Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Nothing happened all night.

Early the next morning, the father and son opened the door.

The thin horse stood quietly in front of the door, neither tying a rope nor running around. When he saw them appearing, he snorted to show his closeness.

Then, the skinny horse wandered to the corner of the yard to eat the weeds under the fence.

The army horses are difficult to take care of. They have to be fed bean cakes and salt water, and the night grass cannot be cut off. The yellow gelding in front of him is easy to take care of. He doesn't have to worry about anything, he just knows how to find food.

Of course, with such a slim figure, it would be difficult for people to ride on it, and it might not even be able to carry dozens of kilograms of cargo.

Tian Er's wife was sweeping the floor, and Tian San's wife and several children were working in the vegetable field not far outside the courtyard.

Zhu Ming walked over and asked, "Auntie, is Uncle Tian going out?"

Tian Er's wife is not simple either. She lies when she opens her mouth: "She went to work in the fields at dawn."

Ju Ming made insinuating remarks: "In today's world, life is difficult."

"Isn't that true?" The woman also complained, "Winter is getting colder and colder, and the weather is also very chaotic. There will always be two months of drought in summer."

The temperature began to drop in the mid-Tang Dynasty, fell to the bottom in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and then warmed up again in the Southern Song Dynasty for a hundred years.

Even when the temperature was the highest in the Southern Song Dynasty, it did not rise to the level of the late Tang and early Song Dynasty. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the temperature fell to the bottom again, and it recovered slightly in the Ming Dynasty. But the highest average annual temperature in the Ming Dynasty did not reach the peak during the Southern Song Dynasty.

The average temperature at this time is about the same as the late Ming Dynasty, and about the same as the early Wanli year of the Ming Dynasty.

Little Ice Age!

Ju Ming added: "This mountain is isolated. The sky is high and the emperor is far away. The officials can't care about it. I think it's better than the south."

The woman said: "There are no official families, there are local emperors."

Ju Ming asked: "Which local emperor?"

The woman stopped answering.

Ju Ming asked again: "Do you in the mountains know the emperor's new year's name?"

"Is there another new year number?" the woman asked doubtfully.

"Which year name are you using?" Zhu Ming asked.

The woman said: "What Ning, I can't remember it."

Although Zhu Ming already had bad thoughts after hearing "Ms. Cai" yesterday, he still took a chance and said, "Xining?"

The woman shook her head: "No."

"It can't be Chongning, right?" Zhu Ming's heart sank.

The woman immediately remembered: "Yes, yes, that's Chongning. This year is the twelfth year of Chongning. When I got married, it happened to be the first year of Chongning. I remember it clearly."

In ancient times, rural people basically did not remember the emperor's reign name. They usually used the heavenly stems and earthly branches to calculate the year. It was not easy for Tian Er's wife to know the Chongning reign name.

It's just that the news is lagging behind. Chongning only has five years, so where does Chongning's twelve years come from?

The so-called twelfth year of Chongning should be the third year of Zhenghe, which is 1113 AD.

Ju Ming left dejectedly, walked to his father, and whispered: "We are out of luck."

"What's going on?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Ju Ming said: "I have indeed traveled to the Northern Song Dynasty, and the current emperor is Song Huizong."

Zhu Guoxiang confirmed: "Is it the one in "Water Margin"?"

"That's that man," Zhu Ming said depressedly. "In more than ten years, Jingkang will be humiliated. It has been less than ten years since the heroes of Liangshan revolted, so we can go to Song Jiang to show off."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Song Jiang is timid and afraid of getting into trouble, and he won't be able to achieve anything. It's better for us not to get involved."

Zhu Ming was enjoying the pain and actually laughed: "The real Song Jiang was cunning, ruthless, and rebellious. He was forced to accept the imperial edict because he was blocked by the officers and soldiers. He was eventually killed by the court because he surrendered and then returned. I want to rebel, and I don’t want to be bullied by the imperial court anymore.”

"They are robbers after all," Zhu Guoxiang said. "We came here not to be robbers. We can get rich by farming, and I have a lot of advanced agricultural knowledge. As for the Jingkang shame, as long as we become landlords, the Jin Kingdom will call the president You won’t kill all the landowners, right?”

Zhu Ming didn't like hearing this: "Dean Zhu, you are greedy for life and afraid of death. Do you have any national integrity?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "In the long run, the Kingdom of Jin also belongs to the dynasty of the Chinese nation."

"No," Zhu Ming said differently, "The Jin soldiers are going south, how do you know you are safe? They are going to rob and kill everywhere."

Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully and said: "We can go to the south and slowly develop into big landowners, and the Southern Song Dynasty can last for a hundred and eighty years."

"What about the Mongols coming? Don't you think about your descendants?" Ju Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "As long as you are a big landowner and surrender when it is time to surrender, the Mongols will not be able to kill you randomly."

Zhu Ming was convinced, because it was really like this.

Even under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the big landowners in the south of the Yangtze River lived more prosperously. Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty. There are still many big landowners who miss the benefits of the Yuan Dynasty.

"No, no," Ju Ming said, "Now that we have traveled back in time, we cannot let history repeat itself. The invasion of the Yuan Dynasty only benefited the big landowners in the south, and how many civilians died. Moreover, the invasion of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty caused the decline of Chinese civilization in science and technology and culture. The field has regressed across the board.”

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Can you govern the country? Can you fight?"

Ju Ming said: "You can learn."

"Anyway, I only know how to farm," Zhu Guoxiang said.

