Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Selling cold food, selling cold food..."

On the streets of Luoyang, vendors carried their loads and hawked along the street.

Aksuhe, who followed Li Yanxian back to Luoyang, was strolling with Du Jushi.

Du Jushi suddenly shouted: "Weigh two catties of cold food!"

The vendor immediately quickened his pace and came over, put down his load with a smile, took out the Sazi Mahua and put it on the scale: "Look, two catties of prosperous scale, sixteen coins for you."

Du Jushi did not bring any followers with him, and took out a copper coin from his pocket and threw it.

This kind of copper coin was only issued in the last two years, and its appearance is similar to that of a silver coin, and one piece is worth fifty coins.

It is pressed by a steam engine and is extremely exquisitely made. There is a serrated anti-counterfeiting design on the outer edge, and two full circles of convex dots inside for anti-counterfeiting.

If there is no steam coin casting machine, it is difficult for the people to forge it.

This kind of copper coin has three denominations: twenty coins, fifty coins, and one hundred coins. It not only makes small transactions more convenient for the people, but also alleviates the dilemma of the court's long-term shortage of copper.

The vendor quickly gave him thirty-four coins in change, strung them together with a hemp rope and handed them over: "Please keep them, sir."

Du Jushi was too lazy to count the coins, so he just put them in his pocket and handed him a ball of Sazi Mahua: "Try this."

Aksuhe took a bite and nodded, praising: "It's delicious."

Du Jushi also chewed Sazi Mahua himself, and handed two balls to Aksuhe's entourage, pointing to the front and saying: "That's the stationery street, which sells not only pens, ink, paper and inkstones, but also all kinds of books and cultural relics. Further west is the ceramics street, with all kinds of pottery and porcelain. Go south from the ceramics street..."

Aksuhe looked carefully and compared Luoyang with Constantinople.

There is no comparison at all!

The previous two Eastern Roman emperors failed in their official and tax reforms. Coupled with years of war, the economy of the Eastern Roman Empire was becoming increasingly depressed, and the people were getting poorer and poorer due to war taxes.

The affluent life of ordinary people in Luoyang is unimaginable for residents of Constantinople.

The two continued to walk forward, and suddenly several people came on horseback, shouting along the way: "Get out of the way, get out of the way!"

Du Jushi turned his head and saw the imperial guards riding horses, followed by doctors and assistants on horseback.

Which noble in the palace suddenly fell ill?

Every day, there are imperial doctors on duty in the imperial city, and doctors are generally not called from outside. In this case, famous doctors are mostly summoned for consultation.

Du Jushi let Aksuhe walk around by himself, and he quickly called a donkey cart to rush to Donghua Gate.

When he arrived outside Donghua Gate, Du Jushi handed over his official card and asked casually: "A doctor just went in. Which official is sick?"

The guards kept silent.

Du Jushi entered the East Outer City of the Imperial City and finally found out in the waiting room.

Cabinet minister Qian Chen fainted and had not woken up after being in a coma for a long time.

Qian Chen was fat before he joined Zhu Ming. He became more and more fat in recent years, and various related diseases also emerged. He fainted once three years ago.

Du Jushi took the imperial carriage to the Hanlin Academy and slacked off until the afternoon, and had a working lunch by the way.

In the afternoon, there was finally definite news.

Qian Chen had woken up, but... his face was paralyzed, and his limbs were not flexible.

Du Jushi thought: I guess Qian Ge Lao is going to retire, and I don’t know who will be the cabinet minister.

At this moment, in the lounge of the cabinet’s side room, Zhu Ming brought the prince to visit in person, and many cabinet ministers also surrounded the room.

The doctor said that there should not be too many people in the room, and being too stuffy is not conducive to the patient’s recovery.

"Bianxiu (Your Majesty), Chun (Minister)..." Qian Chen struggled to stand up and greet him, and his face was stiff and difficult to speak.

Zhu Ming quickly pushed him back to lie down: "Don’t say too much, rest at ease, and you will recover in a few days."

Qian Chen had to lie back.

Zhu Ming comforted him for a while, asked the doctor to do his best to treat him, and left the prince to take care of Qian Chen on his behalf.

Zhu Ming reminded Qian Chen several times about his problem, asking him to eat less greasy food and exercise more to stretch his muscles.

But it was useless.

Qian Chen was not interested in gold, silver, treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings. In addition to being greedy for power, his only hobby was fine wine and food.

Even his family's chefs were famous chefs invited from various provinces. He spent a lot of money to raise seven or eight chefs, who took turns to cook various dishes for him every day.

Zhu Ming did not replace the cabinet ministers for the time being, and perhaps Qian Chen could recover.

…

The next day, Du Jushi did not accompany Aksukh shopping, but explained the "Zizhi Tongjian" to the envoy.

This book has been translated into many languages ​​by scholars from various countries, including Arabic, Persian, Turkic, and Devanagari Sanskrit.

Aksukh is not only a commander, but also a politician.

He witnessed the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Western Liao Dynasty last year. He was shocked by firearms and tactics at first, but soon turned his attention to the military system, and then to the political system of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to self-studying "Zizhi Tongjian", he also asked Du Jushi about the Ming Dynasty system, and gradually focused on the Song Dynasty.

