Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

What I picked up for free was a mare. Although she was not very good-looking, she was full of interest.

After being led into the stable of the post house, the live broadcast started immediately, causing a few horses nearby to become commotion.

Zheng Yuanyi asked the postman to boil water. After Ju Ming came back, he took out the black tea he brought and brewed it: "Did Lang Jun meet a bad person? The postman said there were thieves in the nearby village."

Ju Ming patted her hand: "Don't be afraid, they are all village thieves. Once the leader of the thieves is defeated, they will all be scared away."

"You should be more careful. Next time you go out, you have to bring a few followers with you." Zheng Yuanyi was afraid that Ju Ming was in danger.

After Ju Ming took a few sips of tea, he called the postman over for questioning.

"Even the village bandits have horses. Are there many horses here?" Zhu Ming asked.

The postman said: "There are plenty of them to deal with errands."

Ju Ming asked again: "How is horse racing?"

After all, he was an official. The postman did not dare to tell the truth, so he forced a smile and said: "It's very good. Horse farmers will make money."

How can Ju Ming believe it?

The next day, they continued eastward, and without waiting for the prefect, the official ship headed straight for Jiyin.

The specific location of Jiyin is south of Heze, west of Dingtao, and north of Caoxian in later generations. It is the seat of Xingren Prefecture.

Zhu Ming originally planned to follow the Guangji River to visit Liangshan Shuibo, then disembark at Yuncheng, and then take the overland route to Puzhou.

But what he discovered along the way made Ju Ming decide to log in early.

There is a horse market in the northern suburbs of Fucheng, and it is quite large.

Ju Ming changed into ordinary clothes and took Bai Sheng to buy horses and inquire about the relevant situation.

In the horse market, horse pens are surrounded by wood, and each horse pen is an independent stall.

Ju Ming came to a horse pen, walked around half a circle, and found that there was no brand on the horse's butt. He couldn't help but ask: "Are you an official horse or a private horse?"

"A private horse given by the official," the horse dealer asked with a smile, "Is your guest a foreigner? We all have geldings here. They are hard-working and very docile. You can use them as you like when you are on the road."

Ju Ming said: "I came from the south. When I arrived at Jingdong Road, I found that there are horses everywhere, and the prices are not expensive. What's going on?"

The horse dealer whispered: "The government allows the horses to be raised, and the horse laws are changing all the time. I don't know when it will change again. Both the officials and the horse farmers want to sell the horses as soon as possible."

While Ju Ming was selecting horses, he was getting advice from the horse dealer.

Initially, horses were not raised here in Xingren Mansion, but there were horse wardens in Puzhou and Yunzhou next door.

The horse supervisor in Puzhou moved to Puyang decades ago.

Due to the dereliction of horse administration, horse prisons everywhere were in ruins, and even pastures were usurped into farmland. So Wang Anshi implemented the Horse Protection Law and allowed wealthy farmers to raise horses.

The implementation of the new law was too hasty and did not give the people time to prepare.

In order to pursue political achievements, local officials ordered households to buy horses and raise them within a time limit.

But the Song Dynasty was already short of horses, so how could there be so many at once?

So merchants took the opportunity to collect horses. With the cooperation of the government, the price increased several times, forcing horse farmers to buy.

Wang Anshi's method of protecting horses leaves a profit margin for horse farmers.

But in actual practice, just buying horses at high prices and raising them at home will cause horse farmers to suffer heavy losses. Even if the horses give birth smoothly and remain disease-free in the next few years, horse farmers will have little profit to speak of.

How is it possible to be free from illness and disaster?

Coupled with government exploitation, horse farmers were miserable.

After Wang Anshi stepped down, even Zhang Dun, the leader of the reform faction, said that the law of protecting horses must be stopped. "If you don't stop, there will be harm."

As a result, the Horse Protection Law began to be repealed, and official racecourses were restored.

It is impossible to suddenly restore the abandoned racecourse. Not to mention the lack of horses and horse breeders, it is difficult to restore pastures. Local officials took the opportunity to encircle people's land and randomly pointed to large tracts of fertile land and called it pastures.

In the following decades, the two policies of official horse raising and private horse raising changed repeatedly with the struggle between the old and the new parties.

Every time the government changes, the people are unlucky.

In the Huizong Dynasty alone, in less than ten years, the political affairs of Jingdong Road changed three times, causing a large number of small and medium-sized landowners to go bankrupt! (During Song Jiang’s rebellion, it coincided with the fourth political change in Shandong.)

Ju Ming bought two geldings and a chariot. Together with the mares he picked up for free, four carriages carried people and goods to the north.

He asked the farmers for information along the way, and after half a month, he basically understood the situation here.

The first major harm: water transport.

Every state and county in Shandong has a grain quota. People transport grain to the government, and the government hires people to transport the grain to the Guangji River, and then transports it in batches to Tokyo for storage or sale.

In every aspect of water transportation, the government exploited the people.

The second greatest harm: Ma Zheng.

Horse laws are changed every three or four years on average. Horse owners have not yet recovered their money, and the policy changes again. Small and medium-sized landowners are miserable.

Before leaving the jurisdiction of Jiyin County, Zhu Ming's little notebook had already recorded more than ten pages, all of which contained the various dissatisfaction of ordinary people with the policy.

"Prefect Zhu, in front of you is Gukuiqiu, the place where the Five Hegemons met in the Spring and Autumn Period."

A scholar pointed to the small hill ahead. This was the guide hired by Ju Ming halfway.

In order to investigate the public sentiment, he did not go in a straight line, but took detours in all directions.

Zhu Ming, Bai Sheng, and Deng Chun all carried weapons.

