Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 263 0258 [Prepare to cast cannons]

As the ashram of Taibai Jinxing, the Suling Palace in the Song Dynasty was built on Huashan Mountain in Xiyue.

The Suling Palace on Yangzhou's side has instead become a foil, and has not received much attention from the court.

But it is still the resident of Daozheng in the capital of Yangzhou. In the past two years, through Song Huizong's advocacy of Daoism, he has frantically annexed the land.

In this year's drought, Suling Palace gave relief to the people on the surface, but in fact it gave a small amount of porridge and borrowed a lot.After the disaster, the land of surrounding farmers was occupied by means of repayment of usury.

Zhu Guoxiang braved the light snow to go to Suling Palace, which is located in the northwest of Yangzhou City, on a small hill outside the city.

"The governor of Yangzhou is gentle and gentle (Nie Feng, the governor of the capital), and I pay my respects to Mr. Zhu!"

There are two leaders, both of whom are Taoist officials.They are responsible for managing Taoist affairs in the three counties of Yangzhou, usually live in Suling Palace and work, and are also responsible for praying for rain and offering sacrifices.

Du Dao is gentle and gentle, and also serves as the abbot of Suling Palace.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "You two don't need to be polite, it's snowing outside, let's go in and talk."

Wen Zhirou was short and fat. He had gone to Tokyo to take the exam, and together with other Taoist priests, he had met Song Huizong himself in person.

Knowing how favored Zhu Guoxiang was, he bent over and dared not stand up straight the whole time, and led Lao Zhu to walk in, complaining by the way: "Suling Palace has been in disrepair for a long time, and it is very shabby. Mr. Zhu raised Suling Palace, and finally he can It’s good to repair it. Our place is Mrs. Su Ling’s ashram, but it has been robbed of the title by Su Ling Palace in Huashan.”

Zhu Guoxiang first went to the main hall to pay homage to the Taibai Jinxing, and he was indeed a plump woman with a pipa in his arms.

Immediately afterwards, he wandered around the palace and found that there were several temporarily suspended construction sites inside.

Wen Zhirou explained: "The number of Taoists in the palace is increasing day by day, and the original dormitories are not enough, so Xiaodao raised money to build some new ones."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How many Taoist priests are there? The ones who hold Taoist ultimatums."

Wen Zhirou replied: "It's hard to find the ultimatum. There are only more than 200 people who hold the ultimatum. There are more than [-] monks, and there are nearly [-] including the miscellaneous servants."

"How much is Miyata?" Zhu Guoxiang asked again.

Wen Zhirou wept poorly and said: "It's less than five thousand acres, it's really shabby. It just so happens that Mr. Zhu is here, and please perform your majesty, so that you can be exempted from the corvee service in Suling Palace."

Zhu Guoxiang wondered: "Isn't it always free?"

"Mr. Zhu doesn't know yet?" Wen Zhirou said, "A while ago, the government decreed that all temples and temples would be charged."

"Let me see the imperial edict." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Wen Zhirou hurriedly went to invite the imperial decree, the content was: the inner and outer palaces and houses should be purchased with fields, no more than [-] hectares in Beijing, and no more than [-] hectares outside, and it is inevitable that they will be dispatched, corvee, and moved.Although the imperial pen is served, Xu can't play it.

This imperial decree reflects from the side how serious the annexation of land by Taoist temples was in the Huizong Dynasty.

Song Huizong, who was so serious that he respected Taoism, had to decree to restrain the land occupation of Taoist temples, and by the way, Taoist temples also had to pay miscellaneous taxes and corvees.

However, Song Huizong added another sentence. After receiving the imperial decree, the inner and outer Taoist temples can request not to obey the imperial decree... This is the back door Song Huizong left for the favored ones. It's all right, and the exorbitant taxes and corvee don't need to be bothered.

"If I don't ask the officials, will you accept the corvee?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Wen Zhirou smiled awkwardly: "Of course we must obey the law."

It's no wonder, they must have dragged it usually, anyway, the officials dare not come to collect it.

