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

While the Liao Kingdom was watching the situation and encouraging Xixia to test the strength of the Song army, what was the Song Dynasty doing?

Da Song was doing a lot of things at this time.

Needless to say, reforming the military is a long process.

With an army of more than one million people, it is necessary to arrest so many criminal officers, recruit elites to fill the vacancies, weed out the old and weak, and reorganize the troops.

It is even possible to simply cancel the designations of many compartments, armies, and battalions, turning the more than 2,000 battalions of Sanya into more than 1,000.

This is a huge challenge for both the Ministry of War and other departments assisting the Ministry of War.

However, the task has been handed over, and the obstacles from the upper levels have been dealt with. What is left is to be carried out by envoys from various places in conjunction with the Yushi Department and the Imperial City Department, and then selected by the Privy Council, without the concern of the Political Council.

Again, the Constitutional Yuan is responsible for the general direction of reform and supervising its implementation and implementation. The following specific implementation policies will naturally be done by the executors.

September 14th, twelve days after Xixia attacked Qingtang. It's late autumn, winter is about to begin, and the weather is getting colder day by day.

Although it hadn't snowed yet, the howling north wind outside brought a biting cold.

In the Constitutional Court, many prime ministers were wearing cotton-padded clothes and warming themselves in a brazier. They were reading the official documents below one by one. Some were checking the exam results accounts for the last month, some were reading official documents belonging to various departments, and some were using writing brushes. Review.

One of the twelve prime ministers is missing again. Sheng Du has been ill recently. Historically, he died in the first year of Qingli, which is 1041 AD. Now his life has been extended by three years, but he is already seventy-six years old after all.

This illness means that he has not been in court for more than a month and has not been on duty in the Constitutional Yuan. This means that after Wang Sui died of illness in the Constitutional Yuan, he will become the second one.

But there is nothing that can be done about it.

I don’t know if prime ministers have short life spans. Historically, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Wang Zeng and others basically all died between Baoyuan and Qingli years, that is, 1039-1041 AD.

They are actually not very old. Cai Qi and Song Shou are only in their fifties now. For example, Cai Qi is 56 years old, Song Shou is 53 years old, and Wang Zeng is 66 years old.

Keren's fate is like this, and it may really affect his lifespan.

Historically, they were demoted, depressed, and transferred around, and eventually died of illness early.

Now he is in good health. In addition to the effects of the medicine brought by Zhao Jun, more importantly, his mood is completely different, so the results are naturally different.

"Hanlong, take a look. This is the project report for the river management project in the first half of this year. I have already given instructions. According to the construction schedule, we will be able to completely solve the river problem before the river bursts its banks in 1048."

Jia Changchao, who is currently responsible for the management of the Yellow River, brought the official documents to Zhao Jun for review. Zhao Jun is the busiest person in the Constitutional Yuan. He does not need to worry about small things, but big projects require his nod.

Zhao Jun took the official document from Jia Changchao and quickly browsed it. The Yellow River is now a three-pronged approach, involving more than 300,000 civilians along the coasts of Hebei and Henan. From Luoyang to the lower reaches of Binzhou and the Bohai Sea, there are a total of more than 50 large and small projects. .

There are dredging of tributary waterways along the line, excavation of new canals, construction of dams in the Yellow River, water confinement and sand flushing, etc. All methods such as draining, blocking and dredging have been implemented, although it is not as large as the direct excavation of the Yellow River. , but the cost and the entire management and renovation work are definitely not easy.

"Well, now the imperial court has set up a cement plant, but whether it is a steel plant or a cement plant, the technical problems have been solved, and the remaining problem is the road problem. In the next few decades, the Song Dynasty's national policy is to Basic construction.”

After reading the official document, Zhao Jun said: "Currently, cement cannot be mass-produced for Yellow River management. Now we are using primitive methods. When the traffic problem of the cement plant is solved in the future, we will use cement to strengthen the Yellow River."

Just like a steel plant requires iron ore, coal mines and roads, a cement plant also requires iron ore, lime ore, clay ore and roads.

