Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 204 0199 [The aggressive generals take advantage of the situation]

The next day, Zhu Ming, with his family and entourage, went to Huangting Temple in the eastern suburbs to offer incense.

By the way, go to visit the Zhang family in Juancheng.

The eunuch drove slowly eastward, and the people in the city watched curiously.

Puzhou City was first built in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It was only repaired from time to time, but never expanded. The scale is not very large.Official buildings such as state government offices, county government offices, school grounds, and state schools account for one-sixth of the city's area.

More common people, Fu Guo lived outside the city.

The Xiangfang system was implemented in cities in the Song Dynasty, that is, the whole city was divided into several areas (Xiang) and then subdivided into several blocks (Fang).

The squares in the Song Dynasty were different from those in the Tang Dynasty. The isolated buildings were all demolished, leaving only the squares in each block."XX Fang" is written on the forehead, which is used to determine the information of the block, and later gradually evolved into an archway.

Looking at the people on both sides of the street, Ju Ming suddenly thought of the bustling Tokyo.

Naturally, it cannot be compared with Tokyo, but the early Southern Song Dynasty was equally miserable. Puzhou was directly massacred, and all the people in the city were slaughtered.

At that time, in the small city of Puzhou, there were only more than 1000 remnants of the Western Army, but they carried the main force of the Jin Army for 33 days.

Yao Duan, the guard, led five hundred Western troops out of the city to attack at night, and rushed straight to Yan Zonghan's Chinese army tent.

Wanyan Zonghan was wearing an unlined garment and ran for his life barefoot in fear in the late autumn night.After gathering the army, the bird man was furious and ordered to attack Puzhou with all his strength, and threatened to massacre the city to vent his anger.

Yang Cuizhong, the magistrate, led the people in the city to stand firm.The city was broken, street battles were fought, and the bell tower was retreated. Yang Cuizhong was captured and died for the country.

Yao Duan led the remnant soldiers to break through the siege successfully, but was later killed in the battle of Zhegao.

Looking at the lively faces in Puzhou City, Zhu Ming felt very contradictory about whether Jingkang would rebel afterward.

This kind of thought is not the first time it has appeared, and it has happened several times in Tokyo.

The rebellion after Jingkang will be very smooth, and the difficulty of rebellion will be greatly reduced.

But people in Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places will fall into hell, and the economy and people's livelihood in the whole north will be greatly damaged.

Between myths, Ju Ming had already ridden out of the city.

Going on for two miles, the civil official in charge of guiding the way said: "Prefect, Huang Tingguan is ahead."

But Zhu Ming didn't go to Huang Ting Temple: "I heard that the Zhang family in Juancheng is nearby."

The clerk replied: "The Zhang family's ancestral house still has two miles of land."

"You lead the way, first go to Zhang's house." Zhu Ming smiled.

The official was startled, and then shouted: "Go to Zhangzhuang!"

"Dang dang dang dang dang!"

The gong rang six times in a row, and the official held a sign to lead the way.

The civil official said: "Prefect, when visiting the Zhang family, you must send someone to notify in advance, so that the Zhang family can make preparations."

Zhu Ming nodded: "Yes."

A soap official rode a horse to report the news. When they arrived at the Zhang family's ancestral house, dozens of people from the Zhang family had gathered to welcome them.

Zhang Zuchun stood in front of him leaning on his crutches. Seeing the eunuch get off his horse, he immediately stepped forward to salute: "Juancheng Zhang Zuchun, bring the members of the Zhang clan to meet the eunuch!"

"You don't have to be polite, old man." Zhu Ming lifted him up and patted the sword on his waist. "I have been in Puzhou for nearly ten days, but I have not visited Mr. Guaiya's descendants. It is already very rude. I have admired Mr. Guaiya for a long time. , and even practiced swordsmanship hard, I have long wanted to visit Juancheng."

The old ancestor was worshiped, Zhang Zuchun was very happy, and quickly said: "The prefect, please come to the house for a banquet."

The Zhang family in Juancheng is a descendant of Zhang Yong, a famous official in the early Song Dynasty.

Zhang Yong is a man with both civil and military skills. Wen can create a new academic style, and Wu can quell the rebellion in Shu.He can drink three fights without getting drunk, and his swordsmanship is unparalleled in the world. He is good friends with Chen Tuan and Kou Zhun, and he is also the "father of Jiaozi".

