Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Ju Ming visited Shandong, he only brought two thousand guards with him.

A thousand heavily armored soldiers, a thousand musketeers.

Including the officials accompanying the Generalissimo, the Privy Council, and the army's logistics personnel, the total number was 3,200.

Following the ancient Bian Canal to the southeast, the fleet headed straight for Xuzhou, passing Yucheng, Dangshan, Xiaoxian and other places along the way.

In the prefectures and counties we passed along the way, we can only say that public security is stable, but far from restoring people's livelihood.

In fact, Shandong was already exhausted and had been repeatedly ravaged by rebels from all walks of life. The population had dropped sharply to the level of a hundred years ago.

Among the administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty, Xuzhou still fell under the jurisdiction of Shandong.

In order to prevent separatism and rebellion, Shangqiu and Ningling were placed under Kaifeng Prefecture, and Xiapi and Suqian were placed under Huainan Province. According to the river conditions at this time, it was equivalent to cutting Shandong Province into east and west parts through water transportation.

As for the boundaries between Shandong and Hebei, they are divided along the old course of the Yellow River.

When Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty first ascended the throne, the Yellow River changed its course very violently.

According to the place names of later generations, the Yellow River now flows through the following areas: Puyang, Daming, Qiuxian, Qinghe, Hengshui, Xianxian, Cangzhou, Qingxian, and Tianjin.

Well, the Yellow River enters the sea from Tianjin...

Anyway, with a stroke of Ju Ming's pen, places like Liaocheng, Gaotang, and Dezhou were finally included in the boundaries of Shandong.

"Meet His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Outside Xuzhou City, Xuzhou Magistrate Yu Wenchang led the officials and people ten miles out of the city to kneel down to welcome him.

Yu Wenchang was still an official in Jiangxi last year. After Jiangxi surrendered, Ju Ming immediately asked him to come to Xuzhou to govern, without even having to report to the capital officials.

Zhu Ming helped Yu Wenchang up with his own hands and said with a smile: "Brother Quan Ke, you and I meet again. The etiquette of the new dynasty, except for major occasions such as sacrifices, dynasties, enthronements, transmissions, triumphs, etc., at other times, officials and citizens are not allowed to kneel at will. .Don’t kneel down next time.”

"Yes!" Yuwen Chang responded.

Zhu Ming then said to the others: "Everyone is safe."

"Your Highness, do you still remember me?" Geng Dingchen, who was standing next to him, couldn't wait to step forward.

Ju Ming smiled and said, "Of course I remember. When I was the governor of Puzhou, you were the chief registrar of Leize County."

Geng Dingchen burst into tears with joy, wiping his tears and said: "Your Highness actually still remembers, how can I accept such kindness!"

How important Xuzhou is, you can tell by looking at these two officials. They are all old colleagues and subordinates of Ju Ming.

The steel production here ranks first in the country!

Geng Dingchen was the magistrate of Liguojian, specializing in the iron ore area. His rank was similar to that of magistrates in lower-level states.

The Ming Dynasty followed the Northern Song Dynasty system, and the mining and metallurgical institutions were divided into five types: supervision, service, field, pit, and smelting.

The supervisor is the regional administrative agency, the service is the tax department and purchasing station, the field is the mining field, the pit is the mine pit, and the smelting plant is the smelter.

After the other officials and local celebrities came forward to pay their respects, they all accompanied Ju Ming into the city.

Zhu Ming casually asked about the steel production, and Geng Dingchen said: "Since Li Guojian adopted a new smelting method, he can produce 180,000 kilograms of raw and wrought iron every month, and merchants, craftsmen, and ordinary people have all benefited from it."

In conversion, the monthly production is about 100 tons, and both pig iron and wrought iron are taken into account.

Most of this raw and wrought iron is produced by private iron smelting plants. Merchants only use 20% of the output to pay taxes, and the rest has to be purchased by state officials.

There are also state-owned iron smelting yards, but they are managed together with military factories.

In addition, these 100 tons of raw and wrought iron are not the entire output of Xuzhou. There must also be some that are quietly hidden for tax avoidance and used in local sporadic transactions.

The industrial and commercial tax system of the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty inherited the system of the Northern Song Dynasty.

