Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 280 0275 [Barbarians everywhere]

The city of Chengdu in the Qin and Han Dynasties was shaped like a tortoise, so it was also called Turtle City.

Chengdu City in the Tang and Song Dynasties was also called Luocheng because it included Turtle City.

According to inaccurate research, the urban population of the Northern Song Dynasty ranked first in Kaifeng, second in Luoyang, and third in Chengdu.

A few miles away from the city wall, Ju Ming saw a large area of ​​houses, and a market had already formed outside the city.Due to the lack of planning, it looked a little messy, but it was organized after entering the city.

The main road of Chengdu's urban central axis is eight meters wide, and all of them are paved with floor tiles.

The floor tiles are raised, high in the middle and low on both sides for easy drainage.Although the sewer is not as good as in Tokyo, it is more than one meter deep.

The perimeter of the city wall is 12 kilometers, the bottom thickness is 8 meters, the height is 8 meters, and the city area is 7.3 square kilometers.

Looking up at the eight-meter-high city wall, Zhu Ming couldn't help curling his lips. This thing must be outsmarted.

Passing through the city center, I soon discovered the city wall. It turns out that Chengdu still has an inner city.Even if the outer city is breached, the inner city can continue to defend.

Looking at the endless stream of people, Wei Yingshi couldn't help exclaiming, "Tokyo is the only city I've seen that is more prosperous than Chengdu."

Zhang Tong said: "It is worthy of the Land of Abundance, but Luoyang is still more prosperous than Chengdu."

The commercial tax in the Song Dynasty is very interesting. It has a quota, and it is a floating quota.

Just take a county as an example, calculate the actual commercial tax of the county in the first five years (the first three years), take the middle number of commercial tax increase year-on-year, and take the high number of commercial tax decrease year-on-year, and determine this year's tax by calculation New business tax.

This new amount, which is the ancestral amount for the next few years, forms a commercial tax standard to judge the performance of officials.

Therefore, the commercial tax in the Song Dynasty was very stable, and it was rising steadily, unlike the Ming Dynasty, where the revenue was getting smaller and smaller.

When Ju Ming was in Jinzhou, although the agricultural tax was not up to the standard, the commercial tax was an excessive contribution.After the private sector was banned, the number of merchant ships increased significantly, and the commercial tax received by the government also increased significantly.

If business and taxation are used to assess political performance, Ju Ming can judge him as an excellent candidate.

"Song Huiyao Collection" has been in Xining for ten years, and has completely counted the national business tax quota.

If we only talk about the commercial tax of a single city, Tokyo ranks first with 40 yuan, Hangzhou ranks second with 8.2 yuan, Chuzhou (Huai'an) ranks third with 6.78 yuan, and Chengdu ranks fourth with 6.75 yuan.

When it comes to the commercial tax of state capitals, including counties and towns, Kaifeng Prefecture ranks first, Hangzhou Prefecture ranks second (18.6 guan), and Chengdu Prefecture ranks third (17.1 guan).

The commercial tax can generally measure the prosperity of a region. The commercial tax of a single city in Huai'an is extremely high, which is pushed up by the salt transportation.Counting the counties, cities and towns, Hangzhou and Chengdu are more likely to fight.

Fang La disturbed the Hangzhou Mansion, if someone else occupied the Chengdu Mansion...it would not only be about commercial taxes, but also land taxes and other exorbitant taxes.

……

Some of the entourages brought their families, and Ju Ming let them spend a few days in Chengdu.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Zhu Ming personally rode out of the city to find out the local folk customs.

He soon discovered that the land annexation near Chengdu was extremely serious, but at the same time it didn't seem to be very serious.

To put it seriously, the land is mostly occupied by some big names.

In addition to Wang, Fan, and Yuwen, there are Yang, Li, Guo, Zhang, Zhao, Liu, Fang, Du, Goulong, Zhou, Song and other families that occupy the largest area.

To put it mildly, these families kept dividing their families, and the land was constantly divided.

The history of these families is so long that it produces a large number of small landowners and yeoman farmers.Due to the fact that they belong to the same family and have the same surname, the chief sect not only cannot take over by force, but also has to provide them with help.

