Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Before the dismissed officials started to cause trouble, Jinzhou officials appeared one after another.

Zhu Ming went to Jinzhou and did everything he did.

Inspecting the official affairs halfway and letting the farmers go home to farm is tantamount to clarifying their position: one is to oppose the general judge, and the other is to ask for orders and do business for the people.

Therefore, Chen Yuan's fellow villager and manager Huang Gui joined the army and immediately showed goodwill to Ju Ming.

Then he retried the unjust case, established his prestige, and forced the investigation commander Wu Mao to stand in line. Nearly twenty officials were brought to justice.

As a result, the state government officials were shocked. Fan Zhun, the governor of the right capital, watched the opportunity and showed his obedience. Zhu Ming immediately promoted and appointed the government officials.

After taking control of some government officials, he took advantage of the situation to close down the city affairs and completely fell out with Tongsuan publicly.

By this time, it was time for the thoughtful officials to take sides.

Those who come to report their work in person must of course seek refuge and follow Governor Zhu from now on.

Asking subordinates to report work means that the two are not helping each other, and no one wants to offend. They can just eat together and wait for death.

Not even the officials were sent here, so it was obvious that he was the judge of Li Daochong.

An Ju, the deputy envoy of Jinzhou Tuanlian, came to the Huangtang of the state government office to meet with the prefect on the day when the city's Yiwu was sealed up to discuss the matter of annihilating the bandits in the mountains.

It doesn't matter when to suppress bandits, showing attitude is the key.

In the entire Jinzhou, apart from Ju Ming, only An Ju was a court official. He seems to be of high rank, but his actual power is not as good as joining the judiciary and joining the army. This man was demoted to the mountainous area. He will not be able to return to the center until Cai Jing is defeated.

In this case, why not make good friends with Ju Ming?

Two officials from the state government and various Cao Cao came in person, and one was sent by their subordinate officials.

The principal of the state school, Chen Yu, and the scholar Cao Yuhongxu even came together to discuss with Ju Ming the state examination this fall.

Chen Yu first prefaced the friendship of the same year: "Donghua Gate roll call, the prefect riding his horse across the street, the people really welcomed him at that time. Countless people in Tokyo city all admired the handsomeness of the prefect!"

"Where, where." Ju Ming smiled modestly.

Chen Yu then said to Hong Xu: "I was shocked when I heard that the prefect responded to the imperial poem at the wedding banquet. I was sitting at the back and could only silently admire the prefect's grace."

Hong Xu sighed: "I wish I could see it with my own eyes."

The two of them sang together and flattered Ju Ming like crazy.

In the years after Cai Jinggang restored the Sanshe method, the Jinshi first conferred the title of prefectural school principal, who was very popular and promoted very quickly.

Now the situation is bad. Once the state school principal is appointed for the first time, he will be on the bench for several years.

Chen Yu is from southern Anhui and his idea is very simple. Since Ju Ming suppressed Tong San and he could not be promoted in the short term, why not turn to Ju Ming completely and take advantage of his career opportunities ten years later?

Hong Xu is similar. The secretarial officials are also small and transparent. Some secretarial officials do not even need to be a Jinshi. He was not qualified to curry favor with traitors in the court, but he was just right to curry favor with the prefect.

After a meal of flattery, Hong Xu clarified his thoughts: "There will be a state examination this autumn. As a rule, the general judge should preside over the examination, but the magistrate can also preside over the examination. The prefect has learned a lot, so why not preside over the examination himself?"

Chen Yu cupped his hands and said, "Hong Shipu and I both support the prefect in taking charge of the state examination."

Ju Ming was too lazy to pretend, and immediately smiled and said: "Since the two of you have been kindly invited, it is not convenient for me to refuse. What should I do if I seize the right to be the examiner?"

Hong Xu said: "The prefect just waits patiently."

Chen Yu also said: "I have made arrangements with Hong Shifu."

What arrangements can be made?

When they organized the exam, they did not notify Li Daochong. All exam work was reported to Ju Ming. Over and over again, Li Daochong was excluded. As long as Zhizhou was embarrassed, it would be too easy to seize the right to examine the general judge.

That's how politics is played. As long as you can open up the situation, more and more people will actively vote for you, and they will even help you seize classes and seize power.

Hong Xu said: "One thing must be said, please support the prefect. Li Dafan has financial power. If he is not allowed to take charge of the examination, I am afraid that the money for organizing the state examination will be withheld."

"How much does it cost?" Zhu Ming asked.

Hong Xu replied: "In the past, for a state examination, including the deer singing banquet, you had to get five to six hundred guan."

Ju Ming asked: "Can two hundred guan be done?"

Hong Xu thought for a while: "It's just enough if you use it sparingly."

"I'll give you two hundred and fifty guan." Zhu Ming gave 50 guan as a favor, so that the corresponding officials would not be busy in vain.

Now that he has money, he first deducts the gold for the external affairs, and then deducts the goods for the commercial affairs. Of course, he will not spit out the fat he has eaten. As for whether it was a violation of regulations, Li Daocheng went to impeach him.

Ju Ming left the two of them to eat, and made an appointment to ask them to bring their family members, and Zheng Yuanyi would make friends with their wives.

After having dinner and chatting for a while, Ju Ming personally sent the two of them out of the back house.

"Which official family member have you been able to chat with the most these days?" Zhu Ming asked casually.

Zheng Yuanyi thought carefully and said: "Ms. Yuan from the Gongcao family is the most friendly with me. But she is too flattering and flattering. If you think about it carefully, she seems to be hypocritical and unable to be sincere."

Zhu Ming couldn't help laughing: "My wife has grown so much that she actually knows that others are flattering her."

