Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 6 0006 [Official Horse]

The sweater on Ju Ming's body has long been rotten, and there are scraped holes everywhere.

He took off his sweater and cut it into several pieces with a sword.Then he returned the sword into its sheath, carefully wrapped the torn sweater strips around the scabbard and the hilt, and tied them tightly with a few shoelaces.

The Song Dynasty implemented strict sword control, and the eight-faced Han sword is definitely a prohibited item and cannot be exposed to strangers casually!
After hiding their weapons, the father and son followed the sound of the horse and walked towards the depths of the tea farm.

After about 10 minutes, the two showed disappointed expressions-there was indeed a horse there, but there was no trace of humans at all.

It can be seen that the horse has a tall skeleton and a brownish-yellow fur.But skinny, with every rib protruding, the horse's belly has been completely sunken in, which reminds Ju Ming of the starving people in Africa in the photo.

A long rope was tied to the horse's head, and the rope was tangled around the tea tree.

With the horse as the center, the tea trees and weeds in the area around three to four meters were eaten bare.It is estimated that the edible food has been eaten up. The horse was eager to break free, so it ran and jumped around, causing the rope to become shorter and shorter, and it was completely wrapped around a tea tree.

Seeing two humans approaching, the horse took a half step back in panic, then shook his head as if asking for help.

Zhu Ming went closer to check and found that the horse's neck was strangled with scars.Some scars have scabbed over, while others have festered, and there are even live maggots churning in the wounds.

"There are words here!" Zhu Guoxiang suddenly shouted.

Zhu Ming walked to the left rear of the horse, and saw that there was a brand on its left crotch, and it was burned in two places.

The first place is the big seal, with several characters branded on it, and the key word is "Qin".The second place is a small seal, with only a single character "A" branded on it.

Ju Ming carefully recalled the materials, perhaps due to the influence of time travel, the related papers were quickly remembered.He guessed based on clues: "This is a steel horse bought by the Tea Horse Division from the Hehuang area. It was first sent to Qinfeng Road to buy a horse supervisor for filing, and then transported to Kaifeng via the Hanshui River. It was used as a horse for the Imperial Army of the Dianqian Division. This' The word A' is the abbreviation of the serial number of Dianqian Division, and something happened during the escort, and this army horse fled to the tea farm indiscriminately and was trapped."

"Since it is a military horse, it must not be kept by a private person," Zhu Guoxiang said with a rumbling stomach, swallowing his saliva, "Just kill the horse and eat it."

Zhu Ming didn't do it immediately, but said to himself: "If it was the Northern Song Dynasty, the Hanshui horse guide had not yet formed a custom, and the Hehuang horse was generally used as a frontier army horse, and was rarely transported to the southern states and counties. Even if it was to be transported to Kaifeng, it would have to go through Tongguan to cross the Yellow River, so why would it take a detour through the Han River? Could it be that we traveled to the Southern Song Dynasty, and this horse was going to be transported to Hangzhou?"

Too little information, I can't figure it out.

Zhu Guoxiang was already dizzy with hunger. In his eyes, this military horse was just a lump of roast meat.

"Chong!"

Zhu Ming untied the shoelaces wrapped around the hilt of his sword, and drew his sword out of its sheath to kill the horse.

Ma'er turned to look at him, as if he understood human nature, and there was a hint of pleading in his eyes.

Zhu Ming looked at the yellow puma, and couldn't help but softened, no matter what, he couldn't kill him ruthlessly.He asked his father, "Would you like to release the life?"

Zhu Guoxiang was silent for a few seconds, nodded and said, "That's fine."

Zhu Ming stepped forward with his sword in hand, and carefully cut the rope. The horse did not struggle, and stood there obediently to cooperate with the action.

After cutting off all the ropes wrapped around the horse's neck, Ju Ming stroked the horse's mane and said, "You are left to fend for yourself in the mountains. It will be very troublesome for us to take you along."

The father and son turned to leave, but the horse leaned on them and followed them step by step.

When passing the tea tree in front, he did not forget to eat tea to satisfy his hunger. The horse was obviously very hungry.

Followed all the way to the river, Zhu Ming went to clean the pots, fetched a pot of river water, and put it in front of the horse.The horse hurriedly lowered its head to drink water, flicked its tail comfortably, and already regarded Ju Ming as its master.

