In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Zhao Jun obviously didn't know how chaotic the generals were before.

Due to the indulgence of the court, the sons of the generals and nobles acted recklessly.

Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin gave up military power with a cup of wine, so that the generals and nobles were ordered to collect money.

According to historical records, Shi Shouxin "served as military governors for many years, devoted himself to collecting money, and accumulated a huge amount of wealth"; Wang Quanbin "seized the children of the people and their jade and silk when he conquered Shu" and let his troops plunder Shu.

On the day when Wang Renshan defeated Shu, he "took in Li Tinggui's prostitutes and opened Fengde Treasury to take out gold and treasures"; Chu Zhaofu "was quite stingy, and gave away tens of thousands of gifts before and after, and collected them all.

The rest of the generals in the early Song Dynasty, such as Cui Yanjin, Cao Han, Zhang Duo, Tian Jingxian, Wang Hui, and Li Hanchao, all made a lot of money and had a full stomach.

Strictly speaking, it is not their fault, because Zhao Kuangyin forced them to do so. For example, Wang Quanbin was a good person before he gave up his military power with a cup of wine, "he valued scholars over money, did not seek reputation, was generous and tolerant, and the army was happy to use him."

After giving up his military power with a cup of wine, he seemed to have changed into a different person. On the day of conquering Shu, he took the lead himself and allowed his subordinates to plunder Shu, "violated the constitution, killed surrendered soldiers, opened the public treasury without authorization, robbed women, collected a lot of money, accumulated the grievances of the people, and caused the bandits to flood. "

Obviously, this was done purely to taint themselves and seek protection, and they had no choice but to do so.

But the result of this was that although the generals and nobles in the early Song Dynasty lost their military power, they had a high political status and were very arrogant. Even if they did bad things, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi would often protect them.

With such a trend, many sons of generals and nobles would naturally not be too restrained, and they were overbearing and arrogant. Some even killed people at will, such as the second generation of Wang Jixun, a cannibal.

However, during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song and Emperor Renzong of Song, this situation improved a lot. The military power of the first generation of military generals was basically relieved, and the military power was firmly in the hands of the emperor.

In addition, Zhao Heng and Zhao Zhen did not have such a deep relationship with the generals, so they basically did not protect them. Instead, they began to use civil officials. Once the censors and censors impeached the military generals, they would be punished. The generals and nobles would often be severely punished.

So by this time, the second and third generations of the military generals and nobles had restrained themselves a lot, at least they dared not to make trouble openly.

Therefore, Zhao Jun thought that the military generals and nobles were very low-key, but he did not know that he did not know much about the internal situation of the army, and did not know that the military generals and nobles had done many illegal things in their own small piece of land.

He also naively thought that the generals and nobles were worried about the future. As long as they set an example and let the Cao family get rich, other families could follow smoothly, thus solving the problem of redundant troops.

So, at the regular meeting of the Political System Council in early September, Zhao Jun proposed the Vision Plan for the Fourth Year of Qingli to completely solve the three redundant problems.

That is, in the army, a large number of old, weak, sick and disabled people were eliminated, and land was distributed to the old and weak. Establish a state-owned company, Let the young and strong who cannot fight participate in the construction of rivers, digging canals, water conservancy facilities and other projects, and even participate in overseas voyages.

At present, the number of troops temporarily retained is about 800,000, and it is expected that about 400,000 people will be eliminated. Among the remaining 800,000 people, 300,000 are garrison troops and 500,000 are imperial guards. If there are too many old and weak local garrison troops, some imperial guards will be transferred to local garrison troops.

In terms of weapons and equipment, firearms will be supplied to the 50,000 elite imperial guards led by Fan Zhongyan first, and the other 750,000 troops will still be mainly cold weapons. Even if the steel production capacity is about to explode, it will take time. How can it be so fast?

Therefore, it is the best choice to focus on the supply of elites and ensure the combat effectiveness of the army.

In this way, a measure can also solve the survival problem of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have been eliminated, and at the same time At that time, the original military expenditure was transformed into the construction expenditure of the Ministry of Industry, which in disguise reduced military expenditure and increased construction expenditure, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

For officials, it emphasizes the selection and transfer of officials. Those with outstanding political achievements are given priority for promotion and transfer. If the political achievements are not outstanding, or even very poor, even if they are not greedy or occupy, they will not be promoted, and they will be punished, demoted, and dismissed.

In terms of redundant expenses, government expenditures were reduced, and the benefits of officials at all levels were gradually reduced, and this part was transferred to performance wages. And restrictions were imposed on royal expenditures to prevent the situation where an egg in the Ministry of Internal Affairs cost 8 taels of silver.

The only good thing about the Northern Song Dynasty was that it strictly controlled the royal family. The royal family within the five mournings was not allowed to leave the capital. The policy of "rich support but not use" was adopted, and only wages and salaries and fiefdoms were given, but no official positions and military powers were given.

