Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1181 Epilogue : Ancient Speeding Party
Li Dunshi's two friends came to visit excitedly the next day.

One is Wen and the other is Li, both are sons of gentry in the suburbs of Beijing.

The student of arts is called Shi Shouli. His ancestor is the Shi family of Culai, who moved from Leling to Tai'an in the late Tang Dynasty. He was a village noble at first, and became a general in the Five Dynasties period.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there emerged a great master of Confucianism named Shi Jie. This family once enjoyed a period of cultural prosperity - it was only a cultural prosperity. Shi Jie was honest as water throughout his life, and after his death, his wife had to rely on friends for help.

The construction of the Shi family system is of great significance to the development of Chinese family culture. It inherited the Sui and Tang dynasties and opened up the Ming and Qing dynasties. It can be said that the family ancestral halls and ancestor worship systems from the Song Dynasty to the Republic of China all originated from the Shi family.

When it comes to a thing, we cannot simply judge whether it is good or bad, but we have to look at the environment it is in at the time.

The Five Dynasties of War destroyed China and various cultural heritages. The reconstruction of the family system was of progressive significance at the time.

The Shi family has a very high reputation in the cultural circle, but compared with the real wealthy families, they have always been "poor and powerless."

Shi Shouli's family moved to Luoyang in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty and always belonged to the small landlord class. It was not until 80 years ago that his family finally began to prosper when a top scholar appeared in the imperial examination.

Another science student was Han Wanli, the sixth-generation grandson of Han Shizhong.

Han Shizhong's descendants are mainly divided into three branches: the main branch is in Luoyang, one branch is in Shaanxi, and one branch is in Qiheduhufu.

The main clan that stayed in Luoyang was the eldest son of Han Shizhong, who was a civil servant and married Yue Fei's daughter.

"So you are both descendants of famous families. I'm so sorry!" Xie Yan received him warmly and was more interested in Han Wanli. After all, he had the blood of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei.

Li Dunshi said: "Brother Siyuan's (Han Wanli) great-grandfather made many military achievements during the Dingtai Dynasty and was restored to the title of Duke!"

Han Wanli said modestly: "It is my duty to be loyal to the emperor and serve my country."

Han Shizhong's eldest son became a civil servant, and his descendants could not even pass the imperial examination to become Jinshi, so the direct line could only inherit the title and live off the old capital.

Han Wanli's great-grandfather was also a poor student and went to a military school. But he was a childhood friend of Emperor Dingtai!

Emperor Dingtai felt that the Luoyang army was out of control, so he transferred two generals and 4,000 soldiers from the border. One of the generals was Han Wanli's great-grandfather.

After that, Emperor Dingtai reorganized the army and quelled the rebellion. Han Wanli's great-grandfather was entrusted with important tasks and was promoted to county lord for his meritorious service. He later died of illness in Qiheduhufu.

Emperor Dingtai loved Han Wanli so much that he appointed Han Wanli's grandfather as the commander of the imperial guards.

But his performance was so bad that he once went to work drunk and fell several times in front of many ministers. He also had countless concubines, indulged in sensual pleasures, and managed the imperial guards in a mess.

Emperor Dingtai tolerated him many times, but he refused to change his ways, so he finally fired him. The Han family avoided the coup and watched the whole process without supporting any side.

Han Wanli's grandfather died of illness two years ago, leaving behind more than 20 sons who have been clamoring to divide the family property every day, but the division of the property has not yet been clear.

Han Wanli's father was born to a second wife, and was also a legitimate son. He joined his brothers in the trouble. Now he was allocated more than 200 acres of land in the suburbs of Beijing and a building in the suburbs, but he had no title or official position.

As for the illegitimate sons of the Han family, they only made some temporary gains and were sent away with some money.

If future generations do not work hard, Han Wanli's lineage will only be able to become retired officials and landlords.

Shi Shouli and Han Wanli came to pay a visit today simply because they thought Xie Yan was awesome.

