Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Don't talk about being hot-blooded and upright in his youth. Qin Hui, who is in his twenties, is already good at observing words and emotions.

This is related to his family background. His father was a selectman and served as county magistrate for two terms in the mountainous area. He probably didn't make much money, so he died. His mother took him and his younger brother to live with his uncle.

He has been living under others' roofs all year round, and has taught at a village school to support his family. He is quite talented himself, but Qin Hui has low self-esteem and is arrogant and self-interested.

When he was a rural teacher, he was probably tormented by naughty children a lot, and he was so angry that he left two lines of poems: If he gets 300 acres of paddy fields, he will not be the Hozen King this time.

Even the entourage who went to Beijing to take the exam was borrowed from his uncle's house.

At this moment, during the conversation, Qin Hui was already observing carefully.

He felt that Ju Ming should be a son of a wealthy family. Although he was dressed in ordinary clothes, he was carrying a sword, an iron spear, an iron mace, and a bow and arrow.

In addition, Zhu Ming spoke "Western" and most likely belonged to the generals' children - generals' children could also take the imperial examination. The way of cultivation was to first become a military officer in Enyin, and then change to become a civil servant in the examination, and he has always had the status of a civil servant.

Looking at Li Hanzhang, Bai Chongyan and Ling Guxu, they are all well-dressed and must have some background.

No matter what, make good connections first.

With the intention of making friends, Qin Hui went back to his room to put down his luggage, took out some snacks, and ran to knock on the door. The first thing he knocked on was Ju Ming's room: "Brother Chenggong, these are the preserved fruits brought from Jiangning. It's just a small gift and not respectful. Thank you for letting me have the guest room."

"Easy to say." Zhu Ming didn't say much.

Qin Hui is a sensitive and delicate person. He noticed Ju Ming's distant attitude and subconsciously thought that this was the coldness of a child of aristocratic family.

So, after chatting casually, he went to knock on other rooms.

This guy deliberately made friends and spoke nicely. Li Hanzhang, Bai Chongyan, and Ling Guxu all had a good impression of him.

When Bai Sheng came back from fostering the horse, Ju Ming threw the preserved fruit over and said, "Try the things from the south."

Bai Sheng quickly opened the paper bag, sat down around the table with Shi Biao, and ate snacks happily.

After looking at the bed in the room, it was okay to sleep two people, but it would be too crowded to sleep three people. Bai Sheng said, "Big brother sleeps on the bed, and Shitou and I make the floor."

"Okay, after the Lantern Festival, there will be free rooms." Ju Ming was not pretentious.

Everyone was tired from the journey, ate some solid food, and fell asleep.

"Puff puff puff!"

Early in the morning, Li Hanzhang shouted outside the door: "Da Lang, I'm going out to eat. I'm going to have a great time exploring Tokyo today!"

After finishing washing, Ju Ming ordered: "Shitou, please guard your luggage at the inn and I will bring you food back later."

"Okay, I'll wait." Shi Biao nodded.

Zhu Ming went out with only a sword and went downstairs to meet everyone. Qin Hui's guy was also there.

First, we took a walk outside the city, and soon we saw a food stall and a wooden sign that said "15 cents for all".

"Let's eat here." Ling Guxu suggested.

There were many small matzas next to the stall. Li Hanzhang moved one to sit down: "Everyone brings one, and I'll treat you!"

This is a breakfast of various offal cooked in water, mostly heart, lung and small intestine, but no large intestine. Perhaps some powder was added to make the soup thicker, and it also came with a small bowl of rice.

Bai Sheng finished the rice quickly and joked in a low voice: "Tokyo people are just not good enough. They don't have much breakfast. How can they fill their stomachs? It's also expensive. What's the price of water? How much can fifteen cents buy in Xixiang?" Big bowl of rice.”

Ju Ming smiled: "A few more bowls of rice!"

Qin Hui was eating slowly, looking at Xue Daoguang curiously, and then asked Chen Yuan: "You haven't asked your name, sir?"

