Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 224 0219 [A group of amateur inventors]

Not only the scholars from Yangzhou City came, but also a few scholars from Xixiang County.

Zhu Ming invited them to have a drink at the inn. After everyone sat down, they didn't talk about learning or taxes, but when the Xixia war would end.

As long as the war against Xixia continues, the heavy taxes in Hanzhong and Shaanxi will continue.

Everyone was guessing wildly, not knowing what the hell it was like.

Not to mention them, even Song Huizong didn't know about it, because Tong Guan had been concealing military information.

At the beginning of the war, the Song army directly beat the Xixia people into a bewilderment, quickly won a series of victories, and gradually formed a strategic encirclement of Xixia.

After successive victories, Tong Guan began to drift away, making two fatal mistakes.

One is to ignore the established strategic plan and order troops to storm the fortress (Zangdi River City) in advance, thinking that it can be easily taken down.

The second is to start vying for credit, intending to let the generals who are close to him do meritorious service.

As a result, the Song army was defeated.

Xixia took advantage of the victory to pursue, plundered wealth and countless people, and then took the initiative to seek peace with a big victory.

Cai Jing opposed the peace talks and persuaded Song Huizong to continue fighting.

This year, Liu Fa led an army to attack Renduoquan City. The Xixia reinforcements were so frightened that they stood still and watched the city guard surrender to the Song army.

Liu Fa turned his back on his promise, killed the surrender, massacred the city, and wiped out the defenders and the people.

Just last month, in the middle of winter, there was still no snow in the northwest.

Tens of thousands of Xixia cavalry, taking advantage of the strong wind, galloped and trampled on the city, causing dust to fly like a sandstorm.Taking advantage of Song Bing's blurred vision, the Xixia people dug tunnels into the city and launched a massacre of Jingxia City in Song Dynasty in revenge.

You slaughtered my city, and I slaughtered your city, even each other.

Xixia took advantage of the victory to attack, but hit a wall one after another. After several defeats, they asked the Song State for peace again.

Tong Guan was already furious, and directly withheld the news of the peace proposal, not letting the court know at all.And let go of all distracting thoughts, stop engaging in factional struggles, and order the teacher who has a grudge against him to lead an army of [-] to attack Zangdihe City again.

This is probably the case, now Zhong Shidao is gathering troops, and after the beginning of spring, he will attack on a large scale.

In general, Song Jun took the initiative and played an advantage.

Ling Guxu said: "At this point in the war, Xixia can no longer be wiped out suddenly, and the people in Shaanxi Lianglu and Hanzhong in the Song Dynasty have already been overwhelmed. It has not snowed for a long time this year, and even the old farmers in the countryside are rumored that there will be a severe drought next year. Lang Po has the trust of the officials, so why not go to the court to persuade the court, and bring the victory to negotiate a peace after another victory? Even if you want to destroy Xixia, you have to let the people breathe for a few years."

Zhu Ming shook his head and smiled wryly: "Guanjia, Cai Jing, Tong Guan, none of them want to stop the war, who else in the world can persuade them?"

Ling Guxu was silent, and the scholars all looked at each other, worried about the situation next year.

In the past two years, Hanzhong was not only affected by the war in Xixia, but also disturbed by the war in southern Sichuan.

The year before last Lunanyi rebelled with a crowd of more than [-].The Sichuan army was unable to suppress it, and successively mobilized [-] troops from Shaanxi to quell the rebellion in southern Sichuan.

Of course, the [-] Shaanxi troops passed through Hanzhong, and the people in Hanzhong were forced to confiscate food.

The Liu family in Xixiang County was forced to go bankrupt, mainly due to this. Last year, too much money was collected and purchased, and each county had to choose a wealthy family to go bankrupt!

The reason is that the barbarians in Yibin and Luzhou areas gradually invaded the salt wells by the Han people. Even if the salt wells were still in the hands of the barbarians, they were often heavily taxed by the government.

There had been conflicts for a long time, but Jia Zongliang, the appeasement envoy of Lunan, extorted violently and killed a barbarian leader for no reason, which finally aroused a rebellion of [-] Lunan barbarians (the barbarians in northern Guizhou also participated).

Only now has the rebellion been suppressed.

The [-] Shaanxi soldiers are still in Sichuan, and when they return next year, they will definitely have to collect food and supplies in Hanzhong again.

"I blame the treacherous ministers for being good at fighting!" Yu Dayuan, a scholar from Xixiang, said angrily.

Xing Taoist Zi Wang Chang said: "There is also the Lunan appeasement envoy. The court asked him to appease the barbarians, but he forced [-] barbarians to rebel. If it weren't for excessive collection, how could those barbarians rebel?"

Zhu Ming sighed: "The officials trust treacherous ministers, what can I do?"

Many of those who were transferred to Sichuan to fight the rebellion were the elite Western Army.If the [-] Western troops were not transferred, it is estimated that the battle with Xixia would be smoother. The Song Dynasty's foreign wars always caused all kinds of troubles.

This time Lu Nanyi rebelled, and Song Huizong was slapped hard.

Because the barbarians captured Meiling Fort and captured Song Huizong's brother-in-law and slept with Song Huizong's clan sister (the fifth service was not released).Song Huizong's face was shameless, so he ignored the Xixia War and abruptly dispatched [-] Western troops to Sichuan.

But Jia Zongliang, who caused such a big mess, was just dismissed, and he was even able to go home with the embezzled money.

All the scholars scolded but had no choice but to drink alcohol.

Lu Heng, the son of the richest man in Xixiang, began to complain after a few drinks: "We need money for Xixia wars, we need money for building plank roads to calm chaos, and we need money for the Western Army to cross the border. Just watch, Next spring, the Western Army will have to pay a large sum of money for their return trip!"

