Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Whether it was layman Yi An becoming a concubine or the emperor's mistake in alchemy, it has become a hot topic among Tokyo residents.

As long as the emperor doesn't mess around, no matter what happens, the people will enjoy it.

We stopped fighting last year and won't fight this year. Life is getting better and better.

Visible drop in food prices. Today’s prices in Tokyo have returned to what they were before Song Huizong ascended the throne.

I heard from an old man in Beijing that there are times when food is cheaper.

Even the men who do manual labor in the store have returned to eating meat at least two days a month. If the boss is too stingy, he will be stabbed in the back, and the employees will secretly be passive and sabotage.

This is due to the continued decline in meat prices and is related to the promotion of corn and sweet potatoes.

Corn and sweet potatoes are both low-priced foods, and people cannot resist hunger after eating them. But it can be used to feed pigs, and by adding sweet potato vines, soybean meal, distiller's grains and other substances, the cost of raising pigs has been relatively reduced.

At this time, the price of meat in Tokyo is 60 Wen per catty for mutton, 35 Wen per catty for pork, and 30 Wen per catty for beef (the specific price fluctuates due to different parts of meat).

As for why beef is the cheapest, it’s because there is an official price.

30 yuan per pound of beef is already the price after the increase in the Ming Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, beef could only be sold for a maximum of 20 Wen per kilogram.

Once beef exceeds the government price limit, getting caught is a serious problem.

There is no other reason to prevent people from deliberately killing cattle and selling their meat!

A pound of pork costs 35 yuan, and as long as the income is not too bad, the people of Tokyo can eat it several times a month.

This situation also occurs in big cities such as Hangzhou and Guangzhou. Even the poor people at the bottom can eat meat every now and then.

However, development across the country is extremely uneven, and a large number of farmers are still struggling to make ends meet.

The central ministers have lived in Tokyo for a long time. They have no intuitive experience of the poor areas. They only know that Tokyo is becoming more and more prosperous and prosperous, and that returning to the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty is just around the corner.

One by one, they gradually become floating.

Because Zhu Guoxiang was very simple and the ministers also advocated frugality, the outermost layers they wore were old clothes.

Li Bangyan is especially outrageous, even wearing patchwork clothes.

But the inner linings are more luxurious than the other. And the boots are also very particular. Recently, deerskin boots have become popular, and some merchants even buy deerskin in large quantities from the Kingdom of Jin.

When the children of powerful people get married, they don't dare to live extravagantly in Tokyo, but they spend as much extravagance as they want in their hometown.

Whenever a powerful official marries a daughter, a dowry of several thousand guan is the basic operation.

Where did they get their money?

Of course it was accumulated by our ancestors for generations. How could there be corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty!

…

The Hanafi scholar Abu Fadl Qilmani immediately saw this "picture of a prosperous age" when he arrived in Guangzhou on a merchant ship on the order of the Seljuk Sultan.

A local official in Guangzhou, who served as an official in Sichuan, defected to the new dynasty at the right time and has now reached the level of government judge.

The wedding procession for his son's wife took a boat ride from a neighboring house and played music all the way back to Guangzhou.

It was a fleet of boats that landed outside Guangzhou, and hundreds of people got off the boats one after another. Even those who carried all kinds of goods were all put on brand-new silk clothes, which were purchased free of charge by their masters.

Abu said in horror: "Are those the king's followers? Is this the royal city of Peach Blossom Stone?"

The businessman Pu Mawu explained: "Respect the great scholar, this is the city of Guangzhou in Peach Blossom Stone, and there are many such big cities in Peach Blossom Stone. The team in front of you is a local rich man getting married, and those wearing silk clothes are just rich people." Just a slave."

"Can a slave also wear silk?" Abu couldn't imagine it.

Pu Mawu said: "There is gold everywhere here, honey flows in the river, and silk is just an ordinary item."

Aibu hesitated to speak, not knowing how to evaluate.

