Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Di Qing is quite content with the situation separated by the wall: during the day, you only need to omit brother Liu, and you can be called a couple; at night, you only need to climb over the wall, and you can share the same bed; Playing is very leisurely.

However, Lu Ci still refused to give up the retirement plan he had set up early.

Always being sneaky like this, at first he felt that it was very interesting, but after a long time, even if the lover didn't feel wronged, he didn't feel very refreshed.

The affection between him and Di Qing may not be made public in this life, but even the ordinary intimacy needs to be kept secret at all times, how can it be a long-term solution?

What even Di Qing didn't know was that Lu Zhaowen, who had always acted vigorously and boldly, was not only focused on the development of trade in the South China Sea, but also set his sights on the farther southern hemisphere—that is, the people of later generations. Oceania, where Australia is located.

They only need to go all the way south and pass through the Southeast Asian archipelago. If all goes well, they will be able to land on the fertile continent where only the aborigines are sparsely inhabited.

Over the years, Lu Ci has made preparations for this extremely grand voyage both openly and secretly: with his strong financial resources, he can call in more experienced navigators and craftsmen, and his advanced knowledge can be used for the route. The determination to provide assistance, and the thriving navigation industry of the Song Dynasty, the mature technology of the shipbuilding industry, and superior navigation equipment...all of which provided him with more and more confidence and conditions.

Due to the tolerance of the national policy, maritime trade has always been encouraged, and it has brought huge profits, which has given merchants a taste of the sweetness. The large and small docks by the sea have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and the number of them has been countless in the past few years.

Among them, there is no lack of people with high skills who are bold and dare to go further.

During these years of patient preparation, Lu Ci has not only seen the maritime merchants who used to use medium-sized merchant ships to come and go freely in the southeast offshore islands, but also knew that there were a few brave explorers who spent huge sums of money to build A huge ship named 'Mulan Boat' went to the legendary Mulan Pi Country, and then returned safely with a lot of goods purchased locally.

Their safe return can be described as a miracle. Not to mention the full cargo, but what they saw along the way provided countless valuable information for other maritime merchants to explore the Pacific Ocean and even the Atlantic Ocean.

Lu Ci also sent people to invite these brave and fearless explorers into his private residence and questioned them carefully, because after their thrilling voyage, they had no intention of sailing far for the rest of their lives, so he simply threw a lot of money into the All the sailors who sailed with it were hired.

Of course, Lu Ci's trip to China Southern Airlines was not all for a romantic and long retirement trip with Di Qing.

In his vision, he had to bring at least thousands of troops, so that he could not only take precautions and ensure personal safety, but also truly use the most advanced navigation technology of Song Dynasty at this time to completely open up the pattern of opening up in other continents. Take the lead in carrying out overseas colonization plans...

Relying on the network expanded by Lu's Yizhuang, Lu Ci quietly tossed behind his back for so many years. After spending most of his family's money, he built six giant ships 'Youth Tour' in the two ports of Zaitong and Xingkelan.

Unlike giant merchant ships, in order to prevent rampant pirates, he also had people build sophisticated weapons and place them on them, making them a mighty warship that should not be underestimated.

When everything is ready, he will be 49 years old.

That night, Di Qing climbed over the wall and came to Lu's residence, and sneaked into Lu Ci's bedroom.

After some intimacy, Lu Ci asked for water to take a bath, while Di Shuxiang, who was majestic outside, bowed willingly, gently rubbing the shoulders of his lover who was soaked in hot soup and exuding a lazy atmosphere, and stole it from time to time. A kiss.

While enjoying the service of the big raccoon slave with peace of mind, Lu Ci closed his eyes and rested his mind. After taking a bath, he got out of the bucket to wipe himself, and after wrapping up a piece of pajamas casually, he looked at Di Qing with great interest. The scene of bathing in water.

After the Battle of Southern Xinjiang, internal and external stability, Di Qing also disarmed for many years, only concentrated on sitting in the shufu and carrying out drastic reforms.

But he has never slack off his martial arts skills, even if he is not in the army, he always spares two hours a day to practice.

Compared with Lu Ci's slender figure, he has a broad frame. Although his muscles are not exaggerated, they are both solid and beautiful.

The faded old scars covered it, together with the faint light of water, made him even more amazingly fit, just like the colorful fur on a tiger.

Appreciated by Lu Ci generously, Di Qing, who has been with him for many years and has become an old couple, is no longer as emotional as she was back then.

At this time, he can not only continue to take a bath calmly, dress with a steady breath, but also walk up to his sweetheart naturally after taking care of himself, pick her up easily, and carefully put her back on the bed.

After making out just now, and after washing their bodies clean again, the two of them lay down on the bed again and hugged each other tacitly, without any intention of continuing.

