Chapter 477 The Great Song Dynasty, Initially Taking Control of the World

In late January of the 12th year of the Qingli period, the imperial court issued a large number of new policies.

Many of them were closely related to the people.

For example, changing customs, cracking down on a large number of unreasonable customs, and promoting correct beliefs.

And it also officially prohibited the preference for boys over girls and made drowning babies a crime.

This was done to prohibit close relatives from marrying in the future.

There was no other way.

In ancient times, because of the idea of ​​favoring boys over girls, many people did not want to have girls at all.

As Wang Anshi and Chen Xiliang said.

In the southern region, if several daughters were born in a row and could not be raised, parents would even drown baby girls in order to have sons.

Therefore, in ancient times, there were always more men than women in non-war periods.

It was not easy for many people to get married, and it was common to marry close relatives with different surnames in order to reproduce offspring.

If the Song Dynasty did not have firearms, but simply completed the military strength through militarization reforms, it might have formed a situation where there were more men than women after the war.

However, the Song Dynasty has developed science and technology rapidly in recent years. In the era of firearms, there were continuous wars with many countries such as Xixia, Liao, Yue Dynasty, Gaochang, and Black Khan, but there were not many casualties.

If the population ratio is not balanced, it is naturally impossible to prohibit close-kin marriage, otherwise the number of bachelors will increase greatly, which will seriously hinder the development of the country.

However, Zhao Jun did not intend to continue this bad habit. While he asked the Ministry of Health to make statistics and investigate the proportion of deformed children born in close-kin marriages, he planned to develop the strategy of Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

He will immigrate a large number of people to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Because now the Southern Navy has established military bases in the Gulf Islands and the Philippines, Malaysia and other places in Southeast Asia.

At this time, the Philippines was still in the primitive tribal period, but later in Sumatra, Indonesia, a dynasty appeared during this period, called the Srivijaya Kingdom.

This is a Buddhist country, which was spread from Indian Buddhism.

The power is Sumatra, the Malaysian Peninsula, Java Island and parts of western Kalimantan Island, controlling the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait.

In the past, due to geographical factors, they had to collect tolls for Sino-Western trade, but after the Guangzhou Navy went south, it established a military base in Pu Luozhong, which is later Singapore.

Srivijaya tried to attack them, but was defeated by guns and cannons.

Since then, the control of the Strait of Malacca has become the Song Dynasty Navy, which has truly monopolized Sino-Western trade and contributed to the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.

After the naval power expanded to the Malay Peninsula, the islands of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and other islands south of Guangzhou have all become the back garden of the Song Dynasty. If they don’t open up now, when will they?

After all, now is not the past. In the past, miasma was pervasive and plague was rampant. The people of the Song Dynasty would not go out to sea to make a living unless they had no choice.

Now is the Age of Discovery. In addition, cinchona trees are widely planted in Hainan, Vietnam and other places, and have long been harvested as medicine. Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other southern regions have launched mosquito eradication campaigns many times. With the blessing of both, the miasma-ridden environment in Lingnan has improved a lot.

Without the trouble of epidemics, as long as higher treatment is given, there will be a lot of people willing to go to sea to develop overseas. Just like in history, when the British colonized the world, countless British people flocked to the sea to pan for gold in the colonies.

Now, after years of development, people in the coastal areas of the Song Dynasty have already cultivated the spirit of overseas adventure, especially in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places, and the desire to go overseas is very strong.

I believe that under the influence of such policies, a large number of young men will go to sea, which will greatly alleviate the situation of more men than women in the country.

At the same time, it can also occupy and develop Southeast Asia.

In addition to the government's forced abolition of a large number of bad habits and old customs, guiding the people to go to sea, and actively developing people's livelihood, the court has also made a lot of changes in other fields.

In terms of economy, the power of local economic planning is opened up, allowing local governments to actively attract investment, and allowing local governments to give certain powers to attract investment, such as preferential tax rates, land preferential treatment, policy loans, etc.

In agriculture, the imperial farm that originally carried out various agricultural experiments was changed into an agricultural university, recruiting agricultural students, conducting large-scale scientific agricultural experiments, improving grain production, studying various fruits and vegetables, and actively conducting scientific research in the field of biology.

In diplomacy, the neighboring countries were conquered, and those that should be destroyed were destroyed, and those that should be beaten were beaten. Japan and Vietnam were even under military control. A large number of envoys were sent to distant countries, which was quite a bit like making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones.

In terms of system, the performance evaluation system was gradually abolished, the term of office of officials was increased, and officials were given greater local development arrangements, but at the same time, supervision was continued to be increased to prevent officials from increasing their power and acting recklessly.

In terms of medicine, a medical university was established, and famous doctors with high moral character were recruited nationwide. Under the organization and preparation of the Ministry of Health, a medical research institute was established, and high rewards were offered to death row prisoners nationwide to voluntarily donate their bodies for anatomical experiments.

In finance, the policy of only keeping large amounts of money was relaxed, and the savings business was fully opened to ordinary people, the custody fee was abolished, and no interest was provided, that is, the interest rate was 0, and there was only savings.

