"Well, I'll keep an eye on it."

Yan Shu was responsible for liaising with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, so he nodded to show that he understood.

Zhao Jun turned to look at Lu Yijian and said, "Old Lu, how are the official reports from the various censorial offices and the prefectures and counties? Can they be counted by the end of the year?"

"The data for this is still being compiled, but the population of Gyeonggi-ro has been censused. Would you like to take a look?"

Lu Yijian raised his head and said.

"Let's take a look."

"Give."

“How many new people have been added?”

Zhao Jun asked casually as he took it.

"Twenty-one thousand six hundred and forty-two households."

“Wow.”

Zhao Jun's hands trembled and he almost dropped the document on the ground.

According to historical records, during the Baoyuan period of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, the population was 10.17 million households, of which the male population reached 20.5953 million.

Based on the average of five people per household, the total population was about 50 million. By the end of the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the population had grown to 12.46 million households, with a male population of 26.42 million.

But this is obviously just an approximate number, because in ancient times not only was household registration information difficult to count, but there were also many unregistered households who did not want to pay taxes, so this number is basically only for reference, and the actual number is definitely more than this.

The most typical example is that a family has far more than five people.

In the Song Dynasty, it was forbidden to divide the family while parents were still alive. If both parents were alive or one of them was still alive, the brothers had to continue to stay on the household registration book.

Even if several brothers have married, had children, and formed a large family, even if the family has more than ten or twenty people, as long as the parents are still alive, they are still considered one household, rather than being divided into several small families.

In addition, the statistics on the number of male adults are also somewhat confusing, because many aspects of the population statistics in the Song Dynasty were based on the number of taxpayers.

In the Song Dynasty, only adult men between the ages of 15 and 60 who paid the Ding tax were counted.

At that time, people under the age of 15 did not have to pay the Dingkou tax, and only after that did they start paying. Therefore, there was a saying in the Song Dynasty that "15 years old is considered old". At the age of 60, the elderly did not need to pay, so naturally they would not appear in tax statistics.

Even if there is an elderly person over 80 years old in the family, or if the family is over 30 years old and has no children, or if the parents are old and have no one to support them, they can be exempted from the Ding tax and do not need to be recorded in the tax records.

Therefore, taking all these factors into consideration, it is easy to conclude that there is a huge population hidden under these official statistics that has not been counted.

In the second year of the Qingli period, Zhao Jun asked the Ministry of Statistics and the Ministry of Households to jointly conduct a population census. At that time, the court introduced new policies that were more conducive to population growth, so the census results at that time showed that there were 12 million households and a total population of about 70 million.

But Zhao Jun never dreamed that after the land tax was equalized this year, more than 20,000 households, or more than 100,000 people, would suddenly appear in Jingji Road alone. If this ratio were applied to the whole country, it would be hard to imagine how many people would emerge.

"Jingji Road isn't very big. Previous censuses only showed a population of over 1.8 million, with the majority of the population concentrated in Bianliang. It's surprising that so many unregistered residents are hiding right under the emperor's feet."

Zhao Jun sighed, then looked at everyone and smiled, "But this also shows that our Song Dynasty still has abundant population resources. I estimate that after this census, even if the national population is not 100 million, it will be at least 80 or 90 million."

"What does this mean?"

He placed the document he had just scanned on the table and said to everyone, "This shows that the Song Dynasty already has the basic foundation for industrialization. Now everything is ready, only the east wind is missing. Once the money is in place, we can start working immediately."

“How long will it take to build trains and ships?”

Lu Yijian asked about what he was concerned about. He had always wanted to see a machine that could be driven without human power.

Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "We should be able to produce a prototype next year."

"What model?"

Wang Zeng also became interested.

"When the time comes, we can first build a railway from Bianliang to Weishi. Kaifeng is well connected and can go anywhere. The only problem is that there is no canal to the south, so we have to travel overland to Nanyang."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "If the Beijing-Jingcheng railway line can be opened, goods from Sichuan, Hunan, and Guangzhou can be transferred to Kaifeng by train in Hubei, without having to go through the Yangtze River to Zhejiang first, and then take the canal from Zhejiang to the northwest to Bianliang."

"This is a vision for the country."

Everyone nodded.

Now to the west of Kaifeng, the Bian River connects to the Yellow River, which can connect to Shaanxi.

The canal in the north had also been dug, and soon people coming to Bianliang from Hebei would no longer have to go upstream along the Yellow River for a while and then take the Bian River.

Going east, it goes along the Bian River to Daming Prefecture, then to Huainan, Jiangsu, and finally flows into the Yangtze River.

This way it can circulate in most parts of the country.

The only problem is that to go from Sichuan to Bianliang, it is reasonable to stop the ship in Hubei, and then go north to Kaifeng, which is closer.

However, because of the shipping process, Sichuan merchants had to go to Zhejiang first, and then go north to Bianliang along the canal, which resulted in a long and unnecessary detour.

So it would be much more convenient if a railway was built from Bianliang to Hubei.

The significance and reason why Zhang Zhidong later built the Pinghan Railway were basically the same, which brought unprecedented prosperity to Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Beijing at that time.

Although the rubber cannot be used to mass-produce steam engines after being transported back, it is possible to bring back a certain amount of rubber raw materials and build hundreds or thousands of them without any problem.

When the time comes, we will first build a small section of track to try, and then we will mobilize the whole country to start building the railway. I hope that the wishes of the old Dengs can be fulfilled before they die.

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