Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The day before the hunting season, Zhu Ming moved into Dongxi Garden.

During this period, the first data collected from the exchanges between scholars from the East and the West were on political systems, kings, and wise ministers.

Although Zhu Ming didn't think much of it, he still read it as interesting data.

As he read, Zhu Ming was surprised to find that Mulek's prime minister grandfather was really awesome.

During his tenure, he created systems, determined the calendar, reformed the tax system, streamlined the military, built post stations, dug canals, promoted education, encouraged industry and commerce...

He also established universities in all major cities, not only teaching general knowledge and doctrines, but also offering subjects such as philosophy, history, astronomy, medicine, and literature.

These Seljuk universities, like the official schools of the Ming Dynasty, were funded by the court and had a large amount of real estate as subsidies.

In addition to free food and accommodation, students could even receive scholarships!

However, with the assassination of the prime minister and the turmoil of the Seljuk division, many of these schools closed down for a time, and several of them have been restored in the past two decades.

The most famous one at present is called Nizamiyah University.

The school is located outside Baghdad and has a large brick building complex. It was supported by the caliphate during the war.

Now the Seljuk Sultan is rushing to give funds, not only to win over scholars and students in the university, but also to rely on this university to continuously train officials.

Several consecutive prime ministers graduated from this university.

Others such as Shah and governors often hired government officials from this university.

In terms of the number of schools and students, the Seljuks have basically met the conditions for the imperial examination and can set up the imperial examination of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

After reading the story of this legendary prime minister, Zhu Ming picked up another copy of "The Rubaiyat".

This book is very famous, especially in the Republic of China period, it was translated into multiple versions by Guo Lao, Hu Shi, Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, Zhu Xiang and others.

It was born in Nizamiyah University in Baghdad, and the author has just died a few years ago.

The Ming translation version is very interesting. The translation of "The Rubaiyat" is called "Arabic Quatrains".

The last Seljuk envoy, Abu, had already started translating with the Imperial Academy of Ming Dynasty.

He did not finish the translation when he returned to China, but he translated the general meaning of all the poems into plain language.

The Imperial Academy of Ming Dynasty was so bored that he actually translated all the Persian quatrains into quatrains based on these plain language!

Correspondingly, the quatrain poems brought back from China were translated into quatrains by Seljuk poets.

Rubaiyat is a quatrain.

Even the rhyme rules of the last words of each line are the same as those of Chinese quatrains.

The author of "Rubaiyat", who died just a few years ago, brought more than 20 books back to Luoyang.

Two of them are extremely important.

One is the Seljuk calendar revised by this person.

One is called "Algebra", which can solve quadratic equations concisely, but the author doubts that the conventional solution of cubic equations does not exist.

This author is not only a poet, astronomer and mathematician, but also a physician and philosopher.

And he was born in a humble family. His father was an Arab craftsman who made tents.

A man of such a background could become a famous scholar, which shows that the Seljuk establishment of the imperial examination system is really worthwhile.

"Dong Dong Dong Dong!"

The clock made a sound, and Zhu Ming put down his books, blew out the lamp and went to sleep.

The automatic alarm clock has been invented, but it is really a bit large, and it needs to be reduced and improved before it can be put on the market.

However, the clock towers in major cities have begun to adopt it one after another.

...

Waking up in the morning, Zhu Ming put on the Heavenly King Armor and rode to the Tiansijian Horse Farm in the south.

There was a temporary platform for commanding generals. Zhu Ming sat on the platform in armor, and the heavily armored guards guarded him on both sides.

First, the civil and military officials above the fifth rank lined up to bow to the emperor.

"Call the envoys of various countries!"

The chief and deputy envoys and guards of more than 30 countries all came forward one after another wearing their own armor.

If they didn't bring it, the Ming Dynasty would issue standard armor.

More than 200 people lined up in two rows and saluted Zhu Ming in a mess.

What etiquette, according to the customs of their respective countries.

Zhu Ming is not Zhu Di, who must make the envoys of all countries kneel.

At that time, Timur's envoys refused to kneel, and Zhu Di could only laugh it off. Could he have killed the envoys? That envoy was Timur's prime minister.