This is because the current shortage of money among the people of the Song Dynasty has been basically solved through paper money and silver coins, but due to the large increase in trade volume every year, paper money and silver coins are in short supply. Even the neighboring countries used the currency of the Song Dynasty. Every year, the Song Dynasty exported a large amount of paper money, silver dollars, and copper coins. There was no need to recover the currency by raising interest rates to maintain inflation, so it only provided deposits and withdrawals, but no interest.

In terms of education, many education and normal colleges were opened across the country. Starting from the 13th year of the Qingli period, a national college entrance examination will be officially organized, and students will be admitted by local universities based on their scores.

Now the Song Dynasty has more than just Bianliang University. With the efforts of the Ministry of Education over the years, in addition to Bianliang University, each route has basically built a college of higher learning, and the teaching staff is basically produced by Bianliang University.

For this reason, many excellent teachers of Bianliang University were transferred away, which can be said to be a serious blow to the vitality.

But it is all worth it.

After years of training, each route has barely built the basic framework of a university, and the basic education in mathematics, physics and chemistry has been improved. There are also a large number of laboratory equipment to cultivate more scientific research talents for the Song Dynasty.

And the overall education system is relatively complete. The Song Dynasty is mainly based on Bianliang University. Bianliang University will be the only top-level special school in the country. Graduation is guaranteed to be assigned. If you are interested in becoming an official, there will be a special selection examination. After passing the examination, you will be a Jinshi.

The various universities were first-class universities established with the faculty drawn from Bianliang University as the backbone. They also had guaranteed employment after graduation, but they could not take the selection exam after graduation. Only by continuing to study for a postgraduate degree could they participate in the special class.

In addition to the first-class universities, the policy this time was to establish a number of ordinary universities. These universities were not the first-class and second-class schools of later generations, but tended to be professional counterparts.

Such as education normal colleges, literacy night schools, engineering and construction technology training schools, etc.

In simple terms, it is a skill training school that teaches people to read, screw, and plaster on construction sites. In later generations, such schools have the lowest academic qualifications and the lowest gold content, and are discriminated against.

But in the Song Dynasty, if you can graduate from such a school, you are already a highly educated talent, and you will be a manager in various factories and construction sites.

Just like a junior college is nothing in the new era, but it was already a very high academic qualification in the 1980s and 1990s of later generations.

So the current education system of the Song Dynasty is two extremes.

The top level is Bianliang University, which specializes in scientific research, mathematics, physics, chemistry, politics and military research, and the only first-level university in each route.

The bottom level is the college of technology and culture popularization for professional lip-sync and literacy.

If Bianliang University is regarded as Tsinghua University and Peking University, the first-level universities in each route are regarded as 985 and 211, and the college of technology and culture popularization is regarded as a junior college.

Then what the Song Dynasty lacks now is the middle-level first-, second- and third-level colleges.

But there is no way around it.

At present, there are only so many educational resources, and we can only focus on grassroots literacy education and high-level elite education.

Middle-level education also needs grassroots education to be fully popularized, and then upgraded, and then elite education will extend higher knowledge downward. Only when the two sides converge can it be fully developed.

Therefore, it can only be done this way now.

In terms of military affairs, a military academy will be established, criminals and ruffians will stop being accepted, and a recruitment system will be adopted. The Ministry of War will recruit soldiers at a unified time every year. Good families and young and strong people in the Song Dynasty will actively sign up and pass the physical examination to become soldiers.

The military officers will also adopt the military rank system, divided into lieutenants, colonels, and generals, and the first grand rank conferment of the Song Dynasty will be held in the New Year of the 13th year of the Qingli period, that is, in 1053 AD, when all nations come to pay tribute.

At that time, the Song Dynasty will not only invite all the envoys of the countries that can be invited to participate, but also hold a grand military parade to demonstrate its military power and national strength, so that the Song Dynasty can send out a dragon roar to the world.

In addition, there are also different degrees of innovation and changes in diplomacy, culture, science and technology, transportation, industry, resources, and ideas.

For a time, all parts of the Song Dynasty began to reform and develop vigorously.

Actively promote local construction and comprehensively improve.

Soon.

In March of the 12th year of the Qingli period, when the spring breeze of reform blew across the country, the people of the Song Dynasty ushered in a new life.

The news that Di Qing destroyed Gaochang, defeated the Black Khan, and recovered the entire Western Regions also came back.

Upon learning about this, Zhao Zhen was so happy in the palace.

Because with the capture of the Western Regions, the Song Dynasty has nearly 3 million square kilometers of land.

Although Xinjiang in later generations only has 1.66 million square kilometers.

However, the Song Dynasty recovered not only Xinjiang this time, but the entire Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, of which Gaochang Kingdom alone was most of Xinjiang.

In addition, the Black Khanate, which was larger than Gaochang Kingdom, extended its territory to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and part of Kazakhstan in later generations.

The overall area reached 3 million square kilometers, 200,000 more than the 2.8 million square kilometers of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Now the area of ​​the Song Dynasty itself has reached 4 million square kilometers, and the total area is now 7 million square kilometers.

This means that the territory of the Song Dynasty has expanded by 1.5 times in Zhao Zhen's hands.

