Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chui Gong Hall.

Zhu Guoxiang handed over an official document: "Most of the prefectures and counties in Guangdong have been announced. However, several prefectures and counties were occupied by the peasant army. Li Bao divided his troops and went to Guangzhou Town and found that the chief officials in Guangdong should be killed. . He couldn't make the decision, so he asked Shangshu for instructions from the imperial court."

Ju Ming had already received Li Bao's letter. He pretended to read the official document and said: "Take him back to Beijing and then kill him, so that local officials will not be frightened."

The situation in Guangdong is particularly funny and extremely corrupt.

First, Zheng Liang, the transfer envoy, returned to Beijing to report on his duties. He was reported to have been corrupt, perverting the law, and plundering excessively, enriching his own pockets under the guise of Hua Shi Gang.

At that time, Song Huizong had not yet fled Tokyo. As soon as he heard that his Hua Shi Gang had been embezzled, he immediately arrested Zheng Liang and imprisoned him for interrogation.

Who would have known that Zheng Liang died in Dali Temple Prison the day after he was imprisoned.

Song Huizong was furious and sent a censor to Guangzhou to investigate - Zheng Liang had been an official in Guangdong for a long time and simply settled in Guangzhou.

At this time, Jin soldiers went south, Ju Ming went north, and Song Huizong was so frightened that he ran away.

Yushi Shu was ordered to investigate the case, and taking advantage of the country's chaos, he ransacked the home of Zheng Liang, who died mysteriously, and embezzled hundreds of thousands of his property.

Then, Statement also died in Guangzhou!

Guangdong transit envoy Yin Zhongchen and deputy envoy Xu Geng jointly swallowed up this huge sum of money.

The luck judge Ren Xiaokai did not get much benefit. When Li Bao divided his troops and occupied Guangzhou, he reported Yin Zhongchen and Xu Geng to kill people, buy goods, embezzle stolen money, prey on the common people, and exploit merchants.

Li Bao sent someone to inquire and found out that Ren Xiaokai was not a good person either.

The entire officialdom in Guangdong has been ruined. Not only has the peasants been extremely poor, but even the gentry and merchants have complained about the difficulty of living. Only those temples are still living a very prosperous life.

When they heard that Li Bao had occupied Fujian, Guangdong officials expressed their surrender one after another, hoping to continue living freely in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Corruption in Guangdong is more serious than in other places. Although the local officials there have contributed to the city, I plan to use none of them and remove them all and return to their hometowns. Those who are notorious will even have their homes confiscated and beheaded. !”

"Okay, since the territory is almost occupied anyway, there is no need to consider any negative impacts." Ju Ming supported this approach.

In traditional concepts, father and son are unkind and unkind.

Those Guangdong officials who gave their territory to the new dynasty were not rewarded for their merits, but they were all dismissed from office, and even the notorious ones were killed.

The reason why the officialdom in Guangdong is completely rotten is that, first, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, second, officials are acting badly, and third, there is money to be squeezed.

Take Xu Geng, deputy transshipment envoy, for example. After he was transferred to Guangnan, he thought he had been relegated in disguise and would have no career pursuits in the rest of his life, so he began to exploit people crazily to make money.

While Xu Geng was embezzling, he also wrote a poem to complain: "Setting aside the right and wrong of the Southern Wilderness, the true nature of nature is obtained before birth. The water in the front stream passes day and night, and the owner upstairs does not know."

Directly in the poem, Guangdong is called "Southern Wilderness".

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Even if they are all dismissed from office, they must be replaced one by one to avoid any trouble in the middle."

Ju Ming said: "This version of Zhejiang Province is too big, and we still need to guard against one-handed separatist rebellion. Now that Fujian is almost pacified, Wenzhou and Chuzhou (Lishui) should be placed under Fujian's jurisdiction."

"That's okay," Zhu Guoxiang said. "In the future, Zhejiang's surplus finances can be used to transfer to Fujian."

Subsidy transfer refers to fiscal transfer payment.

Fujian is too poor and Zhejiang is too rich. They should help each other.

