Compete for the Song Dynasty

The next day, the county magistrate personally sent Wang Pang and others to leave Gaoyou County, and sent them ten miles out of the county in one go.This county magistrate Xu also tried his best to please Wang Pang, and he kept muttering on the horse all the way, "I was a frequent visitor to Jinxiu Tower back then, and I met you at that time, and I knew then that you would definitely be on the rise in the future."

"Oh? We met back then?" Wang Bang always felt that Xu Liang looked familiar.

"That's right! Once I took Lord Gao to your Jinxiu Tower to eat the laundered sheep."

Wang Pang knew that he was talking about boiled mutton, so he smiled.County Magistrate Xu said eloquently, "Don't tell me, the dishes in Jinxiulou are pretty good. I heard that your search for books in the south was not only successful, but also made great achievements. Where did you find those volumes?"

"Oh, in the academy of the king of the county." [

Wang Pang said that he remembered that when Zhao Xu led troops into Shaozhou, when he searched the academy, he found the "Poetry Collection of Kou Zhong and Foolish Old Man", which contained the bank note that Wang Pang secretly put in it, which was Wang Pangjin Evidence from Guojun Wangfu Academy.

"That's right, fortunately I didn't learn from that Qin Min..." Chen Kang said dissatisfied.

Qin Minxue?He also knows Qin Minxue?And Wang Pang suddenly thought, how did Xu Liang know that he was going south to find books?Not many people know about it.Wang Pang stopped the horse: "Magistrate Xu, the Qin Minxue you mentioned just now, but the current crown prince Shaofu?"

"Yes, it's him!"

Wang Pang's face darkened: "Magistrate Xu, I went south to search for books under a secret decree, how did you know?"

"This, this is what the secretary of Qin said. You also know that before the current emperor became the prince, he was a resident of the Pu residence. Maybe it was the emperor who told him. King Zhennan, look, I will send it to you. Well, Yangzhou is thirty or forty miles further forward." Xu Liang also realized that he had slipped his tongue, and he hurriedly covered it up with a smile.

Wang Pang thought to himself that there must be something about the kid surnamed Qin here, and it was this kid who made trouble again when he was in Shaozhou.Seeing Xu Liang's flickering words, he knew that even if he asked him again, he might not answer, thinking that I don't have time to entangle with you now, and I will let me know sooner or later!After bidding farewell to County Magistrate Xu, Wang Pang and his party walked towards Yangzhou.

In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou built "Luo City" under Shugang, which is fifteen miles from north to south and seven miles from east to west. It encloses a large residential area and residential areas of industrial and commercial people in the southeast of Shugang along the ancient canal, forming a city connected by wells. "Ten Mile Long Street".The one on the mountain is called "Zicheng" or "Yacheng", which is the concentration of government offices and yamen.In Du Mu's poems, "the street hangs a thousand paces of willows, and the glow reflects the double city", and the "double city" refers to Luocheng and Zicheng.

Yangzhou has a short spring every year, only two months. At this time, the warm and humid southeast wind comes from a long distance from the sea, blowing the city located at the southern end of the Jianghuai Plain. "The old man left the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March." Say goodbye to the long and cold winter in the north.In the spring breeze, peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, and pear blossoms in Yangzhou are competing to bloom, and Yangzhou City is hidden in a sea of ​​colorful flowers, which has a unique style.

The spring breeze was blowing on the face and the scenery was intoxicating, so Wang Pang simply asked Su Xiaomei to ride a horse and enjoy the beautiful scenery while walking.What makes Wang Pang feel happy is the prosperity of Yangzhou city, where the river and the sea meet, and the city prospers with water.At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Grand Canal dug during the reign of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty has become the main artery of water transportation from north to south in the country. The tributes from the southern counties and the materials from the eight southeast provinces must be transported to Chang'an, the capital of Kyoto, through Yangzhou.The convenient transportation makes Yangzhou an important port on the Maritime Silk Road and one of the four major commercial ports in the East.

As the saying goes, "Between the Jianghuai River and the Huaihe River, Guangling is a big town, rich in the world", "Wrapping a hundred thousand guan, riding a crane to Yangzhou" is the portrayal of his wealth in the world at that time.Although Yangzhou experienced several wars in the late Tang Dynasty and early Song Dynasty, it still couldn't conceal the prosperity that the Grand Canal brought to Yangzhou.Foreigners who come to Yangzhou to do business in Yangzhou are in constant stream. There are row upon row of pavilions and shops in the prosperous area of ​​Yangzhou City. The shops dealing in high-end luxury goods such as gold, silver and treasures show the extraordinary purchasing power of Yangzhou City.

Seeing Su Xiaomei's eyes dazzled, Wang Pang said beside her: "Look, I'm right, right?"

Su Xiaomei laughed and said, "You're right, this place is so prosperous, I'm not worried that you won't be able to spend money like Yongzhou, but I'm afraid that you won't have enough money to spend here."

Wang Pang also thought of a sentence, which is most suitable here, and he said to Su Xiaomei, "You don't know this, let me tell you, it's called: If you don't go to the capital, you don't know the official school; if you don't go to Yangzhou, you don't know how little money is." !"

"Hehe, what about our Meizhou?" Su Xiaomei asked with a smile.

Wang Pang scratched his head: "If you don't come to Meizhou, you don't know how good my little sister is~" Su Xiaomei was teased by Wang Pang and bent over immediately.