At most, in times of famine, the Zhizhou and Tongju are in a hurry, and they will give a small amount of token money.

Wen Zhirou didn't even want to give this small amount of money, so she asked Zhu Guoxiang to tell the emperor to release the corvee.

Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "It is stipulated in the imperial decree that the land in the outer palace should not exceed [-] mu. How come the palace land of Suling Palace is almost [-] mu?"

Wen Zhirou said: "The common people worship Dao and donate enthusiastically, and Xiao Dao is hard to refuse. I also ask Mr. Zhu to tell His Majesty to allow Suling Palace to buy more land, and the officials will definitely agree."

"It's freezing cold, let's talk about it next year." Zhu Guoxiang went on a tour and went back to Daming Village with the project money.

……

But on the other side of Jinzhou, go back to the time of solving the test.

Zhu Ming forcibly seized power and became the chief examiner. It wasn't until the examination papers that he found out that the level of examinees here was worryingly low.

Moreover, in the vast mountainous villages, there is basically no village school, and the number of candidates is far less than that in Yangzhou.

At the Luming Banquet, Zhu Ming invited the new imperial examination candidates and encouraged him: "Masters, you have to work harder. Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, Jinzhou has never had a Jinshi, and only passed a few subjects. Instead, many eminent monks have been awarded. Dao, you Confucian disciples, don't be compared by Buddhism and Taoism!"

All the students were ashamed when they heard this, and even the principal of the state school couldn't help bowing their heads.

Juren Dai Chengsi cupped his hands and said: "We will follow the prefect's teachings and work hard."

Zhu Ming said with a smile: "You guys are talking nonsense, you won four times in a row, and you just went to Beijing to sell goods as a candidate."

"Don't dare." Dai Chengsi said quickly.

"Don't deny that I also went to Beijing to sell goods," Zhu Ming took out an official document, "I just sent it, strictly inspecting people who bring goods into Beijing, you better be careful. There have been repeated disasters this year, and the court has not paid enough taxes. Even Juren’s cargo will be searched.”

The scholars changed their colors in an instant, they never thought that they would be able to win the Jinshi, and they were admitted to the Juren just to avoid paying tolls to sell goods.

"Strict inspections are really necessary?" Dai Chengsi asked.

Zhu Ming nodded and said, "I don't think the inspection will be too serious along the way, but when you arrive at the various roads in Gyeonggi, you must inspect them. It's best to sell some on the way."

"Thanks for the prefect's reminder!" The Juren hurriedly expressed their thanks.

The imperial court was really short of money, and it actually asked the temples to pay the tax transfers, and also strictly investigated the behavior of Juren to sell goods in Beijing.

It is also preparing to increase the tax on alcohol, and the price of alcohol across the country has risen sharply.

Then the tax on vinegar was raised, and the price of vinegar also rose.

Hebei suffered such severe floods that it "increased the consumption of rice". Not only did the government have no money to provide relief, but they were still increasing taxes on farmers in Hebei.

Next year, there will be serious floods in various areas in the southeast. The court's approach is: increase levy and buy money, and let rich households provide rice relief!
It wasn't until a fire broke out in the palace that burned more than [-] houses and many people died in the palace. Song Huizong thought it was a warning from heaven, so he issued an edict to cancel some new taxes.

Satisfied with wine and food, Ju Ming announced the end of the Luming Banquet.

He turned around and returned to Huangtang, and called Fan Zhun and Guo Wenzhong, the governors of the left and right: "The emperor has a decree that the area of ​​each temple should not exceed [-] mu. You can arrange the land. If the Jinzhou temple occupies more , The land will be confiscated immediately. Also, the imperial decree says that the land of temples and temples will also be subject to administrative commissions, corvees, and transfers, so that monks and priests will make up for this year's taxes."

"Yes!"

The two took the order to leave with smiles on their faces.

They have figured out the ways of prefect Zhu. As long as they are honest and obedient and willing to do things, the prefect will reuse them.

