It was not until the new millennium that honeycomb coal was gradually replaced by air conditioners and gas stoves in the south, and by floor heating and natural gas stoves in the north, losing its original function of cooking and heating.
Although Zhao Jun lived in the countryside when he was a child, he had only seen honeycomb coal when he was a child.
When he was growing up, China was in the period of rapid economic growth. People lived a prosperous life. Every household could afford air conditioners and water heaters, and few used coal stoves anymore.
In addition, he was taken to the city by his parents to study since elementary school. Because of his good grades, he attended good schools. Junior high school and high school were both good middle schools in the city. When he was in junior high school and high school in 1218, the classrooms and dormitories in the school were all air-conditioned.
Therefore, it is normal to know the existence of honeycomb coal in this kind of growing environment but not be impressed by it and not know how it is made.
However, he vaguely remembered that it should be made of coal, water, and some clay.
Because when he was in elementary school, he passed by someone's house and saw someone making honeycomb coal there, just like mixing concrete, and then using a mold to cast the coal balls, and then leaving them there to dry.
He didn't know the specific formula, but many emerging products actually had little technological content. What they lacked was just ideas. As long as Zhao Jun pointed out the ideas, there would always be someone who could do it.
"The Construction Bureau has now recruited many skilled craftsmen, and there is also the former Eight Works Department, who are good at making tools. This task can be handed over to them."
Wang Sui, who is now in charge of the affairs of the Creation Bureau, said.
"Um."
Zhao Jun nodded. "We have a lot to do now, including people's livelihood, economy, military, science and technology, education, and every aspect. Although fiscal revenue is good this year and there is no deficit, this is because I confiscated the property. If we want to truly improve the Song Dynasty, we should start with the big picture."
Zhao Zhen asked, "What should we do?"
"Throughout history, whether it's curbing inflation or developing the economy and stimulating macroeconomic growth, there are only two approaches."
Zhao Jun looked around at everyone and said, "Increase revenue and reduce expenditure."
"This is an eternal truth."
Everyone agreed.
Zhao Jun said: "To solve the problems of the Song Dynasty, in terms of saving money, we need to control government spending and limit government borrowing. This is the situation of the three redundancies."
Lending was particularly prosperous in the Northern Song Dynasty, both officially and privately.
The premise for Wang Anshi's reform and the Qingmiao Law was that he discovered that there was a strong demand for private lending.
Moreover, private lending is extremely exploitative, and the bureaucratic landlord class charges high interest rates on the people, so they plan to provide official low-interest loans to the people to replace private loans.
Unfortunately, Lao Wang still underestimated how bad the administration was. Good policies turned into bad policies when they reached the people.
When Fan Zhongyan heard Zhao Jun finally bring up the "Three Redundancies" again, he perked up and said, "The three redundancies are a serious problem and should definitely be addressed."
"Now is not the right time to address the issue of redundant officials and soldiers, but we can start by addressing the redundant expenses."
Zhao Jun said, "I've already cut the salaries of senior officials this year, and next year I'll try to cut everyone's benefits. Then, we'll also have to manage the waste of local government funds and try to eliminate as many unnecessary expenses as possible."
The expressions of Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others changed slightly. Their salaries were cut in half. They used to earn about 30,000 strings of cash a year, but now it is only 15,000. Others like Jia Changchao's salary was reduced to about 10,000.
The decree has been issued and will take effect next year. Senior officials have many complaints about this, but due to Liu Yuanyu's previous experience, no one dares to provoke Zhao Jun.
Now they are cutting their other benefits, which is so painful.
Everyone looked as if they were constipated, but they didn't dare to confront Zhao Jun, so they could only sit there aggrieved and silent.
Zhao Zhen saw their expressions and could guess what was going on, so he asked, "Will this hurt them too much?"
"What can hurt them?"
Zhao Jun glanced at Lu Yijian and the others, who looked unhappy, and said, "It's not that they are not allowed to do business, but confiscating all their property is good enough. These guys are all very wealthy, do they need this little salary?"
Lü Yijian had no choice but to say, "Your Majesty, I believe the salaries of Song officials are indeed too high. It would be reasonable to reduce them a little."
"Yes, it is not a problem for us, it is just a small salary."
"Although I am not talented, I have accumulated some wealth over the years. It is only natural that I should reduce my salary and expenditure for the country."
"I have no objection."
Everyone agreed to cut welfare benefits.
Mr. Lu Xun was right when he said, "The Chinese are always inclined to compromise and seek a compromise. For example, if you say, 'This room is too dark, and you want to put a skylight in here,' they will definitely not allow it. But if you advocate tearing down the roof, they will compromise and agree to the skylight."
The salaries of these top prime ministers were already high. Even if they were cut in half, they were still dozens of times higher than those of senior ministers in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The most important thing was that their families were all wealthy, with countless fields, shops, and mansions.
If Zhao Jun forbade them to do business, they would lose hundreds of thousands or even millions of strings of cash. Compared with their rich family property, they could clearly tell the difference between an annual salary of just over 10,000 strings of cash and a little more.
So facing Zhao Jun's relentless pressure, they could only retreat step by step.
"All right."
Seeing that everyone agreed, Zhao Zhen had no choice but to agree.
"Besides that, I believe the Jiaozi Administration should be independent, without any other department interfering, and directly under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Council and the government."
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