Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Historians' evaluation of Gao Qiu can be summed up in just four words: a great deal is worth it.

That is to say, they did not do anything that harmed the country and the people, but they did a lot of things that were ruinous.

He was thrown into the Western Army to gain military glory. He had never really commanded blindly, and his relationship with military generals was more harmonious than that of many civilian officials. Especially the promotion of Liu Qi can be regarded as a contribution to the Southern Song Dynasty as a general.

He engaged in real estate and opened companies in Tokyo. Although he occupied military camps and used soldiers, he also provided jobs for many imperial guards.

As for increasing the combat effectiveness of the Forbidden Army, does Gao Qiu need to take action? It has long since reached the point where it can no longer be pulled.

It would be impossible to replace Ju Ming with becoming a Taiwei. That would be a systemic collapse - there are thousands of military attachés working in Tokyo alone with salary.

Some of these temporary military attachés were awarded positions by the emperor, some were descendants of ministers, and some were bought with donations. Military expenses were used to pay these thousands of military attachés. Even if Gao Qiu was not greedy for half of the money, it would not be enough to pay for the remaining soldiers.

As a Yuan Cong of Song Huizong, Gao Qiu did not mix with Cai Jing, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, and Tong Guan, which shows that he still has a little bottom line in life.

Moreover, Gao Qiu would try his best to repay those who were kind to him.

Liu Zhongwu distributed his military merits to Gao Qiu. When Liu Zhongwu was forced to take the blame for Tong Guan, Gao Qiu immediately stood up to protect him and supported Liu Zhongwu's two sons along the way.

Su Shi was very kind to Gao Qiu back then. When the three descendants of Su were suppressed, Gao Qiu always took care of them secretly and even asked Su Guo (Su Shi's third son) to get an official position. This is a political mistake that will make Song Huizong unhappy, and it will obviously offend Cai Jing.

Because Su Guo was marked as a party member, the imperial court prohibited him from serving as an official.

But Gao Qiu actually took Su to see the emperor, and persuaded Song Huizong to make an exception and give him an official position, and gave him a tax collection job. With Tong Guan's continuous recommendation, Su Guo has now been promoted to a prefectural general judge.

A somewhat bright person... a rotten person!

In the late Northern Song Dynasty, when the apes were shining brightly, they were already considered scraps in the stinking heap.

"Come and sit down." Zhu Guoxiang waved.

Gao Qiu quickly climbed up and stepped forward, his butt carefully pressed against the edge of the chair.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "That year during the Dragon Boat Festival, I accompanied Zhao Ji to watch the dragon boats. The dragon boat rowing by the Imperial Navy was particularly exciting and lively."

Gao Qiu said awkwardly: "He likes the excitement, so let him watch it."

"How come you don't call him a foolish king?" Zhu Ming asked.

Gao Qiu explained: "I scolded him once or twice in private, but after all, he is the old owner and it is not easy to talk to others."

This matter is true. Gao Qiu really felt that Song Huizong was a foolish king.

He is an old minister from Yuan Cong, but he is always suppressed by a group of "new people". Even though he fled to the southeast, he was rejected and abandoned halfway. How could this keep Gao Qiu from feeling resentful?

At the same time, Gao Qiu was a little nostalgic. It didn't matter if he scolded him a few times at home, but he still couldn't bear to slander his old master in public. He was not like Li Bangyan who kept his mouth shut and was a coward.

Ju Ming asked: "Now that the market is sluggish, there are very few people who are willing to buy PU. The Ministry of Revenue and the Kaifeng Prefecture have no idea. Do you have any method to get merchants to take the initiative to buy PU and run it?"

Gao Qiu replied: "Merchants only buy bullfights for profit. If there is no profit, no one will buy bullets. Now the whole city is under military control, and grain, wine, vinegar, and salt are sold within limits. We can only wait until the controls are relaxed next year. If Even if merchants are forced to buy pounces, they dare not disobey."

"You don't need to tell me this truth," Ju Ming said.