It does not mean that if you can find the cement formula, it can be put into production immediately.

If the three types of mines are unevenly distributed, the cost of land transportation will be very high. We can only follow the example of Wu'an and dig a canal and start inland shipping to ensure transportation.

For a moment, Zhao Jun was full of expectations for the steam engine. He turned to Zhang Shixun, who was in charge of the Academy of Sciences, and asked, "Deng Guogong, how is the research and development of the steam engine going?"

"The new Jinshi named Su Song is indeed a genius. He has solved many problems encountered by previous steam engines."

Zhang Shixun said: "However, although His Majesty found the principles of steam engines and the manufacturing methods of Watt steam engines from historical novels, the efficiency of the steam engines produced was always insufficient, and there may be other minor problems."

"Well, what many inventions in history lack is a sudden inspiration. To put it bluntly, the technical aspect is not worth mentioning. What I can do is to make up for this, but I am not omnipotent. I only know the principles of the steam engine. , they can only rely on themselves to explore.”

Zhao Jun sighed, and then signed Jia Changchao's signature, and said: "We will start preparing to go to sea again this year. The people in the gate will deal with what they need to deal with and return to their hearts. We must also make a gesture and not chill their hearts. "

"Should we go to Japan and Korea first as before?"

Wang Zeng asked.

"The markets of Japan and Goryeo have become saturated. Even if they can dig up mountains of gold and silver, the market is so small, the population is so small, and they themselves can't even eat enough. Only the upper class has the purchasing power. Why buy so many Song Dynasty handicrafts?"

Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "If we want to continue to expand the markets of Japan and Goryeo, we can only help them improve their productivity. But my Song Dynasty has just started to get better, and I can't help them yet. Let's talk about it later."

"Do you mean going overseas?"

"Yes, North America is now a blue ocean. Although the productivity of the Indians is not high, there is no market there. We can use food, porcelain, tea, and silk to exchange for their gold, silver, and copper."

"Winter is coming soon. What if we freeze when crossing the Bering Strait?"

Lü Yijian scratched his head.

As he got older, he became a little confused recently, and his thinking declined sharply.

Zhao Jun did not mock him, but just said: "We are preparing now, not setting off immediately. Besides, even if we set off in winter, it will be spring when we reach the Bering Strait."

"That's right."

Only then did Lu Yijian realize it.

"Minister, there is another document to sign here, which is the official document recently sentenced by Kaifeng Prefecture. If there is no problem, we will judge it in turn."

Jiang Tang also brought a document. In fact, most of the cases judged by Kaifeng Prefecture are now civil lawsuits. Criminal lawsuits are transferred to the Dali Temple and the Court of Criminal Justice. Kaifeng Prefecture is only responsible for arresting people.

However, Zhao Jun also asked Kaifeng Prefecture to hand over some classic and special cases judged every year, because he can see some livelihood issues from them.

For example, a private financial loan case occurred last month. At present, the Jiaozi Bank of the court is limited to large customers and has carried out many businesses such as deposits and loans. For ordinary people, the court will not provide them with loan services.

The main reason for doing so is that even in the information-rich era of later generations, when the bank lending business is fully rolled out, there will still be many problems such as difficulty in supervision and easy to burst thunder.

If this is done on a large scale in ancient times, the result may be like the Qingmiao Law. Due to unfavorable supervision and other factors, the court will lend money, officials and businessmen will collude, and the court will suffer losses.

So this business is not open for the time being, and Jiaozi shops are not opened all over the country. When the Song Dynasty makes enough money from trade, has the military power to dominate the world, and the internal governance reaches its heyday, it will be opened to promote economic development in an all-round way.

But the court did not open financial lending, and the private lending business of the Song Dynasty has never stopped. Last year, a Bianliang businessman used the excuse of going to Japan to do business to attract a large number of people to lend him money at high interest rates, and found someone to guarantee it.

As a result, the man ran away with the money and never came back after arriving in Japan. Seeing that the repayment deadline was approaching, the people reported to Kaifeng Prefecture one after another. Kaifeng Prefecture was in a dilemma and could only report to the Political System Institute.

