Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Faced with such a situation, what should the scholars do?

Ju Ming couldn't say it, and he didn't dare to say it, so everyone took their time and guessed. He just provides psychological guidance, and everyone can have different understandings.

The scholars stayed in Daming Village for a few days, then left one after another and rushed home to celebrate the winter solstice.

Ling Guxu stood on the bow of the boat, looking at the river in silence.

Ju Ming watched them leave without saying a word.

Bai Qi tilted his head and asked, "What are you thinking about, brother?"

"It's a little thing." Zhu Ming smiled and patted Bai Qi on the head.

According to the information obtained from the Ministry of Household Affairs, the financial expenditure of the Song Dynasty has exploded.

Just talking about official salaries and soldiers' military pay, Zhao Kuangyin's salary at that time was 1.5 million yuan per year. During Wang Anshi's reform period, the number had soared to 3 million yuan. After Yuanfeng's restructuring, officials' salaries increased, soaring to more than 4 million yuan.

After Song Huizong succeeded to the throne, his salary and military pay reached 6 million yuan.

Now, it’s close to 10 million!

This is only the annual salary and military pay, and does not include other military expenditures, not even military rations.

Huizong of the Song Dynasty carried out a large-scale construction project, and no one could figure out how much it would cost. Anyway, after the construction is completed, it will cover an area of ​​about 750 acres, with mountain peaks built from flat land, with the highest point more than 150 meters. There are countless pavilions, pavilions, strange stones, flowers and plants, and hundreds of thousands of people have been employed before and after. It is also divided into two mountains, which are fed by river water.

With this approach, when Song Huizong wanted to redeem Yanjing, the Jin people only offered one million guan, and the Song Dynasty court could not collect the cash, so it had to use various materials to pay the bill.

Ju Ming took Bai Qi home and thought about a very important matter.

During the Fang La uprising, he also raised troops in Hanzhong. How much financial pressure would it put on the court if he completely occupied Sichuan?

After much calculation, I found that there was no way to calculate it.

Even if Ju Ming inquired about some data from the Ministry of Household Affairs, he had no idea what the annual income of the imperial court was.

For example, in history, after Fangla was pacified, the imperial court was extremely short of money, so it launched a levy to make money. That is to say, among various commercial taxes, an extra 20 yuan is levied each time. With this alone, more than three times the land tax can be collected.

By squeezing, it seems that taxes can be squeezed out.

When Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty crossed the Yangtze River, the annual income of the three southeastern districts (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui south of the Yangtze River, and the north of Poyang Lake) was less than 10 million yuan. Only thirty years later, the annual income in Southeast China increased to more than 65 million yuan. How did Zhao Gou increase taxes six times without forcing the people to rebel?

The Song Dynasty's tax collection ability was simply a mystery.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan's financial contribution was more than that of the southeastern region, about 15 million yuan (including local interception)! Tea and salt are the main sources of tax revenue in Sichuan.

Ju Ming threw the messy account into a brazier and burned it, feeling that he could really coordinate Fangla's uprising.

Southeast and Sichuan rebelled together and could blow up the Song Dynasty's finances!

So what if the Western Army is awesome?

As long as they take advantage of the mountains and rivers to defend for a year, the soldiers of the Western Army may not even have enough food and salary.

But if you rebel in advance, "justice" will be lacking.

This so-called justice refers to mainstream public opinion. Everyone knows that the emperor appreciates the Zhu family and his son. Their rebellion is a form of repaying kindness with hatred, and they will instantly be stigmatized as "disloyal and unbelievable" and "ungrateful".

If Jingkang rebels later, it will be much more logical.

Ju Ming picked up his writing brush and began to write a letter to his father, using pinyin throughout the text, to discuss the timing of the rebellion. Even if you ignore time, you still have to consider "justice." The father and son have received too much favor now, and it is time to anger the emperor.

Smoldering Cai Jing would not offend the emperor, and Song Huizong was happy for someone to do so.

