Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1006 1001 [Crime of Possessing a Treasure]

Before the heavy snow blocked the road, the emperor returned to Luoyang with his wife, children, and some guards.

I have moved to Wangchuan Valley for several years. This time I came to see my son and celebrate the New Year in the imperial city of Luoyang.

Zhu Guoxiang's temples are already gray, but the rest of his hair is surprisingly black. According to the 40 years he lied about when he traveled through time, he is 68 years old this year. Apart from some white hair and wrinkles, he doesn't look very old.

After the dinner, the father and son came to the garden alone.

Zhu Ming joked, "Why, do you think I killed too many corrupt officials? Or did you hear that Qin Hui was killed, so you came here to celebrate?"

"I heard that you wrote the crime of royal family members being punished the same as that of common people into the Great Ming Code and announced it to the world," said Zhu Guoxiang.

Zhu Ming said: "If the royal family breaks the law, they can't be punished the same as the common people, especially when there are more and more royal family members. After a few decades, they are intertwined and protect each other. How dare the civil officials take action against them? This law is written into the Ming Dynasty Law, which is more symbolic. Perhaps, in the future, when we encounter a tough emperor, it can be cited a few times to be effective."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "There have been more and more adult royals in the past few years, and several princesses have married. It's time to formally establish the Zongzheng Temple."

"Indeed," Zhu Ming nodded, "If the royal family is involved in a criminal case, the power of sentencing cannot remain in the Zongzheng Temple, but must be handed over to the Sanfasi for trial."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Yes."

There were no strict regulations on who should be responsible for crimes committed by royal family members and clan members in the early Northern Song Dynasty, but it was definitely not the Zongzheng Temple.

The duties of the Zongzheng Temple were only to manage the clan's certificates, genealogies, maps, and records, to be responsible for naming the clan members, and to repair and offer sacrifices to ancestral temples and tombs. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, it was also in charge of the clan's education - it had no power of trial or punishment!
Probably during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, there were too many royal family members and clan members to be managed by the small Zongzheng Temple, so a Da Zongzhengsi was added.

The Grand Zongzhengsi continued to seize power, essentially hollowing out the Zongzheng Temple. At the same time, it also had the power to mediate disputes and accept lawsuits, but the exact sentence for the royal family's crimes had to be handed over to the emperor for judgment. In addition, the censors also had the power to supervise the royal family.

The father and son began to discuss the issue of clan management.

The results of the discussion are as follows:

First, the structure of the Da Zong Zheng Si of the Northern Song Dynasty was roughly restored, but the name was still Zong Zheng Temple.

Second, the Zongzheng Temple only manages the royal family, clan members, and relatives within the five degrees of mourning of the emperor.

Third, the household registration of clan members and relatives outside the five mourning periods must be changed to civilian household registration and be managed by the local government. This will avoid the problem of too many clan members and too much financial support.

Correspondingly, the royal family members and relatives who have been converted to civilian status are not restricted in taking the imperial examinations to become officials, and can become prime ministers if they are really capable. However, in practice, they will most likely be feared by the emperor and his ministers, and it is estimated that it will be difficult for them to become prime ministers.

Fourth, for the royal family and clan members within the five mourning periods, ordinary cases were handled by the Zongzheng Temple, and criminal cases were handled by the Sanfasi. The Sanfasi would definitely not dare to make a judgment, and would most likely report to the emperor for a decision.

The first Minister of Zongzheng Temple was Zhu Yan’s husband Chen Ao.

This practice of transferring people's nationality to civilians once they were five degrees below the emperor's mourning period may seem very cruel and ruthless, but the actual practice in the Song Dynasty was even more cruel.

The Song Dynasty's management of the royal family can be roughly divided into two stages, with Song Shenzong as the dividing line.

In the first stage, the royal family was strictly guarded, raised like pigs in the palace, and eunuchs were sent to supervise them at all times.

In the second stage, there were too many pigs in the royal family, and the financial expenses were very difficult. Therefore, centralized surveillance and residence were no longer implemented. The distant royal family members (those with distant bloodlines) could only rent houses on their own, and some lived in poverty than ordinary people. They were poor and restricted by their royal family status, so they simply committed crimes and even became hangers-on.

