Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 114 This Ming Dynasty is a bit chaotic

There are four officials in Huangzhou Fucheng who can live in the backyard of the yamen, namely the prefect, the general magistrate, the commander and the county magistrate.

The remaining officials either live in official dormitories or buy or rent their own houses.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, local officials were not allowed to build real estate within their jurisdiction, but this rule has long been no longer followed.

However, the relevant laws and regulations have not been abolished and can come into play at critical times.

Xie Yan lived in the backyard of the Tongben Hall of Huangzhou Prefecture, and the front yard was the main office under the Tongpan Hall. As a family member, it was inconvenient for him to go there and wander around, so he went out directly through the side door in the backyard of the office.

After walking half a circle along the brick wall, Xie Yan came to the front of the office and stared at the eaves outside the lobby of the office for a while: "The front yard of the office was rebuilt, right?"

Wang Sheng said: "I'm not sure. It seems that it was rebuilt after a fire. I heard someone mention it before."

During the epidemic, Xie Yan stayed at home and did nothing but read novels.

He originally wanted to take the postgraduate entrance examination, majoring in the maintenance and restoration of ancient buildings. While reviewing various postgraduate entrance examination subjects, he learned a lot about ancient architecture on his own.

The backyard of the government office where he lived was a typical Song Dynasty building.

The office area in the front yard of the office is a typical Ming and Qing Dynasty building.

It can be easily seen from the style of brackets, because the brackets of Ming and Qing buildings are smaller, simplifying the structure of the roof frame, which can save wood and increase building space.

It seems that in the Ming Dynasty in this time and space, not only natural science has advanced by leaps and bounds, but even construction technology has also advanced.

As a civil engineering brother, Xie Yan was not familiar with other fields, so the first thing he observed was naturally various buildings.

Walking around the city for a while, Xie Yan found that most of them were two-story brick and wood structures, and there were also some three-, four-, and five-story buildings. There were not many bungalows with only one floor.

These folk buildings basically belong to the Ming and Qing style, because a large number of bricks are used to build walls.

In the Qin Dynasty, bricks were used to pave the ground and build steps; in the Han Dynasty, bricks were used to build tombs; in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, brick pagodas and city walls appeared... In the Song Dynasty, bricks began to be used to build houses, but only in the lower half of the wall.

Residential houses with all brick walls appeared in the Yuan Dynasty and became a common practice in the Ming Dynasty.

Xie Yan wandered around and found that most of the houses and shops in Huangzhou City had all-brick walls.

Xie Yan walked under a brick wall, dug out a small piece of gray material from the cracks of the bricks, twisted it a few times with his fingers, and muttered: "Cement is not very strong. Maybe I can make money by improving cement... eh , how to bake cement?”

Nowadays, there are many types of cement in Daming.

Ordinary private houses use an early type of artificially mixed cement, similar to the "British cement" invented in the 1820s. Its advantages are low cost, not picky about the place of production, and a certain degree of strength.

Official buildings, or private buildings with special needs, use calcined limestone containing more clay, similar to the "Roman cement" and "natural cement" invented in the 1790s. It is stronger, but it is picky about where it is produced and difficult to spread across the country.

Today, many scholars and craftsmen are trying to improve cement and combine the advantages of the first two cements.

"Where is that place?" Xie Yan pointed to a five-story building.

Wang Sheng pulled Xie Yan's sleeves, pulled him away a few steps and said, "Zuichun Tower. Our husband and wife are not allowed to enter, at least until we pass the exam."

Xie Yan instantly understood that it was an ancient club.

"The people here are not poor either. I don't even see a beggar." Xie Yan said.

Wang Sheng said: "In the past two years, I don't know who spread the rumor that Zhou's shop was selling rice, which eventually led to beggars robbing the rice shop in the city. At that time, more than 20 people were killed and injured, and the prefect was furious and banned beggars. Go to town."

"Go out of the city and have a look." Xie Yan said.

Wang Sheng persuaded: "The security outside the city is getting more and more chaotic. It's better for Liulang not to leave the city."

Xie Yan continued to move forward without comment.

He had been observing buildings and now he was observing passers-by.

The clothes of the people are more fragmented than the buildings. It's just that Xie Yan doesn't understand this and doesn't feel it very deeply.

There are a few women who still wear short undershirts and long skirts from the Tang Dynasty. This thing has been used from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and it can be seen in "A Picture of Along the River During the Qingming Festival". It was slightly improved and used in the current Ming Dynasty.

More women wear Song-style skirts, and you can see a large area of ​​​​tube top. There are also women who don't mind the heat and wear a pair of trousers outside, but their white breasts can still be seen.

Xie Yan thought to himself: The atmosphere is quite open, but it's a pity that he didn't show his legs.

As soon as the thought occurred to him, he saw the legs.

A woman came over with a basket on her shoulder. She wore a tube top and a short-sleeved sweater on her upper body, and a skirt that was so short that it didn't even cover her thighs. She also wore a pair of loose pants under her skirt, with half of her calf exposed.

Dew is dew, it’s not eye-catching, because this is a fat middle-aged aunt.

All the traffic on the streets is horse-drawn carriages, donkey-carts and mule-carts.

Xie Yan asked: "Hasn't there been a train for a long time? Isn't there any transportation car in the city?"

"I haven't seen it before," Wang Sheng said.

In fact, it has already been there.

After the steam trains came the steam river boats.

