The bad emperor of Tang Dynasty

Just two months after the last Jingzhaoyin, I encountered a series of livelihood reforms by the new prime minister Liu Yan, mainly in terms of salt and iron, transshipment, money casting, and renting. In addition, officials at all levels of the Jingzhao Mansion are so busy that everyone is busy. The old leisurely life of the bureaucracy is gone forever.

After Liu Yan was transferred from the position of Yin of the Jingzhao Mansion, the right prime minister who was appointed the month before last, led the Zhongshumen to make peace.Mr. Liu is upright, industrious and thrifty, and has always been incompatible with the party of the right minister Yuanzai.

Daizong appointed him as the left minister, which undoubtedly greatly divided the situation of Yuan Zai's monopoly of power in the court. With a single word, it seemed that a vigorous vitality began to flow in the dull and lifeless court in the past.This gave the virtuous ministers and officials who were under the control and suppression of Yuan Zai's party everywhere a bright future.

Recently, Guo Nuan, Jing Zhaoyin, was busy running up and down like a pug because of Liu Yan's reform measures, panting from exhaustion.He went to Dongshi for a while to investigate the salt price in the market and investigated the evidence of fraud and corruption by salt officials, and then went to the Caoqu Canal of the Weishui River, where he had to inspect the wharf for grain transportation.

Bashui, Weishui, and Chan waterways have dozens of wharves with no fewer than twenty ship gangs, most of which were established by labor unions of boatmen. Many of these boatmen and conscripted water transport ships were conscripted from the Yangtze River. Come.

Guo Nuan received many complaints from migrant workers, saying that the water inspectors and river patrol officers colluded with each other and embezzled public funds. Each laborer who transported grain was promised to be paid [-] yuan a day, but he was only paid [-] yuan, and three meals were provided. The rice is still aged brown rice, or it is rotten rice eaten by moths.

Guo Nuan attaches great importance to these appeals. What if the corrupt officials squeezed the laborers of the ship gang guild too hard, there is a possibility that riots and strikes will be set off at the docks, and the combined number of dozens of gangs will be at least ** million. The annual supply of several million stones of grain to Guanzhong is a major transportation problem in the Gyeonggi area and cannot be underestimated.

Guo Nuan led a hundred yamen servants to clean up the corrupt officials in dozens of wharves. Some of the water transport envoys mobilized 50 shi of grain, all of which were sold privately to large grain merchants in the Longyou Road area for supply. The hostile nomads in northern Saibei made a profit of more than 100 million and 70 yuan, all of which were pocketed. The crimes were huge, including corruption and treason. According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, once the evidence of the crime was found, they could be killed on the spot.

When Guo Nuan was holding a copy of the corruption ledger searched by the river transfer envoy Bo, the river officer arrogantly asked his backer Yuan Zai to support him, and even gathered [-] thugs, threatening to kill Guo Nuan.

Immediately, Guo Nuan was not polite, without further ado, on the grounds of arrest, he led 78 policemen from Jingzhao Prefecture to fight with the River Transit Department at the wharf for half an hour, and killed eleven thugs. "Shot and killed three bandit soldiers on the spot on horseback, including the chief criminal Yunliang Hesi.

The heads of corrupt officials were hung in the Yamen of the river for three days, and then the river and water transportation were cleared up, the people applauded, and the bureaucratic corruption suddenly subsided a lot.The next day, the imperial court issued a commendation order to Jingzhaofu.

Of course, Yuan Zai's strength is very deep, and the water transport incident was quickly cleared of all culpability. Guo Nuan, a middle-level official, made the impeachment of Prime Minister Yuan, and the impeachment letter was uploaded to the court for half a month.

Of course, Yuan Zai held a grudge against Guo Nuan, and he hated it secretly.However, Guo Nuan has offended countless people. If there are too many lice, it doesn't matter if there are too many lice.

Regarding the decree to open a new Cao River in the north of the city, an instruction was issued from the Zhongshu Province in early May, with the purpose of diverting the Wei River east into the Yellow River to increase the efficiency of grain transportation.