Pumawu witnessed Li Bao's recapture of Hangzhou, and his merchant ship was also requisitioned by Li Bao as a cover to attack Fuzhou.

Later, Pumawu, together with other foreign merchants, received a mission from the Ming Emperor: as long as he brought rare and useful crop seeds, and obtained the emperor's approval, part of the customs duties could be deducted.

Puma Wu brought many crops, but only one was favored by Emperor Zhu.

That's it - carrot!

Not only was he exempted from some tariffs, but he also gained the qualification to purchase top-quality goods. Although this kind of qualification is only available once, it is enough for 30 pieces of Shu brocade, but it also makes Pu Mawu a lot of money.

The nobles of the Seljuk Empire frantically bought the Sichuan brocade and eventually presented it to the Sultan.

The Sultan specially met with Pumaou, asked many things about China, and also asked the Hanafi scholar Abu to visit China.

The Seljuk Empire had been torn apart decades earlier.

Sanjar won the title of sultan from a crowd of contenders. Soon, rebellions broke out at home and in the tributary countries, and the entire empire fell into a secession war.

Through a series of military and political means, Sanjar reintegrated the Seljuk Empire.

It even expanded externally, surrendered to the Western Kara Khanate, established King Ghazni, and even made the Eastern Kara Khanate surrender this year.

The Eastern Kara Khanate is where Yelu Dashi is about to attack!

Sanjar and Yelu Dashi will definitely have a battle in the next few years.

Sultan Sanjar's understanding of China was very general. He could not distinguish between Turks and Khitan, and regarded the Western Regions as China.

Little did he know that there were a large number of Khitan soldiers in the Western Kara Khanate that he conquered. And these Khitan soldiers will soon capsize him in the gutter, allowing Yelu Dashibai to get a big advantage.

Sanjar continued to expand eastward and spent all his efforts to conquer the Kara Khanate, just to reopen the Silk Road.

When he heard that China could be reached directly by sea, and that the richest country in the Land of Peach Blossom Stone was called Ming Dynasty, Sanjar could not wait to send a fleet over for trade immediately.

Unfortunately, he did not have a decent fleet and could only entrust merchants to make contacts.

At the same time, a scholar and more than a dozen guards were sent to have diplomatic contacts with the Ming Emperor.

"Go and find out which noble of the Ming Dynasty is getting married. I think you should pay a visit out of etiquette." Scholar Abu warned.

Pu Mawu hurriedly ran to inquire. He could barely speak the Cantonese dialect and could get the news from just a passerby.

Pu Mawu ran back and said: "The married man's father is a magistrate of the Ming Dynasty. You can understand him as the deputy governor of a certain place. At the same time, the deputy governor's family is still supplying goods to maritime merchants in Guangdong. Participated in maritime trade for hundreds of years.”

"Sure enough, he is a great nobleman from Peach Blossom Stone." Abu thought he had figured it out.

They have registered with the Guangzhou Shipping Department and can hang out in Guangzhou for a few days, and then they will take a boat to Kaifeng for an audience.

From Guangzhou to Fuzhou, and then from Fuzhou to Hangzhou, the supply points along the way are all big cities.

When Abu and his entourage docked for a walk, they happened to encounter a group of dock coolies changing shifts.

These coolies wore shabby short clothes, and some were even bare-chested, with only a sweat towel draped over their shoulders.

Abu believes that the coolies must be at the bottom and wants to observe the basic situation of these people. So he followed quietly, and saw these coolies coming to a roadside stall and sitting down to eat pasta with a lot of oil on it. Some even added slices of meat to the noodle soup.

Pu Mawu followed and said: "This is just a seaport town like the outer ports of Guangzhou and Fuzhou. The real city of Hangzhou has to go west along the river."

Aibu looked at Kanpu Town, which was more prosperous than in the Northern Song Dynasty, and murmured to himself: "Is such a big city just a small outer port town?"

