Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Real estate in Tokyo changes hands very frequently, just like land in the countryside, because transitions from rich to poor were so common in the Northern Song Dynasty.

For example, Xue Juzheng, the prime minister in the early Song Dynasty, was listed as one of the "Twenty-Four Meritorious Officials of Zhaoxun Pavilion" in the Southern Song Dynasty.

After this old man died, he served in the Taimiao Temple. He had only eaten cold pork for a few days before his grandson sold the family home, and sold it to the new prime minister at a low price.

The new prime minister is named Xiang Minzhong, who is known for his honesty and diligence. Because of the matter of buying a house, he was accused of "cheap trading", that is, using one's power to bully others and force the purchase at a lower price - Xue Juzheng's house was worth at least tens of thousands of guan, and Xiang Minzhong bought it for only 5,000 guan.

At that time, the land in Tokyo was not tight and prices were not that high.

A hundred years ago, 50,000 yuan was considered a top-notch mansion.

Nowadays, there are quite a lot of houses worth 100,000 yuan.

The Li family's 300,000 yuan house is still rare. They have long thought about selling it, but they can't find anyone to sell it because the house price has appreciated. The house is worth 350,000 to 400,000 yuan.

In addition, this house involves a princess, and the ownership strictly belongs to the court. Ordinary people will have problems if they buy it.

The Jingua guards cleared the way, the palace eunuchs led the way, and Zhu Guoxiang was taken to the door of the mansion.

The plaque on the lintel has been taken off, and there is no time to replace it with a new one.

"Master, please come in." The eunuch bowed and smiled.

Zhu Guoxiang said confusedly: "Is this the place where I live temporarily? The house is too big, the wall can't even be seen at a glance."

The eunuch said: "This house is abandoned and has been abandoned. The official family has given it to the real person."

Zhu Guoxiang went in confusedly and soon discovered something was wrong. There were obvious traces of life inside, and it didn't look deserted at all.

More than sixty slaves lined up neatly to greet him, and some of them even brought children with them.

The eunuchs and guards quickly left, and Zhu Guoxiang faced a group of servants alone.

In addition to the more than 60 slaves left by the Li family, there are also slaves given by the emperor, and the total number has exceeded 80.

Zhu Guoxiang seriously doubted whether he could get his salary.

There was a guy who looked like a servant leader. Zhu Guoxiang called him and asked, "Whose mansion used to be here?"

The servant, who was about fifty years old, bowed and replied: "Reporting to the master, this place was originally the Princess's Mansion of Yan Kingdom, and was inherited by the princess's heir. I am the steward here."

Zhu Guoxiang ordered: "Choose someone to call Tanhua Lang."

"Yes!" The butler immediately executed.

Zhu Guoxiang was completely unfamiliar with this place and had to discuss it with his son.

He didn't make any arrangements for the time being and went to take a walk in the house first.

The main building complex is a typical corridor courtyard structure of the Tang and Song Dynasties. It can no longer be calculated by "in", because there are still gardens sandwiched between it, and the total building area exceeds fifty acres.

Fifty acres in outer Tokyo!

"Hey, why is it so bare there?" Zhu Guoxiang pointed to an open space by the pond.

The steward replied: "There was a strange stone there, and it was sold for two thousand dollars at the beginning of the year."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "The princess's heir wants to sell off his family property?"

The housekeeper said: "The expenses are too great. Almost all the epigraphy, calligraphy and paintings in the library have been sold out. If this continues, even if the government does not give the house to the master, the original owner will sell the house at a low price."

Zhu Guoxiang took a walk and waited in the garden.

About two hours later, Ju Ming arrived from the southern suburbs campus of Taixue.

Zhu Guoxiang asked all the servants to retreat, leaving only the father and son sitting across from each other.

Zhu Ming smiled and said: "Congratulations, Dean Zhu, the house is quite big, and you have a lot of old servants."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Stop talking nonsense, what's going on in this house?"

Ju Ming explained the matter in detail and said: "I took it upon myself to return the house to the Li family and split it into two parts."

"Okay, you did a good job." Zhu Guoxiang nodded.

Ju Ming said: "When Wang Anshi was prime minister, he presided over the construction of the East and West Palaces, and also built many official residences. Senior officials all lived in official residences, which are equivalent to the White House and Downing Street. They lived there when they were officials and left office. Then move out. Firstly, it can solve the housing problem of officials, secondly, it can reduce the leakage of important documents, and thirdly, it can prevent the powerful from grabbing houses from the common people."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "This method is very good."

Ju Ming continued: "Even if the important ministers after Wang Anshi purchased private residences in Tokyo, they would not be too luxurious. This rule was broken by Cai Jing. Cai Jing was the first prime minister in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty who did not live in an official residence. A mansion was built in the city. Other ministers followed suit, and Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty also gave various houses to him regardless of the rules."

Zhu Guoxiang said with lingering fear: "Speaking of Song Huizong, I have seen this emperor, but he is really not like a human king."

"Haha, are you scared?" Zhu Ming laughed.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Absolute power without restrictions will bring very terrible consequences."

Zhu Ming shook his head and said: "In fact, the ancient courts had various restrictions on imperial power. Song Huizong was a weird one. He broke such restrictions. Similar emperors can be called faint kings."

Carrying out large-scale construction projects, ignoring government affairs, favoring treacherous ministers, as long as the rules are not broken, these actions are not considered cowardly, because the court can still operate normally.

Song Huizong's stupidity lies in his wanton violation of rules.

For example, when the imperial court issues decrees, there is a strict process.

The Yintai Department has the right to reject government orders that are obviously random. Even if it is just a pretense, the emperor and prime minister will have to re-issue it two or three times before it can be passed.

However, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty lost all face. All imperial orders were issued in the form of edicts, and the central institutions of the imperial court were regarded as nothing. Cai Jing, Wang Fu and other treacherous ministers also requested the emperor to issue the imperial edict through secret reports.

At this point, the Zhongshu Ministry and the Secretary Ministry have become decorations. Even the prime minister and deputy prime minister, as long as they are not favored by the emperor, have negligible actual power.

In the twenty-fifth year of Song Huizong's reign, the Yintai Division rejected the decrees less than ten times in total, and they were all in the early Huizong Dynasty.

The political orders of the middle and late Huizong Dynasty did not go to the Yintai Department at all!

Song Huizong himself crippled the imperial court, and the brain and heart of the entire country had been semi-paralyzed.

The Jiajing Taoist Priest of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how he appointed treacherous ministers, at least the state machine was still functioning normally.

If you really want to compare, you should compare it with Wanli.

However, Wanli was more powerful than Song Huizong.

Song Huizong only killed the brain and heart of the country, while Emperor Wanli killed all the internal organs and limbs, making the entire Ming Dynasty tend to a state of anarchy.

Zhu Ming briefly explained the government structure of the Northern Song Dynasty, and then described the current situation: "The Zhongshu Province has been abolished, and most of the Secretariat Province has been abolished. The Shangshu Province has been beheaded, and only the limbs can still move. The three central institutions of the Northern Song Dynasty, The whole situation is in a state of paralysis, similar to the Ming Dynasty during the Zhu Yuanzhang era. But Song Huizong was not as diligent as Zhu Yuanzhang, and daily affairs had to be handled by three provinces. Under layer upon layer of constraints, it could be said to be a complete mess."

"Let's think about how to leave the capital." Zhu Guoxiang was very confused after hearing this.

Ju Ming said: "I may play outside next year."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How do you know?"

Ju Ming explained: "The emperor promoted me to a capital official, which is a sign of promotion. Next year, I will either go to the secretarial department to be a school clerk, or I will be sent out to be a county magistrate. These are all gold-plated experience processes. Not to mention the school secretary, If the official from the capital is sent to the county magistrate, he can be promoted again in one year, instead of working for three years like the selection process."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "For gold-plated cadres, one liter a year is considered normal."

Ju Ming said: "If a local official only serves for one year, he will not be able to do anything. I am afraid that Song Huizong is crazy and will not even bother to do the gold plating process. He will directly be promoted and continue to serve as an official in the capital. There are many precedents. I can reach the fourth or fifth rank in two years. This is great for others, but it is useless to me. I want to go somewhere else, either to accumulate political experience, or to go directly to the frontier to fight."

Ju Ming is still a keyboard warrior. He comments on government affairs in a sensible way, but has never really practiced it. He urgently needs to do it himself.

The father and son chatted for almost an hour and left the garden together.

The housekeeper had been waiting for a long time and reported: "Master, there are many people outside."

Deng Chun, Bai Sheng and the people from Daming Village have been waiting in the house.

Li Jihui also brought his family, waiting to move in and share a house.

Others, however, heard that Zhu Guoxiang was leaving the palace, and the dignitaries sent servants to deliver greeting cards, planning to choose a day to come and consult Zhu Zhenren's Taoism.

Zhu Guoxiang first met Li Jihui, bowed and said, "I'm sorry to bother you, sir!"

Li Jihui hurriedly returned the gift: "I dare not, congratulations to Zhu Zhenren. Zhenren is such a talented person, and the officials will definitely put him in high regard."

Zhu Guoxiang immediately returned the house deed and wrote a house gift document, indicating that the Zhu family and his son would live here for up to ten years: "Perhaps I and my son will move out in less than ten years, and then the house will be returned to Zhao intact."

Li Jihui was overjoyed. He was afraid that a dove would occupy the magpie's nest. Now that Zhu Guoxiang has set a ten-year deadline, it will be just around the corner to get his house back!

Li Jihui bowed his head again and shed tears of gratitude: "The real person is so kind and righteous, and I have nothing to say. So I used this pond as the boundary. The real person lives in the main courtyard, and the old person lives in the guest courtyard."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "How can we become guests? We also invite the old gentleman to live in the main hospital."

How dare Li Jihui?

Just in case the emperor got interested one day and came here to play with Zhu Guoxiang, he found that Zhu Guoxiang actually lived in the guest house...

The two of them were humble to each other. The main part of the house was reserved for the Zhu family and his son, while the Li family huddled in the corner.

The servants of the Li family, including the housekeeper, took half of it and returned it.

Ju Ming sent someone to notify Fatty Zheng and asked him to move in with his sister.

In the shared house, Ju Ming will continue to pay rent and occasionally go back to sit there.

A few days later, when the holidays came, Chen Yuan, Bai Chongyan, and Min Zishun came together to congratulate the Zhu family and his son on moving to their new home.

Chen Dong and other Tai students also came.

"Why are there outsiders over there?" Chen Dong asked curiously.

Ju Ming sighed and said: "The official family insisted on granting a house, but this house has an owner. My father and son did not dare to disobey the imperial edict, and we did not want to occupy other people's houses, so we thought of a compromise..."

After explaining the matter clearly, Chen Dong sighed: "The gentlemen of ancient times were nothing more than this."

Zhu Song also said: "Sir and your father, you can be a model for the world's scholars."

These imperial students admired Ju Ming and his son so much that they told everyone they met when they returned to school.

In just a few days, four thousand Taipei students, as well as school leaders and teachers, knew about the Zhu family's father and son's separation of houses.

There are also students who regard this as a topic of conversation and write it in their letters at home, which are then spread throughout the country.

The Zhu family of Yangzhou is unparalleled in benevolence and righteousness!