Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Since the Hu horse peeked at the river and left, the ponds and trees have been abandoned, and I still hate to talk about war. As dusk gradually approaches, the clear horn blows in the cold, and the city is empty."

Jiang Kui's few words hide a huge amount of information.

At the turn of the Song Dynasty, the Jianghuai region became a battlefield. The population and economic losses were serious, and business travel was almost cut off, and the land was abandoned and no one cultivated it.

Even Huaiyin, Xinghua, Lai'an, Wujiang, Chaohu and other counties were directly downgraded from counties to towns because they were too sparsely populated.

If there had been no Jingkang Rebellion, Huainan would not be inferior to Jiangnan at all.

Sitting on the canal, business is developed.

There are few floods and agriculture is prosperous.

Since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Chuzhou replaced Yangzhou and became the big brother of the Huainan region.

Because Yangzhou was too rich, warlords from all walks of life wanted to get involved. After repeated struggles, the city was massacred several times.

And what about Chuzhou?

It only experienced a massacre once, and it was massacred by Chai Rong.

Chai Rong only massacred a city once in his life, and this one time was for Chuzhou. Moreover, Zhao Kuangyin stopped it halfway, so the loss was not great, and only more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians were massacred.

According to the statistics of the tenth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty, the commercial tax of Chuzhou that year was 18,995 guan, while the commercial tax of Yangzhou was only 10,887 guan.

Now, Chuzhou has become the capital of Huainan Province in the Ming Dynasty. Coupled with the change of policies, the business environment has become better, and it has become more and more prosperous.

Even though the tax rate of commercial tax has been reduced and many harsh taxes have been abolished, the commercial tax of Chuzhou Prefecture in the first year of Shenfu in the Ming Dynasty still reached an astonishing 24,087 guan!

The Ming Dynasty court is now very rich.

"The content of the meeting just now, organize it into a document for me to review." Chuzhou prefect Nie Wen ordered.

"Yes!" Jiang E bowed and retreated.

Jiang Kui was not born yet, and it was not known whether he could be born. Anyway, his father Jiang E had passed the imperial examination.

As a newly-appointed Jinshi, Jiang E was assigned to Chuzhou Prefecture as a clerk of the ninth rank because of his excellent performance after observing government affairs for three months. After only six months, he was selected by the new prefect to serve as the prefect's full-time secretary, that is, the chief secretary of the provincial capital city!

There were many official positions similar to secretaries in the Song Dynasty, including observation envoys, chief secretaries, etc.

When Zhu Guoxiang reformed the official system, all of them were changed to secretaries.

That is, the chief secretary is the secretary-general, and the secretary is an ordinary secretary.

Since the court does not allow private employment of shogunate officials, except for the establishment of a government office, the chief secretaries (secretaries-general) of government offices at all levels actually play a role similar to that of a legal advisor.

At the county level, only the secretary-general is a rank official, and most of them are old clerks who have been transferred to other positions. Ordinary secretaries are all second-class clerks.

At the state level, there are 2 ordinary secretaries of the ninth rank, and the rest are all first-class clerks.

At the prefectural level, there are 4 ordinary secretaries of the ninth rank, and the rest are all first-class clerks.

The disadvantage of doing this is that the number of officials increases and administrative expenses increase. The advantage is that the court has stronger control over local government offices, and the emergence of legal advisors has been eliminated.

Even the Song Dynasty did not have legal advisors, so Zhu Ming naturally did not allow them to emerge in the Ming Dynasty.

A county magistrate in the Qing Dynasty had several legal advisors. Do you think how the county magistrate had the money to pay their salaries?

Now the Ming Dynasty inherited the Song system, and the newly-appointed Jinshi could be directly appointed as county magistrates at most when they were first appointed. Those were rare.

Therefore, for Jinshi with poor rankings, being assigned as a secretary as the first position became a choice with a promising political future.

If you are selected as a full-time secretary by the top two leaders, it is even more lucky!

Jiang E, the full-time secretary of the prefecture governor of Chuzhou, carefully sorted out the meeting minutes and quickly wrote an article, which he handed over to the prefecture governor Nie Wen the next day.

After reading it, Nie Wen nodded in praise: "You have great talent. Your writing is brilliant and easy to understand. It is rare for both the elite and the masses to appreciate it. Let the clerks copy it and send it to the various offices for processing."

Jiang E turned around and walked a few steps, then suddenly stopped and said: "Prefect, the number of immigrants recruited this time is large, and we must guard against those clerks taking the opportunity to harm the people."

Nie Wen said: "During the period of recruiting immigrants, if you hear any movement, do not intervene without authorization, record it and let me handle it as appropriate."

"Yes!" Jiang E bowed and retreated.

Recruiting 50,000 retired soldiers or militiamen is the business of the Duzhihuishisi and its subordinate offices.

The government office where Jiang E worked was a civil official, so he only recruited ordinary immigrants. A total of 150,000 immigrants, spread across four populous provinces, the number of each county is actually not that much.

The Ming court incorporated Lianshui and Sizhou into Chuzhou Prefecture, and the total number of immigrants recruited in the entire prefecture was 3,855. According to different administrative positions, more than 500 people migrated in large counties, more than 400 people migrated in medium counties, and more than 300 people migrated in small counties.

The population density of Chuzhou Prefecture is extremely high, and it is nothing to have three or five hundred people migrated in a county.

Even if the government deliberately concealed the news and the rural areas were relatively closed to information, the immigration work would not even make any waves.

A few days later.

Jiang E strolled around the city in cloth clothes, and his expression became more and more gloomy.

The prefect strictly ordered not to post notices and not to allow officials to publicize at will, but the news spread throughout the city in just a few days.

