Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Winter turns to spring and the snow melts.

Zhang Juhou even spent the Spring Festival in the reclamation area. He wanted to know how the lower class people celebrated the New Year.

But the farmer told him that now it is called the New Year. In the past, it was just celebrating the New Year.

Because the farmers could not afford the heavy taxes, or the tenants could not afford the rent, they had to borrow usurious loans from the landlords. Every year as New Year's Eve approaches, landlords will inevitably send people to collect debts. Even if they know clearly that the borrower cannot repay, they still have to force them symbolically to remind farmers of the creditor's kindness.

The encounter between Yang Bailao and Baimao Nu does not often happen in the real world, because landlords rarely push farmers to death.

Unless the landlord is eyeing the farmer's land, or the farmer's daughter. Only in this way will they frantically collect debts and force farmers to hand over something.

Under normal circumstances, the landlord is still very "kind".

When Zhang Juhou was writing the script, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty also issued a decree: pardoning the bandits among the refugees in Lianghe and Jingxi, and exempting the refugees and rebel bandits who returned to their hometowns to farm for one year.

I have to say that Cai You did something personal.

Eunuch Li Yan's Xicheng office also cooperated with the policy. Anyway, the refugees who had just returned to their hometowns could not squeeze out any profit. Give the returning refugees tax exemption for one year, so that they can cultivate the land easily, and they can be exploited again next year.

Then, Cai You once again promoted good governance, abolished the Changping Division across the country, and no longer allowed the Changping Division to plunder the people.

Then, the old system of the three central provinces was restored so that the court could operate normally.

These two operations are beneficial to the country and the people. If they had been implemented ten years ago, perhaps Cai You would have achieved some results.

However, implementing it now is tantamount to self-destruction and can only have the opposite effect.

The Changping Department, one of the three major local agencies, was suddenly cancelled. How would so many officials be accommodated?

Moreover, because Changping Division has abundant oil and water, all its officials have backgrounds. If their yamen were suddenly abolished, these people would inevitably compete for other important positions, squeezing out the few officials who could still do their jobs.

As for the three provinces that were made dysfunctional by Song Huizong, Cai You suddenly wanted to let the three provinces return to power. The first reaction of the officials in the three provinces who gained power was not to do business for the court, but how to fight for power within the department. There is also a crazy struggle for power with the departments!

The central government became more chaotic, and officials from the three provinces began to flatter Cai You, hoping that they could gain more real power.

Cai You made these good governance decisions because he obviously couldn't handle the bad situation and was eager to restore order at the central and local levels.

But good intentions lead to bad things. The same policy, implemented under different circumstances, achieves exactly the opposite effect.

Song Huizong couldn't bear it anymore, so he agreed to return power to the three provinces.

He even planned to restore Yuanfeng's old law and completely declare that his "reform" had failed - Song Huizong had done all the tricks in the past few years under the guise of reform, and held high the banner of Wang Anshi, ruining Wang Anshi's reputation.

In February, grassland tourism expert Yelu Yanxi traveled from the grassland to the desert without waiting for the snow to melt, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the great rivers and mountains.

It's a pity that Emperor Tianzuo didn't go well during his travels. There was always a guy named Wanyan Loushi chasing him. After wandering around the desert and grasslands, Emperor Tianzuo ran to Shanxi again, where he was finally caught up by Wanyan Loushi.

Emperor Tianzuo was captured and the Liao Kingdom was destroyed!

…

The capital of the Jin Kingdom had just been renamed Huining (Harbin), and the imperial city was still under construction.

The imperial city has not yet been repaired, let alone the palace. A group of Jin nobles are currently recuperating in Tokyo (Liaoyang).

"Your Majesty, the Lord of Liao has captured him, and we should attack Song with all our strength!" Wanyan Zonghan encouraged him to take action. This guy was called Nianhan by the Song people.

Jin Taizong Wu Qimai was noncommittal and turned to look at Prime Minister Wanyan Xieye: "What do Bo Jilie think?"

Wanyan Xie didn't care, and replied: "You can fight, you can fight not. You can fight this year, you can fight next year."

The older generation of the Jin Kingdom were really not active in attacking the Song Dynasty. They were old, they had destroyed the Liao Kingdom, and they had grabbed enough women and goods. Each of them was in a high position, and they were willing to enjoy their old age in peace.

Those who can’t wait are all the younger generation!

Wanyan Zongwang said: "If you want to fight, do it quickly. The envoy to congratulate the Lord of Song on his birthday has returned. The envoy reported that many refugees can be seen in the suburbs of Tokyo in Song Dynasty, and thieves are everywhere in Hebei and Shandong. There is also a red thief, Occupying Chuanxia and Jingnan Road, we defeated four groups of officers and soldiers sent by the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. Another bell thief proclaimed himself emperor on Jinghu Road. Going south at this time, the Song army will definitely be difficult to resist!"

"Get the map." Wu Qimai called.

The waiter immediately brought a map of the Northern Song Dynasty, which was captured from the Liao Kingdom. It only roughly outlined the various roads and road governance of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Wanyan Zongwang stepped forward, pointed to the map and said: "There are twenty-three roads in the Song Dynasty, five are occupied by red thieves and two are occupied by bell thieves. I heard that the four roads in Shandong and Hebei are also full of thieves and bandits. Let's put it this way. , the Song State had only twelve armies left, and its military strength was even less than when it conquered the Liao Dynasty."

Wanyan Zonghan said: "Since Zhong Thief has proclaimed himself emperor, there is no need to worry about him. Zhu Thief has not yet proclaimed himself emperor or even king. We can confer Zhu Thief as the Prince of Hanzhong County and order him to send troops from the south to attack the Song Dynasty. Wait until Kaifeng is conquered. , you can also support the Zhu Thief to become the emperor, let him rule the Han Dynasty, and contribute annual coins and taxes every year."

