Chapter 448
Zhao Yu's Journey to Jiangnan
...
After Tibet was recovered, Zhao Yu had a period of time where he acted as if he thought, "I've fought wars all my life, can't I enjoy myself a little?"
During this period, Zhao Yu began to choose many of the young concubines he had previously brought into the harem but had never touched.
However, this period did not last long.
To be precise, about half a year had passed.
In the 25th year of the Hongwu reign, a sudden flood occurred in the Jianghuai region, which is the area in what would later become northern Jiangsu and Anhui, as well as the area along the Grand Canal in what would later become Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Dozens of counties and prefectures, including Huai'an, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Fengyang, and Sizhou, were flooded, and millions of people were affected.
Zhao Yu was furious and immediately dispatched Song Jiang and Zhao Ding to provide disaster relief.
At the same time, Zhao Yu summoned Tang Ke, who was in charge of managing the Yellow River, gave him a severe scolding, then demoted him three ranks. He also dismissed all the officials from Jiangnan who did not cooperate with him in managing the Yellow River, confiscated the property of those who were guilty of heinous crimes, and exiled them to the Northeast to reclaim wasteland.
The reason why Zhao Yu did not severely punish Tang Ke, but instead vented his anger on the officials in Jiangnan:
The main problem was that Tang Ke's approach to controlling the Yellow River floods was not flawed. The problem was that officials in the Jiangnan region paid lip service to his instructions on controlling the lower reaches of the Yellow River, the mouth of the Huai River, the Hongze Lake dike, and the Grand Canal's Cao Canal section. Furthermore, many officials embezzled funds from the imperial court for Yellow River control projects, resulting in shoddy construction.
Although Tang Ke was in charge of managing the Yellow River floods, he had been transferred to the imperial court by Zhao Yu and had been away from the front lines for many years, thus being misled by his subordinates.
That wasn't all. Turning around, Zhao Yu took Tang Ke and personally went to Jiangnan to inspect all the dangerous areas. Then he gave important instructions to "build the Gaojia Weir of Hongze Lake, dredge the Huaihe River channel to the sea, reinforce the dikes on both sides of the Yellow River, open up the connecting section of the Grand Canal with the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers, and ensure the transport of grain and people's livelihood."
When Zhao Yu was stationed in Yangzhou, he would get up at dawn every day to either personally inspect construction sites such as Gaojiayan and the mouth of the Huai River, or summon officials at all levels in his temporary government office to check project accounts and inquire about the resettlement of people's livelihoods.
Song Jiang and Zhao Ding led their troops south. While assisting the local authorities in setting up relief tents and distributing grain, they also rigorously investigated corrupt officials who hoarded and embezzled relief funds. Within a month, more than ten officials with notorious records were escorted to Yangzhou, where they were personally reviewed and executed by Zhao Yu.
Filled with remorse, Tang Ke devoted himself entirely to water conservancy projects. He revived his early experience in managing river floods and, in accordance with Zhao Yu's instructions, redesigned the route of the Gaojiayan dike. He adopted a technique of "rammed earth as the base and brick and stone as the surface" to reinforce the dike while also setting up drainage holes in the dike body to prevent the dike from collapsing due to excessively high water levels during the flood season.
Regarding the Huai River's estuary, Tang Ke abandoned the previous approach of "narrow channels and rapid currents," and ordered the widening of the river channel and dredging of silt. At the same time, he planted willow trees on both banks of the river to reinforce the dikes and protect the riverbanks.
The section of the Grand Canal connecting the Yellow River and the Huai River had been severely silted up over the years, greatly reducing its navigability. Tang Ke mobilized laborers and adopted the method of "segmented dredging and straightening bends." After three months, he finally restored the waterway to its original smooth flow, allowing cargo ships to pass through smoothly and enabling grain and supplies from the south to be transported to the north in a timely manner.
