Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

“Toot, toot, toot…”

There is also a telegraph room in the harem, which is ringing non-stop.

This is the private chat frequency band set up by Zhu Guoxiang. At first, it was for private chats within the palace, but now it connects the palace and Wangchuan Valley.

The person in charge of sending and receiving telegrams is the queen Zhang Jinping.

She likes strange things and often sends telegrams to Li Qingzhao to chat about family matters. Today, she is helping Zhu Ming contact the other side.

The reason is that Zhu Guoxiang sent a telegram to his son: "What are you crazy about? Lantian County is in chaos. They said they want to pay tribute to the best Lantian jade. The officials who are looking for jade have found it outside the Wangchuan Valley."

Zhu Ming directly asked Zhang Jinping to reply the telegram and told him about his idea of ​​making the imperial seal.

Not long after, Zhang Jinping handed over a piece of paper, which was Zhu Guoxiang's reply.

The content is just three words: "Psychopath!"

Zhu Ming laughed and said to Zhang Jinping: "Reply to the emperor: The glorious Ming Dynasty should also create one or two wonders."

Zhang Jinping slapped again, and then received a call from Zhu Guoxiang: "Be careful of officials in various provinces who take the opportunity to harass the local areas. Those diplomatic envoys will also harass the vassal states."

Zhu Ming said: "I have ordered to restrain it, but it is inevitable. It can be controlled."

Zhu Guoxiang replied: "The magic talisman sounds like a charlatan."

"The talisman specifically refers to the imperial seal, which is different from the emperor's seal and the emperor's seal. In every dynasty, whether it is passed down from the previous dynasty or forged by oneself, there must be one anyway. The seals of the Song Dynasty were used before, but now both Liao and Song seals are in use, so it is not appropriate to use either one. The divine talisman means the supreme sacred imperial seal, not some Taoist talisman that pretends to be a god. "

"You can do whatever you want, I don't care anyway. Just one question, isn't it agreed that an emperor can only use one reign title?"

"There is no formal regulation. After the divine talisman, I will not change the reign title. Future emperors are not allowed to change the reign title repeatedly, and can only have one reign title in their lifetime."

"You might as well let the astronomical museum make a Gregorian calendar. The birth of Huangdi, or the founding of Zhou or Qin, is set as the first year of the AD."

"If Zhou and Qin are not okay, where should Xia and Shang be placed? Huangdi is still the best. Suitable."

"You can choose anyone, it's just a matter of setting a standard. Just change it all at once, to Shen Kuo's twelve-qi calendar. I know that all the ministers are against it, are you still afraid of this?"

"It's mainly about holidays. If you keep New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival, you must use two calendars at the same time. And the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, you can see by looking up at the moon, the pure solar calendar will make people very uncomfortable."

"Use both. The new calendar makes it easier for ordinary people to master the farming time, which is good for agricultural production."

"You are an agricultural expert, of course you think it is useful, but farmers may not agree."

"It's up to you."

"..."

Zhang Jinping turned off the telegraph and rubbed his sore wrist: "Husband, such a big thing as the calendar and the era was decided just by chatting in a telegram?"

Zhu Ming said: "We have discussed it a long time ago. What do you think of the twelve-qi calendar?"

Zhang Jinping said: "New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Double Ninth Festival... These festivals are all in the old calendar. Adopting the new calendar conflicts with customs and traditions, and using the new and old calendars together seems a bit cumbersome."

"That's why I haven't changed it," Zhu Ming sighed, "Alas, the emperor is a little too self-evident. Some things have to be done step by step."

Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promulgated the "Taichu Calendar", China has always used the Yin-Yang calendar. The solar calendar is used to determine the 24 solar terms, and the lunar calendar is used to determine the months.

The disputes since then are nothing more than the dispute between the fixed-qi method and the balanced-qi method.

During the Sui, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, the fixed-qi method and the balanced-qi method fought fiercely.

Before the Chongzhen Calendar was published, the result of the dispute was often a compromise, with the Pingqi method (backward) used to compile the calendar and the Dingqi method (advanced) used for astronomical calculations.

