Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 34 0033 [Bingwu chaos, pigs riding horses]

Zheng Hong glanced at the horse's buttocks, not taking it seriously at all, and reminded with a smile: "You horse, you can't be taken to the city, and the officials will eat you if you catch it."

"I picked it up and kept it at home to ride." Zhu Ming said.

Judging from the attitude of the people towards the stolen officials and horses, we know that the Song Dynasty is already rotten, and they don't take the government seriously.

Last year, when Cai Jing returned to the prime minister, he had only one task: to make money for Song Huizong!

When Huashigang is flourishing, it will be called lively.

The domestic servant came carrying the top chair, like a horse with a backrest, and then pulled the top chair away, and Zheng Hong sat down on his buttocks.

This little fat man is extremely lazy, he doesn't stand when he can sit, and he doesn't sit when he can lie down.

Zhu Ming continued to chop straw, and asked casually, "Li Erlang and Bai Sanlang, why didn't they come to play?"

Zheng Hong took out a bag of preserved fruit, stuffed it into his mouth, and said, "The two of them are just pretending, and they're still practicing Shiwen. They're all in the country, and they don't play around seriously. It doesn't matter if Bai Sanlang, he has to study hard for the exam. How could Li Erlang fail the exam?"

"Indeed." Zhu Ming agreed with a smile.

As the son of a state judge, as long as he is not an idiot, winning the exam is like finding something out of a pocket.

For officials who are more than 30 miles away from home, their relatives can take the exam in their place of office.The transfer department is in charge of proctoring the examination, which is called "Bie Tou Examination". The acceptance rate is as high as [-]%, and it does not occupy the local quota for applicants.

Up to now, the distance has been ignored, as long as you are an official in a different place, you can enjoy it.And cheating is common, the higher the official rank, the easier it is for relatives to win the election.

The magistrates and prefectures judged this level, and their brothers and nephews started as a juren!
What did Li Hanzhang, who lives in Chuzhou (Huai'an), come to Yangzhou with his father?Of course it is convenient for the exam.

Zheng Hong said to his servant: "Go help cut the grass and let Zhu Dalang have a rest."

The servant hurried to Zhu Ming's side and said with a smile, "Zhu Xiucai, let me do the rough work."

Zhu Ming was happy and relaxed, handed over the hatchet, went back to the room and moved a bench to sit down.

Zheng Hong got up and dragged the top spot, moved closer to Zhu Ming, and asked in a low voice: "Did you sell a good pen to Bai Sanlang?"

"Sold." Zhu Ming replied.

Zheng Hong asked, "Is there any more? I'll buy one too."

Zhu Ming thought for a while and said, "Yes."

"How many are left?" Zheng Hong asked again.

"Not much." Ju Ming answered ambiguously.

Zheng Hong said with a smile: "I bought them all, the price is easy to say, it must be higher than Bai Sanlang's bid."

Ju Ming thought it was too much money, so he replied, "I'm only selling one, so I don't need to talk about buying them all."

The smile on Zheng Hong's face froze for an instant, and he took a closer look at Zhu Ming before returning to his smile and saying, "If you have money, don't you earn it?"

Zhu Ming asked back: "Why does Zheng Xiaoguan buy so many pens?"

"Gift." Zheng Hong didn't hide it either.

"One gift is enough." Zhu Ming said.

"Hahahaha!"

Zheng Hong put the preserved fruit back into his pocket, clapped his hands and laughed, and said, "Zhu Dalang, you are more interesting than I imagined. My family is a businessman, and things are rare and expensive. If there are good things on the market, of course you have to buy them out. One Firstly, the price can be raised as a surprise, and secondly, as a gift, it can also be given as a unique item.”

Ju Ming clasped his fists and said, "I've been taught."

Taking out a silk scarf to wipe off the sugar stains on his hands, Zheng Hong continued, "You can only buy one, let's make a price."

Ju Ming lion opened his mouth wide: "Three hundred guan."

Zheng Hong couldn't help rolling his eyes: "Although I can't read well, I'm not a fool. You sold it to Bai Sanlang for [-] guan, but you sold it to me for [-] guan, which is a bit too much to be honest."

Zhu Ming explained: "In Yangzhou, this thing is only in my hands. If I sell one, I will lose one. The more I sell it, the more expensive it will be."

Zheng Hong ignored this set of rhetoric: "Eighty pennies, I won't buy an extra penny. If you are willing to sell, I will recognize you as a friend."

Zhu Ming immediately smiled: "The face of a small official is worth a thousand pennies, so this deal is settled. There is only one request, and I ask the small official to abide by it."

"Speak." Zheng Hong said.

Zhu Ming said: "Don't make it public, don't let the third person know."

"I'm strict, I promise not to say anything," Zheng Hong took out a few silver coins, "I'm in a hurry to go out this time, and I didn't bring a few, so I'll give you the set money first."

"It's easy to say." Zhu Ming took the coin and found that it was not iron money, so he couldn't help but look at it a few more times.

There were also gold and silver coins in the Song Dynasty, especially in the Huizong Dynasty. Due to the shortage of copper materials and the invalidation of banknotes, a large number of gold and silver coins were minted to fill the gap.

As for the price of silver, one tael of silver has risen to more than 2000 coins, which is caused by Cai Jing's excessive distribution of bad money.