Zheng Yuanyi said: "My husband taught me well, I remember it all." He added, "Mrs. Xu, who is not a wealthy woman, even though she occasionally caters to her, she is the most sincere. But she speaks unabashedly and says anything. He also said that he didn’t like Jinzhou, it was too poor and far inferior to Jiangnan, and he regretted marrying Qian Baojia.”

"Haha," Zhu Ming could imagine what kind of character that woman was. "Qian Bijia's wife, Mrs. Xu, is probably from a wealthy family. She is a rich girl who came to Jinzhou with her husband to suffer, and she has no power to accept others. Roll your eyes. How can you feel so happy?"

Zheng Yuanyi said: "Mrs. Xu also gave me a pearl flower. It was made of gold inlaid with pearls. The craftsmanship is also very good. I am afraid it is worth dozens of coins. I thought it was too valuable and refused to accept it, but she forced it over, so I had to I gave her a twenty-gang gold hairpin in return. That gold hairpin is already my most expensive jewelry."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Where are the Huang Gui and Wu Mao families?"

Zheng Yuanyi said: "The wife of Mr. Huang's family is not of high birth, but she is well-educated and courteous, and her words and deeds are very measured. But she doesn't speak much, and she always feels that there is a gap, perhaps because she is not too familiar with her. Wu Zhishi did not take his wife with him When I came to Jinzhou, I only brought one concubine. I didn't like that concubine, her behavior was too rude. The maid next to her was scolded by her in front of many officials because she accidentally spilled tea. She He is harsh to the maids but yet he flatters us."

Zhu Ming took Zheng Yuanyi for a walk, feeling quite happy. She could finally observe people, unlike before where she was confused about everything.

Now that the situation is very good, even the right to examine the judges will be snatched away by him.

It's the drought in Jinzhou that gives Ju Ming a headache.

From the beginning of spring to the present, there have been only a few sporadic light rains across the five counties of Jinzhou, so a poor summer grain harvest is a certainty.

As a prefect, you have to make plans in advance.

The state government provided some money and asked the merchants to take action and go south to buy grain in advance. Part of it is used to stabilize rice prices, and part of it is used to provide work-for-relief.

When the time comes, Li Daochong will have to be forced to open Changping Granary. It is unclear how much grain is left in the granary.

"My lord, Su Zhixin is back." Bai Sheng came to report.

Zhu Ming led Zheng Yuanyi back to the pavilion: "Bring him here."

When passing through Hanzhong, I approached the prefect of Xingyuan to ask for help from several families of smelters and blacksmiths. This Su Zhixin was a blacksmith. He had seen others looking for iron ore, and was assigned by Ju Ming to be responsible for the prospecting.

"The common people have seen your husband!" Su Zhixin saluted respectfully.

Ju Ming smiled and said, "Sit down and talk."

Su Zhixin sat carefully on the stone bench: "I took the iron smelters and blacksmiths and walked in the mountains for more than a month. We went to the mountains to the south and north of the Han River. There are a lot of iron ores here, and Iron Hat discovered several places. .”

"Iron Cap" is the remaining part of sulfide deposits in the surface oxidation zone, mainly composed of limonite, goethite, hydrohematite and other materials.

You can tell at a glance that this thing is very convenient for prospecting.

Ju Ming asked: “Where is the best place?”

Su Zhixin said: "There is a ravine more than ten miles away in the north, where the iron ore is the richest. I also asked the local people that although big ships cannot go there, small boats can still go there as long as there is no drought. There are also dense trees nearby. , and there are bamboo forests, so it’s convenient to burn charcoal on the spot.”

Ju Ming asked again: "Are there many people there?"

Su Zhixin said: "There is only one village, with dozens of families living in it, estimated to have a population of two to three hundred. The village is very poor, with only some paddy fields by the river, and there was a spring drought this year."

Ju Ming said to Bai Sheng: "You and Liu Shiren go and buy that mountain range. First build a charcoal farm and recruit villagers to be charcoal burners. Don't force them. If there are not enough charcoal burners, buy them from the city. Recruit the poor over there.”

"Yes!" Bai Sheng accepted the order.

Zhu Ming murmured in his heart, why hasn't Shi Yuangong, that magician, hired the blacksmith yet?

Ju Ming then said to Su Zhixin: "You are responsible for selecting the location of the smelting site and determining where to build the furnace."

"I've written it down." Su Zhixin responded quickly.

Ju Ming asked again: "You have traveled to many places. Are there any big iron smelting yards in Jinzhou?"

Su Zhixin said: "Compared with Xingyuan Prefecture, it is not too big. The mountains here are full of iron ore, and there are many small iron smelting yards. They can simply smelt pig iron and sell it to the blacksmith shops in the city and grass market. Just There are even few people smelting wrought iron. I heard that only one family in Xicheng County can smelt wrought iron."

This situation is caused by many reasons.

First of all, transportation is inconvenient, and the state capital near Jinzhou is rich in iron ore. Jinzhou's ironware, including transportation costs (especially private card tax), is not competitive enough when shipped to other places, so it can only be sold locally.

Secondly, the exploitation was too heavy, and all the businessmen had to muddle along without the motivation to expand production or improve technology. Anyway, it was enough to make a little money.

Ju Ming's mining of iron required the approval of Jinzhou Changping Division, but Li Daochong took this position concurrently.

Alas, I'm afraid I have to collect it privately, and Li Daochong will definitely not give me a legal license.

After thinking about it, Zhu Ming thought of Zeng Xiaoduan.

I helped Zeng Xiaoduan overturn the unjust case, and I could ask him to recommend an honest person who would appear to be the boss of the mine. Ju Ming does not need to come forward himself, let honest people quietly apply for licenses and obtain legal mining rights.