Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1640
The land of China in March is full of vitality.

In Hebei and Huaihai in the east, fishing boats have already gone to sea, trying to find the first wave of fishing in early spring.

The "pocket boat" followed closely behind, providing supplies to the fishing boats, and at the same time buying the fish they caught and transporting them back to the port.

Among them, the Ping Navy, the first navy of the Great Xia, took the lead. It can be called a "fishery pioneer" and a "model worker" and worked very hard.

Let's turn our attention south to Huainan, Jiangdong, Fujian and Lingdong.

Due to the gradual change of the wind direction, the departure tide of foreign merchant ships is coming to an end.Korean, Japanese, Persian, Dashi, and Brahmin merchant ships loaded with a large amount of Chinese goods set sail one after another and returned to the mainland.

In the next six months, Yangzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and other ports will welcome new batches of foreign merchant ships one after another.

The stable environment has promoted the prosperity of commerce, and the imperial court has been soft in collecting taxes, smiling happily——Haizhou Ship Envoy, Qi Wang Shao Guancheng, has just been promoted to the "Three City Ship Envoys" in charge of Huaihai, Huainan, and Hebei's foreign trade ports , It can be seen that the imperial court attaches great importance to it.

In the northeast corner of the map, on the fertile land of Liaodong, millions of Han, Xi, Khitan, Bohai, Tatar, and Mohe people wielded hoes and rakes and started the annual spring sowing.

After years of education, the Tibetans have gradually moved closer to the Central Plains in terms of language, clothing, residences and living habits.

Those who didn't know how to farm the land, learned to farm the land.

Originally, it was not the Central Plains Festival, but now it has passed.

Chinese children's language is popular all over the world, and learning this language has become a rigid need for traveling outside the house.If you want to make a fortune, you have to learn characters, read through the classics, and then compete for the only three places in Jinshi and one place in agriculture in this way.

It is also rare for the government soldiers to help Buqu work together.

Weeding, taking care of livestock, repairing and repairing farm tools, their wives, sons and nephews transported fresh water to the fields in horse-drawn carts, and distributed fairly generous spring sowing benefits to the followers: mustache, cheese and dried meat.

On the northwest side of Liaodong Road, near the tribes of Shiwei, the soldiers fed the war horses with bran and beans, and then put on their whole body, carried knives and bows, and patrolled together to prevent Shiwei's people from jumping over the wall in a hurry and coming to rob them. Looting——In the matter of defending their own property, they are very active and brave beyond belief, which vaguely makes people see the heroic ambition of the warriors in Hebei to fight against the world with one town.

On the grasslands to the north, the caravan meanders.

They brought much-needed daily necessities to the prairie herdsmen, and then exchanged them for a large amount of leather, ox horns, tendon, wool, and—alkaline halogen, which is very important in the wool spinning industry.

The "deep-rooted" wool textile industry in Guanbei, Guannei, Zhili, and Henan provinces consumes a large amount of brine every day to degrease wool.

Grassland brines are abundant and cheap, and they are an important commodity they sell to the Central Plains, and they are also an important target for caravans from all walks of life.

Along with the caravan, there are tall and strong grassland elites with excellent archery skills and hard-working skills. They are trying to find their own future with infinite yearning.

In the Southwest, the wounds of war are healing.

The people who migrated from Hebei filled the places suitable for farming in Li, Ya, Yi, Qu, Kun, Yao and other prefectures.

The imperial court arranged for them mostly areas with suitable altitude and relatively cool climate.The able-bodied men from Hebei and Henan who arrived in Dali Mansion even took advantage of it. Nanzhao Xijing, which once worried the court the most, is now the most stable.

Perhaps, this is inseparable from the harmonious relationship between husband and wife in the local area.There is a lack of a man in the family, everything is inconvenient, life is always going on, and everything is looking forward.

On the two post roads leading to Yunnan, as the news of Yunnan's many gold, silver and copper mines spread, countless businessmen flocked south to look for opportunities to make a fortune.

The Guo Dynasty, like the Tang Dynasty, did not prohibit private mining, but only taxed.And the tax rate is as high as "one-fourth", but this still can't stop the determination of businessmen to mine, because this business is too profitable.

The terraced fields, irrigation, and animal husbandry systems in Yunnan are slowly being repaired, and the roads are constantly being maintained, which is a credit to Changjushuang.

