Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Fatty Zheng left in front, and Deng Xia arrived in the capital behind.

Deng Xia came to deliver a letter and followed the official messenger who delivered the official document all the way. Although he could have sent a message to an official, Shen Yourong was worried and told Deng Xia to go there in person.

In addition to Shen Yourong's family letters, there are also letters from Ling Guxu and other scholars.

In addition, the families of Bai Chongyan and Min Zishun also entrusted Deng Xia to bring letters.

Zhu Guoxiang read his wife's letter and said: "The tea-frying technology was leaked. Last winter, a Zheng family tea worker was drunk and leaked the general process of fried tea. This spring, someone made fried tea. The tea worker was horrified. , he simply fled with his family to Xingyuan Mansion and took refuge with another big tea plantation owner."

"Sooner or later," Ju Ming said.

In the late Northern Song Dynasty, slaves were employed, and the children of slaves were free.

Of course, servants also exist. Their contracts have expired, but they take the initiative to stay and serve their masters for life. The children of these servants can also be called domestic slaves, but they are also free.

Compared with the huge group of slaves, there are very few servants and domestic slaves. They are generally confidants, staying with their masters to do their bidding, or they are sent to be managers of shops or workshops, and are unlikely to be low-level tea-making workers.

Therefore, if the innovative technology of the Song Dynasty comes into contact with too many people, it will be difficult to keep it secret because craftsmen are too mobile.

Let’s put it this way, the Imperial Tea Garden in Fujian often spends a lot of effort researching new teas. Often the research is done in the first year, but the secret is leaked in the second year, and the quality of private tea exceeds that of imperial tea.

There is definitely no patent protection or anything like that.

Even if there is, it cannot be implemented and relies too much on law enforcement.

In the Song Dynasty, there was only a book copyright protection act. Whether it was a new book written by yourself or an old book that was re-edited, it could be sent to the Yamen for review, and if it passed the review, it would obtain copyright protection.

When it was printed, there was a special copyright page stating in large letters that this book could not be pirated.

If a pirate is proven to have violated the law, the maximum penalty is to have his or her home confiscated!

However, this kind of copyright protection can only work in local counties at most, and it is difficult for local governments to enforce laws across borders.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The people at the bottom of Yangzhou are still drinking cheaper loose tea. The upper class still retains the habit of drinking high-end tea, and they only often use fried tea to entertain guests. The main customers of fried tea are cities With orders from the middle class and the government, if there is too much fried tea production, the local market will be easily saturated.”

Ju Ming said: "It is definitely not saturated, and the market has not been fully developed. It is just that the supply exceeds demand in a short period of time. If Daming Village and the Zheng family want to sell out their fried tea, they must use smuggling."

You can also take the formal route of Tea Horse, but there are three difficulties:

First, tea from Chuanxia 4th Road could only be sold to the frontier in exchange for horses. Even if it was trafficked by private merchants, it had to be transported to the Tea Horse Company in Xihe Road.

Second, if you sell tea legally, the tax is too heavy and the profit is not high.

Third, those ethnic minorities have not yet had the habit of drinking fried tea, so even if it is transported there, there may not be a market for it.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Zhang Guangdao planned to join forces with the Zheng family for smuggling. Yourong expressed opposition at first, but later everyone convinced him, because Zhang Guangdao was not the only one who wanted to engage in smuggling. Moreover, no one thought there was anything wrong with smuggling. The entire three counties of Yangzhou, Tea gardens and tea merchants who did not participate in smuggling would have gone bankrupt long ago.”

Even if you take the Tangluo Road, you still have to pay taxes.

There is a tax collection station at Luogu Exit, where you can easily bribe the tax collectors and declare customs as ordinary goods to avoid the high tea tax.

Zhu Guoxiang added: "The population of Daming Village has exceeded 1,700 people. On the other side of the Han River in Xiabai Village, the scattered farmers have taken the initiative to collectively merge their people and land into Daming Village in order to seek the protection of Daming Village and escape the government's exorbitant taxes."

Ju Ming smiled and said: "This is equivalent to directly expanding our territory by one-fifth."

Zhu Guoxiang threw the letter into the stove and burned it: "At the suggestion of Meng Zhao and Yu Shanwei, Yourong divided the village into three li. The original land near Heifeng Village was the first li, and the waste tea mountain to the riverside The inn is the second mile, and the valley area near the Han River to the other side of Xiabai Village is the third mile."

"My stepmother is capable of doing things." Zhu Ming spoke highly of her.

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head and said, "It must have been Yu Shanwei's idea. That woman is not simple."

Ju Ming asked: "What was the county government's reaction?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I was promoted to the county magistrate. The new magistrate's name is Pang Rui. This person has been the principal of a prefecture school for several years. He is probably crazy about poverty. As soon as he took office, he made money from death. He didn't even want to face him. Under the guise of collecting food and salary for the imperial court, several kinds of exorbitant taxes were added at once. The scattered farmers on the other side of Xiabai Village just couldn't stand this, so they collectively took their land to Daming Village."

"What was the reaction of Chief Bookkeeper Zhang Su?" Zhu Ming asked again.

Zhu Guoxiang couldn't help but laugh: "Master Zhang and Bai Erlang joined forces to resist this random tax collection. But Master Zhang really resisted and wanted to ease the burden on the people. Bai Erlang and his subordinate staff were on the same side. Resist it while taking advantage of the opportunity to make money.”

"It's not easy to be the master," Zhu Ming sighed, and at the same time he was gloating. "There are corrupt officials above and dirty officials below. It must be uncomfortable for him to be caught in the middle. He probably doesn't have the heart to take care of Daming Village."