In the Song Dynasty, only a few royal lines could inherit the title, and such royal lines were becoming fewer and fewer.

The emperor’s own son could be made king, but his grandson would simply not be made king.

Imperial family members with close bloodlines were given honorary official positions and promoted according to their years of service. Most of them could be promoted to Jiedushi (a nominal position) when they were old.

As a result, more and more members of the royal family became part of the redundant officials of the Song Dynasty, holding an honorary position and receiving a salary.

Royal family members with more distant blood ties would try their best to get an honorary position, and those with extra luck could even get an actual vacancy.

The plan discussed by Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming may seem cruel, but compared with the royal family system of the Song Dynasty, it is actually beneficial to the national finances and the royal family with distant bloodlines.

After discussing the Zongzheng Temple, Zhu Guoxiang said, "It's impossible for an adult prince to be raised like a pig after being crowned a king, right?"

A normal emperor would certainly be happy to raise princes who are not the crown prince like pigs.

Zhu Ming said: "They will be paid according to their titles. As long as they don't live too extravagantly and don't have too many servants at home, and they have houses granted by the court, they will definitely have no problem living a leisurely life. They can also find something to do according to their own hobbies. They won't be strictly monitored like in the Northern Song Dynasty. But unless the emperor allows, the descendants of the prince within three generations are absolutely not allowed to take the imperial examination or become officials!"

"It seems that the only option is to engage in literary and artistic creation, or to conduct academic research or scientific and technological inventions," said Zhu Guoxiang.

"By the way, speaking of technological inventions, how is your steam engine going?" Zhu Ming asked. Zhu Guoxiang said, "The experimental model has been improved to the third generation. More than ten steam engines have been put into production in mines, mints, and iron forges, and their shortcomings have been gradually improved through practical use. Steam trains have also been developed, and I have laid a section of rails in Wangchuan Valley. However, the train's work efficiency is not high, and its speed and carrying capacity are seriously insufficient. We need to continue to improve it."

Zhu Ming was surprised and asked, "There are steam locomotives?"

"Steam spinning machines and looms are also being improved, mainly for cotton yarn and cotton cloth," Zhu Guoxiang said. "Even if they are made, do you dare to put them into the civilian market now?"

Zhu Ming shook his head: "I definitely wouldn't dare."

Cotton planting was encouraged before, but now it is restricted!

Since cotton farming brought higher income, many farmers voluntarily switched to cotton farming. Five years ago, the imperial court had to issue a decree to increase the land tax on cotton fields, which greatly dampened farmers' enthusiasm for cotton farming.

Why is there a limit on the number of cotton fields?

First, the north has been hit by drought for years and grain production is insufficient, so we cannot continue to allow cotton to take away fertile farmland.

Second, now it is “If Suzhou and Lake Tai are prosperous, the whole world will be well-off”, instead of “If Huguang is prosperous, the whole world will be well-off”.

Hunan and Hubei are both sparsely populated, and since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, immigrants have been encouraged to open up the land. In recent years, the population of new adults has increased, but the Dongting Lake Plain has not yet been fully developed.

Without the food guarantee of Hunan and Hubei, if Shandong, Huainan and Jiangnan blindly increase the area of ​​cotton fields and encounter severe drought in the north for several years - will they still have food security?

Once steam spinning machines and looms are put into production, the output of cotton cloth will increase and the cost of cotton cloth will decrease. More and more farmers will switch to growing cotton, and even the imperial court will not be able to stop them even if it imposes heavy taxes on cotton fields!
The British Industrial Revolution did not care about the lives of farmers.

Even if the British government ignored the farmers' lives and waited for countless landless farmers to flood into London, it would make the British government shout that it could not bear it. Therefore, a British person without a stable job could be exiled to Australia for stealing in London.

The UK is a small country with a small population, so it is natural to do this.

Have you tried this in China?

The peasants will revolt at any moment.