Chen Yuan said: "Chen Yuan is from Nanjian."

Qin Hui lived in the countryside of Jiangning (Nanjing) all year round and had never heard of Chen Yuan.

Lao Chen was only famous in Fujian and Suzhou and Hangzhou. When he went to give lectures in other places, he always reported his name as teacher first, and then his uncle, so that others would treat him as a famous Confucian.

"It turns out it was Mr. Chen who had admired his name for a long time." Qin Hui opened his eyes and told lies.

After having breakfast, packing a few more portions, and asking for more rice, everyone strolled back to the inn.

You can take your time wandering around Tokyo, but you have to hurry up when setting up stalls.

According to Bai Chongyan, stalls are in short supply during the Lantern Festival, and merchants have already spent money to buy them, so it is impossible for Juren to set up stalls for free. Therefore, excluding the days of the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, there are only about ten days left to sell goods before the exam.

Everyone took their goods, walked around the city to the south, and entered the city through Dailoumen.

After walking not far, we saw people on both sides of the Cai River being full of scholars setting up street stalls.

The Imperial College, Imperial College, and Martial Arts were all surrounded by the Cai River. The scholars felt that this place had a cultural atmosphere and there would be no shame in doing business.

"There's an empty seat over there!" Bai Sheng shouted.

Everyone rejected each other, and in the end the winner was determined by guessing, and Ling Guxu occupied the stall.

After walking for a while, one after another, everyone found an open space.

Ju Ming spread a layer of linen cloth, poured dried shiitake mushrooms on top, and placed the century-old Ganoderma lucidum specially provided by Dean Zhu.

Qin Hui is not far away. He sells private salt.

Obviously, private salt is easier to sell because the price is very cheap. Many Kaifeng citizens wander here to buy salt.

The scholar in the stall next door was reading a book, and Ju Ming said casually: "Ju Ming, in Xia Yangzhou, where is your hometown?"

The scholar put down his book: "Lin Xun, from Hezhou."

Damn it, he turned out to be a "fellow fellow"!

Zhu Ming and his son claimed to be from Guangxi, and Lin Xun happened to be from Guangxi as well.

Ju Ming took a look at his stall and saw that it was indeed a local specialty, including various animal skins and bones, as well as some tea balls.

Lin Xun seemed to be introverted. He only said one sentence and continued reading.

As time went by, more and more people set up stalls, crowding both sides of the Cai River. There were at least thousands of people.

There are a lot of people buying things, and the prices here are cheap.

"How do you sell these mushrooms?" a customer asked.

Ju Ming was also reading, and Bai Sheng was in charge of selling goods: "Eighty articles!"

"How much?" The customer didn't understand because Bai Sheng's accent was too strong.

"Eighty Wen." Bai Sheng gestured.

The customer shook his head: "It's too expensive."

Bai Sheng said anxiously: "It's not expensive, it's dry goods, it doesn't weigh on the scale."

The customer walked away cursing, probably saying Bai Shengqiong was crazy or something.

Not long after, another man about thirty years old came with a sword hanging on his waist.

The man asked: "How old is this Ganoderma lucidum?"

"At least a hundred years," Bai Sheng said nonchalantly.

The man asked again: "How much does it cost?"

Bai Sheng said: "Three hundred strings."

"But you think I'm a fool." The man shook his head repeatedly.

Ju Ming suddenly said: "Your Majesty's sword is good. Is the scabbard made of python skin?"

The man smiled and said, "Your sword is not bad either."

"Can I borrow the knife to take a look?" Zhu Ming asked.

The man drew the sword out of its sheath, but did not hand it to Ju Ming. He just held it by himself.

Ju Ming got closer and took a look: "A hundred steel swords?"

"Almost." The man was quite pleased with himself.

Ju Ming asked: "Your Excellency, are you a sergeant?"

