty has to spend about 700-9 million yuan for them every year, and in the end, all of them fall into the pockets of army generals or generals.

In addition, it is the daily wear and tear of the army, including weapons and equipment, food and equipment, war horse materials, etc., and the imperial court also has to pay more than 10 million yuan every year.

Even if only one-third or even half of them are embezzled, resold and destroyed, millions of dollars will be lost every year.

In addition to the 330,000 people who have been laid off, and about 7 million to 9 million guan will have to be paid, then the obvious contrast between the military before and after the restructuring is that it can save about 20 million guan in treasury expenditure in a year.

It can also be seen from here that in order to change the situation of redundant troops, Zhao Jun moved the cake of many people and the interests of many people, and it is no wonder that those people even dared to rebel.

That is, his position is now stable, and Lao Fan won battles in the northwest and Hebei, and overthrew Western Xia and Liao, otherwise. If he crosses over, he will immediately reform the three redundancies, I am afraid that the grass on the grave is three feet high.

"Okay."

Zhao Jun took the lead in applauding and said with a smile: "From May last year to January this year, the major restructuring of the national army has finally been completed, and the effect is gratifying." ”

Everyone also applauded, and Li Di also smiled: "It's this time, Dali Temple and the trial court are busy." ”

Criminals, unqualified generals, and old and weak soldiers who were found in the previous corruption cases in various armies have now been completely eliminated, and the old and weak and disabled soldiers have either been turned into leftovers or into construction corps, or they have been given settling-in allowances and returned land for farming.

The rest of the criminals were handed over to the Dali Temple and the Trial and Criminal Court, and the Military Department presided over the three sessions of the trial, so now the Dali Temple and the Trial and Criminal Court are really busy.

This year alone, I don't know how many military cases have been tried, and cases have to be judged every day, and countless people have been killed, exiled, and imprisoned.

"It's a good thing to be busy, after being busy for a while, there will be fewer corrupt officials and corrupt officials in the world and silverfish in the army, so that the combat effectiveness of our army can be guaranteed and the country can be stable."

Zhao Jun smiled, and then said to Fan Zhongyan: "The military department must also take over the responsibility immediately, and in the future, the military will mainly focus on the military court internally, and the Dali Temple and the Criminal Court will be in charge of civil and criminal matters." In this way, rewards and punishments come from the military department, and it also allows the army to be independent of the outside world. ”

"Well, the military tribunal is already under construction, and in the future, some of the officials in charge of criminal affairs will be selected to form a military tribunal."

Fan Zhongyan said: "At present, it is planned to open in Hebei, Shaanxi, and Kaifeng first, so that there is no need to send the soldiers and generals who committed the crime back to Kaifeng, and wait until the military region is redivided in the future to do new department construction." ”

"Hmm."

Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction: "Very good." ”

As he spoke, he looked at Cai Qi again.

Wang Zeng is still in charge of the ministry, but he has been ill recently, and now Cai Qi is in charge.

Cai Qi said: "This year, the number of officials in the country has increased again, all because of the admission of more than 300 officials in the official examination, plus the imperial examination Jinshi and Menyin, the number of officials produced every year is about 1,000, which is much more than before, but the number of official posts has increased, but there will be no problem of idle officials." ”

"It seems that the problem of redundant officials has been solved."

Zhao Jun spread his hands.

You just can't solve it.

Although the number of officials is still so much.

There is even an increase.

But they used to have at least 10,000 people who were idle, and they didn't work every day.

Now they always have work to do, and they are all functional departments with clear tasks, all of which are working for Da Song.

It's so much stronger than before.

Cai Qi cried and laughed: "But the expenditure of officials has not been reduced, although it is similar to before, but this is contrary to the problem of redundant officials that we originally wanted to solve." ”

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were more than 500 officials in the shadow of the door every year, and with the addition of more than 100 Jinshi officials, the number of people basically remained at about 600 per year.

Now that the official examination has been added, local officials can also take the official examination, and the number of officials will be even higher.

And the salary level has not changed much, Zhao Jun has cut all the messy benefits, allowances, job fields and other income, but they have all been added to the performance, resulting in how much should be given or how much money should be given.

The reason why the expenditure is still about the same as before, maintaining more than 10 million yuan per year, is because Zhao Jun cut the money of the higher-level officials.

