Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1223 Epilogue : Role Playing

"boom!"

There was another gunshot.

The more Xie Yan used this gold- and silver-inlaid pistol, the more comfortable he became with it—even though he had yet to hit a target.

It was not until the evening when Xie Yan followed everyone down the mountain that he felt pain on the inside of his thighs. His skin was almost worn out from riding the horse.

"What's the matter?" Zhu Tangxi asked.

Xie Yan felt a little embarrassed and moved closer to the princess and whispered a few words.

Zhu Tangxi felt distressed and amused: "First, your posture and strength are wrong, and second, you ride for too long. I advised you to take a rest but you didn't listen. You kept riding and hunting, but you didn't even catch a single hare."

Commonly known as, people who are addicted to food have a strong addiction.

The generals leading the troops and the imperial guards participating in the hunting are all stationed in the camp at the foot of the mountain tonight.

The royal family, clan members, dukes, nobles, palace guards and a few scholars (mainly painters) went to the royal garden Dongxi Garden in the northwest.

Soon after arriving at Dongxi Garden, Zhu Tangxi asked Xie Yan to take a bath.

When he finished his bath and returned to the house, the princess was holding a bottle of ointment in her hand: "I asked the imperial physician to get this. Take off your pants quickly."

Xie Yan took off his pants and sat on the edge of the bed. Zhu Tangxi squatted down and helped him apply ointment.

If this scene were seen by outsiders, it would probably spread throughout Luoyang in a few days.
"Sister is so nice." Xie Yan said with a smile.

"Liu Lang treats me well, so I must treat Liu Lang well too." Zhu Tangxi actually enjoys it. She seems unattainable in front of outsiders, but when she returns home she especially likes to serve her lover.

This would make her feel very warm, as if they were just a young couple from an ordinary family.

Before the ointment had dried, a palace servant came over and called them to dinner.

Among the ingredients, some are prey caught today, which are stewed or grilled with spices.

Empress Dowager Ye sat next to a grill and personally taught the little emperor how to grill meat.

Xie Yan and the princess went over to pay their respects, and then sat beside him to help.

Except for the guards, everyone was relaxed.

Some royal family members and scholars have already started drinking.

"Is that painter also from Qihe?" Xie Yan pointed to a middle-aged scholar not far away.

Zhu Tangxi whispered, "The man's surname is Mu, and he is from the same hometown as Empress Dowager Ye. The Mu family's ancestors were Persians, and they produced two Seljuk prime ministers. Later, during the reign of Emperor Taizong, the whole family defected to the Ming Dynasty. He is not only a painter, but also a religious scholar and historian of the Arab world and the Western Regions."

Empress Dowager Ye came from the Qihe Protectorate, so naturally she promoted her fellow villagers after she came to power.

However, he acted relatively restrained. He only promoted a few scholars to the Hanlin Academy, assigned a few Qihe military officers to the palace guards, and transferred two Qihe generals to take charge of part of the imperial guards.

The painter from Qihe was called Mu Xiang. During the two heydays of the Seljuk Empire, his two ancestors served as prime ministers.

After the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Western Liao Dynasty, the religious policy in Central Asia was formulated by Mu Xiang's ancestors. Their family settled in Suiye City from then on, and now has developed into a Chuhe noble family, and has intermarried with the Han people for generations.

The religious reform in the Seven Rivers Valley was the most successful, with Buddhism and desert religion as the main religions, while various other religions coexisted, and at the same time, all of them were required to read the books of Confucian sages.

After the reform, the desert religion was called "Mupai" in the Ming Dynasty and "Mulkpai" in the Arab countries.

It is difficult to go into detail about the specific content of the reform, but it is quite outrageous and the reform process is extremely bloody.

From the Ili River Valley to the north of the Aral Sea, along the northern route of the Silk Road, all of them have now become "Muslims." The believers are mainly urban residents, industrialists and businessmen, and farmers and herdsmen around towns.

The more remote grassland tribes still believe in other sects.

Amid repeated tribal rebellions and military conquests, the Muslim faction continued to expand. But the area was too vast, and this expansion seemed insufficient, so Muslims and other factions regarded each other as heretics.

Almost every tribal rebellion was under the banner of religion.

At the same time, the Mu sect was also spreading in Dayuan and gained the support of successive Dayuan kings.

When the Muslim sect spread to the Khorasan region with the expansion of the Kingdom of Dayuan, it added a bit of Persian nationalism.

That is, the Arabs were regarded as invaders. Persians should speak Persian and write Persian, and Arabic and Arabic must be banned. Moreover, the last Persian prince submitted to the Tang Dynasty and became a vassal of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty, which inherited the Tang Dynasty's legal system, and Dayuan, the descendant of the Ming Dynasty, were actually the most reliable allies of the Persians.

Muslims mixed with Persianism are infiltrating the wider Persian region.

……

The little emperor was holding a roasted deer leg, his mouth full of oil.

To be honest, it was not very delicious, but the little emperor ate it with relish because he had roasted the deer leg himself and he had also "hunted" the deer himself.

It was as if I had suddenly transformed from a child into an adult.

Seeing everyone toasting each other, the little emperor also wanted to taste the wine. He looked at his mother pitifully and said, "I...I want to drink."

Queen Mother Ye was about to refuse subconsciously, but then she thought about her son growing up and that it was time for him to try new things, so she said with a straight face, "You can only drink one cup of rice wine."

The little emperor was ecstatic.

