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

There are many people who slander Buddhism and worship Taoism in later generations, especially the praise of Taoism on the Internet, and the slander of Buddhism.

But Zhao Jun knows that this is still a dialectical issue.

It is true that Taoists came down from the mountains in troubled times.

But during the Anti-Japanese War, many Buddhist disciples also came out of the mountains to serve the country and the people.

For example, the "Wutai Mountain Monk Company" mounted horses to kill the enemy and dismounted to chant scriptures.

During the Nanjing Massacre, "Master Jiran" of Qixia Temple risked his life to rescue 24,000 refugees.

"Master Juzan", "Master Taixu", "Master Yuanying" and other eminent monks ran around, calling on Buddhist youth and believers to fight against Japan and save the country.

Even in the new era, during the Wenchuan earthquake, "Master Suquan" broke three precepts and opened the temple to save thousands of people.

Among them, there were hundreds of pregnant women, and 108 newborns were born in the temple, which was a great merit.

So no matter Buddhism or Taoism, there is no shortage of compassionate people.

We cannot generalize and kill all Buddhism and Taoism just because some of them are frauds who pretend to be Buddhists and Taoism and ruin their reputation.

We cannot look at everything with prejudice and tinted glasses.

Zhao Jun is no longer the young man who only believed in the words on the Internet. He has learned a lot about Buddhism and Taoism during his visit to Songshan.

Therefore, although he saw that there were so many monks in Shaolin Temple who did not do labor service, owned so much land that was not taxed, and enjoyed countless pilgrims offerings, he did not get angry directly and suppress Buddhism in a one-size-fits-all manner.

Instead, he actively sought solutions, such as the policy of our country towards religion in later generations, so as to achieve a satisfactory situation for both parties.

A few days later, near the end of January, Zhao Jun returned to Bianliang.

As February approached, the temperature gradually rose.

The warm sun was shining during the day, not as hot as more than 30 degrees in summer, and the warm spring breeze was blowing on the face, making people feel relaxed and happy.

At this time, the suburbs of Bianliang were no longer the green grasslands, willows and the waning moon.

Instead, there were tall buildings and streets.

Places like Yuetai and Qingcheng, which were originally around Kaifeng, were incorporated into the urban area.

If dignitaries wanted to go out of the city for a walk, they had to go further away.

Shaoshi Mountain is located in Dengfeng County, more than 200 miles southwest of Bianliang. If Zhao Jun wanted to return to Kaifeng, he would naturally have to go back from the southwest.

When his carriage slowly entered the city, he saw a huge train making a humming sound from a distance, speeding across the plain and rumbling towards the railway station in the south of the city.

The railway station was surrounded by barbed wire, and there were crowds of people outside the station. Countless people took advantage of this holiday to travel.

Zhao Jun returned home, and there were still two days before work, so he studied policies at home.

He planned to travel around the world again in February this year.

Even if he went out for a trip this time, he could see religious issues. Specific issues should be analyzed specifically, and he still had to think about them carefully.

Soon two days later, it was the twenty-second day of the first lunar month, and it was another working day.

Early in the morning, all the officials gathered outside Changqing Gate.

They yawned and complained that the working time was too early. They had taken a long vacation and had not recovered yet.

However, they forgot that they used to get up at three or four o'clock in the morning to go to work. Now it was changed to seven o'clock, which was much better than before.

The morning court came and ended quickly. It was less than three quarters of the morning, that is, it ended at eight o'clock in the morning, half an hour earlier than usual. All the officials could go to the government office to take a rest.

Mainly, there was nothing to say.

The court was on vacation. Except for a few officials on duty, most of the officials were resting, so naturally there was no official business to report.

Just talk about some things about this year's New Year, such as sacrifices, foreign envoys, and the current situation in the northwest.

After the morning court, Zhao Zhen summoned Zhao Jun, and the grandfather and grandson chatted for a while.

Zhao Jun planned to go to the countryside to investigate again, and Zhao Zhen knew he couldn't stop him, so he asked about it and hoped that he would go early and come back early.

When Zhao Jun returned to the Political System Institute, it was already the end of the Chenshi period, almost nine o'clock in the morning.

Usually, this time is when the Political System Institute is working, but today, because the morning court was over early, when Zhao Jun came, the prime ministers had been working for almost half an hour.

Compared with other officials who were in a very poor mental state, the prime ministers were in high spirits, perhaps because the elderly had less sleep, and they were chatting in the house.

When Zhao Jun walked to the door, he heard someone talking inside.

"You don't know, I didn't feel any bumps on the train, I slept comfortably, and arrived in Xiangyang the next morning."

"You said it as if you were the only one who took the train, but I went to Yingchang, set off in the morning, and arrived at noon. I have to say, it's much more convenient after having this thing."