There must be three or four hundred people in the central and local courts, from high-ranking officials above the fourth rank to state-level officials.

The boss of the four local divisions plus the imperial history department, more than 50 departments of the central government, more than 10 ministers and prime ministers of the Privy Council and the Constitutional Yuan, and the rest of the scholars of the Longtu Pavilion, Tianzhang Pavilion, Baowen Pavilion, and Hanlin Academy.

The salaries of these people used to go up to 10,000 or 20,000 yuan a year, and their annual expenditure alone could reach millions of yuan, which belonged to the top income of officialdom.

Zhao Jun directly cut them in half, and lowered the income of middle-level officials from the fifth rank to the sixth rank a little, which was used to subsidize the low-level officials below the seventh grade, so that the expenditure did not exceed the original level.

But in the eyes of everyone, this still seems to go against the essence of solving redundant officials.

But Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "Wrong, the problem of redundant officials is not that there are many officials, but that there are many officials, and there are many who only receive salaries every year and do not do things, and there are few who really do practical things." Now more than 40,000 officials are working, so this is not redundant officials, but building a better future for the Great Song Dynasty! ”

"Okay."

Cai Qi had no choice but to say: "In terms of redundancy, all parts of the country have streamlined expenditures, and the local finance bureaus have recorded every expenditure and reconciled accounts with the Imperial History Department and the Imperial City Division to reduce unnecessary expenditures." In addition, a large number of royal sacrifices, celebrations and other activities have been canceled, and more than 2.4 million yuan have been saved this year. ”

"Where are the main expenses?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"On royal spending."

Cai Qi said awkwardly.

The main financial expenditure of the Northern Song Dynasty was the expenditure of the royal family.

Few people dare to mention this.

Zhao Jun was so bold that he even canceled the queen's birthday celebration and directly changed to a light meal in the back garden.

"Well, this is the official family's love for the people and diligent government."

Zhao Jun arched his hand in the direction of the Chongzheng Hall to the north, making Zhao Zhen, who was playing with the computer there, sneeze.

"The official family can be sympathetic to all the people in the world, which is the blessing of the Great Song Dynasty."

Zhao Jun continued: "We should also learn from the government, reduce extravagance, and reduce the government's fiscal expenditure as much as possible except for necessary expenditures. ”

"Okay."

Everyone responded, although they didn't know how many sincerity there were, but they still had to do what they should do.

Then Zhao Jun looked at Jiang Tang again and said, "How is the people's livelihood?" ”

There are more than 50 departments under the Constitutional Yuan, but there are three levels in the hierarchy.

The first-level institutions in the first tranche include the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Police, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Taxation, the Imperial Historical Observatory, and the six traditional ministries of rites, officials, soldiers, criminals, households, and workers.

After the abolition of the Constitutional Yuan alternate observer and the title of intellectual, the ministers of these thirteen departments were all crowned with the title of alternate observer of the Constitutional Yuan, and the rank is still the second grade.

Then there are the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Dali Temple (Court), the Criminal Court (Procuratorate), the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Communications, the Jinjuyuan (Propaganda Department), the Ministry of Statistics, the Ministry of Jiaozi, the Ministry of Geology, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the United National Information Office, the Protocol House, the Tongwen Museum, the Duting Xiyi, the Huaiyuan Station) and other ordinary departments.

These departments are ministers and are the third grade, and their weight is slightly lighter than the above-mentioned first-tier departments, but these departments are more concerned about people's livelihood.

For example, Jiang Tang is currently in charge of several major departments such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Taxation, and the Ministry of Agriculture, which are related to the lives of the people.

Seeing Zhao Jun ask him, Jiang Tang said: "Since August of the previous year, after the Ministry of Agriculture came to my Great Song Dynasty in August of the previous year, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts and other crops were planted on the Huangzhuang farmland outside the city. ”

"One to three stones is about 200 catties, although it is not like Hanlong said that it can reach a yield of 1,000 catties or even thousands of catties per mu, but this is autumn and winter farming. Since the beginning of last year, we have carried out spring farming, and after half a year, the yield per mu has reached four to five stones, and the largest yield is more than 700 catties per mu. ”

"So since the second half of last year, the Constitutional Yuan has included the promotion of sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes, peanuts and other crops into the examination method, and after more than half a year of efforts, the first batch of sweet potatoes, corn and other crops across the country have basically been harvested."