Zhao Yu ordered the exemption of taxes for three years for the affected prefectures and counties. At the same time, he recruited the affected people to participate in water conservancy projects, providing them with daily rations and wages. This not only solved the people's livelihood problem but also provided sufficient manpower for the projects and gave the disaster victims a job to support themselves and their families.
In addition, Zhao Yu recruited refugees from the disaster-stricken prefectures and counties to settle in the wealthy areas of the Western Regions and Tibet, thus relieving the pressure on the court for disaster relief.
With Emperor Zhao Yu personally overseeing the matter in the south, even the most audacious officials dared not outwardly comply but inwardly defy him.
With a massive investment of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, the water management project in Jiangnan was launched with lightning speed.
In the spring of the twenty-sixth year of the Hongwu reign, after nearly a year of arduous management, various water conservancy projects were completed one after another.
The Gaojiayan Dam stands majestically, like a giant dragon lying across the shore of Hongze Lake, protecting the surrounding prefectures and counties; the Huai River's estuary is wide and unobstructed, allowing floodwaters to be discharged smoothly during the flood season and preventing backflow into the inland areas; the dikes along the Yellow River are as solid as a rock, and the Grand Canal's water transport has returned to its former bustling state.
That summer, the Jiangnan region was hit by torrential rains again, but thanks to newly constructed water conservancy projects, the floods did not cause large-scale disasters, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, with crops growing well.
When the news reached the capital, officials submitted memorials praising Zhao Yu for "personally going to the front lines, showing compassion for the people, and turning the tide," and hailing the successful flood control as "the cornerstone of the Hongwu era."
Zhao Yu did not become arrogant with his achievements. He issued an edict in Yangzhou, praising Song Jiang, Zhao Ding, Tang Ke and other meritorious officials, restoring Tang Ke's official position, and promoting a number of grassroots officials who had performed outstandingly in the process of water management.
At the same time, Zhao Yu ordered that the lessons learned in the process of flood control be compiled into a book and distributed throughout the country, requiring local officials to learn from these lessons, attach importance to water conservancy construction, and take precautions against future problems.
Many people thought that the matter was over.
Not really.
That summer, Zhao Yu announced that he would travel to Jiangnan for the second time that autumn to spend the winter in the south.
Zhao Yu went to Jiangnan because the Jiangnan region had always been the lifeblood of the Song Dynasty, especially after the Song Dynasty recovered Western Xia, Yanyun, the Northeast, Goryeo, Japan, the Western Regions, and Tibet.
Undeniably, some of the newly recovered areas are also major grain-producing regions.
The most typical example is the Northeast region.
However, due to war and insufficient development, these regions are currently struggling to protect themselves, let alone support other regions.
That will be the case, at least in the short term.
In this way, the more developed Central Plains and Jiangnan regions become even more important, especially the Jiangnan region.
At present, the territory of the Song Dynasty is unprecedentedly vast, but the main grain-producing area is in Jiangnan. It can be said that about 30% to 40% of the country's grain comes from Jiangnan.
Taxes, silk, tea, and salt also accounted for about 30% of the production, which came from Jiangnan.
If something happens here, it will be a huge blow to the Song Dynasty.
Yes.
Zhao Yu once used strong measures to clean up Jiangnan, keeping the gentry and landlords of Jiangnan in line for quite some time.
However, as Zhao Yu shifted the focus of the Song Dynasty's development to the north in recent years, the gentry class in the south seemed to regain its influence.
The recent floods in the Yellow and Huai River basins served as a mirror, revealing to Zhao Yu that the gentry class in Jiangnan seemed to have begun to band together and collude with each other again.
Zhao Yu was not surprised at all by this.
The gentry of Jiangnan, who had been entrenched there since the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods, had multiplied through several reigns, forming a deeply entrenched network of power. They owned vast tracts of fertile land, yet cleverly concealed their ownership under various pretexts to evade taxes; they controlled local government officials, colluding with them to distort and manipulate imperial decrees. How could they be so easily eradicated?
