The Jiaqing Festival celebrations in the 18th year of Kaibao's reign were held in the Wansui Palace. The reason is obviously the name of the palace. Among the many palaces in the Bian Palace, in terms of majesty and magnificence, Chongyuan Palace is definitely the one, followed by Wansui Palace. , for a period of time, it was also used as the palace of Emperor Liu. At that time, the great ancestor Liu Zhiyuan also lived in this palace.
On the day of the celebration, the wind was sunny and the spring scenery was bright. It seemed that God wanted to celebrate Emperor Liu's birthday through warm weather. The entire city of Tokyo was obviously more noisy than usual, with the sounds of people and firecrackers intermingling. The whole city was immersed in a sea of joy.
The Long Live Hall is already crowded with guests and distinguished guests. The Han clan's descendants from Guizhou and the meritorious ministers are gathered here, all well-dressed and smiling.
There were so many guests attending the banquet that the Long Live Hall could not accommodate them. Five hundred tables were set up for the banquet, which were placed from inside the hall to outside, occupying the hall platform and the square.
In order to meet the employment needs of this celebration and banquet, the Ministry of Internal Affairs mobilized a large number of maids and eunuchs from the palace. The number of servants serving the banquet alone was thousands. As for the ceremonial guards, guards, ritual music, singing and dancing, there were also hundreds of people, outstanding A grand.
Across a palace wall, a row of new stoves was set up, with smoke and heat rising. More than two hundred cooks were deployed inside and outside the palace, cutting vegetables, blowing fires, and cooking, and they were very busy.
Even if it is a palace banquet, this kind of big pot meal will lose some of its finesse, but at least it can give the nobles a hot meal as much as possible.
The atmosphere in the Long Live Hall was equally festive, but a little more solemn. Emperor Liu and Empress Fu sat together, dressed in splendid attire. He was probably the most festively dressed in the whole hall, wearing a bright red robe with embroidery on it. The dragon patterns on the robe are all vivid and vivid. This robe is obviously specially made, and it is unknown how much thought and skill the weaver girl of the Shangyi Bureau spent on it.
This year's Jiaqing Festival royal banquet is probably the most ceremonial one. Zhao Pu and others have come up with a series of procedures, the most indispensable of which is to praise Emperor Liu and his achievements over the past thirty years. Summarize and boast.
Xue Juzheng, Duke of Ji, personally completed a congratulatory speech of tens of thousands of words, eloquent and eloquent, and read it in person in the palace.
Although the Long Live Hall was overcrowded, Xue Juzheng's voice always echoed and penetrated into the ears of everyone in the hall. He could have found a young man to do this announcement, but Xue Juzheng felt that it was an honor, and as he was The Minister of Ceremony does his job and is not willing to let others do it.
However, after reading this passage, Xue Guogong was very tired. Emperor Liu seemed to have regained his previous patience and listened particularly carefully. Of course, Xue Juzheng's articles were gorgeous in rhetoric, and the wording and sentence construction revealed a profound level. In many places, he I don’t understand, but it probably means a compliment to myself, which I guess is correct.
However, Emperor Liu still understood some key points very clearly. In the middle section, Xue Juzheng listed a series of data, which was particularly gratifying.
By the 18th year of Kaibao, the registered population of Han Dynasty had reached 907,839 households, more than 60 million people. This is only the registered population. Due to the limitations of statistical methods, population leakage is inevitable, coupled with the large number of movements and special The population, the actual population of the Han Dynasty, is even greater, more than 10 million households, for sure.
You must know that in the early days of the founding of the Han Dynasty, the population under the jurisdiction of the imperial court was only a little over 10 million. Even if the households of many separatist forces were included, the number in the country was only about 30 million.
After more than thirty years of development, the population has finally doubled. This was accompanied by long-term and frequent wars. Otherwise, given the development capabilities of the Han people, the 10 million household mark would have been exceeded long ago.
With such a large population, how to feed them is a big challenge. Of course, this is also an issue that the court has always paid attention to for so many years. Although the business of the Han Dynasty is becoming increasingly prosperous, farming will always be fundamental.
The achievements of land reclamation are naturally remarkable. By the 18th year of Kaibao, there were nearly 8 million hectares of cultivated land in the country, which was far more than during the prosperous Tang Dynasty. According to calculations, on average, about ten acres of land can support one person.
