After the Chanyuan Alliance, peace came, the huge pressure from the north was gone, and the Song Dynasty finally threw away the burden that had been weighing on its heart for decades.
Zhao Heng did not feel any humiliation. He felt proud that he had achieved a great victory and felt particularly comfortable.
Now that the warning of the threat of war in the north has been lifted, there is no need to fight anymore. If there is no war, there will be no need for so many troops.
Because raising soldiers is very expensive. In order to save military expenditures and thereby reduce financial expenditures.
In the first month of the second year of Jingde (1005), Zhao Heng ordered to merge the defense areas, reduce the army, let a large number of soldiers go home to farm, and redevelop the land that had been abandoned for a long time due to the war. Farm crops and cash crops to restore economic development as soon as possible.
In that era of farming, agriculture was definitely the foundation of the country. Zhao Heng’s decision was indeed a smart decision that benefited the country and the people.
Prime ministers Bi Shi'an and Kou Zhun also petitioned to open the mutual market, called on the exiled people to return home, expand savings, etc., and recommended Ma Zhijie to guard Dingzhou, Yang Yanzhao to guard Baozhou, Li Yunze to guard Xiongzhou, and Sun Quanzhao Guard Zhenzhou, and drafted a package plan, which was submitted to Zhao Heng for approval.
These are all national policies that benefit the country and the people. Zhao Heng wanted them all. Of course, he approved them in full. He also encouraged the two prime ministers to come up with more good ideas like this to improve the country. economy recovered.
Connecting markets means developing foreign trade.
The people of the Song Dynasty were the best at doing business in Chinese history. Needless to say, there was no need to talk about domestic trade, and overseas trade reached as far away as Arab countries.
In the past, the Liao State of the Song Dynasty had been in a state of war. The borders between the two countries were blocked from each other, and there was no exchange, let alone border trade.
After the truce between the Song and Liao Dynasties, Bi Shi'an petitioned to open up mutual markets and engage in bilateral trade. This was a wise decision for the mutual benefit of the Song and Liao countries.
Because the Liao Dynasty was in the north and had developed animal husbandry, their war horses were a good thing that the Song Dynasty wanted to get. The mainland of the Song Dynasty was rich in grain, and tea and other agricultural products were in short supply in the Liao Dynasty.
Therefore, it is indeed a mutually beneficial matter to develop bilateral trade between Song and Liao to exchange what they have.
After the Chanyuan peace negotiation, the Song and Liao parties continued to have peaceful exchanges, which strengthened political, economic and cultural ties.
First of all, the rulers of both Song and Liao took some friendly measures that were conducive to peace.
There were constant exchanges of envoys between the Song and Liao dynasties. The envoys had many names due to their different missions and purposes, such as Zhengdan envoy, birthday envoy, mourning envoy, legacy envoy, sacrifice envoy, condolence envoy, etc. An envoy to announce the enthronement, an envoy to congratulate the enthronement, an envoy to congratulate the enthronement, etc.
The Liao Dynasty also shortened the gap between the political system and the Northern Song Dynasty in a long-term peaceful environment, and accelerated the process of social feudalization.
Of course, we say that Song and Liao have maintained peace for more than a hundred years, but this does not mean that there are no contradictions and conflicts between the two sides in all aspects.
Shortly thereafter, the Song Dynasty successively set up sales offices in Xiongzhou, Bazhou, Ansu Army, and Guangxin Army to do business with the Liao Kingdom.
The "market" is the official market responsible for transactions between countries. The battlefield between the two countries has been transformed from military to economic.
The essence of economic warfare is to "sell what I have and what you don't have at a high price, and try not to use or use less of what you have and what I don't have." Let's first look at what the Liao Kingdom did not have in the Song Dynasty.
"Tea" is the most important heavyweight "weapon" in the hands of the Song Dynasty, and its importance is equivalent to our country's Type 99 main battle tank.
"Tea" was only produced in the Northern Song Dynasty, and there was no corresponding geographical environment for tea production in the Liao Kingdom.
But why was there a huge demand for "tea" in the Liao Kingdom?
Many places explain that the Liao Kingdom is a nomadic people who mainly eat beef and mutton. Tea can relieve greasiness. If there is no tea, their bodies will not be able to bear it. They use "tea" for their physiological needs. , there is even a saying: "You can live without food for three days, but you cannot live without tea for one day."
Tea has a certain optimization effect on the diet of the Liao people, but it is not so serious that "if you don't drink tea, you will be choked to death by shit". The stomachs and intestines of most lower-class Liao people have completely adapted to the tea-free environment.
The "petty bourgeoisie" among the Liao people have a large demand for tea. These people initially imitated the Song people in drinking tea, and immediately found the excitement, and eventually quickly formed a trend. This group of people "drink tea" , Habits are greater than necessity, life interest is greater than wallet, and these people are also the most disgusted with money. Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty made a lot of money from the Liao Dynasty through tea.
What about the Liao Kingdom? Did it have the same weapons as tea?
Yes, it is a sheep.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the sheep of Liao State ate pure natural green herbs, drank water from pollution-free plasma rivers, and grew up in natural pastures 24 hours a day. They had no worries about food and clothing throughout their lives and were in a happy mood. , the meat is tender and delicious.
There are also petty bourgeoisie groups in the Song Dynasty. "Eat Liao sheep if you want to eat" has become a life attitude. Naturally, the Song Dynasty turned a lot of money into Liao mutton.
Song’s second weapon: silk.
The main role of silk is in calligraphy and painting, especially painting.
In the early days, for fear of imitation by the Liao Kingdom, the Song Dynasty listed this thing as a prohibited export product. However, considering that those who could paint and calligraphy must be the nobles of the Liao Kingdom, they packaged the silk into high-end products. If you sell luxury goods to the Liao Kingdom, the economic benefits will double. You might as well sell them, and the price should be at the same level as LV.
As for the Liao Kingdom, the Liao Kingdom has pearls, which are not hungry after eating and do not warm when cold. The Liao Kingdom also hypes them as a product for the nobility.
This phenomenon once attracted the attention of the ministers of the Song Dynasty. Cao Fu, the minister in charge of the market at that time, wrote a letter. < /p>
In the fourth year of Jingde (1007), they set up forks in Baoanjun (now Zhidan, Shaanxi) and Zhenrongjun (now Guyuan, Ningxia) and other places on the border between Song and Xia, and started doing business with Xixia.
The development of foreign trade has also led to the development of domestic commerce, and there has been a grand situation where "there are many people with assets in the capital of one million, and assets of one hundred thousand and more".
The number of businessmen increased dramatically, and many wealthy businessmen gathered in the capital. The extent of commercial development at that time can be seen.
Business prospered, driving economic development and bringing huge financial resources to the court. Commercial taxation became the mainstay of national fiscal revenue. During the Jingde period, the annual revenue from commercial taxation alone was as high as 4.5 million yuan.
The prosperity of the Song Dynasty at this time can be described as unprecedented.