Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

After New Year's Eve, the twelfth year of Xuanwu came quietly.

On the day of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the imperial court decreed to abolish the salt tax in the world!

Immediately after the imperial decree was issued, the world shook!

The people everywhere are extremely happy! Because table salt is a necessity of life, the price of table salt in ancient times was extremely high, and a large part of the people's income was spent on table salt every year! Now that the salt tax is abolished, the people only spend a few tenths or even one percent of the money to eat salt. How can they not be happy!

For a time, countless ordinary people regarded the abolition of the salt tax as the greatest good governance since the establishment of the Government Council.

Some Confucian scholars were amazed that there has never been a salt tax from ancient times to the present! In any era, salt tax is the financial pillar of the world! Now abolishing the salt tax will certainly benefit the people, but the government's financial revenue will inevitably be greatly reduced!

These people have no idea that the salt tax now only accounts for one-tenth of the imperial court's fiscal revenue, and the imperial court already has the economic basis to abolish the salt tax.

From the time when Zhao Chen entered the Central Plains in the seventh year of Xuanwu until now in the twelfth year of Xuanwu, in just a few years, agriculture has recovered in various places, the agricultural tax in the world has increased greatly, the imperial court has reduced tax cards, encouraged commerce, and in just a few years It has almost quadrupled, and it is still increasing! The current imperial court no longer needs salt tax to supplement the economy!

The national treasury was full, but soon, the gold and silver in the treasury were invested in the construction of various places.

This year, the imperial court focused its energy on land reclamation and immigration!

The imperial court encouraged the people in Sichuan, Shu and Jiangnan to go to the north and Liaodong to reclaim wasteland. Anyone who went to the north and Liaodong could immediately get more than ten acres of land, and there would be no tax for three years! The imperial court can also provide cattle and farm tools!

The imperial court spent a lot of money to build cities and settlements in the north and Liaodong!

In one year, nearly 800,000 people from Sichuan, Shu and Jiangnan went to the north and Liaodong. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people from Koryo went to Liaodong for land and farm tools!

There are only 1.5 million people in Annan, and this year, about 500,000 people were expelled to Yanyun and various places in the north to reclaim wasteland!

In addition, there are more than 100,000 middle-aged men in Dongying who went to the Central Plains by boat, and they were responsible for building roads and piers all over the Central Plains! The Government Administration Council has already established a national construction agency, which is responsible for construction matters! After the Dongying people came to the Central Plains, they only had to work for five hours a day, that is, ten hours for later generations. For the salary of two silver, the Dongying man was overjoyed for such treatment! When they were in Japan, most of them were tenant farmers under the lord, and they basically couldn't eat enough, but now they came here, and they felt that they were rich all of a sudden! Many Dongying people wrote letters to their relatives and friends, encouraging them to also go to the Central Plains to work! There are more and more handicraft workshops all over the Central Plains, and there is a great demand for workers. In Tianjin Wei, dozens of workshop owners even signed a letter, requesting that Annan people be placed in the workshops.

In addition to reclamation and immigration, another expense of the imperial court is to build schools!

Not only public schools are being built all over the Central Plains, but public schools are also being built in Korea, Annan, Dongying and other places! The teaching materials in all the schools are basically the same. In addition to Confucianism and practical learning, the imperial court now also attaches great importance to patriotic education, and patriotic education is also promoted to Korea, Annan, and Dongying!

In addition, a large number of retired soldiers returned to their hometowns. In order to resettle these retired soldiers, the Government Affairs Council also spent a lot of gold and silver.

In this year, the two major provinces of Jiangnan and Huguang also established provincial councils!

Yu Yunwen once again went to the two major provinces as the emperor's special envoy to guide the establishment of the two major provincial councils.

Having traveled to various places as the emperor's special envoy many times, many people felt that Zhao Chen trained Yu Yunwen as a future prime minister!

In fact, besides Yu Yunwen, Hu Quan, Wang Shipeng and others also often go to various places to deal with political affairs!

There are a lot of talents in the current Great Song Dynasty Government Affairs Council!

Young people like Yu Yunwen, Hu Quan, and Wang Shipeng needless to say, Zhao Ding, Li Guang, and even Qin Hui are all outstanding talents. Most of the senior officials in the thirty-six provinces are former elites from the Military Aircraft Department, the Army, and the Production and Construction Corps. It is said that the country has a huge talent pool.

For a whole year, there was no war in the court!

This year, the Mongols still invaded the south, and Li Xianzhong, Liu Qi and other ministries were still passively defending.

