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

Two days later, the snowflakes of mid-winter fell quickly, and the ground soon became white.

After the Song army set up camp, they could no longer dig the earth.

Because in order to dig trenches, they had to clear so much snow first, but the snow in the north would seep into the ground and quickly freeze the ground, making digging difficult.

So the civil engineering work of the Song people encountered considerable trouble, and in the end they could only temporarily repair the camp before making other plans.

During this period, what Fan Zhongyan read the most were the letters sent to them by many aristocratic families in Yanyun.

Among the four great families in Yan, except for the Changping Liu family, the other three families tried to contact the Song army to varying degrees, and some family members even ran over secretly to surrender.

This is very similar to the scene before Yuan Shao and Cao Cao fought the Battle of Guandu.

The difference is that Cao Cao finally won the victory, and the aristocratic families in Xudu who secretly contacted Yuan Shao did not change their allegiance and join Yuan Shao's army. Even the letters seized were burned by Cao Cao.

Now Fan Zhongyan could not give the Liao army a chance to burn his food and grass - the Liao army could not even leave the city, let alone food and grass, and could not even touch the edge of the camp.

So this battle was more disparate than the Battle of Guandu in history, which naturally frightened the Yanyun family.

They would help whoever wins, which is an unchanging principle since ancient times.

Liu Liufu just happened to be the first person to eat crabs. He informed Liu Siduan of the current situation of the Liao army in Xijin Prefecture, Yuhe, Wanping and many surrounding counties.

Liu Siduan would travel between Xijin and Danzhou in the name of escorting food and grass every time, and then secretly spread the news to the Song camp in other ways.

This is much safer than spreading the news directly from Xijin Prefecture.

After all, Xijin Prefecture at this time was strictly investigated by the principles of the war official system. Except for the movement between Liu Siduan and Liu Liufu, who were brothers, it was not easy to arouse suspicion, and the other officials would often be investigated if they made unusual moves.

Yelu Zongzhen had actually noticed the problem of people's hearts floating, so after discussing with Zhang Jian and other trusted ministers, he made certain military adjustments.

Ordinary officials of noble families were completely unaware of these confidential information.

Liu Liufu was an exception. Although he was removed by Yelu Zongzhen, Zhang Jian still admired his ability, so he was always qualified to participate in the highest meeting and was able to know many military secrets.

Under such circumstances, the movements and military arrangements of the Liao army seemed transparent in front of Fan Zhongyan, and there was no secret at all.

However, Fan Zhongyan did not completely trust these messages, because these messages themselves were fraudulent and non-timely, and some of them were even deliberately released by the Liao army, and it was difficult to distinguish the truth from the false.

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan often needed to screen these messages and combine them with the intelligence detected by the Song army's own scouts to make his own judgments.

In such a confrontation, time passed day by day.

The weather in December was even colder. Because of the heavy snow, it was difficult for the Song army to dig trenches. Although they were also working, the workload was much less.

For this reason, Fan Zhongyan mainly focused on encroaching step by step, constantly harassing the surrounding Liao land. At least at present, the entire southern part of Xijin Prefecture is occupied by the Song army.

Moreover, even the Song army in Yunzhou has been fighting with the Liao army in Datong. The offensives on both sides are in full swing and progressing very rapidly.

But relatively speaking, as time goes by, the number of Liao troops is also increasing.

After all, in addition to relying on the Suwei Army and the Pishi Army with a total strength of 200,000 to 300,000, the Liao army also relies on the troops of other ethnic groups.

When Yelu Zongzhen chose to go to war, in order to prevent the Song people from discovering clues, he first chose to let his troops rush to Xijin Prefecture first, and then mobilize the troops of other ethnic groups.

The troops blocked by Di Qing at Yuguan included more than 100,000 troops from other ethnic groups, including Jurchen, Bohai, and Shiwei. After Yuguan was cut off, they were forced to enter the pass through Xifengkou, and finally arrived at Xijin.

In addition to the Mongols coming from Zhangjiakou in the north, the Liao army gathered about 400,000 troops two months after the war.

They were mostly stationed in Guihua, Khan, Shunzhou, Danzhou, Jingzhou, Jizhou and other counties behind Xijin Prefecture, which was almost from Zhangjiakou to Beijing Changping, Huairou, Miyun, Sanhe and other areas in the future, and was located in the surrounding areas of Xijin.

Therefore, the number of Liao troops at this moment was unprecedentedly large, but the corresponding food and grass pressure was also very large. The food and grass in Liaodong could not be transported, resulting in a rapid reduction in food.