Zhu Guoxiang looked at the white maggots surging from the wound on the horse's neck, and silently went to look for herbs nearby.

After the herbs were found, Zhu Ming set fire to the sword, used the hot blade to dig out the carrion, scraped off the maggots and threw it away.The horse just neighed a couple of times, then stood stiffly, and did not move until the herbs were applied.

The father and son sat down around the fire, and the horse stood beside it grazing.

"Roast two sweet potatoes." Zhu Ming couldn't bear it anymore, although the 20 catties of sweet potatoes would be of great use in the future.

Zhu Guoxiang nodded heavily: "Roasted sweet potatoes are delicious!"

When rolling down the hillside, some sweet potatoes were broken, and the father and son picked the seriously injured ones, built soil into a kiln, and roasted sweet potatoes in the same way as kiln chicken.

When they ate the delicious roasted sweet potatoes, they were so happy that they wanted to cry.

Since I finished eating the snacks I brought, I have been eating wild vegetables to satisfy my hunger. Fortunately, I snatched a fawn from the yellow-throated marten halfway, otherwise I would have been malnourished and had no energy to trek.

I also encountered many wild animals, but the two of them can't hunt!
After eating a roasted sweet potato, although he was still hungry, Zhu Ming felt his strength regained. He stood up with his sword and said, "Let's go, Dean Zhu."

The father and son continued to walk along the Han River, followed by a scrawny yellow puma.

Maybe the horse brought good luck. This time I only walked for three hours. At about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, I saw bursts of cooking smoke rising in front of me.

"I finally met a living person." Zhu Ming wanted to cry at this moment.

I haven't seen the house yet, but the scenery in front of me is completely different.

The lowlands by the river have been cleared out, and there are no longer endless weeds and chaotic forests, but large golden rapeseed flowers.

Farther away from the river bank, there are some wheat fields under the hillside, and the wheat seedlings are lush and growing gratifyingly.

In the wheat field, several figures could be vaguely seen.

The farmers were wearing short shirts, casually wrapped in linen turbans, with loops on their arms, and they were working hard to weed the wheat fields.

"Don't gnaw!"

Zhu Ming slapped him and stopped the skinny horse who wanted to eat rapeseed.

This horse is actually quite sensible, after encountering a big push, it obediently moved along the field ridge.

At intervals, the field ridges become slightly wider, and mulberry trees must be planted in the wide places.First, it can harvest mulberry and raise silkworms to increase farmers’ income; second, it can stabilize the ridges and prevent soil erosion; third, it can prevent others from encroaching on the fields (mulberry trees are the field boundaries, and it is useless to move the ridges unless the roots of the mulberry trees are removed).

Passing through several rapeseed fields, we are already close to the village. There are probably more than ten families living here.All thatched houses, the walls are made of earth and stone, and the roof is covered with thatch to keep out the rain.

The father and son had been discovered long ago, and as soon as they reached the village entrance, several farmers came over.

The leader is a farmer, who seems to be in his 40s or 50s, and his face is so wrinkled that it is difficult to tell his age.

Without waiting for the other party to speak, Zhu Ming bowed and saluted: "Hi fellow, my father and son would like to ask for a drink of saliva."

This move made those peasants unable to deal with it.

The two of them endured the asceticism for ten days, their clothes were all in tatters, and Zhu Guoxiang had a beard all over his face.They also have short hair, as if they have been tortured, or monks who have gone down the mountain for alms.

But Ju Ming behaved politely, bowed and bowed, and seemed like a scholar.

The most important thing is that Ju Ming's accent is weird, and he doesn't know what to say.

In fact, if you speak slowly, you can understand the general meaning.Many of the pronunciations of these villagers' languages ​​are close to Shaanxi Guanzhong dialect, and many pronunciations are close to Sichuan Leshan dialect.

Seeing those peasants standing still, Zhu Ming slowed down his speech and repeated it again.

The leading farmer finally understood, invited them into the village to drink water, and asked curiously, "Where do you come from?"

Zhu Guoxiang had a friend who was from Leshan, and he tried his best to imitate: "We came from the south to go to relatives, and met bandits on the way, and were played by bandits and cut off our hair. We managed to escape."

"This horse is skinny enough," said the farmer intentionally or unconsciously.

