Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The ancient Kuiqiu Lizhuang is located on the southeast side of Kuiqiu.

On the northwest side of Kuiqiu, there is also Wubagang Village.

Both villages have a history of thousands of years, and they have been guarding Kuiqiu (Wuba Gang) for generations.

We had dinner at Li Ji's house that night, and there were several village elders sitting with him. Most of them were surnamed Li, and a few were surnamed Liu.

It is estimated that tourists often visit the village, and they are used to it and are very skilled in tourist reception.

The next day, before Ju Ming got up, incense and candles were ready in the village.

As a private person, you can just worship casually. You can't do it in a formal way, especially if you don't use animals, because it involves violations of regulations.

Whether it is called Kuiqiu or Wubagang, you can know its topography from the name.

Not a small slope, but a big slope!

The part that rises above the ground is more than one kilometer in diameter. Villagers still live on the slopes, and there are also many farmlands growing corn, sunflower and other crops.

Li Ji pointed to a boundary stone on the slope: "After this stone, you will reach Wubagang Village. We, Lizhuang, and Wubagang Village will jointly worship Kuiqiu every year."

On the boundary between the two villages, there is an earth platform built up. The platform is covered with vegetation, but artificial traces can still be discerned.

There are several stone tablets around, mostly erected by celebrities who came here to pay their respects. There are also tablets indicating that the county allocated funds to repair the Alliance Altar.

After burning incense and worshiping, Li Ji said: "The prefect might as well leave the calligraphy treasure."

The two villages guarding Kwai Qiu are always competing with each other. One of the important projects is to compare which village has more calligraphy works by famous people.

When Zhu Ming stepped onto the alliance altar, he couldn't help but sigh, and turned back to look at Li Bao.

In history, the Jin soldiers were raging in Shandong, and it was here that Li Bao raised his troops to fight against the Jin. He also left a limerick: In the past, the princes gathered here to make an alliance, and the altar was high and the road looked far away at the capital. Jingkang's shame buried his great ambitions, and Kuiqiu ordered his troops to blow the trumpet.

"Bring me a pen!" Ju Ming said.

Li Ji studied ink himself. He had found out clearly last night that Zhu Zhizhou was Tanhua Lang.

The two surnames Li and Liu in the village each sent one person to organize the incense case, and the paper and pen were placed on the incense case.

Li Ji grinded the ink and handed the pen to Ju Ming. He saw him writing: "Kuiqiu is as domineering as a neon rainbow. I don't know the origin of the Eastern Strategy. Where the princes of Kong and Jin met, Qi Huan had already laid his body on the bed." "

"What a poem!"

Li Ji praised: "In the past, Confucian scholars came here to pay their respects, and their poems all wrote about the alliance. Only Zhu Taishou wrote about benevolent government and people's support!"

Li Bao came over and read it over and over again, and said confusedly: "Where are the people's hearts written? Where are the benevolent policies?"

Li Ji was so angry that he slapped him in the face: "Let you read history, let you read history. You were born in Kuiqiu, don't you read any history books related to Duke Huan of Qi?"

Li Bao covered the back of his head, looking quite aggrieved.

Seeing that others did not understand the poem, Li Ji explained: "Zai Kong was the Grand Administrator of Emperor Zhou. He said that although Duke Xiang of Jin had strong mountains and rivers, a vast territory, and a large population, he did not practice benevolent governance internally and was not good at diplomatic relations externally. , will definitely lose people's hearts and die. That year, Duke Xiang of Jin died. And Duke Huan of Qi also followed in the footsteps of Duke Xiang of Jin. While Duke Huan of Qi was still in funeral, Qi State was attacked by Song State."

Ju Ming actually had a deeper meaning. He copied this poem to scold Song Huizong. Those who are good at provoking foreign affairs and do not practice benevolent government will lose the hearts of the people and will sooner or later die and the country will be destroyed.

Zhu Ming held up his hands and praised: "The old gentleman is familiar with classics and history, and I admire him very much."

"I know a little about classics and history, and the prefect is so complimentary." Li Ji stroked his beard and smiled, feeling very proud.

