Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Fu Dexiang made another small fortune when he left Yangzhou and passed through Xingyuan Mansion.

This time he didn't dare to mess around. The transfer envoy was from Cai Jing, so he just collected some gifts and left.

Lu Rong, the academic envoy, had received the news and happily visited his friends over drinks. When they met, he smiled and said: "I asked Zhu Chenggong to pretend to be ill, but he did it more properly. He resigned on the grounds of the imperial examination. His dignity in doing things is amazing." .”

The friend he visited was named Gao Jingshan, and his official position was Lizhou Road Transport Judge.

The first and second leaders of the Transportation Department don't care much about specific affairs. The person who really does the hard work is the third-in-command, the transportation judge.

The Kingdom of Jin also had a general named Gao Jingshan, but he came from the Bohai Gao family.

The Gao Jingshan in front of him belongs to the Gao family of Shandong. He also has a younger brother named Gao Jingyun, who is currently serving as a Langguan in the imperial court.

If there are no major changes in history, when Ju Ming rebels in the future, he will definitely "deal with" Gao Jingshan. This gentleman will be promoted to the deputy envoy and envoy of Chengdu's Fulu transportation, and he will be an official in Chengdu until the Jingkang period.

"You do have a good disciple." Gao Jingshan was quite envious.

Lu Rong smiled and said: "We can only be considered half disciples. Zhu Chenggong and I are more like friends who have been together forever."

Gao Jingshan asked his servant to get some snacks to go with the wine. After a few glasses of wine, he worriedly said, "I'm afraid we will use troops against Xixia next year."

"How do you know?" Lu Rong's smile faltered.

Gao Jingshan said: "I just received an official document from the imperial court. This year, the donation on Lizhou Road will increase again. It just increased last year, and it will increase again this year. It is really abnormal. The imperial court must be raising military rations."

"Not necessarily." Lu Rong said.

Gao Jingshan whispered: "This year's summer and autumn grains, not all will be shipped to the capital, but half will be shipped to the northwest."

Lu Rong understood and said in a deep voice: "There must be a big battle."

Opening up territory is a great achievement. Cai Jing and Tong Guan have been planning to conquer Xixia for six years. They have been building soldiers and armor and storing money and food.

In the next three or four years, any rebellion in Hanzhong by Ju Ming would be seeking death. The most elite troops of the Song Dynasty were all gathered in the northwest. They had a large number of well-trained troops and could attack Hanzhong at any time to quell the chaos.

To rise up at this time is to block Xixia's guns and force the court to bring back the army that conquered Xixia.

Gao Jingshan worriedly said: "Now that we have enough money and food, and there are many powerful generals, there is still hope to defeat Xixia. I am afraid that the coach will give random orders and ruin the good situation."

Lu Rong sighed: "The commander in chief must be Tong Guan!"

"Alas, the eunuch has misled the country, I just hope he can do less misunderstandings." Gao Jingshan shook his head repeatedly.

Neither Lu Rong nor Gao Jingshan expected that this expedition to Xixia would turn into a tug-of-war of attrition.

The Song Dynasty stores food and wages every year, but the frontline soldiers are starving. Xixia gets the news and takes the initiative to attack, but the Song Dynasty launches in advance without making full preparations. After years of muddle-headed fighting, the two countries were both short of food. Fortunately, Xixia couldn't hold on first, and negotiated a peace treaty to give Song Huizong face.

The two chatted about military affairs, and Lu Rong went home drunk.

The next day, he rode horseback to go to work in the Department of Education, dug out the national Jinshi essays in recent years, and found the outstanding essays on Lizhou Road.

Lu Rong asked the clerk of the Tixue Department to make a copy of these essays, and then called for his personal attendant and said: "Send it to Zhu Chenggong. I don't know how long it will take to enter Taixue. Since he wants to take the imperial examination, he must do it." It’s good to be prepared. Even if you don’t pass the Jinshi exam next year, you can still accumulate experience. In three years, you may be able to get a title on the gold medal list.”

Not only did he send imperial examination essays, he also sent a set of "New Meanings of the Three Classics".