Zhao Jun took a look and thought, isn’t this illegal fundraising?

The law was then immediately amended to define this problem as illegal fundraising, and then the guarantor was arrested and imprisoned, and the businessman who ran away with the donation was wanted nationwide, and the Japanese side was asked to arrest him.

As for how the people can explain it, there is no way to explain it. The court has money to compensate them, but the court will not compensate.

First of all, this is private lending, which has nothing to do with the court.

Secondly, and most importantly, if the court compensates for private lending, does it mean that if such a thing happens again in the future, the court will continue to compensate?

At that time, not only will illegal fundraising be rampant, anyway, the court will back it up, and some people will even do it deliberately, deliberately abscond with money and cheat money.

Therefore, the court will not care about such things, and can only introduce relevant laws to restrict illegal fundraising and capture escaped criminals.

If you are lucky enough to catch them back, and the money and property that were taken away are still there, then it’s easy to say.

If you are unlucky, the people can only accept it.

This month, a new batch of special case judgment documents came up. Zhao Jun flipped through two pages at random, and noticed a case inside. He smiled and said, "I didn't expect the Song Dynasty to be so far ahead."

"What's wrong?"

Jiang Tang wondered.

"This house-renting system is interesting."

Zhao Jun pointed to this case and said, "It reminds me of the full rental of houses in Korea in later generations."

This case is about a commoner who rented a house for 60% of the house price. According to the contract, the landlord should return the money to him after three years. As a result, the landlord failed in business and had no money to pay back.

Kaifeng Prefecture then ruled that the commoner should add about 32% of the house price and transfer the house from the landlord to him, which was considered to be buying the house at 92% of the house price.

"What is a full rental?"

"It's the same as the pawn house system."

"Does South Korea also pay a large sum of money to rent a house? Then why don't they just buy a house?"

"Because they can't afford it, they still borrowed the large sum of money from the bank."

"Oh."

Jiang Tang nodded: "That's indeed very similar to pawning a house, it's also borrowed."

"Water Margin" says that Wu Dalang rented a house in the county town. How could he, a sesame cake seller, have the money to rent a nice small courtyard?

It was similar to the full rental situation, renting the house at a price of 50% of the total price. After about two or three years, the landlord would return the money to him, forming the unique pawn house system of the Song Dynasty.

As for where Wu Dalang got the money to rent the house? One is to borrow money, and the other is to rely on his wife Pan Jinlian's dowry jewelry.

Historical records indicate that this method was very popular in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Because the situation in the Northern Song Dynasty was somewhat similar to that in South Korea. Due to the developed economy, people came to the cities to work. In addition to the capital Kaifeng, the other three capitals and many second- and third-tier cities also gathered a large number of migrant workers.

This caused housing prices to skyrocket.

During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, housing prices in Bianliang skyrocketed. An ordinary Bianliang laborer's income was 100 yuan per day, which was 3-4 yuan a month.

But at that time, the most ordinary private house in the outer city of Bianliang was worth three to four thousand guan, and the more expensive one was 8,000 or 9,000 guan. Houses in the upper grades cost tens of thousands of dollars, and luxury houses in inner cities are sky-high, with prices ranging from hundreds of thousands to even millions of dollars.

In order to buy a house, Su Shi sold a lot of calligraphy and paintings, and even borrowed money from his younger brother, so that he could barely make up the money to buy a house. His younger brother Su Che became prime minister and still rented a house until he was seventy years old.

It is obvious that ordinary people would have to go without food and drink for hundreds of years to buy even the most ordinary and peripheral houses.

This gave rise to a boom in the rental business.

This is where the house-renting system comes from. The all-rental house business in later generations in Korea seems to be the first of its kind in the world. In fact, it had already appeared in the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Jun said: "The situation in the Song Dynasty is a bit similar to that in South Korea. Bianliang is the center of major industry and commerce. The economy is prosperous and people gather in large numbers. It is difficult to rent a house."