That is, the tax amount in a certain year is used as the base amount (base), and then the actual tax amount in the next few years is used to determine the tax amount for that year through a certain algorithm, so as to ensure that the industrial and commercial taxes in various places increase steadily.

As long as officials collect this amount, they will be qualified. There will be no situation where the industrial and commercial taxes collected in the Ming Dynasty became less and less. At the same time, it also gave officials opportunities for reasonable corruption in disguise.

For most officials, the amount of actual tax collected is generally just passed, and the remaining industrial and commercial tax is divided up privately.

Officials who are eager to climb up the corporate ladder often see a sharp increase in the amount of actual tax collected to highlight their political achievements. This approach is very offensive. First, it will result in less money for subordinate officials. Second, it may lead to an increase in local industrial and commercial taxes.

If the amount of tax collected is insufficient, officials usually move around to make up for it.

It’s okay not to make it up, but the reasons must be explained in detail, and the performance evaluation will be affected.

The breakdown of industrial and commercial tax is more complicated. The tax amount is even accurate to a certain day, with items such as daily amount, ten-day amount, quarterly amount, and annual amount.

Neither Zhu Guoxiang nor Zhu Ming wanted to change this kind of tax law. In ancient times, it was very remarkable that the tax amount could rise steadily. Officials are reasonably corrupt and businessmen are reasonably able to avoid taxes, which can be considered as leaving room for flexibility.

The hotel in Xuzhou has been cleaned out, and the other guests have been asked to leave in advance. Only Ju Ming and his entourage are allowed to stay.

The ambassador of Xuzhou Guest House, who was the general manager of Xuzhou Hotel, showed his face when he stood at the gate to greet him, and even said a few words to the prince. This made him extremely excited, and he immediately worked harder, arranging everything meticulously.

Positions like this were generally promoted by officials during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In the Song Dynasty, the general managers of hotels at or above the state level were mostly from Enyin officials, and there were even many new scholars who served as general managers.

Doesn't this solve the employment problem of Yin officials and Jinshi?

"How has Quan Ke been in recent years?" Zhu Ming stayed in the hotel, leaving only Yu Wenchang to chat, while the rest of the officials were sent away.

Yu Wenchang said with emotion: "After leaving Lizhou, I was first transferred to Chengdu to rectify the tea and horse trade there. Because the rectification was so good, it offended many people. When he was not satisfied with his term, he was transferred to Kuizhou, and then to Huainan again. Traveling around Jiangxi. It was too difficult to do things in the previous dynasty, and there were always people who would hinder me. It was you who did one thing well, and once you were transferred, it returned to its original state."

"Indeed," Ju Ming said with a smile, "when I led the troops to occupy Chengdu, the tea and horse department there was in a mess. There were not even a few war horses to be found. Quan Ke's governance in Chengdu had long been in vain."

Yu Wenchang said: "It's still a matter of official governance. The rules have been completely corrupted. One good official does his job, but a hundred weak officials bring trouble. How can there be good governance in this world?"

Ju Ming sighed: "The administration of officials in the new dynasty must be strictly rectified."

"It's not bad," Yu Wenchang said with a smile, "There was a case in Xuzhou last year, and even the prefect was exiled to the northwest, so I had the opportunity to be transferred to Xuzhou. After this incident, Xuzhou officials restrained themselves a lot, at least they didn't People dare to be blatantly corrupt and bend the law."

The two reminisced about old times, and Yu Wenchang said goodbye and left.

There was also a banquet in the evening, where Ju Ming gathered with local officials and celebrities.

Leaving the guests, Yu Wenchang felt inexplicably emotional.

At that time, he was the magistrate of the state and Ju Ming was just the magistrate of the county. But now it has become this kind of relationship. The fate in the world is really wonderful.

Wei Gong, the magistrate of Pengcheng County, had been waiting outside for a long time. When he saw Yu Wenchang, he asked: "Prefect, many places of interest have been cleaned up. Has the prince decided on a date to visit?"

Yu Wenchang said: "The prince is busy with business, so he will only travel for one day tomorrow. Just go to the Yanzi Tower and the Theater, and forget about the other historical sites."

