In the city of Bianjing, there were a lot of material discussions about Zhang Dun.
A report from Huainan made Zhao Xu couldn't help but frown.
"What a troubled time!"
He was holding the memorial from Gan Xianli who came from Huainan East Road to accept official duties.
Severe drought occurred in several states along Huainan East Road!
Although it is not as clear as a mile, the river flow has been greatly reduced, and a large number of crops have begun to wither. This year's harvest failure in Huainan is a foregone conclusion.
This is not good!
Last year, Hebei experienced alternating floods and droughts, which was enough to cause headaches.
If drought comes again this year, the national treasury may have to spend money for disaster relief again.
If not, they may have to recruit refugees as soldiers.
What’s even more troublesome is that the affected area happens to be stuck on the Grand Canal, the main artery of Bianjing’s lifeline.
The reduction in canal flow directly affects the amount of grain transported by water.
Thinking of this, Zhao Xu frowned even more tightly.
Bianjing City has a shortage of eight million stone grain every year.
Among them, grain from the southeast accounts for at least 80%.
It is no exaggeration to say that the current Bianjing depends entirely on the support from Southeast.
The Lianghuai region is not only the largest distribution center for Caoliang, but also the main supplier of Caoliang.
"We can't go on like this..." Zhao Xu said, walked to the bedroom, and asked Feng Jing to lead people to uncover the map of the world of states and counties in the Song Dynasty drawn by Shen Kuo hanging on the wall of the bedroom.
Covered with red cloth.
He stood in front of the wooden map and stared at the states and counties on it.
"Feng Jing..." Zhao Xu waved.
Feng Jing immediately came to him: "What are your orders?"
"Let me ask you..." Zhao Xu looked at him: "You said this cunning rabbit has three burrows, why is the lifeline of the country and dynasty all tied to this Grand Canal?"
Does Feng Jing know this? Even if he did, he didn't dare to say it. He could only say weakly: "Everyone, I don't know about water conservancy. You should ask Song Duzhi."
Zhao Xu nodded: "Yes."
"It is said that Song Yongchen should come to see me!"
"promise."
…
An hour later, Song Yongchen was summoned into the palace.
Since Song Yongchen resigned from his duties as the ambassador for the dredging of the Dadong River Road in the capital and the ambassador for the road repair of Hebei and Jingdong roads.
Zhao Xu asked him and Shen Kuo to preside over the affairs of the weapons manufacturing bureau.
Nowadays, the system of a bureau that specializes in manufacturing arms is almost straightened out.
The Ministry of Household Affairs is responsible for financial approval and budgeting, and the current person in charge is Zhang Heng.
Personnel and management were presided over by Shen Kuo, and internal supervision was carried out by the internal ministers headed by Song Yongchen.
"I respectfully ask that everyone is okay with the holy body." When he arrived in front of Zhao Xu, Song Yongchen was as respectful and cautious as ever.
"Song Duzhi is here...come and talk to me!" Zhao Xu smiled and called Song Yongchen to his side.
Song Yongchen immediately bent over, trying to make his height lower than Zhao Xu's current height as much as possible.
This is difficult for him.
Song Yongchen is five feet six inches tall. He has to lower his head to his chest to make him appear shorter than Zhao Xu.
Zhao Xu didn't say much, just pointed to the wooden map on the wall and said to Song Yongchen: "Everyone knows that there is another drought on Huainan East Road..."
"It hasn't rained for a month."
Song Yongchen listened quietly and made no move to ask for help.
Because he knew very well that if the official wanted to send him to take charge of disaster relief, a decree would be enough, and he would not be summoned to the ban for special instructions.
Zhao Xu said softly: "I'm afraid that this year, all walks of life in the world will start to suffer frequent disasters again."
The climate affected by the Little Ice Age was so unpredictable.
Sometimes there is severe drought, sometimes there are heavy rains and floods.
Even like last year, the two came together, with floods first and then droughts.
This impact is global.
Therefore, Xixia, Liao, Jiaozhi, Goryeo... will all be affected, and no one can get rid of it.
