Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

As the dojo of Taibaijinxing, the Suling Palace of the Song Dynasty was built on Huashan Mountain in Xiyue.

The Suling Palace in Yangzhou became a foil and was not taken seriously by the court.

But it is still the seat of Yangzhou Daozheng. In the past two years, thanks to Song Huizong's worship of Dao, he has been frantically annexing land.

This year, there was a drought. On the surface, Suring Palace provided relief to the people, but in fact, it gave a small amount of porridge and borrowed a lot of money. After the disaster, they occupied the fields of surrounding farmers by demanding repayment of loan sharks.

Zhu Guoxiang braved the light snow to go to Suling Palace, which is located northwest of Yangzhou City and is located on a small hill outside the city.

"The governor of Yangzhou is Zhengwen Zhiruo (the governor of the capital, Nie Feng), pays his respects to Mr. Zhu!"

There are two leaders, both Taoist officials. They are responsible for managing Taoist affairs in the three counties of Yangzhou. They usually live and work in Suling Palace, and are also responsible for praying for rain and offering sacrifices.

Du Daozheng is gentle and gentle, and he also serves as the abbot of Suring Palace.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "You two don't have to be polite. It's snowing outside. Let's go in and talk."

Wen Zhirou, short and fat, went to Tokyo to take the exam, and together with other Taoist priests, met Song Huizong in person.

He knew how much Zhu Guoxiang was favored. He bent down and did not dare to stand up straight the whole time. He led Old Zhu inside and complained at the same time: "Suling Palace has been in disrepair for a long time and is really shabby. Mr. Zhu can finally lift Suling Palace." It’s a good idea to make some repairs. Our place is Mrs. Su Ling’s dojo, but it has been overtaken by the Huashan Su Ling Palace.”

Zhu Guoxiang first went to the main hall to worship Taibai Jinxing. She looked like a plump woman with a pipa in her arms.

Immediately afterwards, he walked around the palace and found that there were several construction sites that were temporarily suspended.

Wen Zhirou explained: "The number of Taoists in the palace is increasing day by day, and the original dormitories are not enough, so Xiaodao raised money to build some new ones."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How many Taoist priests are there? The kind who hold Taoist ultimatums."

Wen Zhirou replied: "It is hard to find a Daoist certificate. There are only about fifty people who hold it. There are more than two hundred monks, and nearly four hundred including the handymen."

"How many Miyata are there?" Zhu Guoxiang asked again.

Wen Zhirou cried and said: "It's less than 5,000 acres, it's really shabby. Mr. Zhu happened to be here, and I asked your majesty to perform the work, so as to avoid the servitude of the Suling Palace."

Zhu Guoxiang asked doubtfully: "Isn't it always exempt?"

"Mr. Zhu still doesn't know?" Wen Zhirou said, "The government issued a decree a while ago that all temples and temples must be closed down."

"Let me see the imperial edict." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Wen Zhirou hurriedly went to invite the imperial edict, which read: The land for the palaces and palaces inside and outside the palace should not exceed fifty hectares in Beijing, and thirty hectares outside, which would inevitably lead to official service, corvee work, and branch transfers. Although he was given the imperial pen, he could not perform the performance.

This imperial edict reflects the severity of land annexation by Taoist temples during the Huizong Dynasty.

Song Huizong, who was so serious about respecting Taoism, had to issue an order to restrict the land occupied by Taoist temples, and by the way, Taoist temples were also subject to miscellaneous taxes and corvees.

However, Song Huizong added another sentence. After the inner and outer Taoist temples receive the imperial edict, they can petition to disobey the imperial edict... This is the back door left by Song Huizong for the favored ones. As long as they are Taoist priests he likes, they can occupy the land at will. All is fine, and there is no need to pay attention to excessive taxes and corvee.

"If I don't ask the officials, will you do the corvee work?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Wen Zhirou smiled awkwardly and said, "Of course you must abide by the law."

That's strange, they would usually drag it away, but the officials wouldn't dare to collect it anyway.

At most, in times of famine, the magistrate and general magistrate would be in a hurry and give a small token amount of money.