And the Zhong family's status in Daxia has also skyrocketed.

As a well-known Confucian in Henan and Hebei, Old Master Zhong is already the deputy envoy of the Lifan Academy and a figure at the level of prime minister.

Chong Jushuang was the governor of Yunnan Province and a senior official in Xinjiang.

To be honest, the status of father and son is relatively rare.

Zhong Zhaoyi is very popular with saints.Among the concubines in the harem, she is one of the rare women who allows the saint not to play perverted tricks on her and vent her dark desires.On this point, even the Queen Zhe was not exempt.

In the newly established northwest frontier, the banner of the Great Xia is becoming more and more popular, and the prestige of the Supreme Emperor is heard far and wide.

that's enough.

The imperial court does not require them to repay the finances now, so that the situation can be generally stabilized, and it is enough to develop step by step.Liaodong, Yunnan and other places have all come here, and the imperial court is also quite confident in governing the old Anxi, although they only gave them a place for Jinshi and a place for agriculture in the scientific examination.

Finally, we can focus on the very center of the Great Xia: the Central Plains.

This is the dual center of politics and economy in the country. Under the king's transformation for a long time, the world is peaceful and the villages are pure.

The people have more or less saved up, and their tense nerves gradually relax.

The flames of war seem to have become a long-standing legend, and most of the rumors circulating in the market are anecdotes.

In these stories, Zhu Quanzhong unsurprisingly became a big villain, while Li Keyong's image was greatly exaggerated-20 years ago, the folk opinions of the two were completely opposite.

The only Zhu family with a good image is probably the former Liang princess Zhang Hui.

In the mouths of the people in the Central Plains, this woman first restrained Zhu Quanzhong's heart, and then let the saint indulge in her gentle hometown. The people in the Central Plains are praised by everyone for their great benefits.

This is Daxia.

This country, running day after day, rumbles like a rough machine that is not very precise.With each passing year, some whale oil seems to be infused, and the machine runs smoother and smoother.

Against such a background, the sage is discussing repeatedly with the prime minister, privy envoys, and scholars, and the news of compiling a new book "Zhizhi" is spreading rapidly to all corners of the country.

At the end of March, as the first batch of scholars entered Beijing, Guanzhong immediately became the focus of the Quartet.

******
"Zhizhi": the first article "Population", the second article "Currency", there may be a third article and a fourth article in the future...

This is the news that is currently circulating among the bookstores in Chang'an.

The title of the book comes from the second volume of "Book of Tang" "Taizong Benji" which is being edited by the imperial court: "Shengzai, Taizong's fierceness! It eliminates the chaos of the Sui Dynasty, compared with Tang and Wu; the beauty of governance, Shujicheng, Kang. "

The above is the news from Niu Xiji who just arrived in Chang'an.

Niu Xiji, former Tang Prime Minister Niu Sengru's great-grandson, Sima of Mianzhou in Daxia, was invited to Beijing because he sang with a group of literati and gained a good reputation.

"There is indeed a third chapter, called "Geography." Said Taichangqing Yao Wei who came to greet him in the Duting post.

Of course, Yao Wei didn't come to greet everyone, he only came to meet Niu Xiji, because the two had a very good relationship and were considered to be of the same school.

They can actually be regarded as the mainstream Confucian school since the late Tang Dynasty.

A hundred years ago, Han Yu put forward the concept of "Orthodoxy" and listed the genealogy, starting with Yao, followed by Shun, Yu, Tang, King Wen, King Wu, Duke Zhou, and finally ending with Confucius and Meng Ke.

He creatively separated "Orthodoxy" and "Governance", and initially established the Confucian orthodoxy "Preaching" system.

Once this statement was put forward, it spread all over the world and was accepted by a large number of Confucian scholars.

Pi Rixiu even added Xun Qing, Wang Tong, and Han Yu to the back of this Confucian Taoist lineage.

Lu Guimeng, Zhu Yue, Lin Shensi, Sikong Tu, Niu Qiao and others are also active members of this school. As Niu Qiao's nephew, Niu Xiji is naturally in it.

"Is it necessary to write a separate article when history is written and geography is not written?" After hearing Yao Wei's words, Niu Xiji was a little surprised.

"This book is a bit different." After thinking about it, Yao Wei said, "It's still very useful."

Afterwards, he gave Niu Xiji a detailed explanation.

