In the fifth year of Qingli, January 20, 1045 AD, this is a special day for the Great Song Dynasty.

This is because this is the time of the year when the various departments report the total.

Whether it is the internal calculations of each department and the big data of the Ministry of Statistics, it must be handed over to the Constitutional Yuan.

Among them, the Ministry of Finance reported that last year's tax revenue increased by 7% compared with the previous year, mainly because Liao increased the volume of trade, and the Great Song Dynasty severely cracked down on tax evasion and tax evasion in maritime trade.

In addition, the new industrial and commercial tax has been steadily increasing every year, and although it is not as scraped as the original commercial tax, the new commercial tax has greatly improved commercial activity and increased commercial trade, and the degree of commercial prosperity is now at least 30% higher than before.

In addition to finance, the growth of big data in the Ministry of Statistics is particularly significant.

Population, agricultural development, economic development, education, military and even cultural development have all increased to varying degrees, especially the area of cultivated land in agriculture.

According to the calculations of the National Department of Statistics, in the past year, more than 9.8 million mu of cultivated land was added, which was double the data from the ninth year of Song Taizong's opening of treasure to the fifth year of Song Zhenzong's Tianxi.

In the nine years of Zhao Guangyi's Kaibao, the national statistical cultivated land area was 295 million mu. In the five years of Zhao Hengtianxi, the cultivated land area reached 525 million mu.

In other words, in the past 45 years, the annual growth of cultivated land has been 5.11 million mu.

However, it was the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, and after the war was pacified, a large amount of abandoned cultivated land was reclaimed, which was able to cause large-scale growth.

By the time of Zhao Zhen, the cultivated land area of the whole country had basically stabilized, and the rest of the cultivated land was at most a problem of hidden households.

For example, in the fifth year of Tianxi, it was 525 million mu, and by the third year of Song Yingzong's reign 42 years later, the cultivated land area had dropped to 440 million mu, and at least 80 million mu of land had disappeared in these 40 years.

Then in the Yuanfeng period of Song Shenzong, Wang Anshi changed the law to check the cultivated land across the country, and a large number of hidden households and hidden fields surfaced, only to find that the cultivated land area of the Great Song Dynasty was actually 700 million mu.

It can be seen how serious the problem of hidden families was at that time.

A few years ago, Zhao Jun conducted a national census, and the number of fields found was about 600 million mu.

At that time, the method he used was very simple, that is, to reduce the agricultural tax on a large scale throughout the country, but every mu of land had to be included in the government's statistics.

All county officials must take this matter as a task and include it in the examination law, and strictly find out how much land they have in their own county.

Hidden households can be blamed for the past, but if they are not reported, then the government has the right to confiscate the land without property rights and become the local government's land.

For a time, a large number of landlords were forced to report their hidden fields, resulting in an explosive increase in the number of acres of cultivated land at that time.

And before the imperial court lowered taxes, there was actually a lot of wasteland. Because the taxes were too heavy at that time, many people directly gave up their farmland and went to the city to work.

Therefore, in addition to the hidden property of the landlords and the powerful, the local government also cleared a lot of ownerless wasteland, turned it into official land and recruited tenants to farm.

The annual tax revenue generated by the newly developed fields of almost 70 million mu also made up for the financial deficit caused by the reduction of taxes by the imperial court to a large extent, and at the same time brought a lot of benefits to the local finances.

However, from the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the present, it is a period of rapid development, and it is normal to grow by 5 million mu per year, but it is difficult in the middle and late stages.

For example, Tianxi is 525 million mu in five years, and Yuanfeng is 700 million mu in three years, with a difference of 60 years, that is to say, in the past 60 years, the annual increase in cultivated land in the Great Song Dynasty is less than 3 million mu.

Now it has grown to 9 million mu a year, which is twice as much as Tianxi five years ago and three times as many as Tianxi five years later, with about 10 million mu every year, so that the total cultivated land area of the country has reached 640 million mu now, and the growth rate is extremely fast.

The reason for this is first of all because under the policy of rest and recuperation, the government encourages the people to open up more wasteland and reclaim more new land.

The second is that cultivated land needs to have means of production, such as water, farm tools, etc.

In recent years, the imperial court has allowed the local government to use local funds to build more canals, which are included in the political achievements, and at the same time build steel factories to produce a large number of agricultural tools made of steel, ensuring that the people have enough means of production to open up wasteland.

Last but not least.

