Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

After staying in Xuzhou for three days, Ju Ming did not choose to go north, but went to Xiapi, which had just been assigned to Huainan Province.

Xiapi used to be the headquarters of the Huaiyang Army of the Northern Song Dynasty. A new army was also organized and trained here to control the southern part of Shandong. At the same time, it has the important task of protecting the security of Huaibei and deterring the sea salt production areas in the east.

After the military parade at Xiapi, Ju Ming took a boat along the Salt Canal to Haizhou (Lianyungang).

The urban area of ​​Lianyungang in later generations was still a sea at this time. The seaport of Lianyungang is currently located on a large island, which is Donghai County.

Ships of sea salt all pulled alongside, waiting for the Prince's fleet to pass by first.

Ju Ming said to Bai Sheng: "Raise the flag to convey the order, don't go in the middle of the canal, make way for the salt ship."

"yes!"

Bai Sheng immediately ran to convey the order, and soon the Prince's fleet moved aside, and the salt ship coming from the opposite side also had to be ordered to start.

Fu Zhirou sighed: "Your Highness cares about the people ten thousand times more than a foolish king."

Ju Ming smiled and said, "You are getting better and better at flattering me."

Fu Zhirou in history was actually a remonstrating minister, who had repeatedly remonstrated with Zhao Gou. Because he offended Qin Hui, he was thrown into promoting Taoism. Later he was promoted to prefect but he resigned. Because he did not want to be an official in the same court as Qin Hui, he spent the rest of his life traveling around the mountains and rivers and writing poems for fun.

Fu Zhirou said: "When Cai Jing reformed the salt law, there was a government decree that even government ships must give way when encountering private salt ships. When passing through Guaka, salt ships can have priority."

"Cai Jing has indeed done a lot of practical things." Zhu Ming nodded in approval.

Fu Zhirou said: "But after the rise of Hua Shi Gang, no matter what kind of ship, it had to make way for the Hua Shi Gang's ship. In the end, the salt ship even had to make way for the tribute ship of the local tribute. When Cai Jing returned to the throne for the third time , the salt law he established has been completely destroyed.”

Ju Ming commented: "Cai Jing's salt method is eager for quick success, so you can only take half of it."

"He is just trying to please his superiors." Fuzhirou said.

In the northwest region of the Northern Song Dynasty, Jiezhou salt and Xixia Qingbai salt were mainly consumed.

Within two years of Song Huizong's accession to the throne, the Jiezhou Salt Pond was destroyed by floods, and the imperial court imposed trade sanctions on Xixia salt. For a time, the people of Shaanxi suddenly ran out of salt. It was at this time that Cai Jing reformed the salt law.

The reform was a great success, not only solving the salt problem of Shaanxi people, but also increasing the salt tax several times in the first year, and invigorating the production, sales, and transportation of salt across the country.

However, bad consequences soon occurred.

Through reforms, Cai Jing converted a large amount of salt tax that was part of the local tax into a national tax without leaving a penny behind.

Local fiscal revenue has dropped sharply, but local officials have to spend money, so they can only collect more exorbitant taxes and levies from the people.

Secondly, in order to get money for Song Huizong, Cai Jing frantically issued new salt banknotes, which caused the old salt banknotes to depreciate sharply, and the salt merchants were fiercely exploited by the court. Even if he just goes to the salt merchants, Cai Jing continues to raise the price of salt, causing the cost of salt for the common people to rise year by year.

Faced with double oppression from the central and local governments, how can ordinary people withstand it?

At the beginning, Cai Jing also cracked down on the powerful to obtain salt banknotes. But when the Jiezhou Salt Pond was restored and Shaanxi no longer suffered from salt shortages, the Cai Party took the lead in using salt banknotes to make profits, making the salt merchants from other places even more miserable.