Although Ju Ming's concurrent classic is the "Book of Changes" and does not consider the "Book of Songs", "Shangshu" and "Zhou Rites", the "New Meanings of the Three Classics" can also be used as a reference. Cai Jing regarded himself as the successor of the new law and vigorously promoted the "New Meanings of the Three Classics". Quoting the annotations in it can greatly increase the chance of winning the Jinshi Prize.

As for Wang Anshi's "Zi Shuo", it is similar to the official dictionary of the Northern Song Dynasty.

This thing has been abandoned by scholars, and Cai Jing cannot push it forward even if he forcefully promotes it. Not only does the book quote a lot of Buddhist and Taoist thoughts, but the annotations are also very detailed. Anyway, the compilation is very loose.

A few days later, Zhu Ming received a gift from Lu Tixue.

He first looked through the Lizhou Road exam sample essays and found that the quality of the essays was generally low. So for the same topic, I corrected these sample essays together, found their flaws and tried to correct them, and then wrote an essay based on the topic.

Hmm... it's not as good as those articles on people's advancement.

The standard has a high vision but a low hand, just like a food critic who reviews the chef's dishes very well, but makes all sorts of mistakes when he gets started.

After writing two rubbish articles in a row, Ju Ming felt that his vocabulary foundation was too weak and he had enough ideas but could not express them.

So he borrowed rhyme books from the library, looked through them, and practiced writing poems.

My mind is blown. This is equivalent to learning "Mandarin" all over again.

The Rusheng is the most difficult to learn and remember. Fortunately, he traveled back in time and has been learning the dialect for a year, and the Xixiang County dialect also has the Rusheng.

"Brother Zhu, someone is here again." Bai Sheng shouted.

Ju Ming was a little irritable: "Invite him in."

After Ju Ming refused the emperor's conquest, he became famous these days, and wealthy people always came to treat him to dinner.

Before calling him, Ju Ming would definitely be willing to keep the appointment, but now he has to fit in with the character. He had to take the lead and couldn't invite everyone, otherwise he wouldn't have time to do his own thing except drinking every day.

A teacher of official studies bowed as he entered the door: "Sun Hui, the professor of Yangzhou Prefecture, came to pay homage to Mr. Zheng on the order of the professor."

Zhu Ming bowed in return: "Don't call me Zhengjun, just call me Zhu Chenggong."

Zhengjun, also called Zhengjun, is an honorific title for those who refuse to conquer.

In the eyes of the world, being conquered by the emperor is a great honor. If you refuse the emperor's conquest, you will be even more awesome. You must be a true gentleman with both talent and virtue.

Sun Jiaoyu said: "It is inconvenient to call Mr. Zheng by his name in person."

"Mr. Sun, please sit down quickly." Zhu Ming did not dare to neglect.

Because the teachers of Yangzhou Prefecture School were either Jinshi or Taisheng.

After someone has been a teacher for a few years, it is very likely that he will be promoted to county magistrate.

Ju Ming asked: "I haven't asked yet, which Jinshi list is Mr. Sun?"

Sun Jiaoyu said: "In the second year of Daguan, he gave up his life to study at Taixue, and was granted the title of Jinshi by the official family."

Well, this man is a classmate of the prodigal prime minister Li Bangyan, and he is also a graduate of the same class. But it was a bit miserable to get along. Li Bangyan had already become the magistrate of the state, but Sun Jiaoyu was still working as a teacher in the state school.

After chatting for a while, Sun Jiaoyu said: "Zhou Xue wants to build a new library. I heard that Zheng Jun wrote a couplet for Yangzhou Academy. Professor Wei also wanted to ask Zheng Jun to write a couplet for the Zhou Xue library. Zhou Xue is not as wealthy as the academy. , I can only get thirty guan for retouching."

"It's my great honor to write couplets for the state students!" Zhu Ming was very happy. It was so easy to make money selling couplets.

He picked up his pen and thought about it, remembering a couplet from his previous visit to Yuelu Academy. This thing must not have been written yet.

