Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1223 Postscript 79 · Role Playing

“Bang!”

Another gunshot.

This gold-and-silver-inlaid pistol became more and more comfortable for Xie Yan to use—although he hadn’t hit a target yet.

It was not until the evening when Xie Yan followed everyone down the mountain that he felt pain in the inner thigh. He was almost worn out from riding a horse.

“What’s wrong?” Zhu Tangxi asked.

Xie Yan was a little embarrassed and whispered to the princess.

Zhu Tangxi felt distressed and amused: “First, your posture and strength are wrong, and second, you ride for too long. I advised you to rest but you didn’t listen. You kept riding and hunting, but you didn’t even catch half a hare.”

As the saying goes, people are addicted to food.

The generals and the imperial guards who participated in the hunt were all stationed at the camp at the foot of the mountain tonight.

The royal family, clan members, dukes, nobles, palace guards and a few scholars (mainly painters) went to the royal garden Dongxi Garden in the northwest.

Soon after arriving at Dongxi Garden, Zhu Tangxi asked Xie Yan to take a bath.

When he finished bathing and returned to the room, the princess had a bottle of ointment in her hand: "This is what I asked the imperial physician to get, take off your pants quickly."

Xie Yan took off his pants and sat on the edge of the bed, and Zhu Tangxi squatted down to help him apply the ointment.

If this scene was seen by outsiders, it would probably spread all over Luoyang in a few days. It's the opposite of Tiangang!

"Sister is so nice." Xie Yan said with a smile.

"Liu Lang treats me well, so I have to treat Liu Lang well." Zhu Tangxi actually enjoyed it. She was unattainable in front of outsiders, but she especially liked to serve her lover when she returned home.

This would make her feel very warm, as if they were a young couple in an ordinary family.

Before the ointment was applied and dried, a palace servant came to call them to have a meal.

Among the ingredients, some were prey caught today, and they were stewed or grilled with enough spices.

Queen Mother Ye sat next to a grill and actually taught the little emperor how to grill meat in person.

Xie Yan and the princess went to pay their respects and then sat next to her to help.

Except for the guards, everyone was relaxed.

Some members of the royal family and scholars had already started drinking.

"Is that painter also from Qihe?" Xie Yan pointed to a middle-aged scholar not far away.

Zhu Tangxi whispered, "That man's surname is Mu, and he is from the same hometown as Empress Dowager Ye. The Mu family's ancestors were Persians, and they had two Seljuk prime ministers. Later, during the reign of Emperor Taizong, the whole family defected to the Ming Dynasty. He is not only a painter, but also a religious scholar, and a historian of the Arabic and Western Regions."

Empress Dowager Ye was born in the Qihe Protectorate, and naturally promoted her fellow countrymen when she came to power.

However, she was relatively restrained, only promoting a few scholars to the Hanlin Academy, arranging a few Qihe military officers to the palace guards, and transferring two Qihe generals to take charge of part of the imperial guards.

The painter from Qihe was called Mu Xiang. During the two heydays of the Seljuk Empire, his two ancestors were prime ministers.

After the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Western Liao Dynasty, the religious policy formulated in Central Asia was advised by Mu Xiang's ancestors. Their whole family settled in Suiye City from then on, and now they have developed into a noble family in Chuhe, and have intermarried with Han people for generations.

The religious reform in the Seven Rivers Basin was the most successful, with Buddhism and desert religion as the main religions, and various other religions coexisting. At the same time, all of them had to read Confucian sages.

After the reform, the desert religion was called "Mupai" by the Ming Dynasty and "Mulekpai" by the Mecca countries.

The specific content of the reform is not convenient to elaborate, anyway, it is quite outrageous, and the reform process is extremely bloody.

From the Ili River Valley to the north of the Aral Sea, along the northern route of the Silk Road, now all have become "Mupai". The believers are mainly urban residents, industrialists and businessmen, and farmers and herdsmen around towns.

The more distant grassland tribes still believe in other sects.

In the repeated tribal rebellions and military conquests, the "Mupai" forces continued to expand. But the area there is too vast, and this expansion seems a bit insufficient. The believers of the Mupai and other sects regard each other as heretics.

Almost every tribal rebellion is under the banner of religion.

At the same time, the Mu sect also spread in Dayuan and won the support of successive Dayuan kings.

When the Mu sect spread to the Khorasan region with the expansion of Dayuan, it added a bit of Persian nationalism.

That is, the Arabs were regarded as invaders, and the Persians should speak Persian and write Persian, and Arabic and Arabic must be banned. Moreover, the last Persian prince surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and became a vassal of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty, which inherited the Tang Dynasty's legal system, and the Dayuan, the descendant of the Ming Dynasty, are actually the most reliable allies of the Persians.

The Mu sect mixed with Persianism is infiltrating into the wider Persian region.

…

The little emperor was holding a roasted deer leg, and his mouth was full of oil.

To be honest, it was not very delicious, but the little emperor ate it fragrantly, because he roasted the deer leg himself, and the deer was also "hunted" by himself.

It seemed that he had suddenly changed from a child to an adult.

Seeing everyone toasting each other, the little emperor also wanted to taste the wine, and looked at his mother pitifully: "I... I want to drink."

Empress Dowager Ye subconsciously wanted to refuse, but then she thought that her son was growing up and it was time to try more new things, so she immediately said with a stern face: "You can only drink one cup of rice wine."

The little emperor was ecstatic.

