Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The gate of Zhouya is very majestic, and through the gate is Yimen.

There are two clerk's offices in Yimen, which are equivalent to the reception rooms of the municipal government. At the same time, various groups of officials were also at the Yimen, waiting for the officials inside to be summoned at any time.

The rooms on both sides of the Yimen are the various departments of the municipal government, including the Qian Hall, the Minister's Treasury, the Military Treasury, the Legal Department, the Demolition Department, the Guest and General Department, the Treasury, the Affairs Room, the Armored Treasury, etc.

After the Yimen is the main hall, the so-called Yamen lobby.

Ju Ming was standing between the Yimen and the main hall at the moment. There were gallery rooms, flower beds, green plants, etc. on both sides.

There is also a pavilion called "Jie Shi Pavilion".

There is a precept stone in the pavilion, engraved with sixteen characters: Er salary, Er Lu, people anoint people. The people below are easy to abuse, but God is hard to bully.

Ju Ming pointed to the ring stone and asked, "Does Yao Kuan think this is true?"

Yao Guangshu raised his hand toward the west and said, "Emperor Taizong's commandments must be observed by officials all over the world from generation to generation."

Ju Ming said: "I heard this commandment from Meng Chang, the pseudo-emperor of Later Shu. At the beginning of his succession to the throne, Meng Chang worked hard to govern, benevolent and caring for the people. After being emperor for a long time, he became arrogant and extravagant, treating the people like dogs and horses. In the end, he was defeated and the country was destroyed. Money Yao Observer can finish the case of the Sun family in one night, but do you still remember these sixteen words of commandment in your heart?"

Yao Guangshu said: "Your salary is your salary, and the people anoint the people. The gentry are also the people. I always remember this."

"Very good, Yao's observation is great!" Zhu Ming laughed angrily.

Too lazy to talk nonsense with this person anymore, Zhu Ming walked through the main hall, came to the door of the public hall, and called: "Here comes someone!"

An official rushed over and said humbly: "Please give me your instructions, prefect."

Ju Ming pointed to the plaque in the public hall: "Turn over the plaque, engrave 'Minzhi Hall' on the back, and hang it up again."

The public hall is a temporary resting place for Zhizhou. You can choose any name you like. Those who like self-cultivation are called Qingxintang, those who like majesty are called Zuoxiaotang, and so on.

I don't know which Puzhou magistrate changed the toilet hall into "Wuyou Hall".

Ju Ming looked very unhappy. He wanted to change his name the first time he saw him. What official position do you want Wuyou to be?

"yes!"

Most of the state government officials are disciples and former officials of the Li family in Puzhou, and the same is true for the civil servants in front of them.

When facing Ju Ming, he was respectful and diligent, and immediately arranged for someone to re-engrav the plaque.

But he soon came to Yimen again, called for a soap official, and whispered: "Go and inform Taigong Li that the magistrate has changed the toilet hall into Minzhi Hall."

Ju Ming's every move is under the surveillance of the Li family in Puzhou.

Further inside is the Huangtang, the main hall of the state government office, which is the daily office space of the magistrate.

Passing through the Huangtang is the real inner house, with pavilions, rockeries, lotus ponds, corridors, pavilions... It's a beautiful garden scenery.

All the slaves of the former magistrate have been taken away or sold, leaving only a few old servants who are responsible for pruning flowers and trees and sweeping.

Although those old servants looked pitiful, Ju Ming did not want to stay. He allowed the Li family to set up spies in the outer yamen, but people with unknown origins were not allowed in the inner yamen. What if there was arson and poisoning?

Ju Ming called Bai Sheng: "Send all these old servants to the almshouse and let the almshouse reserve places for them. You take Yang Pu and hire some maids, gardeners, cooks and firewomen. It is necessary. If he is a person with a clean financial background, he must have at least three neighbors as guarantors.”

"I know how powerful it is!" Bai Sheng did something immediately.

In addition to receiving a double salary, Ju Ming now also has Zhizhou's living allowance (additional money), which is fifteen thousand yuan per month.

There are also ten hectares of professional land. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, there was real land. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, it was occupied by landlords and was often converted into money and distributed.

