Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Outside Tokyo, on the bank of the Yellow River.

The Minister of Civil and Military Affairs and three thousand Taoist priests gathered to watch Lin Lingsu pray for rain, and countless Tokyo citizens also came to help.

Regardless of whether they believe in Taoism or not, everyone hopes to succeed.

Well, except Wang Zaixi.

Two months ago, they had prayed for rain once, and Lin Lingsu and Wang Zaixi took turns.

As a result, I prayed for a hailstorm...

There were hordes of hungry people all over the north. Although the imperial court ordered relief, it was just an order. The specific operations depended on local officials.

When encountering capable and responsible state and county officials, the common people are somewhat lucky. But more often than not, even officials were helpless and could only persuade the gentry to use their stored grain to provide porridge.

Fortunately, the Song Dynasty also had a unique skill: recruiting refugees as its army!

It just so happened that there had been successive wars in the past few years, and the soldiers had suffered heavy losses.

When the refugees gathered to a certain scale, the imperial court finally took action, transporting grain sent from the south of the Yangtze River to the most severely affected areas, and ordered state officials to recruit young men as soldiers. The old and the weak were given porridge as a token of their service. Anyway, the young and strong were separated, and the remaining refugees could not cause trouble.

Things were equally bad over in the Liao Kingdom, with Jin soldiers outside, uprisings inside, and drought.

This spring, Dong Pang'er, a Han citizen in Yizhou (Yixian County), launched an uprising in Nanjing (southwest of Beijing) in the Liao Kingdom, and his team quickly grew to ten thousand people.

Dong Pang'er turned all the way in and fought with Liao soldiers in Yishui. They suffered consecutive defeats, but they always recovered. Even if the rebel army collapsed, they quickly gathered tens of thousands of people and fled from Hebei to the surrounding areas of Datong.

Dong Pang'er secretly contacted the Song Dynasty, and Song Huizong promised to make him King of Yan and give him the name Zhao Yi.

This operation is very cool. Song State itself has done a lot of shit, but it went to intervene in the affairs of neighboring countries, clearly preparing for the future attack on Liao.

The two countries of Song and Liao, which had been in love and fighting each other for many years, have now become brothers in distress.

Boom!

Lin Lingsu prayed for rain for the second time. Within a few days, it rained heavily all over the north.

"Sir, you are truly a god!" Song Huizong said, holding Lin Lingsu's hand.

Lin Lingsu acted like a master and said calmly: "This is not my fault, but your Majesty's blessing. Since Your Majesty is the Son of God, God will send rain of its own accord, and I am just communicating with the gods on your Majesty's behalf."

Song Huizong trusted Lin Lingsu more and more, and Taoist Wang Zaixi's situation became even more dangerous.

However, Lin Lingsu went too far in praying for rain, as if breaking a hole in the sky. It rained heavily for two days. After it cleared up for a few days, it started raining continuously again.

The water levels of the Yellow River, Danshui River, Xishui River, and Baihe River... all surged.

From Hedong to Henan, from Kaifeng to Nanyang, from Tangzhou to Xiangyang, flood peaks come one after another.

The Song Dynasty court rarely went all out and built more dams on the Yellow River in Henan to protect Kaifeng from flooding.

We can't take care of other places. Both Hejian Prefecture and Cangzhou have burst their banks. Especially in Cangzhou City, half of the city wall was flooded, and the people in the city were forced to evacuate. Those who have no time to run will be buried in the belly of the fish, and those who run fast will also be hungry.

In the entire Hebei Yellow River Flood Area, more than one million people died of drowning, starvation, and illness.

On the South Beijing Road, from Nanyang, Biyang to Xiangyang, a large number of villages were submerged, and countless victims fled towards the North West Road.

Immediately afterwards, the Xihe, Huanqing, and Jingyuan earthquakes were the kind of major earthquakes that fractured valleys and shifted river courses.

Huang Qianshan, who worked in Hanzhong last year to extract bones and marrow, has been transferred back to the central government after the spring because he was recommended by Wang Fu. He was ordered by the emperor to inspect the earthquake disaster and found that it was a mess, so he simply concealed it and did not report it. When he returned to Beijing, he said it was just a minor earthquake and the victims had been properly accommodated, so he was promoted again due to his merit.