Everyone walked through the bustling market and came to the gate of the government office in the center of the state city.In front of the Fuya, there is a short and spacious street running north-south, called Fucheng, which is a "ceremonial square" at the entrance of the Fuya, which is specially used to welcome and send off sedan chairs and horses from all over the country; ", is the place where the government posts official notices.There is a drum on the right, which is the complaint office for the common people to shout their grievances.Everyone stopped at the Fucheng, Zhe Kejun got off his horse and got on the platform, the yamen guard at the gate of the Fuya saw that the man was dressed in official clothes and did not dare to neglect him, took a look at the name card, and someone rushed in to report to Shen Kuo.

Not long after, a guard walked out of the mansion and said something to Zhe Kejun. Zhe Kejun returned to the mansion and said to the king: "My lord, Shen Canjun is trying a case, and he asked us to be taken inside. government."

Wang Pang and the others got off their horses, and when they passed through the corridor on the side of the government office under the guidance of the guards leading the way, they vaguely heard the sound of trial in the central hall of the government office; There are wing rooms on both sides, one side is the torture room for punishing criminals, and the other side is the storage of data files.Behind the court is the official lounge, and behind it is the inner palace.Once entering the inner mansion, it is different from the previous solemnity.Inner Fuzhong Garden has lotus ponds and rockery.On the east side of the garden is Guanxiang. In addition to the dormitory and study of the officials, there are also pavilions where the family members live. [

The guards leading the way brought Wang Pang and others to a study room, and immediately a housekeeper greeted them, and another servant brought Wang Pang tea.Wang Pang and Su Xiaomei stayed in the study and waited for Shen Kuo. Su Xiaomei asked, "My lord, we rarely see anyone you want to meet when we come all the way. This manager from Yangzhou who joins the army is very close to you?"

Wang Pang smiled and said: "Of course, you don't know my big brother Shen. I just arrived in the Song Dynasty, no, I knew Shen Cunzhong when I first entered the court. This man is very knowledgeable and talented. He is proficient in astronomy, mathematics, Physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, geography, agronomy and medicine...."

Su Xiaomei smiled: "Okay, you are going to say that this person is ignorant, I see, there are really not many people who can be praised by you. I have to see this."

Wang Pang nodded and said yes. Although he had seen many celebrities who were admired by later generations in the Song Dynasty, there were not many who he could say he admired.He looked around the study room, and Shen Kuo's study room was always different from the study rooms of high-ranking officials and dignitaries he had seen. Apart from the Four Treasures of the Study Room, other people's study rooms were all equipped with cabinets, desks, curtains, pen holders and even flower vases. , Famous porcelain incense burners, and ornamental ornaments do not show the taste and identity of the owner.But Shen Kuo is not the case. There are not many things in his study that show taste. Most of them are strange stones, various medicine bottles, armillary spheres, clepsydra and so on.Let's put it this way, as soon as he entered the study, Wang Bang knew that he must have gone to the right place.

He was looking around when he suddenly heard Su Xiaomei say "Huh", "Husband, look at the decoration of your brother's study..."

"Hehe, that's how he is. There is everything in the study." At this moment, Wang Pang was attracted by the triple rings, the interlaced armillary sphere, and the clepsydra made of several water containers arranged in the form of steps.

This clepsydra is different from the ones Wang Pang has seen: the clepsydra is an ancient time-determining instrument. It consists of several water-filled containers arranged in a ladder form. Each container has a hole in the lower side, and water drips into the next container in turn. water leakage.The bottom container has no holes, and there is an "arrow" engraved with a time scale inside. As the water level of the hourglass rises, the "arrow" slowly floats up, and the time can be read from the exposed scale.Wang Pang was surprised that Shen Kuo also reformed the clepsydra.He changed the curved copper leak pipe into a straight neck jade mouth, and moved its position to the lower part of the pot body.In this way, the water flow is smoother and the spout is much stronger and more durable.

"No, look at this furniture..." Su Xiaomei said.

Alas, what women see is different from men. What can be seen in furniture, not wood carvings or patterns, Wang Pang knows that Song Dynasty furniture is very simple.Even so, he looked up and suddenly found that the furniture in Shen Kuo's study room was indeed different. The furniture in Shen Kuo's study room was all oblique, with two long oblique, two right half oblique, and left half oblique. Two, one for boudoir, four for juniors, two for juniors, thirteen in total of six kinds of oblique table tops. "Haha, isn't this the most original creative combination furniture?!~" Wang Pang couldn't help laughing.This Shen Kuo is really interesting, he can see and "touch" things that he can use, and it really changes in his hands.

"Assembled furniture?" Su Xiaomei asked in confusion.

"Yes, look at these furniture, they can be combined in any way, don't look at the thirteen beveled furniture, they can be assembled into square, straight, curved, corrugated, empty, elephant, whole house row, There are eight major categories of miscellaneous categories, and more than 100 transformation forms. You can arrange them however you want!" Wang Pang patiently explained.

Su Xiaomei laughed happily: "Just now when my husband talked about creativity, did he mean that this furniture is novel?"

"Add [-] points!" Wang Bang realized that Su Xiaomei was really smart.

The door was suddenly opened, and Shen Kuo, who looked like a short winter melon, came in shaking his head and waving his hands, and said as he walked, "No way, the specifications and sizes of this 'Yanji' are carefully made, and it can't be changed by a single inch. How can we add ten points?"

Note: The earliest combined furniture in ancient China was called Yan Ji, which was invented in the Song Dynasty.