After a meeting at the Constitutional Yuan in the morning, Zhao Jun took a nap at noon and went to see Song Cai in the afternoon.
He was supposed to go to the Chongzheng Hall for a meeting, but he was too lazy to repeat to Zhao Zhen what he had said to Lu Yijian and the others in the morning, so he asked Lu Yijian and the others to talk to Zhao Zhen.
Anyway, it doesn't matter whether Zhao Zhen talks about this kind of thing or not, because even Lu Yijian and others believe that Zhao Jun's reform measures can be promoted.
In the final analysis, it is still the same sentence. Except for the Imperial City Division, the methods he chose can be regarded as moderate and conservative reforms.
As for some of the radical measures being prepared, he did not mention it.
Because some of these radical measures were thought up by himself at the grassroots level, and some were based on the conservative methods adopted by our army in later generations when establishing base areas.
For example, for families, the management status of parents under the semi-feudal system is still recognized, but it must be carried out in accordance with the laws of the court. Private courts are not allowed to be set up privately. The personal freedom of the clan must not be restricted. Children born by concubines enjoy the same land rights, inheritance rights and education rights.
This strategy is a typical way to break the patriarchy of the ancient feudal system. It is a conservative strategy used by our army in the base areas before the Long March.
Their radical approach was to destroy feudal patriarchy, eradicate all feudal ideas, completely personalize production and life, assign labor to the government based on ability or compete for it, encourage people to break away from the shackles of feudal blood, and so on.
But the conservative strategy of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China was obviously a bit radical in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, Zhao Jun did not mention it, but planned to discuss it with Fan Zhongyan after he came back.
However, it is still imperative to break the feudal patriarchal system, but after research, Zhao Jun believes that it cannot be implemented in the south, but should be promoted in the north.
Because the concept of clan in the north is actually relatively weak. Due to the two large-scale northern wars caused by the Five Husties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the situation of one village and one surname is almost rare, and it is difficult for clan elders to intervene anymore. effect.
The clan power in the south is extremely powerful, especially in Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other regions. The more closed they are, the more powerful the feudal patriarchal system will be. Therefore, it is an inevitable trend to reform the north first and then slowly spread to the south.
Anyway, in the future, the southern maritime trade will become more developed. As long as the government encourages young people to go to sea, this feudal system will be forcibly broken. The government can play a promoting role and everything will take its course.
In addition to family aspects, Zhao Jun also had some conservative methods from later generations and radical methods now in terms of military, officialdom, economy, public security, agriculture, and grassroots management.
But I haven't planned to mention it to Lu Yijian and the others yet. We will discuss it carefully with Fan Zhongyan before carrying out large-scale rectification.
In the past few years, what Zhao Jun and Lu Yijian have done is just preparations for future major reforms. They themselves have established a bureaucratic interest group, and they will naturally make good use of this group in the future to strive to complete their Qingli New Deal.
After coming out of the palace, the carriage drove slowly to Hongqiaozi Street in the outer city, where Song Cai now opened a shop in partnership with Daikensaburo, specializing in selling some Japanese handicrafts.
But in fact, because the Song Dynasty had little demand for imported handicrafts, and its own handicraft manufacturing industry ranked first in the world, there was really no need to buy it at a high price unless you had a lot of money and bought some new foreign gadgets as ornamental toys. This kind of imported product.
Therefore, Song Cai's shop can be said to be sparse and no one cares about it.
Zhao Jun's carriage stopped at the door of the shop. Since he came back, it was still the same as before, with an endless stream of people wanting to see him. But he has always adhered to the principle of not seeing guests and never allowed others to come to see him.
Even near his door, soldiers from the Imperial City Division were strictly guarding him. Those who wanted to come to his door to give gifts or build relationships through the back door would find it almost impossible to meet him.
However, the person he wants to see will definitely be able to see him. Li Di wanted to see him before and also gave him a message. Song Cai sent a letter to Zhao Jun through the channels of the Imperial City Department last year. When he learned that Zhao Jun was back, this morning He also inquired through the Imperial City Department, and now naturally he still has to meet in person.
At this time, Song Cai and Da Jian Sanlang had been waiting at the door of the store. Zhao Jun had sent someone to tell him in the morning that he would come over in the afternoon, so he did not dare to leave for a moment. After the carriage slowly approached, he was too busy to come up to see the gift. .