He may not be proficient in other history books, but he was born in Kuiqiu and is familiar with the history of the Spring and Autumn Period.

After paying homage to Kuiqiu, Ju Ming was taken to the southeast of the village, where there was the Sanguan Temple and the Baiyi Palace.

Sanguan Temple is the shrine of Yao, Shun and Yu.

The palace in white is the palace of Liu Xiu, the son of the plane. Liu Xiu was defeated and almost died of illness. However, he was entertained by the villagers and recovered from his injuries in the village. After he became emperor, he built a palace in Lizhuang.

Li Zhuang has two major surnames, one is Li and the other is Liu.

People surnamed Liu are the descendants of the officials and soldiers who guarded Liu Xiu's palace. They have been guarding the palace for thousands of years. Although they have experienced many wars, they have remembered the ancestral precepts from generation to generation.

However, there are only a few rooms left in the emperor's palace, which was magnificent back then, and they were rebuilt in the early Song Dynasty.

Looking at the Liu clan members who had guarded the palace for thousands of years, and then looking at the temples of Yao, Shun and Yu, something in Ju Ming's heart seemed to be touched.

He pursed his lips and smiled, looking up at the sky and then at the north.

He seemed to understand why Li Bao insisted on resisting gold. Even after taking refuge with Yue Fei, he believed that Yue Fei was too useless to stand still, so he resolutely took dozens of brothers and lurked back to Shandong to fight guerrillas. With only 3,000 taels of Zhejiang troops in hand, he dared to cross the sea to attack Shandong and take the initiative to attack 70,000 enemy troops!

While Zhu Ming was feeling excited, Li Bao found it boring.

Li Bao has been tired of seeing Kuiqiu, the palace, and the Sanguan Temple since he was a child. He feels that these are useless. When he was a child, he even climbed up the wall of Sanguan Temple to urinate, and was hung up and beaten by the elders in the family.

Li Bao's attention was all on the cornucopia.

After getting Ju Ming's permission, the man immediately took the horse home and watched the horse being bred with a silly smile on his face.

Three days later, Ju Ming continued on his way, and Li Bao was added to the team.

Ahead is Chengshi County, which is Heze.

Continuing to the north, there are Linpu and Leize. These two counties are both under the jurisdiction of Ju Ming.

There is a God of Thunder in Leize, where Emperor Shun fished.

To the east of the county, there is the tomb of King Yao. It is said that Emperor Yao was buried here.

Ju Ming did not alarm the magistrate of Leize County, and went all the way to pay homage to the ruins of Leize Lake. This lake has almost dried up in the late Tang Dynasty. Now there are only a few small lakes left, and the rest have been turned into villages and farmland.

Then we rode horseback to Gulin Mountain in the east of the county. The mountains and plains here are covered with mulberry trees and there is a small river running through them.

Before entering the mountain, Ju Ming saw a large number of abandoned houses.

He went to check out curiously and found that there were many stone troughs and other papermaking equipment inside, which was obviously an abandoned papermaking workshop.

It has been abandoned for a long time and many houses have collapsed.

Ju Ming went to a nearby village to ask for water. When he came to a small farmyard, an old woman was drying her clothes in the courtyard.

Ju Ming said: "I am a scholar from the south. I am here to pay homage to Yao's mausoleum. Can I ask for a drink of water?"

The old woman lowered her guard a little when she saw that although there were many of them, there were still women. But they were still not allowed to enter the yard, so he went back to the thatched house to fetch a ladle of water and silently handed it over the fence.

While drinking water, Ju Ming asked: "Why are the paper mills over there abandoned?"

The old woman replied: "The government does not allow trees to be cut down."

Ju Ming understood somewhat: "Because of Yao Ling?"

The old woman obviously didn't know about Yao and Shun: "It was said that an emperor was buried in the mountains. He was not allowed to cut down trees or go into the mountains to graze sheep. The farmers in the mountains were also driven away by the government, leaving only five households to keep vigil for the emperor. This looks like this , has been for decades. When I first got married, the paper-making workshops were very prosperous, and there were so many people that they became a town. The government did not allow cutting down trees, so the paper-making workshops could not be used, and there were fewer and fewer people in the town. .”