The current achievements alone have surpassed the emperors of the Song Dynasty, and even compared with the emperors of all dynasties, they can rank among at least the top five.

More importantly, Zhao Zhen is only 42 years old this year.

Even if he died in 1063 AD as in history, he still had 11 years of emperorship.

In the first 16 years, the Song Dynasty had gone from nothing to something, from a weak military to now being invincible, creating such a brilliant achievement. No one dared to imagine what the Song Dynasty would become in the remaining 11 years.

For a time, the 12th year of the Qingli period, 1052 AD, became the most prosperous moment since the founding of the Song Dynasty.

Whether it was national strength or land area, it had reached a prosperous dynasty!

Against this background, the country was prosperous and foreign trade was continuous. The envoys sent by the Song Dynasty traveled as far as the Persian Gulf with merchant ships and told the Middle Eastern countries that the Song Dynasty was going to hold a grand event.

Now many poor brothers in the Middle East rely on the Song Dynasty to survive, and the vassal states of the Arab Empire, which had long since collapsed, have expressed that they will send envoys to set off.

Including the Eastern Roman Empire, which was far away in the borders of Turkey in later generations, knew about this matter and sent envoys to contact.

At that time, the envoys sent by the Song Dynasty to the Middle East were stationed in Baghdad of the Abbasid Dynasty.

Because at this time, the Seljuks, descendants of the Turks, had risen and annexed most of the territories of the Ghaznavid Dynasty and the Buyid Dynasty.

Historically, they entered Baghdad in 1055 AD and established a huge Seljuk Empire.

So the Middle East was in chaos at this time.

However, after the envoys of the Song Dynasty came, the Seljuks' invasion stopped, and the surrounding countries sent envoys to Baghdad to meet with the envoys of the Song Dynasty.

All of a sudden, Baghdad became like Chang'an in the Middle East, where all nations came to pay tribute, and some even came from Europe.

In fact, people in the Middle East and Europe were not unaware of the existence of the Song Dynasty.

Since the Han Dynasty, the prosperity of the East has spread to the West, and the Silk Road has become an important hub connecting the Eurasian continent.

However, the journey was so long that, except for the merchants in the Middle East, Westerners had no idea what the East looked like.

This situation improved to a certain extent during the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty directly attacked the Middle East, occupied the Central Asian region, and directly bordered the Arab Empire at that time.

That period was also the heyday of the Eastern Roman Empire, so the Tang Dynasty, the Arab Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire were the three major empires, and the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty naturally spread far and wide across Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Now the Song Dynasty has attacked the Western Regions, destroyed the Black Khanate, and bordered the current Seljuk Empire. It is very powerful, and its economic trade is far stronger than that of the Tang Dynasty.

Naturally, the prosperity of the Song Dynasty shocked the West, and they were quite flattering to the Song Dynasty.

The most important thing is

Today, Europe is in the darkest Middle Ages. Without colonizing America, there is not enough money to buy products from the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, most of the Song Dynasty's goods are mainly circulated in countries around the Mediterranean. They are currently mainly harvesting Africa, mainly in North Africa, West Africa and East Africa.

In the Song Dynasty, dynasties established by colonists from Eurasia appeared in these places, such as the Fatimid Dynasty, the Makuria Kingdom, the Kanem Empire, the Almoravid Dynasty, etc.

Many dynasties were Christian and Islamic countries built by white Europeans and Arabs in the Middle East. They ruled black people here for hundreds and thousands of years.

In the case of being unable to exploit America, they can only sustainably exhaust African blacks in order to exchange goods from the Song Dynasty.

But even so, in the trade with the Song Dynasty, the degree of involution of Western countries is quite large. Each country needs to seize the market, exploit raw materials in Africa, and import various goods from the Song Dynasty.

Once the Song Dynasty is offended and the source of goods is cut off, there is only one ending-being kicked out in the cruel commercial competition.

Just like in the era of globalized supply chain in the future, a large technology company must have countless suppliers.

If a supplier offends this large technology company and cuts off the goods you produce, then the direct consequence is likely to make your company go bankrupt.

This is the situation faced by many small countries that split from the Arab Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.

Therefore, facing the envoys sent by the Song Dynasty, Western countries must try their best to please them to avoid being cut off from goods by the Song Dynasty, which will cause the domestic economy to collapse.

So.

This is the situation in the world now.

After more than ten years of operation and development, the Song Dynasty punched the Liao Kingdom and kicked the Western Xia in the East, and controlled most of the countries in the East by force, forming a dominant position.

In the West, it took advantage of its own industrial and handicraft manufacturing advantages to vigorously export silk, tea, porcelain, clothing, currency, paper, pencils and other handmade or industrial products in exchange for a large amount of raw materials.

In addition, the Song Dynasty is currently sending ships to the Americas every year to immigrate to the Americas and gradually control the Americas. It can be said that the entire world and most regions have been affected by the Song Dynasty.

In just sixteen years, the Song Dynasty had established a huge and prosperous empire, and had completed direct or indirect control over the entire world!

The Song Dynasty's heyday had thus begun!