The result of Cai Jing's salt law reform eventually turned out to be like this: the central government's fiscal revenue increased significantly, the powerful made a lot of money, while local finance, salt merchants, and the people all suffered. The system of entering China completely collapsed, and the salt merchants were unprofitable. They no longer helped the imperial court transport supplies to the northwest frontier, and instead purchased salt banknotes directly from the powerful. The border army has been short of daily supplies for years, so the border guards fled in large numbers.

Now, the Ming Dynasty has learned its lesson and adopted 70% of the contents of Cai Jing's salt method, abandoning all the parts that are eager for quick success and instant benefits.

For example, if the salt boat does not pay tolls, this provision will be cancelled, leaving some fiscal revenue for the local government.

The Ruzhong (Kaizhong) system has been fully restored, and the old Song Dynasty salt banknotes (Yan Yin) issued four years after Xuanhe will also be recognized by the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty. In addition, the Ming Dynasty strictly followed the salt production and carefully issued annual commercial salt banknotes to protect the legitimate interests of legal salt merchants.

The price of salt has also dropped, returning to the level at the beginning of Cai Jing's reforms, thereby reducing the cost of living for people everywhere.

The central salt tax will naturally drop sharply, but it will be beneficial to long-term development.

Regardless of other groups, salt merchants from all provinces across the country wholeheartedly supported the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty. Who dares to mention anything about rebelling against the Ming Dynasty and restoring the Song Dynasty? The salt merchants are the first to be unhappy!

No, when they heard that the Crown Prince was coming to inspect, salt merchants from the Northeast rushed here one after another, bringing countless gifts to thank them for their kindness.

Well, "Northeast Salt" is Shandong and Hebei Sea Salt, which was the official name of the Song Dynasty.

Northeastern salt merchants heard the news and gathered in Xuzhou, then chased him to Xiapi, and finally caught up with the prince in Haizhou.

Ju Ming briefly met with Northeastern salt merchants and accepted their less expensive gifts, while those particularly expensive gifts were returned.

Then, Ju Ming went to inspect the salt field to learn about the situation of the official and private salt field in Haizhou.

The salt fields with the highest salt production are basically government-run. But private ownership is also allowed, unlike the Ming and Qing dynasties, which were not as rigidly controlled.

Even salt households have the right to choose freely. If they feel the treatment is too poor, they can choose not to work.

"Where did the official salt workers come from?" Zhu Ming asked.

Donghai Salt Supervisor Wu Juji replied: "Half are recruitment (employment) and half are Ding Yi (service)."

Ju Ming asked: "How much money will be given to Ding Yi's salt worker?"

Wu Juji replied: "Following the old Song Dynasty method, we give the household 40,000 yuan per year and two liters of rice per day."

That is to say, forty guan is given to the salt households and their families a year, and two liters of rice is given to the serving salt workers a day.

If it can be implemented, it will definitely be a high income!

Of course, this salary standard is for the top salt workers, while ordinary salt workers earn much less.

Ju Ming nodded to express satisfaction and began to ask about the salt production technology here.

After a question and answer session, Ju Ming returned to Haizhou City, and Salt Supervisor Wu Juji's vest was soaked with sweat.

Ju Ming stayed in Haizhou City for four days.

Several guards dressed in various colors came back to Haizhou Hotel to report.

The first guard to come back reported to Ju Ming: "Your Highness, I asked more than twenty salt men, and they all said that they only gave half the money and rice. In the salt household, salt men are not allowed to work in private fields. Once discovered, they will be punished. The gangsters beat him up. What’s worse, he was falsely accused of stealing salt and sent to jail.”

"How brave, I will deduct half of the money and rice directly." Ju Ming sneered.

Fu Zhirou said: "Salt field officials have always been like this."

Ju Ming said: "Write a note to the court and ask the Inspectorate, the Ministry of Punishment and the Dali Temple to send people to investigate. After inspecting the Haizhou salt field, we will investigate the other salt fields one by one!"