Zhu Guoxiang explained: "There is an abandoned tea mountain in front of us, and this beast is entangled in a tea tree by a rope. We rescued it and it followed."

The farmer smiled and said, "It's quite human."

Zhu Guoxiang imitated his son and asked, "What's your surname?"

"Miangui, my surname is Tian. Everyone in the village calls me Tian San." The farmer said.

Zhu Guoxiang introduced himself: "My lord Zhu Guoxiang, this is the dog Zhu Ming."

Chatting all the way into the village, Ju Ming was speechless the whole time, quietly observing a few farmers next to him.

And those farmers were also observing them, staring at their backpacks for a while, and at their skinny horses for a while.

One of them glanced at Ju Ming's shoulder intentionally or unintentionally—the sword wrapped in a torn sweater was carried by Zhu Ming behind his back, and the hilt of the sword protruded from his right shoulder.

The farmers seemed to be walking casually, but in fact they surrounded the father and son secretly, and they could immediately besiege if an accident happened.

When he came to the farmyard, Tian San asked his wife to fetch a ladle of water.

While the father and son were drinking water, Tian San deliberately asked, "Where are you guys going?"

Zhu Ming tried to slow down his speech as much as possible: "We came to seek refuge with our relatives. I heard from the elderly at home that our relatives planted tea here and hadn't moved around for decades. But when we came here, the tea hills along the way were deserted. Where can we find relatives? I don’t even know where to live.”

Tian San shook his head and sighed: "There was no one in the tea mountain in front of me ten years ago. It's such a good tea tree, no one dares to pick it. If you pick it, you have to pay taxes to the government. The tea tax is okay, but I'm afraid it will be increased. Miscellaneous donations and errands."

"Even if you don't pick tea, why don't you plant grain fields?" Zhu Ming asked.

Tian San suddenly felt resentful: "It is said that there is a Mr. Cai Xianggong who is reforming the law, and what kind of Fangtian order is being made. The less Tian Yue Fang of the big household, the more the Tian Yue Fang of the small household. If the small household cannot survive, it must be donated. Tenants, either fled to the deep mountains. In the second year, the big households were also given a lot of land, and a few pieces of forest were randomly designated as good fields for the big households. The big households in the county government who did not have the support of the mountains also had to break up and flee."

The equal taxation of square fields is the core content of Wang Anshi's reform.

After Cai Jing came to power, he immediately restarted Fangtian. To put it bluntly, it was to check the fields.For the sake of political achievements, local officials pointed to barren hills and said they were dry fields, and pointed to river beaches as paddy fields, and forcibly registered them under the names of ordinary people.

Ever since, the whole country was in chaos, and even the landlords who were not strong enough were forced to abandon their family property and flee.

Zhu Ming asked again: "How far is the county seat in front?"

"It's a long way off," Tian San pointed to the west, "It's still dozens of miles to Xixiang County, you have to go there by boat. The riverside is full of mountain roads, with twists and turns, and it may take two or three days to walk."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Is there a market town?"

"You mean the grass market?" Tian San replied, "Ten miles up the road, there is a white market. You usually go there to buy salt."

After chatting for a while, Tian San's brother Tian Er came home, and the woman in the kitchen had already prepared the meals.

Tian San invited the father and son to eat together, but Zhu Ming and Zhu Guoxiang were naturally disrespectful. They hadn't tasted rice for a long time.

Tian Er and Tian San both have wives and children, and the youngest daughter is only five or six years old, and she looks at strangers with round eyes curiously.

The meal was a pot of miscellaneous porridge, and there was actually rice, but there were a lot of bran husks in it. I don't know if the rice was not pounded clean, or the bran husks were left in it on purpose to satisfy the stomach.There are also unknown wild vegetables, which are also cooked whole in the porridge, and the green embellishment is very beautiful.

The dish is a bowl of pickles, which are quite salty, and you can drink half a bowl of porridge with one bite.

Such a rough meal, but the father and son felt indescribably delicious, gobbling it like a hungry ghost reincarnated.

I am too embarrassed to eat too much, because there is not enough porridge.

In the end, the porridge pot was scraped clean, Tian Er's wife went to wash the dishes, Tian San's wife went to feed the chickens, and the men sat in the yard and continued to chat.

Before I knew it, it was getting dark.

