In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 393 Borneo, which is several times larger than the Central Plains

There has been no war in the Song Dynasty for more than ten years, and the people live a prosperous life. In the past, ordinary people and tenant farmers might not be able to afford alcohol, but now they have enough money to drink.

Moreover, in the past few years, Zhao Yurui reformed the system of quenjiu and fully opened up the system of the imperial court monopolizing jiu koji or specifying the monopoly of jiu koji before the Southern Song Dynasty. This allowed people to sell wine everywhere.

You must know that for hundreds of years in the Song Dynasty, Liquor has always been an important source of income for the imperial court. In the Southern Song Dynasty, a large amount of grain was used to make wine. After Zhao Yurui reformed the system, more grain was consumed in making liquor, and the imperial court's income from liquor tax also increased. higher.

This has also exacerbated the rise in food prices.

Of course, this problem can also be solved.

"Don't worry, once rye is sown in large areas in the north, food prices will definitely come down."

Compared with the original wheat of the Song Dynasty, rye has high yield and strong disaster resistance. It can be grown for two seasons. As long as it is promoted for two or three years, the grain output will increase.

After talking about last year’s income, let’s talk about last year’s expenses.

"Last year, our Song Dynasty's various money and food expenditures amounted to [-] million yuan."

As soon as Yang Changru finished speaking, the ministers were shocked. The court spent money like running water, spending more and more.

It was just over [-] million the year before last, and now it has skyrocketed to [-] million?
  Of course, the imperial court has spent money to renovate hospitals and build schools in recent years.

In addition, the number of troops and officials also increased slightly.

National expenditure on official services and military expenditures has increased from less than [-] million guan to more than [-] million guan.

These are the two largest expenses.

These two expenditures determine whether the emperor's position can be secure, which is indispensable.

"How many officials do we have now?" Uncle Xie Fang asked at this time.

Li Huang, the Minister of Civil Affairs, said: "Now there are more than [-] civil and military officials in the country and [-] civil servants."

Everyone looked slightly shocked.

Zhao and Rui Baoqing restructured the system in the second and third years of the year, and spent several years reducing the number of civil servants nationwide by [-], and once reduced the number of civil servants nationwide to [-].

At that time, there were more than [-] civil and military officials in the country.

In the past nearly ten years, it is normal for the number of civil and military officials to have increased by more than [-]. First of all, with more troops, there have been more military attachés.

But the number of officials has almost doubled.

Of course, even if it were doubled to [-], it would still be far lower than the national official service during the Jiajia period.

"It's mainly craftsmen, doctors, teachers, etc." Li Huang explained: "There are now hundreds of thousands of craftsmen households."

Various craftsmen alone account for nearly half. How many were there at the beginning of the Song Dynasty when Zhao Yurui took over?
  Emperor Zhao Yurui successively added various departments such as the Department of Maritime Trade and the Department of Medicine, added the Jinyiwei Intelligence Department, and reorganized the postman communications, all of which added a large number of personnel.

Deng Ruoshui said at this time, Baoqing only made more than [-] million yuan in eight years. Doesn't this mean the income and expenses are just right?
  In the past, the Song Dynasty had negative figures every year. Historically, Shi Miyuan issued more Huizi every year, so it was barely running, but the local government was short of money everywhere.

Now the income and expenses are barely enough, and they are not very satisfied.

Zhao Yurui said: "That's why we have to fight. Only by fighting can we make money."

In fact, in the past few years, the Song Dynasty has spent more than [-] million yuan every year.

The main ones are fighting, immigration, restructuring, especially shipbuilding every year. Shipbuilding alone costs a lot of money every year.

Including water conservancy construction, infrastructure construction, recruiting doctors and craftsmen, etc.

A lot of money is invested in one lump sum.

For example, in order to form the five major naval forces, Zhao and Rui have successively built various ships across the country. At present, they are almost completed, and they will spend less money later, which is basically maintenance and replacement.

The same goes for water conservancy projects. In the past, ditches were built everywhere to build water conservancy projects across the country for grain fields. Now they are almost completed, so there will be less investment later.

The infrastructure is mainly urban defense construction and road construction. Most of them are now almost completed, and there will be less investment in the future.

The same is true for soldiers' armor. When Zhao Yurui took over, there were [-] Song troops in the country, but half of them were actually unknown. It is estimated that the country could not collect [-] pieces of armor that could be worn.

Zhao Yurui builds new weapons every year, including various cannons, and Zhajia also has a set of people. The current output has been greatly reduced, mainly modifications and replacements, which will reduce investment.

Therefore, future investment in military and civil affairs may be less and less, and the court's surplus will be more and more, but Zhao Yurui cannot say that to them.

Zhao Yurui had to let them know that if there was no war, the court would be out of money.

If the court has no money, you will have no salary, let alone bonus.

The ministers are listening, why do they feel that the emperor is going to fight again?
  Every time the emperor talked, he always brought up the topic of war.

But didn’t we negotiate peace with Mongolia for five years?

However, Zhao Yurui did not continue talking, and the topic suddenly changed.

