Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Although he has not yet become king or emperor, the system has been established and all kinds of etiquette should be implemented.

This spring, father and son hosted spring societies in Hanzhong and Xiangyang respectively.

This activity is very old and was popular from the Oracle era to the Song Dynasty. At first, it was worshiped to the God of Grain, and later it became worshiped to the Lord of the Land. In addition to praying for rain, praying for harvest, and entertaining people and gods, there were also activities for marriage and seeking children in ancient times.

It was even written into "Zhou Li" and confirmed in the form of law and etiquette. During the spring club, marriageable men and women are allowed to date by themselves, and promiscuous behavior is also allowed. Anyone who prohibits men and women from dating without reason will be punished by the ruler.

Zhu Guoxiang issued official documents to all prefectures and counties in advance, setting the highest standards for Spring Society sacrifices.

Simply put, sacrifices must not be extravagant or wasteful!

The excitement focused on the participation of all the people, including officials, gentry, merchants, and ordinary people. It was more like a collective celebration of all walks of life.

A country or a nation must have this kind of festival celebration in order to build self-identity and cohesion.

Especially in reclamation areas, in view of the scarcity of population, unmarried and unengaged men and women are encouraged to have free love and dating during the spring club. Especially for those refugees, most of their families have been destroyed, and it is very common for them to lose their husbands and wives. They work hard all year round to reclaim wasteland, so they can take advantage of this time to quickly remarry and reorganize their families.

The emperor has Taishe, the counties have countyshe, and the township has Lishe. There are celebrations everywhere these two days.

Ju Ming strictly followed the county etiquette and took his wife and concubines out early in the morning.

As the magistrate of Xiangyang, Li Hanzhang had already led the officials to wait, and there were also some prominent Xiangyang families standing beside him.

There are mainly Kuai family, Xi family, Luo family, Zhang family, etc., especially Kuai family, who settled in Xiangyang during the Qin and Han Dynasties. However, due to the wars of the Five Dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, there were not many high-ranking officials in the Song Dynasty. Although there were many clans, their families had long been separated. The strength of the Kuai family was far inferior to that of the famous families in Shu.

"Meet the Generalissimo!"

When Ju Ming walked out of the gate, officials and noble families all bowed to him.

"Let's go." Zhu Ming smiled.

In front were heavily armored guards clearing the way, followed by musketeers in silk clothes. Ju Ming rode a cornucopia slowly forward, followed by wives and concubines in carriages, and officials and noble families followed further behind.

"It's so lively!"

Zhao Fujin opened the corner of the car curtain and felt strange about everything he looked at.

Today, Xiangyang City is extremely lively.

In recent years, due to government exploitation and refugee issues, as well as Zhu Ming's rebellion against the imperial court, the Spring Society in Xiangyang has not been well managed. Now that it has finally recovered, and there are no internal or external troubles, all the people can celebrate to their heart's content.

Many suburban farmers carry agricultural and sideline products into the city and sell them along the streets with smiles on their faces.

The police didn't care much about it. They only maintained traffic in key streets and alleys, and stipulated that no stalls should be set up in places with the most people.

The older girls and younger daughters-in-law took to the streets together, all wearing the best clothes at home. I really can’t afford good clothes, so I wear the latest and cleanest clothes. Maybe I don’t have money to buy things, but I am happy to walk around the streets and watch the excitement.

It is still early in the solar terms, and the peach and plum blossoms have not yet bloomed. Many people are holding wintersweet in their hands or wearing unknown wild flowers on their heads.

Even men wear hairpins on their heads.

"The Generalissimo is here!"

The people in front shouted.

In fact, there was no need to shout, the movement of the guards clearing the way was quite loud, and the people quickly stood on both sides of the street to get out of the way, and then waited to admire the grand marshal and his guards.

Wherever Ju Ming passed, people on both sides rushed to wave, but fortunately no one dared to throw anything at him.

Xiangyang also has a Goulan tile house, which opens from the morning and performs various acrobatics, magic, drama and other performances.

After leaving the city, it was still lively.

Ju Ming went straight to the suburban altar and personally presided over the Spring Society sacrifice.

The ceremony is solemn and simple. Grandness means that all kinds of etiquette are present, and simplicity means that all sacrifices are simple.

Only Zhang Jinping followed Ju Ming to worship, and the rest of the concubines belonged to the audience.

After the sacrifice was over, participants in other activities dispersed to celebrate with relatives and friends. The rest wanted to follow the generalissimo all the way to the military camp. I heard that there was also a celebration in the army today.

Most of the followers were entering the military camp for the first time and looked around very curiously.

I saw groups of sergeants queuing up in civilian clothes.

Although he was not wearing armor or weapons, he still had a murderous aura.

Kuai Zhang, the head of the Kuai clan, exclaimed: "With such a strong army, the world can be conquered!"

Luo Shaozhi, the leader of the Luo clan, said: "Compared to the previous Xiangyang Forbidden Army and the Xiang Army, these sergeants in front of us are truly a force of tigers and wolves. No wonder they can defeat the officers and soldiers."

When these people from prominent families saw Ju Ming's army, they were even more convinced that the Zhu family and his son could conquer the world.

"Generalissimo, we are ready!" Zhang Juhou came to Ju Ming's side.

"Very good." Zhu Ming nodded.

Everyone sat down around the stage in a fan shape, and nearly four thousand soldiers also moved to benches to sit down.

There is no microphone, and the audience sitting in the back row will definitely not know what is being performed on the stage. Fortunately, they can take turns watching the performances in the future.

At the beginning, an elderly man came on stage to sing some opera lyrics. The lyrics were easy to understand and could be understood by the people at the bottom. This was an introduction to the time and place where the story took place.