The proportion of the main households combined with the two is actually very high.

No matter how prosperous Chengdu is, it has nothing to do with Ju Ming at the moment. After staying here for ten days, we will move on.

All the way down by boat, via Pengshan to Meizhou, then westward to Yazhou (Ya'an), and finally over the mountains to Hanyuan County.

It was the end of winter, and the weather was cold, but there was no snow.

The origin of the name Hanyuan is because the Liusha River running through the whole county was always called Hanshui in ancient times.

Zhu Ming arrived in Hanyuan himself, only to find that it was different from what Zhang Gen said.

The Han people lived in the area north of the Dadu River, bordering Yazhou to the north, Jiazhou to the east, and the barbarian areas to the west and south, and were not surrounded by Shengfan groups.

"This county is too small!" Bai Sheng complained.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "It should be called Zhoucheng."

It is indeed small, but the walls are high and have been repaired in recent years.

When Ju Ming entered the city, the search and inspection was also extremely strict, repeatedly checking the official documents he presented.

"County Honor, please enter the city!" The gatekeeper said respectfully.

The accent is very weird, even weirder than that of Chengdu Mansion, and Zhu Ming can only understand it with guesswork.

The city is quite dilapidated, and there are very few residents.

Zhu Ming first went to the county government office to hand it over, and then found that the back house of the county government office was very small.Many relatives and family members can only rent houses in the city. Fortunately, there is no shortage of houses and the price is cheap.

There is no master book here, only a county lieutenant.

The county lieutenant's name is Chang Qizong, a native of the county, who was born as a subordinate official, and has no reputation as a Jinshi.

The secretary called Li Chao, and brought a group of officials to see him.

Zhu Ming didn't say much, he was exhausted from the journey, and he just wanted to clean up and rest in the house.

Zhang Jinping commanded the dowry servants to fix the bedroom first, make the bed and fold the quilt by himself, and said to Zhu Ming: "Sister-in-law, let's sleep for a while, and get up again when we eat."

"I'm not that delicate, you can sit too." Zhu Ming patted the bed.

Zhang Jinping said: "The concubine has to go outside and watch."

Zhu Ming didn't insist anymore, took off his coat and lay down, and was woken up to eat in a daze.

The next day, Zhu Ming began to familiarize himself with the county affairs, with the county captain Chang Qizong and the governor Li Chao explaining.

Chang Qizong said: "The taxes are not enough every year, and the Chengdu Fulu Transit Department must send some money and food to make up for the expenses."

This is understandable, a poor place with a small population but it has to support officials at the state and county levels.

It is impossible to hand over the finances, and all the interceptions are not enough. You must ask your superiors for money.

"Is there a map of Honshu?" Zhu Ming asked.

Chang Qizong brought the map and introduced: "A few miles south of the county seat, there is a Hanyuan town. The north of Hanyuan town is all Han people; the south of Hanyuan town to the Dadu River is all Shuyi."

"The south of the Dadu River is full of barbarians. There are two barbarians..."

To explain the administrative divisions of later generations, Lianglinman is in Xide County, Qiongbu Chuanman is in Yuexi County, Fengpaman is in Dechang County, Baozhaiman is in Mianning County, Xuhenman is in Ebian County, these are The main barbarian tribe south of the Dadu River.

In the west of Hanyuan County, there are five tribes Man and Xiqing Qiang.

Farther away, there are Fulangman, Baiman, Wumengman, Azongman and so on.

Zhu Ming was dizzy looking at the map and asked, "Which barbarians are the strongest?"

Chang Qizong said: "The Sichuan barbarians in Qiongbu are the strongest. If the barbarians in the south of the Dadu River want to do business with the Han people, they have to pass through the territory of the Sichuan barbarians in Qiongbu. The Sichuan barbarians in Qiongbu often block the roads and take the opportunity to extract business taxes. So they are also called 'Big Road Man'."

"Are the Sichuan barbarians obedient and obedient?" Zhu Ming asked.

