Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival, so there is no way to set up a stall or give any more lectures.

Because the vacant spaces on the streets everywhere are rented by merchants, who want to do business during the Lantern Festival.

The closer you get to the old city, the larger the scale of the lanterns. In some places, lanterns start to be put up half a month in advance.

It happened that Hou Xuan, Chen Dong and others were visiting, so Zhu Ming took Bai Sheng and Shi Biao to meet Li Hanzhang, Bai Chongyan, Ling Guxu, Min Zishun and other scholars to visit the city.

Hou Xuan has lived in Tokyo for several years, and he comes as a guide to explain.

Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty was divided into three parts: the new city (outer city), the old city (inner city), and the imperial city.

The Imperial College, the Imperial College, the Martial Arts School, and the places where scholars set up stalls were all located at the southern end of the outer city.

Everyone entered the city through Nanxun Gate and saw a large construction site as soon as they entered.

Hou Xuan pointed to the construction site and said: "This large area is being built as a Taoist temple. It used to be residential buildings."

Ju Ming asked: "Where have all the people living here been moved?"

Hou Xuan said: "I don't know. Anyway, he must have left the city, maybe he was placed somewhere outside the city."

Ju Ming asked again: "Has the court given money to let the people move away?"

Hou Xuan said: "It is reasonable to give money, but no one knows whether it can be distributed to the people."

Continuing forward, to the east is Shuyao Huiminnan Bureau, which was an affordable public hospital in the Song Dynasty.

This originated from Wang Anshi's Market Change Law, which stipulated that cooked medicines (Chinese patent medicines and medicinal wines) must be sold exclusively by the government, and private production and sales by private individuals are not allowed. On this basis, an official pharmacy was added, and then developed into a public hospital.

Hou Xuan pointed to the west and said: "Going past this street, there is the Qingfenglou Hotel. When southern travelers arrive in Tokyo, the first hotel they enter is the Qingfenglou. The north and south floors face each other, each with four floors, and the appearance is grand. , elegant inside. Visitors from out of town are often proud to stay in the Qingfeng Building. The building is tall and shaded, and there is a draft in the alley. In the summer, people in the city often come to the Qingfeng Building to enjoy the cool air."

Ju Ming had read "Tokyo Dreams", and the names on the paper kept appearing before his eyes, as if they were in a dream and felt unreal.

Across the street from the public hospital, there are several bookstores open at this time.

The bookstore owners looked gloomy. Ju Ming rode over to inquire and learned that this place was also going to be demolished.

The imperial court ordered them all to be moved out before April, and this area was to be given to Liu Wanrong.

Liu Wanrong was the new favorite of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty and was already three months pregnant, who would later become Empress Liu. As soon as she blew the pillow wind, several bookstores fell into trouble, and the emperor gave this place to her parents to build a house.

In Song Huizong's view, it was normal to demolish and give houses to people. The father of the woman he loves most now is actually a tavern clerk, and he is still renting someone else's house. It would be a disgrace to the royal family if he told her about it.

Chen Dong said angrily: "Prince students buy pens, inks, paper and inkstones here. After they are demolished, I still don't know where to buy stationery."

Ju Ming smiled and said: "There are also bookstores outside Nancheng. It only takes an extra quarter of an hour to walk."

Continuing to move forward, Hou Xuan pointed to the west and said: "This is the house of Deng Xunwu, a member of Cai Jing's party. It was built just half a year ago. Two shops and more than 20 residential households were forcibly removed."

Another forced demolition.

Chen Dong said: "Outside is the house of Gao Qiu, a member of Tong Guan's party. This guy is in charge of the Forbidden Army. He actually converted the Forbidden Army barracks into a private residence and used the Forbidden Army soldiers as his own slaves!"

Zhu Ming was a little speechless. He had set up a stall to give lectures a few days ago. The place was chosen really well, and it was actually right next to Gao Taiwei's house.

Continuing forward, there are many houses on both sides of the Cai River that belong to Cai Jing's party members.

Even Cai Jing himself lives in Nancheng District.