Terraced fields, silt fields, sand fields, frame fields, lake fields and other special fields appeared in a large area in the Song Dynasty, plus Zhao Zhen found soil fertilizer, cultivated land area and grain production, which was naturally greatly improved.

The area of cultivated land and grain production have skyrocketed, and the price of grain has naturally plummeted, and at the same time, the price of pigs, chickens, ducks, sheep and other livestock meat has plummeted.

Especially pork, from 27 wen a pound in previous years, has fallen to 15 wen a pound today.

Back in the Song Zhenzong period, 5 wen money and a pound are just around the corner.

After all, pigs in the Song Dynasty often ate pigweed, but this must not grow fast and not big, eating rice and wheat is different, rice and wheat is originally one of the pig feed, providing more carbohydrates and growing faster.

Zhao Zhen also issued a holy edict, asking local governments to teach the people the technique of castration, so that the pigs could concentrate on cooking, and the growth cycle and obesity rate soared.

When the price of grain is low, there will be more people feeding pigs to eat rice and wheat, and there will naturally be more pork.

The only thing that is relatively strong is the price of beef, the Song Dynasty is expressly forbidden to kill cattle, cattle should be used to cultivate the land, only old or accidental death can be eaten, which leads to high prices.

The low prices of basic subsistence and the high wages of migrant workers in the cities obviously caused the overall economic situation of the Great Song Dynasty to develop in an excellent direction.

If there were developed countries in the feudal agricultural society, then today's Great Song Dynasty should be the only developed country in the world.

In addition, the escalation of the various departments is equally satisfactory.

The basic education of Da Song has been carried out for four years, and although there is no first batch of successful graduates, more and more students are recruited, and there will be more and more science and engineering talents in the future.

Zhao Jun not only single-handedly created a science system of mathematics, physics and chemistry, but also created a certain industrial system.

For example, the manufacture of artillery and muskets has strict regulations, and the length of artillery, the thickness of materials, the quantity of muskets, the way of firing, etc., have been systematically standardized.

In the future, after the mass production of steam engines, assembly line operations will also appear simultaneously.

After the commercial reform, the degree of commercial prosperity is increasing, the domestic commodity economy is circulating rapidly, the carrying capacity of the canal has increased substantially, and blockages have occurred repeatedly.

For this reason, the imperial court allocated a lot of money to let the local government dredge and expand the section of the canal in its own territory, which once again greatly increased the carrying capacity of the canal.

Strictly speaking, the first development direction of logistics in the future must be trains. In fact, such a backward mode of transportation as the canal should not be paid attention to.

But after Zhao Jun's analysis, he found that the canal has not yet reached the point of obsolescence, at least for now.

After all, it must be difficult to achieve a national train in a short period of time, and later Emperor Mould used the blood of unknown Chinese workers to build more than 500,000 kilometers of railways in the 50 years from 1860 to 1910.

In 2021, the total length of railways will only be 160,000 kilometers.

Therefore, Zhao Jun believes that the canal will have at least another 50 years of function.

Fifty years from now, it is estimated that the railways will cover all parts of the country, so it is not a short-sighted matter to continue building the canal now.

In addition to local developments, explosive military growth is particularly crucial.

Of the more than 1.2 million people, only more than 600,000 remained, and the generals stayed in the barracks for training every day, which greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the soldiers.

In addition, in accordance with the instructions of the Constitutional Yuan, in the second half of last year, after the army carried out rectification and reform, a group of elite soldiers, about 30,000 people, were selected and began to be equipped with firearms.

In this way, the situation of the army of the Great Song Dynasty is obvious.

Among them, 80,000 firearms troops, taking the 5,000 men of the first army as an example, have three artillery battalions, each artillery battalion has 10 heavy guns, each gun must be equipped with 20 people, and 60 small steel cannons, each gun is equipped with 5 people.

In this way, the whole army had 48 artillery battalions, 480 heavy artillery pieces, and nearly 3,000 small steel guns. At the same time, there were 56,000 musket troops, and the firepower was quite sufficient.

The only drawback is that the artillery is too heavy, and it needs to be pulled by a large wagon, and twenty members of the artillery crew work together to operate the large artillery.

But even so, in the field, it is basically invincible.

Once a firearms army of 5,000 men is out of formation, with a musket team of 3,500 covering the artillery positions behind, and occupying favorable terrain, there is no problem in stopping the charge of a cavalry team of tens of thousands.

