Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 643 Unprecedented changes in the Tang and Song Dynasties

Gao Conghui said that he had to think about it, but it was not true, he was just thinking about it. The King Jing of Nanping, who loved his tenth son very much, suddenly found that he had lost control of his son.

Looking at it now, Gao Baoxu must have won the support of some Nanping generals who were unwilling to give up their power.

This is normal, the cake of Nanping is only so big, once the land is donated, the Gao family can continue to enjoy the wealth, but Nanping now has the generals who have the military power, it is not necessarily the case.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Jiangling in Nanping is the first fortress on the Yangtze River, because Jiangling is at the golden node of the Yangtze River.

In the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the river surface is narrow, the current is fast-moving, and there are various submerged reefs underwater, such as Tiger Rock, Ghost Twisting, and Yama's Stay. You can tell how dangerous it is.

When Emperor Zhaolie Liu Bei launched a large army to attack Wu, it was because the Yangtze River section in the upper reaches of Jiangling was too dangerous, so he never dared to use his army to attack Jiangling.

However, when the Yangtze River reached Jiangling, it suddenly became extremely open, the water flow slowed down, and the hidden reefs in the river disappeared.

Jiangling City was built at the key point where the Yangtze River was about to widen. It could not only intercept the river, but also control the upstream and downstream waterways.

A somewhat disgusting metaphor, Jiangling City is like the sphincter of the Yangtze River. Only when Jiangling is controlled can it be said that the Yangtze River is controlled.

In such an important place, it is conceivable that once Zhou Guo occupied Jiangling, at least all the senior military officers of the Nanping Navy would be removed and replaced with his own people.

Therefore, it was not Gao himself who was most afraid of Gao's surrender, but the senior Nanping general who had enjoyed the great benefits of Jiangling City.

Others thought that Gao Conghui hadn't made a decision yet, but Gao Conghui had dragged his sick body to secretly open the small treasury, rewarded his most confidant five hundred soldiers, and told them not to leave him.

At the same time, the third son Gao Baorong secretly summoned by Gao Conghui now felt that this cowardly eldest son was the most reliable, at least he would not get involved with those ambitious generals.

When the two met, Gao Conghui didn't talk nonsense. He looked at Gao Baorong and asked in a low voice: "Is Shao Tianzi really tolerant? Li Yazi of the former Tang Dynasty was also known as the Holy Son of Heaven, but when your grandfather went to Luoyang, he almost failed." Killed by him."

Gao Conghui was talking about Gao Jixing, Wuxin Wang of Nanping, who went to Luoyang to meet Li Cunxu, but at that time he almost couldn't return to Nanping.

Gao Baorong nodded slowly, "Shao Tianzi is quite impressive. Brothers Li Congxuan and Li Congzhao fought with the emperor when they quelled the chaos in Guanzhong. Now that they handed over most of their property, they can still be rich.

Shi Chonggui lost his morals like this, but he was still able to save his life.

I'm thinking, if our Gao family really dedicates the land of the three states and sets an example for the world, the treatment can't be worse than Liu Chengyou, the son of Liu Zhiyuan in Hedong. "

Gao Conghui nodded. If Gao Baorong was full of promises, then with Gao Baorong's IQ, he might be deceived by illusions.

But now he hesitates, it seems that his three sons are not so stupid, they must have passed the judgment.

Hearing what Gao Baorong said, Gao Conghui also had a basic judgment in his heart, and he immediately said to Gao Baorong: "Call your uncle Song Sanlang and father-in-law Liang He to a certain place, and Brother Chong will also send them here."

Gao Baorong's maternal grandfather Song's family and his father-in-law Liang's family are both rich local families. This is also the guarantee that Gao Baorong can always be the prince's son. Chong's brother is Gao Baorong's three-year-old only son Gao Jichong, who is also the last Nanping lord in history.

After listening to his father's words, Gao Baorong's eyes widened in horror, "My lord, Shiro, this will never happen!"

Gao Conghui is now more certain that his third son may be a little cowardly, but he is definitely not stupid, because he only made some arrangements on his side, and Gao Baorong knew what was going on.

"Shiro may not be able to, but I can't trust the people around him, especially Li Duan, the commander of the navy. He has great benefits in the Flying Tiger Army, so he won't just go to the court like this.