The war in the northwest region was temporarily suspended due to the disaster, and neither the Song Dynasty nor Xixia could bother to fight.

However, Song Huizong was still thinking about joining forces with Jin to attack Liao.

When the victims of the disaster in Hebei were fleeing in various directions, the Han people of Liaodong, Gao Yaoshi, Cao Xiaocai, and Seng Jirong, took more than 200 relatives to escape the chaos and go to sea. They set out from Suzhou (Jinzhou, Dalian), intending to go to Korea, but encountered wind and waves and were blown to the Bohai Bay.

The Dengzhou magistrate obtained more detailed information about the Liao and Jin Dynasties from these people.

It turned out that the Liao Kingdom had lost all its territory in the northeast. Song Huizong was overjoyed when he got the news, so he summoned Cai Jing, Tong Guan and others to discuss it.

Cai Jing suggested: "In the name of buying a horse, you might as well take Gao Yaoshi and others across the sea from Dengzhou to contact the Jin Kingdom. Firstly, you can visit to find out whether the Jin Kingdom is true or not, and secondly, you can test the Jin Kingdom's attitude. Even if you can't reach an agreement, you won't lose. The Great Song Dynasty style."

Song Huizong was very satisfied: "With these mature and prudent words, I ordered the selection of generals and sent military ships to carry Pharmacist Gao to the Kingdom of Jin to buy horses."

In fact, Cai Jing was unwilling to attack Liao. Floods, droughts and earthquakes were coming, and the victims were struggling to help. The mess in Xixia had not yet been dealt with. How could he think of regaining Yanyun in this situation?

But Cai Jing was riding a tiger and was in trouble. He had to please the emperor and do things according to the emperor's wishes, so as to consolidate his position and avoid being overthrown by political enemies such as Zheng Juzhong and Wang Fu.

As for Tong Guan, he only wanted to be crowned king.

That was the promise of the late emperor. Whoever can regain Yanyun can be crowned king!

…

It also started to rain in the Hanzhong and Shangyong areas. Perhaps due to the obstruction of the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains, the amount of rainfall here was just right, which just ended the drought in the first half of the year.

Zhu Ming took his personal entourage and government officials out of the city without blowing gongs to clean the streets, but the people took the initiative to give way wherever he passed.

This year has been very difficult, but with Zhu Taishou here, I can barely get through it.

Only the grain merchants were dissatisfied, and Ju Ming allowed them to increase prices. However, the exact amount and when the price will increase is completely decided by Ju Ming, who does not give any chance to hoard. Some grain merchants even suffered a small loss.

Outside Jinzhou City, thousands of victims were queuing up to receive food.

The work-for-relief program has ended, and each person receives a bucket of food to go home. The government would send ships to transport them in batches and disembark them closer to home.

A bucket of food will definitely not last long, and they will have to beg to survive when they return. But at least it rained, the plants came to life, and digging for grass roots and eating tree bark could help for a while.

Wealthier landowners would lend seeds to the victims so that they could quickly replant late millet, which might yield a harvest before it snowed. Borrowing grain and seeds is definitely a loan shark, and you won't be able to pay it back in your lifetime with the interest compounded, but you can survive the crisis and save your life.

Zhu Ming had nothing to do about it. Qian Chen only got back more than 5,000 shi of food and was unable to continue to help the victims.

Groups of victims boarded the boat one after another. Many people kowtowed and knelt in the direction of the prefecture to express gratitude for the governor's kindness.

Huang Gui stood on the city tower, watching the ships go away, and whispered: "It has been found out that part of the grain in the Changping warehouse was sold to grain merchants. There is still a lot left, which is piled in couch houses on the outskirts of the city. , it is estimated that Li Tongpan was reluctant to sell it, and the longer he delayed, the higher the price he could sell it for. The prefect kept suppressing the price of grain, but Li Tongpan never took action."

Couch rooms were called didian in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and warehouses in the Ming Dynasty.

The place where Li Daochong stored grain was an official couch, which had the functions of checking taxes and temporarily storing goods.