Before the age of 19, Zhang Yong was just a ranger, traveling between Shandong and Hebei with a sword.Suddenly, I wanted to study. After studying at home for 17 years, I finally won the gold list.

Zhu Ming was brought into the house, and the meal was just started, so he drank tea and had some snacks.

Zhang Zuchun began to introduce the clansmen, especially a few young people, and said: "The descendants are ashamed of their ancestors, and have not been a Jinshi for 40 years. The Zhang family has a talented person called Zhang Lu. Unfortunately, he is not in his hometown. He went to Tokyo Taixue to study."

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "I have been a Taixue Zheng for a year, which school did Zhang Lu study in?"

Zhang Zuchun said: "The inner house of Taixue is the best."

Zhu Ming said: "I missed it, I was in charge of the students from other houses."

"It's a pity for a student who has never been a prefect," Zhang Zuchun said, "When he returns to his hometown during the Chinese New Year, he must pay a visit to the prefect and ask him for advice."

"I came to the state government to look for me," Zhu Ming took the opportunity to say, "Among the sons of the Zhang family, can you nominate one person to be my personal entourage temporarily?"

Zhang Zuchun said: "It is a rare blessing to be able to follow the prefect. Zhang Tong, come here!"

Zhang Tong is more than 20 years old. He is extremely intelligent. He has learned bow and horse, is proficient in swordsmanship, and likes to drink. He is the juvenile version of Zhang Yong.It's a pity that in the matter of studying, he is too far behind his ancestors, and he failed to pass the state examination twice.

I don't think I will be a Jinshi in this life, so I just follow Zhu Ming to practice.

"Meet the prefect!" Zhang Tong bowed respectfully.

Ju Ming looked at this person and nodded in approval: "The appearance is dignified, Kongwu is powerful, and he is both civil and military at first glance."

It is so convenient to become an official, and it is easy to recruit talents.

Of course, the real purpose of Ju Ming picking one of Zhang's sons as his personal attendant was to make things easier.

Zhang Zuchun ordered: "Let's dance the sword for the eunuch to cheer up."

"You're showing your ugliness!" Zhang Tong cupped his fists.

This person has two swords, one is a two-handed long sword and the other is a one-handed short sword.

The 1.8-meter Shandong man drew his sword out of its sheath, slashed and stabbed, and swung the eight poles.

"Good swordsmanship!" Li Bao clapped his hands in praise.

Zhu Ming said: "It's hard for one person to wield a sword to show his strength, you go and fight against him."

Li Bao jumped out with a gun: "I'm coming!"

The two immediately challenged each other one by one, with one spear and one sword, and the fight was indistinguishable.

Li Bao learned his spear skills from the army, not only him, many good civilians and bandits in Shandong have all their martial arts from the army.

Zhang Tong's swordsmanship was handed down from his ancestors, and it was said that it came from Chen Tuan's ancestor.I don't know if this is true or not, but Zhang Yong did learn Taoism from Chen Tuan when he was a hero.

"Forget it, don't hurt your peace."

The two fought for a while, but Zhu Ming stopped them at the right time and asked them to come back for tea.

Li Bao was very ashamed. He used a spear as a weapon, so he should be able to defeat Zhang Tong very quickly. After fighting for a long time, he was evenly matched.

Ju Ming asked, "Can I visit the Zhang Family Library?"

Zhang Zuchun said: "Prefect please."

Zhang Yong did not leave any property back then. When he was a hero, he "went bankrupt to serve guests", and he was poor when he entertained heroes all day long.All the money accumulated by being an official for many years was used to buy books and wine, leaving only thousands of volumes of books for future generations.

Even this ancestral house was built by his eldest son—all four sons were officials.

Today's Zhang family is divided into three, and the family lives in Tokyo, which is already dilapidated.One family is in Fujian, and they seldom have contact with the main sect.The family was in Juancheng, and they became complete landlords. They hadn't been a Jinshi for decades, and they were reduced to ordinary local clans.

Zhu Ming was wandering around in the library and found an interesting phenomenon. The Zhang family actually collected hundreds of Taoist scriptures.

In addition, there are books on the art of war and martial arts.

