Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

A donkey cart stopped at the side door of Zhang's house, and a young man in his twenties went to vote for his assassination.

The disciples were quite vigilant, because there were too many people visiting the Prime Minister, and Zhang Gen had already issued a death order not to receive messy guests.

"It turns out to be the Eighth Prince of the Fan family!"

Menzi saw the famous assassin clearly and his attitude immediately became enthusiastic: "Come in and have tea."

The eighth son of the Fan family was named Fan Jun. When his grandfather Fan E passed away, he was a special official in Guanglu, Shangzhu Kingdom, and Changshe County Duke.

His father, Fan Yun, is still alive today. When the old Song Dynasty collapsed, he was already a doctor of Jin Ziguanglu, Shangzhuguo, Shaobao, a bachelor of Zizhengdian, and the founding son of Changshe County. (Historically, he was granted the title of Rong Guogong by Zhao Goujin, and he was awarded the title of Duke of Rongguo by Zhao Goujin.

He also has nine brothers, seven of whom have been admitted to Jinshi.

His third brother Fan Wei married Zhang Gen's fifth daughter, the fifth sister of Crown Princess Zhang Jinping.

His fifth brother Fan Hao married the fourth daughter of Wu Dian, who was Li Gang's teacher and Li Gang was Zhang Gen's son-in-law.

These are just the tip of the iceberg of marriage relationships.

Fan Jun waited in the living room for a while, and Zhang Gen's youngest son, Zhang Yan, hurried over to receive him: "When will my dear brother come to Beijing? Why didn't you let me know in advance?"

"Coming to Beijing today," Fan Jun stood up and bowed, "to meet my brother."

The two reminisced about old times, and Zhang Yan asked: "With your talents as a good brother, if you pass the imperial examination, you will definitely go to high school, and I'm afraid I can still be among the first-class students. Why not take part in the imperial examination of the new dynasty?"

Fan Jun said: "I have never passed the Juren Examination, so I am not allowed to take the Rites Examination."

Zhang Yan said: "This year the control over Zhejiang has been loose. Many people who did not take the imperial examination also came to Tokyo and won the Jinshi."

Fan Jun said: "A gentleman should be careful in his independence. Above you can deceive the sky, and below you can deceive the earth, but you cannot deceive the heart."

"My dear brother is indeed a true gentleman." Zhang Yan said with emotion.

Among the ten brothers of the Fan family, Fan Jun was the most talented, but he refused to take part in the imperial examination.

Fan Jun said: "My foolish brother came to Beijing this time to study. I heard that there is a complete set of "Tao Yongce" in Tokyo, and there are many great Confucians compiling classics."

"I have all these books at home. Dear brother, please go to the study room." Zhang Yan said with a smile.

The two went to the study together. Fan Jun got "Tao Yongce" and immediately opened the book and started reading.

Zhang Yan knew what kind of temper this gentleman was, so he shook his head and left silently with a bitter smile.

Fan Jun in history was the pioneer of the Eastern Zhejiang School. Zhu Xi visited him twice to ask for advice but could not get it, so he could only copy his works and study on his own at home, and quoted the ideas in the book and wrote them in the "Collected Commentary on Mencius".

While Fan Jun was reading seriously, Zhang Gen finally came back from get off work.

"Father, the eighth son of the Fan family is here and is reading in the study." Zhang Yan said.

Zhang Gen nodded and said: "He has been a bookworm since he was a child, so let him be. Don't disturb him before eating."

Zhang Yan asked: "I heard that the number of cabinet ministers has increased to seven?"

"well!"

Zhang Gen sighed: "It doesn't matter how many cabinet ministers there are, but the voting system limits the prime minister's power to refute. The officials are angry this time."

Zhang Yan was curious: "When I was still in Sichuan, the situation was so difficult, and the officials and my father could get along well with each other. Why did I go to Beijing to establish a new dynasty, but..."