The Qing Dynasty also went through several twists and turns, and finally Kangxi decided to adopt the more advanced Dingqi method - the modern Chinese lunar calendar.

The Ming Dynasty's Hongwu Calendar, promulgated during Zhu Guoxiang's reign, naturally switched to the more advanced Dingqi method, which should have been adopted in the Sui Dynasty. But because of too much political resistance, when the astronomers proposed calendar reform, Yang Jian and Li Longji both chose to retreat.

Shen Kuo was more radical. Not only did he want to use the Dingqi method, but he also wanted to use the solar calendar thoroughly.

That is, the earth's orbit was cut into 24 parts, that is, the 24 solar terms. Then select 12 of the solar terms to determine the 12 months of each year. Not only were New Year's Eve, Lantern Festival, and Double Ninth Festival all messed up, but the first and fifteenth of each month also did not correspond to the month.

Zhu Guoxiang supported Shen Kuo's idea, but Zhu Ming thought it was unnecessary.

Using the method of fixed qi to compile the yin-yang calendar is already a huge progress. Why should we disrupt the rhythm of the people to use the solar calendar?

If the old farmers in the countryside can also buy a calendar, they can naturally use two calendars in parallel. But the problem is that the social economy has not developed to that point, and using two calendars in parallel will make it easy for farmers to confuse.

Returning to the Chuigong Hall, Zhu Ming thought carefully and wrote down two imperial edicts:

"Order the Hanlin Academy Astronomy Museum to compile a new calendar based on Shen Kuo's twelve-qi calendar. This calendar will not be promoted for the time being, nor will it be deliberately hidden, leaving it for astronomers and future generations to refer to."

"Order the Hanlin Academy Literature and History Museum and Astronomy Museum to calculate the year of Huangdi's birth and use the Huangdi era as the AD calendar."

...

The group of Goryeo nobles have settled down.

Like the king of Xixia, they can choose a title or study for the imperial examination.

The Goryeo royal family and clan all chose to lie down, and Wang Gou got a duke and a house in Luoyang City. But there were no rewards for shops or land. Anyway, the duke could receive a title, and the title would be reduced and the title would last for several generations. Wang Gou also brought some treasures. As for his descendants, they will have to find their own solutions without income.

Wang Gou's brothers and uncles, who were awarded counts and viscounts, were all the kind who could only receive titles and salaries. Moreover, all the houses given were outside Luoyang City, and the land given was not even an acre.

These guys live a very frugal and nourishing life!

Their daily diet is similar to that of a well-off family in Luoyang, and they eat meat every once in a while and have a tooth ceremony. They are actually very satisfied with this kind of life.

Especially Wang Gou, who often took his wives and concubines around the city.

He has been under house arrest for too many years. He can move around at will in Luoyang and feels that he is living freely.

He also doesn't go to high-end shopping malls. He likes ordinary tiles, watching magic and acrobatic performances, and listening to Luoyang's popular ditties. Occasionally, there are wealthy people who want to buy calligraphy and paintings, and want to collect the calligraphy treasures of the conquered king of Goryeo.

There are really boring people who have too much money and nowhere to spend it!

There was a wealthy businessman named Liu in Kaifeng who collected one or two copies of all the calligraphy and paintings of the late monarchs of the Song, Jin and Xia dynasties in his home. They even sent people to Liaodong and Hebei to try to purchase the calligraphy and paintings of Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao Kingdom.

As soon as Wang Gou arrived in Luoyang, people quickly came to his door, hoping that he could write or draw.

No matter what the artistic level is, just write one yourself.

Another day, Wang Gou and his three younger brothers who had returned to secular life made an appointment to go to Tianwang Temple to worship Buddha together. By the way, they went to the Tooth Relic Pagoda to worship Buddha treasures.

They walked leisurely in the city, feeling more cheerful than when they were in Korea.

Wang Shu, whose real name has been restored, has four inches of hair and is wearing a hat: "Luoyang is better. When I was in Kaicheng, I could only hide in Xuanhua Temple to chant sutras and eat simple meals every day. Now the food is better." It’s more abundant and you can play everywhere. Why didn’t your Majesty send troops to Korea earlier?”

