Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Zhu Ming didn't know anything about the bad things in Kaifeng. He was busy studying fried tea with his father.

"The tea stove in the video seems to be built so high." Zhu Ming gestured towards his crotch.

Zhu Guoxiang bent down to experience the feel: "No need to guess, just get it as you like. Just adjust the height slowly in the future."

Ju Ming recalled the video of tea frying he saw online and said: "I remember that the pot used for frying tea seemed to be shallower than the wok."

Zhu Guoxiang has never done it, and only knows a few theories. He guessed: "A shallow pot may be more susceptible to heat, and the tea leaves in the pot will be heated more evenly."

In fact, that kind of shallow pot is called "Guangguo" and was only invented during the Anti-Japanese War. Moreover, deep pots and shallow pots have their own advantages. For example, Longjing tea is not suitable for frying in shallow pots.

A mason is building a stove.

The three frying tea pots need to be put together. The pot has not yet been finished and has been customized by a blacksmith.

After watching for a while, Ju Ming strolled to the steaming tea house next to him. Tea pickers had already returned with tea leaves.

"You also pick such tender tea leaves?" Zhu Ming couldn't help but reach out and touch them.

The tea worker quickly stopped: "Village chief, you can't touch it. If you touch it, you won't be able to sell it at a high price. These are wax tea buds, and you can only pick a small amount every year. The price of a pound of wax tea can be worth more than ten pounds of first-class tea. Hands. You can't touch it, so you can only pick it with your fingernails, and then you have to throw it into the water to soak it."

Ju Ming didn't do anything anymore. The tea worker was a professional.

Zhu Guoxiang also came to watch the steamed tea. While watching, he said: "Last year, I planned to tidy up the waste tea mountain because of the delay in building water conservancy. But you can also pick tea from the waste tea mountain. You can just pick some and specially use them for tea frying experiments. As for the tea in Daming Village For tea production, we still use the old method of steaming. Once the fried tea method is effective, we will slowly expand the production of fried tea. We cannot change everything at once, and we must leave time for the tea craftsmen to hone their skills."

"This is for sure, otherwise if we mess up, our funds will definitely be in trouble." Although Zhu Ming is impatient, he also knows that some things cannot be rushed.

After staying in the village until the Lantern Festival, Zhu Ming took Bai Sheng and Shi Biao down the mountain.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, he had gone down the mountain to have a drink with Bai Sanlang who was home for the New Year. The two made an appointment and set off on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, taking a boat together to Yangzhou City.

It didn’t take long to take the boat. At the intersection of Han River and Yang River, we went directly to the shore and started walking.

Ahead is the rapid Huangjin Gorge, with a total of 24 dangerous shoals. The helmsman of the Bai family is incapable of passing by, and the ship will be destroyed if he is not careful.

"This place is dangerous," Ju Ming observed the situation of the mountains and rivers and said to Bai Chongyan. "If there is a war, we can build a fort at the intersection of the two rivers to block water and land transportation. Even a hundred thousand soldiers and horses will not be able to get through."

Bai Chongyan smiled and said: "Da Lang knows how to fight, no wonder he can break through the bandits' stronghold."

They advanced under the cliffs along the river. The cliffs on both sides of the river were towering, and the cries of apes could be heard from time to time.

Ju Ming kicked the weeds under his feet: "There is actually a road here."

Bai Chongyan explained: "These paths were made by trackers. Without trackers pulling the boat, no matter how good the helmsman is, he would not dare to cross the Golden Gorge."

Not far away, they encountered a group of trackers.

Wearing tattered clothes, some were even wrapped in linen blankets. Either lie down or sit, rest in a relatively open place, and wait for a ship to arrive to pick up the work.

There is little arable land here, and we cannot grow a few grains of food. We must rely on fiber pulling to survive.

Ju Ming couldn't stop, so he took out some dry food from his bag and immediately gave it to the trackers.

The trackers were quite surprised and happily stood up to take the food.

A man in his forties or fifties with gray hair seemed to be the leader of this group of trackers. He bent down and cupped his fists and said, "My name is Gong Da. Thank you for the favor."

Although Bai Sheng didn't know Ju Ming's intention, he helped boast: "This is Zhu Dutou of Xixiang County. In addition to killing the traitor Zhu Zhu and the bully Xiaobai, he also broke the black wind that had been entrenched for decades. Village."