At this moment, Lu Ci suddenly asked: "If I want you to put down everything in your hands and accompany me on a long voyage south, would you be willing?"

This question came without warning, but Di Qing answered without thinking: "Okay."

"Answered so quickly, I'm afraid you didn't hear clearly?" Even though he had expected his reaction, Lu Ci still couldn't help but smile, and kindly reminded: "You have to think carefully. Stay in Beijing and continue to be a pivot. If you look at me, you only need to follow the steps, and you will be famous for a lifetime; if you sail with me, you will be close to death, the future is unpredictable, and if you are not sure, you will never return."

If it succeeds, it will naturally be beneficial to the Song people's great plan for the future, and for them, it will inevitably leave a name in history and be full of glory.

Apart from these, the miraculous trip itself, which is worth remembering for a lifetime, is also an unparalleled romance.

But the risks involved are so great that even those who are ignorant of navigation can guess a bit: not to mention the rapidly changing sea climate, the long-distance routes, and the destinations that have never been reached before, even with a full ship full of experience None of the sailors dared to boast that they would be safe.

If one is unlucky, he will be buried silently in the belly of the fish.

"Meng Gongzu never gave up," Di Qing replied directly to this shocking plan with a gentle and forceful kiss: "Qing himself will accompany you."

Don't ask the reason, don't ask the purpose.

As long as it is the wish of the grandfather, he will follow it without hesitation.

Besides, if they can be buried in the same sea area, in the same fish belly...it can be called living in the same quilt and dying in the same coffin.

Lu Ci couldn't help laughing: "You."

Some call him Duke Lu, some call him Lu Zhaowen, some call him Yu Yu, and some call him Lu Ci...

But even in the most intimate moments, there is only one Di Hanchen who persists in calling him the father-in-law.

After getting Di Qing's answer that he had expected, Lu Ci had no more worries since then, and went to the palace on another day to ask His Majesty to mention the matter.

At this moment, Zhao Yi has been officially canonized as the prince and is living in the East Palace.

Perhaps it was because Lu Ci was his mentor and taught him alone for a whole year; perhaps it was because the Zhao family was destined to be very close to Lu Taotie; The teacher assigned to teach in the East Palace is completely different, not only handsome in appearance, knowledgeable, but also gentle and funny in conversation...

Zhao Yi, who was only nine years old, was much more attached to Grand Tutor Lu than his father, Zhao Zhen, who had to be a little reserved back then. Sometimes His Majesty saw it, and couldn't help but eat both sides.

When the cheerful Zhao Zhen heard that the young master did not mention becoming an official, but changed the subject, and proposed to sail southwards, he showed a well-prepared posture...

His first reaction was to pretend to be dizzy and run away immediately after being stunned.

This is not as good as becoming an official!

Zhao Zhen rarely felt overwhelmed. In order to prevent Lu Ci from looking for him again, he not only claimed to be sick for many days, but also cunningly sent the ignorant prince Zhao Yi to persuade him.

In terms of eloquence and writing, Zhao Yi, who is still immature, can't compare to his father who claims to be mediocre and whose only specialty is being a monarch.

But Zhao Yi also has a skill, which Zhao Zhen is embarrassed to do no matter how thick-skinned he is today.

— That is crying, crying loudly.

Rao is that Lu Ci is determined to achieve this this time. He not only prepared the recommendation of the new Zaizhi, but also greeted his friends in advance and asked them to support him in the court... But when he was caught by the white bread It seemed that the little prince hugged one leg tightly, shouting 'Don't go, don't go', weeping, out of breath, and completely disregarding his image, he really couldn't hold back his face.

This soft heart was dragged on for more than two years.

After a very long tug-of-war, Zhao Zhen couldn't hold back Zhao Wenxiang, who had made up his mind, so he could only endure the pain in his heart, and agreed to Lu Ci's ridiculous request, which in his eyes was tantamount to asking for death.

It's just that the prime minister's job, he has always been reluctant to go, and he simply used it as an excuse to allow Lu Ci to send [-] soldiers to go on a long voyage: this matter is of great importance, and it must be the chief minister's responsibility, and he must not resign.

If Lu Ci really went... When he bestowed a posthumous title, he could raise it further.

The chief culprit who made His Majesty the Emperor, who had just passed his forties, depressed and tearful from time to time was extremely satisfied because his wish was fulfilled.

There are still three full months before the actual departure day. Although it was the little emperor's deliberate delay, Lu Ci knew that he was uncomfortable, so he silently acquiesced.

It's nice to have plenty of time to say goodbye to friends.

Lu Ci was clear that he didn't know if he would see him again in the future when he went this time, so he made the worst plan early on, and made a comprehensive arrangement for his afterlife.

If five years have passed and they haven't returned, half of their wealth will be donated to Lu's Yizhuang to support the expansion and continuous operation of the Yizhuang; the other half will be given as a gift to the emperor whose private treasury has always been empty, and the friendship between teachers and students will be complete. .