This is because many old and powerful people live in the inner city, and even the shops cannot be moved casually. It doesn't matter in the outer city. Looking around, most of them are civilians, and they have no scruples about forcibly demolishing and building houses.

Ju Ming also went to take a look at Cai Jing’s residence. It covers an area so big!

Moreover, there are two residences in the Cai family, one was built when he first became prime minister, and the other was built when he dismissed the prime minister for the second time. They were all gifts from the emperor, costing more than one million yuan to build, and nearly a thousand houses were demolished.

People in the outer city were often demolished, and people in the inner city were equally miserable.

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty expanded Yanfu Palace and built the northern wall from the north of the imperial city to the inner city. As if this was not enough, they even occupied the inner city wall and built it all the way to the northern part of the outer city. This operation alone doubled the area of ​​the imperial city.

The Shangqing Baolu Palace, which is under construction, is built next to Yanfu Palace. The Wansui Mountain (Genyue) that is about to be built will continue to expand to the northeast.

If these two buildings are completed, they will occupy half of the inner city north of the imperial city.

It's not over yet. After the Long Live Mountain is built, Jinghua Garden will be built, which will occupy the inner city wall and extend the royal garden to the outer city.

After a series of operations, the final area of ​​the royal building can be multiplied by three on the basis of the original imperial city!

Moreover, they are all forcibly demolishing houses in the core areas of Tokyo.

In addition, a large number of Taoist temples are being built, some of which were converted from Buddhist temples, and some of which also demolished private houses.

During the years when Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was in power, at least tens of thousands of Tokyo citizens had their houses demolished and driven out of the city!

How should homeless citizens live outside the city?

No wonder the land of Gyeonggi has been in rebellion for several years, and now there are many thieves, and I am afraid that many of them are Tokyo citizens.

Ju Ming rode a horse and circled half a circle around Yanfu Palace. The scholars from Yangzhou were all silent. They had only heard that the emperor was fatuous, but they did not expect that such cruelty and cruelty, and the large-scale demolition of urban houses had exceeded the imagination of the local gentry.

Ju Ming suddenly asked: "Where do homeless people usually go?"

Chen Dong said: "Go south, east, and west."

"drive!"

Ju Ming whipped his whip violently and rode eastward around the city wall.

Li Hanzhang and Hou Xuan chased him on horseback, but the rest had no horses and continued to wander around the city.

After a while, we rushed to Niuxing Street, where livestock is sold. Walking out of Xincaomen along the street, we arrived at the residential area outside the city. There was still nothing unusual here.

After crossing the moat, there were fewer pedestrians, and Ju Ming started to beat his horse and run wildly.

Li Hanzhang probably guessed what he wanted to see and shouted loudly: "Go to the southeast!"

Ju Ming reined in his horse and turned to the southeast, quickly running to the Cao River.

At a glance, there are shacks everywhere on both sides of the Cao River.

The young men and women living here have to work part-time in and outside the city during the day. Once they cannot find a job, the whole family will go hungry.

There are not many elderly people and they cannot withstand the heavy snowstorms of the past two years.

Ju Ming led his horse into the shack area and found that most of them were half-grown children staying at home to look after their younger siblings.

Suddenly I saw a rich man coming with his servants.

He was followed by a fang man, and every time he went to a shack, he would lead the rich man in to take a look.

Ju Ming followed silently, and saw the rich man leading a young girl out and ordering her to stand outside the house and spin around in circles, and then checked to see if her teeth were missing.

The rich man was very satisfied and said, "I want this."

"Fifty strings." Yaren said.

The rich man said: "It's too expensive. When I come to Tokyo this time, I want to buy two maids to go back to."

The tooth man said: "If you buy two girls, it will be enough to combine them with ninety strings."

After the two parties finalized the sale, Yaren went to the girl's parents and drew up an employment contract and signed it on the spot.

In the late Northern Song Dynasty, lifetime sales were no longer allowed. Contracts were limited to ten years at most. Failure to grant freedom after the expiration date would lead to lawsuits. If it is resold during this period, the period will be calculated based on the initial sale.