Sanlang, I asked the soldiers around me to take you out of the city through the small gate, and you went to see the stallion Zhaoyuan of Jiuquan County, and said that I, Gao Conghui, was willing to obey the edict and let the imperial army enter Jiangling, and see what he said. "

After finishing speaking, Gao Conghui let out a long sigh, and looked at Gao Baorong with moist corners of his eyes.

"Since a certain Gao took over Nanping, he has been sleepy all day long, and Gao Laizi's notoriety has been carried for decades, just to keep the foundation of my Gao family. I don't want to end up with nothing."

Gao Baorong also only felt sad from his heart, he knelt down in front of Gao Conghui and cried loudly.

Gao Conghui pulled Gao Baorong up from the ground, "My son is prudent and steady, he should keep the wealth of the Gao family, and he can't ask for too much in the future, if he can become a rich man in Tokyo, that's enough.

It's just a certain family, but it's hard to let go of this knot. Sanlang went to the Jiuquan County Office, or he could be asked to play the emperor's performance on his behalf. If Gao can stay in Jiangling for a while, it will be a great grace. "

Gao Baorong quickly went out to meet Ma Zhaoyuan, and Ma Zhaoyuan quickly sent Gao Conghui's extravagant request to Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo in a hundred miles.

. . . .

At this time, Zhang Zhao has been optimizing the government. In fact, this era is also at a very important turning point in Chinese history.

Before this, limited by productivity, the upper classes in China were clearly divided, and the word rich was closely tied to power.

Power comes with money, and ordinary people don't have much money in their lives. The two sides are almost in two worlds in terms of food and clothing.

But by this time, to be precise, in the early Northern Song Dynasty one or twenty years later, this boundary was almost completely broken.

With the development of productive forces, the word wealth has also begun to spread to the common people, and the number of people with surplus money or even relative wealth has gradually increased.

The development of productive forces has also brought about the prosperity of the handicraft industry and the commodity economy. The strict structure of the city in the city has been broken, and the phenomenon of small countries with few people in the countryside and most people who have never left the village in their entire lives has also begun to decrease.

At the same time, with the further development of printing technology, knowledge began to spread from aristocratic families, even small families, to ordinary people at a lower level.

According to historical records, during the Northern Song Dynasty, some shepherds in Hebei could also read and write, as proved by the cliff carvings discovered in Shijiazhuang City later.

The south is even more exaggerated. In Jianzhou and other places on Fujian Road, there are ten readers and five or six readers.

Therefore, many historians of later generations also called this period the Tang and Song changes.

This is Chinese civilization, a period of great change that penetrates the entire class, and it is also an important reason why there are still many fans in the later generations in such a frustrated and timid era in the Song Dynasty.

If you don't consider its setbacks and cowardices, most of the ordinary citizens and self-cultivating farmers lived better than those in the Han and Tang Dynasties in this era.

Of course, these things do not exist for sharecroppers, and they will never live well.

Even in later generations, those "tenants" who pay high rents in first- and second-tier cities, most of them are under a lot of pressure.

The reason why Zhang Zhao can feel the pulse of this era is because the boar Luo Shande told Zhang Zhao a strange situation from Haozhou.

That is, during the riots in Haozhou, a large number of farmers were bewitched by the local clans to fight against the imperial court. They surrounded mountains and blocked water in the hills and mountains of Haozhou to make fields, and guarded them according to their strongholds. They were very tenacious.

Gao Yunquan was forced to ask the imperial court for soldiers because of the copycats everywhere.

And Zhang Zhao didn't care whether these Haozhou people were tenacious or not, but was very interested in their craftsmanship of enclosing mountains and blocking water to make fields.

Because this is the big killer for the rapid development of southern China - terraced fields.

Primitive terraced fields were invented around the Qin and Han Dynasties, but in terms of construction and planting, they did not have a large scale and were quite primitive.

Because the land of the Central Plains was not fully developed at that time, there was no need to waste time and effort to develop terraced fields on the mountains.

The terraced fields in the late Tang and Five Dynasties should be the most experienced Hani compatriots in Yunnan. They were called Heman at this time, and they were being ruled by the Dali Kingdom established by Tonghai Jieduan Duan Siping.

But Dali National Energy, which is located in Yunnan, has made a splash in the back, and the terraced fields have contributed a lot.