The Yamen of Jingzhao Prefecture under the jurisdiction of Guo Nuan must cooperate with the Metropolitan Water Supervision and the Ministry of Industry to excavate a canal that is more than 18 miles long, [-] meters wide, and [-] meters deep. Less than ten months of construction time.

Guo Nuan posted a recruitment list and recruited laborers. In half a month, only 3000 people were recruited. According to the estimated amount of work, it would take at least [-] laborers to keep up with the progress.

This task is difficult, and Guo Nuan's hair has grown white these days. If the issue of law and order is easy for him, he can dispatch a killing god Luo Yuan or ice water beauty Yan Ruoshui to wipe out a small town in the city. It's a gang of gangsters, and it's really hard to deal with municipal affairs.

I can't help but sigh that the labor productivity in ancient times is too backward. To dig tunnels, move embankments, build bridges, divert water to irrigate farmland and other things along the way, you have to rely on manpower to carry soil with dustpan and dustpan. If there are explosives And so on, a lot of unnecessary labor can be left.

Thinking of explosives, when Guo Nuan was frowning and worried that he could not find enough labor to build the canal, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind: "Dynamite, explosives, this should work. If we can develop detonators, we can dig mountains and dig rivers." It's not a piece of cake!"

Guo Nuan undoubtedly thought of developing high explosives. As soon as the idea popped into his mind, he couldn't control it. He was excited like a lunatic who had been beaten with chicken blood, and his whole body twitched excitedly.

So Guo Nuan ran to the Ministry of Industry, he found the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and discussed with him the plan for the development of explosives, but the Minister of the Ministry of Industry did not understand this conceptual invention that only existed in the Ming Dynasty. I couldn't explain its power clearly, so I ran to the Military Weapons Supervision Office.

However, the superintendent shied away and said that the dynamite proposed by Guo Nuan was really novel and worth a try. Isn’t it just making small firecrackers and fireworks into a big firecracker? ——The Si Ya who will be the prisoner.

There is no way, these ancients still can't realize the importance of this future invention, Guo Nuan had to go to Jiangzuo prison again, just when Guo Nuan was a little discouraged, after listening to his grand design blueprint and the use of explosives, However, the superintendent who will be the prison is very interested.

"Couldn't the gunpowder used in firecrackers be used to make some kind of thunderbolt? It must be high explosives?"

The chief who will be in charge is an old man in his seventies and eighties. He is very good at casting iron, but he has no idea about these explosives.

"Earth gunpowder is not powerful enough. If we want to develop a detonator, we need to use stronger gunpowder. Uh, can we get sulfuric acid?" Guo Nuan asked casually hesitantly.

"What is sulfuric acid?" However, people in the Tang Dynasty really didn't have the term sulfuric acid, so the old man was a little confused.

"Uh, well, is there any nitric acid?" Guo Nuan was slightly disappointed, and then asked again.

"What is nitric acid? Is it sour? Is mature vinegar useful? There are still two jars of vinegar in my dining room." The old inspector opened his dazed eyes, asked three questions intermittently, and then came out with another sentence. Ridiculous words.

Well, Guo Nuan is out of luck. Originally, he wanted to develop the high explosive TNT. Not to mention the glycerin used to make this high explosive, even the nitric acid and sulfuric acid were unknown to Tang Dynasty people. It seems that the plan to develop explosives required It was a mess, and Guo Nuan was hit hard.

Just as Guo Nuan was about to step out of the gate of the yamen where he was going to be a prisoner, the old man said slowly from behind:

"Uh, the old man knows an alchemist from Arabia named Abu Musa Jaber ibn Hayan. There are many toads and poisonous snakes in that guy's house, as well as transparent bottles and jars. I’ve been working on some weird decoctions every day, and I’ve been in Chang’an for eight years, maybe you can visit him at Mingde Square in the south of the city... Nitric acid, sulfur, etc., he should know about it.”