As for the three mansions purchased in Beijing, he planned to present them to Liu Qi, Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu.

However, before he could find Yaren and finalize the contract for the transfer of the mansion, Liu Qi, who was the first to hear the news, came aggressively.

He slapped his hand on the desk suddenly, with such force that the heavy inkstone was shifted a little: "It's true that Yu Yu will sail south?!"

Seeing that he was emotional, Lu Ci subconsciously hesitated.

As soon as his hesitation fell into Liu Qi's eyes, it became a clear answer.

Liu Qi slammed the table again, and shouted: "Besides, if you treat one more favorably than another, you only care about Young Brother, Brother Yu is older than you, so you won't care about it. But you must take Brother Yu with you on this long voyage! "

Lu Ci: "..."

The author has something to say:

The next chapter is a gathering of friends, and a little explanation for Liu Qi's wife who hasn't appeared in the show for many years!

The results of the voyage will not appear in Fanwai [-], but will appear in the later forum of Fanwai [-].

Notes:

About the giant nautical ships of the Song Dynasty ("Feng Ya Song: Visible Song Civilization" Chapter 4, Business-River Boats during the Qingming Festival, author Wu Gou):

In 1974, a "Fu Chuan" sea-going ship of the late Southern Song Dynasty was unearthed in Houzhu Port, Quanzhou. The hull has a residual length of 24.20 meters and a residual width of 9.15 meters. It is estimated to have a load of about 200 tons and a displacement of 600 tons.The Quanzhou Overseas Transportation History Museum, which exhibits the ships of the Houzhu Song Dynasty, once said, "This is the earliest and largest wooden sailing ship discovered in the world so far."

However, this record was soon broken. In December 2007, the sunken ship "Nanhai No. 12" in the Southern Song Dynasty was salvaged as a whole. 800 years ago, this merchant ship was loaded with porcelain, silk and other commercial goods. It set out from Quanzhou Port and sailed to Southeast Asia, but sank in the South China Sea for some reason. After the "Nanhai No. 30.40" came out of the water, it was measured that the hull was 9.80 meters long, 4 meters wide, and about [-] meters high (excluding the mast).This is the earliest, largest and best-preserved ancient ocean-going trade merchant ship discovered so far.

But if the "Nanhai No. 600" is put back into history, it cannot be said to be the largest merchant ship in the Song Dynasty.According to "Meng Liang Lu" records: "The ships of the sea merchants vary in size. The large one can carry 300 people with 120 materials; the medium 300 to 200 materials can also carry 3600 people." The Song people used a unit of measurement for the ship's load. One material is equal to one Song stone, which is equivalent to [-] catties today.The large navigating merchant ships common in the Song Dynasty could carry [-] materials, that is, [-] tons of load.The "Nanhai No. [-]" with a load of about [-] tons and the Song ship in Houzhu Port, if replaced by the Song people's measurement habits, would be about [-] materials, which should be only medium-sized merchant ships.

However, even 5000 materials are not the maximum loading capacity of sea ships in the Song Dynasty.The Song people also built even larger sailing ships.During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song court ordered the shipyard to build two giant ships because it wanted to send a mission to visit Korea. Shenzhou".At the same time, six "customer boats" from Fujian and Zhejiang provinces were entrusted to accompany them.The passenger boat "is more than ten feet long, three feet deep, two and five feet wide, and can carry two thousand dendrobium millet." 2000 dendrobium is equal to 2000 material, that is, the load is about 120 tons, which is slightly smaller than the Song boats we see today in Houzhu Port, Quanzhou.

So what is the loading capacity of the Shenzhou "Kangji" and "Tongji"?According to the records of "Xuanhe Fengshi Koryo Tujing", "the length, width and height of the Shenzhou, the use of practical objects, and the number of people are all three times that of the guest boats."In other words, the loading capacity of a Shenzhou is at least 6000 tons. Converted into today's terms, the load can reach 360 tons, and the displacement can reach more than 1000 tons.No wonder people in the Song Dynasty described the two Shenzhou boats as "mountain-like, floating on the waves, with brocade sails and bows, bowing to the dragons" and "on the day when the beauties welcome the imperial edict, they tower over the country and cheer and sigh."