Zhu Ming took out a book of maces, and there were only eight words at the beginning: maces can't be used alone, and the method is double-edged.

After reading the general outline carefully, Zhu Ming realized that he had practiced wrongly, and the double mace is the complete version of horse fighting.If only one mace is used, many moves cannot be used, and the true power of the iron mace cannot be brought into play.

"Can I borrow this book?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhang Zuchun said: "Just take the prefect."

While flipping through the martial arts secret books, Zhu Ming casually said, "I heard that the Zhang family has tens of acres of land, which was taken by Huang Tingguan?"

Zhang Zuchun became annoyed when he mentioned this matter, and said angrily: "The Taoist priests are totally unreasonable. Relying on Wang Laozhi's arrogance, they actually recruited many thieves into the Taoist temple. Those thieves put on Taoist clothes and forcibly occupied the surrounding land of Huang Tingguan. They were often beaten, and some farmers even disappeared.”

"The Zhang family has so many people, so they dare not resist?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhang Zuchun said: "The tens of acres of land occupied by Taoist priests is not far from Huangting Temple. It is not owned by the main sect. Moreover, it is not Shangtian. If it is occupied, it will be occupied. If you mess with those Taoist priests, you will have no peace. They have With Wang Laozhi backing him up and raising many thieves, it's hard to end the trouble."

Zhu Ming handed the martial arts secret book to Bai Sheng, and said with a smile, "How about I help the Zhang family take back the land?"

Zhang Zuchun said in a low voice: "Taoist priests are arrogant and domineering, and they will do everything they can to eliminate evil! But the Huangting Temple was expanded by the emperor's order, and if it is not clean, there will be endless troubles."

Zhu Ming said: "The officials only let the Huangting temple be expanded, but they didn't let the Taoist priests collude with the thieves, nor did they allow the Taoist priests to seize the land of the good people. As the local prefect, I should cut off the thieves. It's just that the officials and archers in the prefectures and counties are disobedient, and the Xiang army I have no right to transfer, so I have to ask the Zhang family to borrow some strong guards."

Zhang Zuchun hesitated and couldn't make up his mind for a while.

The tens of acres of land that were occupied were only owned by Zhang's branch, not the main property of Zhang's family.And there are not many of them, why bother to provoke Taoist priests and robbers?

If it is not dealt with cleanly, it may offend Wang Laozhi, and may attract revenge from the thieves.

Zhu Ming is going to attack Huang Tingguan now, and Zhang Zuchun supports it in his heart, but it is not good to let the Zhang family out.

Ju Ming looked at the collection of books all over the building, and said with emotion: "I think of Mr. Guai Ya, who used his sword to cross Hebei and Shandong (the concept of Shandong existed in the Song Dynasty), went bankrupt and entertained heroes, and drew his sword to kill people when he was angry. Although he has a huge industry now, Zhang The descendants of the family dare not even resist a few thieves. What is the blood of the ancestors?"

Zhang Zuchun was ashamed when he heard it, but his ass decides his head, he has to think about the whole family, and he really dare not offend the thief in Taoist clothes.

"Forget it," Zhu Ming said, "I'll pay homage to Mr. Guaiya's tomb, and then go back to the state government to drink at the bar. Zhang's family is not in a hurry when the land is occupied, so why should I be so anxious when I know the state? There is no one in the Zhang family. Boy."

Zhang Tong's face was already flushed, young people are always angry, how can they admit that they have no eggs?He held his sword and shouted angrily: "The Zhang family has a good man here! The prefects don't need to provoke each other, I will kill them single-handedly tonight, and I will definitely kill those thieves!"

Zhu Ming nodded in satisfaction: "It turns out that there is only one man left in the Zhang family. I will write a letter to tell my friends in Tokyo. Let's just say that Zhang Guaiya's bloodline has been passed down to this day, and the blood is still alive. Unfortunately, there are not many left, and he is bullied by thieves in the countryside." .Alas, how sad."

Zhang Zuchun still needs face, at least he can't lose the face of his ancestors, he immediately cupped his hands and said: "Prefect, please wait a moment, the old man can't make decisions alone, he must call all the houses and branches to discuss this matter."

The weaker the Zhang family is, the more relieved Ju Ming is.

A local clan that can be bullied by thieves is a perfect breakthrough.

(End of this chapter)