Then, the elder stepped down, and a boy of twelve or thirteen years old came on, followed by a man in his thirties.

The officials and wealthy people were stunned for a moment.

In street dramas, it is normal for actors to wear coarse clothes, but I have never seen one carrying a hoe.

The father and son walked while chanting, and then plowed with hoes. Then he sang again, the tune was a variation of "Qing Ping Le", the lyrics were still easy to understand, showing a pastoral life of prosperity and peace.

Immediately, more and more people appeared on the stage, all of whom were country men, women and children.

Because it was mixed with slang and pornographic jokes, not only the sergeants burst into laughter, but also the officials and wealthy people were amused.

The atmosphere in the first few scenes was cheerful and quite festive.

Until Song Huizong and Cai Jing came on the stage, the taste immediately changed. One is extravagant and lustful, the other is flattering and flattering.

The monarch and his ministers discussed how to make money.

Immediately afterwards, local officials received the emperor's order to discuss how to cater to the imperial court and achieve political achievements. When the officials received the mission, they also began to plan how to enrich their own pockets and exploit the common people crazily.

The biggest landowner in the village went to discuss with the officials and formed a gang to exploit the farmers and seize the opportunity to seize their fields.

This is where the tragedy begins. The hero and heroine, who are in love with each other, are torn apart by the ruthless reality. Both parties were tortured, and the young actors who were twelve or thirteen years old were replaced by adult actors in their twenties.

Zhang Juhou has too many creative materials. He condenses the tragic experiences of hundreds of refugee families into the two families of the hero and heroine.

One after another tragic events in the world are vividly displayed.

Seeing this, some soldiers burst into tears.

Currently, none of the pro-army troops under Ju Ming are from the North Road of Beijing, but many are Shaanxi refugees who fled to Hanzhong. Although the stories that happened on the stage were somewhat different from their experiences, they were similar enough to resonate emotionally with them.

Until the heroine died on the way to escape, many soldiers at the scene began to cry because their family members also died in this way.

In the last few scenes, Ju Ming asked Zhang Juhou to make slight changes.

The hero's younger brother joined the army. Instead of going to fight as a bell prime minister, he made up a fictional battle with officers and soldiers. The rebels won a great victory, and the hero's brother caught his enemy. However, he strictly abided by the military order and did not lynching him. Instead, he was handed over to the superiors for trial, and all the officials who had harmed the people were hanged.

"good!"

The suppressed emotions of countless sergeants were released, and cheers arose one after another, and some even shouted happily.

The final ending is that the hero, whose wife starved to death, married the heroine's sister, started a family in the new wilderness, and lived a happy life where men farmed and women weaved.

Moreover, the lyrics and tunes became lighter again, and country slang and dirty jokes reappeared.

After experiencing various emotions of repression, anger, and release, the sergeants looked at the happy life on the stage. Each one of them smiled and imagined their good days in the future.

"Snap, snap, snap!"

All the sergeants applauded and asked who the actors on the stage were. It was estimated that many of them would become star-struck fans.

The officials and wealthy families had mixed feelings. Although they could not empathize with the story, they also sympathized with the tragic experiences of the male and female protagonists in the play. At the same time, some people also brought in corrupt officials and evil gentry.

The real corrupt officials and filthy officials either ran away or were killed.

Today, some of the officials in Xiangyang remain and continue to work under Zhu Ming and Li Hanzhang. To some extent, they all committed evil deeds, but their reputations were not well known. When they saw the corrupt officials being hanged in the play, they all shrank their necks and broke into cold sweats.

There is even a plot to kill evil gentry in the play, which also makes the wealthy people feel lingering fear.

Zhao Fujin wiped away his tears and asked his sister in a low voice: "Sister, is my father really that bad?"

Zhao Fujin hesitated to speak, and it took him a long time to answer: "I don't know."

Master Li turned to look at the two emperor concubines. It was hard to say anything. She had heard many bad words. Although she had been in contact with all the top dignitaries in the past, it was inevitable that some would get drunk and curse the emperor.

Ju Ming smiled and asked Li Hanzhang: "How is this miscellany?"

Li Hanzhang said: "It can boost people's morale."

Because the performance was so good, Ju Ming hired another troupe to rehearse. First, a few more performances were performed for the Xiangyang pro-army, with constant changes in details, and then two troupes went north and south respectively to perform condolence performances for the soldiers of each department.

In addition to the soldiers watching, they even let the refugees watch too.

Today, the only regular soldiers are the troops of Han Shizhong and He Ji, who have recruited a large number of northern refugees. When these two troops were watching the play, because the plot was so real, the soldiers who were born as refugees in Henan were so angry that they rushed to the stage collectively and beat corrupt officials and evil gentry.

The officers rushed to stop them, but the soldiers stepped off the stage in anger, and then grabbed the actors playing Song Huizong and Cai Jing from the side of the stage and cursed them.

The villain actors cried and complained that they did not want to continue acting. Not only would their lives be in danger during the performance, but even if they were recognized after the performance, they would be verbally attacked by soldiers and people.

The front-facing actors are extremely popular, especially the actress who plays the heroine.

Regardless of whether they were adults or teenagers, the two actresses received pity from countless soldiers and civilians because of their tragic endings.

There were even some people from the land who didn't have much food at home, but after the performance, they brought bean cakes to the two heroines. They had to watch the actress eat the pancake before they smiled with joy, as if the heroine in the play could also eat enough.

By the time the tour ended, the two actresses who played the heroine had gained several pounds each...

Zhang Juhou forced them to lose weight because it was too dramatic. That white and fat look doesn't make him look like he was starved to death?

There is no need to guide them carefully anymore, now all the soldiers in each department know why they are fighting.

These soldiers want to overthrow the brutal rule of the Song Dynasty and let the people all over the world live a good life!