Wang Gou didn't feel the sorrow of a conquered king at all, and actually sighed with relief: "Your Majesty is too kind and pays attention to the reputation of teachers. You can still walk around freely in Xuanhua Temple, and there are many monks to talk to you. I am under house arrest in Pu In Xianyuan, there were only a few eunuchs around me. In the end, even those eunuchs were sent by traitorous officials to monitor me. I had to be careful when talking to the people around me. "

"Dang-dang-dang!"

Officials beat gongs along the way and shouted loudly: "Good news, good news from North Korea, the Great Tomorrow Soldiers have returned to Jeolla Prefecture! The traitor Li family of North Korea is not convinced by Wang Hua and raises his troops to rebel. Our Great Tomorrow Soldiers have won three battles and three victories in Jeolla Prefecture. In total, we killed more than 4,000 bandits, captured more than 7,000 bandits alive, and defeated more than 10,000 bandits!"

People in Luoyang gathered one after another and watched under the notice.

The word used in the victory report was "recover", not "capture". Because the King of Goryeo has dedicated his country, the entire Korean Peninsula is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and all those who resist are traitors and bandits.

Wang Gou also ran to the notice. The notice even drew a simplified administrative map of North Korea and changed all the place names from Goryeo to Ming and North Korea.

Wang Di, who was also a monk and returned to secular life, said: "Brother, the Li family in Quanzhou spent a lot of money and actually gathered 20,000 troops to resist the Ming court."

Wang Gou, the little fat guy, is not stupid, but is very smart: "It must be not only the Li family of Quanzhou, but also the wealthy families of Quanluo Province. They don't want to be split up and divided into fields and lose their power and money, so they use all their strength to join forces to resist the heavenly soldiers. . The weak soldiers they recruited can't even defeat the traitor Zheng Zhongfu. What chance do they have of winning against the soldiers of tomorrow?"

Wang Shu smiled and said: "If I were the Li family in Quanzhou, I would honestly join the Ming Dynasty."

Wang Gou said: "They are different. Although we are from the royal family, we have never been free. Those local wealthy families have no one to control and dominate. How can they be willing to take out the land that has been accumulated for hundreds of years and divide it?"

With that said, Wang Gou raised his arms and shouted: "Long live the emperor of tomorrow! The soldiers of tomorrow will be victorious!"

Someone immediately recognized him and shouted in surprise: "This man is the king of Goryeo."

Wang Gou could communicate in Chinese and quickly corrected him: "Don't call me the Lord of Goryeo. I am Duke Shunyi of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Hahahaha!" Everyone laughed when they heard this.

Wang Gou shouted again: "Long live the emperor of tomorrow! The soldiers of tomorrow will be victorious!"

The people of Luoyang laughed and shouted for a while.

They had no idea about the Korean Peninsula. They only knew that the Ming Dynasty's soldiers had won again, and that the Ming Dynasty's civil and military forces had once again expanded their territories.

Anyway, they won battles again and again, unlike in the former Song Dynasty, when news of defeats came from time to time.

Every time there was a big war in the former Song Dynasty, not only the troops on the frontiers were mobilized, but also the people in Kaifeng and Luoyang were affected, and civilians from the two capitals often had to be recruited to transport grain. There is even a "surrogate service" profession, in which young men from Beijing and Beijing who cannot survive are hired by intermediaries to work as husbandmen to make money for their families.

Now what?

Goryeo is about to be completely annexed, but the people of the two capitals have no personal experience. There is no need to serve as a civilian husband, no need to die on the battlefield, and there is not even a tax increase because of it. You only learn from the good news that you have destroyed a country.

In the past, they were afraid of fighting, whether they won or lost.

Now they are happy to see wars. Although they did not participate in them, they have won again and again, which also makes them feel inexplicable pride.

(Recommend a modern text: "Reforming the Late Qing Dynasty". Traveling through the Opium War, I don't know how to reform it, let's wait and see.)