The problem now is that there are not enough supplies, and Tokyo must restore the market as soon as possible to allow more service industry workers to find jobs.

Hundreds of thousands of people are waiting to make money to eat!

When the snow melts in spring, it is expected to be slightly better. Merchants from western Beijing and Huaihe River will definitely be active in bringing more supplies to make money.

But if we want to truly return to normal, we have to at least wait until the summer grain harvest.

Gao Qiu bit the bullet and said, "I am quite familiar with Tokyo. If I visit the merchants and lower the minimum price, I might be able to convince some of them to be willing to buy the pounce. At least, I can recruit Fan Lou out."

"Fan Lou will leave it to you to attract investment. If things are done well, there will be important uses." Zhu Guoxiang said.

"I will do my best!"

Gao Qiu was immediately overjoyed and stood up to kneel down again.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Sit back."

Ju Ming wanted to ask a question: "You are doing very well in business in Tokyo. What do you think about the discussion?"

Asking about other things, Gao Qiu was good at it, and he immediately started talking eloquently: "Take wine as an example, you can use wine, and you can also tax wine. The official wine service must be abolished. Official wine cannot cause the government to charge more wine taxes. It will only allow officials to line their own pockets. When the two saints founded the new dynasty, they should have sold off many official affairs."

Commercial taxes in the Song Dynasty were extremely complicated, and there were three types of wine taxes.

Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Shangqiu, the three capitals, do not charge alcohol taxes inside or outside the city, and they use the system of buying and selling music and studying the music method.

That is to say, if the brewery is contracted to a specialist (such as Fan Lou's contractor), the wine tax is included in the contracting fee. The government then sells the distilled yeast, and the contractor pays a tax when buying the distilled yeast. The remaining liquor operators no longer pay liquor tax to the government.

The state capitals in various places have adopted official liquor tax systems.

That is to say, there are state-owned wineries in both prefecture and Fucheng. Shops in the city and suburbs must go to the state-owned wineries to buy wine. These state-owned wineries are also responsible for collecting wine taxes from counties and towns, and they act as both referees and athletes.

Fujian, Sichuan and other places are much more liberal. They adopt wine tax laws and allow private households to brew wine privately. Specific controls are slightly adjusted according to local government regulations.

Gao Qiu said: "The wine brewed by the official winery (state-owned winery) is of mixed quality, with too much and too little wine. They also buy and sell it by force, and pass it off as good quality. Merchants must buy wine from the government. This has led to the rampant private brewing. The patrolmen collaborated with the smugglers, and the officials profited, while the official liquor business was often in deficit, and the government could not collect a few liquor taxes at all."

It’s not just a tax issue, it’s also a security issue.

Both the United States and Russia have promulgated alcohol prohibitions. Anyway, alcohol is not banned, but there is a side result: the gang's power is rapidly expanding through smuggling alcohol!

The Song Dynasty established a state-run winery system in various state capitals, which resulted in large gangs in state capital cities all participating in alcohol smuggling and colluding with the inspection system.

Zhu Guoxiang asked about other business matters, and Gao Qiu quickly pointed out various tax loopholes. He was probably a habitual tax evader in the past.

Zhu Ming winked at his father, and Zhu Guoxiang nodded without any trace.

Zhu Ming asked again: "Do you know anything about Guifan Tower?"

Gao Qiu said disdainfully: "They're just a bunch of rats in a ditch."

"You come and help exterminate those rotten rats." Ju Ming said.

Gao Qiu cupped his hands and explained: "Marshal, although the rats are cheap, they are numerous. There are many trenches underground in Tokyo, extending in all directions. Even if you send one or two thousand troops, it will be difficult to clear them out."

"Is ten thousand soldiers enough?" Ju Ming asked.

Gao Qiu was startled and nodded subconsciously: "More than enough."

Ghost Fan Tower, also known as Wuyou Cave, is also the Tokyo sewer.