In other words, Xixia will definitely continue to experience severe drought this year!
so……
Zhao Xu knew why the party members had to tear up the peace agreement in the previous life.
He also knew why even the Tubo people started making trouble.
A natural disaster!
If they don't take over the Song Dynasty, they won't be able to survive.
Thinking of this, Zhao Xu said to Song Yongchen: "The ancients said: prepare for a rainy day, I am afraid that floods and droughts in the future will be difficult to eliminate."
Just the Yellow River is enough to give Zhao Xu a headache.
Although the east channel was dredged last year, afforestation in the middle section of the Yellow River began to increase.
But the problem is that the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Hetao area were not under the rule of the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, Zhao Xu even planted trees all over the Song Dynasty.
As long as the Dangxiang people are still cutting down trees tirelessly, then the Yellow River will still burst when it should.
It’s just a matter of a few years earlier and a few years later.
"So, I think it's time to prepare a few more back-ups."
"Bianjing City can no longer rely entirely on the Bianhe River!"
Song Yongchen's heart skipped a beat.
Don’t rely on Bianhe River?
Who else can you rely on?
Cai River? Wuzhang River? Jinshui River?
Taken together, these rivers do not have 30% of the transport capacity of the Bian River.
And they are more susceptible to precipitation than the Bianhe River.
But he still remained silent, quietly listening to his master's words.
"I want to open a port in Jingdong!" Zhao Xu pointed to the corner of the map, which was known as Shandong in ancient times and is now known as Jingdong Road.
"So, I want to send Douzhi to Jingdong Road to check it out on the spot."
"If possible, choose a good place in Mizhou or Haizhou on Huainan East Road as a good port."
Between Mizhou and Laizhou, there is a natural bay, which is the modern Jiaoxi Bend, where the famous Qingdao is located.
In modern Qingdao's economy, it ranks first in Shandong's economy and the provincial capital is overwhelmed.
Haizhou on Huainan East Road belongs to Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province in modern times.
Naturally, this is also a good harbor.
The first stage of the famous Huaihai Campaign was fought around Haizhou.
Song Yongchen bowed and said, "I understand."
He is very familiar with Jingdong Road.
Last winter, we spent two or three months building roads there.
Song Yongchen also had a very good impression of the local heroes who were simple, kind, and eager for justice.
They are all good people!
Not only are they willing to work, but they are also willing to spend money!
Thanks to these good people, Song Yongchen built hundreds of miles of official roads in the east of Jingdong and Hebei. He also carried out a dredging of the east flow channel and dredged hundreds of miles of river mud.
This made him, Song Yongchen, receive commendations after he returned to the court, and not only was he promoted - he was promoted to the post of the imperial guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the governor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
He also transferred the military minister rank, self-proclaimed political envoy, to Caizhou defense envoy.
"Everyone..." Song Yongchen thought about what happened last year and asked: "If we build a port and a town, I'm afraid we will have to do a lot of construction... I dare you... where will this manpower come from?"
Zhao Xu narrowed his eyes and looked at Denglai: "It's just like last year."
"Like last year?"
"Well!" Zhao Xu rubbed his hands, his face turned red with excitement.
Jingdong Road now has the richest surplus human resources in the world.
Those who harbored the dream of gold mining continued to pour into Denglai from prefectures and counties throughout the Song Dynasty.
Last year, Zhao Xu used them to dredge the east flow channel and repair the official roads in Jingdong and Hebei.
It made an indelible contribution to the Liao-Song trade this year.
In the final reckoning, the expenditure exceeded 1.5 million yuan.
But more than one million coins were recovered!
Although about 300,000 yuan of it is in debt.
It's probably impossible to take it back.
But Zhao Xu still feels very profitable!
Therefore, after the New Year, Zhao Xu continued to instruct Tong Guan and Shi Deyi to increase their efforts to promote Denglai's gold craze.
Many spies from the Detective Department were also sent to Denglai to collect news and create a model.
Therefore, every now and then, Bianjing Xinbao will publish a story about a typical person who got rich through gold mining.