"Zhiyuan!"
Song Cai and the great health-conscious man named Su Jian came forward and bowed.
Zhao Jun got off the carriage and said with a smile: "Brother Song, I haven't seen you in the past three years. You are well. I think you are quite proud of yourself."
He glanced at the inside of the store. Several beautiful Japanese women, dressed somewhat like kimonos but with slightly different styles, were standing inside, bowing respectfully toward the door.
Zhao Jun had seen such clothes when he was in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and they were somewhat similar to the Wu clothes worn by local women.
In fact, the kimono originally originated from the Nara period. Japan sent envoys to China many times, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions were closely connected with Japan. They were improved based on the prototype of the Jiangdong Wufu.
However, the kimonos from the Heian period of the Song Dynasty were also different from the kimonos he saw in later generations. At least there was no pillow at the back.
"Zhiyuan is joking."
Song Caixan laughed sarcastically, then quickly bowed her waist, extended her right hand towards the room and said, "Quick, please come inside."
Zhao Jun smiled and walked into the house.
Several kimono-clad women in the shop bowed to him.
Zhao Jun nodded slightly, and then followed Song Cai and Su Jian into the backyard.
The backyard is quite spacious. It looks like a zigzag-shaped courtyard from later generations of Japan. There are trees and some flowers and plants planted in it, and the ground is covered with pebbles.
But in fact, this kind of courtyard is still passed down by the Han people, and it is probably the courtyard style of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the southern Tang Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, there was still this kind of style in the south, but it was much smaller. Basically, it was a garden and water pavilion style. In the north, it was a large garden and courtyard, and this small and exquisite design was abandoned.
The three people came to the back room facing the gate into the backyard. The back room was not a common structure for Han people. Instead, the bottom of the house was built with wood and bricks, about one foot high from the ground. It was still the architectural style introduced to Japan in the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
There were no tables and chairs in the room, but mats. The mats were spread on the wooden floor, with a mat in the middle and a large stove on top. There were three maids sitting on their knees next to them, and there were three small stoves beside them. When they saw people coming in, they started to warm water on the stove to make tea.
This is very fancy.
Zhao Jun said dumbfounded: "This is the characteristic you brought back from Japan, isn't it?"
The rest was fine, but the most important thing was that the three maids were beautiful, wearing tube tops and gauze tops, dressed purely like women from a brothel in the Song Dynasty, and they would wink at him from time to time.
Song Cai winked and said in a low voice: "These are all paid tribute to the magistrate by the imperial ministers, county ministers and local wealthy families of Ishijian Kingdom. Even though they are Japanese women, they are actually the children of local powerful people, and they all learned Chinese. And they are all virgins”
"Cough cough cough cough"
Zhao Jun rolled his eyes and said: "I am a serious person, how can I do this? Doesn't this taint our innocence out of thin air?"
"Yes Yes Yes."
Song Cai quickly said: "Zhiyuan is naturally a serious person, but there is not even a maid at home, and there is no one to serve him on weekdays. It is always deserted in front of the bed. If you can have a few close friends to accompany you, you can take care of your daily life. , which is also a great thing.”
"Oh, that's all. Since you have such a wish, I can only do this reluctantly."
Zhao Jun sighed: "We will send a carriage to my house later. I am indeed the only one in the house, but I do need a few maids and maids."
Then he looked at Song Cai, pointed at him and said with a smile: "You can always give me some new tricks."
"Hey Hey Hey."
Song Cai and Su Jian both showed a confused smile that everyone understood.
"Okay, let's talk about business first."
Zhao Jun said seriously: "How was your trip to Japan this time?"
Song Cai actually said this in her letter to him, but the letter was not detailed after all. It just talked about the local situation and their discovery of the Iwami Silver Mine.
But the specific situation naturally still requires an interview.
"At the beginning of the year before last, not long after Zhiyuan left Bianliang, Saburo and I officially set off and returned to Japan."
Song Cai said: "Sanlang's family warmly entertained me. We looked around the local area, hired some farmers, and searched the local mountains for more than four months, and found the silver mine located deep in the mountains."
"Well, it seems things are going well."
Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Then how do Japan arrange this silver mine?"