When he left Beijing to take up his post, he was given eight stones of rice, twelve stones of wheat, eight sheep, and four horses at once. You can receive it in kind or convert it into money.

There are also eight additional followers, and the court is responsible for paying wages. Each follower can receive a monthly salary of two dan.

None of the above is Ju Ming’s normal salary!

In the Song Dynasty, high salaries were used to support honest officials. Although it was useless, honest officials could really live a good life.

Zheng Yuanyi was wandering around the back house with his maid Miaomiao and two female sumo wrestlers. Seeing Ju Ming coming over, she smiled and said, "It's very nice here, but there are no friends to play with."

Zhu Ming said: "Tian Tongpan also brought his family to his appointment. His girl is about the same age as you, so we can go shopping and burn incense together. When the cook comes back, I will invite Tian Tongpan's family to be my guests. Then I can get to know his family." .”

"That's great." Zheng Yuanyi said happily.

Tian Ruyong must be a corrupt official, but for the time being, they can join forces to fight against the Li family in Puzhou.

The two brothers of the Li family are both Cai Jing's confidants. Li Xiaosheng even took charge of the Ministry of Punishment (his brother Li Xiaoshou died of illness not long ago). The more miserable Zhu Ming and Tian Ru made the Li family in Puzhou, the happier Prime Minister Zheng Juzhong would be.

After talking to Zheng Yuanyi for a while, Zhu Ming walked to Huangtang for work.

He asked Sihu to join the army, brought Puzhou's basic information, and then checked the general household registration information.

Puzhou governs Juancheng, Linpu, Fanxian and Leize counties, with a total of more than 64,000 households. Among them, there are more than 39,000 main households and more than 24,000 customers. Customers account for 37.5% of the total households.

The higher the proportion of customers, the more serious the land merger is.

When Si Hu joined the army, he only asked officials to bring him materials from the past ten years. After reading and recording them, Ju Ming went to Hu Cao's archives in person.

Many civil servants followed quietly and hid outside the door to peek.

It is normal for a newly appointed magistrate to check files. But after reading the archives of the past ten years, it seems quite strange to look through the archives from an earlier period.

There was a mountain of information, and it was impossible for Ju Ming to read it carefully. He only asked the officials to find out the annual summary.

Zhu Ming was writing and drawing on the paper, and several officials assisting him couldn't help but look at him curiously. All I could see was a bunch of crooked characters and a cross pattern, with a curve drawn in the upper right corner of the cross pattern.

Putting down the bamboo pen in his hand, Ju Ming looked at the curve and began to analyze it in connection with the history of the Northern Song Dynasty.

During the later period of Zhao Guangyi's reign, the proportion of Puzhou's customers was 27%, and then dropped to about 20%. (This is recuperation.)

Then the war with the Liao Kingdom began, and the proportion of customers began to soar, rising to more than 30%. After the Tanyuan Alliance, the proportion of customers began to decline again, to about 26%. (These fluctuations are mainly due to the destruction of the war and the restoration of stability after the war.)

Then it skyrocketed again, reaching its peak at the beginning of Wang Anshi's reform, reaching a maximum of more than 40%. (This was the long period of stability that began to intensify land annexation.)

From the beginning of Wang Anshi's reform to the Yuanfeng period, the proportion of customers dropped to 24%. (This is the result of Wang Anshi’s reform, which reduced the burden on the people. At the same time, there were also reasons for bandits to cause chaos, killing a large number of landlords, and the land was redistributed.)

But after Song Zhezong succeeded to the throne, the proportion of customers soared again. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, it became like riding a rocket. (After the dividend period of the reform period passed, large households began to annex land again. Song Huizong’s excessive expropriation and expropriation accelerated the speed of annexation.)

In fact, the land annexation situation in Puzhou is relatively light in the entire Jingdong Road.

Huaiyang Jun (Dingtao) in the south is called crazy, accounting for more than 60% of its customers. In other words, more than 60% of the household registrations are dependent people without land.

Followed by Mizhou and Yunzhou, both accounted for more than 50% of customers.

Next, Ju Ming looked at changes in population and number of acres.

Haha, the number of people who need to bear taxes and servitude is increasing, but the total number of acres in the state is constantly decreasing.

