Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Tengzhou and Laizhou have been merged into Tenglai Province.

Qingzhou, Mizhou and Weizhou were merged into Qingzhou Prefecture.

They are all important mining and metallurgical towns, and will also develop maritime trade in the future.

During the Yuanfeng period, the annual gold output of Denglai and Denglai prefectures reached 9,583 taels, accounting for 89.5% of the country's total output.

This is only the apparent data, the actual gold production is much higher than this. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the emperor once issued a decree to purchase tens of thousands of taels of gold in Shandong at one time.

When Ju Ming left the capital, the imperial court had received a request from the prefect of Denglai to formally establish Qixia, Zhaoyuan and other counties.

In other parts of Shandong, the population dropped sharply due to war, but the population in Denglai increased dramatically. A large number of refugees fled to Jiaodong, reclaiming wasteland and panning for gold, and some were hired as gold miners.

Gold mines everywhere have divided their territory and formed large and small organizations, similar to gangs and guilds. When the peasant rebels came over, they surrendered symbolically and handed over some gold to express their loyalty.

These local snakes also learned to stick together, and the foreign peasant rebels did not dare to force themselves.

In the new Ming Dynasty, Zhang Shuye also focused on appeasement, and then used force to suppress a few prominent ones.

Now we are applying to establish several new counties, firstly because the population has reached the standard for establishing counties, and secondly, it is also convenient for the court to manage the local area. The influence of gangs must be weakened!

The same situation also happened in Yizhou.

Two months ago, the imperial court ordered the establishment of Yinan County, also because too many gold mining people gathered.

The first chief officials of these gold-mining areas were all county magistrates transferred from the imperial censor. They sent officials from the capital to intimidate the localities and take care of the gang leaders.

Ju Ming stayed in Yizhou for a few days, and then went to Banqiao Town in Mizhou, where Jiaoxi County was reestablished due to the opening of the sea.

"The goods shipped south from Banqiao Port are mainly wood, ironware, and mountain goods, and are shipped to Hangzhou for sale," Jiaoxi City shipping official introduced to Ju Ming, "There are more goods shipped from the south, including silk. , lacquer ware, tung oil, ceramics, rice... everything is available. There are many metallurgists and iron smelters in Jiaodong and Jiaoxi, and the local food is not enough. Fortunately, rice is shipped from the south of the Yangtze River by sea. This year's food price is only 70% of last year's! "

Ju Ming asked: "No one went to Korea or Japan to trade?"

A city shipping official said: "After Shandong reopened its seas, Korea's trade all went through Dengzhou Port, so why did it come around to Jiaoxi? As for Japan, I heard that they were imposing a maritime ban and most of their trade was smuggled over from Zhejiang."

Ju Ming looked at the sea area of ​​​​the port and found that it was indeed very depressed. There were not many ships anchored here.

After all, this is only the first year that Shandong opened its sea.

Ju Ming guessed that there must be people smuggling Shandong gold to the south of the Yangtze River by sea.

But the imperial court will not care about it for the time being. It can use gold to attract maritime merchants from the south of the Yangtze River, and then strictly crack down on smuggling after the maritime trade in Jiaoxi County flourishes.

Because the law stipulates that Shandong gold is not allowed to be transported out of Shandong without permission. In addition to being sold to the government, the rest of the gold can only be circulated in the county.

If Jiangnan merchants want to transport Shandong gold away, they must hide the gold among other goods under the guise of normal trade. Every batch of gold smuggled is equivalent to a ship of maritime goods, which is very beneficial to Shandong's economic development.

On the third day of his stay in Jiaoxi County, Ju Ming finally got news of Xue Daoguang's return.

He immediately set off for Dengzhou and met Daochang Xue at the Denglai Hotel.

"Long time no see, Taoist Master." Zhu Ming cupped his hands and smiled.

Xue Daoguang was deeply moved. As a Taoist priest, he bowed and said: "After seeing each other for many years, His Highness remains the same."