The waiter quickly poured a cup of rice wine. The little emperor was afraid of drinking it quickly, so he took a small sip and put it down.

Xie Yan and the princess were already a little drunk. Zhu Tangxi even rested her head on her husband's arm, oblivious to the people around her.

"Uncle-in-law, I hunted three deer today. What prey did you get?" the little emperor suddenly asked proudly.

"Hahahaha!" Everyone laughed when they heard this.

Everyone saw clearly how embarrassed Prince Consort Xie was when hunting today. Among all the royal family members and dignitaries, only Prince Consort Xie was outshined by the little emperor.

Even Wu Lingfeng's weak husband managed to catch a rabbit using a hunting dog.

Xie Yan patted his chest and said, "Today I am a beginner and my skills are not very good, but next time I will definitely make some progress!"

The little emperor said, "When I grow up, I will lead the imperial guards to hunt in Yehuling like my grandfather did, and take my uncle with me."

As soon as these words were spoken, the place suddenly became much quieter.

Fortunately, most of the important officials in the cabinet and the government did not participate in the exercises and hunting games, otherwise the civil officials would have to worry about warmongering.

Xie Yan thought: This guy will probably be a troublemaker when he grows up.

The banquet lasted until very late, and most people, except the guards, were drunk.

After the little emperor fell asleep, Empress Dowager Ye took out a booklet and looked through it.

This booklet is called "Economics", but many people jokingly call it "Business Science".

To be precise, it should be called "Political Economy" because a large amount of space is devoted to discussing how to govern.

Zhu Guoxiang wrote it very briefly and omitted some key contents. However, in the past 100 years, it has been studied, quoted, explained and supplemented by many Confucian scholars, and used to reinterpret the Four Books and Six Classics, forming several schools of Confucianism.

Empress Dowager Ye didn't read economics before.

Until one day, the young emperor recited a passage from the secret book left by Taizu and Taizong, and ran to Empress Dowager Ye to ask what it meant.

Empress Dowager Ye found that she could not explain it either, so she read the secret book with her son.

The more she read, the more confused she became. She picked out a few key words and asked for advice from important officials who were well versed in Confucian classics, such as Deng Gongwu. After those officials gave a brief explanation, they recommended that Empress Dowager Ye read "Economics".

The more she studied, the more doubts Empress Dowager Ye had in her heart, and she even felt a vague sense of inexplicable fear.

Why did the secret book left by Taizu and Taizong say that the economic base determines the superstructure? Why is it said that when the economic base changes, the superstructure must also change and determine the direction of the superstructure's development?

Why did Taizu hide this passage and not write it openly in "Economics"?
With all kinds of doubts, Empress Dowager Ye opened another locked box, which was left by Emperor Dingtai for his grandson to read after he turned 25.

It contains reading notes of several emperors, which are their thoughts and insights on reading the secret books of Taizu and Taizong based on their own experiences as emperors.

Among them, Emperor Dingtai had the most reading notes, filling a whole book with densely written content.

After reading the notes of several emperors, Empress Dowager Ye couldn't sleep for a while. She was born as a prodigy and had a very high comprehension ability, so she was very scared.

After that, she studied classics and history frantically, and summoned scholars to give lectures to her every ten days.

The ministers praised this highly.

Empress Dowager Ye gradually dispelled her fear. Learning from history, she knew that as long as the people could afford to eat, the Ming Dynasty would continue. However, certain forces must be firmly controlled, but not overly suppressed, because they were also one of the foundations of the Ming Dynasty's rule.

Because Emperor Taizu wrote in the secret book: Through the control and coercion of society, the superstructure serves the economic base, promotes its formation, consolidation and development, and excludes things that are opposed to it. Without this control, society will fall into chaos and the superstructure will be overthrown and rebuilt.

Empress Dowager Ye was lonely. She had no one to discuss this kind of thing with and could only wait for her son to grow up.

In another room.

Xie Yan was fiddling with his pistol. He finally understood why ancient nobles liked hunting.

It’s the same mentality as fishermen. It’s probably the human hunting gene passed down from ancient times.

With this, it seems that princesses are not so fragrant anymore.

"Liu Lang, why are you still playing with the musket?" Zhu Tangxi lay on her side on the bed, posing a very seductive posture, holding her cheek with her hand and making a charming sound.

Xie Yan put down his flintlock rifle with a smile: "Sister, I want to see the clothes you wear when you go hunting during the day."

"That set of clothes was soaked with sweat and was extremely dirty," said Zhu Tangxi.

"Change into a clean set." Xie Yan ran to rummage through the suitcase.

Soon, Zhu Tangxi was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

But Xie Yan came back with clothes and a flintlock rifle: "Sister, change quickly, and take this musket too. I want to learn hunting from you."

"Learning to hunt in bed?" Zhu Tangxi said.

Xie Yan probably awakened some XP: "Sister, put on your hunting outfit, hold your musket and lie down. I will follow you and learn from you."

Zhu Tangxi spat, "What a mess! Liu Lang, your ideas are so weird."

Even though he was complaining, his body was actually very obedient.

After changing his clothes and holding the musket, Zhu Tangxi knelt down and asked, "What next?"

Xie Yan crawled over and said, "Sister, how do I fire the musket?"

"Didn't you learn it during the day?" Zhu Tangxi said.

"I forgot what I learned during the day and I want my sister to teach me again." Xie Yan pretended to be serious about learning.

Zhu Tangxi had no choice but to start teaching hunting, and gradually he realized the fun of role-playing.

(End of this chapter)