Zhang Gen said: "Both the officials and the prince acted too radically. Take the establishment of Ming Dynasty Deyun as an example. It has hundreds of benefits and no harm. I don't know why the officials insist on abolishing it."

Zhang Gen really didn't understand. He actively promoted the establishment of Deyun in order to consolidate the Zhu family.

Now, because of this, the emperor was angered and became a stranger inside and outside.

"Could it be..." Zhang Yan guessed, "Could it be that the officials are jealous of my Zhang family? Otherwise, Uncle Fan is so virtuous and respected, why is he not even a minister now?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" Zhang Gen scolded.

Uncle Fan here is Fan Jun's father Fan Yun, a bachelor of Zizhengdian in the old Song Dynasty.

After Zhu Guoxiang ascended the throne, as a son and daughter of Prime Minister Zhang Gen, Fan Yun was only appointed as the prefect. It was not until Li Bao captured Fujian that Fan Yun was appointed as the right envoy to Fujian.

The right chief minister, the second in command.

At Fan Yun's current age, there is almost no possibility of becoming a minister, let alone joining the cabinet as a minister.

This appointment seemed very reasonable and seemed to be on guard against Zhang Gen.

Zhang Gen was therefore very vigilant and deliberately suppressed his son.

The eldest son Zhang Tao was born as Tanhua Lang and was originally appointed as the magistrate by Ju Ming. However, Zhang Gen forced his son to be the county magistrate first due to lack of qualifications.

The second son didn't even catch the county magistrate, and is currently collecting local liquor taxes.

The third, fourth and fifth sons have no official status and will not take part in the imperial examination for the time being.

The son can deliberately suppress, but Zhang Gen cannot suppress his own in-laws.

His father-in-law Huang Fu once served as prime minister.

Huang Fu was originally unwilling to get involved in party disputes, but when he was a local official, he believed that the new law had just been implemented and should not be changed overnight, so he supported Wang Anshi's local reforms. Later, problems in the new law were discovered, and Shangshu requested correction of the market change law. As a result, he was suppressed by the reformists.

The back and forth offended both the old and new parties.

When the old party came to power, Huang Fu was suppressed again because he had good personal relationships with people in the new party.

Huang Fu was highly employed in the early Huizong Dynasty, but he soon died of illness, and his descendants were ostracized by Wang Fu. Both talents and virtues should be valued. Zhang Gen had no reason to suppress his brothers-in-law.

There are also the sons-in-law and the sons-in-law.

Fan Yun's ten sons alone have already passed seven Jinshi exams, and one or two more may pass the exam next.

My father-in-law's family and relatives are all officials.

The children's in-laws are also officials.

These people also have their own disciples, former officials, relatives and friends.

Coupled with the officials promoted by Zhang Gen, Zhang Gen had unconsciously built a huge civilian faction in the court and local areas.

Although he is only invisible and may not even listen to Zhang Gen's words, it is enough to make the emperor and prince afraid.

Cai Jing, Wang Fu and other powerful ministers are not far away from Yin Jian. Now that Zhu Guoxiang has made adjustments to the cabinet, Zhang Gen is inevitably worried.

After all, he was facing two founding kings!

…

A boat came from the south, full of leaders of the Fujian Peasant Army who were recruiting for peace.

In addition to Fan Jizhong and Fan Ru who are uncles and nephews, there are also Liu Shiju, Liao Gongzhao, Yu Sheng, Zhang Wanquan, Zhang Yi, Ye Tie and others.

Last winter, half of Fujian exploded!

Fujian is mountainous and the people are poor.

Peasants were already exploited by temples and gentry, but Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty imposed exorbitant taxes there, forcing many farmers and small landowners to go bankrupt.

Li Bao went to kill him and quickly detonated the gunpowder barrel.

Even the Zhejiang soldiers stationed in northern Fujian were defeated by the peasant uprising army.

Moreover, the Fujian uprising army was more "brutal" than the Zhejiang uprising army. Not only did they kill officials and rebel, they also attacked gentry and temples in unison. To put it bluntly, they killed landlords to divide their land.