In the thirteenth year of Xuanwu, the five major provinces established provincial councils respectively. This year, the Government Administration Council still did its best to carry out the "Northern Development", while encouraging business and strengthening education!

In winter, the Mongols invaded south again, and the Song army still focused on defense!

However, a large amount of ordnance has been transported to the northern ministries one after another.

This year, Zhao Chen interfered less and less with the Government Affairs Council. He spent a lot of energy on the construction of the Congress and the court system, and the Government Affairs Council operated steadily.

In the spring of the fourteenth year of Xuanwu, on February 20, Zhao Chen led 10,000 soldiers from the imperial camp to the north, and Qu Duan, the Minister of the Military Department, went north with Zhao Chen.

On February 21st, Zhao Chen had already left Juyongguan, and they entered the vast grassland!

Although spring has come, the grassland is still a little cold. Zhao Chen seems to be in a good mood, blowing the cool breeze and breathing the fresh air.

The 10,000 imperial battalion troops were galloping towards the north continuously. They did not stop when they encountered state capitals along the way, but passed by each state capital.

On March 15th, Zhao Chen, Qu Duan and others came to the former Liao Kingdom Shangjing Linhuangfu area, which is now the capital of the Northern Province of the Great Song Dynasty.

In the afternoon of that day, Zhao Chen came to the south gate of Linhuang Mansion, where countless Khitan people knelt down to welcome Zhao Chen!

In the past few years, the Government Affairs Council has continued to carry out propaganda work in Liaodong. Zhao Chen's reputation as the "savior" has become more and more loud. Every Khitan family has a statue of Zhao Chen. There are even many religious organizations among the Khitan people. They are all for the purpose of worshiping Zhao Chen.

At this moment, the Khitan people were kneeling there, and the voices of "Lord" and "Savior" could be heard everywhere outside Linhuang Mansion.

"Your Majesty!" There were countless soldiers at the front, and there was excitement in the eyes of these soldiers.

Zhao Chen's prestige in the army is extremely high, unmatched by anyone.

"Li Xianzhong!" Seeing a general kneeling there, Zhao Chen laughed and pulled him up, saying.

This general is none other than Li Xianzhong who is stationed in Shangjing area! At this moment, Li Xianzhong was extremely excited and joyful.

"Your Majesty, you are finally here!" Li Xianzhong said.

"Let's go! I will live in your barracks today!" Zhao Chen said.

At dusk, Zhao Chen, Li Xianzhong and others came to the Song Army barracks, where he received a huge welcome again.

"How many war horses do you have now?" Zhao Chen and Li Xianzhong asked as they walked towards the inside.

"Now we have a total of 250,000 war horses! The northern province is a place where horses are produced, and our army has the largest number of war horses!" Li Xianzhong said.

"Very good! You can arm 120,000 cavalry!" Zhao Chen said.

"Our current cavalry has reached 130,000." Li Xianzhong laughed.

"How is the situation on Liu Qi's side?" Zhao Chen asked.

"General Liu Kai has 100,000 infantry and 80,000 cavalry under his command!" Li Xianzhong said.

"Yue Fei now has 100,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, while Han Shizhong has 90,000 cavalry and 110,000 infantry! The number of cavalry in the north is close to 400,000! The court spends a lot to support these 400,000 cavalry every year!" Zhao Chen said.

Li Xianzhong nodded silently.

"However, such expenses are worth it! Our Great Song Dynasty has a vast territory and nearly 100 million people. We must maintain at least one million or more troops! Although the world is safe, if we forget to fight, we will be in danger!" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, the northern Mongols have been invading us continuously over the years, raising troops for a thousand days and using them for a short period of time. At the end of the day, the general requests to lead troops into Mongolia to eliminate the plague of Mongolia!" Li Xianzhong said.

"This time I came here just for this matter!" Zhao Chen said.

"Ah!" A look of surprise appeared on Li Xianzhong's face.

"The imperial court has been recuperating for two full years. Both the policy and the system have become more and more perfect, and the country's fiscal revenue has also increased. Now we can finally free our hands to deal with the Mongols!" Zhao Chen laughed.

"Your Majesty, when will we use troops against the Mongols? There are a lot of Mongols. If we only rely on the last army, we may not be able to wipe out the Mongols!" Li Xianzhong said.

"Of course it's not your army! This time the imperial court will use you, Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and Liu Qi to encircle and suppress the Mongols and eliminate the Mongolian border troubles in one fell swoop!" Zhao Chen said.