Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chengdu City during the Qin and Han Dynasties was shaped like a turtle and was also called Turtle City.

Chengdu City during the Tang and Song Dynasties was also called Luocheng because it included Turtle City.

According to inaccurate research, the urban population of the Northern Song Dynasty ranked first in Kaifeng, second in Luoyang, and third in Chengdu.

There were still several miles away from the city wall, and Ju Ming could see a large number of houses, and a street market had formed outside the city. Due to the lack of planning, it seemed a little chaotic, but it became orderly after entering the city.

Chengdu's central axis main street is eight meters wide and is entirely paved with floor tiles.

The floor tiles are raised, high in the middle and low on both sides to facilitate drainage. Although the sewers are not as deep as those in Tokyo, they are still more than one meter deep.

The city wall has a circumference of 12 kilometers, a base thickness of 8 meters, a height of 8 meters, and an area of ​​7.3 square kilometers within the city.

Ju Ming looked up at the eight-meter-high city wall and couldn't help curling his lips. This thing must be outsmarted.

Passing through the city center, we soon discovered the city wall. It turned out that Chengdu also had an inner city. Even if the outer city is breached, the inner city can continue to defend.

Wei Yingshi looked at the endless flow of people and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Among the cities I have seen, only Tokyo is more prosperous than Chengdu."

Zhang Boring said: "It is worthy of being a land of abundance, but Luoyang is still more prosperous than Chengdu."

The commercial tax in the Song Dynasty was very interesting. It had a quota, and it was a floating quota.

Taking a county as an example, calculate the county's actual commercial taxes in the first five years (three years at the beginning), take the midpoint of the year-on-year increase in commercial taxes, and take the high number of the annual year-on-year decrease in commercial taxes, and determine this year's tax rate through calculation. New amount of business tax.

This new amount is also the ancestral amount for the next few years, forming a commercial tax standard to judge the official's political performance.

Therefore, the commercial taxes in the Song Dynasty were very stable and rising, unlike those in the Ming Dynasty where they were increasingly collected.

When Ju Ming was in Jinzhou, although the agricultural tax collection was not up to standard, the commercial tax contribution was excessive. After the private sector was banned, the number of merchant ships increased significantly, and the commercial taxes received by the government also increased significantly.

If one were to evaluate political performance by business taxes, Ju Ming would be judged to be an excellent one.

"Song Hui Yao Collection" has been in Xining for ten years and has completely calculated the national commercial tax amount.

If we only look at the commercial tax of a single city, Tokyo ranks first with 400,000 yuan, Hangzhou ranks second with 82,000 yuan, Chuzhou (Huaian) ranks third with 67,800 yuan, and Chengdu ranks fourth with 67,500 yuan.

When talking about the commercial taxes of prefectures, including counties, cities and towns, Kaifeng Prefecture ranks first, Hangzhou Prefecture ranks second (186,000 Guan), and Chengdu Prefecture ranks third (171,000 Guan).

Commercial taxes can generally measure the prosperity of a region. Commercial taxes in a single city in Huai'an are extremely high, which is pushed up by salt transportation. Counting counties, cities and towns, Hangzhou Prefecture and Chengdu Prefecture are better placed.

Fang La disrupted the Hangzhou Prefecture, and if someone else occupied the Chengdu Prefecture... it would not only be a business tax issue, but also land tax and other exorbitant taxes.

…

Some of the entourage brought their families, and Ju Ming asked them to spend a few days in Chengdu.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ju Ming rode out of the city himself to explore the local countryside.

He soon discovered that land annexation near Chengdu was extremely serious, but at the same time it seemed not too serious.

To be serious, the land is mostly occupied by some big surnames.

In addition to the three families of Wang, Fan and Yuwen, the families with the largest land area include Yang, Li, Guo, Zhang, Zhao, Liu, Fang, Du, Goulong, Zhou, Song and other families.

It's not serious, but these families are constantly divided and their land is constantly divided.

The history of these families is so long that they have produced a large number of small landowners and yeoman farmers. Due to the same clan and surname, not only could the main clan not be able to occupy them, but they had to provide help.

