Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In another time and space, during the reign of Zhu Di, all nations came to court, and Timur directly sent the prime minister as an envoy.

Nowadays, Seljuk also sends the prime minister as an envoy.

The prime minister's surname was Mulek, and he was the grandson of the legendary Seljuk prime minister Nizam Mulek.

Nizam Mulek was not only a legendary prime minister, but also a writer, astronomer, historian, natural scientist, and proficient in Turkic, Persian and Arabic.

The Seljuk system, laws, and calendar were all created by Nizam Mulek. His honorific title is "The Rules of the Kingdom"!

Unfortunately, these systems are completely broken.

The current Müllek is naturally from a family background.

But Sultan Sanjar had a very complicated view of him. He relied on Mulek's knowledge and family background, and sometimes felt very disgusted with Mulek.

Because Mullek's political opinion is to reduce foreign wars and expansion, conduct comprehensive military contraction, and first solve a series of domestic problems.

They even hope to carry out system reform!

Historically, Prime Minister Mulek strongly opposed going to war with Yelu Dashi because he felt that there was still a lot of mess at home and a slight setback in the foreign war would lead to collapse.

But Sultan Sanjar didn't listen at all, and asked Mulek to lead the army as deputy commander.

"Ten days later, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will be hunting in the eastern suburbs, and envoys from various countries will choose warriors to accompany him!"

In the Sifang Pavilion, officials from Honglu Temple made announcements in each courtyard one by one, and many merchants specially hired by the Ming Dynasty served as interpreters.

After receiving the news, Mullek just nodded slightly and continued to read and organize the information collected in Luoyang.

These materials are all about the political system of the Ming Dynasty.

His grandfather, the legendary prime minister, once summarized the history of Persia and surrounding countries and wrote a book "Governance Policy".

The core idea of ​​this book is centralization of power, and it is obsessed with the looseness of the Seljuk government and hopes to further centralize power through military and political means.

Mullek's life goal is to fulfill his grandfather's last wish and build Seljuk into a centralized Persian government.

It just so happened that he saw centralization of power in Ming Dynasty!

Mulek wrote:

"The legal authority of the Ming Emperor comes from the unity of divine power and monarchy. Officials of the Ming Dynasty said that the emperor has the blessing of heaven, which actually means he has divine blessing. This divine blessing is reflected in the identity of the emperor, and the emperor's other title is Son of God."

"Monarchy comes from the army and bureaucracy. The Ming emperor was good at fighting, overthrew tyrants, and wiped out alien races. He also governed the country through bureaucracy, ensuring that nobles, scholars, monks, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants could do their own thing."

"It is difficult for the Seljuk Sultan to combine divine power and monarchy. The caliph in Baghdad will not transfer the divine power to the Sultan, so the most that the Sultan can obtain is the authorization and recognition of the divine power."

"The Sultan's monarchy is also difficult to guarantee. My grandfather's reforms have been ruined, and the idea of ​​centralization has completely failed. The noble lords from all over the country even have the title of 'Shah'. The transfer of this title not only divides the monarchy , and even took away some of the divine power.”

"The bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty was very perfect and was established through an examination system called the imperial examination. The imperial examination broke the nobility's monopoly on local power and allowed the emperor to directly manage every corner of the country."

"The Seljuks should learn from this examination system and let scholars from all over the country conduct examinations and let them go to local governments to serve as political officials."

"But the national conditions of the Seljuqs are different from those of the Ming Dynasty, so they have to compromise with the military aristocracy for the time being. This is a long-term reform process, appointing and removing political officers through examinations, and slowly taking back the power of the military aristocracy. In fact, my grandfather had already taken back the power of the military aristocracy. "

"The Sudan should give up foreign wars, and even allow distant vassal states to become independent, and focus on regaining its core territories. During the reform, rebellions will definitely occur. Only by stopping foreign wars can domestic rebellions be quelled and the reforms can proceed smoothly."

“Although there were many religions in the Ming Dynasty, they officially supported a sect called ‘Confucianism’.”

"Because the Ming Dynasty unified the sects, even if there are slight differences in doctrine, they can be completely controlled within acceptable limits. The Seljuk sects are too chaotic and extremely hostile to each other. An official sect should be elected to support it, so that a joint force can be formed around the Sultan. "

"..."

The more Mullek wrote, the more frustrated he became, because the Sultan would definitely not adopt the suggestions he made.

Not even one!

"I heard Ming officials tell many historical stories about Peach Blossom Stone. They also had a period of enfeoffment, and there were also times when the Son of God lost power..."

"Combining the history of Persia and Peach Blossom Stone, the Sultan should move the capital to Baghdad and live in the same city with the Caliph. The Sultan can ask the Caliph for more titles and powers, and then issue decrees in the name of the Caliph. Any local nobles who violate the Sultan's orders will be punished. It's against the Caliphate, and it makes things more prestigious."

"There must be some believers who suspect the Sudan of threatening the Caliphate, and this is a good way to identify supporters and opponents. Support the sects that support the sect and eliminate the sects that oppose it. The supported sect will become the cornerstone of the Sudan."

