Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Japan implemented Dahua reforms, comprehensively learned from the advanced experience of the Tang Dynasty, and strengthened the emperor's centralized rule.

One of the most important measures is the establishment of public land citizenship: the people and land are owned by the state and no private individuals are allowed to occupy them.

When it comes to land specifically, it is the class-field system, which is similar to the land equalization system of the Tang Dynasty.

About a hundred years later, the "Law of Eternal Private Ownership of Land Reclamation" and the "Law of One Body for Three Generations" were promulgated one after another. The powerful nobles took the opportunity to force their subjects and slaves to reclaim wasteland, legally appropriate the newly reclaimed land as their own, and even illegally steal old public land and turn it into private land.

After another hundred years of this, the class system began to collapse.

The situation was exactly the same as in the Tang Dynasty. The nobles and powerful people occupied large amounts of land but did not pay taxes. All national taxes fell on the farmers on the public land.

As a result, farmers on public land fled one after another and were taken into hiding by powerful nobles. Japan began to develop a private estate economy.

The emperor of the Tang Dynasty was so deprived of food that he often ran from Chang'an to Luoyang for extra meals.

The Emperor of Japan directly chose to move the capital, from the old capital where nobility and temples were intertwined, to Heian Kyo to start over.

The Heian Era appeared.

Successive emperors have cracked down on corruption, implemented performance appraisals for officials, carried out a series of institutional reforms, and completely abolished slavery.

The class-field system evolved into the field-blocking system, which is, to put it bluntly, the public land contract responsibility system. Nominally, public land is still owned by the state, but wealthy farmers are allowed to contract and receive land taxes through contract contracts.

A few decades later, the contracted land essentially became private land. The contract could be traded and transferred, and the landowner added his or her name to the land.

The owner of the signed field is called the name owner.

Those who own less land are called "small names".

Those who own more land are called "Daimyo".

From this the word daimyo was born.

The nickname is actually small landowners and homesteaders. If the family lacks labor force, they will rent land to the poor, and tenant farmers will appear.

All the land owned by the daimyo, except the directly managed land, was leased out and the court's rent regulations were passed on to the tenants.

On top of these names, there are also real lords of the manor, who must pay annual tribute to the lord of the manor (generally there are lords of the manor only in border areas).

Therefore, the manor lords were the local overlords, and the daimyo were powerful.

It continues to evolve.

After the manor lords obtained economic privileges, they began to seek political and military privileges.

The minor name sent the land to the daimyo, the daimyo sent the land to the lord, and the lord sent the land to the powerful nobles.

Therefore, everyone paid tribute to their superiors, and the most superiors were tax-free nobles, so they simply did not pay taxes to the court.

Half of the land in the country is tax-free.

The emperor sent royal family members or close associates to manage the other half of the land to ensure the stability of the central court's tax sources.

However, the royal family and their cronies took the opportunity to reach out and control the remaining half of the land.

In order to suppress the centralization of power by the lords, the emperor also revived the kokusei system, in which the central government dispatched prefecture and county chiefs to local areas.

This thing was completely ruined by the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara clan was regent as a foreign relative. If he wanted to be a governor of a state or county, he could just pay for it.

Since it is a purchased position as a local official, why should we bother to manage it?

Those who are somewhat responsible may let their sons or nephews take office on their behalf, which is called "mushiro".

Those who have no sense of responsibility, as long as the county pays taxes in full on time, they don't bother to visit the place anymore, and all of them stay in Ping An and live happily.

At this time, Ishikami's chief minister was in Heianjing, and even Modai was not sent.

All local affairs are left to the officials in the department (local officials) to take care of.

The positions of government officials are controlled by local wealthy families, and can even be passed down from father to son and hereditary.

The Masuda family is the most influential powerful man in Ishijian Kingdom and the official in the government who has the most say.

Two hundred years ago, their ancestors were just small businessmen. They made money from business to buy land for farming, and gradually grew from small masters to big masters.

Their land is not the largest in Iwami Country.

But they were rich in business, and they bribed the Fujiwara family to buy official positions in the government, which were passed down from father to son from generation to generation.

…

Shijianguo, the capital.

Its specific location was probably eighteen miles southwest of the urban area of ​​Ota City, Japan, and four or five miles away from the coastline.

The core area is a small mountain city. Department officials work in the city and their residences are located around the mountain city. In addition to residential areas, there are also commercial areas outside the city.

The Secretary of State was having fun in Ping'an Jing, and the meeting was chaired by Masuda Akiaki, the head of the officials in the department.

Akira Masuda said in a sad tone: "I just received the news that the Emperor of France has passed away."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this, and then they wiped away their tears and howled.

Their grief was not entirely feigned.

Emperor Shirakawa gradually became Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Shirakawa. He tortured his own son to death, controlled his grandson, and dealt with disobedient relatives and lords many times.

In order to maintain their positions, the officials of Ishimi Kuni had to pay bribes to the close aides of Emperor Shirakawa.

There is an emperor and a minister. Now that Emperor Shirakawa is dead, Emperor Toba will inevitably start a new court, and everyone will have to send people to Heiankyo to bribe.

The powerful men mourned for the Emperor for a moment, and then discussed the matter of bribery.

We can't be too hasty with this thing, we have to wait for the court to establish a good team and figure out who are the new rich. Then get close to the new rich's cronies and send the money to the people who are really in charge.

There is no need to give too much, because there is an annual tribute every year, and it is only meaningful at critical times.

The powerful men gathered their confidants, took their travel expenses, and set off immediately.