You have to spray Zhu Meng, spray flowers and Shi Gang, and advise the emperor not to build Genyue and not to engage in various civil engineering projects. This will definitely make the emperor unhappy. It would be best for both father and son to be demoted together!

The more miserable the encounter, the better. It can not only win the sympathy of the world, but also earn the reputation of praying for the people.

"What's this word?" Bai Qi looked at the pinyin.

Ju Ming smiled and said: "Book of Heaven."

Bai Qi asked: "Brother, can I learn the Book of Heaven?"

"I will teach you this after you improve your knowledge." Ju Ming said perfunctorily.

"Oh." Bai Qi stopped dwelling on the matter and continued to watch Ju Ming write the heavenly book with curious eyes.

After writing a letter, Ju Ming asked: "Do you want to practice martial arts?"

Bai Qi shook his head: "My mother-in-law asked me to study hard and become an official in the imperial examination when I grow up."

Zhu Ming said: "From now on, when my mother-in-law asks Sanshu Zhang about martial arts, she will say that the world will be in chaos and only by practicing martial arts can we defend ourselves."

"Okay." Bai Qi was very happy. What child doesn't like to dance with swords and sticks?

In the following days, Ju Ming read books and practiced martial arts every day.

The book he read was called "Martial Arts General Essentials". It was difficult to get, so he got a set through his father.

Zhang Guangdao, Li Bao, Zhang Boring, Deng Xia, and Bai Sheng who returned to the village all followed him. Deng Chun followed Shi Yuangong to recruit iron smelters, and he wanted to learn from him when he came back.

The papers that I had not read yet were given to Liu Shiren for copying.

Liu Shiren is the bankrupt Liu Jiazi. He has been recruited by Ju Ming as a writing secretary. He will follow him to Jinzhou to take up the post after the spring.

They are all personal followers, and the court not only allows them, but also sets a quota for them, and the court helps pay their salaries every month.

What was forbidden in the Song Dynasty was the private employment of staff, and the following of staff was never the same. For example, masters in the Ming and Qing Dynasties could intervene in government affairs, participate in settling cases, and take charge of documents and account books, which was absolutely not allowed in the Song Dynasty.

You also need to read books when practicing martial arts. You borrow the martial arts secret books from the Zhang family and practice the techniques according to the records in the book.

It was a mild winter this year, and it didn’t snow until almost the Chinese New Year.

Moreover, the temperature suddenly dropped sharply, and there was heavy snow all over the north. Even the Jianghuai area started to snow.

…

Yingzhou (Fuyang).

Yang Zhi looked at the flying snow in the sky and frowned.

Twelve of their officers sworn sworn brothers and went south, and were assigned to different prefectures and counties to transport flowers and stones.

Yang Zhi and Sun Li's missions were very close to each other, so they made an appointment to go on the road together.

Yingzhou belongs to Jingbei North Road. The situation here is very similar to Jingdong Road. It has also been sucked by Tokyo for a long time. In recent years, there have been more and more thieves.

The Huashi Gang escorted by Yang Zhi only contained a few boats, and they were not strange stones. After the civilian husbands carried the lacquer, wood and other items to the boat, Yang Zhi took the boat to escort the goods northward along the Yingshui River.

Apart from the boatmen, there were only twenty or thirty garbage soldiers left. He had to wait for Sun Li to come and go together to avoid being robbed by water bandits along the way.

"Why is there no meat today?" Yang Zhi asked the postman.

The postman said: "The roads are blocked by heavy snow, and the food is almost gone. Where can we have meat to eat? If the county doesn't send food, there's nothing we can do."

After a few days, the post house no longer provided food.

Yang Zhi could only eat at a restaurant outside the city with the Xiang army escorting the ship, and it was getting more and more expensive because of the heavy snow.

When he went south, he had almost used up all his travel expenses.

Now that he was so short of money, he didn't even have money to eat, so he looked at the sword on his waist.

