Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

At the second court meeting of Zhu Ming's ascension to the throne, the ceremony official read the edict directly on the spot.

"The Taishi Academy of the Ming Dynasty took charge of the three museums of national history, astronomy, and geography. The edict said: The Spring Official is affiliated with Taishi, who is in charge of the celestial calendar..."

The imperial edict format of the New Ming Dynasty directly followed the Song Dynasty, and there was no such thing as "the emperor is destined to be carried by heaven".

The whole is in three sections:

First, the title.

Second, content.

Third, date and stamp.

This edict was read out, and no one objected, because Ju Ming was restoring ancient rituals.

To put it simply, it means setting up a Taishi Yuan, with the highest officer being Taishi Ling.

It has jurisdiction over three museums: National History, Astronomy, and Geography, and all related institutions are merged into these three museums.

The Hanlin Academy was once again weakened, leaving only a group of literary artists.

Some technical officials engaged in astronomy and geography were directly promoted to the level of Beijing officials.

Shen Hui, the last number one scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, recalled the capital to serve as Taishi Ling.

…

"This is Shen Kuo's drawing of flying birds that I compiled," Zhu Guoxiang pointed to a stack of manuscript paper. "The scholars in the planetarium can understand it at a glance. Let them fill in any omissions or omissions. These scholars are already very accomplished. .”

Ju Ming curled his lips: "Are you really going to leave?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I just went to inspect the site, design the villa, and relax."

The next morning.

Zhu Guoxiang took his wife, concubines and children, escorted by three hundred imperial guards, and sailed to Shaanxi.

Shen Hui was serving as the prefect of Kaide in Puyang and returned to Beijing immediately after receiving the transfer order.

Before going through the formalities for promotion, Shen Hui was recruited into the palace to perform a duel.

Ju Ming asked: "Is Shen Kuo your great-uncle?"

Shen Hui replied: "Great uncle."

Shen Kuo's biological mother belonged to Xuxian, and his father had a son in old age, so he had a very high seniority in the Shen family.

Ju Ming asked again: "Did your father publish "Mengxi Bi Tan"?"

"Of course." Shen Hui said.

Ju Ming asked again: "How much have you learned from your great-uncle?"

"To give you a rough idea," Shen Hui held a stack of manuscripts, "These are all written by great-uncle during his lifetime, and some of them are also collected in the museum."

Zhu Ming asked the eunuch to bring the manuscript over, read it carefully for a while, and found that Shen Kuo had been to the Liao Kingdom. He also recorded in detail the geography of the Liao Kingdom along the way, and also asked the emperor to strengthen border defense in Hebei.

After closing the manuscript, Ju Ming praised: "Your political achievements are outstanding. In just one year, you completed the work of allocating children and arranging acres in Kaide Mansion."

Shen Hui said: "It is not the work of one year, nor the work of one person. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the previous prefect measured the acres of land, which had laid a solid foundation. After I took office, I personally led people to inspect and verify, and corrected my husband's mistakes. Tian Shi made many mistakes. After receiving the imperial decree at the beginning of last year, he immediately started to allocate people into acres and reform officials."

"What mistakes did you correct your predecessor?" Ju Ming asked.

Shen Hui said: "In order to quickly acquire land, officials in various counties are often greedy for more. In particular, subordinate officials colluded with the gentry to hide the land acres of the rich, but pointed out the barren slopes as fertile land and spread it over the heads of many small people. Even the family Small landowners with hundreds of acres of land were also being apportioned by subordinate officials. The people complained that it was difficult to allocate acres to small landowners. I personally visited various counties and punished several wealthy families!"

Ju Ming smiled and said: "Excellent!"

Shen Hui likes to brag and talk big, and he will never stop talking without surprising. He is also fierce in his words and deeds and does not like to follow the rules, especially when he is poor.

Before he was admitted to the top prize, the entire Shen family was already in decline, and he was inevitably looked down upon by others. Once Shen Hui felt that he was insulted, he would retaliate even more and had offended people everywhere since he was a boy.

