Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In autumn, the drought in the north finally improved, and several autumn rains soaked the long-dried land.

The rain fell, and the whole world celebrated.

This was the worst drought year since Zhu Ming traveled through time, and some states even had no harvest!

So much so that some areas were exposed to a conspiracy, and the emperor specifically ordered not to arrest people for the time being, allowing local officials to redeem themselves through disaster relief. As long as the disaster relief is effective, and the stolen money is returned and fined afterwards, they can be given a lighter punishment.

Of course, officials can be reassigned after arresting people, but on the one hand, it takes time for new officials to take office, and on the other hand, changes in officials will affect the efficiency of disaster relief.

In late autumn, the disaster was completely quelled, and the first batch of criminal officials were sentenced.

Min Zishun, who actively returned the stolen money, was still sentenced to death because his problem was too big.

When this guy was managing the treasury warehouse, he took advantage of the severe drought in the northwest for several consecutive years and embezzled a lot of disaster relief money and grain with local civil and military officials.

Disaster relief money and grain!

The army!

Min Zishun touched both of them that he shouldn't have touched.

The army was mainly about the transport troops, who were responsible for transporting some sections of the road. One commander of the transport troops and four commanders of the transport troops were all arrested and sentenced to death.

In comparison, Min Zishun's work in the Ministry of Personnel was nothing.

For the sake of their old friendship, Zhu Ming changed the beheading to hanging, leaving Min Zishun with an intact body.

"Kill! Kill! Kill..."

Countless people shouted at the execution ground.

They had heard that the main crime of the criminals executed today was embezzlement of disaster relief grain.

Those waiting in line to be executed included not only officials but also merchants.

Merchants were responsible for selling stolen goods.

Not only selling stolen goods, but also helping to exchange rice and wheat for cheaper corn, sorghum and other things.

After all, the court was strict in its investigation, and it could not really cause famine. When there was embezzlement, enough food had to be transported over.

Min Zishun knelt on the execution platform, listening to the shouts one after another, looking at the indignant people in the distance, he was in a trance as if he had a big dream.

He had been dreaming for the past few years, and now he finally woke up.

In fact, Min Zishun didn't take much of the embezzled relief money and grain, and he didn't even know about it at the beginning.

He was originally just the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and he promoted his relatives and friends in violation of regulations, wanting to cultivate his own direct line.

And he was a bit too hasty. Some people didn't have enough qualifications and political achievements. In fact, they would meet the standards in three to five years, but he still promoted them. In order to achieve his goal, he even colluded with the doctor of the Ministry of Examination to secretly modify the political achievements of those officials.

The initiator of the embezzlement of relief money and grain was a confidant of Qian Chen, and this person was also an unnamed disciple of Zhu Guoxiang.

At that time, Qian Chen had already become a cabinet minister, and the confidant was transferred to the warehouse. The two had basically no work intersection, and they only visited each other during the New Year and festivals.

Min Zishun was transferred to the warehouse as the top leader, and became the boss of Qian Chen's confidant.

When Min Zishun realized something was wrong, he found that his nephew was involved.

His nephew was a group of Min clan members who joined Zhu Ming after Zhu Ming occupied Sichuan and became an official. In addition, Min Zishun's deliberate promotion made him a Shanxi provincial councilor in charge of civil affairs.

Qian Chen's confidant was in the warehouse of the treasury, Min Zishun's nephew was in Shanxi, and there was also a commander of the grain transport from Daming Village.

The three conspired to embezzle relief money and grain!

If Min Zishun had reported it immediately after he found out, even if he brought up the old affairs of the Ministry of Personnel, Zhu Ming would definitely not punish him severely. At most, he would be demoted two or three levels, and he would not be allowed to hold a position in the Ministry of Personnel in the future.

But Min Zishun thought too much at the time.

He was afraid of being demoted, and he wanted to save his nephew, and he was also afraid of offending Qian Chen and Zhang Guangdao. Because the other two accomplices, one was Qian Chen's man, and the other was Zhang Guangdao's man.

So, Min Zishun chose to turn a blind eye and quietly ordered them to stop.

He thought those guys would stop while they were ahead, but the scope of corruption became larger and larger, quickly spreading from Shanxi to Shaanxi, and more and more officials were dragged into the water.