This is the ancestral hundred-refined steel sword.

When the heavy snow stopped, Yang Zhi went to the city to sell knives. The situation was not the same as in "Water Margin".

He stood there from morning to evening, and finally someone came to buy a knife.

It was a young gangster, and Yang Zhi didn't even bother to ask for a price. He couldn't afford it when he saw it. The gangster felt that he had been slighted, cursed and walked away, and soon called a group of accomplices to stand next to Yang Zhi and ridicule him.

The two sides turned from a quarrel to a push. The gangsters tried to grab the knife, but Yang Zhi killed one of them in desperation.

The rest of the gangsters dispersed and rushed to the county government office to report to the officials.

Throughout the Spring Festival, Yang Zhi was imprisoned. First he was sent to the county jail, and then transferred to the state jail. He waited until the Lantern Festival holiday was over and the manager joined the army to try his case.

Murder must be paid with life. Thinking that Yang Zhi was responsible for escorting Hua Shigang to commit crimes, the manager joined the army and was given a lighter sentence. He was only sent to Weizhou (Xinxiang and Hebi areas).

This punishment is really light and the distribution is too close.

Only then did Sun Li escort Hua Shigang over, and happened to meet Yang Zhi who was about to board the ship (Yang Zhi had to carry the shackles to continue escorting Hua Shigang).

Both of them were delinquent, but the crime would not lead to death, and at most they would not be able to serve as officers.

Sun Li was shocked: "What crime did eldest brother commit?"

Yang Zhi said: "I've been waiting for you for a long time and you didn't come. I waited until it started snowing and couldn't leave. I ran out of money and the inn didn't provide food, so I thought about selling knives for money. I argued with others and ended up getting killed. I went back to Beijing to find him. Mr. Zhu, see if you can exempt me from this crime."

The two of them escorted Hua Shigang to Tokyo. They went to hand in errands first, and Sun Li went to inform his sworn brothers.

Sun Li said: "Brother Yang is waiting for me, otherwise he will leave before it snows. I am going to ask Mr. Zhu Da. If he refuses to help, I will kill the soldiers who sent him to the defense and rescue Brother Yang from Luocao."

"Count me in," Li Jinyi said. "It's not interesting to stay in the capital. I'll be ordered around by those officials. I worked so hard to make a trip to Huashi Gang, but I didn't make half a penny. Instead, I paid several bucks myself. In this world, , even being an officer would be unlucky, and he would just live happily as a robber."

Lin Chong said: "There are twelve of us. Since we are sworn brothers, Brother Yang's business is my business. If Mr. Zhu doesn't help, I will rob the prisoners and Luocao!"

The others all agreed, but no one even flinched.

Just for the sake of their sworn loyalty, they had to abandon their families and careers to rescue Yang Zhi from becoming a robber.

After some discussion, they went to Zhu Guoxiang's residence together, claiming to be Ju Ming's old acquaintance and asking to see Zhu Guoxiang on important matters.

Zhu Guoxiang was left in the palace by the emperor and waited for two days before finally seeing a carriage coming back.

Eleven people stopped the driver and knelt down, shouting: "Ms. Zhu, help!"

Shi Biao immediately picked up his weapon and warned Zhu Guoxiang. He opened the curtain and asked, "Who are you?"

Sun Li said: "My name is Sun Li, and these are my sworn brothers Li Jinyi, Lin Chong, Hua Rong, Chai Jin, Guan Sheng... Together with brother Yang Zhi, I have known Zhu Tanhua for a long time. Zhu Tanhua also said that when we met He will definitely help in difficult situations. Brother Yang accidentally killed someone, and there is nothing we can do. Please help Mr. Zhu to save him."

Zhu Guoxiang's whole body went numb when he heard these names. He stared at everyone like a giant panda.

After a long time, Zhu Guoxiang said: "Let's talk after we go in."

"Thank you sir!" The eleven people were overjoyed when they heard this.