"I plan to add fifty female apprentices to hospitals in various places."

There was a bit of an uproar at the scene.

Fortunately, this was not the Ming Dynasty, let alone the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The two Song Dynasties came from the Tang Dynasty and were much more enlightened than the Ming Dynasty in all aspects.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, but no one raised any objections. Everyone just looked at the emperor, knowing that the emperor would definitely explain the reason.

"What are the advantages of using a woman as a doctor?" Zhao Yurui asked at this time.

"First of all, the salary can be lower." Zhao Yurui said helplessly. There was no way. It was not discrimination against women in the Song Dynasty, but in this era, when the court recruited all the doctors, adding more female doctors could pay a slightly lower salary.

“Secondly, we can treat women specifically.”

"Thirdly, the imperial court focused on cultivating stable mothers (i.e. midwives) to increase support for population production."

"Fourth, the family does not have to lose important labor, and it can also subsidize the household income."

Men specialize in farming at home, and women can also make money. Many people may not be used to it at first, but as long as it is popularized, it will definitely be popular in the future.

When Zhao Yurui set up schools in various places, he once wanted to accept female students, but he felt that although the Song Dynasty was relatively open-minded, it still had to be done step by step.

The main ministers of the imperial court are still from the Jiading period. After [-] or [-] years, the former imperial examination officials and the ministers who studied the Four, Five and Five Classics will retire.

The new civil and military officials were all selected according to the new imperial examination. Zhao and Rui would have entered middle age in their forties and fifties, and the new officials were more able to support Zhao and Rui's new policy.

So he decided to start slowly, starting with the girls.

These four reasons can easily convince ministers.

After he said this, a minister immediately put forward his own idea: "If you want to be a doctor, you must at least be literate."

"Doesn't that mean we have to recruit female students?"

Zhao Yurui said calmly: "Most officials and women from merchants and landlords are literate. I believe there are many people who are willing to do this."

Many ministers looked puzzled. In their opinion, the women from the families of these officials and businessmen had no shortage of food and clothing, so why should they be among the girls?
  "Because girls are also officials, and they can also become officials."

Zhao Yurui continued: "There are always women who also want to be officials." All the ministers were stunned, as if they were not used to it. This was indeed a bit surprising.

But Qin Zhuo immediately said: "There were many female officials in the Tang Dynasty, and there were also female officials in the imperial city."

Hu Mengyu's mouth moved, but he still didn't say what he wanted to say.

There were only female officials in the Tang Dynasty after Wu Zetian came to power, but he didn't dare to say it. Then he thought about his daughter, who was also naughty and restless by nature. If there was a chance to become an official, I'm afraid his own daughter would also want to try. try.

The matter was settled like this. The ministers all had daughters, and they heard that they could be officials or officials. Many people seemed to agree.

Zhao Yurui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If this matter were dealt with in the Ming Dynasty, he would be afraid of arousing opposition.

Lao Zhu's family even enforces sea bans, how can they tolerate this kind of thing?

But Zhao Yurui estimated that the recruitment of girls must be dissatisfied at first.

Only as girls are awarded officials, and can have their own careers, in a few years more and more girls will want to learn calligraphy, and it will be a matter of course for schools to recruit female students.

Zhao Yurui discussed with the cabinet for several hours that day and determined several important restructuring matters.

Roads were converted into provinces, and governors were established.

The governor-general is equivalent to a vassal king and can take charge of military and political affairs in one or two provinces or several provinces.

At present, the Song Dynasty has several governors.

Meng Gong, the governor of Ningxia and Shaanxi Province, and the governor's office was originally Xixia Zhongxing Prefecture. Now it is called Ningxia Province in the Song Dynasty, and the name of the prefecture has not been changed.

Meng Gong controlled the military affairs of Ningxia, Shaanxi provinces, and civil affairs. Among them, several military giants, Ningxia Dusi, commanded Chen Xiang, and his deputies were Li Pingxia and Shader. Among them, the top military leader Chen Xiang was formerly the Shaanxi Dusi. He worked with Meng Gong's father, Meng Zongzheng, and defeated the Jin soldiers together. Later, he was stationed in Xiangyang, waiting for Zhao Yurui to come to power before being promoted and reused.

The commander of the Shaanxi Dusi was Liu Zheng, and his deputies were Zhang Xuan and Wang Jian.

There is also Yu Jie, the governor of Jiangdong. The governor's office is located in Jinan and controls military affairs and civil affairs in Shandong and Jiangnan provinces. The commander of the Shandong capital is still Peng Yibin, and the commander of the Jiangnan capital is Li Pingbao.

Wang Jian, the governor of Sichuan and Henan, set up the governor's office in Kaifeng to control the military affairs and civil affairs of Sichuan and Henan provinces. The Sichuan capital commander was Meng Ying, and the Henan capital commander was Wang Shixian.

Among them, Wang Shixian was a surrendered general of the Jin army, and he continued to command the troops in the original territory of the Jin Kingdom, which fully demonstrated Zhao and Rui's attitude of employing people without suspicion and using others without suspicion.