In this flood control effort in the Yellow and Huai Rivers, almost all the officials who embezzled project funds and outwardly complied with orders but inwardly defied them had the shadow of local gentry behind them. Zhao Yu wanted to investigate this matter thoroughly, but Song Jiang, Zhao Ding, and even the spies Zhao Yu sent to Jiangnan all told Zhao Yu that when they went down to investigate the case, officials protected each other and outwardly complied but inwardly defied them. Whoever was investigated in this case committed suicide out of fear of punishment, and more than a dozen officials died in succession.
Song Jiang and Zhao Ding reported to Zhao Yu that if the investigation continued, a major upheaval would occur in the officialdom of Jiangnan.
Even more shockingly, the spies sent by Song Jiang, Zhao Ding, and Zhao Yu to Jiangnan discovered that nearly half of the ports, wharves, salt and iron markets, and large factories along the Jiangnan Grand Canal were controlled by gentry families. They bought low and sold high, hoarding goods and speculating on prices, which not only made huge profits but also disrupted the court's allocation of resources.
Zhao Yu wanted to launch another purge in Jiangnan, but at this time, the Song Dynasty had too many newly recovered territories that were desperately in need of support. At this time, Jiangnan could not afford to experience any major incidents.
Furthermore, Zhao Yu always knew that the Manichaeism that had helped Fang La's uprising had never been eradicated.
Crucially, according to statistics, there were as many as 203 uprisings recorded in the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, many of which were instigated by Manichaeism.
The most famous example is Yue Fei's suppression of the Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao uprising.
In his early years, Zhong Xiang used the Manichaean (Mingjiao) doctrine of "sharing wealth and mutual assistance" to secretly preach and connect with the masses in the Dongting Lake area. He also incorporated the doctrine into his proposal of the slogan "equalizing the rich and poor" which accurately met the demands of the grassroots people and quickly gathered hundreds of thousands of followers, laying a solid organizational foundation and mass base for the Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao uprising.
After the uprising broke out, the faith-based bond of Manichaeism became the key to maintaining the cohesion of Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao's rebel army, supporting the team to persist in the struggle for six years.
In this lifetime, Zhao Yu not only unified the country but also greatly expanded its territory, bringing all the northern kingdoms under Song control. Crucially, his policies of "equalizing land tax and poll tax" and "equalizing taxation for gentry" significantly eased the burdens on the people of Jiangnan. He also ushered in the Age of Exploration, initiated the Industrial Revolution, and strengthened maritime trade, creating numerous jobs and improving the lives of the people of Jiangnan. Furthermore, Zhao Yu relied on Yuan Qingcheng to significantly increase grain production, on Ma Xiaojiao to invent numerous advanced products that benefited the country and its people, reduced their workload, and improved their well-being, and on Ye Shiyun to increase the cure rate, enabling the people to live comfortably and peacefully.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the country was locked in a prolonged standoff with the Jin and Mongol dynasties, resulting in enormous military expenditures. The court continuously levied additional taxes (such as the Jingzhiqian and Zongzhiqian), and powerful landlords seized land, leaving the lower classes with no land to cultivate and no food to eat. Furthermore, after the Jingkang Incident, a large influx of people from the north migrated south, pushing the carrying capacity of southern arable land to its limit, exacerbating the conflict between population and land, and leading to a surge in the number of displaced people. The Southern Song court's bureaucratic system was also corrupt, resulting in frequent instances of oppressive local government policies. All of this forced the people to take desperate measures.
In comparison, Zhao Yu shouldn't have been worried about Manichaeism causing trouble again, especially since he had been sending people to suppress Manichaeism.
The problem is that after Zhao Yu ascended the throne, he launched wars against foreign powers and continuously exploited the grain and wealth of Jiangnan. This could easily be taken advantage of by bad people, especially if something happened in Jiangnan.
