RPAGF Chapter 214 Hardworking and Smart Working People
Chapter 214 Hardworking and Smart Working People
Song Dynasty, the second year of Chunxi
Since the sixth year of Shaoxing, Li Qingzhao has been living in Lin'an, and it has been two years now.
Before the sixth year of Shaoxing, she often wrote poems, either expressing her own feelings or satirizing the contemporary court...
It’s sad that the Song Dynasty is in a corner, and I hate the capitulationists in the court!
However, everything changed in the sixth year of Shaoxing. No, to be precise, there were signs of this in the fifth year of Shaoxing.
In the fifth year of Shaoxing, the curtain of light began to appear, and Li Qingzhao was still in Jinhua. The Song Dynasty was caught in a situation where the Jin thieves went south and the Han people fled south. The court only wanted to survive and did not think about the Northern Expedition.
Soon after the light curtain appeared, it was learned that the Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols. The people of the Song Dynasty at that time were shocked and frightened. They were shocked that the Song Dynasty was not destroyed by the Jin people, and they withstood the Jin people's attack! They were afraid that the Song Dynasty would eventually be destroyed by foreign races.
At that time, Li Qingzhao was angry about Guangmu's frequent calls of Song as "song" and "song". Even if it was Guangmu, how could he laugh at her like that! However, after Guangmu exposed what Qin Hui had done... and the government's approach was just to take it easy, Li Qingzhao was extremely disappointed with the government.
Before, one could perhaps say that the government failed to judge people, and that the treacherous officials and capitulationists in the court deceived the emperor, which was why the Northern Expedition was not successful and his wish to return to his homeland was dashed.
It was not until Guangmu released a video about exchanging Liu Chan for Zhao Gou that all the subjects of the Song Dynasty finally saw what kind of person the emperor was. He was timid, cowardly, protected treacherous officials, and killed meritorious officials on false charges...
In the sixth year of Shaoxing, Zhao Gou died, which was a turning point.
The Song Dynasty entered the Chunxi period, when a young emperor ascended the throne and important ministers assisted in the administration.
As the various armies set out for the Northern Expedition, Li Qingzhao often wrote poems to praise them. She often returned to her hometown in her dreams at midnight.
Today, I saw Guangmu talking about the differences between the north and the south, the development of culture, and the loss of rare books due to war. I was deeply touched. When the Jin soldiers marched south, she brought 15 carts of stone artifacts with her. Others advised her to throw them away and escape alone, but she didn't want to.
These things are not just as Guangmu said, they represent the inheritance of culture!
...
[We spent two parts earlier talking about what the war brought to the North, and now we will start talking about its impact on the South.
Along with the war in the north, the south was stable and prosperous. The most prominent manifestation was the rapid increase in population in the Jiangnan region.
The south was not prominent during the Han Dynasty, but after hundreds of years of changes, the hardworking people had long learned to adapt to local conditions.
Because there are many lakes in the Jiangnan region, the people in the Jiangnan region built embankments in the lakes to form polder fields (also known as enclosed fields).
The rulers of the Song Dynasty did not pay much attention to the construction of farmland water conservancy projects, which resulted in the destruction of a large number of polder fields. However, Fan Zhongyan attached great importance to the effectiveness of polder fields.
In his "Reply to the Imperial Edict on Ten Matters", he said: "There used to be polder fields in the south of the Yangtze River. Each polder was dozens of miles in area, like a big city. There were canals in the middle and gates outside. In drought, the gates were opened to draw in the river water; in flood, the gates were closed to prevent the river water from causing harm. Drought and flooding did not occur, which was good for farmers."
As a result, Fan Zhongyan's proposal was recognized and valued by the court, which ordered the two Zhejiang regions to repair the polder fields and vigorously promote it in the areas south of the Yangtze River.
It is worth affirming that the construction of lake dikes not only expanded the arable land and brought about a good harvest, but also solved the problem of drought and flood disasters.
＜Fan Gong was quite good at water management and proposed three points: "dredging the river", "installing sluice gates" and "repairing dikes". [Like]＞
＜It is the common people who have the solution. One solution may not be applicable to the whole country. We must learn to adapt to local conditions.＞
＜It is developed from the practice of enclosing silted lakes for farmland before the Han Dynasty. There are culverts on the dikes, which are closed to prevent water in normal times and opened to release water into the fields during droughts, so there is no need to worry about drought or flood.＞
＜The rulers of the Song Dynasty were truly useless＞
＜Now the North-South alienation begins＞
[Song Renzong Zhao Zhen: I will listen to Mr. Fan.]
[Qin Shi Huangdi Ying Zheng: The development of the south should be put on the agenda]
[Tang Taizong Li Shimin: It is better to adapt to local conditions. This sentence is very wonderful! ]
...
Song Dynasty, Kaibao Year 3
After Zhao Kuangyin successfully conquered the Southern Tang, the Wuyue Kingdom also surrendered to the Song Dynasty, and the Wuyue King Qian Chu also actively came to the city of Bianjing.
