Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 5 0005 [Tea to keep people away]

"There are not a few packs left, save some smoking."

Zhu Guoxiang lit Huazi, took a puff of the cigarette, and handed it to his son, looking blankly at the other side of the Han River.

The stick of Chinese cigarettes that came out of the car was consumed quickly, and the father and son smoked whenever they had time to relieve the stress and confusion in their hearts.

Zhu Ming didn't dislike the saliva on the filter. He took it and took a sip, then handed it back and said, "I'm afraid it's the end of the Northern Song Dynasty or the Southern Song Dynasty. Other times are fine. But..." Zhu Ming said with a heartless smile, "War chaos also means opportunities, maybe we can still be emperors."

"Speaking lightly, do you know how to fight?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Ju Ming said: "I have studied "Ji Xiao's New Book" and "Records of Military Training", and I have also studied the history of firearms development, and I am familiar with famous battles in ancient and modern China and abroad."

"I understand it, it's just talking on paper." Zhu Guoxiang concluded.

Zhu Ming curled his lips, acquiescing to this matter, there is nothing to refute.

He is indeed an armchair strategist. Although he is keen on playing Bingjia, he does not know the slightest actual combat moves. A sword worth more than 3 yuan is no different from a hatchet in his hand.As for the war, he is very familiar with the battle examples and formations, and the actual operation is only limited to fighting with a few gangsters.

The father and son took turns smoking a cigarette, and Zhu Ming patted his buttocks and stood up: "Continue walking along the Han River, and you will always meet a village."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How was the development of the Hanzhong Basin in the Song Dynasty?"

Zhu Ming explained: "This is based on the time period. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the population in Hanzhong was scarce. Later, tea in the southeast was banned, and only Sichuan-Shanxi and Guangnan tea could be traded freely. In addition, the population of the Sichuan Basin multiplied too much, and a large number of Shu The Chinese people migrated to Hanzhong and planted tea extensively in various parts of Hanzhong.”

"What happened next?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Zhu Ming continued: "Later, Wang Anshi reformed the law, and southeast tea could be traded freely, but Sichuan-Shaanxi tea was purchased and sold by the imperial court because of the opening of Hehuang border, and it was specially used to replace horses. As the saying goes, when Hanzhong buys tea, Xihe trades horses. Since then , Hanzhong's commerce is declining day by day, and the population is becoming smaller and smaller."

Zhu Guoxiang said confusedly: "Why didn't I understand?"

Zhu Ming explained in detail: "The imperial government's unified purchase and sales of tea caused heavy losses to tea farmers. When the imperial court purchased tea from farmers, it not only lowered the purchase price, but also forcibly sold good tea as inferior tea. Big merchants colluded with officials to shoddy and monopolize tea. Tea market. Hanzhong in the Northern Song Dynasty mainly planted tea, especially in mountainous areas. The tea market was in decline, and the common people couldn’t get enough to eat, so they had to flee to other places.”

"Can't we grow food instead?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Zhu Ming said: "First, there are many mountainous areas in Hanzhong, and the grain output in these mountainous areas is very low; second, what should be planted in the field is not something that farmers can change at will. The government registers tea farms. Taxes are collected on the basis of tea plantation. The barren mountainous land does not produce a few grains, and high taxes are charged on the basis of tea plantation. Farmers not only have no income, but also have to pay taxes every year. In addition, Hehuang and Shaanxi often fight, and Hanzhong The levies and miscellaneous taxes here are even heavier, and the common people simply cannot afford it. Therefore, although the opening of Hehuang opened up thousands of miles of land for the Northern Song Dynasty, it also made the Hanzhong mountainous area difficult for the people to live on.”

Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "Has the Southern Song Dynasty recovered?"

"No, until the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Sichuan tea was always banned," Zhu Ming shook his head. "Besides, at the turn of the Song Dynasty, the northern part of Hanzhong belonged to the front line, with frequent wars, heavier taxes, and more serious population loss."

Zhu Guoxiang was quite pleased, and praised: "Your historical knowledge is quite solid."