Wen Zhirou didn't even want to give this small amount of money, so she asked Zhu Guoxiang to report to the emperor to exempt him from the corvee service.

Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "The imperial edict stipulates that the land outside the palace must not exceed 3,000 acres. How come the palace land in Suling Palace is almost 5,000 acres?"

Wen Zhirou said: "The people are enthusiastic about the Taoism and the small Taoism can't refuse. I also ask Mr. Zhu to inform Your Majesty to allow Suling Palace to purchase more land. The officials will definitely agree."

"It's freezing cold. Let's talk about it next year." Zhu Guoxiang made a tour and returned to Daming Village directly with the project funds.

…

But he said that Jinzhou would go back to the time when the test was released.

Zhu Ming forcibly seized power and became the examiner. It was only when he was grading the papers that he discovered that the standards of the candidates here were worrisomely low.

Moreover, in the vast mountainous areas, there are basically no village schools, and the number of candidates is far less than that of Yangzhou.

At the Luming Banquet, Ju Ming hosted a banquet for the new imperial examination candidates and encouraged them: "You guys still have to work hard. Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, Jinzhou has not produced a Jinshi, only a few subjects. Instead, it has produced many eminent monks. Tao, you fellow Confucian disciples, don’t want to be compared to Buddhism and Taoism!”

All the students were so ashamed that even the principal of the state school couldn't help but bow his head.

The judge Dai Chengsi cupped his hands and said: "We will strictly follow the prefect's teachings and will definitely work hard and improve."

Ju Ming laughed and said: "You are talking nonsense. You have been elected four times in a row. You are just going to Beijing to sell goods as a judge."

"I don't dare." Dai Chengsi said quickly.

"Don't deny that I have also gone to Beijing to sell goods," Ju Ming took out an official document, "I just sent it, strict inspection of people bringing goods into Beijing, you'd better be careful. This year has been hit by successive disasters, and the imperial court has insufficient taxes. Even Juren’s goods will be searched.”

The scholars suddenly changed their colors. They had never thought about being a Jinshi. They were just trying to sell goods without having to pay tolls.

"Do we really need to conduct strict inspections?" Dai Chengsi asked.

Ju Ming nodded and said, "I guess we won't check too carefully along the way, but when we get to Gyeonggi Province, we must check everyone. It's best to sell some on the way."

"Thank you, Prefect, for reminding me!" The people in charge quickly expressed their thanks.

The imperial court was really short of money, so it actually asked temple officials to pay taxes and fees, and also strictly investigated the behavior of officials who went to Beijing to sell goods.

They are also preparing to raise alcohol taxes, causing alcohol prices to rise sharply across the country.

Then the tax on vinegar was raised, and the price of vinegar also rose.

Hebei suffered such severe floods and actually "increased rice consumption". Not only did the government have no money to provide relief, but it also increased taxes on Hebei farmers.

Next year, there will be serious floods in various parts of the southeast. The court's approach is: increase taxes and buy money, and let the rich households provide rice for disaster relief!

It wasn't until a fire broke out in the palace that burned down more than 5,000 houses and killed many people in the palace. Song Huizong thought it was a warning from heaven, so he issued an edict to cancel some new taxes.

After having enough wine and food, Ju Ming announced the end of the deer roaring banquet.

He turned back to the Huangtang and called Fan Zhun and Guo Wenzhong from the left and right government offices: "The emperor has decreed that the land area of ​​each temple and temple should not exceed three thousand acres. You can arrange the land. If the temples and temples in Jinzhou occupy more than , the land will be confiscated immediately. Also, the imperial edict states that the land in temples and temples will also be subject to tax, corvee, and transfer, so that monks and Taoists can make up for this year's taxes."

"yes!"

The two of them took the order and left, with smiles on their faces.

They have figured out what Governor Zhu is doing. As long as he is honest, obedient and willing to do things, the Governor will put him to good use.

And when doing things, it doesn't matter if you take the opportunity to make a little money, as long as you don't be too greedy, and as long as you don't harass the people, Zhu Taishou always turns a blind eye.

