People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 71 That’s what they owe us
Although China has a vast territory and rich resources, many open-pit gold, silver, copper and iron mines have been mined since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Even now, the Song Dynasty is still mining continuously, but it still cannot alleviate the reality of money shortage, so that by the Huizong period, iron money became the mainstream.

So in summary, the commercial and handicraft manufacturing industries in the Song Dynasty were actually very developed, but what was lacking was insufficient money.

Once a large amount of capital flows in, it will greatly ease the pressure on money and make the economy more developed.

The current situation in the Song Dynasty is that there has been an agricultural revolution and it can support so many people.

It’s just that countless landowners have annexed too much land, leaving many landless farmers without land to farm, and a large floating population has emerged.

Logically speaking, this situation was exactly what the industrial revolution required.

But the problem is that goods cannot circulate, and the total economic volume is only so large. Even if landless farmers move to cities in large numbers to engage in handicraft manufacturing, they still have no food to eat.

To put it simply, the current commercial market is a bit small, and it can only continue to suffer from internal friction, causing farmers' lives to become increasingly miserable, and eventually an uprising breaks out.

Therefore, Zhao Jun believes that it is necessary to expand the business plate and increase the business cake.

And the key to it all is money!
Money in business is as important as food in agriculture!
When the Song Dynasty was short of money, it had to grab it.

There happened to be a piece of fat next to it. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this piece of fat would become the main source of silver and foreign exchange in the coastal areas of Jiangnan.

But in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most people closed the country to the sea and closed the country. Basically, these silver and foreign exchange were earned by the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, instead of taking advantage of the bad ones along the Jiangnan coast in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is better to take advantage of the current Song Dynasty.

At least the Song Dynasty has always been adhering to an open attitude and doing all its business in Europe.

As long as such productivity and capital inflow can be maintained, sooner or later the world's wealth will be concentrated in the Song Dynasty, allowing the Song Dynasty to maintain its strong national power!

But after Zhao Jun finished speaking, a hint of embarrassment appeared on everyone's faces.

Zhao Zhen said hesitantly: "Do you mean to send troops to Japan to rob their gold, silver and copper mines?"

"Why not?"

Zhao Jun asked in confusion: "Didn't I make it clear enough?"

Song Shou, who once served as Honglu Shaoqing, had no choice but to say awkwardly: "Japan has had good relations with us for many years. It would be detrimental to morality to send troops to attack."

"What kind of shit is morally wrong?"

Zhao Jun was unhappy at the time and said: "I hate you rotten scholars the most. The interests of the country always override personal morality. Don't you understand the principle of unjust war in the Spring and Autumn Period?"

"Forehead"

Everyone was even more embarrassed, even Zhao Zhen looked a little embarrassed.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Jun frowned.

There must be something inside.

He couldn't help but start to recall carefully. He had not read "History of the Song Dynasty" very much, but when he was studying "History of the Tang Dynasty", he had heard someone say it.

The "History of the Tang Dynasty" contains a large number of official records of exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and Japan, but this aspect is almost completely absent from the "History of the Song Dynasty".

Is it because Japan closed itself off at this time and stopped communicating with the Song Dynasty?
It makes no sense. He remembered that during the Song Dynasty, didn't a large number of Japanese come to the Song Dynasty to do business?
"What is going on? We are discussing an important issue in the development of the country. How come everyone is talking about mother-in-law and mother-in-law?"

Zhao Jun was a little impatient.

Everyone looked at each other, and finally Song Shou told him the reason.

It turns out that the international situation of the Song Dynasty was not very good at this time.

The Liao Kingdom and Xixia in the north, Tubo in the west, Dali and Yue Dynasty in the southwest, and Goryeo in the northeast all have relatively tense relations with the Song Dynasty.

Dali is pretty good, but Liao, Xixia, Tubo, and Yue are different. Both sides have troops on the border.