"That's true. Nowadays, many officials are renting houses in outer cities or even outside the city. It's okay if they don't go to court, but it will be uncomfortable for those who need to go to court."

Li Di said something.

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "Bianliang will definitely need to be re-planned in the future. After the army is built, the city wall needs hammers and a part of it can be left as a tourist attraction. But even if it is demolished and rebuilt, it will be done later. It will be done before you learn how to walk." If you don’t want to run away, let’s get low-rent housing first.”

“What is low-rent housing?”

"It's the public house managed by our store."

"Build more public housing? But there is no land to build public housing in the city."

"Then build it outside the city."

Zhao Jun said: "Starting next year, we will move all the workshops built by the government to outside the city, and then use cheap land rent to attract private workshops in the city to outside the city, and create the urban-rural fringe, so that the population will People will move out of the city, which will also alleviate the rental pressure in the city.”

It is really not an easy task to build a country. Even if you have a high position, you can copy it for future development. But it is an ancient society after all, and its level of development and system are still different from those of later generations.

Therefore, every step of construction must be done carefully and step by step, and cannot be accomplished overnight.

The current situation is that only when problems are discovered can they be solved. Even if Zhao Jun is so many generations ahead, he cannot predict the problem in advance and solve it at the source.

In other words, he can predict problems, but there are too many problems. He is a human, not an AI, and it is impossible for him to do everything in advance.

So we can only do it step by step.

Jiang Tang worriedly said: "The construction outside the city is very poor, and the various facilities cannot keep up. Will it cause any problems if we rashly move all the workshops there?"

"Will not."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "What is the biggest need of the workshop? It is transportation. The Bianqu canal is not only found in the city. There are rivers outside the West City, outside the East City, and outside the South City for transportation. The workshops make the goods and use them through the rivers. The transportation of goods is their biggest need, and the rest of the supporting facilities are workshops. Wherever the workshop goes, they will naturally follow. "

"I see."

Jiang Tang thought the same thing. What the workshop needs is raw materials and finished product sales, both of which require transportation. As long as it is by the canal, can't it be solved?

Zhao Jun mused again: "This system of renting a house is the same as renting a house. When house prices have been rising, this problem is not obvious and it will not cause any trouble to the people. Once house prices fall, thunderstorms like those in South Korea will occur, which will cause trouble in the future. That’s big.”

"Hanlong means to rectify it now?"

Yan Shu quickly asked with concern. He had a lot of real estate under his control. Historical data records that this guy even had many stores, and most of them were rented out in this way. If he had to rectify them, he would suffer a lot.

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "Let's not make corrections for the time being. Judging from the current situation, housing prices in Bianliang are expected to rise for another hundred years, and large-scale thunderstorms are unlikely to occur. But we cannot bury the thunder. For future generations, there is no legal prohibition on renting houses, but it must be controlled by policy. "

"How to control it?"

Everyone is also very concerned. All the prime ministers in their group are rich or noble. Except for a few like Jiang Tang, which family doesn't have a few houses?

"The first step is to establish family homes for each department."

Zhao Jun said: "Officials should not rent a house outside. Those who can afford it will buy their own house, and those who cannot afford it will live in family buildings. The second thing is to move the population out of the city and curb the housing prices in the city. Then there is the expansion of urbanization. By incorporating Yuetai and Qingcheng into Kaifeng Prefecture, we will continue to increase the construction of low-rent housing. After several rounds of stabilizing housing prices, we will naturally be able to curb the housing system."

As the population moves out of the city, housing prices will fall. There will be more houses available for rent and low-rent housing, which will naturally reduce rents. When rents and housing prices fall, the mortgage housing system will become less cost-effective. So what is the choice? There will be fewer and fewer people in this system, and the thunder will certainly not be buried until later.

"Um."

No one said anything after hearing this.

Although doing so would certainly hurt their own interests, this is a policy that is good for the country's development after all, and who dares to obstruct it?

They immediately began to discuss the details for a while.

At the end of the morning, when it was almost time for lunch, Fan Zhongyan hurried in and said, "Something big has happened."