The family only has a few houses, no guest room, not even a woodshed.

The father and son were arranged to rest in the kitchen. Although the conditions were poor, they would not sleep in the open.

Hearing the sound of footsteps walking away from the house, Zhu Ming observed through the crack of the door for a while, and after making sure that there was no one there, he said in a low voice, "There is something wrong with this village. When we first entered the village, the eyes of those villagers were too piercing."

"I also feel that something is wrong." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhu Ming said: "The horse is right at the door of the kitchen. If the villagers have evil intentions, they must go to snatch the horse first. As long as we hear the movement, we will grab the door and run, and let them snatch the horse."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The old rule is to take turns watching the night."

"What should we do if there are too many people? It will be difficult to escape if we are stuck in the kitchen." Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang thought about it, but there was no good way, and suggested: "How about we go out to sleep, I see a lot of firewood piled up under the eaves on the side of the house, and it is not easy to find it hidden inside. If someone comes, we will find an opportunity to escape. If No one's coming, we'll be back in the kitchen before dawn."

Zhu Ming glanced at the firewood in front of the stove: "There's no need to go out, we're here. Lock the door, and if you find something wrong, just set fire to the house. When there's a fire, open the door and rush out in the chaos. Light the fire. Every household in the village has firewood under the eaves, which is easy to ignite. If they dare to mess around, we will play hard and burn all the houses in the village! By then, the villagers will go to fight the fire, who Are you still in the mood to chase us?"

Zhu Guoxiang belongs to the system, and his behavior tends to be conservative. How could he come up with such a method, so shocked that he didn't know how to speak, he held back for a long time and only gave a thumbs up: "You... are amazing!"

Just do what you say, and the father and son stacked straw, bamboo shoots and other flammable firewood around branches, bamboo poles and other good firewood.

Once there is a sign of trouble, it can be ignited quickly.

When the father and son were preparing for the fire, the Tian brothers were also discussing in the main room.

Tian San said: "These two foreigners are probably not ordinary people."

Tian Er said: "That young man, with a weapon wrapped in a rag on his back, is probably a tough practitioner."

"That official horse, I'm afraid it was left over from our looting last year, and they ran into the deserted tea mountain." Tian San guessed.

Tian Er asked, "Do you want to take it back?"

Tian San smiled and said: "I'm so skinny, you can take it back and serve me? I can only kill it and eat it."

Tian Er said: "It's okay to eat meat, I haven't eaten meat for a long time."

Tian San shook his head: "If it's really Lianjiazi, it's not worth paying for a meal of horse meat. Let's see if they leave, if they stay for two days, we won't be in trouble. It's time to pick tea again in a few days, everything You have to be careful, don't make a big fuss and invite the government. You go to the cottage overnight, report to all the brothers, and tell the story of these two foreigners."

"Okay, I'll go right away, you can watch at home." Tian Er got up immediately.

Tian Er went back to his room, took the hatchet from the wall, took out the stick from under the bed, and connected the hatchet to the stick.

A simple knife can be assembled and formed.

Although the control of knives was strict in the Song Dynasty, criminals also had ways to deal with it.

It is to disassemble the short blade and long handle and place them. When the government finds out, they say it is a farm tool, and when they encounter a battle, they assemble it into a plain knife to fight.

Pu Dao has no fixed standard and has various shapes. It is a very flexible and free DIY weapon.

But in the dark, Tian Er went out with a simple knife, walked out of the village from the west, and turned into a valley.

Follow the valley into the deep mountains and walk for several miles, and you will find large tracts of tea mountains.

In the depths of the tea mountain, there are more families.

Every household here hides weapons, and they are in contact with the little white member further upstream, who is responsible for opening up official channels.Therefore, the tea mountains hidden in the mountains do not need to pay tea tax at all. After the tea is collected and steamed, it is all used in private smuggling trade.

Deeper in the tea mountain is a dangerous mountain range.

Earth and stone walls have been built at key locations throughout the mountains, and there are bandit villages on the top of the mountain, and farmers also live in the villages.

Smuggling tea is just one of them, and occasionally they go down the mountain to rob business travelers.

Even, rob the official product!
And the official materials that were seized were sold through channels found outside the white staff.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the officials were clean and honest, and the folk customs were simple and honest.

(End of this chapter)