This time, they can take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune by checking the temple land and taxation.

Ju Ming arranged his affairs and took a boat to the smelting site.

Production has already started here, and the pig iron and wrought iron are being fried and smelted smoothly. Due to the improved technology, the cost has dropped considerably.

Several blacksmith shops in Jinzhou City are already buying the raw and wrought iron here.

The plan to promote wrought iron pots failed. People are still more accustomed to using cast iron pots, which are cheap, easy to use and will not stick to the pot.

Ju Ming planned to change his mind. The wrought iron pot had to be sold to the army or business travelers. It is light to carry, not easy to break, saves fuel, and is extremely convenient to use on the road.

Especially for marching pots, cast iron pots were rarely used unless absolutely necessary, and they were easily broken during the march if they were not careful.

This still needs to be explored slowly, because like the Zhangqiu iron pot, Ju Ming didn't know how to forge it, and the blacksmiths of the Song Dynasty didn't know either.

The marching iron cauldrons of the Song Dynasty were much bulkier and thicker than the wrought iron pots in Ju Ming's impression, rather than a thin layer.

Nowadays, the wrought iron produced in iron smelting yards is basically used to make agricultural tools and daily necessities.

The market in Jinzhou is too small, so we have to find a way to transport it to other places.

"Dang-dang-dang!"

A blacksmith is pouring steel using the perfected Su Steel method.

He held the wrought iron in his left hand and kept turning it over, and poured the pig iron solution in his right hand. Not only did the two hands cooperate with each other, but he also had to pay attention to controlling the temperature of the furnace at all times, and then quickly turned around to forge.

Tu Shen stood next to Ju Ming and said: "I am still exploring the furnace temperature, technique and number of refinements, but it is definitely better than the existing steel filling method."

"Is this difficult?" Zhu Ming asked.

Tu Shen said: "It's not difficult for people to do it, mainly because they are not skilled yet. I also tried to hit for a few days, but my hands, eyes and brain couldn't rest, so I had to concentrate on cooperating. With Xianggong's method of pouring steel, it only takes one Refining, even the effect of two or three refinings of ordinary steel pouring can be achieved."

The steel filling method also requires tempering.

The steel-filled steel in the Song Dynasty can be made into steel in two or three refinings. Shen Kuo called it pseudo steel. If you want to make real steel, you have to continue to forge it with a hundred refining methods.

However, weapons in the late Northern Song Dynasty were often made of fake steel and were not tempered enough to survive on the battlefield.

If the fireguns of the Ming Dynasty were made of wrought iron, they would basically need to be tempered for more than ten times to ensure their durability. Those things that often explode, in addition to having too high sulfur content, are most likely caused by insufficient refining.

Ju Ming planned to make another water turbine and forge it with a water-powered forging hammer. This thing is not difficult and can be made by ancient craftsmen. The difficult thing is to improve the efficiency of the work.

The hydraulic forging hammer is not a magical tool. Its function is only to save labor, but the cost of steelmaking cannot be reduced much.

The real cost lies in smelting iron. Ten times of smelting wrought iron requires five times the weight of pig iron. The more pig iron is smelted, the more pig iron is consumed.

Ju Ming walked to the iron pond and picked up a piece of cooling wrought iron.

It’s time to try to cast a few squatting tiger cannons. This thing is the simplest and can be used as a training tool for cannon-casting craftsmen. The Tiger Crouching Cannon is two feet long, has a caliber of two inches, and weighs only 36 pounds. After being disassembled, it can be carried by a horse.

Not only did Ju Ming want to cast the cannon in an honest and fair manner, but he also wanted to cast it with public funds and then deposit it in the military staff warehouse in Jinzhou.

When someone asked, they said it was made for the imperial court and could be used directly during future rebellions.

As for the bigger artillery and fire guns, let’s build the Tiger Crouching Cannon first, and now we’ll focus on training craftsmen.

Recommended book: "The Ming Dynasty: Landlords in the Valley Rebellion and Proclaimed Emperor", a historical text about the rebellion in the valley.