Moreover, the national life of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties was not long, only more than a hundred years, so there were not many royal family members. By the time of Song Renzong, there were only four generations of Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Huan, and Zhao Zhen.

The three brothers Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi and Zhao Tingmei had a total of 24 sons, 60 grandsons and 227 great-great-grandsons. By the fourth generation, there were only 1,062 descendants of the entire clan.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the number of clan members of the three brothers was less than 10,000. The Jin army went south and slaughtered the clan members wantonly. Therefore, the number of Zhao clan members at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty was less than 50,000, which was still a big gap compared with the clan troubles of previous dynasties.

Therefore, in addition to proposing that the outside clan chief Sicheng be responsible for strictly managing the clan, Zhao Jun did not take action on the clan expenditure. He even planned to wait for a few years for the right time to relax the clan control and allow outstanding talents in the clan to enter the government and serve as officials.

According to Zhao Jun's calculations, the current annual expenditure of the Northern Song Dynasty can reach more than 80 million guan, including military expenditures of 50 million guan, official salary expenditures of about 16 million guan, and redundant expenditures of several million guan.

Then there are the miscellaneous expenses of education, construction, research and development, subsidies, acquisitions, relief, etc., which add up to only about 10 million guan.

If the army can be reduced from the current registered number of more than 1.2 million to 800,000, military expenditure can be directly reduced by one third, and redundant officials and redundant expenses can be reduced by several million guan, which can save about 20 million guan a year.

Based on the expenses of Wang Jing in the Han Dynasty and Pan Jixun in the Ming Dynasty to repair the Yellow River, if this money is invested in the management of the Yellow River, not to mention one Yellow River, three or four Yellow Rivers can be repaired.

So Zhao Jun still attaches great importance to this matter.

In order to dispel the concerns of the generals, Zhao Jun conveyed goodwill to the generals while pulling the Cao family to form a sea trade fleet.

This fleet is naturally not going to North America, but to Goryeo and Japan. Although the fleets going to Japan and Goryeo are increasing day by day, and the market share is gradually becoming saturated, Zhao Jun has people in Japan.

The fleet was formed in September and set off in October, first arriving in Goryeo and then heading to Japan. After dumping the goods on the ship, it returned at the end of November and arrived at Tongzhou Port in early January of the fourth year of the Qingli period.

And because the trade was all in hard currency, the sulfur, copper, and iron brought back from Japan were basically consumed by the court and purchased directly, so it was almost a sure-win business.

The Cao family invested more than 100,000 guan, and finally divided more than 200,000 guan, with a profit of double.

In addition, Zhao Jun also asked the Cao family to clear out some of the battalions of about 4,000 soldiers they had previously directly managed, formed an engineering construction corps, and contracted several river repair projects downstream of Bianliang to them.

From the start of construction in September to the completion of January of the following year, this trip was a net profit of 70,000 to 80,000 guan, excluding the wages for the soldiers to repair the river.

The Cao family made a lot of money.

Cao Cong himself had no intention of rejecting the court, but his family could not represent the opinions of other families.

Zhao Jun believed that as long as the Cao family set an example, other families would soon follow suit.

On January 10, the fourth year of the Qingli period, at the regular meeting of the Political System Council, Zhao Jun sat in the main seat and looked around at everyone.

Because tomorrow is Zhao Jun's 30th birthday, he is still very happy.

Although you will be one year older every birthday, it is still a festive day, not to mention that this afternoon is the time to prepare for the showdown.

"Corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other crops have also been promoted and planted in Jingji Road. The yield is not so exaggerated as 1,000 kilograms per mu, but it is slightly higher than rice and wheat."

"And it does not occupy farmland. In this case, as long as the court gives a certain subsidy, I believe that a large number of people will be willing to cultivate these crops."

"The production method of fertilizers has been promoted throughout the country and included in the performance evaluation of local governments. The disadvantage is that the price of gypsum is skyrocketing. Now the court is urgently digging gypsum mines, but there is no shortage of this thing. It is available all over the country."

"Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant has achieved a half-year output of about 4 million kilograms of steel through expanded production, which is equivalent to about 20,000 tons in tons, which is comparable to one-eighth of the current annual iron production of the Song Dynasty."

"There are some other miscellaneous things. Looking at the work summary of last year, all data have increased significantly. For example, the income from marine trade in the second half of last year has reached 19 million guan. , an increase of 3 million guan compared with the second half of the previous year, which is a cause for celebration.

Fan Zhongyan made a speech report and said with a smile: "In addition, after the planning of this year's large-scale military reduction project is completed, we will have enough manpower to start digging the canal between Mingshui and Zhangshui, and we can build a steel plant in Handan to increase our steel production again. It's all good news.

"As long as you are at the bottom of the valley, you can climb up anyway."