It turns out that this "Geography" written by the sage is different from the previous ones.In ancient times, there must be "Geography Chronicles", which mainly records the administrative divisions of the country. When it comes to a specific state, it also records a household registration, special products, and the distance between post roads, which is actually very simple.

The geography books published by the people are richer. They will describe the customs of a certain place, the direction of mountains and rivers, etc., and some will add some content similar to travel notes.

But generally speaking, whether it is official classics or folk travel notes, the writing is relatively brief and superficial.

This book of the sage can be regarded as a master of all schools.

He believed that geography is a "doctrine", more precisely, a theory that describes the differences between regions.

The geography of a region should include multiple aspects such as climate, landform, soil, population, crops, cities, countryside, and transportation.

The geography of different regions is very different, and then the two branches of human geography and physical geography were extended.

He believes that the human geography of a region is bound to be affected by physical geography.

In short, the landform, climate, and environment shape the local way of life, national character, and social form—in fact, it is the "geographical determinism" that is controversial in later generations. It is not very effective in modern society, but it was still very obvious in ancient times. of.

At the same time, people have subjective initiative and can change geography to a certain extent.

The book also mentions the security issues in the core areas of the world—south of Yanshan Mountain and Yinshan Mountain, and east of Longshan Mountain.

The saint believes that if you want to defend this fertile land, the first priority to defend is Liaodong.

With Liaodong in hand, it can threaten the Qinan and Qibei grasslands from the flanks.However, Liaodong has a lot of fertile soil, and Bohai is known as "the prosperous country in the east of the sea" with "millions of household registration", and it has the benefits of fishing, hunting, farming and animal husbandry.

Under Liaodong, the grassland has the advantage of "building a strategic position" over the traditional Han land.In addition, there are many loopholes in the Yinshan and Yanshan defense lines, and passive defense cannot be blocked. Therefore, it is necessary to take the initiative to control the grasslands in the south and north of Qi and prevent them from causing chaos.

But in order to control the grassland, two places, one east and one west, need to be stabilized.To the east is Liaodong, and to the west is the Western Regions.If the Western Regions are restless, the grasslands will be unstable, and if the grasslands are not stable, the Central Plains will be restless.

The impact of climate change is also mentioned at the end of the book, which is even more refreshing.

With all these things, this book can really be regarded as a "magic book". It re-explains ideas that have been raised by predecessors but have not been elucidated in depth, or that have been written by predecessors but are not systematic.

As for its function, according to the words of the sage, it is to "eliminate illiteracy" for officials, so that they don't "mess around", have a clear understanding of the customs and geography of various places, and don't unknowingly break things and poke a big basket—— Because it is useful for governing the country, it is included in the book "To Governance", which is the knowledge that officials must master.

From another perspective, it is also an endorsement of the current policy.

Because many people think that the sage is transforming counties in Liaodong, trying to control the grassland deeply, and also expeditions to the Western Regions, which means "great success".

The sage directly published a book to refute it.

"From what you said, the first three chapters of "Zhi Zhi" only talked about 'skills'? Did it ever involve orthodoxy?" After listening, Niu Xiji asked instead of surprise.

In today's world, what is he most afraid of?The Confucian orthodoxy has declined to the extreme, and he was abandoned by a warrior like a shoe. He was really afraid that the saint would break this orthodoxy!

But judging from the current rumors, the sage seems to think that the Confucian orthodoxy is still useful, and does not want to cut it off, and even supports and protects it, but it needs to share power with other schools of thought.

This - is actually acceptable, his current requirements are really not high.

"It has never been involved." Yao Wei said: "The selection of scholars in the imperial examination will not change, but the benefits need to be shared. Agricultural science has been admitted separately, and it will always be a set formula. There may be other miscellaneous subjects in the future. At that time, people respected Jinshi subjects. Jinshi in the Guochao Dynasty was still the crown of all subjects, but the content of the examination has changed, and miscellaneous subjects have gradually come up. This is the most important change.”

"I can only look at the good side." Hearing this, Niu Xiji sighed softly, and said, "The most important thing now is to preserve the orthodoxy, and everything else can be waived. However, what should be fought is still to be fought. If you don't fight, what? If you can’t get it, if you fight, maybe you can still make the sage give in.”

Yao Wei didn't say anything.He is an official of the imperial court, so it's inconvenient to say more about his status here, but judging from his expression, he obviously agrees with Niu Xiji.

(End of this chapter)