This meeting in Chongzheng Hall was very important. It not only determined the future direction of the Song Dynasty, but also improved the country's main strategic development.
It can be said that this meeting laid the foundation for the future pattern of the Song Dynasty for hundreds or thousands of years, and it was a long-term strategy.
After the meeting, the Constitutional Yuan began to carry out specific national reforms.
Of course, a change in the political system is not as simple as changing the country's name, but requires comprehensive changes.
In the past, Zhao Jun only changed the official system, but now it is the system of the entire country. To cover all aspects, it naturally needs to be rearranged.
The most basic thing is that the land area of the Song Dynasty is no longer 2.8 million square kilometers, but 3.2 million square kilometers, so administrative planning needs to be carried out again.
It includes the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and the Liaoning Peninsula, covering an area of approximately 250,000 square kilometers.
Then there are Qingtang, Xixia Zhuoluo and Nan's land of about 150,000 square kilometers. In total, from last year to this year, the Song Dynasty has acquired a total of about 400,000 square kilometers of territory.
Although this number is not large, it is even 200,000 square kilometers less than the Qin Dynasty's territory of 3.4 million square kilometers at its peak.
But in fact, it was not that the Song Dynasty was incapable of continuing to expand its territory, but that it did not want to get rich overnight.
If we really want land, the Yue Dynasty alone has more than 300,000 square kilometers of territory. In addition, the destruction of Western Xia will add another 400,000 to 500,000 square kilometers. Then there are Dali, Tubo, the Western Regions, the Liao Dynasty, etc., which is more than enough to get 10 million square kilometers.
But as the saying goes, it is easy to conquer an empire but difficult to maintain it. The sudden addition of so much land, most of which are negative assets that cannot be cultivated, will make the management and development of the Song Dynasty difficult.
By then, it would have slowed down the progress of the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, food must be eaten one bite at a time and territory must be increased bit by bit. First, Western Xia must be destroyed and the Treasure Island taken over. Then, Nanyang must be developed and turned into the back garden of the Song Dynasty. It will not be too late to expand massively when food is sufficient and the population is full.
Therefore, the territory of the Song Dynasty should be fixed at about three to four million square kilometers for a long time in the future. It will destroy the Western Xia, open up the Hexi Corridor, and then recover the Western Regions from Jiayuguan to Hami.
Then, he would manage Nanyang, which would probably be no more than five million square kilometers. When Zhao Jun was in his later years, he would launch a full-scale war and unify China.
Therefore, on this basis, administrative planning is very important.
It is necessary to provide development guidance for each region, and conduct investigations and research on which areas are rich in minerals, which areas have convenient transportation, which areas are suitable for farming, which areas can develop commerce, etc.
However, there is no need to do much fiddling with the overall area division.
Because our ancestors and later generations had already made a decision on this issue, Qingtang and Zhuoluo were incorporated into Qinfeng Road, Xijin Prefecture of Liao was changed to Beiping Prefecture of Song, and the original Beijing Daming Prefecture was moved to Youzhou City, and Liaoyang was also included.
The only details are how those resources should be developed and utilized.
For example, border cities were established in Shenyang, Zhangjiakou, etc., trade was carried out with tribes such as the Khitan, Mongol, Jurchen, and Bohai, local mineral resources were developed, and textile industries such as wool were developed with Beiping Prefecture as the center.
In addition, they had to design a national flag and emblem, write a national anthem for the Song Dynasty, and introduce a series of policies to protect farmers and safeguard the interests of workers.
For example, establish farmers' associations and trade unions at the grassroots level, increase channels for farmers and workers to communicate with higher authorities, stipulate working days and rest days, and improve labor laws.
Strictly speaking, the employment contracts in the Northern Song Dynasty were relatively complete. The government had clear regulations and protections regarding employment. Unless there was collusion between officials and businessmen, there were rarely cases of wage arrears.
However, the employment in the past was not in labor-intensive industries. Generally, they worked as waiters and waitresses in various shops, or as dock workers, coolie workers, carpenters, bricklayers and the like.
Since the number of workers employed is small and the amount is generally not huge, there is no need to bribe the government for this little bit of wages.
On the other hand, if wages are withheld and the workers report them to the authorities, it will be a big trouble.
Therefore, under such circumstances, regulations such as the Labor Contract Law of the Northern Song Dynasty were able to be implemented smoothly, which indirectly promoted the economic prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty.
But workers are different.
As a labor-intensive industry, smaller factories may employ only a few or dozens of people, while larger ones may employ hundreds, or even thousands or tens of thousands of people.
The capitalists deduct a little from each worker's wages, or force them to work overtime unconditionally, but the combined profits created are very large.
Therefore, introducing policies and laws early is also to prevent problems before they occur and avoid having to remedy the situation later.
The Constitutional Yuan actually didn't spend too much time planning these things because they didn't have to do it themselves.
Matters such as the national flag, national emblem, and national anthem are subject to extensive consultation, the introduction of laws to protect workers and farmers is left to the Ministry of Justice, and land planning still requires the Ministry of Natural Resources to go to the newly acquired land to explore for minerals.
The rest is some research work.
Zhao Jun personally went to the factories outside the city of Bianliang to inspect the working environment of the workers.
We also visited some mines around Bianliang, such as Caocun Town (Pingdingshan), Changsha (Xuchang), Zhengzhou and other coal-producing areas to learn about the mining environment.
Currently, due to limitations in mining levels and capabilities, the main mining operations are open-pit mining, with less digging underground.
But it is obvious that with the development of industry, open-pit coal mines and iron mines are expected to be rapidly depleted in the next few decades, and deep underground mining is inevitable sooner or later.
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