"From the point of view of yield, these things are a little higher than the rice and wheat we usually eat, our rice and wheat yield is basically between two and four stones, but the advantages are obvious, their survivability is extremely strong, as long as they are watered, they can live, if you fertilize, the yield will be much higher, which greatly improves our productivity."

"The Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Civil Affairs began to conduct research and summaries in counties and prefectures across the country in the second half of last year. Now sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and peanuts have begun to be bought and sold on the market, and the price is much lower than that of grain, but ordinary people don't eat much, and many of them are for pigs. ”

In the end, Jiang Tang was also a little crying and laughing.

The emergence of Champa rice can actually fully meet the population needs of the current Great Song Dynasty, and the birth of sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and other things can make the Qing Dynasty burst out of 400 million people, which shows that if these things are promoted now, the grain output will completely exceed people's needs.

If it weren't for the fact that the imperial court spent money every year to buy grain and put it in the Changping warehouse as a disaster relief reserve grain, and also exported it to Western Xia, Liao, Goryeo, and Japan, I am afraid that the current grain prices would have been too low to be seen.

Therefore, the emergence of new crops cannot change anything, unless the policy is adjusted to encourage more fertility and more fertility, so that the population can grow explosively, in order to alleviate the problem of increased grain production.

"But I heard that there are still many poor people who eat these things, although these things are originally eaten as food, but it is difficult for most people to change their living habits in a period of time, and if there is rice and noodles, no one will choose to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes."

Fan Zhongyan objected: "This seems to indicate something fundamental. ”

"yes."

Jiang Tang sighed: "In recent years, although the imperial court has lightly forced labor and reduced taxes, there are still many poor people, especially in those mountainous areas, even if the grain production is enough to support several times that of the Great Song Dynasty Dingkou, there are still quite a lot of people struggling on the edge of life and death. ”

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "This is a problem of uneven distribution of social wealth, starting from this year, the imperial court will continue to implement new policies, and various policies must be changed often in the future, and they cannot stick to the rules." ”

"What do you think?"

Yan Shu asked.

"It is necessary to improve the problem of the poor in a precise way."

Zhao Jun pointed out: "In many mountainous areas, transportation is inconvenient, information is not developed, and the clan power is strong, old-fashioned and old-fashioned, even if there are good policies, it is difficult to convey them, and it is necessary to increase propaganda work at the grassroots level." ”

Nowadays, food is completely enough for people to eat, and many people in plain areas, such as the North China Plain in Henan and Hebei, have easy access to channels and information, even if their families are in difficulty.

They can go to Henan Mansion, Kaifeng Mansion, Daimyo Mansion, Yingtianfu and other places to work, and the remuneration they receive is more than enough to support the family.

Moreover, with the development of the economy, the handicraft manufacturing industry became more and more prosperous, all kinds of workshops sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and the problem of labor shortage was gradually exposed, and merchants began to compete with the landlords, resulting in the landlord class being forced to reduce the rent to save the tenant population.

In a way, this is certainly a virtuous circle, whether it is the landlord lowering the rent or the boss raising the salary, it is good news for farmers and migrant workers.

However, this is limited to Hebei, Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and other economically and agriculturally developed areas, such as Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guizhou and other remote mountainous areas The situation is not so good.

Perhaps the only change is that after the popularization of crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes, and peanuts, they were originally struggling on the brink of life and death, but now even if they are charged high land rent in the mountains, they can at least stutter, and there will be much fewer starvations.

Zhao Jun also emphasized: "The best way to truly improve people's livelihood is the construction of infrastructure, and the imperial court can only urge local governments to work hard to improve people's livelihood and pull the poor people from the line of life and death to the line of poverty, and we still have a long way to go to achieve prosperity." ”

Fan Zhongyan asked, "Hanlong, what do you think we should do next?" ”

"Make a plan."

Zhao Jun said: "Everyone knows that at the end of last year, in order to appease the returning generals, the imperial court has formed a new voyage fleet to set off, and it is expected that they should return next year, and this time my goal for them is to bring back rubber trees and cinchona trees." ”

"At present, the problem faced by the steam engine is that the tightness has not been solved, so there is no way to mass production, but the overall structure and power have fully achieved the effect I want, and it can be put into production almost after completion."

