Chapter 400: Never Lost in Spending

[The various factors that led to the demise of the Tang Dynasty can actually answer another question:

Why did the Song Dynasty not consider Chang'an and Luoyang as the capital?

The most intuitive problem is that after the wars in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, these two places have been completely destroyed.

Taking Luoyang as an example, in the early Northern Song Dynasty, there were only 20,000 registered households, which translates into a total population of just over 100,000.

Such a population and productivity are completely insufficient to carry the central machine of Bianjing.

The fundamental reason is the water transportation problem that was more prominent in the Tang Dynasty.

Or to put it more bluntly, just two words: eat.

After all, even if the Tang Dynasty is invincible, wouldn't the emperor still have to go to Luoyang, the eastern capital, to beg for food?

And where does Luoyang's food come from? It is transported by water and canal to transport rice from the southeast.

Scholars from the Song Dynasty also noticed this problem:

"Guanzhong is known as a fertile wilderness, but its land is narrow and the harvest is not enough to supply the capital and prepare for floods and droughts, so it often diverts grain from the southeast."

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains was updated with a new version:

Fixed the bug that rice could be grown north of the Yellow River. Nomadic enemies will be refreshed here frequently in the future.

Fixed the bug that it would not snow in the north in winter. From now on, the heavy snow in the north will fall on time and in sufficient quantity.

It weakened the water transport capacity of the Yellow River, reduced the grain output of Guanzhong, made Luoyang enter a state of desolation, etc.

Under such repeated blows, the south, which had already achieved initial results in development during the Tang Dynasty, became even more important.

After all, the north has to face the severe cold weather and the threat of foreign plunder from the south. The production environment can be said to be very harsh.

The South does not need to face the iron hooves of foreign nations, and the impact of overall fluctuating climate change on the South is relatively limited. Therefore, the southward shift of the economic center of gravity has become an inevitable trend.

Under such circumstances, if Zhao Kuangyin's head got hot and he slapped his forehead and forcibly settled the capital in Guanzhong, he would not even dare to think about the scene of the Song Dynasty:

For money, grain and wealth, look to Jianghuai, for border defense, look to Hebei, for water transportation, look to Bianliang, and for political center, look to Guanzhong.

If you really want to play like this, I'm afraid you don't even need the Donkey Cart Emperor to take action. The Song Dynasty will fall apart first.

In fact, the rise of Bianjing, or Kaifeng, is also related to the Tang Dynasty.

Before the Anshi Rebellion, Guanzhong was the political and military center of the Tang Dynasty, while Jianghuai and Hebei served as the money and grain center. The two places are connected by the Yongji Canal and the Tongji Canal respectively. These two lifelines of money and food were just in the middle of Luoyang, so it became an excellent choice for the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty.

The Anshi Rebellion devastated people's livelihood in Hebei, and the local and central governments were suspicious of each other. As a result, one of the two thighs of the Tang Dynasty, the Hebei Jianghuai River, was directly broken. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, most of the money, food and wealth depended on the Jianghuai River. The Tongji Canal became the only lifeline of the Tang Dynasty. .

Under this circumstance, Bianzhou became a new balance point in maintaining water transportation safety, and eventually replaced Luoyang's position.

In fact, the Northern Song Dynasty also learned from the lessons of the Tang Dynasty. The capital of Bianjing was essentially to overlap the key nodes of military, political, financial, and water transportation (transportation) to facilitate the control of the court.

In the early days, Zhao Kuangyin may have really considered moving the capital to Luoyang. After all, in 972, Bianliang's annual water transport was only 500,000 shi, and the losses of moving the capital to Luoyang were fully affordable.

But ten years later, Bianliang's annual water transport had surged to four million dan, and twenty years later it had surged to 6 million dan. The huge water transport pressure made moving the capital akin to a knife in the heart. If you are not careful, you will die.

However, the later Jin Dynasty's long march also proved that Zhao Guangyi's statement that "the capital is determined by virtue but not by danger" is completely empty talk. 】

"Are these two channels done by human power?"

Liu Bei took a breath again.

It is clearly marked on the map that the canal in the north starts from Zhuojun, my hometown, connects the Yellow River, and connects to the Jianghuai River in the south. The scale of its project is staggering just thinking about it.

How much manpower and material resources will this cost? How could the Tang Dynasty build such a big project? Why haven't you heard this junior mention it at all?

"This was not done by the Tang Dynasty, but by the Sui Dynasty." Pang Tong shook his head.

After a second glance, you will understand that there is a time mark next to each section of the canal, which is probably the completion time of this canal.

And based on the signs on the temperature change map, we can see that this long canal should be a water conservancy project developed by the short-lived Sui Dynasty.

"But this canal is really..." Pang Tongtong couldn't find a suitable adjective to express his feelings at the same time.

This picture was relatively simple, so Kong Ming easily traced it down, then frowned and clicked through it piece by piece to formulate his own conjecture:

"The contribution of this canal should be to combine the achievements of predecessors and dredge the old canal."

First, he tapped the Hangou with his slender index finger: "This canal was dug during the reign of King Wu Fuchai. At that time, there was also a Huanggou that connected the Si and Ji rivers."

Then he moved his index finger upward and said:

"Cao Cao also had Kaibai to connect the Yellow River and Qinghe, and to conquer Wuhuan, he also had Kaipinglu and Quanzhou canals."

After a brief inventory, Kong Ming finally admitted:

"This Sui Dynasty was able to connect the old canals, dig new canals, and connect the north and the south. It can be described as a majestic achievement in ancient and modern times."

"It's just..." Kong Ming hesitated, and finally shook his head and said nothing.

Kong Ming hesitated to say anything, but Zhang Fei couldn't help it. He slapped Ma Chao immediately, jumped up and rubbed his legs, and said carelessly:

"I, Lao Zhang, can see clearly what the military advisor has to avoid. It is impossible for Sui to build the canal and kill himself."

After all, to be fair, Zhang Fei did it himself when dredging the rivers in Chengdu, and it was not like he had never dug canals in his hometown of Zhuojun.

It was hard enough to work on ordinary rivers and canals, not to mention this unprecedented large canal that runs from north to south. I'm afraid the number of civilians they would have to recruit was unimaginable at the time.

Fa Zheng was also touched, and whispered at this time:

"The fall of the Sui Dynasty is quite inconsistent with the climate change mentioned by the younger generation."

"From the picture, we can see that the Sui Dynasty was no longer in troubled times and severe cold, and there was also a period of recuperation called Kaihuang's rule. The climate gradually warmed up, and it was already prosperous."

"However, the country was less than half a century old and perished in the second generation. Moreover, the posthumous title of Yang for the king of the fallen country was unheard of in ancient times."

Ma Chao rubbed his thighs and was a little curious at this time:

"What does this posthumous title of Yang mean?"

Jian Yong pinched his beard and was about to say something, but Zhang Fei smiled and said:

"This is easy to hear. Yang means being lazy and lazy in politics."

"It means that Emperor Yang lingered in the harem every day and did not attend court."

"Uh..." Jian Yong almost fell down. It turned out that you did not read other explanations of the posthumous title, and only saw the two words "good at home"?

I am indeed reading, but I read selectively.

Ma Chao was shocked by Zhang Fei's insight, and then he said without hesitation:

"Such behavior is really embarrassing for us... I hate it so much!"

Seeing Mr. Jian's eyes glancing over, Ma Chao immediately said righteously:

"If the emperor follows this, how hateful the people will be!"

In the new year, go for it!

Never be lazy, go for it before the New Year!