"Let's go." Zhu Ming left the tower.

He stepped onto the cornucopia, took his personal entourage and government officials, and headed straight to the official couch room on the outskirts of the city.

The subordinate officials there were all Li Daochong's confidants.

But when the prefect came in person, they did not dare to stop him.

It wasn't until Ju Ming ordered the couch room to be opened that someone finally stood up and said, "No one is allowed to enter without Li Tongpan's permission!"

"Who do you think you are?" Ju Ming scolded.

The man said, "I am Li Tongpan's personal attendant!"

Ju Ming stretched out his hand and pressed the hilt of the sword: "Officials are personally accompanying you and are not allowed to interfere in local affairs. Why don't you get out of the way!"

Zhang Boring, Li Bao, Bai Sheng and others were usually responsible for conveying orders or following officials, and never led others alone to perform official duties.

This is the rule of the Song Dynasty.

But the man didn't dare to get out of the way. He couldn't deal with Li Daochong.

Since he was given the opportunity to be ignorant, Ju Ming had nothing to say and shouted angrily: "You stole Changpingcang's grain behind your master's back, and you actually dared to resist arrest!"

"I didn't..."

Before he finished speaking, Ju Ming had already slashed out with his sword, and blood spurted out from the opponent's throat.

When everyone was shocked, Ju Ming ordered: "Send this guy's body back to Li Tongpuan. Tell him that he stole and sold official grain without telling his master. I will help him clean up his house so that he doesn't have to come to thank him. Tell him again." Jinzhou grain merchants, let them come once every five days, and I will sell them grain at a lower price than the market price."

Although the drought is over, food is still in short supply.

This batch of stolen Changpingcang grain can just last for a while to prevent grain prices from becoming too high.

Ju Ming did not let the government sell grain directly, but sold it through grain merchants, which was to leave room for merchants and try not to use violent means to control grain prices.

Half an hour later, Li Daochong looked at the corpse that followed him, his face gloomy and he said nothing.

Li Bao smiled and held his hands in his hands: "My husband said that even though Tongpan cleans up the family, Tongpan doesn't need to be too grateful."

Li Daochong gritted his teeth, but he couldn't hold it back after all: "Of course I want to thank you. I will keep this kindness in my heart and I will definitely repay you generously in the future!"

"Then my husband will wait for Tongjian to repay his kindness. Farewell!" Li Bao turned and left.

Bang!

After Li Bao went out, Li Daochong couldn't hold himself back and kicked down the high stool next to him. The vase on the stool fell and was smashed to pieces.

If Ju Ming hadn't caused trouble, he could have taken advantage of this year's drought to hoard and steal government rations and make a huge profit!

But Ju Ming didn't give him a chance and kept an eye on food prices every day. A meeting of merchants was held once every five days, and all grain merchants were required to sell at the official price. Whoever sold more expensive grains would be fined double.

In the end, Li Daochong didn't make any money, nor did he gain any reputation or political achievements. All of this was in vain to benefit Ju Ming.

How can there be such an official in the world?

Li Daochong is now very sure that Ju Ming is not greedy for even half of his money, and he does not even take any unwritten gray income. All the money from the envoy's treasury that the magistrate could normally appropriate was given to Qian Chen by Ju Ming to buy grain in Xiangyang.

As for the iron smelting plant, there is a lot of initial investment, and who knows when the cost will be recovered.

Li Daochong was angry and frustrated. He couldn't fight such a person because he didn't know how to fight at all.

Everything he did seemed to be in vain.

We can only hope that the ten major crimes listed in the impeachment memorial will make the emperor angry. After all, the emperor's most important thing is the sacrifice.

Moreover, if the local officials did not perform sacrifices properly, it showed that they did not take the emperor to heart.

"Ms. sir, do you still want to compete with the person named Zhu to be the examiner of the state examination?"

"How to argue? He is the magistrate of the state, and I am just the judge. Who in Jinzhou dares to object if he insists on being the chief examiner?"

Li Daochong roared to vent his anger and then returned to the back house to drink.

If he fails to be impeached on all ten counts, he will be left lying in ruins from now on, just hoping to get out of this hellish place as soon as possible.