With a few words, the father and son decided on the southeastern ecology. Wenzhou and Chuzhou will belong to Fujian Province from now on.

Zhu Guoxiang looked at the sky, stood up and said, "It's almost time."

The two of them walked south together and soon arrived at Daqing Hall.

"The emperor has arrived!"

"The prince has arrived!"

The palace examination of the Northern Song Dynasty was held in Jiying Hall.

Now it has been replaced by Daqing Hall, which is more spacious, open and bright!

The scholars who were already sitting there waiting for the exam were surprised when they heard the shout.

The imperial examination should be conducted by the emperor, so why is the prince also here?

But he saw Zhu Guoxiang sitting down and writing a line of words with a brush, and the palace examination questions were completed.

The guard brought it to the palace and read out the title: "Zhi said: Let's try to discuss the gains and losses of the old Song Dynasty's politics. Please write it clearly in the article. Don't be general or omit it. I will read it personally!"

The candidates all raised their heads and looked at the emperor in astonishment. This kind of imperial examination question was too direct, right?

Most of the candidates stood there stunned, anxious and wanting to scratch their heads.

This thing seems simple, but it is actually very difficult to write.

First of all, you must determine a core idea, and then discuss it around it. You must also quote classics, otherwise the article will not be exciting.

Secondly, both the gains and losses of the old Song Dynasty have to be written, but how to control the degree is difficult.

Finally, one must be quite familiar with the overall situation of the old Song Dynasty, and one must be able to speak meaningfully.

Li Tong and Hu Quan, who had carefully studied Ju Ming's articles, started to write almost at the same time: "I am right: I heard that "Shang Shu" said that the people are the foundation of the country, and the foundation is strong and the country is peaceful..."

The words and sentences are slightly different, but their strategies and main ideas at the beginning are the same.

Halfway through writing, differences began to appear.

Li Tong mainly elaborated on the "loss of virtue" in the old Song Dynasty, while Hu Quan focused on the "loss of merit" in the old Song Dynasty.

Ju Ming sat reading in Daqing Hall for three hours. Suddenly he got up and started walking around, checking the candidates' articles back and forth.

It's like the invigilator is walking around, making the candidates extremely stressed.

In the end, Ju Ming stayed by Li Tong's side and even picked up the finished draft of a page.

After reading, gently put it back.

The second time I stayed was with Hu Quan.

After taking a rough look at their papers, Zhu Ming liked Hu Quan's article more.

Suddenly, Ju Ming stopped next to another candidate.

"Your Majesty: At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the nine states were in turmoil... At the beginning of the Zhao and Song Dynasties, the people were tired of fighting, but they began to use civilized rule and the world was happy..."

The candidate first wrote about how Zhao and Song founded the country and how they managed the country to become rich and prosperous.

He also wrote about the three redundant issues and the gains and losses of Wang Anshi's reform.

In the end, he used a lot of space to angrily accuse Song Huizong of harming the people, and scolded this foolish emperor for not repenting even after arriving in Hangzhou.

Ju Ming glanced at his place of origin and suddenly smiled.

Qiantang, Zhang Jiucheng.

This candidate from Zhejiang Province was greatly harmed by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, and he sprayed it unabashedly and heartily.

Zhang Jiucheng's ancestral home was Kaifeng, and his ancestors moved to Qiantang. His family was originally not rich, but he was repeatedly tortured by Hua Shigang. By the time he was eighteen years old, he was so poor that he gave up the imperial examination and went to work as a tutor for a wealthy family to make a living.

After making some money, Zhang Jiuzheng went to Beijing to study, and during the period he got a copy of "Tao Yongce".

After running out of money, Zhang Jiucheng returned to Qiantang and continued to make a living by teaching. One year before the great scholar Yang Shi died of illness, he accepted Zhang Jiucheng as his disciple, but he mainly relied on self-study.

In addition to self-study and teaching, Zhang Jiucheng insisted on studying Buddhism during the rest of his time.

Perhaps because he was too disappointed with reality, Zhang Jiucheng felt a little world-weary and believed that the world was an illusion. This man was the true ancestor of mind science, and he was the first to put forward the idea that "the mind is reason".

After Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty fled to Hangzhou, prices there skyrocketed, and exorbitant taxes and levies arose one after another. Zhang Jiuzheng still had to support his family. His salary could not support his expenses, so he could only sell his properties one after another, hoping that Song Huizong would die soon.

Li Bao captured Hangzhou and quickly quelled the chaos, which Zhang Jiucheng praised highly.

He also obtained a quota through Yang Shi's old friend, and then borrowed money to take the imperial examination in Beijing.

This man was extremely poor and lived in a dilapidated house in the suburbs. He had to walk two hours to take the exam in the city.

At noon, the eunuchs and guards brought the meals and placed them quietly on the candidates' tables.

There are also large buckets of soup outside. Candidates can leave their seats to get soup, or they can defecate and pee accompanied by guards.

Zhang Jiuzheng, who had not eaten any refined food for half a month, picked up the meat buns with chopsticks and devoured them.

So cool!

Ju Ming glanced at Zhang Jiucheng's cloth and saw that it had been patched several times.

It can only prove one thing, this person is very stubborn and has a strong self-esteem.

Otherwise, as a tribute, many people would send money without even asking in person.

After Zhang Jiuzheng passed the rites examination, he must have refused help from countless people!

Ju Ming continued to walk back and forth in the examination room and found that most of the well-written articles were from the three southern provinces, and some were from the Huaihe and Huaihe regions.

As for the scholars in Sichuan and Kaifeng, the top ones had already become officials and did not need to take part in the imperial examination at all. For example, Yu Yunwen was directly promoted by Ju Ming and went to the grassland to serve as an envoy.

Most of the top ten candidates from Sichuan in the Ministry of Rites Examination are second-rate candidates, relying mainly on mathematics and physics to gain points. Now that they are writing strategies for the Imperial Examination, they are immediately thrown back to their original form.

There were three hundred and fifty answer sheets, and the marking officer spent three days ranking them.

First place, Li Tong. Second place, Hu Quan. The third place is Zhang Jiucheng.

Zhu Guoxiang read the top ten and said to Xiao Chu, Huan Guo, Huang Shang and others: "This third-place article is too scattered, and half of it is criticizing Zhao Ji. What are you thinking? I It’s very clear, and you don’t have to do this again.”

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Everyone bowed quickly.

Zhu Guoxiang said to his son: "You can re-rank."

Ju Ming was not polite and rearranged all the top ten.

The first place is Hu Quan, a native of Jiangxi.

Second place, Yang Ji, is from Sichuan.

Third place, Li Tong, from Fujian

The fourth place is Li Gongmao, a native of Jiangxi.

Fifth place: Wang Dabao, from Guangdong.

The sixth place, Li Yi, is from Huainan.

…

The tenth place, Zhang Jiucheng, is from Zhejiang.

The Sichuan scholar Yang Ji, who was ranked second on the list, was born in the Yang family in Shuzhong. His brother worked with Zhu Guoxiang for two years.

He followed his brother closely and understood the thoughts of the emperor and the prince very well. Although the literary style of the policy essay is not very good, the content is very solid and is to Ju Ming's liking.

"Your Majesty, please take a look." Zhu Ming held the paper and handed it back.

Zhu Guoxiang took the answer sheet smoothly, without even bothering to read it, and ordered: "Just write the yellow list according to the prince's ranking."

"According to the order!"

The ministers were extremely shocked that the crown prince actually made the decision regarding the palace examination rankings.

After writing the yellow list, everyone left the palace one after another.

Huan Guo invited Xiao Chu into his carriage and whispered: "As a minister, you should not talk about the emperor and the prince. But today's court is really worrying. The military power is in the hands of the prince. If someone happens to God... I'm fine for one or two years, but your Majesty's dragon body is healthy, what will happen in ten or twenty years?"

"How can you care about Hui Yuan?" Xiao Chu said with a smile, "My dear brother, haven't you understood? The crown prince is the main priority in everything. Your Majesty's actions today may make you want to abdicate."