"Short hundred" is becoming more and more common. Even iron money can be "short hundred", which is outrageous. (Note: Short hundred, less than [-] Wen, but can do a [-] Wen transaction. That is, the purchase value of good money has exceeded its own currency value, and the government tax collection recognizes this situation.)
Zhu Guoxiang, who has been tutoring his children in school, has brought the brush and handed it directly to Zheng Hong.

Zheng Hong was surprised and said: "I only paid the deposit, and you are willing to deliver the goods, so you are not afraid that I will not accept the account?"

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "The reputation of the Zheng family is much more valuable than a writing brush."

The father and son don't have to worry about food now, but money comes second. They just want to catch up with the Zheng family.

"Sure enough." Zheng Hong stood up and clasped his fists. "If you have any difficulties in the future, if you go to Yangzhou, just report my name. The rest of the money for the pen will be delivered immediately after I go home. By the way, I can’t remember what the reasoning for this pen is, if it can be written on paper, I can brag about it when I give it as a gift.”

"can!"

Zhu Guoxiang asked for pen and ink from Bai Qi, and wrote down the marketing words of Hubi.

Zheng Hong blew on the ink, and when the ink was almost dry, he folded it up and put it in his arms.

After finishing the business, this guy took out the preserved fruit again, and asked with the paper bag, "Do you two want to eat?"

Zhu Guoxiang was embarrassed to take it, but Zhu Ming was not polite, and grabbed a lot of it. He thought he needed to add sugar.

Stuffing a piece of preserved fruit into his mouth, Zheng Hong hurriedly asked, "Have you two been overseas?"

"My father went to sea," Zhu Ming said.

Zheng Hong was full of enthusiasm: "Tell me, I haven't seen the sea yet."

One is born, the second is cooked.

Ju Ming was already quite experienced in making up the story, and he talked nonsense in a random manner, which stunned the little fat man for a while.

Of course, not everyone believed it. Zheng Hong listened more as stories.

Zheng Hong is tired of Yangzhou's novelties. He is lazy and doesn't like to travel far. He always likes to ask people about strange worlds.

While talking, Zhu Ming suddenly went back to the house and grabbed a handful of corn seeds: "Look at this."

"This is...food?" Zheng Hong guessed.

Zhu Ming began to expand his tactics: "This thing is called corn. My father was hit by a hurricane at sea, and all his people and goods sank to the bottom of the sea. My Zhu family was ruined. In that shipwreck, my father drifted to an island with a mast in his arms. There was a white-haired old man on the island who claimed to have lived to be [-] years old and gave this corn seed to my father."

"Meet a fairy?" Zheng Hong subconsciously didn't believe it, thinking that Zhu Ming was bragging.

Zhu Ming said solemnly: "The old man said that he is not a god, but just a practitioner of Taoism. Not only did he give the corn seeds to my father, he also said twelve words: Bingwu chaos, pigs ride horses; go out from the northwest, and the world will be safe!"

Zheng Hong sat up straight in an instant, staring at Zhu Ming with both eyes.

Zhu Guoxiang, who was not far away, turned around instantly when he heard the words, and looked at his son speechlessly.

Prophecy is not a rare thing, and many scholars know it.

Great Chu Xing, King Chen Sheng.

The sky is dead, and the yellow sky should be established; when the age is Jiazi, the world will be happy.

Zheng Hong suddenly retreated to his seat, chewing the preserved fruit, with a stupid expression on his face: "What do you mean? I don't understand."

"I don't understand either," Zhu Ming said, "Since the old man mentioned the northwest, my father returned to land, so he brought me to the northwest, intending to find a place to settle down and plant the corn seeds."

Zheng Hong smiled and said, "Since I don't understand, let's talk about the Monkey King."

"Okay, let's talk about the Monkey King." Zhu Ming also laughed, and his smile was extraordinarily bright.

The two of them seemed to have forgotten the prophecy, Zhu Ming spoke wonderfully, and Zheng Hong was fascinated by it.

It was not until Grandma Yan and Shen Yourong went home that Zheng Hong got up to leave and made an appointment to continue listening to the story tomorrow.

After the little fat man left, Zhu Guoxiang dragged his son to the latrine: "What are you in a hurry for? Get a firm foothold first!"

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Dean Zhu, aren't you worried about the degeneration of corn and worried that you can't explain it to the villagers? I've found a way for you. You said that the second-generation seeds have a certain chance of degeneration. This can be pushed to the immortals, and the It is said that the corn is bestowed by the immortals, and the harvest is good because of the immortal energy. The second generation of seeds has lost some of the immortal energy, so the harvest has been high and low. The third generation of seeds has more of the immortal energy, and so on. "

"This statement is really convenient," Zhu Guoxiang readily accepted, and then he straightened his face again, "Don't change the subject, I'm asking you about the prophecy."

Zhu Ming said: "It's made up casually. If you want to fight for the world in the future, you can use it. If you don't fight for the world, you don't say anything. It's like playing Go, throwing a chess piece all the way. And, I deliberately said, 'Secure the world. ’, don’t say that you want to ‘win the world’. There are many interpretations of An Tianxia, ​​and supporting the Song Dynasty as a loyal minister is also considered An Tianxia.”

Zhu Guoxiang was silent, and it took him a long time to hold back a sentence: "Next time we talk and do things, let's discuss it first before coming."

"Yes." Ju Ming agreed with this suggestion.

As for the prophecy, no one believed it at this time, let alone figured out what it meant.

In the Bingwu year, when the imperial court was changed to Yuan Jingkang, everyone will be able to react.

(End of this chapter)