But Shenzhou may not be the largest ship merchant sailing from Dasong port.Zhou Qufei of the Southern Song Dynasty’s "Ling Wai Dai Answer" describes a giant ship called "Mulan Boat", which is a huge merchant ship sailing from the Song Dynasty to the "Mulan Pi Kingdom" (that is, the Murabbit Kingdom in West Africa): " Floating to the south of the South China Sea, the boat is like a huge room, the sails are like clouds hanging from the sky, the boat is several feet long, and there are hundreds of people in the boat, and the food for a year is stored in it, and pigs are kept in it to make wine." The size of this kind of magnolia boat is roughly the same as that of the Shenzhou boat. as if.There is also a bigger Mulan boat: "The boat is getting bigger. A boat can accommodate a thousand people. There are bamboos and market wells on the boat. If there is no wind, it will take a few years to arrive. It must be a huge boat, and it cannot be reached. In this world The so-called Mulan boat may not be without boasting.” The huge ship can hold thousands of people, and the cabin can not only raise pigs and brew wine, but also is equipped with “machines” and opened a “market”.

Ibin Batuta, a Moroccan traveler who visited Hangzhou and Guangzhou during the Yuan Dynasty, also recorded that the sea traffic between India and China was all in the hands of the Chinese. Chinese ships had three to twelve sails, and a large ship It can carry 1000 people, including 600 sailors and 400 soldiers.These merchant ships were all built in the ports of Zaitong (Quanzhou) and Xingkelan (Guangzhou).You must know that the super luxury cruise ship "Titanic" made in Britain in the early 20th century can carry only 4000 people.

Such a huge sea-going ship demonstrates the superb shipbuilding technology and developed shipbuilding industry of the Song people, and it is also a testimony to the highly prosperous maritime trade in the Song Dynasty.Thanks to superb shipbuilding technology and advanced navigation equipment (including compass and route map "compass needle book"), merchants in the Song Dynasty drove countless giant ships full of commercial goods from China's harbors to the vast ocean and entered Southeast Asia. , to the Arabian Peninsula, and even to the east coast of Africa.If it is said that there was a glorious era of great navigation in Chinese history, then this era must be the Song Dynasty.

Maritime trade was prosperous in the Song Dynasty, and boundary paintings were developed. Of course, the traces of sailing ships would be captured by painters in the pictures.According to legend, Yan Wengui, a painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, painted a "Portrait of a Ship Crossing the Sea", "The size is not full, the boat is like a leaf, and the people are like wheat, and the masts, sails and sculls are full of emotions. Look, jiao mirages come out, thousands of miles away, how wonderful it is."Unfortunately this painting has been lost.From Wang Zhenpeng (type) of the Yuan Dynasty's "Jiangshan Shenglan Map" (Beijing Poly Auction), we can also see the long-distance merchant ships at Yongjia Wharf in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Later, the decline of China's shipbuilding technology was largely due to the restriction of navigation and maritime trade by the Ming and Qing governments' ban on sea policy.In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated: "Where the ships go to sea along the coast, except for those with a numbered ticket to lead them to go abroad, if treacherous and powerful people, such as soldiers and civilians, build illegal large ships with three masts or more, they will bring prohibited goods to the sea. Fanguo trading, sneaking into pirates, conspiring together and robbing good people as a guide, the principal offender has been punished by the law for conspiracy, and still shows his head to the public. Those who benefit are compared to those who will be banned from sending weapons into the sea, so they leak the law of the army, the leader will be executed, and the followers will be sent to serve as frontier guards."

During the Jingtai period, the Ming government imposed strict restrictions on the size of civilian ships in Fujian: "The off-shore illegal vessels were all ordered to be dismantled, with a measure of five or six feet, and their official positions were printed according to their physiology."[361] During the Jiajing period, The imperial court issued a decree again: "The governors of Zhejiang and Fuzhou provinces will inspect the sea boats as officials, but those with two masts will be arrested immediately. The records are not Fanwu. In terms of Fanwu, they will all be sent to guard the border. Officials, soldiers and civilians, know And those who do so will be relegated to a miasma."

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court also strictly stipulated: "If anyone builds an illegal ship with a double mast of more than [-] shi and goes to sea, regardless of the officer, soldier or civilian, he will be sent to the frontier guards to serve as an army. Civil and military officials and local armor chiefs should be in charge. Three years; those who know that they can't raise their heads will be dismissed from their posts, and the soldiers and civilians will be staffed with one hundred sticks."

In the 42nd year of Kangxi (1703), the imperial court again issued detailed rules for controlling coastal shipbuilding: "For fishing boats going overseas, single-masted ships are only allowed. The beam head must not exceed one foot, and the rudder must not exceed [-] people and carry passengers and cargo. Small boats When the ship was not built, it was presented to the prefecture and county, and the confession was strictly checked. It was indeed a rich and good person who went to the foreign ship owner in person. The prefecture and county personally inspected the name of the brand name, and still put the ship's name, name and surname on the ship's mast and the big book next to the ship, and filled in the photo of the ship's owner's age, name, place of origin and what he did for a living, and then gave the photo , to prepare for flood inspection.”

As a result, China's shipbuilding technology and nautical career began to decline after Zheng He's voyages to the West in the Ming Dynasty.