Fu Zhirou happily helped to write the letter, and soon wrote the letter and gave it to Ju Ming to read and sign.

If all the salt fields in the country were investigated, it is estimated that at least hundreds of officials would be exiled to the northwest to open up wasteland and cultivate land, and even many local officials would be implicated.

Ju Ming asked again: "Are the ships not ready yet?"

Bai Sheng said: "Local officials said that sea ships are difficult to find, but I think they just don't want to do it."

Fu Zhirou said: "The officials were afraid that the prince would encounter an accident. They advised him two days ago, but his highness insisted on taking a sea ship, so they could only delay the time."

"Forget it, let's take the inland river." Zhu Ming didn't want to embarrass the local magistrate.

In fact, Zhu Ming was not motivated. He just wanted to take a sea ship and go north, from Haizhou (Lianyungang) to Banqiao Town (Jiaozhou). The entire sea route is less than 400 miles, and it has been along the coastline.

But the local officials were afraid of encountering a storm, so instead of helping to collect the ships, they deliberately dispersed them.

In desperation, Ju Ming had no choice but to go north along the river.

Upon hearing the news of the prince's departure, the officials at the salt farm breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the matter was over. How did they know that the court would soon send someone to investigate?

Ju Ming went to Jiaodong this time to inspect the gold and iron farms, the sea trade port, and the naval warships.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Korea and Japan both traded with China in Dengzhou.

In order to prevent the Liao Kingdom from attacking from the sea, Dengzhou Port was abandoned.

In order to increase fiscal revenue, local officials requested the opening of a port in Banqiao Town (Jiaozhou), Michigan.

Banqiao Port prospered and fell, and by the time of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, it was completely abandoned. There was no trading seaport in the entire north of the Yangtze River.

How does this work?

Last autumn, Zhu Guoxiang ordered the opening of sea in Shandong.

The cabinet discussed it for more than a month and concluded that Dengzhou was too dangerous and Jiaozhou Port was safer. This result was rejected by Ju Ming with one vote!

The Kingdom of Jin did have naval forces, but they were all river naval forces.

There are only twenty or thirty naval ships, all of which are small offshore boats. Moreover, there were no professional sailors, only the army boarded the ships to fight. When not fighting, these ships were doing business with Goryeo.

Afraid of birds?

Even if Ju Ming didn't know the exact information, he still knew that the Ming Dynasty's ships must be more powerful. It should be that the Jin Kingdom was afraid of the Ming Dynasty's attack from the sea.

After Li Bao regained the southeast last year, all the old Song Navy ships in Zhejiang and Fujian, which were relatively sturdy and durable, were transferred to Shandong. And they were transferred together with the sailors to directly establish the first Ming Dynasty navy in Dengzhou.

But before Ju Ming left Haizhou, a fleet came from the east.

The fleet has only six seagoing ships, but all are large ships.

As soon as they approached Dengzhou Port, they were targeted by the Ming Navy, and more than thirty offshore warships swarmed around them.

"My own people, my own people!"

On the deck of the first ship, a large number of soldiers shouted wildly, and then hung up the crooked "Ming" flag.

Xue Daoguang sat down on the deck and looked at the Chinese coastline just around the corner. His heart was broken and he felt like crying.

Whoever wants to go overseas to find immortals can go there, but he doesn't want to go to sea again.

Six large ships were "escorted" into the harbor. Xue Daoguang was surrounded as soon as he got off the ship. A naval officer asked: "Where are you..."

Suddenly an officer shouted: "This is Zhenren Xue. The Hunjun sent them to go to sea to find immortals. I have seen them in Hangzhou before. I was almost sent there too!"

"They are actually the remnants of the Song Dynasty. Take them all down!"

Xue Daoguang smiled bitterly and said, "Pindao has an old relationship with His Majesty and the Crown Prince."

"How did you know that there was a change of dynasty?"

"When we returned to Korea, we went to Koryo to mend the ship and learned the news from Koryo officials."