If there was no Zhangjiakou route to go, the Liao people could drive cattle and sheep from the Mongolian grasslands in the north, and Xijin would probably have been short of food at this time.

However, the number of Liao troops increased dramatically, and the Song army was also increasing its troops.

In early October, the Song army defeated the Western Xia, invaded the Western Xia Zhuoluo and Nan areas, and beat Li Yuanhao to retreat in Xingqing Prefecture and dared not show up.

The Northwest Army immediately began to mobilize on a large scale. Together with the Central Army, almost half of the Song Dynasty's more than 600,000 imperial guards gathered in Yanyun. Fan Zhongyan alone had more than 200,000 troops, and the remaining 70,000 to 80,000 were in Hedong Road, attacking Datong.

The more people on both sides, the more the scale of the war escalated. Although the formal large-scale battle had not yet begun, small-scale wars continued to break out, and dozens of Song troops often chased hundreds of Liao troops.

Just because of the weather, the Liao people did not fail to successfully ambush the Song army. Taking advantage of the Song army's unpreparedness, they first attacked with bows and crossbows, and then suddenly rushed out, killing the Song army by surprise.

But in general, the Liao people suffered greater losses. The battle loss ratio once reached fourteen to one. Fourteen Liao people had to be killed or injured in order to exchange for the death of a Song army.

This disparity in battle damage ratio is still due to the fact that the Liao people had hand grenades. Because Yanyun and other places were not fully developed at that time, with a population of about 300,000 households, or about 1.5 million, the damage to the natural environment was not great. It was considered serious, so there were many forests in the Yanyun area at that time.

The Liao people often hid in the forest, first luring the Song army's scouts to chase them, waiting until they got close, then attacking with grenades or crossbows, and then suddenly charging out while the Song army was in chaos, so that they could barely win a small-scale victory.

But most of the time, the Liao people were still very far away and were shot down by the Song people, so they couldn't get close at all. Therefore, many Liao people were afraid of Song firearms. Once the scouts from both sides met, they were often far away and the Liao people would turn their horses and run away, leaving no time for the Song people to pursue them.

In this way, the scouts from both sides fought for a long time, and slowly the time came to late December in the sixth year of Qingli.

During this period of time, battle reports were continuously sent back to Bianliang. The newspapers in Bianliang updated the battle situation every day, which not only cheered up the people of the Song Dynasty, but also filled the civil and military officials of the dynasty with excitement.

December 20 is approaching the new year, but the Constitutional Yuan has been very busy recently.

Because the end of each year is the time to summarize the work of the previous ten months, including this year's policy, this year's reports of various departments, the development of various sectors, fiscal expenditure surplus, etc., all must be summarized.

At midnight this morning, many prime ministers in the Political Academy were in full swing after the morning dynasty. A total of eleven prime ministers, Zhao Jun, Yan Shu, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Li Di, Jia Changchao, Jiang Tang, Zhang Shixun, Xia Song, Zheng Jian, and Du Yan, were at work.

A large number of officials from the Constitutional Yuan came in and out of the room, constantly sending official documents recently reported by various departments. Basically, they were reports on the government affairs of each department this year and various financial expenditures, etc.

This kind of work efficiency is actually very low. After all, a country has a lot of affairs, big and small. Even if the Constitutional Yuan's current government affairs processing scope is only ministries and roads, state and county levels are often handled by various departments, but The size of a country lies here.

There are so many things, big and small, piling up, plus the need to summarize the work for the whole year at the end of the year. It is obviously not such a simple thing.

"I have read the official documents from the Ministry of Railways. This year's railway tasks have been completed quite smoothly. It has been built to Ye County and is expected to be built to Xiangyang by the end of next year or the year after that."

After Yan Shu read the work reported by the newly established Ministry of Railways this year, he raised his head and looked at Zhao Jun, and said with a smile: "We are building at a speed of more than 20 kilometers every month. In my lifetime, maybe I can sit on it for a while." Take the train.”

Zhao Jun also smiled and said: "Everything will develop much faster after entering the industrial society. This is just the beginning. When the second industrial revolution is completed, you will know what miraculous speed is like flying."

Yan Shu may be able to experience a train in his later years, but Zhao Jun feels that he may not even be able to experience an airplane in his later years. As long as the Song Dynasty develops fast enough, and as long as he lives long enough, such as living to be 120 years old, maybe In his later years, he could still dream about the 21st century.

After all, the total time from the first industrial revolution to the third industrial revolution is less than two hundred years. If it is operated properly and you are lucky enough, shortening the time by a hundred years and entering the information age early may not be a dream.