Li Baoti's troops went north. Due to their strong fighting power, they only regained one county town. Fan's uncle and nephew went to the mountains to fight guerrillas.

There are more than 200,000 such rebel armies, and there are more than a dozen groups, large and small.

It would be too troublesome to rely solely on force to clear them out, so the only option is to recruit people, and those who are really disobedient can only be beaten.

"Brother Fan, I always feel uneasy." Ye Tie looked at the Tokyo city wall.

Fan Ruwei said: "You've already come, can you still kill us all?"

Liao Gongzhao said: "If we want to kill him, he will die in Fujian. We will not be invited to the capital."

Liu Shiju said: "It is more dangerous to stay in Fujian. How many gentry have you and I killed? Those remaining villains will definitely take revenge."

"That's right." Fan Ruwei nodded.

Fan Ji had some expectations in the center. As the biggest rebel leader in Fujian, he actually just wanted to live a stable life at first.

Unfortunately, his family's land was sold out, so he had to turn to smuggling salt.

Song Huizong re-ascended to the throne in Hangzhou, intensified his exploitation of the southeast, and at the same time rectified various ills. For example, the crackdown on smuggling of salt is very strict, making it increasingly difficult to do smuggling business.

His nephew Fan Ruwei instigated rebellion many times, and Fan Jizhong was always hesitant.

Therefore, Fan Ruwei ordered his men to murder the officials, forcing Fan Jizhong to rebel.

Even at this time, Fan Jizhong still wanted to be ordered to peace, so he strictly restricted the behavior of the rebels. But as the number of rebels increased, the situation quickly got out of control. The soldiers killed the gentry on sight and demolished the temples when they saw them.

As uncles and nephews, Fan Jizhong and Fan Ru did not dare to go against the collective will of the rebels, so they simply took advantage of the situation and shouted the slogan of equalizing land.

They were very scared, so Li Bao used both suppression and appeasement. It took him half a year to completely recruit them.

Fan Jizhong used to be a small landowner. He didn't have much pursuit. He was satisfied with being the county registrar.

Ye Tie, however, was full of ambition. He was the most powerful general of the Fujian Peasant Army, and he was also a bankrupt small landowner and private salt dealer. He wants to be a general and fulfill his ambitions with his martial arts skills!

These people were taken to the north of Tokyo and placed collectively next to the military camp.

Upon learning that they had arrived in Beijing, Fujian officials in Beijing, as well as Fujian Jinshi who were observing the government, wrote to petitions to severely punish the murderers.

They had killed too many gentry, and even if they had been ordered to peace, they could not forgive them easily, let alone do it casually to the officials.

Faced with the turbulent public sentiment, Zhang Gen suddenly sent an e-mail.

Zhu Guoxiang carefully read Zhang Gen's memorial and said with a joking smile: "My in-laws also engage in self-destruction."

Zhang Gen's memorial was written very uprightly. The new dynasty had just been established, and there were enemies on all sides. We should not kill the thieves who were trying to recruit people, and we should not damage the credibility of the court by speaking unfaithfully. Since these rebel leaders have accepted the recruitment, they should be properly arranged.

This memorial offended most of the Fujian officials and Jinshi!

Even officials in Jiangxi and Zhejiang are vaguely dissatisfied with Zhang Gen.

Especially for officials in northern Fujian, many of their clansmen were killed, which also made Zhang Gen hate him.

After returning home exhausted, Zhang Yan said impatiently: "Why did father intercede with those thieves?"

Zhang Gen glared at his son: "Since you have been recruited, how can you go back on your word? The way to govern a country is to uphold integrity. You can go back to your hometown to prepare for the exam. If you fail to pass the Jinshi exam in three years, let's see how I deal with you then!"

Zhang Yan asked: "Didn't my father not let his children take the exam? How come he can suddenly take the exam?"

"This moment, that moment, you will know in the future." Zhang Gen was too lazy to explain so much.