Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 27 0026 [Traveling and climbing]

"Oh woo oh~~~"

"Oh woo oh~~~"

A spring rain didn't stop until midnight.

With the sound of the rooster crowing, the lights of each household in the village were lit up one after another.

"Boom boom boom!"

Then there was the sound of gongs. Someone was carrying a gong and was beating along the countryside.

As a result, villagers began to hold up torches and go out, gathering in the direction of the sound of the gong.

There were several people in charge of beating the gong, and the villagers also followed them and divided into several teams to go up the mountain.The mountain road was too slippery after the rain, and people fell down from time to time, followed by bursts of laughter, and the curses of the wrestlers were drowned out by the laughter.

"Fuck, what time is it!" Zhu Ming was so noisy that he couldn't fall asleep.

Zhu Guoxiang also woke up, and yawned: "The rooster crows. It started before four o'clock in the morning. It's probably not four o'clock now. Get up, and we agreed to help take care of the children."

"I'll sleep a little longer." Zhu Ming couldn't get rid of the gravity of the bed.

Zhu Guoxiang laughed and said: "You also said that you want to fight for the world to be the emperor, you can't even get up early to do it."

"Who said that?" Zhu Ming sat up awkwardly.

The two got dressed and came to the main room. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were ready to go out, and they were still dressed up!

Grandmother Yan, who has just turned 50 years old but already has gray hair, has a red flower on her temples.

It was picked by Shen Yourong yesterday, and she also stuck one on her head.It is also smashed into flower mud to make rouge, some on the cheeks and some on the lips.

It's not like going up the mountain to pick tea, it's more like a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law going on a blind date together.

For the mountain people around the tea farm, tea picking is an annual event.During the several tea-picking periods in spring, farmers from nearby market towns would also come, and hundreds of people would gather on the hills, and those who were familiar or unfamiliar would meet each other, so women naturally had to dress up.

"Brother Qi is still sleeping, we will go up the mountain now." Shen Yourong said.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it at home."

In previous years, there was no man in the family, and Bai Qi was entrusted to the neighbors in the village to take care of it. There were always some elderly people who were inconvenient to go up the mountain.

Zhu Guoxiang sent the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law out, and then stood in the middle of the yard, looking at the "fire dragons" in the distance. The farthest light has gradually disappeared into the mountains.

The horse stood under the eaves in the middle of the night, and at this moment he leaned over to Zhu Guoxiang's side, rubbing his head like a dog, as if he wanted to beg for two catties of night grass.

Zhu Guoxiang went to grab the beans and sprinkled a few grains of salt into them.

Then, go to Mrs. Shen's room to sleep back in the cage.

The main purpose of dressing and sleeping on the bench was to watch the children, for fear that Bai Qi would wake up and run out.

Zhu Ming yawned on the couch in the study until the sound of gongs and drums stopped completely, and finally fell asleep again in a daze.

……

The morning light is dim.

The two sons, Bai Chongyan and Li Hanzhang, took a few attendants and walked leisurely on wooden clogs.

"Is that young man really familiar with the classics?" Li Hanzhang expressed doubts.

Bai Chongyan said excitedly: "Brother Zhen, when you traveled to the south of the Yangtze River when you were young, did you ever hear any great Confucian interpret the Analects of Confucius as the word 'public and private'?"

Li Hanzhang shook his head: "Never."

"That's it!" Bai Chongyan said.

Li Hanzhang said: "Perhaps he had a sudden idea when he was reading "The Analects of Confucius."

Bai Chongyan said: "Then I invite Brother Kezhen to go and test that little scholar."

Li Hanzhang smiled without saying a word, he had a part of conceit in him, he didn't believe that there could be a tall man in the mountains.

Not long after, the two came outside the courtyard.

After patting the courtyard door a few times, Zhu Guoxiang woke up rubbing his sleepy eyes, and hurried out to open the door.

Bai Chongyan cupped his hands and said, "Brother Zhu, we are here to visit again."

"San Lang, please come in!" Zhu Guoxiang greeted him warmly.

The skinny horse was strolling in the courtyard, Li Hanzhang's eyes fell on the horse's buttocks, and immediately showed a playful expression.

Not only did he guess that it was an official horse, but he also knew which batch of horses it came from.

But what the hell is it?

It is true that Li Hanzhang is the son of Yangzhou Tongpan, but the official horses are all managed by the Tea Horse Division, and the two parties are not in the same system.

The civil-official division of power in the Song Dynasty was outrageous, and a province (road) did not even have a real chief official: the Transshipment Department was in charge of finances, the Criminal Promotion Department was in charge of prisons, and the Changping Department was in charge of implementing new laws, managing new law revenues, and also managing mountains, forests, mines, and some commodities Monopoly power (the power to promote Changping Division has been expanding, reaching its peak in the Huizong Dynasty).