After both of these were allowed for civilian use, someone soon developed a steam scooter. Since it was difficult to miniaturize a steam engine at that time, a huge car was created - in fact, it was just a slightly smaller locomotive.

It was completely impractical and I gradually gave up.

A few decades later, with technological breakthroughs, steam engines could be made smaller, and finally a somewhat decent car was built. But it still looked very big, and it was spewing smoke all the way, and easily damaged the road surface, so it was not allowed to enter the city at all.

The imperial court has been secretly developing gasoline engines. The principle is very simple, but the process technology is not enough and a breakthrough in supporting technology is needed.

Again, Daming Technology is lame!

"Get out of the way, get out of the way! Drive!"

Suddenly a group of young men and women rode up the street, followed by many slaves running in pursuit.

Xie Yan and Wang Sheng quickly gave way, and the people along the street dared not speak out in anger.

Xie Yan asked: "Are these all descendants of aristocratic families?"

Wang Sheng said: "The leader is called Zhong Wanli. His ancestors were refugees who moved to Daming Town from Guanzhong. They became rich because they followed Taizu and Taizong in the army. At that time, he didn't have any high officials, and he didn't even get a title. But Zhong The daughter of the Deng family was married to the Deng family before the war. The Deng family has become prosperous, and the Zhong family has naturally accumulated tens of thousands of acres of land in Huangzhou Prefecture! "

"That's really a big landowner." Xie Yan was quite envious.

Wang Sheng sarcastically said: "Who let their ancestors have the merit of serving the dragon? There are many such families. During the Luoyang Incident three years ago, the new monarch and the prime minister killed a lot of them for treason."

The two of them walked along the main street to the city gate. Xie Yan walked out quickly, but Wang Sheng didn't stop him after thinking about it.

Not far out of the city, Xie Yan saw a large number of beggars.

The Fuguo neighborhood here seems to be two different worlds from the neighborhoods in the city.

"Good kill!"

A shout of applause attracted Xie Yan's attention, and he found that many people were watching.

Xie Yan walked over curiously and realized that there were more than a dozen new wanted notices posted there.

The portraits of wanted criminals are drawn in a similar way to sketches, and they are quite realistic.

These wanted criminals are a gang of robbers who broke into Dai's mansion on the outskirts of Luzhou two months ago. First, they set fire to create chaos, and then attacked and killed the servants who guarded the courtyard. They killed and injured more than 40 people including the master and slaves, and stole hundreds of thousands of treasure notes and gold and silver.

"Who was applauding such a gangster just now?" the official responsible for posting the notice asked.

No one answered.

No one identified him.

The officer cursed for a while and then left.

Then the people watching the notice started talking again.

"I know this group of people. The leader's name is Yao Qi, and people in the world call him the Hero of Shandong, but he didn't expect to escape to Luzhou."

"He is the Sichuan Hero? I heard that he often robs the rich and gives to the poor."

"Isn't that true? Every time Yao Daxia robs money, he will secretly distribute some to the poor."

"It's a pity that they don't come to Huangzhou Mansion. If they come, they will kill the Zhong family and the Cai family. Maybe the next day there will be a treasure note stuffed in the window of my house!"

"The hero of Chuandong is nothing, the hero of Zhongzhou, Tie San, is great. Yao Qi only dares to kill rich people, Tie San even dares to kill officials."

"So triathletes die quickly."

"Even if he dies, Iron Hero is still the most powerful! The "Legend of Heroes of Zhongzhou" a few years ago was written about Iron Hero."

"That's a banned book, have you actually read it?"

"Hey, I picked up the novel. I didn't copy the novel I picked up."

"..."

Xie Yan stood nearby and listened for a while, finally gaining a new understanding of today's social atmosphere.

The common people actually praised the murderous bandits in the streets, and there were even scholars who wrote novels about these bandits.

The antagonism between the rich and the poor, and between the government and the people, has reached a very serious level.

Xie Yan asked: "Do you know this Yao Qi?"

Wang Sheng said: "I've heard of it. This person first committed crimes in eastern Sichuan. He committed six crimes in half a year, which made the gentry and businessmen in eastern Sichuan panic. Later he moved to Guizhou, Yunnan, and Hunan. Unexpectedly, he appeared again in Lu state."

"They really robbed the rich and gave to the poor?" Xie Yan asked.

Wang Sheng said: "It sounds nice to say it. It's nothing more than taking out the stolen money and secretly giving it to the poor to earn a good reputation in the world. It's the Zhongzhou hero Tie San who is the real hero, but in the end His fate was also very tragic. After Iron Man's death, many scholars felt sorry for him, so some scholars collected stories about him and wrote novels about him."

The two of them continued walking forward.

Xie Yan looked at the streets outside the city and asked, "Where is the factory causing trouble today?"

Wang Sheng said: "The factories are all in the suburbs and are not allowed to be too close to the city."

Xie Yan turned around a street and walked north. After walking for a while, he was pulled by Wang Sheng.

Wang Sheng reminded: "Liu Lang, you can't go any further. That's where the poor live. There are shacks all over the place, a mixture of fish and dragons, and countless people committing crimes. If women or children go there, they can't go far before disappearing." ”

Xie Yan smiled and said: "Are there no women and children there?"

"Of course there are women and children there. What I mean is that if the women and children outside go in, something will happen," Wang Sheng explained. "The husband is well-dressed and handsome, so he might be targeted by bad guys."

After hearing this, Xie Yan really didn't dare to leave anymore.

This Ming Dynasty is a bit chaotic.