In addition to these 80,000 firearms troops, the remaining 400,000 or so people are also elite cold weapons troops, and the weapons used are all steel weapons, and the armor has also been rebuilt.

It can be said that the current army of the Great Song Dynasty, whether it is firearms or cold weapons, has a very obvious equipment advantage in the face of the Liao State and Western Xia.

The only defect is that there are relatively few cavalry, and the entire army of more than 600,000 people, of which there are only 120,000 cavalry currently in service, of which 16 firearms corps have 4 cavalry corps, which shoot on horseback, and the rest are infantry firearms corps.

This is still the result of the fact that the Great Song Dynasty can trade horses with the Western Xia of the Liao State in recent years, otherwise, the number of cavalry will only be less if the materials in the army were resold before the army was restructured.

At the end of January, the Constitutional Yuan sent a reply letter to Nong Zhigao, who was far away in Andezhou, on Guangnan West Road.

By the time the letter reached Nong's hands, it was actually almost the end of February.

At this time, the Great Song Dynasty was vigorously preparing to start a new round of Qingli New Deal, which was already the fourth round.

The previous rounds of the New Deal did a lot of foreshadowing, but only the third and fourth rounds of the New Deal were more dangerous, one was to deal with redundant troops, and the other was to deal with land annexation.

However, at this time, the specific policy has not yet been made, although Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan discussed the first draft, but it is still in the scope of discussion in the Constitutional Yuan, and it is estimated that if it is officially issued, it may not be until March or April.

At this time, Nong Zhigao happily received the news of the Great Song Dynasty.

Ander.

In the so-called palace of the king of the Southern Heavenly Kingdom, Nong Zhigao, who had just turned 20 this year, was discussing with his henchmen Gao Huang Wei, Huang Shimi, Nong Jianhou, Nong Zhizhong and others.

The royal palace is very simple, in fact, Nong Zhigao occupies the mansion of a wealthy local family.

And this place is surrounded by mountains, all over the hills, although they are all small hills, but the forest is extremely dense, in the vast primeval jungle wrapping, here is said to be a state, more like a larger town.

Because in later generations, it was a town, called Ande Town, which was located in the northwest of Jingxi City, Baise City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and the southeast of Napo County.

In the Song Dynasty, it belonged to one of the forty-eight prefectures on the West Road of Guangnan.

The border states of the Song Dynasty were not as large as the native states, with several counties under their jurisdiction and an administrative level similar to that of later cities. Instead, they are located next to each other, like villages, along the border.

Therefore, in terms of form, regional size and even population distribution, these prefectures are more like a certain town, a certain township, or even a certain village in later generations.

However, these fetters are large and small, and the largest and most prosperous ones can be compared to counties.

Among them are Guangyuan Prefecture and Ande Prefecture.

Therefore, in a sense, Nong Zhigao is only a few counties and dozens of villages in his hands, with a population of less than 200,000, to deal with Vietnam, which has a population of millions, and finally even rebelled against the Great Song Dynasty, which has a population of nearly 100 million, which is also a miracle.

"The King."

After Huang Wei and the others came, they asked, "What is the matter with summoning me and waiting?" ”

Nong Zhigao said: "Brother Jing, Brother Congfu, you have come just in time. ”

As he spoke, he handed over the letter in his hand and said, "The court has finally replied." ”

"Did you reply?"

Huang Wei and Huang Shimi suddenly became excited.

Nong Zhigao nodded: "The imperial court said that the southwest is remote, and because of the war with the Western Xia of the Liao State over the years, there is no time to take care of the southwest, and now that the Western Xia of the Liao State is defeated, and the Yue Dynasty is to be wiped out." ”

"Destroy the Yue Dynasty?"

Several people were shocked, but they didn't expect the imperial court to move seriously this time, and directly wanted to destroy the Yue Dynasty.

Huang Wei took the letter and immediately glanced at it.

The content of the letter is actually very simple, first of all, it affirms Nong Zhigao's struggle against the Yue Dynasty in the southwest over the years, but at the same time, it also criticizes Nong Zhigao's ambition to build a country without authorization, and the first request of the Constitutional Yuan is to immediately revoke the national name and return to the banner of the Great Song Dynasty.

This is actually not difficult, because Nong Zhigao founded the country originally to fight against the Vietnamese and North Koreas, and it was necessary to set up a banner in the southwest and win over those ethnic minorities who were oppressed by the Vietnamese and North Koreas to warm up.