After chatting for a while, Xie Yan asked, "The Grand Princess is going to hold a polo match in a few days, but I have never played polo before. Do you three gentlemen know anything about this?"

"I know a little." Han Wanli was a little embarrassed.

His grandfather had too many children and grandchildren, and they were treated differently. Whenever he participated in such aristocratic activities, Han Wanli was just standing by to make up the numbers. He had few opportunities to play, and he didn't even have his own dedicated racehorse.

Shi Shouli and Li Dunshi are even worse, as they have never played polo many times.

Seeing this, Xie Yan quickly changed the subject and asked his follower Xie Chang to take out the chess pieces.

These three were all descendants of aristocrats or officials. Although they had fallen on hard times, they were still natives of Luoyang and could get a lot of information.

Han Wanli said: "The most powerful people in Luoyang now are the civil official and the military official. The civil official is naturally Prime Minister Deng, and the military official is Wu Shumi."

Xie Yan asked: "I know Prime Minister Deng, but who is this Wu Shumi?"

Han Wanli knew all about this: "Wu Shumi's ancestors were bandits in the late Song Dynasty. At that time, there was a Shandong bandit named Song Jiang who led his troops to surrender to Emperor Taizong. Song Jiang continued to lead the troops, but one of his generals named Wu Song retired in Kaifeng."

Xie Yan's expression became very strange. How the hell is "Water Margin" coming out?
Han Wanli continued, "When the imperial court sent troops to recapture Anxi, Wu Song's son followed the army to immigrate to Anxi. Because of his excellent riding and archery skills, he was recruited as a son-in-law by the garrison general. When my ancestors, Han and Yue, conquered Western Liao, this general followed them. He was promoted to a fourth-rank military officer for his military exploits and moved to Qihe Protectorate to settle down."

"This Wu Shumi of the current dynasty rose to prominence when my great-grandfather put down the Qihe Rebellion. He was less than 30 years old at the time, but he was recommended to the late emperor by my great-grandfather and transferred back to Luoyang to serve as a general of the imperial guards. When Prince Yong launched a coup, it was Wu Shumi who led a team of elite soldiers to escort the current empress dowager and His Majesty out of Luoyang."

"Not only has he performed meritorious service in protecting the emperor, but he is also from the same hometown as the empress dowager, Qihe. It is natural that Wu Shumi will rise to prominence."

Han Wanli's words were not obscure, and Xie Yan was able to understand them.

This military privy councilor was transferred from Qihe to Luoyang. He had no deep connection with the dignitaries in the capital, and he was also from the same hometown as Empress Dowager Ye. Therefore, he was the most suitable military general to be entrusted with the care of the orphans, and was the key chess piece in Emperor Dingtai's plan.

In order to gain the trust of Prince Yong, Wu Shumi even took the initiative to collude with the gang of treacherous officials and villains to make them complacent and careless.

For Wu Shumi, his support for Prince Yong's ascension to the throne was only icing on the cake, and he would not gain much benefit from a successful coup. If he rescued the young emperor and assisted him to ascend the throne, he would be the first military minister of the Ming Dynasty!

Moreover, Wu Shumi was not clear about how many chess pieces Emperor Dingtai had arranged, and always felt that the success rate of Prince Yong's coup was not high. When the coup actually happened, Wu Shumi subconsciously acted according to Emperor Dingtai's deployment. Xie Yan thought this Ming Dynasty was too interesting.

The descendants of Yang Zaixing, the descendants of Han Shizhong, and the descendants of Wu Song all appeared alive.

As for Li Dunshi, the descendant of Li Yanxian, I'm sorry, Xie Yan is ignorant and has never heard of the name of Li Yanxian.

After playing chess and chatting for a while, they had lunch at Li's house. It was not until mid-afternoon that Han and Shi said goodbye and left.

Xie Yan sent them out and asked Li Dunshi privately: "What is the highest temperature that the furnace for smelting ore can reach now?"