Prime Minister Xie Ye said: "If we don't want to fight, we won't fight. If we want to fight, we will destroy the Song Dynasty. Make Kaifeng the Nanjing of the Jin Kingdom. We all will move there. The Han family system is still excellent, and the men of the Jin Kingdom can learn from it." Speak Chinese, read the history books and classics of the Han people. Conquer the Han children as subjects and let them farm the land for us. They can pay taxes and contribute a lot of wealth every year. But there is one thing that cannot be learned. The civil servants of the Song Dynasty looked down on the generals and made them miserable. I won’t even know how to fight anymore.”

As the emperor of the Jin Kingdom, Wu Qimai had more things to consider and only said: "The matter of moving Nanjing to Kaifeng can be discussed later."

The system of the Jin Kingdom was perfected in the hands of Wu Qimai. If we use the Manchu Dynasty as a metaphor, Wu Qimai plays the role of Huang Taiji.

He rarely fights in person anymore, and now he only does two things: one is to regain power, and the other is to govern the people.

The prime minister (Bo Jilie) has too much power, and Wu Qimai is waiting for Xie Ye to die of illness.

If Xie Ye dies of illness, the power of the new prime minister will be reduced again by Wu Qimai, greatly strengthening the emperor's centralization of power in the Jin Kingdom.

Under the repeated instigation of the young nobles of the "Zong" generation, Wu Qimai finally made the decision: "In April, we sent troops to the Han Dynasty, just in time to catch up with the Han'er harvesting wheat. This time we went south to plunder property. , especially bring back a lot of food. Although the Song soldiers are weak, but the country is large, I am afraid they will not die suddenly. Just like hunting, when encountering tigers and bears, you must first shoot a few arrows to bleed them. Sick beasts are also beasts, etc. Only by draining the beast's blood can we truly hunt it home."

In fact, Wu Qimai decided to attack the Song Dynasty. In addition to robbing property and food and passing on domestic conflicts, he also wanted to digest and integrate the remaining forces of the Liao Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Jin has expanded too fast in the past few years, doubling and doubling its land area, and it still suffers from indigestion problems.

Although the remnants of the Liao Kingdom and the local tribes of the Liao Kingdom nominally submitted to the Jin Kingdom, it was difficult for Wu Qimai to rule effectively.

Through fighting, we can integrate those semi-independent forces in the process of attacking the Song Dynasty!

The foundation of the Jin Kingdom was too weak. Although its military strength was strong, in terms of internal affairs, it was far inferior to the Manchu Qing Dynasty before entering the customs.

Let's put it this way, under the reforms of Huang Taiji in the Qing Dynasty, all ethnic groups in the Northeast have pieced together the concept of Manchu, and the status of Manchu is higher than other ethnic groups. In the Jin Kingdom under the rule of Wu Qimai, there were countless Jurchen people who were working as slaves for other ethnic groups, and they needed to be redeemed to convert Jurchen slaves into free people.

From the Aguda era until Wu Qimai died of illness, they had been redeeming Jurchen slaves for the people.

In today's Jin Kingdom, it is possible that the wealthy Han families also have a large number of Jurchen slaves!

Wu Qimai did not dare to mess with the powerful people of various tribes, so he could only look for various opportunities to attack. Once he messes up, the Jin Kingdom will inevitably be in rebellion, and those wealthy families are local snakes that have developed for hundreds of years.

In early March, the Kingdom of Jin began domestic mobilization and ordered the wealthy families from all over the country to lead their troops south to attack the Song Dynasty.

The Jin soldiers did not even have enough food and grass, so they were waiting to go to the Song Dynasty to harvest wheat.

At the same time, they comprehensively expelled the Song envoys and guarded the pass to prevent Song people from entering. The reason was that the Song Dynasty defaulted on its debts and refused to provide food, and even accepted the traitorous generals of the Jin Kingdom. From then on, it severed diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty.

Song Huizong was shocked and sent envoys again to the Jin Kingdom to restore diplomatic relations.

This time, the Song envoy was unable to enter and was blocked outside Lulong Fortress. He was unable to notice that the Jin Kingdom was mobilizing troops.

Tong Guan, Cai You and others vaguely guessed that there would be changes in the Jin Kingdom, and ordered the Song Dynasty's border generals and ministers to prepare for defense. Their idea was very simple, which was to use fortified cities to prevent the Jin soldiers from marching south. After the golden soldiers are exhausted, they can use some money to negotiate a peace. At most, the annual coins will be increased a little.

The Song Dynasty also had this strategy when dealing with the Liao Kingdom and Xixia. Could it be that the Jin soldiers could still reach Kaifeng?

As long as the Jin soldiers do not cross the Yellow River, Tong Guan and Cai You will be confident in negotiating peace!

…

In February, Zhang Juhou's first script was released, called "Xia Nanyang".

The plot incorporates a large number of real-life materials and tells the story of a once-engaged peasant man and woman who, due to government exploitation and oppression by evil gentry, fled to Nanyang to reclaim wasteland.

In the end, the heroine died on the way, and the hero's wife also died. Both parties' families were ruined. The hero married the heroine's sister and lived a promising new life in Nanyang.

The hero's younger brother also joined the Sichuan Gorge Rebel Army and made great contributions in the Battle of Gangneung with bravery and fearlessness.

After Zhu Ming read it, he praised Zhang Juhou greatly: "It's very well written. Sir, please go back and arrange it, and show it to my soldiers in Xiangyang first to see the effect. By the way, the title of the play will be changed to "Nanyang Dream"."

"I must have arranged it carefully!" Zhang Juhou solemnly handed over his hand.