Ju Ming said sarcastically: "This is a feudal society. Can you make a fortune if you know how to farm? Corrupt officials, bullies and powerful people can eat you to pieces. You managed to save thousands of acres of land, and finally saved thousands of dollars." All the family wealth will be lost if I pin any charges on you."

Zhu Guoxiang was silent. He thought his son was right. It was indeed difficult to be a big landlord without a backer.

Ju Ming continued: "Ancient China was a bureaucratic society, and we still had to be officials. Even if we couldn't be officials ourselves, we still had to find someone who was an official to protect our interests."

"I can't write the Four Books and Five Classics, nor can I write eight-part essay." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Ju Ming said: "The tests in the Song Dynasty were not about the Four Books, Five Classics and Eight-legged Essay."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "What is the test?"

"I can't explain it in a few words, and it's really not easy to take the exam," Ju Ming said. "It's best to take a shortcut and become an official directly without passing the imperial examination. Hmm... can you grow a few ears of rice? This thing It can be presented as an auspicious gift."

Zhu Guoxiang can only provide his son with popular science: "The multi-ear rice is a genetic mutation that scientists cannot control."

Ju Ming scratched his head and said, "What about other crops? You can always grow something special."

Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully and asked: "Is ten thousand years of Ganoderma lucidum considered auspicious?"

"Can you grow Ganoderma lucidum?" Ju Ming was delighted.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Ganoderma lucidum is an annual fungus. Let alone ten-year-old ganoderma lucidum, it is impossible to have even ten-year-old ganoderma lucidum. But I can try to grow the ganoderma lucidum to be larger than a millstone within one year."

"Dean Zhu, you are so awesome," Ju Ming was overjoyed. "When the time comes, hold up the Ganoderma lucidum as big as a millstone and place it in front of the official as an auspicious sign. Even if you can't get close to the emperor, you can still please the official. Yes, you can get a lot of benefits!”

"Is it really that easy?" Zhu Guoxiang questioned.

Ju Ming said: "Song Huizong liked strange things and asked his officials to search for strange things all over the world. If something is good for the superiors, it will be effective for the people below. Those officials also like strange things. Ganoderma lucidum as big as a millstone is guaranteed to Let us gain a foothold in the Northern Song Dynasty!"

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Then shall we go to the south? If we become big landowners, the south will be safer than the north."

"We can't go to the south," Ju Ming said. "If we go to the south, the only way is to become a rich man. We have to stay in the north and work hard to develop our strength. If we can't change history, we can at least raise our own troops to fight. Hebei can't Go, it’s too chaotic there. Shanxi and Shaanxi are also unreliable, with a bunch of military leaders. Hanzhong is just right. It can go out from Shanxi and Shaanxi to the north, and it can also occupy Sichuan in the south. It is an excellent base for fighting for the world!"

"Can you please wake up? Leading troops to fight is not playing video games!" Zhu Guoxiang was speechless to his son.

Zhu Ming is not a stickler for rules, otherwise he would not have quit his job in a state-owned enterprise and started working in self-media. He held up the sword wrapped in a torn sweater, and said with a strong second breath: "A man is born in troubled times, so he should carry a three-foot sword to achieve unparalleled achievements!"

Zhu Guoxiang felt that his son was mentally abnormal and had reached an advanced stage of mental illness.

After thinking about it, Zhu Guoxiang said: "Don't think about making great achievements now. We have to find a place to settle down quickly. We don't know where to have our next meal."

"That's right," Ju Ming thought. "We should first acquire a piece of land and obtain a legal status. You can grow Ganoderma lucidum as big as a millstone and solve the ration problem. At the same time, you can inquire about local officials and powerful people. As long as you curry favor with the officials, You can become the principal owner. Once you have the identity of the principal owner, you can become an official!"

"What is the main household?" Zhu Guoxiang asked doubtfully.

Ju Ming simply explained: "Those who pay taxes to the court are the principal households, and those who do not pay taxes to the court are the customers. Customers live under the patronage of the principal households. You can understand them as tenants, domestic slaves, bonded workers, etc. This status is the recipient of the title. It is recognized by the imperial court, and the imperial court encourages customers to upgrade to households because it can increase tax sources for the imperial court.”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Our origins are unknown. I'm afraid it will be difficult to obtain legal status, right?"

Ju Ming said: "It's very simple. Household registration in ancient times was very chaotic, and there was a lot of room for manipulation. It depends on the situation."

No matter how good the plan is, food and clothing must be provided first.

In the middle of the morning, Tian San's two sisters-in-law took their children to the fields to deliver food. Tian San was indeed hoeing the fields with his teenage son.

As for Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming, father and son, they also have a bowl of vegetable porridge to eat.

Not much food, better than nothing.

"Will you give me food money? The Tian family is quite poor." Zhu Guoxiang was a little embarrassed.

Ju Ming said, "When we get the money, we can repay the Tian family for the meal."

Around noon, Tian Er suddenly came back.

Of course, I didn't go home for dinner, because I only had breakfast and dinner, and there was no lunch at all.

Next to Tian Er, there was a hunter with a hunting bow on his back.

"This is Orion Zhang. He lives in the mountains. He hunts a piece of skin and wants to sell it at Bai Market." Tian Er introduced with a smile.

Zhang Orion was very young, probably only in his twenties. He had an animal skin rolled around his waist. He smiled and clasped his fists and said, "Are you two going to Baishitou? Why don't you go together?"

What hunter?

They were basically bandits from the village. They were invited here by Tian Er. They wanted to send Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming away and find out their details personally.

After all, the bandits robbed the official horses last year and were afraid that the government would send spies to inquire about the news.

Ju Ming and his son were already suspected of being a government spy.