Zhu Ming opened up the conversation: "My undergraduate thesis is to explore the impact of the Sichuan tea ban on the population and economy of Hanzhong in the Song Dynasty. It is actually very interesting to study those historical details. Take Wang Anshi and Cai Jing as examples, a reformer , a treacherous prime minister through the ages, but comparing their tea policies, we can find some very interesting phenomena."

"How to say?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Zhu Ming said: "Wang Anshi promoted the new law to lift the ban on southeast tea, so that southeast tea can be traded freely. His original intention was good, but he was afraid of repeating the mistakes of the Qingli New Deal, so he dared not let go to reform the administration of officials, which would lead to the degeneration of the market change law. It’s empty talk. The original intention of the Market Change Law was to combat commercial monopoly and mergers and protect the interests of small and medium-sized merchants. In practice, it turned into officials controlling the market.

"And after Cai Jing came to power in the Huizong Dynasty, the two reforms of the tea law worked very well. The tea introduction system formulated by Cai Jing seemed to have restored the ban on tea, but retained part of Wang Anshi's trade law. In this way, all parties can Deli was used until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty."

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head and said, "A new policy cannot benefit everyone. Some people must suffer from Cai Jing's tea law."

Zhu Ming said: "Cai Jing's tea law has increased the income of the imperial court and the profits of tea merchants. Where do these profits come from? Of course, it is to abolish and merge the tea regulatory agencies and give up the unified purchase and sales of tea, thus reducing administrative costs. Expenses and corruption processes. At the same time, small and medium businessmen are excluded, and tea farmers are still the target of being squeezed.”

"I understand. Streamlining government departments and administrative links will reduce the number of bureaucrats lying on top of them. It will also ensure the interests of big businessmen and big bureaucrats, so that policies will be favorably supported," Zhu Guoxiang commented, "It seems that Cai Jing still has some tricks. It’s not the stupid officials in the novels who only rely on calligraphy to please the emperor.”

Zhu Ming said with a smile: "It's not a stupid official, but it must be a corrupt official. Cai Jing formulated and implemented the Tea Yin Law, and he and his confidantes made a lot of money by relying on Tea Yin. In the past, officials at all levels were corrupt together, and even rural small Officials can make a fortune, and only those who become high-ranking officials after the reform are eligible to be corrupt.”

Under Cai Jing's reform of the tea law, the state's fiscal revenue has increased, and the important officials in the court are also satisfied. The big merchants and the big tea farm owners also benefited. Of course, Song Huizong regarded Cai Jing as a treasure.

Zhu Ming swung his sword to split the thorns and weeds, and said as he walked: "All of Cai Jing's reforms, to put it bluntly, is to make money. Make money for the court, and make money for himself. Sometimes it can be wrong, but more often it makes people complain. For example, in the currency reform, the top ten coins were created, and the people’s fat and anointment were searched for. The common people were not stupid, so they melted small coins and changed them to big coins with higher value, and the currency market was made even more chaotic.”

The father and son continued to chat about Cai Jing's reforms, mainly because Zhu Ming was talking, and Zhu Guoxiang was beside him.

Although Zhu Guoxiang didn't understand a lot of content, he liked this way of father-son communication.Unlike in the past, when talking and talking, we have disagreements, and chatting always turns into gags and mutual complaints.

Zhu Guoxiang began to reflect. He thought he cared about his son, but he didn't care what his son thought.

He always felt that his son had no serious skills, and knowing a lot of history was useless.If you really like this aspect, you can go to the postgraduate entrance examination and doctoral examination, but self-media is the least ambitious.

Now, the son seems to be more capable than he imagined.

……

Go through the tenth day.

On both sides of the Han River, there are many mountains and greenery.

In a few hundred years, this should be a pleasant hike.

It's a pity that the transportation is inconvenient at this time, brambles and weeds are overgrown by the river, and it is extremely cold at night, and the father and son are still half-starved.

Due to lack of oil and salt, Ju Ming felt that his physical strength had dropped significantly, and his physique, which had been improved during the time travel, was almost unable to hold on.

