Chapter 735 - 24: Western Xia’s Founding—Chaos and Order Coexist

——What Gu Jin stipulated was only the corn kernels.

As for the corn cobs, he truly placed no great restrictions on them.

Report after report, the current prosperity of the Great Song has been vividly depicted.

And this is just the foundation.

The truly terrifying transformation of the Great Song lies in commerce and population.

Compared to the early days of Zhao Kuangyin founding the nation, the current commercial tax of the Great Song has increased by nearly tenfold.

This is an incredibly shocking change.

Just with this alone, it’s enough to prove the success of Gu Jin’s reforms.

And now the population of the Great Song is nearly seventy million, roughly three times that of the original historical records.

Even without comparing it to original history, this is still an extremely terrifying number.

And don’t forget—

The land registration, it is still not over.

Throughout any dynasty, the concealment of the population by large clans is a common occurrence.

According to Gu Yi’s estimation, even if the current population of the Great Song has not yet exceeded one hundred million, it will absolutely not be less than ninety million.

Just with this point, it’s actually enough to illustrate the strength of the Great Song.

The atmosphere in the hall grew increasingly enthusiastic.

Even Gu Jin, who was always serious, couldn’t help but reveal a slight smile at this time but quickly restrained it, saying seriously to everyone: "Gentlemen must not be complacent, continuous observation and summarization is needed."

"This is the great tool of the country, no room for errors."

"Understood."

A group of officials immediately stood up and respectfully saluted Gu Jin.

Gu Jin waved his hand, signaling everyone to proceed as usual.

Of course, he did not idle either.

Besides general state affairs, Gu Jin had many state duties to handle, including secret reports from the Imperial Censorate and matters at the frontier, all of which he needed to personally deal with.

Different from the current Great Song.

A very brutal war indeed broke out between the Liao and Xia countries.

Wang Yingchen categorized Western Xia as a rebellious nation.

While Li Deming declared Liao as Barbarians, claiming his actions were for the orthodoxy of Kyushu, and repeatedly sent envoys to the Song Kingdom, hoping Gu Jin would join him in attacking Liao.

Even now, Western Xia’s envoys remain in Kaifeng.

Gu Jin must go to meet them.

Although he does not currently intend to deploy troops, he would welcome a more intense war between Liao and Xia.

This brings a hundred benefits to the Great Song with no harm.

Although Western Xia, ever since its founding, has exhibited obedience, even claiming ties with the Gu Clan,

these are just superficial gestures.

If there were true bonds, they would not have been a vassal of Liao before.

Likewise, they wouldn’t have opted to proclaim an empire.

When relative interests become sufficient, friendships or so-called beliefs become negligible.

Gu Jin surely sees through this.

——————

"During the Tongyuan period of the Great Song, the agricultural reforms and corn strategy implemented by Grand Tutor Gu Jin in the Tongyuan year were epoch-making practices in the history of ancient agricultural development in our country.

The pioneering "court-noble joint cultivation" model not only ensured the controllable promotion of high-yield crops but also demonstrated outstanding agricultural governance wisdom through the land grading system, military farming supervision system, and cross-border crop protection policy.

This corn-centered agricultural transformation successfully propelled the grain output of the Great Song to a leapfrogging growth, doubling military reserves at border towns, sharply reducing maritime pressures, and even giving rise to a civilian industrial chain for corn cob fuel and feed.

It demonstrated ancient China’s precise control over agricultural technology and provided a valuable historical paradigm for the promotion of crops and food security strategy in later generations.

Ultimately, this agricultural revolution deeply rooted in the millennia-long governing wisdom of the Gu Clan not only reshaped the competitive dynamics among the Song, Liao, and Western Xia but also became a significant milestone in Huaxia’s agrarian civilization progressing towards intensive and large-scale production.

This was an unprecedented era.

Chaos and governance coexisted.

——"History Textbook by People’s Education Press" Seventh Grade Second Semester (Agricultural Technology and Ancient Economy Unit)