The Jiaqing Festival celebrations in the 18th year of Kaibao's reign were held in the Long Live Hall, because of the name of the hall. Among the many palaces in the Bian Palace, Chongyuan Hall is undoubtedly the most majestic, followed by Wansui Hall. For a period of time, it was also used as the bedroom of Emperor Liu, and the great ancestor Liu Zhiyuan also lived in this hall.
On the day of the celebration, the wind was gentle and the sun was shining, and the spring scenery was bright. It seemed that God wanted to celebrate Emperor Liu's birthday through warm weather. The entire city of Tokyo was noticeably more noisy than usual. The sounds of people and firecrackers intermingled, and the entire city was immersed in a sea of joy.
The Long Live Hall was already crowded with guests and distinguished guests. The Han's clan relatives Guizhou and meritorious ministers gathered together, all well-dressed and smiling.
There were so many guests that the Long Live Hall could not accommodate them. Five hundred tables were set up for the banquet, which were placed from inside the hall to outside, occupying the hall platform and the square.
In order to meet the employment needs of this celebration banquet, the Ministry of Internal Affairs transferred a large number of maids and eunuchs from the palace. There were thousands of maids and maids serving the banquet alone. As for the ceremonial guards, guards, ritual music, singing and dancing, there are also hundreds of people in the procession, which highlights the grandeur.
Across a palace wall, a row of new stoves was built, smoke curled up, and heat rose. More than two hundred cooks were deployed inside and outside the palace, cutting vegetables, blowing fires, and cooking, all very busy.
Even if it is a palace banquet, this kind of big pot meal will lose some of its finesse, but at least it can try to give the nobles a hot meal.
The atmosphere in the Long Live Hall was equally festive, but a little more solemn. Emperor Liu and Empress Fu were sitting together. They were dressed in royal robes. He was probably the most festively dressed in the whole palace. He was wearing a bright red robe with vivid dragon patterns embroidered on it. This robe was obviously specially made. , I don’t know how much thought and skill it took for the Weaver Girl of the Shangyi Bureau.
This year's Jiaqing Festival royal banquet is probably the most ceremonial. Zhao Pu and others have come up with a series of procedures, the most indispensable of which is to praise Emperor Liu and his achievements in more than thirty years. Summary boast.
Xue Juzheng, Duke of Ji, personally completed a congratulatory speech of tens of thousands of words, which was eloquent and written in one stroke, and he personally read it in the palace.
Although the Long Live Hall was overcrowded, Xue Juzheng's voice always echoed and penetrated into the ears of everyone in the hall. He could have asked a young man to do the reading, but Xue Juzheng thought it was an honor, and since it was his job as the Minister of Ceremonies, he refused to let anyone do it.
However, reading this passage aloud made Duke Xue very tired. Emperor Liu seemed to have regained his previous patience and listened particularly attentively. Of course, Xue Juzheng's article was rich in rhetoric, and the words and sentences revealed a profound meaning. He couldn't understand many parts of it. It probably meant a praise of himself. This point You can't go wrong thinking about it.
However, Emperor Liu still understood some key points very clearly. In the middle section, Xue Juzheng listed a series of data, which is particularly gratifying.
By the 18th year of Kaibao, the registered population of Han Dynasty had reached 9,007,839 households, more than 60 million people. This is only the registered population. Due to the limitations of statistical methods, population leakage is inevitable, coupled with the large number of movements and special The population, the actual population of the Han Dynasty, is even greater, more than 10 million households, for sure.
You must know that in the early days of the founding of the Han Dynasty, the population under the jurisdiction of the imperial court was only a little over 10 million. Even if the households of many separatist forces were included, the number in the country was only about 30 million.
After more than thirty years of development, the population has finally doubled. This was accompanied by long-term and frequent wars. Otherwise, given the development capabilities of the Han people, the 10 million household mark would have been exceeded long ago.
With such a large population, how to feed them is a big challenge. Of course, this is also an issue that the court has always paid attention to for so many years. Although business in the Han Dynasty is becoming increasingly prosperous, farming will always be fundamental.