Yao's mausoleum was moved to Pingyang, Shanxi for worship. It was a matter of the Jin and Yuan dynasties. The reason was that Leize was flooded by the Yellow River.

The Yao Tomb of the Song Dynasty was located in the east of Leize County.

Ju Ming asked: "This place is not far from the county seat, and the woods are lush. Are we not even allowed to cut firewood?"

The old woman said: "You are not allowed to chop wood. If you catch it, you will be beaten."

After asking a few more questions, Ju Ming handed back the water ladle, turned around and left with his horse.

Zheng Yuanyi asked: "We are already here, why don't you go into the mountain to visit Emperor Yao's tomb?"

Ju Ming said: "Yao's mausoleum harmed the people, so it's okay not to worship him."

Bai Sheng couldn't help complaining: "In the past two days, my husband has been saying that Emperor Yao is a holy king. If his old man knew about this, he would not be able to survive even if he was buried underground."

Deng Chun said: "Where the emperor is buried, it is fine not to cut down trees to make paper, but not to cut firewood is really unjustifiable."

"We won't let the sheep herd," Li Bao said in a mocking tone. "We in Kuiqiu just farm and herd sheep. How can we be so particular about it? Our Sanguan Temple in Lizhuang not only houses Emperor Yao, And Shun and Yu, they are no worse than Yao Ling who was so troublesome. When I was young, I even peed in Sanguan Temple."

Ju Ming thought about it and said, "Go to Leize County and meet the local magistrate."

Two hours later, Ju Ming arrived outside the county government office.

The official guarding the gate of the county government office held a stick and shouted: "The county government is an important place. No idlers are allowed to enter. Who is coming?"

Ju Ming said: "Puzhou knows the state."

"Pu..."

Zaoli was shocked. This was the jurisdiction of Puzhou. Ju Ming's arrival here is equivalent to the mayor's surprise inspection of the county government.

But Ju Ming was too young and did not look like a governor at all. The official asked bravely: "Do you have any proof?"

Ju Ming showed his official badge and asked, "Do you still want to read the documents?"

"I don't dare, please come in, sir!"

One official took Ju Ming in, and another official rushed into the county government office to report.

After a while, the county government was in a hurry, and Leize County officials arrived one after another.

The official positions here are so bloated that they actually have both the county magistrate and the county magistrate.

The county magistrate's name was Cao Yuangui, and he was a Jinshi. There was probably no vacancy, and this man's seniority had reached another level, so he was sent to Leize County for a transition period.

The county magistrate is Wang Wei, who was also a Jinshi and has been the principal of a state school for many years.

Although Leize County is not far from Tokyo, these two people have little background and little political information, and they have never heard of Ju Ming.

The two greeted each other cautiously, but they were always suspicious, fearing that Zhizhou was a fake.

Ju Ming simply took out the appointment document and said, "Read it yourself."

Cao Yuangui took it with both hands, glanced at it, and was horrified, whispering: "Chao Guan."

Court official?

Wang Tian did not look at the document again, but shrank his body, becoming three inches shorter, and became groveling.

Such a young court official must be a son of a powerful person!

The chief clerk and other officials next to him were even more frightened and curious, secretly looking at Ju Ming's appearance.

Wang Tian took two steps back and called the chief registrar to him: "Quickly go to the Sasou Hotel and invite the governor's family to stay. Prepare the drinks and ask for the best!"

"No need, normal meals will suffice." Ju Ming reminded.

The chief clerk accepted the order and left. Although Zhizhou said he wanted ordinary meals, he did not dare to do so.

Ju Ming was invited to sit down and went straight to the topic: "I just went to Yaoling."

Cao Yuangui said quickly: "Three years ago, after the officials sent their consorts to offer sacrifices to Yao's mausoleum, archers from this county often patrolled Gulin Mountain. Once someone was found cutting wood, they would not be spared lightly. More than 20 people were beaten with sticks."

Are you still asking for credit?

Zhu Ming was furious when he heard this.

(Some book friends say that they are going in the wrong direction. They may have been misled by passing through Dongming County. Dongming County in the Song Dynasty is completely different in direction and location from Dongming County in later generations.)