The proportion of main households combined with the two phases is actually very high.

No matter how prosperous Chengdu is, it has nothing to do with Ju Ming at the moment. He will stay here for ten days and then move on.

Take a boat all the way down, pass Pengshan to Meizhou, then go west to Yazhou (Ya'an), and finally go over the mountains and ridges to Hanyuan County.

It was late winter and the weather was cold but not snowing.

The name Hanyuan comes from the Liusha River that runs through the county. It was always called Hanshui in ancient times.

Ju Ming arrived in Hanyuan in person, only to find that it was different from what Zhang Gen said.

Han people live in the area north of the Dadu River, bordered by Yazhou to the north, Jiazhou to the east, and barbarian areas to the west and south, and are not surrounded by barbarians.

"This county is too small!" Bai Sheng complained.

Ju Ming smiled and said: "It should be called Zhoucheng."

It is indeed small, but the walls are very high and have been repaired in recent years.

When Ju Ming entered the city, the search was extremely strict, and the official documents he produced were repeatedly checked.

"Your Majesty, please come into the city!" the gatekeeper said respectfully.

The accent is very weird, even weirder than the one from Chengdu Prefecture. Ju Ming can only understand it by guessing.

The city is quite dilapidated and there are few residents.

Zhu Ming first went to the county government office to hand over the job, and then found that the house behind the county government office was very small. Many relatives and family members can only rent houses in the city. Fortunately, there is no shortage of houses and the prices are cheap.

There is no chief register here, only one county captain.

The county captain's name is Chang Qizong. He is a local and a subordinate official. He does not have the title of Jinshi.

The chief of staff called Li Chao and brought a group of officials to see him.

Ju Ming didn't say much. He was very tired from the journey and just wanted to clean the back house and rest.

Zhang Jinping directed the servants to prepare the bedroom first, made the bed and folded the quilt himself, and said to Ju Ming, "My husband, please sleep for a while and get up again when it's time to eat."

"I'm not that delicate, so you can sit down too." Ju Ming patted the bed.

Zhang Jinping said: "I still have to go outside and keep an eye on you."

Ju Ming no longer insisted, took off his coat and lay down. He was woken up to eat in a daze.

The next day, Zhu Ming began to familiarize himself with county affairs, and county captain Chang Qizong and custodian Li Chao were explaining.

Chang Qizong said: "The annual taxes are not enough. The Chengdu Fulu Transportation Department must send some money and grain to make up for the expenses."

This is understandable. A poor place with a small population has to support officials at the state and county levels.

It is impossible to turn over the finances, and all the interceptions are not enough. You have to go to your superiors to ask for money.

"Is there a map of this state?" Ju Ming asked.

Chang Qizong brought the map and introduced: "A few miles south of the county, there is Hanyuan Town. To the north of Hanyuan Town, everyone is Han; from the south of Hanyuan Town to the Dadu River, everyone is familiar with barbarians."

"To the south of the Dadu River, everything is barbaric. There are two barbarians in the forest..."

To explain the administrative divisions of later generations, Lianglin Barbarians are in Xide County, Qiongbu Sichuan Barbarians are in Yuexi County, Fengpa Barbarians are in Dechang County, Baozhai Barbarians are in Mianning County, and Xuhen Barbarians are in Ebian County. These are The main barbarian tribe south of the Dadu River.

To the west of Hanyuan County, there are also five tribes of barbarians and Western Qiang.

Further away there are Fulangman, Baiman, Wumengman, Azongman and so on.

Ju Ming was dizzy looking at the map and asked: "Which barbarians are the strongest?"

Chang Qizong said: "The Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians are the strongest. If the barbarians south of the Dadu River want to do business with the Han people, they must pass through the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians' territory. The Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians often block roads and take the opportunity to collect business taxes. That’s why they are also called ‘Dalu Barbarians’.”

"Are the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians obedient?" Zhu Ming asked.

Chang Qizong said: "They rely on the Han people for business. They are the most obedient among the barbarians, and they often pay tribute to the imperial court."