Gong Da was immediately in awe and saluted again: "I heard the name Zhu Dutou from the merchant ships passing by. They all said that a good man came out of Xixiang County, called Zhu Dutou the Winged Tiger. His subordinates There is also a fierce general, Zhang San, the former mountain patrol. Zhu Dutou wants to take a boat to cross the Golden Gorge? We have been pulling fiber for generations and are very familiar with the dangerous shoals here."

Zhu Ming sat down next to the trackers and ate dry food together. He said, "My family used to be a sea-going ship operator. In some ports, we also needed boat pullers. When I see you, I feel very close to you."

Gong Da asked: "What kind of ship is the sea ship?"

Ju Ming said: "A sea-going ship is a ship running in the sea?"

"What is the sea?" Gong Da asked a very outrageous question.

Ju Ming said: "The sea is boundless, and everything you look at is water. Sometimes, you have to take a boat for several months before you can do business on the shore."

"How many months by boat? How much water is there!" Gong Da couldn't imagine that he had been in the mountains all his life and had never heard of the sea.

So Ju Ming started talking about ancient times and made up overseas stories again.

The trackers all gathered around, munching on the dry food and listening to their wonders, exclaiming in surprise from time to time.

After getting to know each other thoroughly, Ju Ming asked, "How are you doing?"

Gong Da shook his head and sighed: "No way. In my grandfather's generation, there were so many fiber-drawing jobs, and merchant ships came every day in the Han River. Later, the government banned the private sale of tea, and there were fewer merchant ships doing business. There were many. If fiber workers can't fill their stomachs, they will stop doing this and either go to the mountains to open up wasteland for farming, or try their luck in panning for gold."

"How much can you earn in a day now?" Zhu Ming asked again.

Gong Da still shook his head: "I can't tell, it's not like we can take jobs every day. If the ship doesn't come for a month, I have to rely on my brothers to support me. My mother-in-law and brothers are farming in the mountains, and they can't harvest much in a year." A piece of food."

Ju Ming continued to inquire and got some general information.

If they have work every day, these trackers can make a lot of money compared to farmers. Although it is hard work and dangerous, you can earn sixty or seventy cents a day.

Unfortunately, business in the Hanzhong area was in decline and the number of merchant ships dropped sharply. They often had no work for ten and a half days.

Even the government doesn't bother to care about it. These trackers are all recluses.

There are so many people hiding out and running away these days. It’s no wonder that in the three counties of Yangzhou, the registered population is less than 250,000.

After chatting for a while, Zhu Ming stood up to say goodbye, and the trackers saw him off one after another.

They were idle, but Ju Ming gave them dry food and told them strange stories as soon as they came. The trackers liked this kind of petty official very much and thought Zhu Dutou was a good man.

The trackers didn't stop until they were two miles away.

Ju Ming asked: "You said you can pan for gold here. Are you doing it casually, or is there someone in charge of it?"

Gong Da said: "There are a few leaders who have designated territories. If they cross the boundary, they will fight and kill people! There are also individual tourists who are like rats stealing rice and dare not let others know."

"The government won't collect the gold mining tax?" Zhu Ming asked again.

Gong Da said: "We used to collect, and there was a lot of gold. Now we don't collect, and we can't find much. Those gold diggers are also miserable, they dare to fight against the officials! Twenty years ago, my eldest son was just After they were born, some unsighted officials came to collect the gold tax. None of them could go back, they were all killed and sank into the river, and the officials were so frightened that they did not dare to come back."

Damn, that’s awesome!

Like miners, these gold diggers are born seeds of rebellion.

Ju Ming asked again: "Are they all panning for gold in the Han River?"

Gong Da said: "There are dangerous shoals in the Golden Gorge, and there are also many shoals. You can pan for gold in those shoals. There are several small rivers flowing out of the mountains on both sides, and you can also pan for gold in those small rivers. There is also a gold mine in the mountains. In the past, The government was in charge of it, but later it was abandoned. It was abandoned, but it was still possible to dig for gold, but it was taken over by a good man."

It is estimated that the gold mines were exhausted and the official management organization was bloated. As a result, the gold found was not enough for administrative expenses, so it was ordered to be abandoned by the Changping Division.