"There is also good news. The Ministry of Finance and Gross National Product Statistics for the first ten months of this year have calculated the fiscal revenue and gross national product. The fiscal revenue is more than 11.1 million yuan more than last year. Now there are still November and December. The monthly tax has not yet been calculated. Last year it was 100.921 million yuan. This year it must exceed 110 million yuan. "

Xia Song, who is in charge of finance, has just finished the work of his headquarters. Because he has been keeping an eye on financial matters, almost every month's expenditures and income have to be summarized, so the originally cumbersome finances are sorted out first. Obviously, this year's Growth is still pretty good.

Judging from the central fiscal revenue of a minimum of 110 million yuan, it is at least an increase of 9% over last year. This is still the revenue of the central government. If you include the fiscal revenue retained by local governments, I am afraid that the total revenue this year will exceed 150 million yuan.

"Well, the effect is still very obvious, but I guess it won't be optimistic in the first half of next year."

Yan Shu tapped the brush in his hand on the table with the end of the penholder and said: "The five trade routes we established before, the trade volume increased every year. But starting from the second half of this year, the trade between Xixia and Liao Kingdom was cut off. If two items are passed, foreign trade revenue is expected to be greatly affected.”

"This should not shake the foundation. Now businesses are opening brick and cement factories everywhere. More than 300 companies have been registered in Gyeonggi-ro this year. Once the money is used, the economy will accelerate and it is estimated that domestic business will be more prosperous."

Zhao Jun said: "The real growth rate has not yet been put on the agenda. Once heavy industry, light industry, construction and other industries develop and get on the right track, then the growth rate will be as fast as fast. It is normal to grow by twenty or thirty points every year. But at that moment, if there is no external blood transfusion, the internal consumption will only become more and more depleted. "

He suddenly remembered something and slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, now that the first industrial revolution has occurred, it's almost time to start paper money. We need to start improving the monetary system and determine the value of currency, otherwise relying solely on copper coins and Jiaozi will still hinder the development of business."

"That's right. Although people still use copper coins as the main currency in their daily lives, Jiaozi guaranteed by Jiaozi shops will only appear as trading objects when there are large-scale transactions. However, the medium-sized transactions of dozens or even hundreds of strings are now in great demand in the market, but it is still very inconvenient to carry dozens or hundreds of strings on your body."

Xia Song once sent his slaves to do business, so he was very experienced in engaging in business activities. Moreover, he had worked in the three departments for many years before, and now he has worked in the Ministry of Finance for many years, so he naturally understood these principles.

Zhao Jun said, "In this case, let the Jiaozi Affairs Director draw up a set of paper money plans, and I will modify it when the time comes."

He planned to officially issue paper money.

However, it was not a small-denomination banknote, but the kind worth five or ten strings.

Because the positioning was different.

Jiaozi is called paper money, but in essence it is a banknote or a large check.

The deposit of each Jiaozi must be at least 500 guan, and each application is often a commodity transaction, which is not popular among the people.

With the development of commerce in the Song Dynasty for more than ten years, the prosperity of commerce has reached a higher level, and small and medium-sized trade has become increasingly frequent, but in such transactions, there is a lack of something as convenient as Jiaozi.

Jiaozi will definitely not be used for transactions of one or two hundred guan, but two hundred guan is close to 16,000 copper coins, weighing about 1,400 kilograms, and it has to be loaded on a car for transactions.

Therefore, it is very important to come up with a monetary system that can solve small and medium-sized transactions.

According to Zhao Jun's idea, now that there is an influx of gold and silver from Japan, he can collect as much gold as possible as an anchor, and mint silver coins with silver, and let the School of Chemistry synthesize a synthetic silver similar to Yuan Datou, with a face value of one guan.

At the same time, cotton cloth, linen, silk and other items are used to make exquisite paper money, with a value of five guan and ten guan.

In this way, daily transactions below one guan of money are still mainly based on copper coins, and small transactions between one guan and fifty guan of money can use silver coins. For medium-value transactions between fifty guan and five hundred guan, paper money can be used.

It is only necessary to ensure that medium-value paper money is not over-issued, and that taxes can be collected, and then to handle anti-counterfeiting measures, so that the problem of small and medium-value trade with increasing demand can be solved.

This is related to the economic development of the Song Dynasty, and it cannot be sloppy.

"Yes, I will send someone to tell the Jiaozi Office later and ask them to submit the plan before the New Year."

Xia Song responded.

Then there were various official exchanges.

For example, this year's educational achievements, the road construction status of major infrastructure in various places, and this year's agricultural, transportation, and technological development, etc.

The most gratifying thing is that a few days ago, the steamship finally succeeded and is about to start trial operation.

Obviously, the Song Dynasty will step onto a new level.