Zhu Guoxiang said happily: "The more fierce the fight among the county officials, the better, so that it will be easier for Daming Village to focus on development. The new magistrate of Pang County took the initiative to show his kindness to Daming Village, probably because he wanted to curry favor with the two of us. During his tenure, he was completely Don’t worry about external pressure.”

"How's the village school going?" Zhu Ming asked.

"The whole village had a great harvest last year," Zhu Guoxiang smiled happily. "Many villagers sent their children to study. There are already more than fifty students, four of whom are girls. Meng Zhao is contacting his old classmate, who is also a disgraced scholar. , I want to bring that person to Daming Village to be a teacher."

There are over fifty students, even half of them are around ten years old. After five or six years, twenty or thirty literate teenagers will be trained, and they will all be able to do math. This will be the official team at the beginning of the army.

What's more, as the villagers become richer, the number of students will increase.

It is really called "wealthy". If they can have enough food and clothing, and save a few surplus grains, they feel that they are living a rich life.

The letter had been reduced to ashes in the furnace, and the smile on Zhu Guoxiang's face persisted: "Even Grandma Yan is coming up with ideas. Last year, when the village had more money, Grandma Yan suggested buying six more cattle. The village hired people to specially We raise cattle and rent out farmland to villagers at low prices during busy farming periods. Villagers can also donate cow grass, and if the donated cow grass reaches a certain amount, they can cultivate half an acre of land for free."

Ju Ming said: "As long as a stable environment is provided, the subjective initiative of the people can be exerted. Moreover, farmers know better what they need. Grandma Yan has been farming all her life, and she knows that farmers urgently need cattle. The original cattle in the village , the quantity is completely insufficient.”

Ju Ming read the letters of Yangzhou scholars and wrote back one by one.

He also gave the manuscript of Chen Yuan's book, which had been revised and supplemented repeatedly, to Deng Xia and said: "This book is tentatively named "Tao Yongce". Take it back and give it to Ling Guxu. Tell him not to hide his secrets. Scholars who are willing to learn this art will all It can be passed down and copied to make it more popular."

After writing the letter, Ju Ming went to visit Chen Yuan again.

"Sir, on the official ship tomorrow, I am going to Puzhou to take office," Zhu Ming asked, "Sir, what are your plans?"

Chen Yuan said: "The compilation of "Tao Yongce" has been completed. In the past six months, I have learned calculus from your father. Calculus is extremely mysterious. I can only scratch the surface for the time being. I am afraid it will take twenty years to study it. Here in Tokyo , although I have accepted hundreds of disciples, I can’t stand the atmosphere here.”

What was unbearable was the academic atmosphere. In order to avoid being made difficult by the authorities, Chen Yuan deleted many remarks that were against the new learning.

During the entire Huizong Dynasty, the places with the strictest academic control were Kaifeng and Luoyang. These two cities were not suitable for spreading new ideas.

Chen Yuan felt like he was dancing in shackles. After holding it in for more than a year, he was fed up: "When the weather gets cooler and autumn comes, I will leave Tokyo. First, I will go to Zhejiang and Zhejiang to visit my mentor and give lectures for two months. Then I will go back to Fujian."

"Sir, will you spread knowledge on Fujian Road from now on?" Zhu Ming asked.

Chen Yuan nodded and said: "Go back to your hometown and build an academy to teach Taoism. Besides, I have been away from home for several years, so it's time to go back and reunite with my wife and children."

Ju Ming took out three hundred coins worth of silver and said, "Sir, please accept it."

Half of these three hundred coins were to repay the loan. I borrowed some from Chen Yuan when I opened the coal shop. The remaining half was used by Ju Ming to finance Chen Yuan's travel expenses back home.

Chen Yuan did not refuse and accepted it happily, reminding him: "When you are released, you will be able to govern with peace of mind and be sure to benefit the people. As for today's officials, they are getting more and more ridiculous, and it is impossible to dissuade them. You You are still young, accumulate more qualifications, and wait for a good time to assist the new king."

Most of Cai Jing's opponents can only choose to stay dormant and bet on the crown prince.

Their attitude towards the emperor was basically: If the tuba is no longer available, just practice the trumpet.

Chen Yuan was very optimistic about Ju Ming. With Song Huizong's bad habit of taking drugs every day, he could live for another ten or twenty years at most. By then, Ju Ming was only in his thirties and had already accumulated rich qualifications, just in time to assist the new king in becoming an important minister of the country.

Chen Yuan still did not recognize Wang Anshi's title of king: "Wang Jinggong's reform was well intentioned, but he hired people poorly and was too impatient. If you want to reform in the future, you should take this as a warning."

Although many people opposed Wang Anshi's reform, by the Huizong Dynasty, faced with a lot of mess, the reform had become the consensus of the world.

People with lofty ideals all want to reform, but not like Cai Jing.

Some historians have summarized the core idea of ​​Cai Jing's reform: bringing all local benefits to the central government. Then all the benefits of the central government will be collected in the royal family.

As a result, local governments had no money and the central government was short of finances, but Song Huizong had a lot of money to squander.

But the local government has no money, so it can only double its exploitation and live by collecting exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

"Take care, sir, farewell!" Zhu Ming stood up and left.

Chen Yuan sent him out and then returned to the room to continue studying calculus.

The next day, Ju Ming boarded an official ship and headed to Puzhou via the Guangji River.

There was Wang Jie on the same boat, who was also going to take office. He was also Ju Ming's neighbor, the prefect of Xingren, whose government was in Jiyin County.

Puzhou, where Ju Ming served, was governed in Juancheng County.

To the east of these two places is Shuibo Liangshan!