, and in places with fertile land and developed agriculture, even two acres of land can feed one person.
The development of agricultural technology is always moving forward, and after more than 20 years of promotion, high-yielding Champa rice has been spread on a large scale and is no longer limited to the Huaidong area.
In addition to food crops, the development of some cash crops is also rapid. The most prominent one is the large-scale promotion and application of cotton. This is a systematic development, not only the cultivation of cotton, but also the development of cotton spinning technology.
It can be said that the development of the cotton industry in the Han Dynasty was promoted under the strong support of Emperor Liu, and there was an accelerated process. He knew the significance of this thing and its important role in people's livelihood.
Therefore, for a long period of time in the past, he has been actively doing things that are beneficial to the development of cotton industry, and even promised huge profits to those who have made merit in this area.
The Anxi cotton farmers who returned eastward with Lu Duoxun were regarded as heroes in the promotion of cotton cultivation, and now hold the rank of fifth-grade official. This is one of Lu Duoxun's achievements that will leave a name in history.
Five years ago, Zhou Renjun, the prefect of Qiongzhou, reported to the imperial court a cotton spinning technology that combined the local Li brocade and specially improved cotton spinning tools. This attracted the attention of the imperial court. After testing, those tools could be greatly improved.
The efficiency of cotton spinning.
Emperor Liu spoke highly of this, and he was so happy that he directly promoted Zhou Renjun to the position of prefect of Guangzhou. With the promotion of new cotton spinning technology and tools, Han Dynasty's cotton industry also entered a fast lane. In just a few days,
The progress in one year is comparable to the development in the previous twenty years. Of course, there is no accumulation and preparation in the previous twenty years, and there is no current leap.
Nowadays, all kinds of cotton products, from cotton to quilts, from cotton cloth to cotton clothes, have begun to appear in the market in large numbers and have become necessities in the daily lives of the Han people. They no longer need to be paid by the government to promote development like in the past.
In the same few years, cotton planting and cotton spinning technology also spread from the Central Plains to the Yangtze River Basin, and developed rapidly. For the imperial court, it was also time to reap the results, not only the positive significance of food, clothing, and warmth for the Han people
, and there are more intuitive economic benefits. The imperial court also began to have tax revenue items in the cotton industry.
When talking about taxation, Xue Juzheng also mentioned a series of data that is enough to irritate people's eardrums. By the 18th year of Kaibao, the annual official tax of the imperial court had reached more than 63.49 million yuan, which was almost double what it was twenty years ago.
.
Among them, the Spring and Autumn taxes are still the largest part, but the proportion of commercial taxes and the profits of various imperial exclusive industries has also increased significantly. Municipal taxes, in particular, have experienced explosive growth. Of course, the basis for all this lies in the The common people of the Han Dynasty created massive social resources and wealth with their hard work and sweat.
Xue Juzheng's congratulatory speech, aside from the praise of Emperor Liu piled up with gorgeous words, the rest can be regarded as a summary report of the development of the Han Dynasty over the past few decades. Emperor Liu was elated and couldn't help but be happy. He also discussed things with Queen Fu next to him from time to time, as if telling his pride.
Back then, when the Kaiyuan Dynasty was changed to Kaibao, Emperor Liu made an appointment with his ministers and set a goal of catching up with the Grand Kaiyuan and Tianbao. Now, eighteen years after the unification of the world, this goal has been initially achieved.
Whether it is in terms of population, cultivated land or tax revenue, it has achieved transcendence. Economically, it is all-round coverage. Culturally, it is equally brilliant. The major types of books compiled by the imperial court are one of the symbols. As for Chinese words Long and short sentences have gradually become cultural symbols of an era.
Another thing that has to be mentioned is the military achievements. Li Longji kept trying to circumvent the enemy. In the end, not only was it difficult to control the stubborn enemy, but it also led to the depletion of the national treasury, heavy casualties, exhausted the army and the people, and gained a reputation for being militaristic.
The Han Dynasty is not the same. It can only be described as an invincible opponent all over the world. Of course, the surrounding environment and situation of the Han Dynasty today are indeed much better than those in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.