Song Gexing

Chapter 135 Layout Jiangnan
"Taking a job abroad has the advantage of accumulating experience. Staying in Beijing leads to faster promotion, but it also involves more trivial matters. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. It depends on how you choose."

Zhao Fang bluntly said that it goes without saying that they all understand that it is difficult to be promoted to a Beijing official quickly, and it is easy to be a local official, but without political achievements and backing, basically you can only wait for qualifications.

Now that the three of them are in the eyes of the crown prince, they naturally have backgrounds, but they have to do their own political achievements. Zhao Fang is not a mediocre master, so how could he want someone to be a fool.

Without any hesitation, the three of them said almost at the same time: "I would like to serve outside!"

"Only by accumulating experience can you govern the country." Zhang Dun said.

"How dare you be promoted without political achievements." This is what Su Shi said.

Zhang Zaize said: "Only foreign officials have free time to study literature. If they are in the capital, ministers can only be tired of writing documents and cannot meditate."

Zhao Fang rolled his eyes and said: "Everyone is like this, Shuyuan is like this, Jingwen is like this, and you are like this too, as if I am a big tiger."

The three of them all laughed when they heard this. Yan Shu has now become an official. Yan Jidao and Liu Jisun have been abroad for four years and still don't want to come back.

But the fate of the two people has indeed changed. Without Yan Shu, no one dares to bully Yan Jidao. Although his political performance has been poor in recent years, it is not too bad.

This guy is not an official material, and he has no scheming at all. If people didn't know that he was a princeling, he would have been tricked and returned home.

Liu Jisun is much better than him. He has passed the examination every year for three years and has already presided over a county and became the chief official.

"Okay, okay, you three can go to Jiangnan."

Zhao Fang said with disgust on his face, and the three of them asked curiously: "Why Jiangnan?"

"In recent years, taxes in Jiangnan have been increasing, but food has not increased. I know that is because the proportion of commercial taxes is increasing. I am worried that people only focus on business and forget that agriculture is the foundation."

The major grain-producing provinces in the Northern Song Dynasty were not the Jiangnan region that later became known. The so-called Suhu and Suhu areas were ripe and the world was sufficient. That was a matter of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Huguang is well-known in the world, and it has nothing to do with the Northern Song Dynasty. It was not until Zhang Dun came to power in the Northern Song Dynasty that Hunan was truly pacified. Before that, Xiangxi did not listen to the imperial orders.

In fact, until the early Qing Dynasty, Hunan was an area full of chieftains, and many places were under the jurisdiction of Jisi. The imperial decrees were just a piece of paper.

This problem was not changed until Yongzheng's successful reform of the country. Zhang Dun did it briefly in the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Northern Song Dynasty perished in just a few decades.

The Southern Song Dynasty couldn't control it at all, because there was no longer a prime minister like Zhang Dun who was superb in talent and means. Zhang Dun could be said to be ruthless and very good at attacking people's hearts.

This is also an important reason why he was considered a treacherous minister by the Song people. There is a story about Zhang Dun's boldness, saying that he and Su Shi were good buddies. When they were officials in Fengxiang Mansion, the two went on a trip.

In front of a ravine with thousands of cliffs and only a crossbar across it, Zhang Dun walked over without fear and brushed ink on the cliff, but Su Shi did not dare to go over.

Therefore, Su Shi said that he could kill people. Zhang Dun asked why. Su Shi said that anyone who could fight with him would definitely be able to kill people. Zhang Dun laughed.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Hubei and Jiangxi produced the most grain. Jiangxi's water-transported grain accounted for one-fifth of the country's grain, followed by Henan and Shandong.

However, after Zhao Fang's New Deal went smoothly, a lot of fields were added to Jiangnan and large areas of wasteland were opened up. However, Jiangnan's developed industry and commerce made the people reluctant to grow food.

A large amount of land was used to grow cotton and mulberry trees. Although there was no shortage of food in the Song Dynasty and the population was growing steadily, people without long-term worries must have short-term worries.If this phenomenon is allowed to spread, it will never be a good thing for the court. If there is a natural disaster in a few years, it will be a famine that will starve the land.

At that time, money will be nothing more than waste paper. As the prince, Zhao Fang naturally has to take precautions to curb this trend.

Of course, business needs it, but it cannot usurp farmland. It must ensure that there is enough food every year and there must be a certain surplus.

The three people looked serious, raised their hands and said solemnly: "Your Highness has a far-reaching vision, and I will take your orders!"

Two months later, the civil service selection was completed. Zhang Dun went to Mingzhou to join the army for recording affairs, Su Shi went to Hangzhou to join the army for Sihu, and Zhang Zai went to Suzhou to join the army for justice.

Although they are all Liucao Shi at the state level, they still have higher and lower levels. Zhang Dun has the greatest right to join the army as a recorder, followed by Sihu, and the smallest right to join the judiciary.

But Zhang Zai had the least power because of Zhao Fang's intention. Because in the Song Dynasty, the judiciary joined the army, and many of his rights were concurrently held by the record-keeping army, so he had a lot of leisure.

This gave Zhang Zai time to study. Since the three of them were often together during this period, they all became good friends and went south together.

When Zhao Fang said goodbye, he solemnly said to Zhang Dun: "Brother Zihou, please remember that in addition to plowing the fields, I also want you to pay attention to one more thing when I ask you to go to Mingzhou, and that is to inspect the naval battleships and combat effectiveness, which will be of great use in the future."

Mingzhou was Ningbo in later generations. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the port status surpassed Quanzhou. Quanzhou was the largest port in the Southern Song Dynasty, but Mingzhou was called Mingzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Moreover, Mingzhou was also the port where tribute from Japan and Korea entered. It was renamed Qingyuanfu in the Southern Song Dynasty, and was changed back to Mingzhoufu in the Ming Dynasty. However, the name of the Ming Dynasty was immediately changed to Ningbo because of taboos.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the Fengguo Army was stationed in Mingzhou and had a navy establishment. The navy in the Song Dynasty had a very strong combat effectiveness, which was confirmed when the Jin soldiers went south.

Both Wanyan Zongbi and Wanyan Liang suffered a great loss at the hands of the navy, which made the Kingdom of Jin no longer able to march south.

In particular, Wanyan Liang's four-pronged expedition south was defeated by Yu Yunwen's thousands of naval troops in Caishiji, and his own life was lost.

It was this defeat that made him unable to control his men anymore. The emperor had nothing to do and was directly hanged by his men in rebellion.

The terror of the Song Dynasty navy lay in the use of firearms, which was epoch-making in the era of wooden warships. Not only crude weapons like rockets, but also tubular firearms, the originator of artillery, were used on warships.

As the crown prince, Zhao Fang naturally understood the advantages and disadvantages of the Song Dynasty's navy. What he had to do was to improve the warships so that they could go to sea.

As long as the warships that Zheng He used when he sailed to the West can be built, not to mention the unrealistic search for the Americas, just control the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, it will be enough for the Song Dynasty to eat.

In this era, the European naval forces were scum. Any naval force in the Song Dynasty could destroy the entire European naval force.

What's more important is that if the navy can sail across the ocean, then there is no need for Japan to exist. He has been coveting this place for a long time.

It's not for those teachers, it's for the silver mines. Japan's silver reserves exceed those of China. This is something we absolutely cannot give up.

He never said it was because the conditions were immature and the quality of seagoing ships was a big problem. First of all, the problem was wood.

Without Liaodong, the Northern Song Dynasty not only lost its war horses, but also lost its source of good timber. Timber transportation in the southwest was a big problem, but now there is a solution.

(End of this chapter)