These three yamen are not affiliated with each other. They are connected with the imperial court at the top and connected with the state army at the bottom.

Provincial (road) level governments seem to exist, but they do not seem to exist.

Therefore, state officials have great power, and Zhizhou not only manages civil affairs, but even holds military power.Especially the prefectures in the frontier are often appointed by military generals, and some generals have been magistrates for more than ten years.

As a result, the responsibility for the general judgment has also increased, using financial power to check and balance the military power of Zhizhou.

If a normal gangster was robbed, the state officials must be responsible for the disadvantages of governing the people, but what was lost last year was not a serious gangster.

Be serious, don't walk in the Han River!
To put it bluntly, the tea and horse department guards stole themselves, secretly engaged in horse smuggling, and even used the name of Ma Gang to charge the goods, but was robbed by bandits in the mountains halfway.

Not to mention that the state officials will not help with the investigation, even the Tea Horse Secretary himself dare not speak up.

"Haha, Mr. Sanlang, you're here so early!" Zhu Ming came out to greet him with a loud smile.

Bai Chongyan immediately introduced: "This is the son of Li Xianggong, the general judge of Yangzhou, Erlang of the Li family, brother Hanzhang Kezhen."

Hearing that he was the son of the state judge, the father and son hurriedly saluted.

Li Hanzhang smiled and bowed, showing neither enthusiasm nor disdain.

Bai Chongyan asked a few followers to come forward and said, "All the sixty coins have been brought. As for the few acres of woodland in the mountains, they are not worth much, so I will give it to the two of you."

"No," Zhu Guoxiang immediately refused, "as much as you want, how can you donate the land?"

Bai Chongyan said: "Sir, don't refuse, it's really not worth a few."

Zhu Guoxiang insisted: "Love is love, reason is reason. If Mr. Saburo insists on giving it as a gift, we will not sell that brush!"

Hearing what his father said, Zhu Ming also echoed, "That's true, land cannot be given away."

The father and son arrived here for the first time, inexplicably accepting other people's property, which is tantamount to owing a great favor to the Bai family.

Cannibals have short mouths and soft hands, making it difficult to get along with each other on an equal footing in the future.

Accepting this field, entangled in karma, is bound to the Bai family.

Of course, those who have this kind of thinking are gentlemen, and those who are greedy for profit can only pick it up for nothing.

"It's… okay."

Bai Chongyan had no choice but to give up, but at the same time felt strange that he couldn't even give away the land.

At this moment, Li Hanzhang's eyes changed slightly. He didn't take the father and son seriously at first, but now he feels that the two are very interesting.

A father and son who couldn't eat three meals a day were forced to live in the widow's house to beg for food despite the gossip, but they were not tempted by the land to refuse the gift.

Looking at the whole country, how many people can do it?
The boys came over with four baskets full of iron money.

When Jiaozi could not be used, the "big" transactions in Sichuan were directly weighed.Thirteen catties of good quality iron money are consistent; for poor quality iron coins, 25 catties are consistent; even [-] catties of bad money are consistent.After Wang Anshi reformed the iron money, it finally became Liujin.

You can only weigh it, but you can’t count it at all. You can think of it like this, how scary it is for you to count tens of thousands of coins.

The 60 iron coins in front of me are all new coins after Wang Anshi, with a total weight of more than 300 Song Jin (1 Song Jin is about 640 grams).

The father and son, who were penniless yesterday, had money in an instant, and it was only a few hundred catties.

Ju Ming looked at the basket, feeling a little dumbfounded.

Doing business these days is really hard work.

Don't talk about Jiaozi, no one cares about that stuff anymore.

At the beginning of the official release of Jiaozi, various systems were actually very complete.

First of all, there must be a principal reserve, and the 36-guan reserve fund is issued by Yijiejiaozi to ensure that it can be cashed out at any time.Secondly, the validity period of each Jiejiaozi is two years. Once the period expires, the old ones will be recycled and new ones will be issued.Finally, Jiaozi can be used to pay taxes, and the government cannot refuse to accept it, which improves the credit of Jiaozi.

Wang Anshi led the reform, and Jiaozi went to collapse from then on.

Due to the adoption of radical fiscal and taxation policies in the reform, all parts of the country need to allocate funds. In addition, the Northern War broke out again, and the national treasury was empty, so paper money could only be issued indiscriminately to make up for the shortfall.And no longer recycle the old notes, the banknotes are about to wear out, you think you are unlucky, anyway, the government will not exchange them for new ones.

The common people in Sichuan at that time, especially the businessmen in Sichuan, probably wanted to strangle Wang Anshi to death!

Su Shi, as a native of Sichuan, is perfectly normal to oppose the reform.