Moreover, in order to shut Min Zishun's mouth, those corrupt officials secretly hunted his wife and children.

Min Zishun's wife and children all accepted generous gifts from corrupt officials!

When Min Zishun found that it was irreversible, he simply broke the jar and hoped that the court would not find out. Anyway, the relief grains that were directly withheld were not much, mainly replacing refined grains with coarse grains, so that the victims would not really starve to death.

"Min Zishun, while serving as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, colluded with the Langzhong of the Ministry of Examination and the Ministry of Literature to tamper with the achievements of officials and promote officials in violation of regulations... While serving as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he colluded with civil and military officials to withhold relief money and grain... According to the law, he should be beheaded... Because he actively returned the stolen money, it was changed to hanging, and his body was kept intact... Do you plead guilty?"

Faced with the questioning of the supervising officer, Min Zishun answered with difficulty: "I plead guilty."

"The identity has been verified, and the prisoner also pleads guilty. Execute!"

In ancient China, hanging was generally applied to royal relatives. Although the process was far more painful than beheading, it was possible to keep the body intact to gain the final dignity.

If the prisoners were allowed to choose, most of them would prefer to keep a whole body.

Two executioners stepped forward.

One covered Min Zishun's head with a black cloth bag to prevent his death from being too ugly, which was also a unique dignity of hanging.

The other tied Min Zishun to the execution pillar while he was kneeling to prevent him from struggling and making mistakes due to pain during the hanging.

Hanging is really hanging.

Two executioners each hold a long wooden stick, and the two sticks are tied together in the middle with a rope. The rope is also two strands, clamped around the prisoner's neck.

The executioner twisted the stick in opposite directions, and the two ropes gradually tightened against each other, eventually suffocating the condemned prisoner to death.

Compared to beheading, the process is extremely painful.

Min Zishun struggled and twisted with all his strength, but because he was tied to the execution column, he could not move at all.

Finally, it stopped moving completely.

"Bring the next one over here!"

That man was Qian Chen's confidant Han Song. He was born as a small official in Xicheng County, Jinzhou. He had already helped manage money and food when he was in Hanzhong, and he also worked as a knife and pen official under Zhu Guoxiang.

Even as early as Hanzhong, Han Song had already started to commit corruption, but it was just a small matter that was not investigated at the time.

Han Song was forced to kneel down, and when he saw Min Zishun's body being carried away, he collapsed on the spot and couldn't kneel straight at all.

Li Hanzhang, Qian Chen, Ling Guxu and others left the execution ground silently at this moment.

They all have a good relationship with Min Zishun, and today they are here to see old Min off for the last time. Moreover, it was Ju Ming who asked them to come, so he did not mean to warn them.

Li Hanzhang and Qian Chen were lucky. The former was the first Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and the latter was the first Minister of the Ministry of Hubu.

These are all positions that are very easy to get recruited for.

However, they were transferred to the cabinet early, had no involvement in specific affairs, and strictly restrained their families. Even if you have done something before, the court has drawn a time line and will not pursue it as long as you don't do it again in the future.

Therefore, even if they have countless disciples and former officials, as long as they are not found to be involved in power-for-money transactions, they will not be involved in various cases.

Several of their gang members were arrested this time!

Both Li Hanzhang and Qian Chen had their third division officers reduced, which was regarded as a disciplinary warning to them.

Qian Chen turned around and took a last look. Han Song, who was about to be beheaded, was his confidant.

"This guy dares to touch the disaster relief food. He deserves to be damned!" Qian Chen gritted his teeth.

Li Hanzhang didn't want to talk about this kind of thing, and said in a low mood: "Go to my house for a drink. After this drink, you will have a good time attending to business tomorrow. Don't let things like this disturb your mood again."

Qian Chen shook his head: "I'll drink it another day."

Ling Gu Xu and others also said goodbye. Several of their old friends were going to be executed today.

Everyone returned to the city by car. When passing by the bookstore, they heard a clerk standing at the door of the bookstore selling: "Da Ming Yue Bao, Da Ming Yue Bao. In the past, only officials could read the Di newspaper. From now on, everyone can buy and read it." . Fifty-five cents a piece is not worth three meals, but you can know the major events in the world..."