But in private hands, scrap gold mines can also be profitable.

Ju Ming asked: "What's the name of the hero who occupies the gold mine?"

"What's the name of Gong Xiu who chopped the big tiger? I've never seen him. I only heard that he was very strong and could kill a tiger with a knife." Gong Da said.

What's the trick?

It is obviously the Big Tiger, the common name of Pixiu!

Rumors spread throughout the world, and a hero nicknamed "Pixiu" turned out to be a tiger who had been killed by a tiger.

After asking for some more information about the gold diggers, Ju Ming said goodbye: "If you have any difficulties in the future, you can go to Daming Village to find me. Daming Village is the former Heifeng Village. If you go there, you can guarantee that you will not be hungry."

Gong Da said happily: "Zhu Dutou is really a righteous man!"

The trackers also waved enthusiastically, asking Zhu Dutou to come to Huangjin Gorge often in the future.

When the two parties said goodbye, Bai Chongyan was quite puzzled: "What did the Dalang and the tracker talk about?"

Ju Ming asked: "What is the purpose of studying?"

Bai Chongyan said: "Cultivate yourself, harmonize your family, govern the country and bring peace to the world."

"How to govern a country? How to bring peace to the world?" Ju Ming asked again.

Bai Chongyan said: "Be an official in the imperial examination and carry out benevolent governance and enlightenment. Benefit one party externally and assist the emperor internally. If there is order inside and outside, the world will be peaceful and the sea will be prosperous."

Ju Ming asked: "Do you know how much grain is per acre of land? How much is the upper field? How much is the middle field? How much is the lower field? If you don't know these, how can you collect taxes? If taxes are insufficient and the treasury is empty, how can you govern the country? If taxes have been collected, If there are many people and the people are poor, how can there be prosperity in the country?”

"To collect taxes, you only need officials," Bai Chongyan said. "As an official, you only need to control the subordinate officials, so why do you need to do everything yourself?"

Ju Ming said with a smile: "You don't even know how many bushels of grain are harvested from the fields. How do you know that your officials are not secretly deceiving you? They even went to the countryside to levy and extort money in your name!"

Bai Chongyan was silent and began to think seriously.

Ju Ming asked again: "How much grain does the Sanlang family's farm produce each year?"

Bai Chongyan said: "My eldest brother is taking care of the land."

"That means you don't even know how much food there is in your own fields," Zhu Ming lamented. "If you do this, let alone rule the country and bring peace to the world, I'm afraid you won't even be able to bring your family together."

Bai Chongyan said: "If you have to ask questions about everything, how can you still have time to study? How can you still have time to learn?"

Ju Ming said: "Knowing things in the world is knowledge, and understanding people's feelings is writing. You don't have to find the road in the world in books. I go to suppress bandits to do learning, and talking to trackers is also learning."

Bai Chongyan argued: "If you are good at etiquette, the people will not dare to be disrespectful; if you are good at righteousness, the people will not dare to be disobedient; if you are good at trust, then the people will not dare to be unkind. If this is the case, then the people from all over the world will bear their sons. Come on, how can we use crops?"

This is the original saying of Confucius. Those in power can gain the support of the people as long as they abide by etiquette, righteousness, and trust, without having to worry about how to farm.

Zhu Ming smiled and said: "Are you only half-read? Confucius said that he is not as good as an old farmer in farming, which means that special people should do special tasks, and the superiors only need to control these special people. People in politics do not need to know how to farm, but they must You know how much grain can be harvested from an acre of land. Otherwise, how can you control your subordinates? How can you prevent Xiaoxiao from cheating? In addition to grain, you also need to know about industry and commerce, and you also need to know about these trackers and gold diggers."

Bai Chongyan fell into silence.

Zhu Ming added: "Confucius and Mencius said that benevolent governance should be implemented in the world. But the reality is different in different places. Good governance here is bad governance elsewhere. If you don't understand and communicate with the people, how can you know whether you are implementing good governance or not? Bad government? You want to be kind to the people, but as soon as the government orders are issued, the people are forced to flee into the mountains. Is this what a gentleman does?"

Bai Chongyan stood there for a long time, then suddenly bowed down and said, "I have been taught!"