When Zhang Zhao realized that this was a heaven-sent opportunity to promote terraced fields, he immediately ordered Jinyi's personal guards to interrogate the leader of the rioters who had been captured in Beijing and was about to be executed.

As a result, good feedback was obtained. Due to the pressure of the Southern Tang court in Huainan, Haozhou, a mountainous state, could only ask for fields from the mountains. Based on the experience of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the local people immediately made the terraced fields look good. developed.

From the terraced fields, Zhang Zhao also thought of Champa rice. According to the timeline, the variety of Champa rice has matured at this time.

From the actual situation, the output of Champa rice is not so exaggerated. The high-yield Champa rice in the history books is a new variety selected after the introduction.

The real advantages of Champa rice lie in its drought resistance, early maturity and its ability to cooperate well with terraced fields.

There is another important reason why terraced fields did not develop in the mountainous and hilly areas of southeast and southern China in the past. It is relatively difficult to irrigate terraced fields, and it is impossible to have a large amount of freely available water.

Therefore, native rice species that especially need water have no advantage in the yield of terraced fields.

But Champa rice is different. It is particularly drought-resistant, and it is suitable for planting on alpine terraces.

Moreover, it has a short growth cycle, and it can be harvested in about [-] days at the fastest. With its drought-resistant characteristics, it can even be used for emergency relief.

Terraced fields and Champa rice are a perfect match.

After learning about these situations, Zhang Zhao also took a look at his own advantages. His biggest advantage was knowing the result in advance.

For example, Champa rice, when Song Zhenzong ordered it to be promoted nationwide, he was actually very worried and repeated it several times before finally deciding to promote it.

Because he didn't know whether this thing was really drought-resistant, with a short production cycle and high yield, and he had never seen the scene of a bumper rice harvest in Champa, so he was afraid of being fooled by the officials below.

Another example is the terraced fields. When it is really promoted, it has already arrived in the new China period.

One reason is that the rulers of the past dynasties were lazy in governing and ignored the benefits brought by terraced fields.

But on the other hand, they don't know that what they do must be right.

In this era when food is paramount to the people, no improvement in agriculture can be missed

But Zhang Zhao was clearly aware of this result, but it was too far away from the city, and Zhou Guo was still in the construction stage of the navy, let alone a large ship that could go to sea.

However, the opportunity soon came. Liu Congxiao, who originally occupied the two prefectures of Nan (Zhang) and Quanzhou, sent Sima Huang Yuxi to carry sixty catties of dipterocarp and five golden jade belts decorated with rhinoceros horns with patterns of xiezhi on the trek. Thousands of miles away, he went to Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo to meet Zhang Zhao.

Liu Congxiao was originally Wang Min's general. After the Southern Tang Dynasty destroyed Wang Min, Liu Congxiao obeyed the orders of the Southern Tang Dynasty on the surface, but in fact occupying Quanzhou was like a separatist regime.

Originally, he would not occupy Quanzhou and Nanzhou so quickly, but in this time and space, just after the Southern Tang Dynasty defeated Wang Min, Zhang Zhao raised his troops to conquer the Southern Tang Dynasty. How could Li Jing care about the lands of Wang Min? , Hurry up and transfer the troops in Fujian.

So Liu Congxiao and others quickly expanded their power. After he defeated the Qianyue army who tried to occupy Quanzhou after the Southern Tang retreated, his brother Liu Congyuan also quickly took control of Nanzhou.

The two brothers, headed by Liu Congxiao, formed a stable separatist force.

Liu Congxiao is still very smart. He knows that Quanzhou and Nanzhou are small in size, and it is impossible to form a country of their own. Although Southern Tang is a paper tiger, it still has the strength to conquer Quanzhou and Nanzhou, so he took the initiative Please seal the letter to the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Li Jing, who was beaten up by Zhang Zhao with a bruised nose and a swollen face, lost all face, was overjoyed, and immediately retained Congxiao as Jiedu envoy of Qingyuan army, observation envoy of Quanzhou, Nanzhou and other states, and was named Duke of E.

But Liu Congxiao was very unwilling to be a vassal to the Southern Tang Dynasty, he wanted to be a vassal to the Central Plains.

Firstly, he had to choose a thicker thigh hug, and secondly, the Central Plains was thousands of miles away from Zhangzhou, which was much less of a threat to him than Southern Tang, which was closer to Chichi.