But he was so good at governing the place that he was sent to Guangxi to engage in the tea-horse trade during the Southern Song Dynasty. He could buy three thousand Dali horses a year, and no successor after his departure could exceed this number (in the entire Southern Song Dynasty). Moreover, he was able to appease the barbarians. When he was an official in Guangxi, the chiefs of various ethnic groups never rebelled.

The only shortcoming is that this guy is very timid and frightened into making all kinds of mistakes when encountering a war.

Ju Ming asked: "Does Shen Kuo have any descendants alive?"

Shen Hui replied: "Both the eldest son and the second son are deceased. There are several grandchildren, all in Runzhou. Mengxi Garden has been sold off, and there are not many acres left. Farming, studying, and heirlooms are living a hard life. The Shen family and the Zhu family are living in Runzhou. , and occasionally send people to help.”

"Which Zhu family?" Zhu Ming asked.

Shen Hui replied: "The Zhu family in Huzhou. After Yuanyou was imprisoned, no one from the Zhu family will be an official anymore."

Shen Kuo's second daughter-in-law was Zhu Yu's second sister, the same Zhu Yu whom Li Bangyan visited in Hangzhou.

Shen Kuo's successor, Zhang, not only beat and insulted her husband, framed her stepson and drove her out of the house, but also abused her own son's wife. The Zhu family was afraid that something might happen to their daughter, so they took Zhu (Shen Kuo's daughter-in-law) back to her parents' home for more than ten years. It was not until the death of the evil mother-in-law Zhang that the young couple reunited.

Ju Ming asked: "Are any of Shen Kuo's grandchildren good at astronomy and geography?"

Shen Hui shook his head: "No. But the great-grandchildren are still young and many of them are smart."

Ju Ming said: "Then choose a smart great-grandson and send him to Runzhou Official School to study. From now on, he will be recommended all the way to Taixue."

This is already a very preferential treatment for Shen Kuo's descendants, and they are admitted to Taixue without tuition fees. As long as the test scores of Taixue are okay, he will definitely be given a job as a minor official. If you have excellent grades, focus on training.

Shen Hui said: "If Your Majesty wants to search for talents, Li Gongzhiyi's only son can be used in a great way."

Li Zhiyi was the one who wrote "I live at the head of the Yangtze River, and you live at the end of the Yangtze River." He was close friends with Shen Kuo and Su Shi.

"Isn't his son too young?" Ju Ming asked.

Shen Hui said: "He is only twenty-five years old. He was born when Li Gong was seventy-one years old."

Ju Ming really wanted to say "awesome".

Shen Hui said: "This gentleman's name is Li Yaoguang, he is proficient in mathematics. His fortune is not very good, and he is looked down upon by the villagers."

Li Zhiyi’s wife is Hu Shuxiu, a poetess, mathematician, and inventor. Her mathematical attainments were so profound that even Shen Kuo asked her for advice.

In his later years, Li Zhiyi was falsely accused by Cai Jing and wanted to die.

Hu Shuxiu inquired about an official in Beijing who had collected Fan Chunren's manuscripts, which could clear her husband's grievances.

So the old woman went to Beijing in person to beg for the loan of the manuscript. After being rejected, she paid a lot of money to bribe her servants and found out where the manuscripts were kept.

Then, like a heroine, she sneaked into the official's house, stole the manuscript, and then ran to the Donghua Gate to complain. There was a sensation in the government and the public at that time, and the Queen Mother brought her into the palace.

The children of Li Zhiyi and Hu Shuxiu died one after another, and Hu Shuxiu was heartbroken and died of illness.

When Li Zhiyi was young and lonely, he often went to the stream to be in a daze. The official courtesan Yang Shu admired his talent and went to the stream to play and sing music whenever she had time, and expressed her feelings through lyrics and music.

True love, Li Zhiyi ignored the worldly obstacles and married an official prostitute as his second wife.

However, some evildoers came out to report that the official prostitute Yang Shu had an affair and gave birth to a child, and also let the illegitimate child deceive the court into pretending to be a favor. Under Cai Jing's intervention, he not only took away his kindness, but also ordered the mother and son to leave the Li family and forcibly separated the family of three.