"..."

Writing was a bit of a headache, and Mullek planned to go out for a walk.

Court scholar Anwari was talking to a Hanlin official about the history, literature and politics of their respective countries.

The imperial officials of the Ming Dynasty did not deliberately hide anything, and Ju Ming did not give orders that there was nothing that should not be said. Anyway, there are huge differences in national conditions. Countries cannot learn from Ming Dynasty even if they want to. Forcing them to learn from Ming Dynasty will only do bad things.

Mulek stood silently and listened. The translator relayed the Arabic, and he sounded unimpeded.

"So, are Dashi and Persia the same country?" Hanlin asked.

The Arabic translator was a little confused. He understood Persian, but Dashi could only be translated as Arabic.

Anwari picked up a branch and drew a picture on the ground: "This is Persia, now the land of Seljuk. Over there is Arabia. Arabia once established a powerful empire, and even one of them ruled Persia for a long time..."

The Hanlin official took out historical records and asked about the big food in black, the big food in white, and the big food in green.

The Arabic translator has completely stopped working.

Because the transliteration methods of foreign names in Chinese historical materials are different in each dynasty, the Arabic translator simply does not know how to translate them.

Fortunately, Green Food still exists today, and Cheng Yu, Yu Yunwen and others have figured it out.

And based on the sect's dressing habits, the chicken-and-duck talk gradually became straightened out.

The big food in white clothes is over there in Spain...

Listening to the descriptions of the three great food kingdoms, Hanlin officials felt more and more that they had to understand the history of religion first.

So, Anwari began to talk about how to create a religion, and then talked about the four caliphs with infinite longing.

The Hanlin official quickly understood and said: "Your four caliphs are just like our three ancient dynasties. The kings are wise and selfless, with perfect morals. And they belong to the abdication system. Only the virtuous can occupy the position of caliph. Of."

Avali asked curiously: "I haven't heard the story of the three ancient generations. Have you ever had that kind of time?"

The Hanlin official began to tell the story of Yao, Shun and Yu.

Avari exclaimed: "The three kings Yao, Shun and Yu are so similar to our four caliphs. They all have supreme virtues, are not attached to money and power, and will choose perfect successors."

Mulek listened to Yao, Shun and Yu beside him, silently and thoughtfully.

In the courtyard where envoys from various countries lived, officials from the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty came to chat with them about various topics every day.

From time to time we have to stop and learn each other's language.

Both are smart people and learn quickly.

At night, Mullek communicated with Anvari.

Anvari said: "Why hasn't the Ming Emperor summoned us yet?"

Mulek smiled and said: "Didn't you hear today? The Ming Emperor is going hunting, and he asked us to follow him. He wants to show his force first and frighten us before summoning him specially."

Anvari nodded and said: "The Sultan often does this too. Every time he conquers a country, he asks the king and officials of the subject country to go hunting with him."

Sultan Sanjar nearly overturned his car while hunting during his second conquest of the Western Karahanate, but was assassinated and almost died there.

He was so angry that he changed the kings of the Western Kara Khanate and let the country's third prince and his nephew succeed him.

Mulek stood up and pulled out his saber: "It's just a good time to see how the Ming Dynasty's army is doing. The Jurhan (Yelü Dashi) who annexed the Eastern Kara Khanate is said to have been driven away by the barbarians from the north. And the Ming emperor wiped out those barbarians. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty is more powerful than the barbarians, the barbarians are more powerful than Jur Khan, and Jur Khan is more powerful than the Eastern Kara Khanate."

"Can it be compared like this?" Anvari was in a daze.

Mulek said: "The Sultan has decided to conquer Jurhan, and I can't persuade him no matter what. We must carefully examine the military power of the Ming Dynasty and judge the military power of Julhan."

Anwari said: "Thousands of troops from the Ming Dynasty helped the Prince of Ceylon regain his kingdom with only minor casualties. Their weapons that can make thunder are what you heard and saw on the ship, and they can destroy the enemy at a long distance. "

Mulek said: "That kind of weapon is indeed powerful, but it is not the most critical thing. The main reason is that the country of Ceylon is too weak, and the Ming army still has the Prince of Ceylon. The troops left by the puppet king to guard the royal city were instigated by the prince to rebel. , Otherwise how could the Ming army win so easily?"

"If our army suddenly encounters a thundering weapon, they may panic and flee," Anvari said.

Mulek said: "So we must take advantage of the opportunity of hunting to find out the details of the Ming army. It is best to learn how to make that kind of weapon!"

Anvari shook his head and said: "It's too difficult. They don't allow outsiders to approach. Now many envoys from various countries speculate that that weapon is a power given by the Eastern gods."

Mulek said: "God will only give us morality and wisdom, and cannot give any mortal some kind of power. Morality and wisdom make people strong, not a certain god."

The Central Army of the Ming Dynasty, stationed in Luoyang and Kaifeng, had not fought a war for several years.

It happened to be a good opportunity to use this hunting to show off our military power to the envoys from various countries, and also allow the Central Army to conduct a good exercise.