Of course, after the Song army attacked and destroyed the Jin Kingdom, Wang Shixian massacred the Jurchens who refused to surrender in the Jin Kingdom. The Han army also showed his loyalty to Zhao Yurui.

Wang Shixian's ability is quite strong, which is one of the reasons why Zhao Yurui reuses him.

The fourth governor is Lu Wende, the governor of Liaodong. There is currently only the Liaodong Dusi here, but the territory is larger than other places. There are also four states in Goryeo in the Song Dynasty that are under his control. Lu Wende himself is also the commander of the Dusi.

In this way, from west to east, the four governors Meng Gong, Wang Jian, Yu Jie, and Lu Wende lined up, all on the front line of Mongolia.

After the meeting, the emperor stayed with the cabinet members to have a meal together.

It was close to seven o'clock when the ministers left, because it was August and it was not very dark yet.

Prime Minister Li Zongmian, Deputy Prime Minister Wei Liaoweng, and Minister of Maritime Trade Qin Zhuo were left alone again.

Among them, Li Zongmian is also serving as the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Wei Liaowen is also serving as the Duyuan of Dujinzouyuan. All three of them have positions related to military and state affairs.

"Come, take a look at this map." Zhao Yurui led the three of them to the map and pointed in two directions.

"This year and next, it will be very easy to attack these two places, and there is no need to mobilize troops. Six thousand troops and horses are enough."

The three ministers looked at the map, and there were words written on it.

"Bo Ni (Brunei), Fei Lubin."

"They are all from overseas." The three of them said in unison.

Li Zongmian's face was slightly moved: "Are you going to fight Bo Ni?"

This Bo Ni had diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty.

The Bo Ni Kingdom had contacts with China during the Liang, Sui and Tang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Bo Ni called Poli Zhenguan and Kaiyuan sent many groups of envoys to the Tang Dynasty.

In the second year of Taiping and Xingguo's reign (977 AD) and the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082 AD) in the Northern Song Dynasty, he sent envoys to visit China twice, establishing short-term contact with the Song Dynasty.

Although the last time the other party came to the Song Dynasty was more than a hundred years ago, they still had diplomatic relations after all.

Moreover, the navy of the Song Dynasty had been to Bo Ni many times and maintained trade with the other party.

At this time, Bo Ni was rich in dipterocarp, also known as natural borneol, which was one of the most popular spices. The Song Dynasty imported hundreds of thousands of kilograms of it every year.

Then sell it to Japan and Korea, and you can earn dozens of times.

During the Song Dynasty, the spice trade was the most prosperous in history, with people selling it everywhere, and even government agencies specializing in imported spices.

Now it has reached its peak after Zhao Yurui came to power. The court's navy is exclusively engaged in the navy, importing spices from Nanyang and selling them to Goryeo, Japan and the country.

At this time, imported spices mainly included pepper, Ru (homophone) incense, agarwood, borneol, etc. Borneool was a popular category because of its medicinal value.

Although there are private merchants who do this, the imperial navy has many ships, big ships, high purchase prices, and is willing to reduce profits, so private merchants cannot compete with the imperial government.

After these years of transactions between the Song Dynasty and the Balni Kingdom, Zhao Yurui basically understood their national conditions.

"Bo Ni Kingdom currently has fourteen states, and the main population is concentrated in the capital, about [-] people. The total of the fourteen states in the country is less than [-]."

"Ordinary people mainly rely on salt and wine making for their livelihood."

Historical records: "Local people "boil the sea into salt and brew rice into wine."

"The size of its country is more prosperous than gold." Zhao Yurui included all future generations of Kalimantan, and this time it was called "Borneo State".

The entire state of Borneo covers more than [-] square kilometers, which is equivalent to the size of four Central Plains.

Zhao Yurui didn't know how big it was, but it was definitely larger than the Central Plains in the late Jin Kingdom.

He directly said that it was more prosperous than Jin, and did not say whether it was in the early or late stage, but everyone thought it was greater than the early stage of Jin Kingdom.

With such a large territory and such a small number of people, of course it is easy to bully.

"The local area is rich in marine and forest resources, rich in dipterocarps, and rich in oil resources, which are of great use to us."

Qin Zhuo immediately said: "Nearly [-]% of the area over there is covered by forests. There is inexhaustible wood for shipbuilding, and there is inexhaustible supply of dipterocarp."

Qin Zhuo judged based on the observations of the Song Army who went to Bo Ni State to do business. The actual forest coverage rate of the entire Borneo State reached 80%.

If you think about a place several times larger than Henan Province, with a forest coverage rate of 80%, it can indeed be described as inexhaustible.

Now the Song Dynasty occupies the Haisan Forest in the east. If it occupies Borneo in the west, there will be no shortage of tree resources in the future, and there will be no need to recruit from the south or the north.

Li Zongmian and Wei Liaoweng were the first batch to follow the emperor. Although they were surprised that the emperor would attack small overseas countries with diplomatic relations, they definitely supported it because, as the emperor said, it represented wealth and money.

(End of this chapter)