Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Xunyang County, Luhe (Lvhe) Pu.

The Lu River flows from the mountains in the south to the north and merges into the Han River. It also forms a "U" shaped bay and alluvializes a large area of ​​arable land. Such farming conditions are rare in the mountainous Jinzhou.

Further west, Chonghe (Bahe) also flows into the Hanjiang River, only 500 meters away from the mouth of the Luhe River.

Including the tributaries of the Chonghe River, it is equivalent to the convergence of four rivers. Setting up a toll station is very promising.

But the official tax office used to have only one teahouse. After Cai Jing reformed the tea law three times, even the tea market was abolished. Merchants could buy and sell tea with a tea guide, and no longer had to go through the official intermediary channels of the tea market.

The real legal toll station is in Xunyang County, fifteen miles downstream!

Qian Chen dragged his fat body ashore. He was out of breath after just a few steps. He pointed at the private railing and asked, "Who is in charge here?"

An official came quickly and said, "May I ask what your official business is?"

Qian Chen took out his official badge, and then took out the official document issued by the governor: "The prefect has an order to ban all private fences in the five counties of Jinzhou. Why haven't the fence heads here been removed yet?"

The tax collector smiled and said: "I'd like to teach you, sir, that we don't tax passing ships, but only tax the grass market shops in Luhepu."

Qian Chen's face turned dark and he pointed at a few ships docked by the river: "Do you think I'm a fool? What are those ships doing?"

The official explained: "Those merchant ships are all docking for supplies."

"Check the accounts!"

Qian Chen was too lazy to listen to his excuses.

Afraid that the fat man would be beaten when he went out, Ju Ming sent Zhang Bor and Li Bao to follow him. With more than twenty rural soldiers, they rushed into the toll station and ordered all tax collectors not to move around at will.

Qian Chen found an account book with no loopholes. Sure enough, he only collected taxes from shops in the town.

There are policies and measures to counter.

The officials of Xunyang County did not openly disobey the Zhizhou's orders, at least on the surface they did enough.

Qian Chen asked the tax collector to open the warehouse. He saw two boxes full of copper coins, as well as many herbal medicines, leather goods and other physical objects. He immediately sneered and said: "Only two dozen shops in the grass market, how can you collect so much tax? What a fool." Here! Search, dig down and dig three feet to find out, there must be a set of private accounts!"

I searched the private accounts for a long time but couldn't find it.

Zhang Bor reminded: "You can search those merchant ships."

Qian Chen's eyes lit up and he immediately ordered: "Go and inspect the merchant ships to see if there are any ships transporting tea."

Not long after, the village soldiers came back and reported: "There are two tea ships, and they are full of this year's wax tea and early spring tea."

"Bring the captain here!" Qian Chen said.

The captain of the ship was a middle-aged tea merchant. When he saw Qian Chen, he quickly bowed and prostrated.

Qian Chen asked: "Can you be stopped to collect taxes?"

The tea merchant did not dare to speak nonsense for fear of being retaliated by the officials: "There is no tax here."

Qian Chen smiled and asked, "Where are you from?"

The tea merchant replied: "The grass-roots people come from the Guanghua Army and have tea."

Qian Chen said: "As a businessman from other places, I don't know that the prefect of this state is investigating the taxation of private businesses. Prime Minister Cai changed the tea law three times, and merchants were led to sell tea. If they passed through the prefectures and counties, they were intercepted and taxed by the local government. If they were blocked for one day, they would be punished with six sticks. 10. If you block for two days, you will be given a second grade. If you block for three days, you will be imprisoned for one year. If you block for six days, you will be imprisoned for two years. Officials who collect taxes privately will be suspended from their posts and will never be used. If anyone receives money, it will be considered stolen money. Deal with it, the official will be sent to Pei Qianli! As a tea merchant, if you conceal it and don’t report it, you can be punished as well!"

The above punishments were formulated by Cai Jing himself.