Things are expensive in the capital. If you eat three meals a day, the meal will really cost you forty or fifty cash. No matter how frugal you are, it will still cost you twenty or thirty cash.

Looking at it this way, selling a newspaper for fifty-five cents is really not expensive.

If the issuance volume is increased in the future, the cost can continue to decrease.

There were free newspapers to read in the yamen. Li Hanzhang and others did not buy them, but many people were attracted.

Today is a holiday, and students are also on holiday. There are many scholars wandering around the bookstore street.

The waiter didn't shout a few times before more than a dozen soldiers gathered around him.

When the bookstore owner next to him saw this scene, he immediately regretted that he had not bought the newspaper.

Not to mention how many it can sell, this thing can attract customers. Maybe someone will buy books and pens by the way.

The shopkeeper of another bookstore went out in person and shouted: "I also have newspapers at home, I also have newspapers at home!"

The previous bookstore was already crowded with people on the three floors inside and outside. Follow-up customers who couldn't squeeze in heard that there were newspapers nearby and quickly ran over.

Lu You and a few friends were also visiting the book market today, buying some ink sticks and paper.

None of them was short of money. Almost everyone bought a newspaper and read it while walking.

Rather than reading specific reports directly, one looks at the binding and layout of the newspaper.

Quite fresh.

In the former Song Dynasty, Di newspapers were mainly copied by hand. Due to Ju Ming's improvement of movable type printing, they were changed to printing in the middle and late years of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. However, the layout has never been exquisite, and it was not until the founding of the Ming Dynasty that it was slightly improved.

Nowadays, the layout of this newspaper is extremely fresh.

The font size of the title is larger, the font size of the main text is smaller, and horizontal and vertical lines are used as partitions, which is very reader-friendly.

Nowadays, printing uses "Ming style characters", that is, "Song style characters", and there are several unified font sizes and punctuation marks.

These printing standards were promoted by Zhu Guoxiang during his reign.

It was originally used when printing official letters and official textbooks, and was gradually imitated by private booksellers. They voluntarily used official standards to allow craftsmen to produce movable type libraries, which greatly improved printing efficiency and quality, and also reduced printing costs.

"Hey, there are two more poems here." Lu You exclaimed.

Wang Lianqing asked: "Where?"

Lu You said: "The penultimate page."

The friends hurriedly looked through it, only to see Hong Mai yelling: "It's His Majesty's new poem!"

Because the newspaper had just been delivered, even the bookstore owners and clerks had not had time to read it carefully.

"The trees beside the inkstone washing pond at my house have blooming flowers with faint ink marks. Don't let anyone praise the color, just leave the pure air to fill the universe." After Lu You finished reciting, he exclaimed, "Your Majesty has not published any poems for many years, and his new work is really great. Good poem.”

Plum blossoms represent purity and self-love. It started in the Tang Dynasty and was completely finalized in the Northern Song Dynasty. It became more and more common for literati to paint plum blossoms in calligraphy.

Wang Lianqing pointed to the headline on the front page and said: "Your Majesty's poem corresponds to the corrupt officials in front of it."

The scholars just turned to the first page and read the specific content carefully, but it was a detailed report on several high-ranking officials who were executed today.

Moreover, he wrote down how they became corrupt and degenerate step by step.

Lu You couldn't comment on those corrupt officials, so he could only say from another perspective: "The words used in the article are too plain."

Hong Mai pointed to the top of the front page: "It's intentional, there are more plain words, and it's an imperial article."

The friends only noticed the editorial at this time, and saw that the author was signed by Zhu Ming: I heard from the saints that governing the world with benevolence can make the country rich and the people strong. How can benevolent politics be implemented? But it depends on officials to do it. There were too many corrupt officials in the former Song Dynasty, and the people became poor, the country declined, and the country was gone...

In just a few hundred words, it was all plain language.

These Tai students were all talented people, and they couldn't help laughing and crying after reading a few sentences. They could write such articles when they were still children.

Suddenly, Lu You muttered: "These are written for the common people to read, no wonder "Da Ming Yue Bao" is sold among the people."