What if the Sichuan financial market is disrupted?Wang Anshi could only carry out the reform of iron money to stabilize the value of Sichuan iron money, otherwise Sichuan would have collapsed by him at that time.

Similar things happen elsewhere.

The content of Wang Anshi's reform is beneficial to Jiangnan, Lianghuai, and Henan.But put it nationwide, especially in the southwest, northwest and north China, it can be said that many of the new laws are bad governance, because the development of these places is not enough.

Most of the old parties who opposed the reform at that time came from the north. Based on the situation in their hometown, they naturally thought that Wang Anshi was messing around.

Sima Guang looked at the problem from the perspective of a northerner, and Wang Anshi looked at it from the perspective of a southerner. It would be hell if they could pee in a pot.

"Please carry it to the house." Zhu Ming said to the boys.

Bai Chongyan asked: "Would you like to be called one?"

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "It's just a few catties of iron money, what else is it worth?"

"Haha, that's right." Bai Chongyan said happily.

Seeing several baskets of money being carried in, Li Hanzhang raised the corner of his mouth, feeling that this young man was a bit interesting.

Zhu Ming said, "Let's go up to the mountains to see the land."

Bai Chongyan said: "Look at the location and don't be in a hurry. To pick tea today, you can first watch the grand occasion of tea picking, and then take the water from Lingquan to boil new tea and taste it."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I'll wake Brother Qi up and take him with me."

Both Bai Chongyan and Li Hanzhang were wearing wooden clogs, similar to Xie Gong’s clogs, suitable for mountain climbing.

Zhu Guoxiang didn't have hiking shoes, so he took off his cloth shoes, barefooted, rolled up his trouser legs, and went out smartly.

Seeing his father doing this, Zhu Ming did the same, otherwise he would not be able to climb the mountain after the rain.

Bai Qi even took off his shoes.

A few baskets of iron money were placed in the house, only the door was locked, no one was watching, and no one was afraid of being stolen.

Bai Chongyan said: "Wait a minute, my family still has Xie Gong's clogs, so let the servants get them."

"No, it's convenient to walk barefoot." Zhu Guoxiang declined.

So, the two of them stepped on their clogs, barefooted, took their children, and climbed the mountain together to go to the tea plantation, followed by a few servants.

Walking barefoot is fast and effortless.

On the contrary, they are climbing clogs, which are often stuck in mud and need to be taken off for cleaning.

Being stuck again, several people stopped to rest and threw the clogs to the servants.

Zhu Guoxiang pointed to a mountain forest in the distance and said to his son: "There is a low-lying place over there, the stream turns into a waterfall and falls, and there is a pool under the waterfall. There are some tea households living near the pool. Clients who are attached to the Bai family. We can also build a house there, just a little farther away from the water pool. "

"Is there any cultivated land nearby?" Zhu Ming asked.

"Yes, I'm optimistic about it," Zhu Guoxiang said. "Those mountainous lands are very barren. They usually grow millet, millet, sorghum, etc., and they are all tenanted to tea farmers for cultivation. We bought the land, and we cannot withdraw the tenant at will. tenants."

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "It's just right, let the tenants help with the farming, otherwise we will be too busy."

Down the hillside, more than ten meters away.

The pair of clogs that Li Hanzhang was wearing had been handed over to his attendants to clean up the mud. He looked at the muddy socks and said, dumbfounded: "Brother Juncai, you and I should be barefoot too, otherwise we might be in the afternoon."

Bai Chongyan felt a little unhappy, wouldn't walking barefoot become muddy legs?

But since Li Hanzhang said so, he could only put down his airs.Immediately, he took off the socks and gave them to the attendant, and rolled up a piece of trousers, and after walking for two steps, he found that it was really light.

But Li Hanzhang not only took off his shoes and socks, but even tore his clothes to the sides because of his fever from climbing the mountain, revealing a large tattoo on his chest.

Seeing him, Zhu Guoxiang whispered to his son, "This guy looks more like a gangster."

"Fashionable, do you understand?" Zhu Ming said, "The prime minister of the dynasty, Li Bangyan... Well, I guess he is still a petty official now. This old man has tattoos all over his body, and he is called the 'Prodigal Prime Minister'. The tattoos are exposed on the coat, please appreciate the guests and servants carefully."

"Is the leader of the country so unreasonable?" Zhu Guoxiang said with emotion, "It is worthy of being the minister promoted by Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty!"

After going back for a while, Bai Chongyan pointed to the front: "Just turn around that mountain pass."

Tea-picking songs have already been heard. Hundreds of men and women have gone up to the mountain to pick tea. Those skilled in the art still have time to sing and play.

There is joy in the singing, because there are wages to be earned.

(End of this chapter)