"Yes, I am old, if it was in the past, I would probably die on the road if I traveled a long distance to other places. Now with the train, it is much more convenient to travel."

"It's a pity that only the railway from Bianliang to Xiangyang is open now. When it can be opened to Jiangnan West Road, I will die without regrets."

Yan Shu sighed in the house.

He is from Jiangxi, and it is not easy to go back to his hometown.

It is difficult to travel by land and water.

From Bianliang, it takes more than a month to get there.

If there is a direct train, the journey will be greatly shortened.

It is a pity that the Beijing-Xiangyang Railway was built two years ago and completed at the end of last year. It officially started running. The farthest it goes is only to Xiangyang, which is still far away from Jiangxi.

So the current train does not provide him with the desire to quickly return to his hometown to visit during the holidays.

"Uncle Lari, don't worry. The future will definitely be a period of rapid development of trains. All parts of the country will start to build rail tracks. This time the Beijing-Xiangxiang Railway is to accumulate experience."

Zhao Jun happened to hear Yan Shu's words, stepped into the room, and said with a smile: "As long as the road is paved and more technical talents are cultivated, your wish will be realized soon."

"Hanlong is here?"

Yan Shu turned his head, saw him and smiled: "I heard that you went to Songshan Mountain on vacation this time. How was it? Is it fun?"

"To be honest, it's not much fun. I'm very tired from climbing mountains."

Zhao Jun walked in and sat down behind his desk. He glanced at the pile of official documents sent to the Academy today and said: "There is no tourism development in the mountains. Although everything is very primitive, many people in later generations should like this primitiveness." Taste. But in fact, there are no developed places. Firstly, there are no roads, and secondly, there are no businesses. It is difficult to buy a bottle of water. It is not convenient at all and it is very dangerous. There are real tigers in the mountains. "

South China tigers were not extinct during the Northern Song Dynasty. The Qinling Yellow River Basin happens to be their northernmost habitat. Songshan Mountain is a branch of the Qinling Mountains, and South China tigers naturally inhabit the mountains.

"Then you might as well take the train. Xiangyang also has unique scenery. You can see Xian Mountain and Wollongong."

Fan Zhongyan took an official document and said, "I went to pay homage to the place where Wu Hou cultivated, but unfortunately there are no thatched houses there anymore."

"I don't want to go to Nanyang and take the train."

Zhao Jun also picked up the official document and prepared to handle today's official business, and said: "It has been more than 800 years from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. There is no cultural relic protection these days. The thatched cottage definitely does not exist, but isn't the Wuhou Temple still there? Next time Go and have a look?"

"Sichuan and Shu?"

Fan Zhongyan raised his head, his eyes full of yearning and said: "I would like to go, but it's too far away. How can I dare to leave my post without permission?"

Zhao Jun can travel around the world and conduct research across the country, but they can't.

It's not that Zhao Zhen restricted their freedom, but this year is already 1049 AD. Fan Zhongyan is already 60 years old. Historically, he will die of illness in four years.

The other prime ministers are all in their sixties. The older ones like Li Di and Zhang Shixun were prime ministers during the Zhenzong period of the Song Dynasty, and are in their seventies or eighties.

If he continues to struggle like Zhao Jun and travels all over the country, he will really live long.

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "Then just wait a few more years. When the train from Chengdu to Chang'an opens, you can take a boat from Bianliang, go to Chang'an first, and then take the train to Chengdu."

"Yes."

Fan Zhongyan nodded and said: "When the train opens, we can go anywhere. I really look forward to that day coming soon."

At the beginning, Zhao Jun decided to build the first railway, the Beijing-Xiangxiang Railway, connecting Bianliang to Xiangyang.

In this way, goods from Sichuan do not have to go to Zhejiang for turnover. Instead, they go north from Hankou, along the Han River to Xiangyang to unload the goods, and take a train to Kaifeng.

The second railway is the railway from Chengdu to Chang'an.

This makes up for the problem that there is no canal from Guanzhong to Sichuan, only land.

In the future, goods from Sichuan and Shu can be transported to Chang'an by train, and then shipped directly from Chang'an to Bianliang.

In this way, the entire Song Dynasty completed the economic cycle.

Sichuan no longer needs to be as closed as before. It can only rely on the Yangtze River to transport goods to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and then transport them to the north through canals, which incurs a lot of transportation costs.

Businessmen from Bashu can go north to communicate with Guanzhong, and merchants from Guanzhong can also go south to communicate with Bashu, which solves the eternal problem of the difficult road to Shu.

The only problem is that the Ministry of Railways currently only has experience in building roads in plains.