Xue Daoguang looks much older, his skin tone has darkened and there are more wrinkles. He must have suffered a lot overseas.

Ju Ming asked: “Can you tell me about your overseas experience?”

Xue Daoguang told in detail: "Eight years ago, the eunuch Cui Hu led the immortal fleet to sea. He passed southward through Liuqiu Island (Taiwan) and went to Mayi Country (northern Philippines). Although he did not find the immortal, he brought him back A large number of rare and exotic goods were sold in Hangzhou and made a fortune. However, there was a storm on the way and three ships and their crews were buried in the belly of the fish. Cui Hu also almost died and was so frightened that he never dared to go to sea again. "

"Seven years ago, Pindao was ordered to take over the fleet. In addition to looking for immortals, he was also sent as an envoy to Japan. The official... Zhao Ji was so happy that he wanted to be crowned the king of Japan. He personally wrote a letter of credence to Japan, but there was no reply from Japan. , so the two countries need to communicate their credentials first. Pindao went to Japan and did not see the king, but he fought a war first."

Ju Ming felt very interesting: "Fighting in Japan?"

Xue Daoguang said: "Japan's national situation is extremely complicated. They call the king the emperor, after he abdicates, he is called the emperor, and after he becomes a monk, he is called the emperor."

"Today, Japan has a Emperor Shirakawa and his grandson Emperor Toba. When Emperor Shirakawa was young, he adopted a daughter who was rumored to be his illegitimate daughter. It was also rumored that he had an affair with this illegitimate daughter. And marry his illegitimate daughter to his grandson to become the queen."

"There are also other rumors, but I really can't tell clearly. The biological mother of this adopted daughter is the wet nurse of Emperor Shirakawa's son, and is also the wet nurse of his grandson. She is also the wife of a Japanese minister. It is said that Emperor Shirakawa first had an affair with the wet nurse of his children and grandchildren. Tong, if you have an illegitimate daughter, you can adopt her as an adopted daughter..."

"It is said that Emperor Shirakawa also gave birth to a son from an illegitimate daughter, who is now nominally his grandson's son..."

Zhu Ming was shocked: "Well, the national situation is indeed complicated."

Xue Daoguang said: "When Pindao first went there, he didn't understand the situation, so he got involved in the Japanese political struggle. But it was the Emperor Shirakawa who established a separate palace and promoted and re-employed poor families (middle and low-level aristocratic warriors) to get rid of powerful ministers. With his relatives. The powerful minister’s relatives assisted Emperor Toba and fought openly and secretly with Emperor Shirakawa."

"The emperor's faction is willing to have contacts with China. The emperor's faction, however, pursues a closed-door policy. Pindao didn't know why, so he handed the credentials to the emperor's faction through the relationship between Zhejiang maritime merchants. The emperor Shirakawa was furious and mobilized the Japanese navy. Fight with my Xunxian fleet."

"The Japanese navy's ships were weak and their soldiers were weak, so they were undoubtedly defeated. Pindao could not restrain his soldiers. After the victory, the soldiers landed and plundered, and then besieged a mountain city in Japan. Although the mountain city was not big, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Only Just leave if you can loot outside the city."

The situation in Japan seems complicated, but it is actually very simple to sort out.

The powerful ministers and lords were unable to lose their power, so the French emperor started anew to centralize power. The vested interests were unwilling to lose their power and resisted with the emperor as the center.

But the resistance was ineffective, and the French emperor had gained an absolute advantage through several wars and other political means. And fearing the intervention of external forces, the French emperor decided to close the country. Japanese sails were not allowed to sail to the sea, and Chinese maritime merchants had to focus on trading with the French emperor.

Xue Daoguang didn't understand anything. He went to the wrong dock when he arrived in Japan.

Xue Daoguang continued: "The small country of Zuer actually dared to resist the Chinese army, and the fleet officers became more and more angry. I couldn't dissuade them, so I could only watch them rob the coast and plunder the people of several mountain towns in Japan. But If we really can’t capture those mountain cities, we can only return to Hangzhou with the looted goods.”