Ju Ming asked again: "Apart from this one, which one is the most difficult to deal with?"

Chang Qizong said: "The five tribes of barbarians in the west were called the Three Kings of Barbarians in the Tang Dynasty. Now there are two more tribes. The five tribes of barbarians are named Liu, Yang, Hao, Zhao, and Wang."

"Descendants of Han people?" Zhu Ming asked doubtfully.

"I don't know," Chang Qizong shook his head, "These five tribes of barbarians can understand Chinese. Their leaders are not hereditary, but elected from among the elders. Bunkers are made of stones, and food and soldiers are hidden in the bunkers. They often carry ivory, rhinoceros horns, and jade to the county towns to trade with each other. The horses they ride on are all inferior, short and weak. But these five barbarians are extremely cunning and will occasionally plunder Han people."

The five tribes are familiar barbarians and can speak Chinese, but they are Lizhou's biggest concern.

During the Tang Dynasty, these guys colluded with the Nanzhao Kingdom for a long time and specifically inquired about news from the Han region, so they were scornfully called "two-faced Qiang". They once led the barbarians to attack the former Shu. King Jian of the former Shu directly beheaded the leaders of various tribes and prohibited them from establishing hereditary leaders. Only then did they become obedient.

In history, the biggest rebellion in Lizhou in the Southern Song Dynasty was when five tribes of barbarians attacked Hanyuan City.

Chang Qizong and Li Chao kept explaining the situation, but there were some things they didn't know.

For example, the barbarians south of the Dadu River were subordinate to Lizhou and regarded the Song Dynasty as their suzerain. At the same time, he obeyed the orders of Dali State and was canonized by Dali State.

Because the Dali Kingdom was too powerful, these barbarians turned to the Song Dynasty, hoping to use the power of the Song Dynasty to resist the continuous expansion of the Dali Kingdom.

Moreover, the Song Dynasty would not take the initiative to ask for money from the barbarians, but the Dali Kingdom always forced the barbarians to pay tribute for free.

The barbarians south of the Dadu River were the natural barrier of the Song Dynasty. As long as they could hold on, Dali would not be able to directly attack the Song Dynasty.

Zhu Ming asked again: "How many Xiang troops are there in this county? It's not just officers, they have to be able to fight."

Chang Qizong said: "The horse army has a quota of fifty, and the infantry has a quota of three hundred. They will be under the jurisdiction of Lizhou military officials."

Lizhou's level was so low that it didn't even have a deputy regiment training envoy, and only had a military promotion officer.

Ju Ming asked again: "Don't say it's full, how many are actually there?"

Chang Qizong said: "Half a year after Governor Yuwen took office, all the horse infantry troops were fully equipped."

Zhu Ming was a little surprised. He really didn't expect that Zhizhou Yuwenchang was actually a capable minister, and he directly filled up the army in half a year.

Historically, Yu Wenchang's next official position was to be promoted to the tea and horse department in Fulu, Chengdu. He discovered that the tea and horse company had been losing money for many years and was extorting money from the barbarians who came to sell horses, causing the barbarians to complain. However, the horses purchased by the Tea Horse Division were only 10% or 20% of the quota.

Where did the money go?

Yu Wenchang made some rectifications, and the Chengdu Fulu Tea Horse Company quickly bought more horses than they could afford, and was able to make money, which convinced the barbarians.

"That's all for today. I'm going to see Governor Yuwen." Zhu Ming stood up and said.

The two are brothers in need.

Yu Wenchang was the magistrate of the state, but he could only manage one county.

As a county magistrate, Ju Ming has a boss who only oversees one county.

Their responsibilities overlap infinitely, and one team can be eliminated directly.

The state government office is not far from the county government office, and it is also built in a very shabby way.

Zhu Ming explained his purpose and was led to Huangtang by the government officials. Along the way, officials in the imperial court were fishing, and some were even sleeping in broad daylight.

There are so many suffering brothers and sisters, and those who can be assigned to serve as officials here are 100% those who have failed in their career.