For example, Song Dalang from Bianjing City was originally just a libertine who was disliked by people in Bianjing City. However, he found several gold nuggets weighing more than ten taels in Laizhou, plus other scattered gold.
Guess what, he actually rented a shop in Bianjing City, opened a foot shop, and married a charming county boss!
Another example is Yan Qilang from Jingxi Road, who led his brothers to pan for gold in Dengzhou. He got more than 500 taels of gold in half a year, so he returned to his hometown to buy land. What a great success!
In short, all models have pictures and truth.
The libertines and scoundrels in the exciting city of Bianjing screamed and lay awake at night, borrowing money one after another to go to Denglai to pan for gold.
Zhao Xu also specially asked people to take Bianjing New News to densely populated areas such as western Beijing, Henan Prefecture, Yingchang Prefecture, and even Lianghuai and Liangzhejiang.
As a result, since this year, the number of people going to Denglai to pan for gold has increased even more than last year, reaching more than 200,000!
In order to maintain order in Denglai, Zhao Xu specially ordered to transfer a general's imperial army from Lu Huiqing on Hebei Road to station in Denglai.
On the one hand, stare at those energetic gold diggers.
The government doesn't care what happens to them in the mountains.
But if they want to go down the mountain and cause trouble, they will all be arrested and sent directly to Xihe Road to plant cotton.
On the other hand, of course it is to collect taxes!
Zhao officials have always plucking their feathers, and Zhao Xu is no exception.
For a get-rich-quick project like gold mining, Zhao Xu would naturally have to collect enough rent and taxes!
In addition to collecting taxes, Zhao Xu was also very considerate and sent people from the Jiaofang Division to build hook rails and tiles that fit the physique of the Song Dynasty baby around the Forbidden Army garrison and the distribution center for gold diggers.
What kind of female sumo wrestler, puppet show, singing girl...
Cockfighting, dogfighting, gaming...
Everything is arranged!
We strive to allow gold diggers to enjoy entertainment similar to that in Bianjing even though they are far away from Denglai.
The main theme is one - Denglai getting rich and Denglai flowers, I want to take them home!
Everyone is satisfied.
The Kaifeng Prefecture is very satisfied - thousands more thorns have been removed this year, and the public security in Bianjing has improved greatly!
The imperial court was also very satisfied - everyone in the world went to Denglai to make a fortune.
The pressure on public security in various places has been greatly reduced.
I heard that many of the bandits who fell into disgrace from the Yongxing Army fled to Denglai to make a fortune.
The local magistrate burst into tears - I can finally get a good evaluation in this year's performance evaluation, and I don't have to be fined copper and have to pay extra time.
The gold diggers are even more satisfied.
The heroes who advocated freedom realized their ideal of lying drunk on the knees of beautiful women without leaving home in Denglai.
It’s really awesome!
The local people in Denglai are also very satisfied.
More than 200,000 young people poured in and panned for gold day and night, which played a significant role in driving local consumption.
As for security?
Heroes rarely go down the mountain except for gold mining. Once they go down the mountain, they soak in the hook-and-rail tiles built along the gold mining area and rarely go outside.
Those gold diggers who could not find gold for a while did not dare to cause trouble under the pressure of the Forbidden Army, so they could only make money by working as long-term laborers for local big families.
Naturally, the big players are not kind people. They will severely lower the prices for these people and continue to exploit them in a sustainable way.
Many engineering projects in Denglai and Denglai states are now being carried out by these heroes.
The local government has more and more leftover money.
Zhao Xu was even more satisfied.
The more than 200,000 gold diggers are basically helping him dig for gold.
Most of the gold they worked so hard to dig out through various means ended up in Zhao Xu's hands.
From last year to now, there are 10,000 taels more gold in the pile storage!
Now, the lovely heroes and heroes once again have the opportunity to show their value.
Song Yongchen swallowed: "Everyone, it's still April..."
April is the best time for gold panning.
Those heroes are probably reluctant to leave the treasure land that contains countless gold.
