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

Chapter 576: King Han’s Benevolence
Zhao Yurui's Song Dynasty now has such a large territory. According to statistics last year, the country has a military force of one million infantry and cavalry and 500,000 naval forces. In recent years, the number of naval forces and warships has increased because the Song Dynasty's overseas colonies have become increasingly larger.

If you maintain an army of 1.5 million a year, you cannot do so without fighting wars.

Only 400,000 troops were mobilized for this three-front war, which was not a lot compared to the 1.5 million-strong army of the Song Dynasty.

War is a battle of logistics and money. The Song Dynasty has no problem with logistics now, and it has too much money to spend, so we must fight.

After the meeting that day, Zhao Qi returned to Boro in a depressed mood.

He wanted to organize a navy to transport the immigrants.

Along the way, Jia Sidao accompanied him and found that Zhao Qi seemed unhappy.

Jia Sidao also came this time, mainly to discuss the issue of salary payment.

Because the Song army's war against Abbas may have a long front line, with the farthest being thousands of miles deep, it may take more than half a year. In addition, with the long-term garrison in the later period, it will also take several years. How will the salaries be paid in the future?
What Jia Sidao meant was that when the troops arrived at different places, they would first use the local currency, and then exchange it for Song Dynasty coins based on purchasing power when they returned to their country in the future.

This was basically the routine used by the Song army when entering most colonies. Jia Sidao would also go with the army this time and set up a branch in Kewit to coordinate the military pay of the army.

That is, when each army captured a city, they would first plunder the wealth and then hand it over to the branch, which would then distribute it.

The Song army always fought for profit, robbing as they went.

Before there were no banks, the Song army handled it themselves. Now that there are banks, the banks are responsible for distribution.

Kewit is a good place. It can be transported by ship through the Persian Gulf (now called Dasong Bay), making it convenient to travel back and forth.

"I'm going to Kewit by boat soon. Please be careful." Jia Sidao said to Zhao Qi.

Zhao Qi gave him a strange look: "Li Boyuan's troops haven't moved yet, why are you so anxious?"

The first important goal of Li Boyuan's southern army is to attack Kewit, but the Song army is still gathering, so why are you in such a hurry?

"Oh, I'm very quick." Jia Sidao heard that Zhao Qi's tone was not very good. Zhao Qi's personality was such that he rarely spoke like that.

"Don't you support fighting against Abbas?" Jia Sidao asked tentatively.

"We're fighting on three fronts." Zhao Qi sighed. "Goryeo has just been pacified, Japan is fighting again, and the Delhi Sultanate is also stuck in a quagmire. Now we have to fight Abbasid?"

The Song army had been fighting the Delhi Sultanate for more than a year, and the progress was relatively slow. In Zhao Qi's view, the court and the country would have to invest a lot of manpower, material and financial resources.

"We seek stability, so we advance step by step. Every time we attack a city, we must occupy it."

"The court's policy has changed this year, so progress should be accelerated."

"What to change? Kill those who resist, right? Are we learning from the Mongols?" Zhao Qi was even more dissatisfied. The older his father got, the more brutal he became.

In his opinion, Zhao Yurui is now like Yang Guang, who is not only warmongering but also extremely cruel.

Jia Sidao sighed: "It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one. This is one of the fastest ways to end the war."

"If it drags on like this, it will take two or three years to finish the war. This is a very useful tactic that enabled the Mongols to conquer the world."

He felt it necessary to persuade Zhao Qi that this mentality was not the way of an emperor: "You can't just look at the negatives, you have to see the benefits."

"Whether it's the king or the local people, who wants the war to go on endlessly?"

Unexpectedly, Zhao Qi said, "Wouldn't it be better if we didn't fight?"

Jia Sidao was stunned for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "Just because you don't hit others doesn't mean others won't hit you."

"We are the Shengrong Dynasty. Who dares to fight us?" Zhao Qi said, "Wouldn't it be better if there was no war?"

Jia Sidao shook his head: "Our dynasty has more than one million soldiers. If we don't fight for a long time, the soldiers will become weaker and weaker."

"After a few years or decades, others will come and attack us."

"Besides, if we don't fight, we will waste silver and grain for so many years, but fighting can earn money and grain."

Zhao Qi sneered, you are not making money, you are robbing.

Wherever the Song army went, they robbed money, food, and land, and of course they made some money.

Jia Sidao also fell silent at this time.

He now understood why Zhao Yi and his brother had nothing to talk about and they just didn't get along.

"Zhao Qi..." His face turned serious and he taught his nephew a lesson in a serious manner.

"If you were born in an ordinary family, your character and ideas would be very good, and your uncle would think you have the potential to be a saint."

"But you are born in an imperial family. This is not the way of an emperor. You always stand on the side of other countries. Have you ever thought about the officials, people, army and merchants of our dynasty?"

"If the imperial court can't fight, how can military officers be promoted?"