Song Cai looked at Su Jian.
Su Jian quickly said: "Back at the Imperial Court, my father united with the local state ministers, county ministers, and local dignitaries to block the news. Now he is recruiting people to mine, and a large amount of silver ore must have been mined."
"Didn't the Emperor of Japan be notified?"
"No."
"This is inappropriate."
Zhao Jun frowned and said: "After all, this is Japan's ore. If it is not recognized by the Japanese court, I am afraid that it will lose its righteousness. In this way, when the Japanese emperor sends troops to encircle and suppress it, it will also be a big trouble for you locally."
Su Jian smiled bitterly and said: "But the Emperor has not submitted credentials to the Song Dynasty for many years. Instead, he paid tribute to the Liao Kingdom in the past few years, so we did not dare to report this matter to the Emperor."
Japan has always been a country that admires the strong. In the late Tang Dynasty, due to the decline of the Tang Dynasty, the sending of envoys to the Tang Dynasty was officially abolished in 895 AD.
Since then, even if the Song Dynasty was established, Japan has completely closed itself off and has not established diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty was not very interested in the barren Japan, so although the two countries were only separated by the East China Sea Strait, for almost the entire Northern and Southern Song Dynasty, apart from private economic and trade exchanges, there was almost no official interaction.
On the contrary, due to the strength of the Liao Kingdom, the emperor of the Liao Kingdom also valued sea rights and road rights, and communicated very frequently with surrounding countries. He accepted Korea as a vassal state on land, and submitted letters of credence to Japan on the sea, although Japan's response was not like that of the Tang Dynasty. , sending Tang envoys so frequently, but also expressed surrender to the powerful Liao Kingdom.
"It doesn't matter, you still have to report it."
Zhao Jun said: "At that time, Song Cai does not need to be in the name of the Song Dynasty court, just in the name of a Song Dynasty merchant. If you want to come to Shijian, you will also need the smelting and forging technology of the Song Dynasty to smelt the ore into silver."
"That's true. Although Japan's forging technology is not bad, its smelting technology is certainly inferior to that of the Song Dynasty."
Su Jian nodded repeatedly.
Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "In this way, I think that after you go back this time, you can re-divide the production ratio of the silver mine and pay tribute to the Emperor of Japan in exchange for the support of the Japanese court, master the right to justice, and then recruit Warriors, form an army to defend yourself against those who covet you from the surrounding countries.”
Although the best way is to take that silver mine as your own and directly ship a large amount of silver ore to the country. But from a practical point of view, it is still difficult to achieve.
Emperor Mildew can steal oil in the Middle East, that's because he has enough strength.
Even though the Song Dynasty was not far away from Japan, the problem was that the southeastern coastal areas at that time were roaring with typhoons. Even Mongolia tried to invade Japan several times, but they were blown away by the hurricane. It was not easy to reach the other side through the strait perfectly and safely.
If the Song Dynasty wanted to forcefully occupy it, the cost would be very high, and the Liao Kingdom was always a hidden danger.
There may also be a confrontation within Japan. In order to compete for their local silver mines, the Emperor of Japan may call on the country to send troops. At that time, it will be an endless struggle, which is not cost-effective in terms of cost and mining.
Therefore, the best way is for the Song Dynasty to provide smelting and forging technology in the name of private traders and trade, and to purchase shares in the ore at a certain price.
The Emperor of Japan benefited by allowing Song Dynasty merchants to cooperate with them in mining, and even most of the silver mine profits could be kept in Japan. The Song Dynasty only needed to ensure a trade route that could transport goods to Ishimi Country in exchange for their silver.
This is normal private trade, and the Liao Kingdom will not notice it, and Japan will not have much resistance.
"I see."
Song Cai heard Zhao Jun's words and said seriously: "At the beginning of next year, I will take a large amount of goods and set off for Japan again. Then I will do what the Zhiyuan said."
"What route are you taking to Japan now?"
Zhao Jun asked.
"Take the southern route."
“It’s not peaceful on the south road.”
"There's nothing we can do about it."
At that time, there were three routes from Japan to the Tang Dynasty: the North Route crossed the Yellow Sea via the Korean Peninsula to the west, landed in Dengzhou, and then reached Luoyang and Chang'an from Qingzhou, Jizhou, and Bianzhou.