Ju Ming's calligraphy is ordinary and he writes it at his highest level: The beauty of his mind is as beautiful as a thousand buildings, and the pressure of a building as strong as a hundred feet.

Sun Jiaoyu took a closer look and immediately praised: "What a couplet! Hanging this couplet in the library can encourage students to have a mind for all people in the world."

One couplet earned thirty guan, and Ju Ming wished he could write a few more.

After sending Sun Jiaoyu out in person, Zhu Ming returned to his room to continue studying rhyme calligraphy and practicing poetry.

Not long after, someone came to visit again.

But the old lady of the Zhenfu Li family died, and she offered Ju Ming a hundred guan to write an epitaph.

What is this mess?

Ju Ming declined on the spot, saying that he was not good at writing this kind of thing.

This time he is really famous!

For the big family in Yangzhou, eight lines of scholars are of little interest, eight stunning poems are nothing, and leading troops to annihilate the "rebels" is even more of a trivial matter.

These deeds are worse than refusing the emperor's conquest!

Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, there has never been a Zhengjun in Yangzhou, and Ju Ming is the only one who belongs to Scorpion Baba.

The next day, someone came to invite him down the mountain for dinner.

Zhu Ming couldn't bear the disturbance, so he ran to find Chen Yuan and said, "Mr. Chen, I plan to go back to Xixiang County to hide for a while, and then come to Yangzhou until the exam is released in the autumn."

Chen Yuan also knew his situation, nodded and said: "Let's go together. I have questions and want to ask your father for advice."

The two went to say goodbye to Min Wenwei together. When the teachers and students heard about this, three of them were willing to follow. If it weren't for the imperial examination in the fall, and everyone was busy preparing for the exam, there would probably be even more people following them.

"Dalang, I...I won't go this time. I'll come back to ask for advice after autumn." Bai Chongyan felt very guilty.

Ju Ming smiled and said: "Why should Sanlang be like this? Studying is not just a matter of time. The imperial examination should be the most important thing."

He understood Bai Chongyan's choice very well. The Bai family was just a rich man from the countryside. The whole family expected him to succeed in the imperial examination, and he was not as good as those handsome and wealthy children.

Li Hanzhang and Ling Guxu followed. Although the Linggu family was not as good as the four major families in Yangzhou, they had settled here since the Tang Dynasty, and their family background was very deep.

When everyone arrived at the Han River, Min Zishun hurried after them before they boarded the boat.

"Sir, I just learned about it today when you come down the mountain. I would like to study with you." Min Zishun bowed respectfully. He admired Chen Yuan very much and even planned to follow Chen Yuan all the way to Fujian.

When Ju Ming came to Yangzhou, there were only a few people there.

When they returned, there were more than ten people, and Min Zishun and Ling Guxu all brought their entourage.

Everyone took a boat and went down the river.

When we arrived at Huangjin Gorge, we invited trackers to pull the boat.

Because there are several dangerous shoals, you must drive slowly. The role of the tracker is to hold the boat and slow it down.

Those rocks were blown up by explosives hundreds of years later, but people at this time were unable to do anything about it.

The boat passed Shangbai Village, where the rapeseed flowers had withered. They all used the rapeseed seedling transplanting method passed down by Zhu Guoxiang, which can save a lot of manpower and time.

Continue driving to Daming Village, and the situation in the village changes drastically.

Whether they are poor or very poor, the main reason is that they have different mental outlooks. They all have hope in life, and they don’t know what kind of chicken soup Dean Zhu fed them.

Everyone got off the boat at the mouth of the river, but the big boat couldn't enter the small river.

After walking and observing along the way, Chen Yuan nodded in approval: "I heard that this place was still a nest of thieves last year, but now the farming is booming. Mr. Zhu deserves to be a great scholar."

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "My father once said that it takes one year to provide food and clothing for the villagers, and two years to make the villagers rich."

"Excellent!" Chen Yuan said with a smile.

After walking for a while, the high-spin wheel car appeared in front.

Several scholars from Yangzhou were all dumbfounded when they looked at the huge beast.