What Zhu Ming is facing now is not the problem of the steam engine.

Instead, they survived the natural disasters of the Little Ice Age and slowly brought down the price of grain. Then they continued to develop Hunan and Hubei, annexed and digested the Annan region, and used the grain from Annan to support Guangdong and Fujian.

Next, restrictions on cotton fields in Shandong and Jiangnan were lifted, allowing cotton production to increase according to market demand.

Although it is feasible to develop overseas colonies and obtain cotton from India, it is impossible to curb the disorderly increase of local cotton fields before the cost of navigation drops further. Merchants and farmers only act according to their immediate interests!
What, use fertilizers to increase agricultural production?
By the time the Zhu father and son traveled through time, it was already the 21st century, and only a dozen countries in the world could produce their own fertilizers.

Fertilizer is a product of the Industrial Revolution, not a prerequisite for it.

The first chemical fertilizer in history appeared around the time of the Opium War. The problem of large-scale production of chemical fertilizers was solved two years before the Xinhai Revolution. It took more than half a century from the appearance of chemical fertilizers in the laboratory to their large-scale production.

If Zhu Guoxiang could produce fertilizer on a large scale, with that level of technology, he would have been able to drop bombs from planes in the Ming Dynasty!

Reaching out to the fire on the small stove, Zhu Guoxiang asked, "What are you going to do next?"

"We can swallow Dali," Zhu Ming said, "but we have to wait until we have enough food. Last year's battle against Xixia consumed too much food and grass, and successive natural disasters have left us with very little food. If we can have good weather for two or three years, we will have enough food and grass to conquer Dali. We can fight now, but we won't be able to provide food for the immigrants after the war."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Guangxi, southern Sichuan, western Hunan, and Guizhou have been exiling criminals and reclaiming land with immigrants. If they continue to do this for ten years, when the border population is enriched, it will be a natural opportunity to attack Dali. Why do we have to rush to complete it in a few years?"

"Copper mines," Zhu Ming explained, "The outflow of copper coins was too serious, and the import of silver increased instead. This forced me to change the copper standard to the silver standard. In the past, the silver price was anchored to the copper price, and now the copper price is anchored to the silver price."

“There are many copper mines in Yunnan, but can they solve the problem of copper shortage?” Zhu Guoxiang only has a vague understanding of this.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, 95% of China's copper production came from Yunnan. Yunnan copper and Jianghuai salt were the two major sources of income in the middle Qing Dynasty."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Have the copper mines in Yunnan been explored yet?"

Zhu Ming said: "It is definitely not fully explored, but what is already being mined is enough. According to the news brought back by the merchants, the Dali Kingdom cast thousands of large and small Buddha statues in bronze at one time three years ago!"

"The Dali Kingdom is really rich." Zhu Guoxiang exclaimed.

Even as early as the Nanzhao Kingdom period, there was a huge Jianji bronze bell weighing more than 100,000 kilograms, which is still the national treasure of Dali today!
As you can imagine, there is no shortage of copper there.

The reason for the demise of the Dali Kingdom: copper production!

(Some people say that the prime minister's salary in the Song Dynasty was only 300 guan. The truth is that the prime minister in the Song Dynasty had various benefits. The food money alone was subsidized by 300 guan a month. If he held the honorary title of Jiedushi, he would be subsidized by 400 guan. There were also salary money, salary grain, additional money, yuansui money, salary money, public envoy money, winter and spring silk and satin, charcoal, firewood, fodder, candles, salt...)
(A prime minister who was also the Grand Secretary of Guanwen Hall had 1500 strings of cash per month for envoys. Take Bao Zheng's title of Longtu Pavilion Scholar as an example. Just for this title, he had 500 strings of cash per month for envoys. The envoys were said to be used for official receptions, but in fact, it was entirely up to the officials to handle.)
(Zhu Ming abolished all those miscellaneous benefits, and only retained a small number of welfare benefits. Even if the central government officials earned a thousand strings of cash a month, it was only a fraction of what they earned in the Song Dynasty.)
(End of this chapter)