In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order. Chapter 276 of the main text: A cup of wine to release redundant soldiers. Zhao Jun obviously didn't know how chaotic the generals' family was in the past.

Due to the court's indulgence, the children of military officers and nobles acted recklessly.

Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin gave up military power with a toast, so that generals and nobles could make money according to his orders.

According to historical records, Shi Shouxin "served as military governors for many years, devoted himself to accumulating wealth, and accumulated enormous fortunes"; when Wang Quanbin "conquered Shu, he seized the children and treasures of the people" and allowed his troops to plunder Shu.

On the day Wang Renshan defeated Shu, he "took Li Tinggui as his concubine and opened the Fengde Treasury to take out gold and treasures"; Chu Zhaofu "was quite stingy, and gave away tens of thousands of coins before and after, which he collected and kept.

The other generals of the early Song Dynasty, such as Cui Yanjin, Cao Han, Zhang Duo, Tian Jingxian, Wang Hui, and Li Hanchao, all made a lot of money and had a full stomach.

Strictly speaking, it was not their fault, as it was Zhao Kuangyin who forced them to do so. For example, Wang Quanbin was a good person before he gave up his military power with a toast. He "valued scholars over wealth, did not seek reputation, was generous and tolerant, and was happy to serve the army."

After releasing his military power over a cup of wine, he seemed like a completely different person. On the day of conquering Shu, he took the lead and allowed his subordinates to plunder Shu. "They violated the constitution, killed surrendered soldiers, embezzled public funds, abducted women, and collected goods and property. They aroused the resentment of the people and led to the influx of bandits."

Obviously, this was done purely to protect himself and to defile himself, and he had no choice but to do so.

But the result of doing so was that although the generals and nobles in the early Song Dynasty lost their military power, they had a high political status and were very arrogant and domineering. Even if they did bad things, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi would often protect them.

With such a trend, many sons of generals and nobles naturally would not restrain themselves too much. They were domineering and arrogant, and some even killed people at will. There was a cannibalistic general named Wang Jixun, the second generation.

However, this situation improved a lot during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Renzong of Song. The first generation of military generals were basically stripped of their military power, and the military power was firmly held in the hands of the emperor.

In addition, Zhao Heng and Zhao Zhen did not have such deep feelings for the generals, so they basically did not protect them. Instead, they began to use civil officials. Once the censors and censors impeached military generals and nobles, they would often punish them severely.

So during this period, the second and third generations of military generals and nobles became much more restrained, or at least they did not dare to cause trouble openly.

Therefore, Zhao Jun thought that the military generals and nobles were particularly low-key, but he didn't know that he didn't know much about the internal situation of the army, and had no idea that the military generals and nobles had done many illegal things in their own little piece of land.

He naively believed that the military nobles were worried about the future, and that as long as he set an example for them and allowed the Cao family to become rich, other families would follow suit, thus solving the problem of redundant troops.

Therefore, at the regular meeting of the Political System Council in early September, Zhao Jun proposed the Vision Plan for the Fourth Year of the Qingli Period to completely solve the three redundancies problem.

In other words, in the military, a large number of the old, weak, sick and disabled were eliminated and land was distributed to them. State-owned companies were established to allow young and strong people who could not fight to participate in the construction of rivers, digging canals, water conservancy facilities and other projects, and even to participate in overseas voyages.

The current number of troops to be retained is approximately 800,000, with an estimated elimination of approximately 400,000. Of the remaining 800,000, 300,000 will be dedicated to the garrison troops and 500,000 to the imperial guards. If the local garrison troops become overcrowded with old and weak soldiers, some of the imperial guards will be transferred to serve as local garrison troops.

In terms of weapons and equipment, firearms will first be supplied to the 50,000 elite imperial guards led by Fan Zhongyan, and the other 750,000 troops will still mainly rely on cold weapons. Even if steel production capacity is about to explode, it will take time. How can it be so fast?

Therefore, the best option is to prioritize the supply of elite troops to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army.

In this way, one measure can solve the survival problem of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who were eliminated. At the same time, the original military expenditure can be converted into construction expenditure of the Ministry of Industry, which is a disguised way to reduce military expenditure and increase construction expenses. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

When it comes to officials, emphasis is placed on selecting and transferring them optimally. Those with outstanding political achievements will be given priority for promotion and transfer. If their political achievements are not outstanding, or even very poor, they will not be promoted, even if they are not greedy or occupy power. Instead, they will be punished, demoted, or dismissed from office.

In terms of redundant expenses, government spending should be cut, and benefits for officials at all levels should be gradually reduced, with the remaining portion transferred to performance-based salaries. Furthermore, restrictions should be placed on royal expenses to prevent the situation where an egg in the Imperial Household Department costs eight ounces of silver.

The only good thing about the Northern Song Dynasty was the strict control over the royal family. Royal family members within the five degrees of mourning were not allowed to leave the capital. The policy of "supporting them well but not using them" was adopted. They were only given salaries and fiefs, but no official positions or military powers.

Moreover, the reigns of both the Northern and Southern Song dynasties were short, lasting only a little over a hundred years, so there were only a few royal families. By the time of Emperor Renzong of Song, there were only four generations: Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Huan, and Zhao Zhen.

The three brothers Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi and Zhao Tingmei had a total of 24 sons, 60 grandsons and 227 great-grandsons. By the fourth generation, there were only 1,062 descendants of the entire royal family.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the number of the three brothers' clan members was less than 10,000. The Jin army marched south and slaughtered clan members on a large scale. Therefore, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of Zhao clan members was less than 50,000. Compared with the clan troubles in previous dynasties, there was still a big gap.

Therefore, apart from proposing that the Grand Secretary of the Imperial Clan, who was not from another family, be responsible for strictly managing the Imperial Clan, Zhao Jun did not make any changes to the Imperial Clan's expenses. He even planned to wait for a few years for the right opportunity to relax the control over the Imperial Clan and allow outstanding talents from the Imperial Clan to enter the government and serve as officials.

According to Zhao Jun's calculations, the Northern Song Dynasty's annual expenditure could reach more than 80 million guan, including 50 million guan in military expenses, about 16 million guan in official salaries, and several million guan in redundant expenses.

Then there are the miscellaneous expenses for education, construction, research and development, subsidies, acquisitions, relief, etc., which only add up to about 10 million guan.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!