The achievements of land reclamation are naturally remarkable. By the 18th year of Kaibao, there were nearly 8 million hectares of cultivated land in the country, which was far more than during the prosperous Tang Dynasty. According to calculations, on average, about ten acres of land can feed one person. In places with fertile land and developed agriculture, even two acres of land can feed one person.
The development of agricultural technology is always moving forward, and after more than 20 years of promotion, high-yielding Champa rice has been spread on a large scale and is no longer limited to the Huaidong area.
In addition to food crops, the development of some cash crops is also rapid. The most prominent one is the large-scale promotion and application of cotton. This is a systematic development, not just the cultivation of cotton, but also the development of cotton spinning technology.
It can be said that the development of the cotton industry in the Han Dynasty was promoted under the initiative of Emperor Liu, and there was an accelerated process. He knew very well the significance of this thing and its important role in people's livelihood.
Therefore, for a long time in the past, he has been actively doing things that are beneficial to the development of cotton industry, and he has even promised huge profits to those who have made merit in this regard.
The Anxi cotton farmers who followed Lu Duoxun back east were regarded as heroes in the promotion of cotton cultivation, and now hold the rank of fifth-grade official. This is one of Lu Duoxun's achievements that will leave a name in history.
Five years ago, Zhou Renjun, the prefect of Qiongzhou, reported to the imperial court a cotton spinning technology that combined local Li brocade and specially improved cotton spinning tools. This attracted the attention of the imperial court. After testing, those tools could be greatly improved. Cotton spinning efficiency.
Emperor Liu gave a highly positive evaluation of this, and he was so happy that he directly promoted Zhou Renjun to the prefect of Guangzhou. With the promotion of new cotton spinning technologies and tools, Dahan's cotton industry has also entered a fast lane. The progress in just a few years is comparable to the development in the previous twenty years. Of course, there is no accumulation and development in the previous twenty years. Foreshadowing, there is no such leap as it is today.
Nowadays, all kinds of cotton products, from cotton to quilts, from cotton cloth to cotton clothes, have begun to appear in the market in large numbers and have become necessities in the daily lives of the Han people. They no longer need the government to pay for them to promote development like in the past.
In the same few years, cotton cultivation and cotton spinning technology also spread from the Central Plains to the Yangtze River Basin and developed rapidly. For the imperial court, it was time to reap the benefits, not only in terms of food, clothing, and warmth for the Han people, but also in more direct economic benefits. The imperial court also began to have tax revenue from the cotton industry.
When it comes to taxes, Xue Juzheng also mentioned a series of data that are enough to irritate people's eardrums. By the eighteenth year of Kaibao's reign, the imperial court's annual tax revenue had reached more than 63.49 million yuan, which was almost double that of twenty years ago.
Among them, the Spring and Autumn taxes are still the largest, but the proportion of commercial taxes and the profits of various imperial industry specialties has also increased significantly. Municipal taxes, in particular, have experienced explosive growth. Of course, the basis for all this lies in the presence of the Han Dynasty. The people have created massive social resources and wealth with their hard work and sweat.
Xue Juzheng's congratulatory speech, aside from the praise of Emperor Liu piled up with gorgeous words, the rest can be regarded as a summary report of the development of the Han Dynasty over the past few decades. Emperor Liu was elated and couldn't help but be happy. He also discussed things with Queen Fu next to him from time to time, as if to express his pride.
Back then, when the Yuan Dynasty was changed to Kaibao, Emperor Liu made an appointment with his ministers and set a goal to catch up with Shanda Kaiyuan and Tianbao. Now, eighteen years after the unification of the world, this goal has been initially achieved.
Whether it is in terms of population, cultivated land or tax revenue, it has achieved transcendence. Economically, it is all-round coverage. The culture is equally brilliant, and the major types of books compiled under the leadership of the imperial court are one of the symbols. As for the long and short sentences of Chinese words, they have gradually become the cultural symbols of an era.
Another thing that has to be mentioned is the military achievements. Li Longji kept trying. In the end, not only was it difficult to control the stubborn enemy, but it also led to the depletion of the treasury, heavy casualties, exhausted the army and the people, and gained a reputation for being militaristic.
The Han Dynasty is not the same. It can only be described as an invincible opponent all over the world. Of course, the surrounding environment and situation of the Han Dynasty today are indeed much better than those in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.