Zheng Yuanyi also married seven slaves. Except for the maid, the other two women and four men were all sumo wrestlers.

With so many people walking together, it looked like they were not easy to mess with, and thieves along the way did not dare to take action.

Ju Ming reined in his horse and looked at it, feeling a little excited in his heart: "Kui Qiu, the nine princes together rule the world. It's time to pay tribute and appreciate the demeanor of Qi Huangong and Guan Zhong."

The carriage and horses arrived at the entrance of the village, and a squire like Lao Bai Yuanwai came over with a cane to check on the situation.

Ju Ming took out his official badge and said, "Sorry to disturb my father-in-law. I am Ju Ming, the magistrate of Puzhou, and I will go here to take up my post."

The squire instantly became respectful, bent down and saluted: "My name is Li Ji. I was elected as a candidate when I was young. Master Zhu, please come to the village and rest soon."

Zhu Ming saw that all the young men in the village were holding weapons and nodded in approval: "It's quite majestic."

Li Ji explained: "There are many strong men in the countryside, so I have to practice village bravery to protect myself. I didn't know that the prefect was coming just now, and the village heroes gathered spontaneously." After saying that, he turned around and shouted, "They are all gone, don't disturb the prefect!"

The young people in the village quickly dispersed, but one young man did not leave.

This man was holding a mare, staring at the cornucopia, and said suddenly: "Can the prefect's horse, Shenjun, be bred to one of ours? I will pay for the breeding regardless of whether she is pregnant or not."

Before Ju Ming could answer, Li Ji began to scold angrily: "How noble is the prefect's mount? Is it worthy of your horse?"

The young man muttered: "They are all beasts, how can they be so particular? It's not like I won't pay them."

Seeing that he was carrying a bow and arrows and leading a horse, Ju Ming asked, "Can you ride and shoot?"

"Yes." The young man said.

Ju Ming said: "If you are good at riding and shooting, I will let you breed with the horse."

The young man was so happy that he jumped on his horse and rushed out of the village to perform riding tricks. Then he took off his bow and arrow, shot an arrow 40 to 50 meters away, and accurately hit the trunk of a tamarisk tree.

"Good archery skills!" Deng Chun clapped his hands and cheered.

Ju Ming was delighted to see Lie Xin and asked, "What is this person's name?"

Li Ji said: "This guy is called Li Bao, and he is the great nephew of the old man. He is also educated, but he likes to play with guns and sticks."

Li Bao, Kuiqiu...

Ju Ming suddenly remembered a battle and asked, "Is this Li Zhuang?"

Li Ji nodded: "It's indeed called Li Zhuang."

Ju Ming asked: "Does Li Bao have a nickname called Po Li San?"

Li Ji was very angry: "This rogue has caused such a big reputation that even the prefect passing by has heard about it. It is really a shame to Li Zhuang!"

Damn it, it’s really Li San from Gu Kuiqiu Lizhuang!

This Li Bao has a special biography in "History of the Song Dynasty".

Wan Yanliang went south in a large scale, and the main force of the Jin army at that time was defeated by Yu Yunwen in Caishiji.

Far away in Shandong, there is another battlefield.

Li Bao led 120 ships and 3,000 militiamen recruited from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Instead of waiting passively, he took the sea route and went straight to Shandong, and took the initiative to launch an attack, wiping out 70,000 enemy troops and more than 600 warships.

During the Jingkang period, the Jin army occupied Shandong, and Li Bao initially recruited rebels to resist. The troops were exhausted and they went to join Yue Fei again.

Yue Fei was unable to counterattack due to various constraints, so Li Bao left with his men. Yue Fei thought they were deserters, so he captured Li Bao and beheaded him.

After asking for the reason, Yue Fei released him and asked Li Bao to sneak back to Shandong to fight guerrillas. Because he ruined the Jin army's affairs many times and was severely encircled and suppressed, Li Bao was defeated and took refuge with Han Shizhong. Finally, he became famous in the Shandong naval battle, and was promoted to "control of the coastal imperial navy capital" due to his accumulated achievements.

Ju Ming never expected that he would not find Yue Fei after searching for him, but would meet the Navy Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Song Dynasty halfway.

It's just that at this time, Li Bao had probably never even been on a river warship, let alone a sea ship.

"Prefect Zhu, can I handle riding and shooting well?" Li Bao came back from riding.

Ju Ming asked: "A good man should make great achievements, why should he become a rural rogue?"

Li Bao's face turned red: "I failed the exam again."

Soldier?

That's impossible, it's insulting to the family tradition, because on Jingdong Road, being a soldier is the same as being a bandit.

Ju Ming asked: "Would you like to be my personal attendant? If there is a chance, I recommend you to become a military general."

Li Bao was still hesitating, but Li Ji scolded: "Why don't you thank Prefect Zhu for your support!"

Li Bao dismounted nervously, bowed in salute and said, "Thank you, Prefect, for your support!"

The more Ju Ming watched, the more he liked it and asked: "How old are you this year? Have you ever married a wife?"

Li Bao replied: "I am nineteen years old and have not yet married."

"In a few days, come with me to Puzhou," Zhu Ming said with a smile, "Don't be in a hurry today. Come with me to pay homage to Kuiqiu first."

Li Bao said: "It's just a small slope, what's there to care about?"

Li Ji was furious: "What little slope? That's Kuiqiu, the place where the princes meet for alliance! My Li family has been guarding Kuiqiu for generations, how can I tolerate such an insult like you? If I ask you to read history, you will read nothing." It’s gone!”

Li Bao scratched his head, not daring to contradict his elders.

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