I studied in modern times

Chapter 727 The Shadow of Malthus

The weather is very nice today, with bright sunshine and gentle spring breeze.

Therefore, Zhao Xu deliberately chose the imperial garden behind the Funing Palace as the place to summon Lu Gongzhu.

When Lu Gongzhu arrived, Zhao Xu was in front of the vegetable garden in the imperial garden, watching the palace maids taking care of the newly sprouted seedlings.

"The Minister of the Left, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and the Duke of Shen, Gongzhu, has been ordered to appear before you!"

Feng Jing's voice rang out in the corridor in front of the Imperial Garden.

Zhao Xu turned around and looked at Lu Gongzhu who followed Feng Jing into the imperial garden.

When Lü Gongzhu saw Zhao Xu, he immediately bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I respectfully wish you the best of health."

Then he bowed four times in a proper manner.

Zhao Xu waited for him to finish his greetings before saying, "No need to be so polite, Left Prime Minister. Please come closer and talk."

At this moment, he was wearing the emperor's red robe, a specially made fu hat, and a white jade belt.

Obviously, this was specially changed for the purpose of meeting Lu Gongzhu, as a sign of respect.

Lu Gongzhu bowed again: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

So he stood up respectfully and walked about three steps in front of Zhao Xu before stopping.

"There is no need to be so polite, Left Prime Minister. Please come closer..." Zhao Xu smiled and waved his hand.

Only then did Lu Gongzhu take another step forward.

Seeing this, Zhao Xu smiled and shook his head, but he did not force it anymore. He just looked at the vegetable garden in front of him and said, "Left Prime Minister, please take a look at my vegetable garden."

Lu Gongzhu quietly raised his eyes and took a look at the small vegetable garden in front of him.

The vegetable garden is very small, only four or five steps wide and ten steps long.

But the crops in this vegetable garden are not planted in the vegetable garden.

Instead, they are planted in small wooden tubes.

The soil in the small tube doesn't seem to be ordinary soil.

Zhao Xu smiled and explained: "These are cucumber seedlings."

Lu Gong was stunned for a moment.

Zhao Xu continued, "Originally, it would be best to plant in March..."

"But I can't wait and want to eat cucumbers sooner, so I ordered people to plant them now."

"But the current temperature is not good for cucumbers..."

"I had no choice but to think of a way to plant these melon seedlings in these specially made wooden tubes and order people to take good care of them... At night, I was worried that they would be cold and frostbitten, so I moved them to the warm room..."

"They were also worried that they would not grow well, so they ordered people to mix black soil with wood ash, chicken manure and other materials as planting soil..."

“It really took a lot of thought!”

Zhao Xu said to Lu Gongzhu: "The more you plant vegetables, the more you will learn. No wonder Yidu Hou (Fan Chi) asked the sage for advice on farming and gardening!"

Lu Gongzhu said quickly: "Your Majesty is practicing agriculture and sericulture, which is a blessing for the world."

"It's just..." He was about to say something profound about saints.

But he saw Zhao Xu's half-smile.

So he immediately realized what was going on - was the official telling him to grow vegetables?
This is what happened in the Taifu Temple yesterday, which was related to the various departments in Beijing.

Zhao Xu smiled and said, "How can I know anything about agriculture and sericulture?"

"To be honest with you, Prime Minister Zuo, I received cabbage seeds from Yangzhou last year... Yangzhou said that this cabbage can be harvested in the cold winter!"

"I was very happy, so I ordered people to plant it. However, perhaps Bianjing was colder than Yangzhou, and most of the cabbages that were planted were frozen to death after the first heavy snow last year..."

"The few plants that managed to survive didn't make it past the twelfth lunar month!" Zhao Xu said, sighing twice with regret.

Last year's plan to overwinter cabbage ended in failure.

Those cabbages were strong, but they were eventually succumbed to the extremely cold weather in Bianjing at night.

Wen Xunniang was sad about this for several days!
"So..." Zhao Xu looked at Lu Gongzhu and said, "I just provided these seeds with a suitable germination environment!"

"Whether the seeds can survive and have a good harvest depends not only on the efforts of the seeds themselves, but also on the hard work and dedication of the vegetable growers!"

"I am just sitting back and enjoying the fruits of others' labor!"

When Lu Gongzhu heard this, he completely understood.

Is this about growing vegetables?
It is clearly the business of the various departments.

So he quickly said, "Your Majesty's gracious words and teachings, I will keep them in mind."

Zhao Xu laughed: "Just remember it, Zuo Xiang! Just remember it!"

Talking to smart people is so refreshing.

There is no need to point it out clearly, just give them a few hints and they will understand.

So Zhao Xu asked, "Mr. Lu, please come to the palace today and tell me in detail the outline of your policy!"

Even his address was changed from Zuo Xiang to the more intimate Lu Qing.

"Yes!" Lu Gongzhu bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I want to inform you that... I am an old and stupid minister, but I want to recruit 100,000 soldiers from Huainan Prefecture, Yangzhou, Hangzhou and other places starting from April this year, just in case of emergency..."

Zhao Xu looked serious, looked at Lu Gongzhu, and asked: "You should know that a hundred thousand garrison troops would cost millions... Can the current national finances still afford it?"

"And the discussion among the government and the public will be even more intense by then!"

In the Song Dynasty, when the New Party came to power, it would inevitably preside over disarmament.

Because Wang Anshi's achievements in reform were achieved by reducing the military.

Once the old party comes to power, it will inevitably expand the military.

The direction of military expansion was mainly to recruit a large number of local bandits and expand the garrison troops.