He wrote several letters to the imperial court before, all of which asked to be returned. Therefore, it is not difficult to achieve the requirements of the imperial court.

The second is that the imperial court gave Nong Zhigao the same Jinshi background, and Ren Yongzhou Tongzhi.

The current Yongzhou Zhizhou Wang Chu was transferred, and the imperial court sent a new Zhizhou, and Zhao Wenzuo, the former Gaozhou Tongzhi, served as him.

In addition, the transfer envoy of Guangnan West Road has also been replaced, and he has become the former superintendent of the imperial history Yang Cha.

The letter also explained the reason.

Wang Chu and others were afraid that the affairs of the Yue Dynasty and Koubian would be reported to the imperial court and affect their political performance, so most of Nong Zhigao's letters to the imperial court were withheld by them.

If it weren't for the presence of the Imperial City Division on Guangnan West Road, I'm afraid the imperial court wouldn't even know about this matter.

This is not only Wang Chu, but also his successor Chen Gong, the governor of Yongzhou, Chen Gong was very disgusted with Nong Zhigao, and later Nong Zhigao rebelled in anger and killed Chen Gong only to know that his letter was never delivered to the imperial court.

Finally, the imperial court officially issued a notice saying that the southwest would be changed to the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, and in the future, the leaders of these ethnic minorities would serve as local officials and obey the dispatch of the imperial court.

And not only Nong Zhigao, Huang Wei and others were also awarded the positions of county commander and defense envoy.

Huang Wei and Huang Shimi, the two brothers, were born in Jinshi, and they met Nong Zhigao when they were rushing to take the exam together in Bianliang, and the two of them were lucky to be at the bottom of the Jinshi list, and Nong Zhigao fell off the list.

Therefore, Nong Zhigao is still a profession full of heroes - not the first talent.

This means that their knowledge and ability are much higher than ordinary people, Huang Wei saw the door for the first time, and said in a deep voice: "The imperial court is to annex the Yue Dynasty, and to completely turn Guangxi and the Yue Dynasty into the territory of the Great Song Dynasty." ”

"Well, that's what I thought too."

Nong Zhigao nodded and said: "It seems that the determination of the imperial court this time is very great, the letter said that if the Yue people kill one Han people, they will destroy ten Yue people, and if they embezzle the Han land, they will destroy the Yue Dynasty and one country!" ”

Nong Jianhou said: "Great King, the court means to let us abolish the country, so will we not be able to be kings in the future?" ”

"Of course."

Nong Zhigao glanced at him and said, "We will be officials of the Great Song Dynasty in the future, just like those who are officials." ”

Nong Zhizhong said dissatisfiedly: "What's so good about being an official of the imperial court, it's better for us to build a country ourselves." Besides, they didn't care much about us before, so why should we bother with them? ”

"Confused!"

Nong Zhigao said to the two brothers: "Now that the Great Song Dynasty is strong, the Liao State is defeated in the north, and the Xia thieves are broken in the west. And the imperial court is planning to annex the Yue Dynasty, will it allow a small country on the border? If you don't obey the edict, I'm afraid you will be wiped out in a moment. ”

At this time, Nong Zhigao's strength was still very weak, in history, he built the country, erected a banner, and gathered the ethnic minorities of the surrounding tribes together, which barely gathered tens of thousands of people, and set off a mighty offensive against the Yue Dynasty and the rebellion of the Great Song Dynasty.

But at this time, Nong Zhigao had not yet reached the point of later, and his territory was in several confined states such as Guangyuan Prefecture, Naturalization Prefecture, and Ande Prefecture, with tens of thousands of ethnic groups and thousands of soldiers.

Therefore, he had no intention of rebelling at all, but was very happy because he was appointed to an official position in the imperial court.

He looked around and said to Huang Shimi and Huang Wei: "Jingzhi, Congfu, the imperial court has appointed you Wuyuan County Commander and Yongzhou Defense Envoy, let us go to Yongzhou immediately, and wait for the new Guangnan West Road Transfer Envoy and Yongzhou Governor to come, what do you think?" ”

Huang Shimi said with a smile: "The king and the weak crown are already in the same place, and before the new governor of Yongzhou comes, the king is in charge of Yongzhou, so when will you stay if you don't go at this time?" ”

"Let's go, let's go to Yongzhou to take office immediately."

Nong Zhigao thought about it too.

Suddenly excited.

Now he is the boss of Yongzhou for the time being.

(End of chapter)