And when doing business, it doesn't matter if you take the opportunity to get a little money, as long as you don't get too greedy, as long as you don't harass the people, Governor Zhu will turn a blind eye.

This time they checked the land and taxes of the temple, and they could take the opportunity to make a fortune.

Zhu Ming arranged the affairs and went to the smelting site by boat.

Production has already started here, and the frying and smelting of pig iron and wrought iron has gone smoothly. Due to the improvement of the process, the cost has dropped quite a bit.

Several blacksmith shops in Jinzhou City are buying raw and wrought iron here.

The plan to promote wrought iron pans has failed, and ordinary people are still more accustomed to using cast iron pans, which are cheap, easy to use and will not stick to the pan.

Zhu Ming intends to change his mind. The cooked iron pot has to be sold to the army or merchants.It is portable, not easy to break, saves fuel, and is extremely convenient to use on the road.

Especially the marching pot, unless it is absolutely necessary, the cast iron pot is rarely used, and it will be broken if you don't pay attention during the march.

This has to be explored slowly, because like the Zhangqiu iron pot, Ju Ming didn't know how to forge it, and the blacksmiths of the Song Dynasty didn't know how to forge it either.

The marching iron cauldron of the Song Dynasty was much bulkier and thicker than the wrought iron pan in Ju Ming's impression, not a thin layer.

The wrought iron produced in iron smelters is basically used to make agricultural tools and daily necessities.

The Jinzhou market is too small, so we have to find a way to transport it to other places.

"Dang Dang Dang Dang!"

A blacksmith is filling steel with the perfect Su steel method.

He kept turning the wrought iron in his left hand, and poured the pig iron solution in his right hand. Not only did the two hands cooperate with each other, but he also had to pay attention to controlling the furnace temperature at all times, and then quickly turned around to forge.

Tu Shen stood next to Zhu Ming and said, "I'm still trying to figure out the furnace temperature, technique and refining number, but it's definitely better than the existing method of pouring steel."

"Is this difficult?" Zhu Ming asked.

Tu Shen said: "It's not difficult for the participants, mainly because they are not proficient. I also tried to fight for a few days, and my hands, eyes and brain couldn't rest, so I had to concentrate on it. Using Xianggong's method of pouring steel, it only takes a few minutes. Refining, even achieving the effect of ordinary steel pouring two or three times."

The method of pouring steel also needs to be tempered.

Guangang in the Song Dynasty could be made into steel after two or three smelting. Shen Kuo called it fake steel.

However, the weapons in the late Northern Song Dynasty were often made of fake steel, and the number of refinements was not enough, so it was hard to say anything on the battlefield.

If the firecrackers of the Ming Dynasty were made of wrought iron, they basically needed more than ten refinements to ensure their durability.Those things that often explode, in addition to the high sulfur content, are most likely caused by insufficient refining.

Zhu Ming plans to build another water turbine and forge it with a hydraulic forging hammer.This thing is not difficult, ancient craftsmen can do it, the difficulty is to improve the efficiency of work.

The hydraulic forging hammer is not a magical tool, its function is only to save labor, and the cost of steelmaking cannot be reduced much.

The real cost lies in iron smelting. Ten smelting of wrought iron requires five times the weight of pig iron. The more smelting, the more pig iron will be consumed.

Zhu Ming walked over to the fried iron pond and picked up a piece of cooled wrought iron.

It's time to try casting a few tiger crouching cannons. This is the simplest thing, and it can be practiced by the cannon-casting craftsman.The tiger crouching cannon is two feet long, two inches in diameter, and only weighs 36 kilograms. After disassembly, a horse can run on its back.

Zhu Ming not only wants to cast cannons openly, but also casts them with public funds, and then deposits them in Jinzhou's military staff warehouse.

When someone asked, they said that it was built for the imperial court, and it can be used directly in future rebellions.

As for the larger cannons and firecrackers, let’s build the tiger crouching cannon first, and now focus on training craftsmen.

　Friendship push book: "Da Ming: Landlord in the Ravine, Rebellion and Proclaimed Emperor", a historical text of rebellion in the ravine.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)