"If the imperial court doesn't fight wars, how can merchants make money?"

"If the imperial court doesn't fight, how can the people have a good life?"

Zhao Qi widened his eyes and said, "When the imperial court is at war, how can the people still live a good life?"

"Has the war reached our country now? Have the people's taxes increased?"

"Because of external plunder, the court's fiscal revenue has increased year by year, the people's taxes have become lighter and lighter, and the people's lives have become better and better. Once there is no plunder, the financial situation of the Song Dynasty will inevitably decline sharply."

The uncle and nephew talked as they walked. Jia Sidao did not convince Zhao Qi, but it still played some role. Zhao Qi had to understand that he was of imperial blood and could not stand from the perspective of the common people.

We must have a broad perspective and look at all levels of society in the Song Dynasty.

Benevolence, righteousness and morality are sometimes not necessarily able to govern a country well, at least they cannot govern the current Song Dynasty.

In early March, Zhao Qi returned to the port of Borneo. When his ship docked, the harbor was already crowded with ships from the Song Dynasty.

It can be said that these fifteen years were the most developed fifteen years for the shipping industry of the Song Dynasty. The imperial court expanded maritime trade and colonization, and promoted the wealth of Jinzhou and Baozhou every year. Gold was everywhere outside, and not only official ships but also private ships were traveling all over the world.

In the 13th year of Yuanzhen, merchants from Fujian had already arrived in Australia.

Fifteen years later, some people from the Song Dynasty had already immigrated to Nanbaozhou (South America).

Pu Shougeng stayed in Nanbaozhou for many years, and the second batch of Song army's rotation troops also went to Nanbaozhou. It can be said that the Song people's ships now travel almost all over the world, and there are Song people's footprints in North America and Africa.

Due to the development of navigation, the shipbuilding industry of the Song Dynasty army also flourished. At present, there are 25 large-scale shipyards run by the Song Dynasty government, which are still not enough.

There are more than 300 small and large shipyards in the private sector.

The annual shipbuilding volume of the entire Song Dynasty was about 10,000 ships (medium and large ships with a capacity of more than 300 tons), far exceeding the peak of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties.

In the beginning, Zhao Yurui only allowed official shipyards to build large ships weighing more than 1,000 tons, and private citizens would buy them from the official shipyards, making a fortune at the time.

But later, as the Song Dynasty's navy grew in number and civilian demand grew, the official shipyards were unable to produce more than a thousand tons of ships.

In the 14th year of Yuanzhen, Zhao Yurui issued another order that civilians could build ships of more than 1,000 tons, but the sale had to be approved by the government. After this order was issued, the pressure on government-run shipyards was greatly reduced, and the speed of the Song Navy's ships was also increased.

Now there are eight large shipyards in total, with two official large shipyards and six privately owned ones, between Borneo and Singapore and Malaysia alone.

There are at least twenty or thirty other small shipyards in the local area.

There was an official shipyard of the Song army to the north and south of the Port of Borneo, which mainly built seagoing ships and merchant ships, and a small number of warships.

When Zhao Qi arrived today, he found that the harbor was like a dark cloud covering the sun. It was filled with all kinds of ships, and most of them were of 1,000 tons or more.

His boat couldn't reach the shore for the time being, so he had to change to a small boat and row to the shore.

After we arrived at Shangyan, the local naval commander Ding Haifeng came up to report that the imperial court was gathering ships here because ships from various places, such as Hanzhou, Fujian, Hainan, Annan, Champa, etc., were coming here in a disorderly manner and the order was a bit chaotic. Now there were too many ships, blocking the port, and it was difficult for subsequent merchant ships to pass normally.

Zhao Qi immediately ordered the ships assembled by the court to dock at the northwest port of Borneo (off the coast of West Kalimantan), rest, and wait for orders.

The northern sea lane was cleared to allow normal-traveling ships to pass.

However, it was not easy to convey orders at sea. It took the Song army three or four days to sort out the ships on the sea, arrange command ships, and provide follow-up guide services.

From early March to May, ships from all over the Song Dynasty kept coming to Borneo.

All the ships first gathered near Borneo. Zhao Qi went to watch every day and was very shocked. It was the first time he discovered that the Song Dynasty had such a strong mobilization capability.
On the eighth day of May, naval commander Ding Haifeng reported that 1,400 ships had arrived, of which more than 90% were large ships of 1,000 tons or more.

There are more than 400 ships belonging to the navy, more than 500 ships belonging to state-owned enterprises, and some ships belonging to some important trading companies in the Song Dynasty (these trading companies have been doing business and cooperating with the Song army for many years). For example, Qin Chen's family also has more than 200 ships.

Starting in June, the first batch of 300 large ships carrying large amounts of supplies and food set out through the Strait of Malacca to the border between Bengal and Delhi Sultanate.

Zhao Qi also went on the ship that day because he was in charge of the transportation and he wanted to see how the Song army conducted the entire process.