The tea-horse method is still used on the Sichuan Gorge and Guangnan roads. The rest of the roads use the tea method.

In the past ten years, Cai Jing has revised the tea introduction method three times, constantly filling in various loopholes. In order to prevent local governments from collecting tea taxes indiscriminately and delaying the central government's ability to collect money, the punishment was extremely severe.

The tea merchant was shocked and confused. He looked at Qian Chen and then at the tax collector, wondering what to do.

Qian Chen threatened: "Even the people and the boats will be detained. If it is found that there are tax collectors who are receiving money privately, the tax collectors and merchants will be assassinated thousands of miles away. The laws made by Cai Xiang are excellent, and local officials should strictly implement them."

"My lord, spare your life!" The tea merchant was so frightened that he knelt down.

He just came to buy tea and transport it to other places. Paying extra taxes was a last resort. Being exiled thousands of miles away would be a disaster.

When the tea merchant knelt down, the expressions of the tax collectors changed drastically.

Qian Chen added: "If anyone reports the crime, he will be exempted from guilt."

"I want to report it!"

"I want to report it too!"

The little minions among the tax collectors started shouting. They just drank some soup. It was nonsense to be exiled thousands of miles for a few small coins.

A few minutes later, a set of private accounts with arbitrary tax collection was found from the cracks in the wall.

Qian Chen withdrew the account book and said to the official: "Take your people back and explain it to the officials in Xunyang County. This first offense can be forgiven. If you commit it again, the new and old accounts will be settled together! Even the county magistrate will do the same. Impeached. Hehe, you have violated Prime Minister Cai’s decree."

It's okay to set up column heads and collect taxes in towns, but it's not okay to collect taxes only from shops that take the opportunity to intercept passing business trips.

Of course, the column heads will be retained, but the tax collectors don’t need so many, so the county government officials will eliminate them themselves.

"Seize the taxes and take them all away!" Qian Chen issued another order.

People can be let go, but the money must be kept.

Although Cai Jing's tea introduction law has strict regulations, the more remote the place, the more serious the phenomenon of arbitrary tea tax collection.

Take Chuanxia Fourth Road as an example. Chengdu Fu Road, Zizhou Road, and Lizhou Road implement the Tea Horse Method, while Kuizhou Road implements the Tea Yin Method.

Kuizhou Road has complex terrain, is poor and remote, and is a special case among the four Chuanxia Roads. So local officials started to act randomly and levied tolls on tea without permission. A shipload of tea was shipped out from Kuizhou Road. The tax was already several times the price of tea. In a few years, the local tea industry was destroyed, and only the remaining tea gardens were able to survive. The Lord is engaged in smuggling.

Qian Chen said to the tea merchant again: "Go back and tell the tea merchants in Guanghua Army that there will no longer be private tea classes in Jinzhou, so that they can come to Jinzhou to do business with peace of mind. If they encounter private tea classes, they can go to Jinzhou Complain to the Yamen!"

"Yes!" The tea merchant was surprised and half-convinced.

If it's true, it's great, and they can make more money in the future.

Before the matter was dealt with here, an official ship arrived.

Zuo Zhike Mei Kan, who was spanked, took several government officials to escort the boat, while Yang Pu sat on the boat to guard the money.

"Don't worry about the money, the prefect has new assignments." Mei Kan handed over a letter.

After Qian Chen read the letter, he was inexplicably moved: "How much the prefect trusts me!"

Most of the gold seized from Heng's Office and the copper coins seized from City's Yi were given to Qian Chen to take to the south to pre-purchase grain.

This is a hard job, requiring long distance travel, but Qian Chen is particularly satisfied. He thinks this is a kind of trust.

The errand of inspecting the five counties was handed over to Mei Kan, with Li Bao accompanying him to supervise. This is also a test for Mei Kan. This person is the head of the government officials and can be reused if he handles things properly. If something goes wrong, he just quits and asks Wang Jia to take over his post.