Zhao Jun also said with a smile: "The Song Dynasty is now in its rising period. What we lacked before was the vision to move towards the future. Now that the Political System Council is in control of the situation, as long as we follow the Political System Council unswervingly, the country will get better, and within a hundred years, my Eastern Pole Strategy will inevitably be completed.

"Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others actually already knew this year's plan. They kept it from them before because they didn't find a particularly good solution, which caused them to strongly oppose it, but now that they have found a solution, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, they don't have any conflicts of interest in the army.

Lu Yijian coughed twice. Since the beginning of this spring, the health of several old people in the Political System Council has not been very good. Historically, these people have died one after another in recent years. They are still alive because of the medicine brought by Zhao Jun.

After he finished coughing, he said in a deep voice: "It is not impossible to implement the redundant officials and redundant expenses if we make up our minds and think of ways. But as for the redundant troops, I have always felt that it should be done step by step. It is enough to lay off tens of thousands of people every year. Why do we have to cut it off in one fell swoop?"

"It will take a long time to lay off tens of thousands of people every year, more than one million people?"

Zhao Jun frowned and said: "Now is a period of great development, and we can't be timid. Besides, the court has found a good livelihood for these people, and their future may be better than in the barracks."

"It's still the same problem. The soldiers may not agree to the stability in the barracks, and..."

Lu Yijian hesitated and said nothing.

"And what?"

"And in fact, we all heard that the vacancies are probably more than 200,000."

Wang Zeng said tentatively: "The gap is probably very large."

They didn't know the specific situation, but after all, they had been prime ministers for so many years, so they naturally heard some rumors.

"."

Zhao Jun was silent for a while before saying, "Well, it doesn't matter much. As long as they all agree and cooperate with the reform, it doesn't matter if the vacancies are a little larger. You have to pay for the sins committed by your ancestors."

Who asked your ancestors to give up military power with a cup of wine and let the military generals and nobles collect money according to the order? If this matter is investigated, Zhao Kuangyin will probably be pulled out of the tomb and whipped.

So Zhao Jun really couldn't blame the military generals and nobles, and could only blame his ancestors for laying a mine for his descendants.

"I hope they can accept the conditions we offer."

Yan Shu finally said.

Now that Zhao Jun has pointed out the direction, everyone will naturally unanimously support solving the problem of three redundancies.

After all, it does not involve their own interests, and secondly, the civil service group does have some opinions on the three redundancies, so with some supporters, everyone is still willing to follow Zhao Jun.

Then everyone talked about the summary of last year's gains and the planning direction for this year.

It was not until the beginning of the morning, that is, more than 9 o'clock in the morning, that the meeting was adjourned.

Zhao Jun did not work in the Political System Institute today. He planned a lot of things last year, but mainly to solve the three redundancies and did a lot of preliminary work.

For example, increase supervision and investigation, organize production and construction, continue to develop water conservancy facilities, build canals on the previously unusable wasteland around Bianliang and in Henan, and develop more than 800,000 mu of farmland.

From the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song to Emperor Renzong of Song, the cultivated land was in an explosive growth period, from 290 million mu in the early Song Dynasty to 460 million mu in the early Song Renzong period, but in the late Song Renzong period, it suddenly dropped to 230 million mu.

This is naturally due to a large number of land annexations, and the landlords and officials with land concealed the land and paid less taxes.

In fact, land annexation is also serious now, but the court is curbing this phenomenon, and the scale has not continued to expand. Moreover, as local governments intercept part of the tax revenue, local governments can develop water conservancy facilities and increase the number of acres of land.

Therefore, at this time, the country is in the construction period, and the annual growth is still very good. Last year alone, the country increased more than 9 million mu of farmland. It is expected that in the next 20 years, the number of farmland will reach 720 million mu during the peak period of the Northern Song Dynasty, which will make productivity explode.

Seeing that the current situation is very good, Zhao Jun naturally has to prepare to solve the three redundancy problems. He plans to let Lao Fan preside over the new policy to reform the three redundancy problems in February this year.

In this way, starting from the first year of the Qingli period, the first round of official administration, the second round of recuperation, and the third round of elimination of ills.

Three rounds of new policies.

The entire Song Dynasty will become healthy and positive.

The only problem now is to appease the vested interest group of generals and nobles.

So in the morning, he asked Cao Xiu to notify the generals and nobles, and in the name of Zhao Zhen, invite everyone to have lunch together to discuss this issue.

Zhao Jun did not work in the Political System Institute. At about ten o'clock, he went to the Chongzheng Hall and talked to Zhao Zhen about what he was going to say at the meeting.

This time is also an alternative kind of cup of wine to release military power. It is best to have a good talk with them and solve the problem peacefully.

After the details were discussed, at noon, all the generals and nobles who were treated like pigs, brought their families and were summoned by the emperor to the palace in the name of a banquet to participate in the meeting.