The man laughed at himself: "My name is Yang Zhi, and I am a Qiongqiu eighty-one. My husband is a candidate for the examination, and he carries a sword with him. It seems that he is both civil and military."

Listening to the man announcing his name, Ju Ming looked carefully and saw that there were no birthmarks on his face. The nickname of the green-faced beast must be fake.

Two more men came over, and one of them said, "Brother Yang, haven't you bought salt yet? We both bought it."

The man introduced: "These two are my brothers, one is Lin Chong and the other is Sun Li."

Um... Ju Ming's mind is a little confused.

How come Lin Chong, the leopard head, and Sun Li, the sick lieutenant, met the green-faced beast Yang Zhi in Tokyo?

The reason is very simple. They are all the top soldiers in Tokyo. Later, when they were sent to escort the birthday party, the twelve of them became sworn brothers. Moreover, Yang Zhi is the eldest brother, Li Jinyi (the prototype of Lu Junyi) is the second brother, and Lin Chong is the third brother. Hua Rong ranks fifth, Chai Jin ranks sixth, Zhang Qing ranks seventh, Xu Ning ranks eighth, Guan Sheng ranks ninth... (from "The Legacy of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty").

Zhu Ming couldn't help but look at Lin Chong a few more times, and wanted to ask if he had a beautiful lady at home.

But looking at his clothes, you can tell that he is not a rich man, and the instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Army is even more nonsense.

"You are all good men, I will give you as much as you can, even if it's fifty cents per catty," Ju Ming said.

Sun Li said happily: "The price is good, just ten pounds!"

Lin Chong tugged on Sun Li's sleeve: "It's not easy for these scholars to come all the way. Give us a cheap price, just buy two or three kilograms. Don't delay his business."

"Brother Lin is right." Yang Zhi agreed and each person bought a pound.

Watching Bai Sheng get on the scale, Ju Ming felt a little funny.

Time travel by yourself, all the way to Tokyo, just to sell mushrooms to the heroes of Liangshan?

Before the heroes left, Chen Yuan started to practice...well, started to lecture.

He specially picked the place with the most people, stood on the guardrail of Baokangmen Bridge, raised his hands in the air and said: "I am Chen Yuan, a native of Nanjian. I have recently realized something. What is Tao? Common people use it every day as Tao..."

Afraid that the people buying things would not understand, Chen Yuan also explained in detail: "The common people's clothing, food, housing and transportation all contain the Dao. This is what the "Book of Changes" said, the common people do not know what they use every day, so the way of a gentleman is fresh. Confucius' Knowledge is both profound and simple, and even an old farmer in the countryside can understand it..."

The first people who were attracted were the scholars setting up stalls by the bridge. They stared at Chen Yuan as if they were watching a monkey show.

"That's Mr. Motang, our great Confucian from Nanjianzhou!" A scholar from Fujian recognized Chen Yuan at a glance.

As a result, the Fujian scholars stopped looking at the stalls and handed them over to their followers.

Fujian is also a major province for imperial examinations, and there are quite a few scholars nearby, and they all come around to listen to the lectures.

When Chen Yuan gave lectures, he had to take into consideration both the scholars and the common people.

Sometimes he quotes scriptures, sometimes he talks in plain English, and he explains the three theories of Woben, Daoyong and Fangju in simple and easy-to-understand terms.

And there are a lot of examples, sometimes telling common sense about physics, sometimes telling short stories about ethics.

Social and ethical relationships also belong to the daily needs of the common people.

Scholars from various provinces who first watched the monkey show were gradually attracted by that theory, and often quoted sages' classics to question it.

Chen Yuan answered each question one by one, showing his superb foundation in Confucian classics.

Later, some scholars simply asked about the meaning of the classics, which had nothing to do with the lecture content, and only regarded Chen Yuan as a free classics teacher.

Yang Zhi, Lin Chong and other leading soldiers also stood by the bridge and listened with great interest.

In less than half an hour, there was a traffic jam and the Baokangmen Bridge was completely blocked.