Li Dunshi shook his head: "I don't know, we can tell by the color of the flame, no one knows the exact temperature."

Xie Yan laughed when he heard this, thinking that he had asked a very stupid question.

Even during the Industrial Revolution, it was impossible to accurately measure furnace temperature.

If you want to improve the performance of cement, the furnace temperature of the traditional calcination method is not high enough. As long as the furnace temperature is raised, the remaining ingredients are easy to handle.

Xie Yan asked again: "Where is the most famous steel smelter?"

Li Dunshi thought about it carefully: "Xuzhou, Zunhua, Hanyang... Well, it seems that there are also Qiongzhou, Suzhou and Guangzhou."

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"Do you know those iron smelters?" Xie Yan asked.

Li Dunshi shook his head.

Xie Yan stopped discussing this topic. He planned to ask the princess about it in a couple of days.

At that time, I will cooperate with the princess, invest my own technology, and the princess will provide funds and connections. Then I can use Li's cement factory to conduct experiments, and I don't have to deliberately return the favor afterwards, just collect less cement patent royalties from Li.

Cement is a commodity with a highly regional market, and long-distance transportation will cause costs to soar.

In the future, we can build a factory in Beimang with the princess, and the market will radiate Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, etc. The Li family's small cement factory will definitely be able to make some money as they want.

The patent can also be authorized to the Xie family, allowing the Xie clan members who are not officials to run a cement factory in their hometown in Hebei.

As for other people, they can get the patent license by paying patent fees. Anyway, the formula is in their hands and it will not be spread on a large scale in a short period of time.

This thing not only requires raising the oven temperature, but also adding other ingredients!

……

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Xie Yan went out with four male followers and two maids, borrowed the Li family's carriage, and took Li Dunshi with him.

The princess won’t say anything if you bring one more person.

Li Minqiu was delighted. His son was able to get into the circle of the powerful again. It turned out to be a good move for him to win over Master Xie.

He watched the carriage leave, feeling quite emotional.

Think about his Li family, they were also the top nobles before the coup. Although his family had long fallen out with the main clan in the city, he was also proud of the main clan's success.

The polo match was held at the Royal Racecourse, more than 20 miles away from the Li family's house.

On the way, Xie Yan could hear the sound of horse hooves from time to time. They must have been invited to participate in the polo club.

Many sons of powerful families rode their horses through the suburbs, even trampling on the wheat that was about to be harvested.

These guys actually know how to pay compensation.

Behind them, servants riding donkeys, mules or inferior horses followed, laughing and throwing copper coins into the wheat fields. The copper coins were deliberately not strung with ropes, so that they would be scattered like flowers, and the farmers could enjoy watching them picking up the coins in the fields.

Xie Yan saw five or six sons of powerful nobles deliberately riding their horses into the wheat fields, chasing and playing recklessly. Their followers, of course, followed suit, throwing copper coins and laughing.

"Whose families are these evil young men from?" Xie Yan asked.

Li Dunshi observed carefully: "It's too far to see clearly. The previous emperor also severely punished this kind of behavior. Throwing copper coins is the countermeasure of the evil young men. Even if the court punishes them, they can claim that it was not intentional and they have already compensated the farmer."

Xie Yan said: "The owners of the land in the suburbs of Beijing all have backgrounds, right?"

Li Dunshi smiled bitterly: "When they trample on farmland, they will pick on other people. They just bully the weak and fear the strong. For example, my farmland is often trampled by the bad boys who go to Longmen Grottoes. These bastards do nothing all day long, they just know how to have fun in various ways."

Xie Yan was silent.

Li Dunshi said: "The Queen Mother and the Prime Minister have purged the rebels and executed and exiled many dignitaries. Now these evil young men have restrained themselves. They were even more unscrupulous before, and some even deliberately rode their horses to hurt people."

Xie Yan is very familiar with this kind of people and often sees them in the media.

A group of rich and powerful drag racers, if they kill someone all they have to do is pay compensation.

(End of this chapter)