"Yes, I'll go make arrangements right now!" Wei Gong left quickly.

After returning to the county government office to give instructions, Wei Gong was still worried, so he went to the Yanzi Tower to check it out in person, and even went to the horse theater on horseback for a stroll.

It was not until evening that Wei Gong returned to the county government house.

Several children were still playing, and the most naughty one was Wei Sheng. This seven-year-old kid could beat his brothers to tears with a stick.

"Dad, have you seen the prince?" The children gathered around him.

Wei Gong smiled and said: "See, the prince is majestic and kind to others. His heroic appearance is hard to find in the world. You should study hard and when you grow up, you can take the imperial examination and serve as officials to assist the prince. Especially Ah Sheng, don't do it. It’s been a year since you first started to practice, how many words do you know?”

Wei Sheng held the stick and lowered his head, but secretly stuck out his tongue when his father wasn't paying attention.

"Throw the stick away!" Wei Gong scolded.

"Oh." Wei Sheng actually waved the stick again before throwing it, and finally threw it towards the tree trunk in the distance.

After hitting the target, Wei Sheng clenched his fists and cheered.

Wei Gong shook his head, feeling that this child was really careless, and he didn't know whether he would become a talent when he grew up.

The ancestor of the Wei family is Wei Yu, the sixth grandson of Wei Zheng. He is by no means a low-level farmer in the legend.

For example, Wei Gong's father died of illness while serving as magistrate of the state. Wei Gong was very famous in Suqian and was known as "Master Wei". When Fang Mengqing seized the Huaihe River, Wei Gong was recommended to Fang Mengqing and transferred to Pengcheng as county magistrate last year.

What a pity. If Ju Ming saw the seven-year-old Wei Sheng, he would definitely take the kid back to train him.

A person like Li Yanxian!

In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wei Sheng's father was killed by Jin soldiers. In order to avenge his father, Wei Sheng joined Han Shizhong's army at the age of fourteen to serve as a soldier.

Han Shizhong was transferred away, and Wei Sheng returned home to study and practice martial arts.

Feeling that the Jin soldiers would go south, Wei Sheng signed up to be a rural soldier and explained his ideas to the magistrate.

Zhizhou did not dare to mobilize troops without authorization, so Wei Sheng spent all his wealth to recruit 300 militiamen, went to defeat Lianshui himself, and then recovered Haizhou.

The Kingdom of Jin sent an army of 20,000 to attack. Wei Sheng led 500 cavalry to lure the enemy, led the infantry into an ambush circle, and killed the general sent by Yan Liang.

After repelling several encirclement and suppression campaigns by the Jin soldiers, Wei Sheng controlled more and more territory. He built a state and an army from scratch, but the Southern Song Dynasty court did not know it from beginning to end...

Li Bao was able to annihilate tens of thousands of golden soldiers across the sea because Wei Sheng took the initiative to provide intelligence and sent his elite troops to help.

It's a pity that after such a fierce man was appointed an official in the Southern Song Dynasty, he was unable to display his talents and died in battle after only one year.

Wei Sheng became a military general in the Southern Song Dynasty. The first order he received was to immediately demobilize his elite troops, then go to Chuzhou to take over the garbage troops, and return Lianshui and Haizhou, which were finally captured, to the Kingdom of Jin.

Only half a year after Wei Sheng dismissed his troops, the Jin soldiers violated the peace treaty and came to kill them, specifically targeting Wei Sheng's army.

The friendly troops were forty miles away and turned a blind eye, allowing the Jin soldiers to shoot Wei Sheng to death with random arrows.

"The sky and the earth are dark and yellow, and the universe is vast. The sun and moon are waxing and waning, and the stars and constellations are arranged. Cold comes and summer comes, autumn harvests and winter hides..."

At this moment, this fierce man was scratching his head and scratching his head, lighting an oil lamp and reciting "The Thousand-Character Classic" to deal with his father's nightly inspection of homework.

"Spread your palms out!"

"oh."

The sound of bamboo shoots frying meat could be heard in the Pengcheng County government office.

(The extra was uploaded by Qidian staff. All the gaps between each chapter were deleted and all the chapters were connected together. The transition was extremely blunt. It has been changed.)