It was an underground city that had existed since the early days of the Northern Song Dynasty. A large number of illegals were hiding in it and often came to the surface to abduct children and kidnap women.

Many children grew up completely underground, and their outlook on life has been distorted.

Among the boys, the clever ones became pickpockets, the strong ones became thugs, and the stupid and weak ones became crippled and begged.

Girls, those who are obedient and beautiful, are sold to the ground as prostitutes, while those who are disobedient are picked up underground.

During the siege of the city by Ju Ming's army, these rotten rats often came out of their caves to grab food, and they also took advantage of the situation on the day the city was breached.

Nowadays, food control in the city requires people to buy food based on their household registration, which makes it difficult for the bad rats to survive. Public security cases have occurred frequently in recent times.

Zhao Ding couldn't handle the pressure and couldn't spare the manpower to take care of it, so he could only ask Ju Ming to send troops to clear it out.

Ju Ming first sent hundreds of soldiers in, and found that the place was too big and winding like a maze. Moreover, those rotten rats are tipped off and can always be transferred at critical moments.

Ju Ming said: "You used to be a Taiwei, in charge of the Tokyo Forbidden Army. Those Forbidden Army are a mixed bag, and they must have dealings with underground clubs, and also have friendship with the rotten rats in the underground. If you make use of these Forbidden Army, you can not be held responsible for the crimes in the past, but now you can make meritorious service. You can also get reward money, and the more dens above and below ground you can provide, the better. You don’t have to intervene in the actual clearing, I will send troops down. If ten thousand troops are not enough, then twenty thousand troops!"

Gao Qiu muttered: "Twenty thousand elite soldiers, let alone humanoid rats, can kill all of them even real rats."

"I not only want to clean up the underground, but also the ground," Zhu Ming ordered. "Your task is to get the old Song Dynasty Imperial Army to confess and identify the hiding places on the ground. Kaifeng Mansion will also cooperate. The Baojia Chief will lead the neighbors to conduct control at all levels, so that those You bastard, there is no way to heaven and no way to earth!"

During the more than 160 years of the Northern Song Dynasty, sewers were cleared countless times. Hundreds or thousands of troops were often sent out, but nothing could be done about the underground world.

To clean the worry-free hole, it is difficult to work even if the top is not working and if the bottom is not working.

Tens of thousands of elite soldiers are needed to sweep the sewers, insiders are needed to confess their hiding places on the ground, and street offices are needed to carry out joint prevention and control among the people.

A three-pronged approach can achieve success.

After receiving the errand, Gao Qiu immediately rushed home happily and summoned his former subordinates.

Those forbidden troops have been demobilized and are now jobless vagrants, looking for a living on their own.

However, the conditions offered by Gao Qiu were that if you perform meritorious service, you can receive rewards, and if you perform great meritorious service, you can also be incorporated into the Five Cities Military and Horse Division.

Everyone was very happy after hearing this, and ran to inquire about the news. Soon the whole city knew about it. This actually doesn't matter, the news will definitely be leaked because the battle Ju Ming is going to cause is too big.

The Five-City Army and Horse Division is being formed. Jiang Yong, who was born in Daming Village, serves as the commander of the Army and Horse Division.

One thousand Sichuan soldiers were transferred in as the backbone of the Five Cities Military and Horse Division, and another 1,500 local Tokyo soldiers were recruited as soldiers - all outsiders who were not familiar with the situation inside and outside the city.

After they were formed, the first thing they did was to investigate the gangs inside and outside the city. Gao Qiu led his old subordinates to identify the gangs' dens.

Kaifeng Prefecture also issued notices encouraging the public to report suspicious persons.

At the same time, it was also announced that those who did not have a murder case in hand could be exempted from guilt if they surrendered to the government. If it is a meritorious service, those who have no murder cases will be rewarded, and those who have murder cases will be given a lighter punishment.

For several days, gang members were arrested everywhere.

Let the rats have nowhere to hide on the ground first, then force them underground and then wipe them out with an army!