Aksuhe was very interested in how the Song Dynasty took back the military power and how to suppress military generals with civil officials.

The institutional changes in the Eastern Roman Empire over the past few hundred years can be simply summarized as follows:

Initially, the military district system. Similar to the border military household system of the Ming Dynasty, it eventually collapsed due to the intensification of land annexation.

Then, the war group system. Recruiting soldiers, mercenaries, and private soldiers evolved into war groups, and the proportion of mercenaries was very high, which was very similar to the situation of the feudal lords in the late Tang Dynasty. There was even a thing similar to the family servants of the Ming Dynasty, which was naturally generated with the collapse of the military district system.

Now, the fiefdom system. The war group was defeated by the Seljuks, Asia Minor fell, and the military leaders became feudal lords, and they were the core to resist foreign races and recover lost territory.

Relying on the bloody battles of the feudal lords, the Eastern Roman Empire survived.

At this time, the Eastern Roman Empire had only changed dynasties for a few decades.

The founder of the dynasty was a military leader.

He grew stronger step by step through marriage, and began to centralize power when he became emperor. Several emperors after that have been committed to centralization, all married foreign princesses, and vigorously promoted foreign officials.

Even when the emperor went to war, he always brought the queen with him, fearing that the foreign queen would be plotted against.

Moreover, the fiefdom system of the Eastern Roman Empire was different from that of Western Europe.

Although most lords were doing the father-to-son system, at least in name, they could only be governed by the nobles themselves for life, and the territory could not be transferred privately or inherited.

Once the lord died, the emperor had the right to take back the fiefdom - it depended on whether he could take it back.

Aksuhe wrote:

"In the land of Taohuashi, before the Ming Dynasty was the Song Dynasty, and before the Song Dynasty was the Tang Dynasty."

"The military system of the early and middle Tang Dynasty was similar to the Roman military district system. In the late Tang Dynasty, it was similar to the Roman legion system. Between the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was another Five Dynasties period, which was similar to the transition period from the Roman legion system to the Prona system."

"The early Song Dynasty was very similar to Rome today. There were a large number of military nobles, which affected the rule of the Song Dynasty emperor."

"The Song Emperor promoted civil officials and established new positions with real power, gradually weakened the old positions, and successfully disintegrated the old military nobles."

"This dynasty has been marrying foreign queens and promoting officials from foreign countries and ethnic groups, but these are destined to be outsiders. Including myself, I was born a Turkic slave and have no roots in Rome. I can't change the hereditary fiefdom of the military nobles. Current situation. Therefore, Rome should learn from the Song Dynasty. "

"First, reform education and integrate various schools such as philosophy, grammar and rhetoric. Add more loyalty to the emperor in schools, and constantly emphasize that the emperor is the defender of God and the real ruler and protector of the people. China has a kind of "respect the king and expel the barbarians" thought, that is, all people, including nobles and clergy, must be unconditionally loyal to the emperor, and the emperor protects the country and the people from foreign invasion. "

"Second, rebuild the Roman Royal Guards, strengthen the strength of the central army, and find a suitable opportunity to take back the fiefdom..."

"Third, after taking back the fiefdom, use civil servants trained by the central government to govern. Or, after a great victory in foreign wars, send a small number of civil servants to the noble fiefdoms with the power of victory in the war, but the premise of doing so is that the central army is strong enough..."

If Zhu Ming knew Aksuhe's political views, he would definitely be amused.

He wanted the Eastern Roman Empire to stand up, block attacks from all sides, and curb the expansion of the two major religions of Catholicism and the desert.

But who could have thought that Aksuhe actually suggested that the Eastern Roman emperor learn from the iron-blooded Song Dynasty!

Zhu Ming believed that the Crusaders and the Desert Church were the number one enemies of the Eastern Roman Empire.

But what was the reality?

For the Eastern Roman emperor, the noble lords who were members of the royal family and relatives were the number one enemies that could really threaten his rule.

This was indeed the case. The Eastern Roman dynasty would be usurped by the royal family in a few decades.

A dynasty that was established by marriage and the army must first guard against its own kind.

For several generations of emperors, they refused to marry a woman from their own country as queen, and they particularly liked to employ foreign officials. These actions were enough to explain the problem.

Aksukh regarded the "Zizhi Tongjian" as a treasure and planned to translate it into Latin.

He himself was a Turkic slave, but he advocated the idea of ​​"respecting the king and expelling the barbarians".

The succession of the Eastern Roman emperor was extremely unstable. Even from a purely legal point of view, the emperor was not qualified to pass on the throne to his descendants, which was a great break from the status quo.

Aksukh believed that it was necessary to deepen the authority of the Eastern Roman emperor through ideological reform and give the emperor the idea of ​​hereditary succession.

Aksukh continued to write: "If the central government cannot take back the fiefdom, the emperor can compromise with the nobles. That is, the emperor recognizes the hereditary legitimacy of the noble lords, and the noble lords recognize the hereditary legitimacy of the emperor. The emperor can no longer be deposed by the nobles, and any act of coveting the throne is regarded as rebellion. This concept is difficult for scholars and the people to accept, so when spreading it, they must be threatened with foreign races and pagans. Stable emperors and nobles can help the people resist foreign races and pagans. Publicize the brutality of foreign races and pagans, and buy some scholars to help promote it..."