At first, Goryeo had a good relationship with the Song Dynasty, but it couldn't handle the fact that the Liao Kingdom was next to it. After the Battle of Chanzhou, the Liao Kingdom seemed to be defeated, but it lost all face, which led to the further weakening of the Song Dynasty's influence. In the end, Goryeo and the Song Dynasty Break off diplomatic relations.

Under this situation, the only countries that can barely maintain relations with the Song Dynasty are Japan and Dali.

Even Japan has had no official exchanges with the Song Dynasty in recent years due to the pressure of the Liao Kingdom. There are only private business exchanges. This is why the "History of the Song Dynasty" does not record official exchanges between the Song Dynasty and Japan.

If troops were sent to attack Japan, the situation of the Song Dynasty would be even worse.

It was originally surrounded from all sides and had been enemies on land before. If Japan had not been conquered and they broke off diplomatic relations with them and harassed the southern coastal areas of the Song Dynasty from the sea, it would be a big disaster for the Song Dynasty.

"I'm so damn convinced."

After listening to Song Shou's explanation, Zhao Jun looked at the group of birdmen and clenched his fists, trying not to get angry to death.

This is not the Japan of later generations, but the Japan of the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Jun has studied "World History" and knows that Japan today is in the Heian Era. Although it is not lagging behind and becoming a primitive tribe, it is still very different from the Song Dynasty in terms of national power, productivity and strength.

To put it simply, Japan at that time can be understood as a smaller version of the Late Tang Dynasty. No matter the system, culture, clothing, or architecture, they all imitated the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, the feudal princes were divided and rebellions continued.

Even at that period, Japan had not yet integrated into one nation. Among the four islands, there were still claims of indigenous people, conquerors and even colonizers.

Some places, such as Honshu Island and Kyushu Island, are close to China. They have learned advanced culture and have a higher level of civilization. Some places, such as Hokkaido and Shikoku Island, have a much lower level of civilization.The various local forces are basically one city and one country, and they operate independently.

It can be said that Japan in the Song Dynasty was not a whole at all, nor did it have a strong government. The so-called emperor's power was limited, and the national affairs were also controlled by the Fujiwara family, the emperor's in-laws. The central control area was basically maintained around Honshu Island, which was far from radiating to the entire country. Japan.So in a sense, Japan is actually very weak now. It was not until the Kamakura Shogunate era, when the Yuan Dynasty invaded, that a large number of local princes joined forces with the Kamakura Shogunate to resist the Yuan Dynasty's attack, and the Kamakura Shogunate was objectively strengthened. The rule of Japan increased the centralization of power in Japan.

The result was such a fragile country that even the Song Dynasty could not handle, which was really disappointing.

The more Zhao Jun thought about it, the angrier he became. He was so angry that he gave them a fierce middle finger: "You can't even handle a place like Japan. You guys are too useless, so how can you be successful? "

"But our Song Dynasty is already surrounded by enemies on all sides. If we attack Japan again, will we make too many enemies?"

Lu Yijian expressed concern.

"And we don't know much about Japan's internal situation. If we send troops hastily, I'm afraid something unexpected will happen."

"Yes, otherwise we should put this matter on hold for now and send someone to understand the situation before we discuss it."

"Well, I also think it's best not to rush things."

Several prime ministers expressed their opinions.

Even Wang Zeng, who had no dealings with Lu Yijian, thought that he should not be impatient.

Everyone's words almost made Zhao Jun faint.

He hated the fact that iron cannot become steel, pointed at them and said: "You are so stupid! You can make people angry to death!"

Lu Yijian was not happy and frowned: "Zhao Jun, stop using dirty words. We are all scholars, how can we be polite and polite?"

"The key point is that you can really piss people off. Do you know how the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty fell? It's just that you scholar-bureaucrats are pedantic and stupid because of reading, and you don't know how to adapt."