Walking along the banks of the Han River, they encountered several groups of boats, but none of them docked.It is true that there are too many water bandits and bandits, and the boatman doesn't want to make troubles. What if he is lured and robbed?
At noon on the tenth day, the father and son finally found the house by the river.

There are more than 30 thatched huts scattered at the foot of the mountain, which should have been a village before.But it is obviously dilapidated, and some walls have collapsed, and it seems that no one has lived in it for a long time.

Zhu Ming quickened his pace and walked towards those thatched cottages.

But Zhu Guoxiang stopped halfway, stood in front of a free-growing tea tree, and said to his son walking in front: "This is an abandoned tea mountain."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Ming looked around, and found that the place he regarded as a small forest was actually a tea tree standing tall.

Those tea trees grow luxuriantly, and due to the lack of human pruning, some have even grown to two meters high.

Weeds are growing everywhere, mixed among the tea trees, and it has been abandoned for many years.

Zhu Ming murmured: "The tea farms are deserted and the population is withered. If this is Xixiang County, then the accurate time can be continued. It should be after the opening of Hehuang and before the Jin army went south. Earlier than this time period, the tea farms in various places in Hanzhong It was very prosperous. After this time period, Jin soldiers ravaged Shanshan and Shaanxi, and a large number of people fled to Hanzhong, so the population would not be so sparse. Of course, if it was in the Southern Song Dynasty, it would be different. I don’t know the situation in Hanzhong in the Southern Song Dynasty.”

Zhu Guoxiang was surprised: "Remember so clearly?"

Zhu Ming pretended to be coercive: "It's just a basic operation. The shame of Hehuang Kaibian and Jingkang is a big event."

"Which emperors were there during this period?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Zhu Ming said: "Song Shenzong Zhao Xu, Song Zhezong Zhao Xu, Song Huizong Zhao Ji, Song Qinzong Zhao Huan."

"Wang Anshi's reform seems to be supported by Song Shenzong, right?" Zhu Guoxiang's historical knowledge is very limited. If he was not familiar with Wang Anshi, he would not even know Song Shenzong's name.

Zhu Ming nodded and said, "It's Song Shenzong. It would be the best time to travel to that time. You can take the imperial examination and deal with many famous officials. If you travel to Huizong Dynasty, alas... it will be hard to explain in a fucking sentence."

Identifying the passage between the tea trees, Zhu Ming cut the weeds and moved forward, and soon came to several thatched huts.

There was even a small courtyard in front of the house, but the fence was broken.

The yard was also full of weeds. Zhu Ming swung his sword and hacked for a while, and found a bamboo dustpan among the weeds.

Kneeling down and stretching out a hand to pinch, the bamboo strips of the dustpan were directly crushed. It has been abandoned for too long and has been completely weathered and decayed.

Zhu Guoxiang looked at the collapsed door panel and said, "There is no one here, we'd better not enter the house, and watch out for the earth wall to collapse."

"We still have to go in and see if we can find a pot." Zhu Ming said.

The father and son stepped into the house cautiously, one behind the other.

There is a dining table in the main room, which is the Eight Immortals table that has been popularized in the Song Dynasty.Moss has grown on the tabletop, which is not a year or two.

There are some debris scattered on the ground, which should be left by the owner when he moved.

After wandering around for a while, but found nothing usable, Zhu Ming turned and walked towards the side room again.

This place is obviously a kitchen, and the earthen stove can be seen at a glance. There are unknown small mushrooms growing on the ground in front of the stove.

"nice one!"

Ju Ming's eyes lit up, and there was a clay pot on the stove.

One ear was missing, and hemp rope was still tied to the other ear.

A clay pot with missing ears, that's all the harvest. The father and son left with the pot in their hands, and finally they can cook wild vegetable soup.

With joy, Zhu Ming returned to the riverside with the pot in his hands, when he suddenly heard a neighing sound similar to a horse's neighing from a nearby tea plantation.

"There are horses!" Zhu Guoxiang said.

"Someone!" Ju Ming was overjoyed.

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(End of this chapter)