Suddenly, the merchant ship of the Utsuda family fled back, saying that foreign ships were approaching Ishimi Kingdom, and they even beat up the navy of Nagato Kingdom on the way.

"The Toi pirates must be here again, quickly gather the samurai and peasant soldiers!" Masuda Akira said in a panic.

Daoyi is the name Goryeo gave to their northeastern Jurchen tribe.

The invasion of Toi a hundred years ago is still fresh in the memory of the Japanese and has spawned many legends.

The pirates drove more than fifty offshore boats and turned the coast of Japan upside down. It was only through the cooperation of local powerful forces that the pirates were defeated. (The descendants of these pirates are most likely the main force of the Jin navy that Han Shizhong faced in Huangtiandang in history. However, last year in the Yalu River, they were beaten to the point of panic by the Ming navy.)

Masuda Akiaki put on the armor himself, and the officials in the department also turned into warriors, sending people back to the countryside to gather their own peasant soldiers.

When Zhu Xiaozhong landed at a fishing port, Shi Jianguo had already gathered hundreds of troops.

It's just that the fighting ability is impressive.

The Japanese armor at this time was not the glamorous bitch of the Warring States Period, and was much simpler in appearance.

In other words, it is a copycat version of the Tang and Song Dynasty armors!

Even the hairstyle and crowns are very similar to those of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Regardless of his height, at first glance he would have been thought to be a Song Dynasty soldier.

Some powerful men do not even have the status of serious warriors. They all wear crotch-style armor.

This thing originated from the Japanese Tumulus Period, and was improved by combining it with the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The armor skirt extends to the thighs, and the neck and armpits are completely exposed. The shoulder armor extends to the outside of the elbows, but the insides of the elbows are not protected by armor. The material is mostly iron or copper sheets connected in series, and the forearms are wrapped in leather.

There are hundreds of wealthy people in Shijian Kingdom armed with only a dozen pairs of simple armors in total.

There are also dozens of pairs of leather or bamboo armors, all in the shape of crotch-style hanging armor.

The rest of the peasant soldiers, not to mention their armor, even their clothes were in tatters, and they came to fight with a bamboo gun in their hand.

It’s just powerful weapons, what more can you ask for?

In Japan at this time, only border or key counties had lords and lords' armed forces.

Where is Japan's border?

Of course it was a place next to the barbarians, otherwise why would there be a general conquering the barbarians?

Several samurai were sent to inquire about the military situation. They rode towards the small fishing village and were first shocked by the naval ship. Then he dared to continue to approach, and groups of Ming soldiers disembarked, leaving these guys dumbfounded.

"Catch them all!" Zhu Xiaozhong ordered.

Zhu Xiaozhong brought not many cavalry, but dozens of light cavalry, all of whom were from Shandong horse bandits.

But even the Ming light cavalry's armor is comparable to the powerful Japanese armor.

Before the war horses could rest after crossing the sea, the Ming light cavalry rode in pursuit. Compared with Japanese ponies, these second-rate horses raised by horse farmers in the Northern Song Dynasty can run very fast.

"Run quickly, the armored cavalry is coming!" the Japanese samurai exclaimed.

Dozens of Ming Qingqi quickly caught up with the Japanese samurai.

The three-meter long spears in their hands are simply bullying, and they are accurate when attacking.

The leather armor of the warriors was exposed in too many places. There was no armor to cover the inside of the arms, under the armpits, on both sides of the ribs, and on the neck above the collarbone. The lances in their hands were less than two meters long.

Is this a slap in the face?

In order to catch someone, the Ming Qingqi didn't even need to stab, they just raised their spears and swept across.

After sweeping it off the horse's back, he grabbed it back as a tongue.

Masuda Akira waited for a long time, but the samurai did not come back to report the news. Until now, he thought the pirates were coming, but he led hundreds of powerful armed forces to attack the small fishing village.

It wasn't until he bumped into the Ming Dynasty Qingqi on the way that Masuda Akira exclaimed: "These are not pirates, they must be Goryeo's armored cavalry. Quickly retreat to the city and defend, waiting for the emperor to send reinforcements to save them!"

"kill!"

The cavalry officer was another adopted son of Ju Ming, named Zhu Shouyi. He is only seventeen years old this year. He has been living in Hebei with Li Yanxian for a year. He has seen big scenes but never fought fiercely.

At this moment, Zhu Shouyi led dozens of light cavalry and charged straight towards hundreds of powerful Japanese armed forces.

When Masuda Akira saw this, he knew that he could no longer withdraw, otherwise all his troops would be infantry, and sooner or later they would be cut down by the Ming cavalry.

"Form up, archers shoot!"

Japan has been at peace for a long time, and these hundreds of peasants and soldiers have never fought in a war. They were forced by the powerful to form formations in a panic.

However, a small number of powerful elites did not stand in the front. They actually hid behind the messy peasant and soldier formations and took out arrows to shoot at the Ming Dynasty cavalry.

After a sparse shower of arrows, Zhu Shouyi had already led the cavalry to the front of the formation, and all of them fired an arrow during the charge.

After a round of cavalry shooting and being rushed in front of the cavalry, hundreds of peasant soldiers instantly collapsed and ran away.

The powerful men and their subordinates also fled in panic. Masuda Akira escaped fastest on horseback.

In Shijian Country, apart from suppressing peasant uprisings, there has really been no war for hundreds of years... Not to mention the peasant soldiers, not even the powerful warriors know what the real battlefield is like.