The New Year of the 13th year of the Qingli period has passed, and the Song Dynasty is still developing in full swing.
By June, the data for the first half of the year were sent to the Constitutional Yuan, and the data were very encouraging.
The growth rates of steel production, economic development, fiscal revenue and import and export trade volume are all extremely exaggerated.
Especially import and export trade.
The Song Dynasty's foreign trade was already very large, but during the celebration at the beginning of the year, the trade volume reached more than 100 million guan at one time.
Adding the original trade volume in January and February, about 400 million guan were exported at the beginning of the year.
This is equivalent to the total export volume for half a year in the 12th year of the Qingli period.
In the middle of summer in June, a few days ago, there was a heavy rain in Bianliang, and not only in Bianliang, but also in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
Although the heavy rain only lasted for two or three days, it still caused the water level of the Bian River to surge.
That is to say, the river is well repaired now, and many diversion canals have been dug. Otherwise, this rainstorm alone might have caused a flood in Bianliang.
But even so, it slightly affected the canal business for a few days. Some ships capsized in the river due to sudden heavy rain, blocking the river.
However, the current blockage of the canal is no longer a problem for the Song Dynasty. Not to mention that there are personnel to handle the river itself, the fact that trains run 24 hours a day has greatly alleviated the freight pressure in Bianliang.
It was a hot summer day, the scorching sun was shining on the earth, and the heat was unbearable. The Constitutional Court finally got its second electrical appliance besides electric lights - several electric fans operated by electricity, developed by the Electrical Equipment Research Institute under the School of Physics under the Academy of Sciences!
Although the technical content of electric fans is not high, in fact, the main development direction of science and technology in the entire Song Dynasty was mainly based on the steel, clothing and transportation industries, that is, steelmaking, textiles, and railway industries, and the other industries were extremely backward.
It was only in recent years that the steel, textile and transportation industries gradually got on track that the Song Dynasty was able to devote all its national strength to developing other industries. Otherwise, how could it be so easy to produce the wires and screws inside this electric fan?
“Huff, huff, huff, huff.”
The electric fan was running at full power and ice cubes were placed in the room to cool down.
However, every time the door of the Constitutional Court was opened, the heat waves outside would rush in. With the alternating hot and cold temperatures, several old prime ministers soon couldn't stand it and went to the back chamber of the Constitutional Court to rest.
Zhao Jun was also sweating profusely. He suspected that the daytime temperature today was at least above 35 degrees, otherwise how could he feel so hot.
"It's so hot."
Yan Shu wiped the sweat from his forehead and panted, "The summers seem to be getting hotter in recent years."
"The Little Ice Age is over. As time goes by, the temperature will continue to rise. I remember when we were there, there were frequent power outages in the early 2000s, and we rolled around on the floor in the summer nights because it was so hot."
Zhao Jun smiled.
Many people think that those born in the 2000s have never suffered hardships. In fact, the country only took off after 2008. But even before it took off in 2010, there were power outages all over the country.
When Zhao Jun was a child, he remembered that it was probably the summer of 2008 or 2009, when he was in elementary school. There was a power outage one night.
It was 40 degrees Celsius during the day, but even at night it was over 30 degrees. There was no air conditioning or electric fans, so adults and children all lay on the floor, heating up the tile floor.
"Well, at least you had air conditioning back then. But now, I'm afraid I won't even have air conditioning until I die."
Yan Shu sighed.
"Old people will get sick if they use air conditioning too much."
Zhao Jun said a few perfunctory words to him.
Zeng Gongliang brought some official documents he had prepared and placed them on his desk.
The political ecology of the Constitutional Yuan is headed by Zhao Jun.
Important official documents from all over the country and various ministries are submitted to the Constitutional Court for review.
But these things certainly could not be handled by Zhao Jun alone, so each prime minister, in addition to being responsible for the affairs of various departments, also had to issue memorials and give instructions.
The decision notes were finally summarized to Zhao Jun. After Zhao Jun read the prime ministers' handling methods, he sent them out if there were no problems.
If there were any problems, he would make the changes himself. If the other prime ministers had any objections, they would discuss it together and come up with a set of rules.
Basically, unless Zhao Jun was determined to do what he wanted, the rest of the discussion would be the focus. But if Zhao Jun was really determined to do what he wanted, then even bringing up Zhao Zhen would be useless.
He alone has the final say, it just depends on whether he is willing to exercise such power.
Zhao Jun took the documents approved by Zeng Gongliang and glanced at each one. Zeng Gongliang explained, "This is a report from the Firearms Department. It requires the Bianliang Iron and Steel Plant to build two outdated production lines."
"Let's build it."
Zhao Jun scratched his head.
The previously outdated production line was not actually dismantled.
But once new technologies mature, outdated production lines become useless and are left there to rust.
However, the technology and industrial workers are still there, so the old cannon barrels, small cannon barrels and flintlock barrels should still be able to be made.
This, combined with the production lines of Minié bullets and solid bullets, would form a complete, backward firearms industry process before World War I.
Who would have thought that the Song Dynasty, which already had smokeless gunpowder and artillery technology comparable to that of World War II, would still have to make antiques like those from before World War I?
"This is another report from the Firearms Department. They've developed blueprints for new weapons like machine guns and revolvers. They hope to send them to the steel mills for forging."
"Let them try."
"Then there's the data reported by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce this year. They hope to slightly reduce the liquor tax. There's too much grain right now, so brewing more liquor will also help with tax revenue."
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