When his boat reached the shore, he saw countless heads of people on the shore. He didn't know how many tens of thousands of people there were. Some were working, and some were sitting on the shore.

This is a famous Ganges port, where the Song army forcibly conscripted local people to build a port. However, the port is newly built and due to time constraints, it is not big enough and only two or three ships can dock at the same time.

So Zhao Qi ordered the Song army's ships to go in in groups of two or three, and wait for the front ship to leave before the back ships followed.

Zhao Qi was on the first boat and the first to dock. The closer he got, the more shocked he was.

There was a huge crowd of people at the scene, all of whom were Delhi Sultans and Bengalis who were forcibly relocated by the Song army.

Everyone came with their families, and the crowd was filled with cries and shouts.

But once the Song army on the shore arrived, Zhao Qi's boat was not carrying anyone. After his boat docked, the local commander came up to greet him, and then the two of them chatted while looking at the boat behind him.

The boat behind him was the second to dock. As soon as it docked, the crowd on the shore was driven onto the boat like a tide.

The Song army on the shore were ready with swords and guns on the boat, forming a narrow passage.

People were pushed onto the boat crying.

If you slow down a bit, you might be pushed into the sea by the people behind you.

Zhao Qi had seen this scene when he was in Java, but Java did not have such a large population at that time, and the Song army was not so fierce.

Today the population there far exceeds that of Java, and the port is not big, so it is very crowded, and people are pushed into the sea from time to time.

Some people can swim back to the shore, but some people sink forever.

After watching for a while, Zhao Qi felt that people were like pigs being forced into a pigsty.

When a boat is full of people, it will leave immediately and be replaced by the next one.

When the first boat ended, there was a family of four, two of whom got on board and two did not.

One of the remaining two big ones jumped and hung directly on the boat.

Another person also wanted to jump up, but he missed the boat and fell into the sea with a splash.

Zhao Qi could hardly bear to watch it anymore and angrily said, "You are simply treating me like a pig."

The local commander, Li Tingzhi's subordinate Zhou Xiang, was stunned for a moment, then nodded immediately: "If we don't do this, the chaos will worsen over time."

The Song army had to pull away the tens of thousands of people gathered on the shore as soon as possible, otherwise if they gathered here for a long time, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating would all become problems. If chaos broke out, they would have to kill a lot to suppress it.

Therefore, in order to save time and increase efficiency, the Song army loaded the ships very quickly. It would only take a short while for a full ship to be loaded and then it would sail away. The following ship would follow and continue loading.

Zhao Qi only watched for half an hour before two boatloads of people were loaded and leaving the site. It was indeed very efficient.

"I see there are hundreds of people on the ship. With so many people, is there food and drink on the ship?"

"Yes, there are plenty of dried sweet potatoes and porridge on every ship." Someone behind him said.

"..." Zhao Qi wanted to say something, but in the end he just let out a long sigh.

So he asked again, "How long does it take to get to Bombay from here?"

"About half a month."

"What's the survival rate?" Zhao Qi asked again.

The people around looked at each other in bewilderment. After a long while, someone said, "Today is the first batch. We all have food and drink, and the distance is not far. Not many will die."

Zhao Qi turned his head and glanced at Tan Cong who was speaking.

Tan Cong's father, Tan Hai, was familiar with Zhao Qi. Tan Cong even brought sweet potatoes from Nanbaozhou, which made Zhao Qi credited with offering potatoes.

Since Tan Cong had already stayed in Baozhou for five years, he could be transferred back to other places in the Song Dynasty. In the end, he chose to follow Zhao Qi and serve as Zhao Qi's guard general.

When Tan Cong was in the Baozhou Navy, he was the deputy commander of the navy. Now he is a general, which is considered a demotion. However, he follows Zhao Qi, and the emperor will definitely not treat him unfairly in the future.

In this way, Tan Cong and his son are now considered Zhao Qi's confidants.

Zhao Qi was not in a position to say anything to Tan Cong. After thinking for a while, he could only say, "Instruct the troops to treat the people well."

"The King of Han is kind and righteous. I understand."

A few days later, when their fleet passed through Malacca, a small boat came forward and told Tan Cong that there was a dispute and fight between many people from the Delhi Sultanate and the Bengalis on a large ship over food and drink. The Song army was furious and killed a group of people. Many people jumped into the sea in the chaos, and some people set fire, causing countless deaths and injuries.

The other party wanted to ask Zhao Qi whether the person who fell into the sea should be rescued. If so, the fleet would have to stop two ships.

Tan Cong thought about it and said, "Shoot them all. The fleet should not stop and keep moving forward."

"promise."

After Zhao Qi got up, he reported the matter to Zhao Qi and told him his decision.

"You bastard, this is outrageous." Zhao Qi slammed the table in anger and pointed at Tan Cong angrily: "You, you, you, who told you to make your own decisions?"

(End of this chapter)