Chang Qizong said: "They rely on the Han people to do business. They are the most obedient among the barbarians, and they often pay tribute to the imperial court."

Ju Ming asked again: "Aside from this one, which one is the most difficult?"

Chang Qizong said: "The five tribes of barbarians in the west were called Sanwang Man in Tang Dynasty, and now there are two more tribes. The five tribes of barbarians are named Liu, Yang, Hao, Zhao, and Wang."

"Descendants of the Han people?" Zhu Ming asked suspiciously.

"I don't know," Chang Qizong shook his head, "these five tribes of barbarians can understand Chinese. Their leaders are not hereditary, but elected from the elders. They made bunkers with stones, and stored food and armor in the bunkers. They often take ivory, rhino horn, and jade to the county market. The horses they ride are all inferior horses, short and weak. But the five barbarians are extremely cunning, and occasionally plunder the Han people."

The five tribes belonged to Shuyi and could speak Chinese, but it was they who were the confidants of Lizhou.

During the Tang Dynasty, these guys colluded with the Nanzhao Kingdom for a long time, and specialized in inquiring about news from the Han region, so they were called "two-faced Qiang" scornfully.They once led the barbarians to attack the former Shu, and the former Shu king Jian directly cut off the leaders of the various ministries, and forbade them to set up hereditary leaders, so they became obedient from then on.

Historically, the biggest rebellion in Lizhou in the Southern Song Dynasty was when the five tribes attacked Hanyuan City.

Chang Qizong and Li Chao kept explaining the situation, but they didn't know something.

For example, the barbarians south of the Dadu River belonged to Lizhou and regarded the Song Dynasty as their suzerain.At the same time, he obeyed the orders of Dali Kingdom and was canonized by Dali Kingdom.

Because the Dali Kingdom is too powerful, these barbarians turn to the Song Dynasty, hoping to use the power of the Song Dynasty to resist the continuous expansion of the Dali Kingdom.

Moreover, the Song Dynasty would not take the initiative to ask the barbarians for money, but the Dali Kingdom has been forcing the barbarians to pay tribute without compensation.

The barbarians south of the Dadu River are the natural barriers of the Song Dynasty. As long as they can hold on, the Dali Kingdom will not be able to directly attack the Song Dynasty.

Zhu Ming asked again: "How many Xiang troops are there in this county? It's not about guards, but those who can fight."

Chang Qizong said: "The horse army has a full quota of [-], and the infantry army has a full quota of [-]. They are under the jurisdiction of Lizhou military officials."

Lizhou's rank is too low, he doesn't even have a regiment training deputy envoy, only a military promotion officer is arranged.

Zhu Ming asked again: "Don't say it's full, how much is it actually?"

Chang Qizong said: "The prefect of Yuwen has been in office for half a year, and the Mabu Army will be fully staffed."

Zhu Ming was a little surprised. He really didn't expect that Zhizhou Yuwenchang was actually a capable minister, and he directly filled the army in half a year.

Historically, Yu Wenchang's next official position was to be promoted to the Chengdu Fulu Tea Horse Division.He discovered that the Tea Horse Company was losing money year after year, and extorted the barbarians who came to sell the horses, causing the barbarians to complain.But the horses purchased by the Tea Horse Company were only [-] to [-] percent of the quota.

Where did the money go?
After Yu Wenchang made some rectification, the Chengdu Fulu Tea Horse Department quickly bought more horses than the quota, and it could make money, which convinced the barbarians.

"That's all for today. I'm going to visit the governor of Yuwen." Zhu Ming got up and said.

The two belong to difficult brothers and sisters.

Yu Wenchang is the magistrate of the state, but he can only manage one county.

As a county magistrate, Zhu Ming has a boss who only manages one county.

Their responsibilities overlap infinitely, and one team can be canceled directly.

The state government office is not far from the county government office, and it is also very shabby.

Zhu Ming explained his purpose, and was led to Huangtang by Yaqian officials.Along the way, all the court officials were fishing, and some even slept in broad daylight.

There are so many suffering brothers and sisters, and those who can be assigned to be officials here are [-]% frustrated in their official careers.

(End of this chapter)