They changed boats at Haimen to enter the Yangtze River, and then changed boats at Guazhou Ferry to take the northward watercraft.

There were Cao troops on board, and Cao troops were encountered sporadically along the coast.

These Cao soldiers all wore leather armor, and most were equipped with long spears and waist knives. A few were also equipped with a pair of bows and arrows, and the long spears were only about two meters long.

Abu said: "The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are relatively well-equipped, but they will definitely be defeated when they encounter the Sudanese army. They don't even have iron armor, and Sudan has many iron armor troops."

Pu Mawu said: "The Ming Dynasty also had armored soldiers."

The person escorting them to Beijing along the way was an official from the Shipping Department named Jian Xun.

Jian Xun observed the movements of the Seljuk envoys all the way until he entered the canal, and finally planned to obtain information, and maybe he could take advantage of the opportunity to perform meritorious deeds.

"The Sedu Kingdom (Seljuk) that your envoy mentioned was called Fulin Kingdom (Byzantium) decades ago?" Jian Xun asked and heard.

He was the first Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty. Due to his low performance ranking, he was assigned to an internship in the History Museum of the Hanlin Academy, and then was thrown to the Shibo Department in Guangzhou.

While assisting in the compilation of "History of the Song Dynasty", Jian Xun came into contact with some historical materials from previous dynasties.

Knowing that he was about to take up his post at the Municipal Shipping Department, Jian Xun used his intern teacher to extract a lot of diplomatic materials.

Pu Mawu was confused when he heard this: "I'm sorry, I haven't heard of Fulin Kingdom."

Jian Xun ran back to the cabin, took out the information he had excerpted, turned to the content of Fulin Kingdom, and said: "Decades ago, the monarch of Fulin Kingdom was called Mieli Yilinggeisa. The envoy he sent was called Nisduling Judge Simeng. He wears red and yellow clothes and wraps his head with silk cloth woven with gold thread. Every March, he goes to the Buddhist temple on a red bed to worship. The noble ministers all have their heads wrapped and ride on horses, wearing green, crimson white, pink, Brown clothes. Fulin country uses gold and silver as money. This money has no holes and has Maitreya Buddha printed on it."

Pu Mawu was even more confused. How had he ever seen a coin with Maitreya Buddha printed on it?

Jian Xun continued to remind: "The kings of Fulin Kingdom are all called Gaisa."

Change to spread?

Caesar!

Pu Mawu instantly understood that Fulin Kingdom was fucking Byzantium.

At that time, the old Nikephoros III, faced with internal and external troubles, found an ancient map. In the far east of that map, marked is a powerful empire called Taugas (Tang).

He called two nobles and warned: "The Turks put me on the throne and will send troops to depose me at any time. I heard people from the grassland say that the Tang State in the east is the nemesis of the Turks. Take Constant with you." The most precious gift from Dingbao is to ask the Tang State to send troops from the east to attack the Turks. As the Caesar of Greece and Rome, I allow the king of the Tang State to be the Lord of the East."

The two nobles crossed the Iranian Plateau, crossed the Congling Mountains to the Western Regions, walked through the Huangshui Valley to Kaifeng, and met Song Shenzong in a thrilling way.

Immediately, the two parties started a cross-server chat.

The envoy claimed that Byzantium was a diplomatic state of the Tang Dynasty and requested Song Shenzong to send troops to deal with the Turks (Seljuk).

Song Shenzong asked whether these Turks had colluded with Xixia.

Pu Mawu pretended not to understand anything and replied: "We have never heard of Fulin Kingdom."

Jian Xun asked again: "How far is the Sedu Kingdom where you are from the Dashi Kingdom?"

This question is more difficult to answer.

In order to facilitate business, all Western maritime merchants, including Seljuk merchants, called themselves food merchants.

This time, because the Sultan sent an envoy, Pumawu did not dare to speak nonsense and reported the true name of his country.

(Thanks to the leader of Bird in an Eggshell for the reward, O(∩_∩)O~~~)