In the Song Dynasty, there was no law. Chapter 269: The time has come, prepare to rise up! In early May, Zhao Jun spent more than ten days in Wu'an providing guidance and arranging all matters before returning to Bianliang.
Now, since the war stopped in the first year of Kangding, the five major foreign trade foundations were laid by the end of the year.
Then, in the first year of the Qingli period, the administration of officials was rectified.
In the second year of the Qingli period, the country reduced taxes, lightened corvee labor, expanded foreign trade, and carried out construction everywhere.
Up to now, the Song Dynasty has been recuperating for two and a half years.
The prices in Bianliang basically stabilized, and the price of grain remained at 240 wen per dan, which was slightly lower than the 30-50 wen per dan during the Zhenguan period.
But this is the result of the court maintaining grain prices. If two-thirds of taxes are reduced, the amount of grain on the market will increase dramatically.
A plunge in food prices will only hurt farmers.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty court ordered the transport offices in various places to purchase grain at a fair price to maintain price stability, and to expand the granaries to prepare for use in years of famine.
As for the old grain, it was made into feed to feed livestock according to custom, with more pigs, cattle and sheep being raised to enrich the tables of the Song people.
Naturally, there may be someone involved.
For example, exchanging old grain for new grain, passing inferior grain off as good grain, and then reselling the new grain.
For this reason, the Censorate and the Imperial City Office across the country were busy conducting inspections everywhere, and the Censorate's political achievements and performance were linked to the strict investigation of corruption.
Zhao Jun even ordered that if a corrupt official was caught, all his property would be confiscated, and one-tenth of it would be given to the official from the Censorate who handled the case as a reward, and it would also be a way to improve his political achievements.
After hearing about this, many local censors became excited and started to investigate corrupt officials and illegal merchants everywhere, and began to accumulate initial political capital for themselves.
You should know that many new censors in the Censorate are often newly-minted Jinshi. These people have just taken up their posts as officials. They first serve as Chief Secretary of Works or Deputy Director of the Supreme Court for about a year, and then are transferred to local areas to serve as county magistrates, prosecutors, and inspectors.
If one has outstanding political achievements, he may be transferred to become a local censor, tax supervisor, inspection censor, criminal censor, etc. His duties are somewhat similar to those of prosecutors in later Korea.
Although the rank of local censors ranges from eighth to fourth grade, their power is enormous.
Furthermore, young censors were often very energetic. Even if they were only an eighth-rank official, they could investigate and impeach a seventh-rank county magistrate or a fifth-rank prefectural governor. Once they suspected something, they had the power to conduct an investigation, so their responsibilities were quite broad.
These people are young and energetic, and are not afraid of the powerful. Although they are prone to impulsiveness and are not easy to deal with when they encounter those old-fashioned officials, the court is never afraid that the censors will not be able to investigate the case, but that the censors will not investigate, and that those who investigate will collude with those being investigated.
Therefore, the rectification of the civil service over the past two years has been to continuously deal with corrupt elements in the official ranks and to continuously eliminate those black sheep hiding in the court and local areas who harm the people in the name of the court.
Even if there are countless corrupt officials in the world, we should continue to catch them. Just like weeds in a field, we must constantly remove them to ensure the crops thrive.
Zhao Jun went south along the Bian River, and the convoy returned to the palace from the dock.
When he went to Wu'an, he took the land route, but when he came back, he took the water route, in order to see the efficiency of going from Mingshui to Zhangshui, and then from Yongji Canal into the Yellow River and back to Bianliang.
From the current perspective, the efficiency is average.
After all, except for Mingshui, the others are upstream, and often require trackers to pull the large boats, so the efficiency is naturally not fast.
However, it is not bad to go from Bianliang to Wuan. It is basically downstream and the efficiency is pretty good.
It was noon at this time, and everyone in the Institute of Political Affairs was busy doing business. Zhao Jun had not been to the Institute of Political Affairs before he came back. When he heard that Zhao Zhen was in the back garden, he went straight to find him.
Led by Wang Shouzhong, he passed through the flower-filled garden and arrived outside the Guanjia Hall.
On the edge of the field outside the temple, this year's new wheat has just been harvested. Champa rice seedlings are planted in the dry fields, and early rice is planted in the paddy fields next to it. After the early rice is harvested in June and July, the late rice can be planted.
It is worth mentioning that these were all planted by Zhao Zhen himself.
This was the tradition of the Song Dynasty royal family. Every season the emperor had to farm personally. Starting from Zhao Zhen's father, Song Zhenzong Zhao Heng, they engaged in production in Guanjia Hall and Qincan Palace. The emperor farmed and the empress raised silkworms, which became a routine.
In history, Zhao Zhen abided by these rules in his early years. However, in his middle and late years, perhaps because he had no children, he gradually degenerated and lived a luxurious life, which seemed to be a bit self-destructive.
But now it's okay, I haven't been lax. Zhao Jun saw Zhao Zhen squatting in the field with a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth.
In the distance, King Wei Zhao Fang, who was five years old this year, was playing with water. He scooped water from the rice field with a cup, dug a hole, poured the water in, and then carefully put in a small fish fry that he had just caught from the rice field.
"What are you doing, bro?"
Zhao Jun walked over and asked in confusion, "What are you doing squatting on the ground?"
Zhao Zhen looked up and saw him coming, and immediately laughed: "Grandson, you've arrived just in time. Look."
He pointed to the vegetable patch next to him.
It was only when Zhao Jun got closer that he noticed that there were broad bean plants growing in the vegetable garden. He wondered, "Brother has been acting so mysterious this year. Is he really growing beans at home?"
"I'm replicating Mendel's hybridization experiment. I originally wanted to use peas, but peas prefer warmth and humidity and can't tolerate drought. In recent years, temperatures in the north have been rising, and I was worried they wouldn't survive. So, I used broad beans, which also use autopollen and are slightly more drought-resistant."
Zhao Zhen pointed at the broad bean seedlings and said, "See? Southern broad beans grow no more than two feet tall, mature in just 100 days, and produce few seeds, but their advantage is their rapid growth. Northern broad beans, on the other hand, grow four feet tall, produce many seeds, but often take 150 days to mature. I'll combine these two, allowing them to cross-pollinate, to create two experimental plots. What if I can produce broad beans that mature in 100 days and produce many seeds?"
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