Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Although it was a temporary change of route, local officials were already aware of it.

After all, a team of nearly a thousand people is coming, and they need to prepare in advance for eating, drinking, and eating, and the Clippers have already set off in advance to make arrangements.

The officials probably heard about the Emperor's temper. The prefects and county magistrates all stayed in their respective yamen to work, and at the same time sent their confidants to Daming Town to wait at all times.

As soon as the fleet arrived, these confidants immediately returned to the prefectural and county towns to report the news.

The dock in Daming Town is very small and has been cleared half a month in advance. Ships are not allowed to stay here for a long time to prevent the Emperor's fleet from having no place to dock.

This was a real nuisance to the people, and many businesses in the town could not be opened, so that the Daming Town that Zhu Guoxiang saw was a little deserted.

Currently, there are only twenty-seven towns in the country that have Pinguan assigned to manage them. Except for Daming Town, the rest are all economically developed and densely populated.

The official official name of the town mayor is the town supervisor, and there are two types: the seventh rank and the eighth rank.

The town supervisor of Daming Town is from the seventh rank and is called Shi Jizhi.

When he heard that the fleet was coming, he rushed out of the office and took a group of subordinates to the dock to greet them.

Actually, there are only three official officials, and the rest are white servants (temporary workers).

Official officials must be approved by the superior department and reported to the Ministry of Personnel for registration. For example, the official officials of the county government must pass the assessment of the government officials (or state officials) and then report to the Ministry of Officials at various levels.

As for the informal officials of the county government, the county government office can handle them, and state officials generally do not take care of them.

Even officials with the same rank are now distinguished from the pure and the unclean. They divided it among themselves, but the court did not recognize it.

The civil servants in the central cabinet, ministries, courtyards, and temples called themselves "Confucian officials" and looked down upon the officials at other levels of yamen. These people often have the reputation of being a scholar, and they take the examination for central government officials after failing to pass the examination many times. There are even a few who have the reputation of being a civil servant.

The civil servants in the main departments of the provinces, prefectures and prefectures call themselves "jing officials" and look down on the officials in other yamen, among whom there are also many who have the reputation of being scholars.

Such classifications, and there are many more, have formed chains of discrimination.

Scribe, scholar, code official, collector, etc., there are a lot of self-proclaimed unofficial titles!

The more genteel the name, the closer it is to the top of the chain of discrimination.

"The Emperor has returned to his hometown!"

"The Emperor has returned to his hometown!"

Shouts came one after another, spreading from the center of the town to the surrounding areas. Some people even rowed boats and chanted against the Han River and its tributaries.

The crowds are getting bigger and bigger, and those who really can't squeeze in will go to the mountains and trees to have a look.

In fact, there are not many "aboriginals" in Daming Town.

Especially the original people of Daming Township, because they followed the Zhu family and his son in the army, all those who survived became officials and generals. Those who died were also given preferential treatment, and their families were given more fertile land in Henan and Hubei.

So people moved away one after another, and no more than 30% remained.

Most of the people in Daming Town in front of me moved here later, and they mainly fled from the mountains.

But regardless of whether he was an "aboriginal" or not, they all regarded the Supreme Emperor as a fellow countryman, and Yourong Yan seemed to have a close relationship with the royal family.

After the town supervisor Shi Jizhi led the officials and people to visit him, he accompanied them cautiously: "Your Majesty, the streets in Daming Town have not been expanded much, and there is only one more inn in the town. The town government is also very small..."

"Just live as you arranged." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Shi Jizhi said: "After all, this area is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there is not much flat land for camping. I have vacated many residences, and your Majesty's entourage needs to live temporarily in people's homes."

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "Okay." He then ordered the eunuch beside him, "Remember to compensate the people who borrowed the houses to live in."

Immediately an old friend came forward to pay his respects.

A man in his thirties came to Zhu Guoxiang with his wife and children: "Little Min Tian Zofang, pay homage to your majesty, pay homage to the saint, pay homage to..."

Zhu Guoxiang immediately had an impression: "Is your father Tian Er?"

"Exactly, Your Majesty still remembers it," Tian Zhifang said happily, "His Majesty personally gave the name to the little fellow back then."

"Why don't I remember?"

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "When my father and son passed through this place, they ate and stayed at your house. Where are your father and brother?"

Tian Zhifang said: "My parents, brother and sister are all in other places. My parents died of illness a few years ago. The eldest brother is working as a military attache, and my sister is married to a civil servant. The second brother died in the war with the Jin Kingdom, and one of his sons also became a military attaché. , I also have a son who has been admitted as a scholar. Only I am not good at it. Your Majesty was still young when he started the army, so he stayed here to take care of some family business. "

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "It's better to stay in your hometown. Where is your third uncle?"

Tian Zhifang said: "The third uncle's family has moved away. All the paddy fields and tea mountains of the third uncle's family were given to me. The dry fields of the third uncle's family were given to the village neighbors."

Zhu Guoxiang pointed to the old inn in the town: "Is this yours too?"

Tian Zhifang said: "His Majesty gave the inn to my father, and my father left the inn to me."

"Then you must be the richest man in Daming Town." Zhu Guoxiang joked.

Tian Zhifang chuckled and did not defend himself.

Shangbai Village is also under the jurisdiction of Daming Town, so the richest man in Daming Town must be Dalang of the Bai family!

After chatting with Tian Zhifang, another middle-aged man came forward: "Zhang Lin, the boy from Mipu, pays homage to His Majesty and pays homage to the saint..."

Zhu Guoxiang had no memory at first, but when he heard about the rice shop, he immediately remembered it and asked: "How much rice can one penny buy?"