At this moment, some people knelt on both knees, some knelt on one knee, and some bowed with their chests folded, and there were many subdivisions.

For example, when kneeling on both knees, some envoys just kowtowed, some envoys put their hands together, and some envoys suddenly prostrated themselves.

Bowing with chests folded was also different, some crossed their hands on their chests, and some put one hand diagonally on their chests.

Hu Anguo, the Minister of Rites, felt very uncomfortable when he saw it.

He thought that he could train in advance and unify the movements of the envoys to reflect the majesty of the nations coming to the court.

Several painters stood on the left and right of the general's platform, and had already captured the scene of the worship. They took out their brushes and quickly drew a rough basic form. The rest could be taken home and slowly polished.

It is estimated that several "Pictures of Nations Coming to the Court" could be produced.

After the envoys stood aside, Zhang Guangdao came on horseback: "The six armies are ready, please review them!"

"Clang!"

Zhu Ming stood up and drew his sword: "Military review."

The troops came stepping on the farmland. Although the wheat had been harvested, other crops were still planted in the fields.

The farmland that was trampled needed to be exempted from autumn grain and compensated for the young crops.

This is what the Northern Song Dynasty did. Regardless of whether it could be distributed to the farmers, the court had this funding for the military review.

The central armies in Luoyang and Kaifeng have withdrawn from the field army sequence and have been separately organized into the two capital forbidden armies.

The troop numbers are: Shen Ce, Shen Wu, Shen Xiao, Shen Ji, Long Xiang, Hu Yi, Ying Yang, and Bao Tao.

There is also a palace guard: Yulin.

If you include the established civilian and support personnel, the total number of these nine troops is close to 100,000.

Not all of them are stationed in the two capitals, but also occupy various traffic arteries.

The garrison locations around Luoyang include: Yanxi Town, Liuquan Town, Yique Town, Baibo Town, and Fengshi Town.

The garrison locations around Kaifeng include: Chenqiao Town, Guoqiao Town, Banqiao Town, Chicang Town, and Luguan Town.

The military camps are some distance away from the towns, and the daily consumption from the soldiers has made these small towns more prosperous.

The conscription and retirement systems have also been reformed and divided into two modes: inner town and outer town.

Inner towns are state capitals that do not fight much, and each county has a certain quota of soldiers.

Children from farm families could sign up voluntarily. If a certain county could not raise the number of troops, it would be forced to recruit troops from families with more than two liters to make up the amount.

New recruits from prefectures and counties are sent to Fucheng for training. Based on their training results, they are assigned by the commander-in-chief and the capital commander, and sent to various units across the province to formally enlist. With the existing transportation conditions, they can only be deployed within the province.

Soldiers in the inner town army have a basic service period of five years.

If you cannot be promoted after the age limit, you must be forced to retire.

This system has led to a considerable increase in military expenditures.

The outer towns are border areas.

Depending on the local population, the basic service time ranges from eight to fifteen years, and recruitment of ethnic minorities is allowed.

If there is an emergency and the number of border troops is insufficient, the inner town troops will be quickly dispatched to supplement it.

Moreover, the common people in border areas must all be classified as Baojia, and militia training must also be carried out in peacetime. When there was no time to mobilize troops from the inner town, the local Baojia militiamen were directly recruited into the army.

As for the 100,000 Central Army troops in the two capitals, the troops are replenished from all provinces across the country, and the basic service period is still five years!

This was because they were afraid of repeating the mistakes of the Northern Song Dynasty, where all the imperial troops were locals from the capital. The result was nepotism. Most of the officers were unlearned and unskilled sons of nobles. The soldiers did not retire until they were in their fifties or sixties. They covered up each other and deducted military pay at all levels.

In the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty, if an officer reaches a certain level, he will be transferred to the local army for training.

As for the mid-level officers of the border army, those with outstanding performance will be transferred to the central army, and after a few years of gilding, they will be transferred back to the original army.

Again, military spending has skyrocketed!

If the finances are insufficient after a hundred years, future monarchs and ministers will definitely abolish the existing system.

But as long as it is not abolished, the Ming army can remain active.

And veterans after retiring from the army are all potential sources of high-quality soldiers.