The next day, Qian Chen changed ships and set off. Zhang Boring led the soldiers to accompany him to protect the grain purchases from being robbed.

These more than twenty rural soldiers were all recommended by Wang Jia, and some of them even served as bandits. The bows and arrows in the Jinzhou arsenal are no longer useful, so they are all equipped with hunting bows from hunters in the mountains.

It was a homemade composite bow made of bamboo and wood. It had no horns, the bow glue was made from animal skins, and wild animal sinews replaced the beef tendons. The effective range was less than twenty meters. And it doesn’t last long and will often crack within one or two years.

However, it is enough to deal with thieves!

The official ship was halfway through, probably located in the eastern part of Baihe County in later generations. During the Northern Song Dynasty, this was the border area between Jinzhou and Junzhou, surrounded by mountains in all directions, and the government's control was extremely weak.

While they were docking in the evening, more than ten small boats suddenly emerged from the tributaries of the Han River.

An official ship often means that there is wealth, and there is only one ship traveling alone, so it is strange that it is not targeted by bandits.

"The country soldiers are in position!" Zhang Bor shouted.

Qian Chen was trembling with fear, but he came out boldly: "Can Brother Zhang Xian hold on?"

Zhang Boring said: "Don't drive, please go into the warehouse and wait for a while."

Qian Chen quickly ran back. He stayed outside just to cause trouble. It was best to leave the fighting to professionals.

Zhang Bor's battle formation skills are not good, but his single-on-one skills are quite incredible, and he also knows how to command battles.

He asked the boatmen to sail away from the shore immediately, and divided more than 20 country soldiers into groups of two everywhere, and issued an order: "Don't shoot if it's too far away. Shoot when it's closer."

The official ship is large and the small boat is fast.

More than a dozen bandit boats quickly circled around to surround the official ship.

Ju Ming's telescope is currently on Zhang Boring.

He observed the enemy's situation through the telescope and carefully looked for the bandits who gave orders. The target was quickly identified. There was a bandit half squatting on the bow of the boat, holding a knife in his right hand, making various movements with his left hand, and holding a bamboo whistle in his mouth.

I saw the thief's head circling the side of the official ship. Zhang Bor also ran over, took out his bow and arrows and planned to kill him - what he had in his hand was not a hunting bow, but a birch bow brought from Puzhou.

"Uh-huh!!!"

The bamboo whistle blew, and the bandits threw hooks and ropes at the official ships, and even shot arrows with little power.

The village soldiers waited from a high position, waiting for the pirate ship to approach, and also used hunting bows to fight back.

"Whoosh!"

Zhang Boring bent his bow and nocked an arrow, aimed it at the thief's head, and shot him over with one arrow.

The distance was less than ten meters. To be on the safe side, Zhang Bor still shot at the chest of the thief leader. How could there be any reason why he could not hit the target?

"The thief is dead!"

Zhang Bor shouted.

The bandits were horrified, and they rowed a boat to retreat while protecting the leader of the bandits whose life and death were unknown. The "main battleship" retreated, and other pirate ships followed suit, leaving only a few floating corpses in the Han River.

After receiving the news, Qian Chen came out again and said with lingering fear: "There was no danger, there was no danger. Fortunately, Brother Zhang Xian escorted him."

Zhang Bor said with a smile: "It's just a few thieves, far worse than the Puzhou thieves."

Qian Chen sighed: "Jinzhou and Junzhou are poor, the world is uneasy, and there are more and more thieves in the mountains."

We will find a place to dock again ahead, rest for the night and continue our journey.

After passing Yunxiang County (Yun County) and Wudang County, we entered the territory of the Guanghua Army. Finally, there were no more thieves here.

Shi Yuangong stayed in Wudang County, which is the capital of Junzhou. He took a large number of iron smelting households, waiting for official ships and merchant ships, and headed to Jinzhou to avoid being robbed by bandits along the way.