The waiter quickly poured a cup of rice wine. The little emperor was afraid that he would finish it quickly, so he just took a small sip and put it down.

Xie Yan and the princess were already a little drunk, and Zhu Tangxi even ignored the others and leaned her head on her husband's arm.

"Little uncle, I hunted three deer today. What prey did you kill?" The little emperor suddenly asked proudly.

"Hahahaha!"

Everyone laughed at the words.

Everyone can clearly see how embarrassed Xie Consort was hunting today. Among all the clans and dignitaries, Xie's consort was the only one to be outdone by the little emperor.

Even Wu Lingfeng's frail husband used a hunting dog to get a rabbit.

Xie Yan patted his chest and said: "Today I am not good at learning the art of firecrackers, but I will definitely gain something next time!"

The little emperor said: "When I grow up, I will lead the imperial army to hunt in the Wild Fox Ridge, just like the emperor did. When the time comes, I will take my uncle with me."

As soon as these words came out, there was a lot of silence.

Fortunately, most of the important ministers in the cabinet did not participate in the drills and hunts, otherwise the civil servants would have been worried about going militarily.

Xie Yan thought to himself: When he grows up, he will probably also be a troublemaker.

The banquet ended very late, and most of the people except the guards were drunk.

When the little emperor fell asleep, Queen Mother Ye took out a booklet and read it.

Check out the 16-9 book bar to see the correct version!

This booklet is called "Economics", but many people jokingly call it "Business Studies".

To be precise, it should be called "Political Economy" because a large amount of space is devoted to discussing how to govern.

Zhu Guoxiang wrote very briefly back then, and castrated some key contents. Over the past hundred years, it has been studied, cited, elaborated and supplemented by many classics scholars, and used to reinterpret the Four Books and Six Classics, forming several schools of classics.

Queen Mother Ye did not read "Economics" before.

Until one day, the young emperor recited a secret book left by Taizu Taizong and came to Queen Mother Ye to ask what it meant.

Queen Mother Ye found that she could not explain it, so she read the secret book with her son.

The more she read, the more confused she became, so she selected a few key words and asked Deng Gongwu and other important officials who were proficient in Confucian classics for advice. After a brief explanation, those ministers recommended Queen Mother Ye to read "Economics".

The more in-depth the study was, the more doubts Queen Mother Ye had in her heart, and she even felt vaguely inexplicable fear.

Why does the secret book left by Taizu Taizong state that the economic base determines the superstructure? Why is it said that when the economic base changes, the superstructure must also change accordingly, and determine the direction of the development of the superstructure?

Why did Taizu hide this paragraph and not write it generously into "Economics"?

With all kinds of doubts, Queen Mother Ye opened another locked box, which Emperor Dingtai left for his grandson to see after he turns 25.

It contains the reading notes of several emperors, which are based on their experiences as emperors and their reading experience and insights into Taizu Taizong's Secret Manual.

Among them, Emperor Dingtai had the most reading notes and wrote a large book densely packed with them.

After reading the notes of several emperors, Queen Mother Ye couldn't sleep for a while. She is a child goddess and has extremely high comprehension ability, so she is very scared.

After that, she studied classics and history crazily, summoning scholars to give lectures to her every ten days.

The ministers praised this highly.

Empress Dowager Ye gradually eliminated her fear. Taking history as a guide, she knew that as long as the people could afford to eat, the Ming Dynasty could continue. Certain forces must be firmly controlled without excessive suppression, because they are also one of the foundations of Ming Dynasty's rule.

Because Emperor Taizu wrote in the Secret Book: Through the control and coercion of society, the superstructure serves the economic base, promoting its formation, consolidation and development, while excluding things that are opposed to it. Without this control, society will fall into chaos and the superstructure will be torn down and rebuilt.

Queen Mother Ye is lonely. She has no one to discuss this kind of thing with. She can only wait for her son to grow up day by day.

In another room.

Xie Yan was playing with his gun. He finally understood why ancient nobles liked hunting.

It has the same mentality as the fisherman, and it is probably the human hunting gene passed down from ancient times.

With this, it seems that the princess is not so fragrant.

"Liu Lang, why are you still playing with firecrackers?" Zhu Tangxi lay on his side on the bed, assuming a very seductive posture, holding his cheek in his hand and making a seductive sound.

Xie Yan smiled and put down the flintlock gun: "Sister, I want to see the clothes you wear when hunting during the day."

"That set of clothes was stained with sweat and very dirty." Zhu Tangxi said.

"Change to a clean set." Xie Yan ran to rummage through the suitcase.

Soon, Zhu Tangxi couldn't laugh or cry.

But Xie Yan came back with clothes and a flintlock gun: "Sister, change quickly. I also have this blunderbuss. I want to learn hunting from my sister."

"Learn to hunt in bed?" Zhu Tangxi said.

Xie Yan probably awakened some XP: "Sister put on hunting clothes and got down with a gun in hand. I will learn from my sister behind."

Zhu Tangxi spat: "What nonsense? Liulang, your ideas are so strange."

Although his mouth was complaining, his body was very obedient.

After putting on his clothes and holding a musket, Zhu Tangxi lay down and asked, "What next?"

Xie Yan crawled over and said, "Sister, how should I fire the firecrackers?"

"Didn't you study during the day?" Zhu Tangxi said.

"I forgot what I learned during the day. I want my sister to teach me again." Xie Yan pretended to be serious about learning.

Zhu Tangxi had no choice but to start teaching hunting, and gradually realized the fun of role-playing.