With a war mobilization order, as long as the logistics can keep up, hundreds of thousands of troops can be mobilized in minutes, and they can go directly to the battlefield without training.

"Bang bang bang!"

1,500 Yulin troops came in neat steps, most of them were heavy armored infantry, and a few were heavy armored cavalry.

Gu San stepped forward and saluted: "The Yulin Army is here, please review by Your Majesty."

Ju Ming pointed at the sword sideways, and the Yu Lin army walked past in formation and stood neatly in one place on the school grounds.

Of course, it is impossible to attract all the 100,000 forbidden troops.

Only 30,000 people were used today.

The mere appearance of the Yulin Army has already shocked those small countries.

Especially in the small countries of Nanyang, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, the weather in many places is very hot, and the armor is relatively crude. Being wrapped in armor will make you extremely hot.

The armors of the Yulin Army in front of them frightened them.

The infantrymen were all covered in heavy armor, with only their eyes and mouth exposed. They also carry spears, bones, bows and arrows, both near and far weapons, as well as armor-breaking blunt weapons.

The cavalry are all heavily armored, and with only 200 cavalry appearing, they are full of intimidation. Such a small number of heavy cavalry, coupled with some ordinary troops, is enough to wipe out the small country.

Seljuk Prime Minister Mulek could still remain calm at this time.

Because the Seljuks also had heavy cavalry, which were the guards directly under the Sultan, equipped with spears, swords, hammers and crossbows.

Soon, the firearms arrived!

Shen Ce, Shen Wu, Shen Xiao, Shen Ji, Long Xiang, Hu Yi, Ying Yang, Bao Tao, these eight forbidden armies are all composite military services.

Not all of the Shenji Army are firearms soldiers, nor are all of the Leopard Tao Army are archers.

Chariots, artillerymen, musketeers, pikemen, crossbowmen, grenadiers, valiant cavalry, light cavalry... Each unit is equipped with these arms.

They can fight individually, or they can fight together.

In special circumstances, troops can be combined together. For example, if you go to Mobei, you can draw out the valiant cavalry and light cavalry, and the cavalry from each army will form a pure cavalry team to attack.

Compared with the decisive battle with the Jin Kingdom, the types of troops have changed.

The sword and shield bearers were directly cancelled, and the guns, artillery and cavalry were increased.

That is to say, the defense power is slightly reduced, and the long-range firepower and high-mobility units are enhanced.

As prime minister, Mulek knows how to fight and is a Seljuq veteran. Historically, he was appointed deputy commander of the army after the decisive battle with Yelu Dashi.

At first, Mullek didn't understand much.

Until the armies start training!

However, they saw that the armies were retreating one after another, and the Shenwu and Shence armies began to march.

In addition, the cavalry of the Sixth Army were drawn out separately and imitated the prairie cavalry to make a surprise attack.

Bugles sounded one after another, and the Shenwu and Shence armies quickly formed a car formation.

The arrows without arrowheads were shot from a distance by the cavalry. The defenders only used long spears to resist, and then the cavalry retreated when they could not break into the chariot formation.

Muleke was confused and did not understand it very well.

But the defenders dared to show their true strength only after the attacking cavalry left far away.

Some logistics personnel erected a large number of straw men as targets, and the farthest straw man was actually two miles away.

"Boom boom boom!"

The large-caliber field artillery fired first, followed by musket shooting, followed by artillery short-range shotgun shells, and then crossbow volleys. When the crossbow fired the third arrow, the musket fired the second bullet, and then the grenadiers threw bombs to explode continuously.

The straw men erected in front either fell directly or were covered with bullet holes and arrows.

The envoys of various countries were in a dead silence.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty cheered.

Muleke opened his mouth wide, thinking that he was the commander of the attacking side, running with the cavalry to attack the chariot formation.

At this moment, it is estimated that they have collapsed.

"Kill!"

The brave cavalry and light cavalry in the chariot formation suddenly rushed out from various passages, they wanted to chase and kill the fleeing enemy.

Soon, all the straw men who were still standing were chopped down by the cavalry.

Mulek began to doubt his life: How to fight this kind of military formation?