If it was just like this, it would be normal, after all, there are always petty officials who can't control their mouths.

What is abnormal is that the immigration information was deliberately distorted!

Jiang E stepped forward and greeted several passers-by with a fist: "Where did you get the news from, brothers? Why did I hear that only three or four thousand people were recruited, and it did not involve urban household registration."

These neighbors who gathered together did not know the secretary of the government office.

Seeing that Jiang E was calm and elegant, they subconsciously thought that he was a scholar from a wealthy family, and hurriedly returned the greetings respectfully.

A neighbor said, "Don't be afraid, young sir. Scholars with official titles and students studying in government schools will not be forcibly conscripted by the government this time. Even if they don't have official titles and are not studying in government schools, the government will still give them preferential treatment, just by giving them a little more money."

"Who did you hear that from?" Jiang E asked again.

Another neighbor said, "I have a relative's friend working in the county government. How can the rumors there be false?"

Jiang E continued to ask questions, but these people couldn't explain anything. God knows where they heard the rumors from.

Jiang E asked a few more groups of people and hurried back to the government office.

"Prefect, someone is deliberately doing bad things," Jiang E said, "There are rumors in the market that Chuzhou Prefecture is going to relocate tens of thousands of people, and as long as you pay money, you can hire people to replace them."

"Got it," Prefect Nie Wen ordered, "Order each county to post a notice to make the truth public, and don't worry about the rest. The censors should have arrived in the provincial capital, and they should be given some credit. We can't let the censors go in vain."

Jiang E understood and bowed to leave.

Nie Wen said again: "Call Xun Dapan."

"Yes!"

Jiang E left the room and went to the next door to ask for the prefectural judge.

The Chuzhou prefectural judge was called Xun Mao, and he quickly came to the Huangtang of the prefectural government and greeted Nie Wen.

After chatting for a while, Nie Wen said, "Some people want to take advantage of the opportunity to make money and bully the people. Brother Xun, please restrain your subordinates. This is a matter of military and national importance. Chuzhou is the capital, so there must be an imperial censor to inspect. The imperial censor has not shown up yet, and it is estimated that he has been on a private visit in disguise."

"It's my fault. If this matter fails, you and I will both be in trouble," Xun Mao did not mention the daily conflicts between him and Nie Wen, but tried to probe, "The Li family..."

Nie Wen smiled and said, "We can't control it, and we dare not control it."

"Indeed." Xun Mao nodded in understanding.

The biggest local tyrant in Chuzhou Prefecture is the clan of Prime Minister Li Hanzhang!

Li Hanzhang's father has passed away, his brother is an official in another place, and he took his mother to live in Luoyang. In fact, there are no close relatives in Chuzhou.

However, there are cousins ​​and clan brothers, as well as all kinds of messy clan relatives.

Some people do whatever they want under the name of Li Hanzhang, and as long as there is no murder involved, the local officials turn a blind eye.

Many local officials even tried to curry favor with the Li family, hoping to get on board with Li Hanzhang.

…

Beishen Town, on the outskirts of the provincial capital.

A team of officials rushed in. They were first ordered to post notices in the town to calm the people, and then went to the countryside to collect money in violation of the notices.

“Bang bang bang!”

The officials slammed the gate of a mansion outside the town.

A servant opened the door carefully and invited them in. The owner had heard the news and came to greet them.

When the chief of the officials met him, he said, "Mr. Gong, do you know about the conscription of immigrants?"

The rich man called Mr. Gong said, "I have heard a little bit about it."

The chief of the officials continued, "Although you have separated your family, there are six young and strong men in your household. The county magistrate has decided to conscript one from your family."

Mr. Gong said, "My eldest son is studying abroad and has not returned. The other sons are also studying, and one is studying in the official school."

The chief of the officials said, "Apart from those who have studied in the official school, the number of men in your family is enough to be conscripted immigrants."

"Please spare me a moment to talk."

The two walked side by side to a remote corner, and Mr. Gong took out a dozen silver dollars: "Brothers, take them and have tea."

The chief of the officials was furious: "Are you sending beggars away?"

Mr. Gong flattered, "Please tell me the exact number, sir."

The chief of the officials said, "Five hundred strings of cash."

"Five... five hundred strings of cash?" Mr. Gong's eyes widened.

The chief of the officials said earnestly: "Alas, you are also an ungrateful person. Other rich families have gone to Mr. Li's house to pay tribute, but you have not made any move, and we brothers have bothered to come to your house to waste our breath."

Mr. Gong said: "Can you be flexible? After the division of my family, my financial resources are not as good as before, and I have several sons studying..."

The chief of the officials interrupted directly: "Four hundred and eighty strings of cash, not a penny less. If you don't give it, just arrest people directly."

Mr. Gong was frowning, but he dared not say anything. He went back to his room to get money to avoid disaster.

Mr. Li took the lion's share of the money from the rich families, and the officials could only drink soup.

After visiting several more rich families, those officials returned to the city with a smile.

As for ordinary people, the head of the baojia would go to urge them. If the head of the baojia couldn't handle it, the officials would take action.

At this moment, Mr. Gong's eldest son, who was studying abroad, was visiting the countryside with a classmate and friend.

"Brother Yan has become an imperial censor and has been sent to Chuzhou Prefecture. Whether he can make achievements depends on how brave he is." Gong Miyuan said with a smile.

The imperial censor Yan Tao stood with his hands down: "Does the Li family dare to use such a big event to make money?"

Gong Miyuan said: "Not only the Li family, but also the clerks below have to eat well. All the baojia heads must pay tribute to the clerks, otherwise they will be given more quotas. Will the baojia heads pay for it themselves? It's better to let the common people in their baojia make up for it. If any family can't pay, they will have to conscript their men to become immigrants."