Even the best Chencang Road in Sichuan has many high mountains and ridges, making railway construction very difficult. Even with explosives, the construction speed will never be as fast as the Beijing-Xiangxiang Railway.

But there is a first time for everything, especially building bridges and roads. You should not be deterred by the difficulty. Therefore, as early as the second half of last year, Zhao Jun asked the Ministry of Railways to start the construction task.

And not only the Changcheng Railway from Chang'an to Chengdu, but also the Beijing-North Railway from Peking to Bianliang, and the Guangdong-Han Railway from Hubei to Guangzhou are all on the agenda.

Once these railways are repaired and roads are paved, the economic improvement of the Song Dynasty will be immeasurable, and the GDP will increase by leaps and bounds.

"Get to work, there are still many things to deal with after the new year."

Zhao Jun picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote back to the first memorial of the day.

Although pencils are already available, the only way to review official documents submitted by various ministries is with brushes.

The room fell into silence for a while. Even if there were occasional sounds, it was the slight sound of the prime ministers greeting the scribes or the delivery of new official documents.

It wasn't until half an hour later, at 3:30 in the morning, that is, 10 o'clock in the morning, that Zhao Jun stood up and said: "It's a meeting!"

This is a regular meeting of the Constitutional Yuan in the morning.

After hearing these words, everyone stopped writing temporarily and began to stand up one after another and walk towards the conference room.

Soon everyone in the conference room was seated.

Zhao Jun took out his notebook, flipped through it and said, "There are two topics today. One is this year's development, and the second is reform matters."

He continued: "This year's development planning tasks have actually been set before, including vigorously making steel, paving bridges and roads, building steamships, building new railways, increasing food production, etc. There are plans every year, every year There are indicators, and everyone just needs to follow the planning direction I made before. ”

"As for reform matters, I don't have a charter yet, but I think reform should be normalized and changes should be made all the time. Sometimes if the reform has the opposite effect, it must be corrected in time, and we cannot blindly act recklessly."

"Next month I will leave Beijing to inspect local areas again, investigate the people, and find directions for reform. I estimate that I will come up with a charter by the end of this year or early next year."

Zhao Jun raised his head and looked at everyone.

Yan Shu smiled and said: "Now that the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the order is in order, if we want to make reforms, is Hanlong too hasty?"

Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "You guys, your thoughts are rigid. You have been in the center for too long and you haven't seen anything."

He emphasized: "At the end of last year, I visited Weifu in Bianliang for more than a month and saw many problems. This time when I went to Songshan, I also saw many problems. The people's lives are not in dire straits, but they also have many problems. Difficulties, the country also has many shortcomings, how can we say that the reform is too hasty? "

"Is there something wrong with Songshan?"

Everyone was puzzled, and Cai Qi asked: "What's wrong with Songshan?"

He is from Luoyang, Henan, and used to climb Mount Song.

Zhao Jun pointed out: "Religion!"

"religion?"

Everyone looked at each other.

"Yes, I saw many temples in Songshan Mountain. The Shaolin Temple alone has more than 2,000 monks and tens of thousands of acres of land."

He said frankly: "After I came back, I asked the temple department to bring me the Buddhist and Taoist materials on the throne. After I read the data, I was shocked."

"During the Tianxi reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, there were already 460,000 monks in the Song Dynasty, 40,000 temples, and more than 2 million acres of land. The number of Taoist priests was much smaller, with only more than 50,000 people, more than 3,000 Taoist temples, and more than 300,000 acres of land. mu."

"Last year, according to statistics from the temple, the number of monks and nuns exceeded 500,000, and the number of Taoist priests was also increasing. The larger the population, the more food and clothing we have, the more faithful men and women there will be."

"As a feudal dynasty, the Song Dynasty has not yet eradicated superstitious ideas. The number of believers has doubled, and the number of monks, nuns, Taoist priests, and female crowns will naturally increase."

"Concomitantly, more and more people and land are exempted from corvee and taxation."

"500,000 to 600,000 people do not work, do not pay taxes, do not assume social obligations, and do not provide feedback to society. Nearly 3 million acres of land are not taxed. Do you think this is reasonable?"

Zhao Jun spread his hands and said: "In the new era, our Song Dynasty does not raise moths, and the Chinese nation does not raise idle gods. We advocate freedom of religious belief and allow religions to carry out legitimate religious activities and propaganda, but this does not mean that Religion will be separated from the national system and will not contribute to society. "

Religion is free, but religion enjoys worship from people and support from the state, and that must be fed back to the people and the state.

Otherwise, from the perspective of the country, why should we support you?

So the religious reform was inevitable.

Otherwise, it makes no sense that hundreds of thousands of monks and Taoists and millions of acres of land would be outside the national system.