Meanwhile, the emperor summoned Yue Fei back to the capital, set up a platform for appointing him as general, and announced to the whole world that Yue Fei would be the governor of the Northwest War Zone, in charge of all military and political affairs in the Northwest War Zone.

In early 1948, the Privy Council and the Military Governor's Office jointly proposed a new troop deployment to the emperor.

The total strength of the Northwest Theater Command was increased to 600,000, consisting of 400,000 regular border guards and 200,000 local troops.

Zhang Cai, Peng Chang, Zhang Xian, and others who fought alongside Yue Fei in the northern campaign against Yelü Dashi were all promoted.

Yang Zaixing, Wang Gui, Xu Qing, and others were also credited with their achievements, and Yue Fei's battle merits were subsequently used as a reference for rewards and promotions.

In the blink of an eye, it had become the seventh year of the Jingkang era.

The year-end summary report was quite special.

Although in the sixth year of the Jingkang era, the entire Song Dynasty was bogged down by food shortages and encountered many difficulties.

However, the emergence of the steam engine, the Huaxing spinning wheel, and the formal promulgation of the patent law all had a profound impact on the Song Dynasty.

At the time, no one had felt this impact.

However, the officials of the court have now clearly seen changes in the financial accounts.

Tang Ke ordered all the government-run businesses under his Ministry of Commerce to have their equipment renovated.

For example, Hangzhou Pinzaoju has switched to Huaxing Textile Machines three months ago, and its shipments have increased sixfold in these three months!

Labor costs and time costs were each reduced by half.

For example, at the coal mining company on Hedong Road, steam engines were used to pump water, which increased efficiency by 20 times!

There is water accumulation in coal mines. In the past, the water was removed manually, but now it's different. Steam engines can pump the water directly.

Moreover, grain merchants like Zhu Qing have begun to experiment with using steam engines to pump water from paddy fields in the south.

The construction of the first railway steam locomotive in the Song Dynasty, ordered by the imperial court, created a huge demand for steel, which in turn boosted many basic industries such as coal mining and iron smelting.

This impressive report ultimately gave the emperor a satisfactory answer: In the sixth year of the Jingkang era, the imperial court's total revenue reached 800 million strings of cash.

This is 10 times more than the 80 million strings of cash in the first year of the Jingkang era!

However, this figure cannot be calculated so simply. The revenue structure of the Song Dynasty court in the first year of the Jingkang era was very unreasonable.

Both agricultural tax and commercial tax contain a number of miscellaneous taxes.

The new tax system, although it greatly increased commercial taxes, generally raised the income level of merchants.

Although the northwest of the Song Dynasty had just experienced a war, the ministers in the court were in high spirits.

Never before has any dynasty possessed such vast wealth as the Song Dynasty.

Moreover, this wealth is growing at a visible rate.

With such development, all parties benefit.

What excited the emperor most was that the first highway system of the Song Dynasty was completed.

Centered on Tokyo, the highway system radiated to Hangzhou, Jingzhao, and Youzhou, which the emperor himself defined as the first generation of highway system in the Song Dynasty.

Both trade costs and wartime mobilization costs have been greatly reduced.

Finally, the emperor judged the current commercial vitality of the Song Dynasty from the most intuitive phenomenon.

Jiaozi (paper money) had already begun to be used in Guangnan East Road, Chengdu Prefecture, and Kuizhou.

This means that the trade of the Song Dynasty is becoming integrated.

Traditional geographical limitations are being broken down, and the unprecedented development of transportation systems is driving the vigorous development of commerce.

The commercial activity that best exemplifies this is the emergence of sweet potato cultivation at the end of the sixth year of the Jingkang era.

In the winter of the sixth year of the Jingkang era, the government had already assigned the task of planting sweet potatoes to the three warm-climate areas of Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road, and Jiaozhou Road.

In the blink of an eye, in February, the season when apricot blossoms bloom, large quantities of sweet potatoes are transported from the south to the north, flowing into Jiangnan and heading north to the capital region.

The spread of this product was so strong that Zhengshitang made a fortune from sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato cultivation quickly spread to ordinary farmers' homes, and with a large market demand, naturally some people were willing to grow it in large quantities.

Once the temperature warms up slightly, people in both the Jiangnan region and the Central Plains begin to cultivate it extensively.

Moreover, a trend of eating red chili peppers has emerged in Gyeonggi-ro.

It is said that the current Emperor Zhao was fond of eating it, so the princes and ministers followed suit, and the celebrities and scholars of the capital city naturally began to eat it as well.

When superiors have a certain preference, subordinates will follow suit to an extreme.

As a result, red chili peppers quickly became a favorite in major restaurants throughout Tokyo.

When Red Chili Pepper first emerged, a shop called Chongqing Hot Pot Restaurant rose to prominence alongside it in Tokyo New Town.

At that time, the Chongqing area was not called Chongqing; it belonged to Kuizhou.

People don't know why this suddenly popular restaurant is called Chongqing Hot Pot Restaurant; it's possible that the name of its owner is Chongqing.

But indeed, it was from this that red chili peppers began to flourish.

It is said that Emperor Zhao often went to Chongqing hot pot restaurants to eat mutton hot pot when he had nothing to do.

The people of Tokyo were also happy to eat at the old building that the emperor frequented.

It is truly a prosperous age where people share joy and happiness.

It's already late February, the sun is getting warmer, and the spring breeze is making the streets of Tokyo green and pleasant.

Tourists stroll along the Bian River, while in the distance, on the grass, some young men, dressed smartly, are playing Cuju (ancient Chinese football).

Ordinary people were unaware that a messenger had been on horseback, delivering important intelligence to the palace.

The trade policies that the Song Dynasty began with Japan and Goryeo two years ago have begun to show initial results after two years.

This intelligence mainly concerns the lives of ordinary people in Japan.

In present-day Japan, two-thirds of the nobility have conscripted half of the country's farmers to produce very coarse fabrics.

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