"If the steam engine is put into use, the cement plant will be able to achieve automatic mixing, and the train can also be built, and then it will be the period when the Great Song Dynasty will carry out infrastructure construction nationwide."

"It is expected that in five years, we will be able to start large-scale infrastructure construction, and the population needed will be very large, so I think that from this year onwards, we must plan in advance, finish the battle that should be fought, and do a good job in the reform, so that the Great Song Dynasty can enter a period of rapid development."

Zhao Zhen has found a complete description of Watt's improved steam engine from history, including the fact that the Academy of Sciences has built several prototypes, and the combustion efficiency, steam pressure, exhaust system, piston bridge, etc. have been perfected.

However, it has not been mass-produced so far, not because of the technical problem, but because there is simply no rubber as a material.

Many people think that the steam engine can be used without rubber, and it does not necessarily need rubber, which is actually a misunderstanding caused by the lack of understanding of the structure of the steam engine and its development history.

In fact, before there was no rubber, the steam engine was of very limited use and could only be used to draw water.

Because there is no rubber pad, the previous lead ring is not tightly sealed, resulting in a large amount of steam leakage, low power efficiency, and easy to cause steam explosion.

The most important part of Watt's improvement of the steam engine is to change the original sealing ring from a lead ring to a rubber pad, which greatly improves the work efficiency and safety, so that the steam engine can appear on trains and automobiles.

If Zhao Jun mass-produced the steam engine without rubber now, then the only consequence would be all kinds of explosions in the steam engine factory, and the explosion of the railway station "bang bang bang" endlessly.

Therefore, although the principle of the steam engine is simple, and even Zhao Zhen simply found a way to make the steam engine, there is no way to complete the mass production of the steam engine without rubber.

In the end, it is not possible to develop the steam industry step by step, and then progress to the era of oil and gas industry and electrical industry.

After all, the industrial system must be in order.

It's a holistic thing, and you can't just pat your head and say, since the steam era is so bad, I just skip the development to the oil and gas era.

That's impossible.

Many times, it is easy to go from one to ten, but it is difficult to go from zero to one.

For example, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, skipping the steam era and directly entering the oil and gas and electrical era, that is because there are ready-made oil and gas and electrical industries all over the world.

But when the whole world is a feudal agricultural society, if you want to enter the era of oil and gas and electricity, where do you get the industrial base? Where did the material come from? Where does the technology and system come from?

Extracting a compound from petroleum rubber alone requires basic chemical industry capabilities as well as countless experiments, principle explorations, and so on.

Therefore, Zhao Jun can only develop the steam industry first, with the steam industry as the foundation, the road will be much smoother in the future, and he may be able to see mankind enter the second industrial revolution in his lifetime.

"What, is the New Deal going to start again this year?"

Fan Zhongyan was eager to try.

"Well, it's time to plan it out."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "The most difficult road is the third Qingli New Deal, but we finally survived, even if it is a palace assassination, we have withstood the pressure, and it will get better and better in the future." ”

"What are you going to do?"

"Let's start the fourth New Deal plan."

"What's the exact?"

"I'll do it in the next two days, and we'll discuss it again."

"Hmm."

Fan Zhongyan responded, very excited.

Since the restructuring of Zhao Junjingyu, their new policy has been implemented.

First of all, the first year of Qingli was examined to complete the law, and the officialdom and the rule of officials were rectified.

Then, in the second year of Qingli, the burden of the whole country was greatly reduced, and the burden was reduced lightly, taxes were reduced, business was encouraged, and people's livelihood was stabilized.

Then in May of the fourth year of the Qingli calendar, the national army was restructured, and then it was to remove redundant expenses, disarm the team, engage in development, and emphasize science.

The whole country has almost taken on a new look from top to bottom, from officialdom to the army, from the people to the imperial court.

The only reform that has not yet been completed is to solve the problem of land annexation.

This thing is also a big thunder, once it is not handled well, large-scale protests and even rebellions by landlords across the country are possible.

Therefore, Zhao Jun, like dealing with redundant troops, did not do it immediately.

Right now.

It's almost time.

(End of chapter)