To put it simply, at this critical juncture, if something were to happen in Jiangnan, then the vast empire that Zhao Yu had painstakingly built could potentially collapse.
Zhao Yu could not allow such a thing to happen.
Therefore, Zhao Yu decided to travel to Jiangnan to give the gentry a good talking-to, to warn them, and to reassure the people and give them confidence.
This time, Zhao Yu did not travel incognito to the south of the Yangtze River, but went in a grand and ostentatious manner.
Furthermore, before going there, Zhao Yu held a bidding process.
What kind of tender?
The bidding process involved sponsoring the expenses of Zhao Yu's trip to the south of the Yangtze River.
Zhao Yu had made it clear beforehand that whoever sponsored the most money would be the one he would stay at during his trip to Jiangnan.
The first sponsorship was the boat that Zhao Yu used when he traveled to the south of the Yangtze River.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of War, Zhao Yu used more than a thousand ships for this trip to the south of the Yangtze River.
Moreover, they were mostly large, luxurious ships, as well as horse-drawn boats used to transport troops.
This is definitely not something that an ordinary private shipyard could produce.
Zhao Yu was not in a hurry at all. Instead, he had someone spread the word that whoever sponsored his boat trip to the south of the Yangtze River would receive one-third of the orders for the imperial ships in the future.
Before Zhao Yu, the Song Dynasty built thousands of ships of various types every year.
This was because the Song Dynasty, with its capital in Kaifeng, needed a large number of cargo ships to transport grain and other goods from the southeast every year. Therefore, the Song Dynasty established shipyards in many places, especially in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou, Wenzhou, and Hangzhou along the southeast coast, which became important shipbuilding bases.
—There are not only official shipyards, but also many private shipyards.
According to historical records, by the end of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song (997), the annual shipbuilding output of various prefectures was 3337 ships; by the end of the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Northern Song, the annual output of fishing boats alone was 2916 ships.
Government-run workshops built warships and cargo ships, while private workshops built merchant ships and pleasure boats.
The prefectures of Ming, Wen, Tai, and Wu in Zhejiang, the prefectures of Qian and Ji in Jiangxi, the prefectures of Tan and Ding in Jinghu, and the Xiegu area of Fengxiang Prefecture in Shaanxi all became centers of shipbuilding. The four coastal prefectures of Fujian produced ocean-going vessels, whose quality ranked first in the country. Specialized ship repair facilities were also established at key transportation hubs along the Yangtze River.
After Zhao Yu ascended the throne, he ushered in the Age of Exploration, vigorously promoted maritime trade, and initiated the Industrial Revolution. Crucially, he greatly expanded China's territory overseas.
This led to an unprecedented development in the shipbuilding industry of the Song Dynasty, with each prefecture producing nearly 10,000 ships annually.
—This is only the official shipbuilding figure; the number of ships built by private individuals each year is impossible to quantify.
If we could secure a third of the orders from the imperial court, it would be impossible not to prosper.
Crucially, Zhao Yu didn't say that all the ships had to be new, nor did he say that the court wanted all the ships. This is where a lot of drama can be made.
For example, if they please Zhao Yu, and he has had his fill of playing in Jiangnan, then they can generously give these ships to him as a reward. Wouldn't that be almost like getting 30% of the court's orders for free?
Most importantly, they could invite Zhao Yu to stay at their home for a few days, which would be a glorious thing to boast about for generations.
Therefore, when the imperial court put out a tender, major shipyards in Jiangnan responded enthusiastically.
Because so many people responded, Zhao Yu let them bid, deciding who would get this lucrative job based on how much money he would sponsor his trip to the south.
Not only the ships, but all the expenses for Zhao Yu's trip to the south were covered by bidding, with the most sponsors winning the bid.
Later, seeing that there were many bidders, Zhao Yu simply stopped pretending and directly asked for money, stating that he would stay at the home of whoever sponsored the most during his trip...
...(End of chapter)