Zhao Jun said angrily: "There are many ways of invasion, economic invasion, cultural invasion, political invasion, military invasion. I'm not asking you to send troops immediately to wipe out the entire Japan. I just want you to plunder resources. Without intelligence, the Song Dynasty didn't have Are there many Japanese businessmen? Ask them to find out how much influence the Tang and Song Dynasties had on Japan? Don’t you know how to find Japanese traitors in Japan? Japan’s central power is insufficient and local feudal towns are divided, so you will not find local feudal towns to win over Are they giving conditions, supporting local agents, and mining their national assets? Are they secretly provoking them to fight among themselves, instigating their warriors to rebel against the central government, colluding with their merchants and landlords to send slaves for mining, and looking for people to replace them? Song propaganda.”

Zhao Jun mentioned more than ten policies in one breath that later led to the colonization of the world, and everyone was dumbfounded.

The unscrupulousness brought about by later generations really shocked these monarchs and ministers who had never seen the world.

They discovered that these tricks were really destructive. Is this something that humans can do?
But thinking about it carefully, it seems that it really can work.

Because the Song Dynasty has relatively close commercial exchanges with Japanese people, it does understand the domestic situation in Japan relatively well.

Nowadays, Japan is already in a state of separatism and internal strife. As long as it is not a direct armed invasion, with Japan's admiration for the Tang and Song culture, it seems that they can really intervene in Japan's domestic affairs in various ways.

It's just that these moves were a bit too sinister and vicious, which made the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty, who considered themselves gentlemen, look at each other with hesitation.

Wang Sui hesitated and said: "We, China, are a country of etiquette and have always convinced people with virtue. Can these methods be used?"

"madness."

Zhao Jun glanced at him: "As I said before, in international exchanges, strength is always the basis for safeguarding justice, and national defense is the real backing of diplomacy. Dignity is only on the edge of the sword, and truth is only within the range of the cannon! Do you know what Confucius said about convincing people with virtue?"

"What is it?"

Wang Sui wrote subconsciously.

"That's telling you that if you hold a sword in your right hand with the word "virtue" engraved on it, and put the sword on people's necks, they will obey. There is also Chao Wen Dao, who will die at night. That's when I know in the morning The enemy's road leads to death at night, do you understand?"

Zhao Jun scolded loudly.

These words shocked Wang Sui, as well as Zhao Zhen, Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Yan Shu, Fan Zhongyan, Cai Qi, Sheng Du, Song Shou and others.

Because although these words are all distortions of the holy will, they are really reasonable and quite satisfying.

After all, doing this kind of thing violates the norms of scholar-bureaucrats.

Therefore, everyone still dare not take up the challenge.

Even Zhao Zhen closed his mouth and only dared to watch Zhao Jun's rage quietly.

Finally, Yan Shu, who had always supported Zhao Jun, stood up and asked tentatively: "So, are we really going to attack Japan?"

"Not attacking, but cooperating with them!"

Zhao Jun sneered and said: "Military invasion will only make them more united. Only cultural invasion and political invasion are silent. Now you can give me a nice word, will we do anything about it?"

"Is this another discussion?"

Zhao Zhen was still a little hesitant.

Zhao Jun said coldly: "If you can't do it, don't discuss it. I won't give you any advice in the future. You can make up your own mind."

Lu Yijian said helplessly: "Zhao Jun, attacking a country is a big deal. No matter what you do, you have to think twice before taking action. Will there be any serious consequences if you are so reckless?"

"There are no consequences. As long as the right method is used, based on my understanding of Japan now, there is no way they can resist it, not even the Liao Kingdom. The Liao Kingdom has no navy!"

Zhao Jun said seriously: "And the method I used is already the mildest method. The Japanese will not think that this is an invasion. By the time they react, the mineral resources will have been taken away by us! This is theirs I will remember every account I owe us in the future, and now I am just collecting some interest until the Song Dynasty becomes strong and prosperous in the future, haha."

By the end, Zhao Jun was sneering, and no one knew what he was thinking.

So much so that when everyone saw his almost ferocious face, they all shuddered unconsciously.

So what did Japan do in the future to make Zhao Jun so disgusted?
(End of this chapter)