"When I returned home, I found that Hangzhou was occupied by Fang La, and I quickly sailed to Mingzhou to land. Most of the crew were from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They didn't know whether their relatives were alive or dead, and they were afraid that Fang La would capture Mingzhou. At that time, Mingzhou was short of food and the goods were not easy to sell. Pindao took them to Fuzhou."

"When Fang La was wiped out by the court, Pindao returned to Hangzhou and informed the court of Japan's national situation. I thought that due to the chaos in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the lack of national finances, the official... Zhao Ji would disband the Xunxian fleet. But I didn't expect that Zhao Ji seemed to have nothing. It didn't happen, so I ordered Pindao to take people out to sea to search for the fairyland."

"This time, we were sailing to Champa, passing through Champa, Chenla, Srivijaya, Chapo and other countries. On the way back, we encountered a storm and sank several ships."

"The poor man saw that the soldiers and crew were pitiful, so he sold a lot of goods privately and secretly distributed them to them. He also asked someone to bring pensions to the families of the victims. After the ship was repaired, he received an imperial edict from Zhao Ji, saying to go south to find If you don’t meet any immortals, you can go east to find the legendary immortal mountains.”

"The fleet just kept going east, even sailing through the entire Japan. In front of it was the vast ocean, and there were not even a few desert islands. After a month like this, many people became inexplicably sick, and the soldiers and crew were all frightened. , Pindao was forced to order a return voyage. Encountered a big storm on the way, and most of the fleet was lost and landed on an unknown island. "

"There were only a few ships left at this time, and they were in dilapidated condition. Pindao sent people to land to look for the locals. As a result, the island was full of indigenous people, and not even a city could be found. After three years on the island, Pindao and Befriended one indigenous tribe and helped them attack another tribe. Many of the crew and soldiers died of illness, and the rest learned to hunt from the indigenous people, and also fished offshore to obtain food."

"After barely repairing a few ships, Pindao led the fleet back to China. When passing through Goryeo, he encountered wind and waves again, so he looked for a big port in Goryeo to repair the ships. Only then did he know that the Central Plains had changed dynasties."

After hearing this, Zhu Ming remained silent for a long time. He only stood up and patted Xue Daoguang's shoulder.

This Taoist priest can go far. It is estimated that if he persists for another month or two, he will be able to discover North America with his fleet.

But the crew was frightened by the vast sea and returned halfway. They probably landed in Hokkaido and fooled around with the Ainu for three years.

Ju Ming thought for a while and asked, "How many boats and people are left?"

Xue Daoguang seemed to recall the painful past and said: "There are six large ships left, but the total number of officers and crew is less than 800. Many people died at sea, and some died on big islands. They were killed by incompetence. "

"Going to sea will inevitably cause huge casualties," Ju Ming said. "These ships and personnel have been temporarily incorporated into the Dengzhou Navy. When they recover, they can cross the sea and raid the hinterland of the Jin Kingdom. I will go to Japan again in the future. I know where there is big silver. Mine, go and take over the big silver mine. The Taoist priest has been at sea for many years, so he must be an expert..."

Xue Daoguang was startled and interrupted quickly: "Your Highness, I will never go to sea again!"

Ju Ming said: "I chose a Taoist temple in Zhejiang as the monastery of Ziyang Zhenren, specifically to promote the Jindan Dharma lineage."

Xue Daoguang hesitated. He not only wanted to practice Taoism himself, but also shouldered the important task of developing the Taoist sect.

Zhu Ming added: "The Taoist priest can go to Zhejiang immediately and choose a temple to be the abbot. The Taoist priests there will all convert to the Taoism of your sect. Give the Taoist priest two or three years to recruit disciples and teach, and then go out to explore as a navigator. It is not about looking for immortals. , I have other purposes, related to the national economy and people’s livelihood.”

Xue Daoguang thought for a long time, then stood up suddenly and bowed: "Yes!"