After Liu Congxiao's emissary, Huang Yuxi, also brought the imperial edict that granted Liu Congxiao from the Southern Tang Dynasty, Zhang Zhao knew that Liu Congxiao was a wonderful person.

Because according to the current legal theory, Li Jing is only the king of the Southern Tang Dynasty canonized by Zhang Zhao. How can he have the qualifications to confer the title of Duke of E? Southern Tang.

But right now, Zhang Zhao doesn't want to beat Li Jing, he wants to get rid of Meng Shu first.

Because Li Jing is just the fat on his lips, Meng Shu can barely be considered a hard bone.

Therefore, although Zhang Zhao did not agree to Liu Congxiao's request for the imperial conferment and the purchase of property in Kaifeng, Tokyo, and Luoyang, the capital of the gods, he gave Huang Yuxi generously and named him Doctor Yinqing Guanglu.

This is to express Zhang Zhao's willingness to accept Liu Congxiao's refuge, but the timing is not yet ripe.

It's just that Zhang Zhao still wants to use the naval army that will not be accepted, but will serve as a follower.

Nanzhou (Zhangzhou) and Quanzhou have always been important cities in China's maritime trade, and Fujianese are one of the main force of Chinese going to sea.

So Zhang Zhao ordered Huang Yuxi to rush back to the Qingyuan army immediately, and told him to stay and serve. If he could send a large ship south to Champa as soon as possible to transport [-] shi of Champa rice seeds for Zhang Zhao, then Zhang Zhao would accept his refuge.

On the first day of August, after the Great Court Meeting, Zhang Zhao ordered Shang Shuling Zhang Xichong and Zhang Yuan, the censor of Yushitai, to select and supervise the censors of various provinces.

From the first day of August, the imperial court will send supervisory censors to the provinces to urge them to start the land equalization operation. The inspectors of the provinces and the Guanfengqian households sent by Jinyi's personal guards to the provinces will also assist in supervision.

At the same time, Zhongshu Provincial Duzhi Division and the Ministry of Household Affairs are also selecting Duzhi Angels and Transit Angels to go to various provinces to urge localities to start the work of asset identification for taxpayers, agriculture, industry and commerce in the new two tax laws.

According to Zhang Zhao's request, officials must also declare in order to pay taxes.

This seems to be a very difficult thing for the gentry to pay the food in one package, which seems to be very difficult in the past dynasties.

A ruthless person like Emperor Yongzheng of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was hacked out of the sky because of this, so that my fourth master, who died suddenly, was struck to death by lightning, or his head was chopped off by Lu Siniang.

But in Zhang Zhao's case, this is a matter of an edict, because this is the Five Dynasties, this is the era when warriors can draw their swords and cut people without a word of disagreement.

What kind of civil servants and squires dare to say that they don't pay their grain?Do you still want your head?

They have long been used to paying food and taxes, and at this time the civil servant group has not grown enough to control everything in the country, so they are not resistance at all.

As for the warriors, they really didn't want to pay, but unfortunately, Zhang Zhao was the biggest leader of the warriors now, and the way to solve the problem among the warriors was very simple, that is to rely on the sword in their hands.

No one has ever called Zhang Zhao now. Zhang Zhao said that they should also pay taxes on their farms, shops and other properties, so they would pay taxes obediently.

Of course, this tax payment is just a situation. Regardless of whether it is civil or military, if it is official, even if it is tax payment, it will not pay much. Don't be too casual about tax evasion and tax evasion.

But Zhang Zhao didn't care, what he wanted was the habit of letting the officials and gentry pay their taxes. As for how much tax they stole, after the whole country was generally stabilized, there would be more means to slowly repair them.

Land equalization and taxation are two important things. After Zhang Zhao finished the arrangement, he did another thing that shocked everyone.

Zhang Shengren pardoned the two leaders of the mutated people on the grounds that they had offered the method of building terraced fields.

Not only was he pardoned, but he also appointed these two as doctors of agriculture, and ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry to cooperate with them in perfecting the terraced field construction method, and then spread it to the whole world.

This is the great crime of rebellion!What kind of terraced field construction method can be offered to avoid death?You can also do a doctorate in agriculture. Although it is not an official, it is also a status!

