In November of the seventh year of the Qingli period in the Song Dynasty, it was already the end of the year, and the court began to shift its focus from the development of various industries to statistics.
All departments began to compile their own data in full swing, and the Statistics Department also moved into each department to calculate whether each department's plan for this year has met the standards.
Although data cannot represent everything, it can intuitively show the development speed of a country and the current living conditions of the vast majority of its people.
Strictly speaking, the Song Dynasty cannot be said to be an industrial country today, but should be considered a semi-industrial and semi-agricultural country.
Because the main pillar industries at present are still agriculture and handicraft manufacturing.
Although the steel industry started to be laid out a long time ago, its real large-scale development has only occurred in the last two years, and many places are still in the planning and construction stage.
It will take at least several years before every state has a certain steel industry.
As for other textile and construction industries, they are also in the process of spreading from Bianliang to other areas. It will take time to fully expand them.
Therefore, the current industrial output value of the Song Dynasty cannot be considered high. Compared with the huge agriculture and handicraft manufacturing industries, it is still an insignificant point.
But a single spark can start a prairie fire.
Now is the construction period. When it reaches the high-speed development period, for example, when the first batch of rubber trees mature and everything is on track, industrial capacity will directly begin to leap forward.
While the Song Dynasty was booming, the situation in the surrounding countries was very bad.
Western Xia wanted to send envoys to pay tribute and submit to the Song Dynasty, but the Song Dynasty refused. Even the envoys were not allowed to go to Bianliang, let alone negotiate peace.
The Liao Kingdom was defeated and Yelu Zongzhen did not survive the winter. He died of illness in October. Yelu Chongyuan ascended the throne and was now overwhelmed by the domestic situation.
After the restoration of the Le Dynasty in Vietnam with the help of the Song Dynasty, it lost the support of the people and uprisings broke out one after another, putting Vietnam in a stage of serious internal friction.
Qingtang has now completely surrendered to the Song Dynasty. Xiazhen was given the surname Zhao, and his entire family moved to Bianliang to become nobles of the Song Dynasty. The Hehuang Valley has now been changed into six prefectures and counties, including Xiningzhou and Huangzhou.
The rest of the countries, such as the Uighurs, Tubo, Kara Khanate, and Pagan, either lived on their own or sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to pay tribute and pledge allegiance to it. Some even had internal strife and were exhausted from running around.
The only relatively peaceful country was the Dali Kingdom.
The Dali Kingdom had always adopted a policy of being pro-Song Dynasty. The domestic political power was controlled by the Gao family, the prime minister, and the ruler was in a weak position.
But since the fourth year of the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty and the first year of the Tianming period of Dali, when the Gao family deposed the licentious and immoral Dali ruler Duan Suxing, there has been a period of political turmoil of varying degrees.
Most of the time, Dali was stable and maintained political and trade relations with the Song Dynasty through the ancient Tea-Horse Road.
Under such circumstances, Dali was quite prosperous, with no disasters or rebellions, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, creating a peaceful and harmonious scene.
It’s a good thing that I found a big brother. My life is worry-free.
As for Japan.
In recent years, Japan was semi-forced by the Song Dynasty to open its doors and the Iwami Port, and its domestic economy fell into collapse.
A large number of handicraft industries were impacted by the Song State's handicraft manufacturing industry. Many craftsmen lost their jobs, were either hired by Song State merchants, or moved to other places. The overall economic situation was controlled by the Song State.
In addition, many local nobles, governors and other powerful people were in a semi-independent state. They only needed to pay tribute to the central government every year, but they were lawless in their own areas.
This led to various contradictions between the central and local governments. With the Taira Masakado Rebellion in the past and the Taira Tadatsune Rebellion in the future, Japan was already showing signs of civil unrest.
However, the only good news is that the domestic underlying stability is still pretty good.
Influenced by the manor economy, most of the lower-class civilians were serfs of local nobles and powerful people. Just like in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the lower-class people were trapped in the manors and controlled by their masters, so there was basically no possibility of independent uprising and rebellion.
In addition, the Song Dynasty not only exported industrial products to Japan, but also exported surplus food. Foods such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes, which were commonly used as feed in the Song Dynasty, could become staple foods when sold to Japan.
Because of this situation, the lower classes in Japan are less likely to resist.
But at the same time, trade between local Japanese nobles and the Song Dynasty would increase their strength. These nobles and local forces who owned manors would have people, food and weapons, and would naturally pose a threat to the rule of the emperor and the Fujiwara family.
The most powerful among them were the Abe clan in Mutsu Province and the Kiyohara clan in Dewa Province.
Mutsu Province was located in northeastern Japan, covering the area of Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi Prefectures in later generations. Dewa Province was located in northern Japan, covering the area of Akita Prefecture in later generations.
Since these two places were places where Japan exiled prisoners and captured Ainu people in ancient times, many prisoners were held there.
The person in charge of these prisoners is called the prisoner chief.
The Abe and Kiyohara clans were the chief prisoners of the two countries, and they had the power of life and death over these captured criminals. Therefore, these two powerful families were the most powerful families in the two countries.
At this moment, on the morning of November 9th, the seventh year of the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty, Abe Yoriyoshi, the head of the Abe family, was entertaining a guest in his own castle mansion in Oroku County, Mutsu Province.
The guest's name was Takeshi Kiyohara, and he was the head of the Kiyohara clan in the neighboring Dewa Province.
Historically, the imperial court attacked the Abe clan, who defeated the local governor of Mutsu Province, Fujiwara no Tomokazu. The Fujiwara clan then sent Minamoto no Yoriyoshi to fight against the Abe clan.
Although the Abe clan suffered a disadvantage in the initial battles and even Abe Yoriyoshi himself was shot to death, his two sons subsequently stabilized the situation and launched a counterattack against Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, almost defeating him.
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