Zhao Xu chuckled, glared, and said: "The gold mine in Denglai is our country's reserve for disaster preparedness!"
"I have newly ascended the throne, opened up the mountains and forests, and enjoyed it with the people. Now that it is nearly one year old, it is the right thing for the government to close the mines of the Denglai Mountains and Forests!"
Where is the gold from Zhao Guan's family so easy to find?
Do you really think Zhao Xu is doing charity?
Thinking too much!
The old Zhao family even cares about the hundreds of thousands of tea tax revenue every year for fear of suffering a loss.
Not to mention such a big gold mine?
Song Yongchen lowered his head.
Zhao Xu continued hehely: "Of course, if my subjects are willing to share their worries for me, I will not let them down."
Song Yongchen lowered his head even lower.
He already understood what his Lord meant.
Want to pan for gold? Yes!
Be obedient and work for the government.
Otherwise, the government will close the gold mine.
The Song Dynasty was very strict about the management of mines.
On the surface, it seems that private mining is allowed, but in fact layers of obstacles and constraints have been set up.
The main thing is one thing - I am the master of my mine.
"The official is indeed the eldest son of the late emperor!" Song Yongchen thought in his heart.
Both father and son are obsessed with money, and they both want to take all the money out of other people's pockets.
However, the late emperor's financial management methods were far less subtle and gentle than today's.
The late emperor's financial management was an open and honest way of raising taxes and exploiting people.
But today, it is under the banner of "resting with the people", "light corvee and low tax", and "benevolence and generosity".
Try every means and rack your brains to take money out of other people's pockets.
He has already played countless tricks on a gold mine in Denglai.
What stunned Song Yongchen the most was that most of the gold found by the gold diggers who looked like Denglai ended up in today's sealed piles.
Occasionally, those people are still grateful and are said to be benevolent and saintly officials.
Zhao Xu didn't care about Song Yongchen's inner thoughts.
He hummed and began to give instructions to Song Yongchen.
One after another, brilliant words kept popping out of his mouth.
Song Yongchen became more and more frightened as he listened.
Because he discovered that although the officials kept telling him - cherish the people's strength, not forcefully conscript it, let alone violently expropriate it.
He was also asked to hire civilian laborers at 70% of the labor price in Bianjing City.
However, there are a lot of supporting measures such as hook-and-mortar roof tiles, fine sake brewing, and sumo wrestling storytelling.
Song Yongchen listened and thought of the heroes on the construction site last year.
Especially those heroes who lost all their wages, signed a lot of debt, and were finally sent to Xihe or Guangxi.
"I don't know how many people will go south or north this year..."
"That's right!" Zhao Xu was very interested, and the more he talked, the happier he became.
"Song Duzhi, remember to bring the intern medical officers from the Imperial Medical Bureau and Imperial Medicine Hospital with you."
In the leap month of this year, Zhao Xu issued another order, ordering the Imperial Medical Bureau to continue to expand enrollment.
The doctor resources in Bianjing were exhausted, so they went to Henan Prefecture, Yongxingjun, Jingxi, and Jingdong to look for them.
In short, it is necessary to recruit a large number of doctors and form a very large medical team to meet future needs.
"Also, after this matter is settled, we can set up a medical center in the Denglai Gold Mine area in the name of the Cooked Medicine Bureau, and order medical officers to sit in the hall and auscultate... I will discuss it with Chen Yijian in a few days and bring the cooked medicine to the hospital.
Let’s sort out the review system for the bureau’s medical officer sitting in the office!”
In this era, how should a good doctor be cultivated? Zhao Xu didn’t quite understand.
But what Zhao Xu had seen and heard in modern times told him - as long as there are enough cases to feed and enough surgeries to support.
Then, the doctor's skills and experience will increase rapidly.
For example, in modern times, doctors in Hunan are best at treating oral cancer, and doctors in Dongguan are best at performing limb replacement surgeries...
As he said this, Zhao Xu couldn't help but thank the heroes in his heart.
They are all good people!
The resurgence of the Song Dynasty cannot be separated from them!
()
This chapter has been completed!