On the surface, they are under the banner of "the system established by our ancestors".

But in fact, Zhao Xu knew why they did this?
But he didn't point it out, just looked at Lu Gongzhu and smiled.

Lu Gongzhu was filled with awe and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, this matter must be done!"

As he spoke, he whispered, "Your Majesty may not know..."

"During the Xining period, the country reduced the number of garrison troops from nearly 500,000 at its peak in the third year of Zhiping to 220,000..."

"But during the Yuanfeng period, the late emperor once again recruited additional troops, increasing the number of troops from 220,000 to more than 300,000..."

"The late emperor was holy and had deep meanings. I am terrified..." Zhao Xu waved his hand and interrupted him for the first time: "Left Prime Minister, when my father was alive, he once told me about this."

When Lu Gongzhu heard Zhao Xu call him the Left Prime Minister again and mentioned "Emperor Father" at the same time, he was shocked.

He immediately bowed and dared not say anything more.

"My father said: Since our ancestors, there have been three problems of redundancy..."

“Although the so-called three redundancies are three things, they are actually just one thing!”

Zhao Xu looked at Lu Gongzhu and said, "Even though the country has been peaceful for a long time and the people have thrived, by the Yuanfeng period, the number of people in the world was close to tens of millions! But these hundreds of millions of people are trapped in the 24 routes, 15 prefectures, 238 states, 37 armies, 1,126 counties of the country!"

"The average population per county is nearly 100,000!"

"Like Bianjing, a small city with a population of one and a half million!"

"Since ancient times, there has never been a dynasty with such a large population as ours!"

“Hence, there are three drawbacks!”

The three redundancies of the Song Dynasty were essentially caused by the Malthusian trap!
The medieval Song Dynasty encountered the modern Malthusian trap.

For the Song Dynasty, this was an almost unsolvable vicious circle.

Both the new and old parties are trapped in this vicious circle.

All efforts and struggles of everyone are actually accelerating this cycle.

For example, Fan Zhongyan and others launched the Qingli Education Movement to promote education in prefectures and counties.

Then, test papers from all over the country started to arrive in large numbers.

To the extent that the Song Dynasty had to invent the system of specially recommending Jinshi to appease those scholars who had repeatedly failed the examinations.

Not just for scholars.

Even those who passed the imperial examination were included in the paper.

In the Song Dynasty, there was a job for every person, but the space was quite limited.

Since the beginning of the Ren Temple, the number of civil officials in the capital has fluctuated around 2,800, while the number of selected officials has been fluctuating around 10,000.

However, there are more than 400 Jinshi every three years.

In addition, there are three to four hundred officials every year who are appointed through imperial favor or recommended by the emperor.

The dispatches are limited, but the number of officials is constantly increasing.

The Song Dynasty court was almost helpless in this regard.

In the end, they could only invent various regulations to continuously reduce the term of office of officials.

Often, a county magistrate would have just gotten familiar with the situation in his jurisdiction and planned his administration when an order for transfer from the imperial court would arrive.

Because there were dozens or even hundreds of people waiting for him to leave office in Bian Jing.

After the Xining period of promoting education, the situation became even more serious.

The number of scholars and officials increased, but their assignments remained fixed.

The same situation occurs among the people.

The land remains constant, but the population keeps growing.

So a large number of people poured into the city.

Only God knows how many people live in the nine wing and fourteen blocks outside the city of Bianjing.

This is also because a large amount of land outside the city has been occupied.

This caused vegetable prices in Bianjing to skyrocket.

All of this is like a rope that keeps tightening, tightly strangling Da Song's neck.

The new party came to power but couldn’t solve the problem.

Even when the old party came to power, it was still powerless.

They don't even know how to face the situation.

So, the New Party came to power and started to downsize the army, hoping to free up finances so that the country would have more money to do things.

When the old party came to power, it began to expand the military.

The purpose is to stabilize the unemployed population in cities, especially in large cities in the southeast.

Incorporate the young and strong men among them into the garrison so that they will not starve to death, but at the same time they will not have nothing to do and will not indulge in idle thoughts and random thoughts every day.

If someone figures it out and raises the flag, the southeast will be in chaos.

But Zhao Xu, who had studied in modern China for ten years, knew this.

The problem that Song Dynasty is facing now, in the final analysis, is actually one problem - overcapacity! It is urgent to find a place to dump!
Whether it's population, officials or goods, they all need to find a place to dump them!
Otherwise, the Song Dynasty would be doomed.

Looking at Lu Gongzhu, Zhao Xu said softly: "I once asked my father..."

"I ask..."

"As my father said, our 24 provinces, 15 prefectures, and 238 states cannot support hundreds of millions of people, nor can they provide a smooth path for scholars and scholars to enter officialdom."

"But what if our Great Song Dynasty has more than just 24 routes, 15 prefectures, and 238 states?"

"What if there are forty-eight routes, ninety-six routes, or even one hundred and twenty-eight routes?"

"Aren't all the problems now solved?"

As Lu Gong listened, his eyelids twitched.

He thought that the late emperor was already very radical.

But he didn't expect that Zhao Xu, the young master who was seen as kind and benevolent by the outside world.

How many times more radical than the previous emperor!
Compared with him, the late emperor was a mature, steady and moderate person.

At least the late emperor did not dare to say that the Song Dynasty's 24 routes should be expanded to 48, 96 or even 128.

He quickly said, "Your Majesty!"

"Weapons are dangerous tools, and sages only use them when they have no other choice!"

This is what he is afraid of!

Excessive militarism will only lead to the people’s suffering in the end.

(End of this chapter)