Then Zhang Zhao went a step further and ordered that no matter what status or country people they are in the world, as long as they donate improved seeds, new agricultural tools, and new farming methods, according to the degree of merit, they can be crowned earls at most.

This is the first new channel for titles other than military merit, bloodlines and political achievements in thousands of years.

Then Zhang Zhao also announced that those who have obtained titles and doctorates in agronomy can receive rewards ranging from [-] guan to [-] qian from the royal family every year.

Moreover, this soon had an effect. Under the leadership of the county magistrate, the people of Jingshan County, Yingzhou, traveled thousands of miles to Tokyo to offer a sharp weapon for transplanting rice seedlings-yangma.

The so-called seedling horse is like a crescent-shaped boat. People can sit on the seedling horse and transplant rice seedlings without bending down to the ground, which greatly improves efficiency and saves time.

Zhang Zhao asked officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry to test it, and it did have a great effect on promoting rice transplanting.

Zhang Zhao immediately promoted the magistrate of Jingshan County to be the governor of Ying Prefecture, bestowed [-] crowns on each of the citizens of Yingzhou who went to Beijing, selected five people who are good at farming as doctors of agriculture, enjoyed the royal annuity reward, and further exempted the whole county of Jingshan from this year's autumn. Tax.

As soon as the news came out, the world was shaken. At the end of August, people from the Southern Tang Dynasty came from Haizhou to Huai'an Prefecture (Chuzhou) in the Jianghuai Province of Zhou State to present high-yield yellow rice seeds to Zhang Zhou's Huai'an Prefecture Governor.

Zhang Zhao immediately issued an order to Li Jing, ordering him to quickly find out the situation, and ordered Jinyi's personal guards from Jianghuai Province to sit down and find out the situation.

The so-called Yellow Rang Rice is a native rice species that is very water-loving, has a strong ability to resist flooding, and its yield is not lower than that of Champa Rice.

Because of its water-loving and waterlogging-resistant characteristics, this kind of yellow rice paddy is most suitable for reclaiming a large number of swamps in the south, and it plays an extremely important role in turning miasma-filled swamps into fertile fields.

As for Li Jing, this idiot, it wasn't that Zhang Zhao had such a virtuous policy, he didn't know about it at all.

The governor of Haizhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty went to check and found out that the yellow rice rice donated by the people not only resists waterlogging, but also has a yield of three and a half shi per mu, far exceeding the two and a half shi of ordinary rice.

At this time, one stone is 120 catties, three and a half stones is 420 catties, and two and a half stones is only three hundred catties.

Faced with this data, the Southern Tang side was frightened and stupid. They still wanted to conceal it and not report it. As a result, Jinyi's personal guards had already known the details and brought some people and rice seeds to Huai'an.

Zhang Zhao rolled his eyes and realized that this was a good opportunity to beat Li Jing, so he immediately sent Wang Jiu, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, as an angel, to Jiangning City to reprimand Li Jing sharply.

Wang Jiu is notoriously fearless, and he was the one who held the Gaochang Uyghur Jieli Pijia by the sleeve back then.

This time he came as an angel, and he simply scolded Li Jing bloody in front of all civil and military officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

The acrimony of the words made Li Jing break his defense several times and wanted to evade, but Wang Jiu still clung to his sleeves, making Nan Tang Wenwen Wu lose face, and seriously hurt Li Jing's prestige.

As for the people of the Southern Tang Dynasty who donated rice seeds, Zhang Zhao did not break his promise, and immediately promoted him to be Haizhou Bo, fulfilling his highest promise.

As a result, anyone in the world who feels that they have some skills will start to run to Tokyo, and compete with Xian Xiangrui in previous years.

As for Gao Congjiao's wish that Ma Zhaoyuan sent to report, after Zhang Zhao summoned Zhang Xichong, Guo Tiance and other civil and military officials to discuss it, they all felt that it was barely acceptable.

Then Zhang Zhao is fine, because he knows that Gao Conghui can live for half a year, even if he is in good health.

So Zhang Zhao sent an envoy to inform Gao Conghui, and at the same time personally took three thousand elites from Youyu Linwei, and went south from Kaifeng Prefecture, Tokyo overnight.

For an important town like Jiangling, he had to arrange it himself, and he also needed to find a way to deal with the barbarians in Xidong in Machu territory.

(End of this chapter)