But in actual practice, repayments are often overdue, because there are many lawsuits over this matter.

Hou Xuan walked up behind Ju Ming and said, "Since the government started building construction projects, the price of slaves has dropped. In the past, this kind of girl was worth at least sixty guan, but now you can buy one for thirty or forty guan."

"Didn't you say that the imperial court restricted the keeping of private slaves?" Zhu Ming asked.

Hou Xuan explained: "The imperial court only forbids the signing of sales contracts. When did it restrict the keeping of private slaves? The palace took the lead in buying slaves. Many maids were bought with money. They were released after the contract expired, or they were not released at all. Also, the number of official slaves is gradually decreasing, and when officials commit crimes, their female family members are no longer used as official slaves."

The royal family of the Northern Song Dynasty really took the lead in buying and selling women.

Zhang Rong, a capital official during the Song Shenzong period, was fined and had his salary suspended. He was unable to survive due to lack of money and food, so he sold his daughter into the palace. Later, when he went to court, he asked to redeem his daughter in front of all the ministers, which made Song Shenzong very embarrassed.

Wang Anshi did not keep concubines. Song Shenzong learned of the situation and immediately called the eunuch and gave him three thousand guan of money to help Wang Anshi buy two concubines.

In fact, Wang Anshi had a concubine, and his wife took the initiative to buy her.

This concubine claimed that her husband was a military general. The ship capsized while escorting military supplies. The family had exhausted all their wealth and could not afford compensation, so they had to sell their wives and concubines to the court to pay off the debt. Wang Anshi felt sorry for her and returned the concubine to her original husband.

The price for a young, beautiful and skilled woman is very expensive, often costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Even buying a nanny in Tokyo costs more than 30 guan.

Women can sell and men can buy.

Men are mainly bought to serve as servants, especially during wars. When rich families cannot survive the turn of servants, they hire poor men to serve as servants.

It's said to be employment, but it's actually money to buy one's life!

Tokyo as a whole is the largest population trading market in the country.

It seems to be an employment system, but the powerful family refuses to release her after the deadline. Do the parents of the maid dare to file a complaint?

"In the middle and lower households of Kyoto, no male is born. Whenever a girl is born, she cherishes her like a jewel."

This sentence seems beautiful, and it seems that the people of Tokyo love their daughters more, but there is something else behind it:

"As soon as they grow up, they are taught arts and crafts according to their qualifications, and they are used by the scholar-bureaucrats to gather and entertain people. They have different names, such as those around them, those who are capable, those who have merit and demerits, those who work with needlework, those who live in front of the hall, those who play miscellaneous works, and those who clean and wash things. , harp boy, and cook are all on the same level. Among them, the cook is the most despicable, but she can only be used by extremely wealthy families."

What are you raising a daughter for?

Teach them skills and sell them to wealthy families as maids.

Of course, we can't sell it, because the law doesn't allow it. We just let our daughter be hired as a servant.

Ju Ming witnessed a human trafficking with his own eyes. He could not do anything because this kind of transaction was legal.

Ju Ming rode away slowly on horseback, and saw an old man halfway. It was not easy to survive two years of heavy snow. He reined up his horse and asked, "Old man, have you always lived by the Cao River?"

The old man replied: "I used to live in the city, but my house was demolished and turned into Liu Lianfang's house."

Liu Lian Fang is an Lian Fang envoy named Liu, who is responsible for the supervision of clean government.

Hou Xuan said: "This Liu Lianfang is also a member of Cai Jing's party, and his residence is to the north of Taixue."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Liu Lianfang occupied your house, what kind of compensation did you give him?"

The old man replied: "Someone from the palace said that the officials gave the land to Liu Lianfang and only paid two ounces of money to my family."

Haha, for just two dollars, I demolished my house in Tokyo.

Ju Ming rode his horse and looked at the countless shacks on both sides of the Cao River, and couldn't help but sneer: "Tokyo City is indeed one of the most prosperous places in the world!"

(Thanks to the leader of "Some Wipe" for the reward!)