In December of the third year of Jingyou, it began to snow in Bianliang.

The rustling snowflakes painted the earth a pure white color.

New year, new atmosphere. Although the New Year has not yet come, the atmosphere of Bianliang has already been completely renewed.

Zhao Jun came to the Song Dynasty in April of the third year of Jingyou, his eyesight recovered in July, and he entered the Political System Council in September. In total, he had been in power for three months.

The overall situation of the Song Dynasty may not have changed much in the past three months, but Tokyo Bianliang is completely different from before.

After the bureaucracy was restructured, administrative efficiency has been greatly increased. Yesterday, a canal vessel collided and capsized at the mouth of the Bian River, blocking the river and causing great commercial fluctuations.

You must know that the Bian River at that time was like the Strait of Malacca in later generations. It was the lifeline of the Eastern great country. If it was blocked for a day, the economy of the entire Bianliang would be affected.

Therefore, every time there was a blockage, it received attention from the court.

But in the past, government efficiency was always low, and it would take at least two or three days to clear the blockage. In case of a larger blockage, it could even take one or two months. For example, in the first year of the Qingli reign of Emperor Renzong, a grain ship capsized, and the blockage lasted for more than 20 days before it could be cleared.

But now, after the Constitutional Council issued an order to clear the river immediately, the Ministry of Transport and Kaifeng Prefecture worked together to quickly direct and dispatch the troops, towing the overturned boat ashore, and restoring the river channel in just half a day.

It can be said that the administrative efficiency of the officialdom has risen by more than one level.

The orderliness of the streets and the flow of people are much better now than before. The only thing that hasn't changed much is the rampant illegal construction.

This is not easy for Zhao Jun either.

The main reason is that ancient urban planning was disorganized. Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng Prefecture remained the same as it was before, without a clear development direction.

The result was that the citizens of Bianliang began to grow wildly, building houses haphazardly, making travel between the various towns and cities extremely difficult.

But if the demolition was forced, the people of Bianliang would collectively resist the government. Therefore, the Song Dynasty officials were actually deeply troubled, and even Zhao Kuang and Zhao Guangyi had no way to deal with it.

This is the only way for now. We can only carry out demolition and replan the city when we have more money in the future.

On this day, Zhao Jun was on duty at the Constitutional Court. He was wearing a purple robe, a long-sleeved shirt and long trousers underneath, and cotton shoes, so he was not cold.

When he went to Daliangshan, he brought only summer clothes. He had planned to wait until the seasons changed from autumn to winter and then have his family express some autumn and winter clothes. However, he did not expect that he would be separated from his family forever in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, my mother was worried that it would be cold in the mountains at night, so she stuffed two sets of autumn clothes into the suitcase. Otherwise, with the cold-resistant conditions in the Song Dynasty, even the nobles would be no better than the common people in later generations.

"well"

After reading today's official documents, Zhao Jun was not in a good mood. He threw the document aside, leaned back in the armchair, frowned, and just looked out the window quietly.

The door was closed and the windows were only opened a crack to prevent the house from being filled with carbon dioxide from burning charcoal.

Through the wooden window, you can see snowflakes flying in with the wind.

There were a few icicles faintly dotted on the windows.

Zhao Jun just watched. In fact, he was not thinking about anything in his mind. He was just feeling restless and confused for a short time. There was a moment when he didn't know what to do at all and just wanted to stare blankly.

"What's wrong?"

Yan Shu came over with a pile of documents.

He is now the Minister of Revenue and the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Political Affairs. He usually works in the Ministry of Revenue in front of the Daqing Hall. Now he is here to deliver documents and discuss next year's population census with the Ministry of Political Affairs.

Seeing the unusual movement here, Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others also looked over. Since they worked in the hall, there were many subordinate officials coming and going, and they did not discuss matters in the hall. If it was something more important, they would go to the conference room.

"fine."

Zhao Jun rubbed his temples and said softly, "I just feel a little tired."

"I'm probably tired."

Yan Shu glanced at the official documents on the table. The documents were open and Fan Zhongyan had submitted a note stating that more than 30 people had frozen to death in Kaifeng Prefecture yesterday alone.

It's not just the beggars on the street, but also those poor families, most of whom are elderly and children.

Although cotton was already available in the Song Dynasty, it was not as widely promoted as it was in the Ming Dynasty, so the ability of the lower classes to keep warm was very limited.

Even high-ranking officials usually used fur coats or kapok fur coats to keep warm.

As Su Che wrote in his poem: "The spring has already passed for several days, and the stove on the ground is still filled with wooden cotton fur."

Ordinary people could not afford fur coats and fur clothes, so they could only rely on charcoal fire. Once the charcoal ran out, people might freeze to death.

"Sitting in this position, looking at these notes and memorials, I feel that human life is sometimes just a number."

Zhao Jun sighed, sat up, and leaned his hands on the table. He lowered his head and pressed the Jingming acupoint. He closed his eyes and said, "But these people are living people. Their deaths are actually the government's fault."

"There's no other way. The Song Dynasty doesn't have the productivity of later generations."

Lü Yijian stopped what he was doing and, sitting on the table next to him, turned his head and said to Zhao Jun, "If the Song Dynasty had so much cotton, so many looms, and so many cotton-padded clothes, why would people freeze to death in winter?"

Zhao Jun glanced at him and sneered, "Do you know why the ancient population remained around 60 million from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty before the Song Dynasty?"

"Why?"

Lu Yijian was puzzled.

"With the limits of ancient productivity, it would have been no problem to feed 100 million or 200 million people. However, wars, natural disasters, and plagues in ancient times would have caused large-scale population declines."

Zhao Jun looked at him and said, "Secondly, since the Han Dynasty, wealth has been primarily concentrated in the hands of large estate owners, landlords, and the bureaucratic class, resulting in serious uneven distribution. If the grain produced at that time were distributed equally, how could it be limited to only 60 million people?"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!