The scholar Huang Sheng said: "Your Lu's family has a great career, and it's just a drop in the bucket. My family is in trouble."

"My family has a lot of money, but it's also apportioned!" Lu Heng said depressedly.

When the Western Army crossed the border, Yangzhou was only affected. It was unlucky for Xingyuan Mansion, and the people along the way were harassed a lot.

Zhu Ming drank with them, but he had other considerations in his mind.

When Lu Nanyi first rebelled, there were not many people.The entire Sichuan army, after a few months of dawdling, could only muster more than [-] soldiers, and was beaten back by the barbarians.

How bad is this?

I am afraid that only [-] elites are needed, and a group of miscellaneous soldiers are recruited on the spot, and Zhu Ming can quickly occupy Sichuan.

"Oh, let's not mention these worries," Ling Guxu said, "The "Tao Yong Ce" sent back by Da Lang was copied by many scholars in Yangzhou City, and even Xixiang County passed it on. By the time Daoyongshe was established, dozens of scholars had already joined the society.”

Ju Ming asked curiously: "What does Daoyongshe do?"

Lu Heng said: "The common people's daily use is the Tao. Naturally, they will look more and think more, figure out the truth, and then turn it into civilian use."

"Have you made anything for civilian use?" Zhu Ming asked.

Wang Chang smiled and said, "Brother Hongdao, take out your treasure."

During the banquet, there was a scholar named Yang Changyan, whose name was Hongdao. He put down his wine glass and took out a... compass from his bag.

Zhu Ming asked doubtfully, "That's it?"

Yang Changyan said: "This dry snail is not a water snail."

There was already a compass in the Northern Song Dynasty, called "diluo", which was often used by Mr. Feng Shui.Use a thread to suspend the magnetic needle and place it on the disk body.

When marching or sailing, use a guide fish and put the magnetic fish in the water, but it will inevitably shake and cause errors.

Until the mid-Ming Dynasty, Chinese navigation compass still widely used water float.

This led scholars of later generations to believe that the dry compass came from the West.Until the Southern Song Dynasty porcelain figurines were unearthed, the porcelain figurines actually held a dry compass in their hands, indicating that they had appeared at least in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Zhu Ming took the compass and looked at it. He knew the gossip, but he didn't understand the rest.

It is said that on the basis of the heaven, earth and dragon pan, Lai Buyi also introduced the constellation to create the pan, but it is not known whether it is true or not.At this time, Lai Buyi should still be wearing crotch pants.

Yang Changyan said: "My father likes Fengshui. After I got the "Tao Yongce", I realized that Fengshui is also Dao, and the snails are also things that people use every day. The original snails with hanging needles were too thick and heavy, and they wobbled in the wind. So I tried every means to make the snails lighter. The previous snails were called water snails and hanging snails, and this kind of snails are dry snails."

"It's very useful. You can use it when you're marching and fighting, or sailing to sea," Ju Ming praised. "You can take the compass to Tokyo, and my father will take you to present it to the officials."

Yang Changyan was overjoyed: "Thank you, Governor Zhu!"

Many scholars present showed envious expressions.

A scholar named Wen Zhengtong took out a small porcelain vase to offer a treasure: "I improved the distiller and added fragrant wood, steaming it so that the rose dew will last for a long time."

Zhu Ming can't laugh or cry, the dry compass is quite useful, what the hell is this dude improving the perfume technology?

He pulled out the cork and smelled it, and it was really fragrant, stronger than Zheng Yuanyi's usual perfume.

Of course, I have to be encouraged. Ju Ming praised: "This product is very good, can you give me a bottle?"

Wen Zhengtong was praised, and immediately said: "Just take it from the prefect, but I still have a lot at home. Half a year ago, I opened a fragrance workshop, specializing in the production of various fragrances."

"Ah!"

Another scholar picked up a bundle from the ground and smashed it on the table with a loud noise.

The man took out the long-handled scissors: "I learned the principle of leverage, and I know that the longer the force arm, the less effort. So I changed the scissors. The handle is very long, and there is a hook at the end to prevent the hand from being pinched. This scissors can It is used for pruning branches, fruit trees, mulberry trees, and tea trees can be used, and I call it mulberry pruning."

"Good stuff!" Zhu Ming applauded, patting the table.

The father and son were busy with other affairs, and their focus was not here, so they forgot about the "garden shears".

The scissors that modern people think of are called pivot scissors, but they actually appeared in the Five Dynasties, and there was no such thing in the Tang Dynasty.

The garden shears in front of me are made by extending the handle of the scissors on the basis of pivot shears.With it, when pruning fruit trees, mulberry trees and tea trees, you don't need to chop with a knife anymore.

Ju Ming cupped his hands and said, "May I ask your honorable name?"

The scholar replied with a smile: "My name is Pu Shang, and my family runs a blacksmith's shop."

Zhu Ming immediately placed an order: "Please make one hundred mulberry clippers for Daming Village, specially used for pruning tea trees. If you like, you can also go to Jingmiansheng together. The officials like gardening, and they must appreciate the mulberry clippers."

"I also thanked the prefect!" Pu Shang said happily.

They can make the emperor happy by presenting these gadgets, but at most they give some rewards.

This is enough, as long as you can get the emperor's appreciation, you will definitely have a good time after returning to your hometown, and even officials must treat each other with courtesy.

"Tao Yong Ce" is really useful, allowing scholars to take the initiative to improve technology much faster than craftsmen relying on experience to improve.

Especially Pauchon, who used the principle of leverage to consciously improve the scissors.Not only know it, but also know why.

(End of this chapter)