Li Zhiyi, who is over seventy years old, is forced to live apart from his wife.

He felt that he would not be able to see each other again until he died, so he wrote this poem: I live at the head of the Yangtze River, and you live at the end of the Yangtze River. I miss you every day without seeing you, drinking water from the Yangtze River together...

Shen Hui said: "Li Yaoguang read all the books in his family and was particularly good at mathematics. However, he was not immune to rumors. The locals hated him as an illegitimate son, and his classmates often ridiculed him. He was introverted and taciturn. He did not even take the imperial examination. He went to take the exam and only studied knowledge all day long. I passed by his house a few years ago and took a test on Li Yaoguang's knowledge. If he takes the imperial examination, he will definitely pass the Jinshi."

"It's really a pity." This was the first time Zhu Ming heard the complete version of this story.

If it were made into a drama, it would definitely be widely praised.

In particular, Hu Shuxiu was able to let Shen Kuo come to ask for mathematics advice, which was very rare for ancient women. Moreover, at a young age, in order to avenge her husband, she personally sneaked into the house of a Beijing official to steal manuscripts, and rescued her husband under the pressure of Cai Jing.

Zhu Ming planned to recruit Li Yaoguang to the capital to take a test in person.

If you are really taciturn and knowledgeable, you can stay by your side as a secretary. The current secretary is Fu Naorou. After following him for many years, it is time for him to be transferred to a local official.

Shen Hui added: "There is also an old gentleman who is proficient in the geography of the south, especially the geography of Lingnan. He is also familiar with overseas vassal states, and has taught himself new astronomy, geography, mathematics, and physics. A friend corresponded with me and said that this gentleman was in Hangzhou Become a professor at Phoenix Academy."

This is of course talking about Zhu Yu.

Zhu Ming nodded and said: "Recruit them into the capital together."

Shen Hui didn't speak anymore and lowered his head to listen to the emperor's instructions.

Ju Ming said: "I'm afraid some people will not be convinced by asking you to be the Taishi Ling. The "History of the Song Dynasty" and other books have been compiled for several years, so you should not interfere, otherwise you will be hated by others. The same is true for the calendar. Your next task , is to quickly mobilize manpower to set up a geographical museum. Then send officials to go to various provinces for on-site surveying and mapping."

"According to the order!"

Shen Hui quickly bowed to accept the order and said: "I also know a little bit about geography. I will set up a geography museum within two months and come up with a set of regulations for surveying and mapping."

Ju Ming said: "If there is a shortage of manpower, you can go to Taixue University to recruit. We tell the students that as long as they perform well in surveying and mapping, they can be directly selected as Geography Officers. In addition, there will be salary subsidies during field surveying and mapping. The more difficult and remote the place, the more difficult and remote the place. , the salary subsidy will be higher, and the accidental death will be heavily compensated.”

Shen Hui cupped his hands and said, "With such preferential treatment from the officials, I will definitely do my best!"

"Go." Ju Ming waved.

Shen Hui bowed and resigned, while Zhu Ming lowered his head to read the military report.

Last winter, Ju Ming conveyed military orders for the border troops to move forward after spring.

Nowadays, many dangerous passes in Yanshan are controlled by the Kingdom of Jin. What Zhu Ming meant was to let the Ming army attack directly and build a stronghold under the noses of the Jin soldiers.

For example, if the Jin soldiers occupied Xifengkou, the Ming army would build a fortress outside Xifengkou.

Firstly, it makes it difficult for the Jin soldiers to invade and plunder wantonly, and secondly, it forces the Jin soldiers to start the war in advance.

In a large area next to the foothills of Yanshan Mountain, many refugees came out to farm in the mountains one after another. For fear of scaring away the fleeing people, the government has not taken any action, but now they have to register and settle in the village.

And establish Baojia, and once it is discovered that there are signs of Jin soldiers entering the invaders, these newly settled people will be organized to strengthen the walls and clear the country.