At the same time, Ju Ming discovered that Wang Anshi was really awesome. Thirteen years of equal tax on square fields directly doubled the number of acres in Puzhou.

Looking at the destination of Puzhou’s money and grain, one-third is sent to Tokyo and two-thirds is sent to Hebei.

Ju Ming suddenly realized that the reason why there were so many thieves on Jingdong Road was not only because they were sucked by Tokyo, but also because they were dragged down by the Hebei front line. We must support both the capital and the border troops!

For three days, Ju Ming went through the archives and produced a large number of tables and graphs.

Huang Guinian was tired from examining the case, so he took the time to come over and chat with Ju Ming.

Seeing those strange symbols, Huang Yaoshi couldn't help but ask: "What is this word?"

Ju Ming asked rhetorically: "The officials ordered the establishment of arithmetic schools in various states and also published the "Zhu's Arithmetic Classic". Hasn't Brother Deshao read it?"

Huang Guinian shook his head: "I have never read "Zhu Shi Suan Jing"."

Ju Ming did not explain verbally, but wrote the corresponding Chinese characters next to the Arabic numerals.

Huang Guinian compared the Chinese characters with the numbers and gradually became able to understand the tables, and then understood the graphs and curves. He was quite excited and said: "The prefect's method is very wonderful. It can simplify the complex and make it clear at a glance!"

Ju Ming said: "Brother Deshao, please read the notes."

Next to several key data, Ju Ming made textual annotations through state records.

Huang Guinian didn't understand it at first, but after repeatedly comparing data and events, he was horrified and said, "Thieves are coming again!"

Ju Ming said: "Thieves have already begun to swarm, but they have not yet become a phenomenon. All it takes is a natural or man-made disaster, and the number of thieves will inevitably increase sharply, and officials will be killed and the city will be robbed."

The Liangshan Uprising in the novel is actually an artistic processing of the uprisings in Shandong and Hebei in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

Song Jiang's gang is a pioneer and is small in scale, with only a few thousand people in total.

Later, Zhang Wanxian, Gao Tuoshan, Xu Jin and others were added. The total number of the uprising troops of these three people alone exceeded 450,000. There are also Liu Dalang, Jia Jin, Xu Dalang and others, all with a size of about 30,000 to 50,000, and there are many small rebel armies with more than 10,000 people.

The prototype of Tian Hu, who was wiped out by Song Jiang in "Water Margin", was Zhang Di, the leader of the Hebei rebel army. He gathered hundreds of thousands of people and the scale of the uprising was nearly a hundred times that of Song Jiang.

Ju Ming pointed to the curve chart and said: "The higher the proportion of customers, the more serious the land merger. Looking at this curve, when the proportion exceeds 30%, the number of thieves increases. The official record only has three words 'thief'. The proportion If it exceeds 35%, if it suffers from excessive taxes, heavy labor or natural disasters, the official record will become 'thieves are numerous'. The governor and supervisor of Puzhou were kidnapped by thieves, which happened when the customer accounted for more than 40%."

Huang Guinian compared the icons and curves. The more he listened, the more frightened he became. At the same time, he admired Ju Ming so much that he stood up and bowed: "I have learned from you. If I become a local official in the future, I will definitely use the prefect's method to draw tables and maps! "

Ju Ming continued: "The situation in each place is different and cannot be generalized. Places with prosperous industry and commerce can definitely accommodate a higher proportion of customers."

In the past, there was a Laiwu Prison on Jingdong Road, and 80% of the customers there were. Because there are mines and mints there, and the area is small, landless farmers can be transformed into industrial and commercial people.

As for Guangjijun (Dingtao), which accounts for more than 60% of its customers, the reason why there are no thieves is because water transportation is developed there, and goods from Hebei, Jingdong, and Huainan are collected and distributed there. In addition, Guangji Army is also close to Nanjing Yingtianfu (Shangqiu), and official trade is also very prosperous.

Zhu Ming was still counting other data, and Huang Yaoshi took the initiative to help, asking for advice on the meaning of various tables from time to time.

It was getting late, so Zhu Ming stopped work and returned home: "Tomorrow evening, there will be a banquet at home. Brother Deshao can come with his family."

"If the prefect invites you, I will definitely go." Huang Guinian said.