Zhao Kuangyin greatly appreciated Qian Chu's initiative and often hosted banquets for the monarchs of various old countries, and Qian Chu was always by Zhao Kuangyin's side.
Li Yu, the former ruler of Southern Tang, was speechless that Qian Chu did not understand the principle of "lips and teeth are cold". Southern Tang and Wuyue were "dependent on each other", and Li Yu sent envoys to Wuyue several times to persuade Qian Chu to agree to fight against Song together. However, Qian Chu was a fool who did not understand Li Yu's painstaking efforts at all and followed Song with all his heart!
Even though they were now on the same land, Li Yu always looked at Qian Chu with a cold brow and made sarcastic remarks from time to time.
Little did Qian Chu know that Li Yu was ungrateful and that it was no loss for him to follow Zhao Kuangyin...
Moreover, Emperor Zhao had a broad mind. Although Li Yu wrote many sad poems about his homeland, he never got angry and killed him.
Therefore, when the light curtain mentioned the paddy fields, Qian Chu, the former king of Wuyue, instantly seized the opportunity.
"Your Majesty, Suzhou has built many embankments. I know a lot about this matter and would like to lend a helping hand!"
Zhao Kuangyin showed a look of delight, and felt that Qian Chu was such a wise guy!
"Okay, after the light curtain is over, tell the Prime Minister."
Li Yu suppressed his discomfort and drank the cup resentfully.
...
[Jiangnan is not only home to many lakes, but some areas are also mountainous and densely covered with hills.
This is not a problem for our hardworking and smart people. They use dams to conserve water, and the terraces look like layers of cloud ladders from a distance. Terraces can change the slope of the terrain, intercept rainwater, prevent soil erosion, and improve the soil...
The success of polder fields and terraced fields has provided more space for growing crops, including rice.
This also triggered the development of a series of agricultural tools. For example, in the Han Dynasty, there was a waterwheel called a dragon-bone wheel, which was suitable for both drought and flood. Later, people invented water-turning waterwheels and ox-turned waterwheels based on this. With the development of agricultural tools, it not only saves time and labor, but also has significant effects.
Of course, the more important point is that in addition to social stability, the Jiangnan region also benefits from many factors such as climate and water conservancy, which makes its per-acre yield much higher than that in the north.
During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the sparsely populated north practiced extensive farming for a long time, resulting in widespread planting but low yields.
However, according to the Qing Dynasty's "Huangchao Jingshi Wenbian", "In the south, the yield from one mu of land is measured in shi, while in the north, the yield from one mu of land is measured in dou."
Therefore, after the economic center moved southward since the Song Dynasty, the North not only lost its labor force, but also fell behind the South in terms of population quality and agriculture.
The reason behind the North-South list case is that the North is socially, culturally and economically backward and declining, while the South is rich, prosperous and full of vitality.
＜Wheat in the north, rice in the south＞
＜There still needs to be development of productivity and improvement of science and technology＞
＜The record in the Qing Dynasty is so outrageous, one is a stone meter, the other is a bucket meter, the difference is too big.＞
＜Alas, I suddenly thought of the mountains, rivers and four provinces now [sigh]＞
＜I want to say that your question is too far off the mark. If it weren’t for this sentence at the end, I would have almost forgotten what the topic was [covering my face]. ＞
[Tang Taizong Li Shimin: Hey, how can we improve farming in the north?]
[Qin Shi Huang Ying Zheng: Productivity and science and technology, does this mean that we should pay attention to Mohism?]
[Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty: Four provinces? Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Hebei? Are there any problems with these four provinces? Will there still be a north-south divide in the future?]
...
The painters at each court meeting were very busy, because the various agricultural tools displayed on the screen were all powerful tools that benefited the people!
The rulers of each dynasty now have a clear understanding of the gap between the north and the south. I saw some comments saying that this video is gradually deviating from the topic. They said that they don’t care much about the "North-South List" case of the Ming Dynasty, but they can talk more about how to develop agriculture, how to develop people's livelihood, and how to change the status quo.
At the same time, I also sighed that it is no wonder that the Ming Dynasty has so many fans in later generations, and Zhu Yuanzhang has the merit of finding China again. Let's take a look at how the Ming Dynasty solved the North-South problem.
The northerners during the Hongwu period were not convinced, and then, in a rage, they got angry.
Many northern scholars blushed and felt embarrassed. Guangmu had said it so clearly. The case of the "North-South List" was definitely not related to the chief examiners such as Liu Sanwu. What they meant was that we northern scholars could only blame ourselves for not being as capable as the southern scholars and therefore failing the exams!
At the same time, Liu Sanwu finally wiped off his sweat. It seemed like the situation had nothing to do with him, right...?
At present, the light curtain has not yet fully unfolded to talk about the "North-South List" case, and these are all people's speculations about the "North-South List" case.