The South Road goes directly across the sea from Japan to the west, landing at the Yangtze River port and the northern Jiangsu coast, entering Yangzhou and Chuzhou, continuing through Hangou and Tongji Canal, and passing through Bianzhou and Luoyang to Chang'an in the west.
There is also a South Island Road, which crosses the East China Sea from Japan, goes south to Mingzhou (now Ningbo) and lands on the coast of Zhejiang, traces the Qiantang River or Zhejiang Canal, passes through Yuezhou (now Shaoxing) to Hangzhou, and then passes through the Jiangnan Canal to Yangzhou. Then follow Hangou and Tongji Canal to the west to Chang'an.
Both the Nandao Road and the South Road pass through the Grand Canal. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, Japanese people who came to China always took the Nandao Road or the South Road and entered the mainland of China and the capital along the Grand Canal.
It's just that this is a cross-sea crossing without any supply stations in the middle. It will be very dangerous if it encounters a typhoon.
Therefore, according to statistics, from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Tang Dynasty, Japan sent nineteen envoys to the Tang Dynasty over two hundred years, but almost no one could return safely. The number of shipwrecks reached twelve times, and thousands of envoys died.
Even the famous Abe Nakamaro encountered a shipwreck on his way back home. There were more than 170 people on the ship, and he was the only one lucky enough to survive. This led Li Bai to think that his good friend was dead, and wrote a poem "Crying Chao Qingheng" to commemorate his death. , which shows how dangerous the sea crossing between Japan and China was at that time.
“Why not go to Tamna (Jeju Island)?”
Zhao Jun asked again.
"Tamna is now a vassal of Goryeo. They have always been at odds with Japan, so naturally they don't want the Japanese to get close."
Song Cai replied: "But we Song people are fine, and Lord Danluo doesn't dare to offend the Song Dynasty."
"Um."
After Zhao Jun pondered, he said: "This time you go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, prepare ships, hire a large number of craftsmen, I allow you to purchase a batch of weapons and equipment, including armor, and recruit a group of young men to go to Japan. This time I only give you two A mission.”
"Please inform the court to make it clear."
Song Cai said hurriedly.
"First, go to Tamluo to establish a stronghold, recruit a group of people to stay here permanently, and build wharves and shipyards."
Zhao Jun said: "Second, go to Tsushima Island to establish a stronghold. Just like Tamna Island, it also needs a wharf and dock. You can hire local people to help you work, and claim to the outside world that it is a merchant from the Song Dynasty in order to trade with Goryeo and Japan. , come for friendly cooperation. You can give some gifts to the Lord of Tamluo and the local dignitaries of Tsushima Island, have a good chat with them, and try to buy a piece of land."
Song Cai scratched his head and said: "What's the use of this? In fact, the Song Dynasty is not far from Japan. Although it is a bit more dangerous, that's because the Japanese ships are not very good. The ships of the Song Dynasty are much stronger than the Japanese ships. , Except for special circumstances, most wind and rain will not pose any threat to our Song Dynasty ships."
In fact, this is the case. In ancient times, it was so dangerous for Japan to send envoys to the Tang Dynasty. It was really because of the poor technology of Japanese ships. The quality of Chinese ships during the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties was definitely the best in the world. There was no problem in going anywhere, otherwise there would be no Maritime Silk Road.
The reason why there was no trade with Japan during this period was simply because the Chinese ruling class during the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties were not interested in Japan, a small and barren island country, until the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when Japan discovered the Iwami Silver Mine and the Sado Gold Mountain. Otherwise, if these two good places had been discovered earlier, trade between China and Japan would not have started until late tomorrow.
But not now.
Zhao Jun said with a smile: "That's because you underestimated the future trade volume. The Song Dynasty is a peace-loving country and hopes to establish good commercial relations with Korea and Japan. At the treaty ports of Tamna and Tsushima Island, it will only deal with There are advantages and no disadvantages between the three parties.”
After finishing speaking, he looked at Su Jian meaningfully and said: "This is also to make Japan develop better. After all, Japan's national power is not strong now. If it can trade with the Song Dynasty for a long time, it must be for Japan. It can also change the current situation of poverty and weakness.”
(End of chapter)