"A handful." Zhang Lin replied.

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "Not enough."

Zhang Lin said: "Then grab another handful."

Zhu Guoxiang laughed.

Shen Yourong said: "I have never bought rice from your shop, but I have sold wheat in your shop."

Zhang Lin said: "The sage's wheat is very good, and the bran is winnowed cleanly."

Shen Yourong asked, "Now you open your own rice shop?"

Zhang Lin said: "Thanks to the reward from His Majesty and the Saint, Xiaomin now opens a tea and rice shop. It not only sells rice, but also sells tea. The business is very good. Especially the tea comes from the tea mountain rewarded by Your Majesty. Businessmen from other places pass by by boat. When I was there, I came to Xiaomin’s shop specifically to buy tea, saying that drinking this tea would bring me the royal aura.”

Everyone present laughed.

"Are these your children?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Zhang Lin said: "The eldest daughter is already married. There is also a son who can go to school. When Bai Hou (Bai Sheng) returned to his hometown last time, he was already studying in the county school, and later he entered Yangzhou Academy. . That boy has passed the examination and is now studying in Hanzhong Fuxue."

"Then I wish your son the best in high school." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhang Lin was overjoyed and said with a grin: "As your Majesty has said, if that kid fails the exam next time, I will break his legs!"

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Did the candidate fail the examination?"

Zhang Lin said: "I took the exam once, but I didn't pass."

Zhu Guoxiang chatted with a few old friends for a while, and villagers from Shangbai Village and Xiabai Village came one after another.

The children who had listened to Ju Ming telling the story of Journey to the West were all in their thirties and forties, and they brought their children to visit him one after another.

There were also many elderly people who were so excited that they shed tears when they saw Zhu Guoxiang, and told confusing stories about the past when the Zhu family and his son led the villagers to defend against bandits. He also said that if Emperor Zhu hadn't been brave, Shangbai Village would have been looted by bandits.

Bai Dalang also came by boat.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Your second brother did not return to his hometown after he resigned?"

Bai Chongwen said: "My second brother liked the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. After resigning, he moved to Fenghua County, Ningbo Prefecture."

"He ran far away." Zhu Guoxiang complained.

Bai Erlang is very smart and knows how to give up when things are good. When he was the governor of Iwami Ginzan, he embezzled tens of thousands of guan and sold more than 10,000 guan in land, house and shop. He also had other legal income and gray income.

With a total savings of about 100,000 yuan, he resigned directly and went to Jiangnan to "live in seclusion". And because you have reached your age and level, you can get your pension as long as you are alive.

He did not even live in the capital cities of Hangzhou and Ningbo, but chose to buy land and build a house in the suburbs of Fenghua County. The emperor became a wealthy man in the distance. In the past few years, he also started a small business, purchasing some goods and transporting them to Ningbo port to sell to maritime merchants.

It's called living a carefree life.

After chatting about the current situation for a while, when Zhu Guoxiang asked about the situation of his children and grandchildren, Bai Chongwen sighed: "My sons are all useless. They can't pass the imperial examination, and they can't run an industry. The eldest grandson and the second grandson don't like to study either. The eldest son of the second child is somewhat decent and can be ranked in the upper reaches of the county school. "

"Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings," Zhu Guoxiang comforted.

Accompanied by everyone, Zhu Guoxiang went to various places in Daming Town.

A lot of places have been modified, but it's still basically the same.

Zhu Guoxiang personally presided over the construction of the inn, and now several Datongpu have been expanded to provide rest for caravan workers and poor people passing by.

The original village school has been upgraded to a branch branch of a county primary school, with the institutional establishment of a government school. This is the only one in the country.

Wang Anshi created a four-level official education system of primary school, county school, state school, and Taixue, and the requirements for primary school principals were not high. As for the primary school in Daming Village, it is stipulated that the principal must at least have the status of a public prosecutor and be personally evaluated by the academic envoy.

Then we went to see the tea mountains on the riverside downstream, where the father and son met the cornucopia.

"Why is this still tied with red cloth?" Zhu Guoxiang asked, pointing to a tea tree.

Town Supervisor Shi Jizhi explained: "Two of your Majesty's old friends said that when the officials were in Daming Township, they once said that this tea tree entangled the Pegasus Cornucopia. The villagers all said that the mountains in Daming Town are all dragon veins, and this tea tree is It is the eye of the dragon vein. Tianma is spiritual and has been ordered by God Haotian to wait for the arrival of the emperor beside this tea tree. "

Zhu Guoxiang couldn't laugh or cry: "It's nonsense."

Shi Jizhi said: "Many villagers would come to the tea tree to pray for blessings. Even from Hanzhong Fucheng, people came by boat to pray for blessings. Over time, the tea tree was no longer pruned and was allowed to grow for worship. "

Tian Zhifang also said: "This tree is regarded as the god of tea. Tea garden owners throughout Hanzhong Prefecture, as well as local tea merchants and passing tea merchants, will come here to worship the tea tree."

"Is it effective?" Zhu Guoxiang asked funnyly.

Tian Zhifang said: "Everyone says it is extremely effective. We are discussing building a temple for the Tea God."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "It is okay to build temples, but not to occupy cultivated land, not to own temple fields, and not to be allocated money by the government."

Just treat it as tourism development.

Shi Jizhi quickly asked: "Can your Majesty write a plaque for this temple?"

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head very solemnly.

Shi Jizhi smiled awkwardly and lowered his head, as if he might have misunderstood.

Zhu Guoxiang looked at the tea tree for a long time. When he left, he said to the eunuch: "Xiao Zhong, tie a red cloth on it too."