Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 226 0221 [Yang Zhi sells knives]

Faced with such a situation, what should the scholar do?
Zhu Ming can't say, and dare not say, everyone guesses slowly.He is just doing psychological guidance, and everyone can have a different understanding.

All the scholars lived in Daming Village for a few days, and then left one after another, rushing back home to spend the winter solstice.

Ling Guxu stood at the bow of the boat, staring at the river in silence.

Ju Ming watched them leave without saying a word.

Bai Qi tilted his head and asked, "What is brother thinking?"

"A little thing." Zhu Ming smiled and patted Bai Qi's head.

According to the news from the household department, Da Song's financial expenditure has exploded.

As far as officials' salaries and soldiers' salaries are concerned, Zhao Kuangyin was 150 million per year at that time.During Wang Anshi's reform period, it has soared to 300 million.Yuanfeng reformed the system, and the salary of officials increased, so it skyrocketed to more than 400 million.

After Song Huizong succeeded to the throne, his salary and military salary reached 600 million yuan.

Now, close to 1000 million!

This is just the annual salary and military pay, and does not include other military expenditures, not even military rations.

Song Huizong's large-scale construction was enough to toss, and no one could figure out how much it cost for only one Genyue.Anyway, after the construction is completed, it will cover an area of ​​about 750 mu, with mountains built on flat ground, the highest point of which is more than 150 meters, countless pavilions, strange stones, flowers and plants, and hundreds of thousands of people have been employed.It is also divided into two mountains, which are poured with water from the river.

In this way, when Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty wanted to redeem Yanjing, the Jinren only offered one million guan, and the Song court could not even collect the cash, and had to use various materials to pay off the debt.

Zhu Ming led Bai Qi home, thinking about a very important matter.

When Fangla rebelled, he also raised troops in Hanzhong. If Sichuan is completely occupied, how much financial pressure will it cause the court?
Counted and counted, and found that there was no way to count.

Even if Zhu Ming got some data from the Ministry of Household Affairs, he still couldn't figure out how much the imperial court's revenue was.

For example, after Fangla was pacified in history, the imperial court was extremely short of money, so it started to levy economic money.That is to say, among various commercial taxes, 20 more coins are collected each time.With this alone, more than three times the land tax can be collected.

Squeeze it, it seems that taxes can be squeezed out.

When Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty crossed the river, the annual income of the three southeast roads (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui south of the Yangtze River, and the north of Poyang Lake) was less than ten million yuan.After only 30 years, the annual income in the southeast has risen to more than 500 million. How did Zhao Gou increase the tax by six times, but did not force the common people to die?
Da Song's ability to collect taxes is simply a mystery.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Sichuan region contributed more finance than the southeast region, about 1500 million guan (including local retention)!Tea and salt are the main tax revenues in Sichuan.

Zhu Ming threw the messy account into the brazier and burned it, feeling that he could really cope with Fang La's uprising.

The southeast and Sichuan rebelled together, and they could blow up the finances of the Song Dynasty!

So what if the Western Army is awesome?

Just relying on the mountains and rivers to defend for a year, the soldiers of the Western Army may not even have enough food and pay.

But if they rebel ahead of time, "justice" will be lacking.

This so-called justice refers to mainstream public opinion.Everyone knows that the emperor appreciates Zhu's father and son, and their rebellion is to repay kindness and revenge, and they will instantly bear the infamy of "unfaithful and untrustworthy" and "ungrateful".

If Jingkang rebelled later, it would be much more logical.

Zhu Ming picked up the brush and began to write letters to his father, using pinyin for the whole text, to discuss the timing of the rebellion.Even if you ignore the time, you still have to consider "justice". The father and son have received too much favor now, and it's time to anger the emperor.

Spouting Cai Jing would not annoy the emperor, and Song Huizong would be happy to have someone do it.

You have to spray Zhu Yu, spray flowers and stone outlines, and persuade the emperor not to build Genyue, and stop doing various civil engineering projects.This must make the emperor unhappy, it is best for father and son to demote together!
The worse the experience, the better. It can not only win the sympathy of the world, but also earn the prestige of pleading for the people.

"What word is this?" Bai Qi looked at the pinyin.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Book from Heaven."

Bai Qi asked: "Brother, can I learn from heavenly scriptures?"

"I'll pass it on to you after you improve your knowledge." Ju Ming said perfunctorily.

"Oh." Bai Qi stopped entangled in this matter, and continued to watch Zhu Ming write the heavenly book with curious eyes.

After writing a letter, Ju Ming asked, "Is there any martial arts training?"

Bai Qi shook his head: "My mother-in-law told me to study well, and when I grow up, I will take the imperial examination and become an official."

Zhu Ming said: "From now on, when I ask my mother-in-law who is practicing martial arts with Uncle Zhang, she will say that the world will be chaotic, and only by practicing martial arts can I defend myself."

"Okay." Bai Qi was very happy. Which child doesn't like to wield knives and sticks?

In the days that followed, Ju Ming read books and practiced martial arts every day.

The book he read is called "Wu Jing Zong Yao", which is not easy to get, so he got a set through his father.

Zhang Guangdao, Li Bao, Zhang Tong, Deng Xia, and Bai Sheng who returned to the village all followed suit.Deng Chun followed Shi Yuangong to recruit iron smelters, and he will learn from him when he comes back.

The sub-volumes that I haven't read for a while are thrown to Liu Shiren to copy.

Liu Shiren is the son of the bankrupt Liu family, who has been recruited by Zhu Ming as a secretary, and will follow him to Jinzhou to take up the post after the beginning of spring.

They are all personal followers, and the imperial court not only allows them, but also sets the number of personal attendants, and the imperial court helps pay their salaries every month.

What the Song Dynasty forbids is the private employment of staff, and the staff follow is never the same.For example, masters in the Ming and Qing Dynasties could intervene in government affairs, participate in adjudication of cases, and take charge of documents and accounts, which was absolutely not allowed in the Song Dynasty.

To practice martial arts, you also need to read books, borrow the martial arts secret books from the Zhang family, and practice the mace method according to the records in the book.

This year is a warm winter, and it is almost the Chinese New Year before it snows.

Moreover, the temperature suddenly dropped, and it was snowing all over the north, and even the Jianghuai area began to snow.

……

Yingzhou (Fuyang).

Yang Zhi frowned as he looked at the sky full of snow.

Twelve of them went south to worship and were assigned to different states and counties.

Yang Zhi and Sun Li's mission locations are very close to each other, and they made an appointment to go on the road together.

Yingzhou belongs to Jingbei Road. The situation here is very similar to Jingdong Road. It has also been sucked by Tokyo for a long time. In recent years, there have been more and more thieves.

The Huashigang escorted by Yang Zhi only loaded a few boats, and it was not a strange stone.After the folks carried the raw lacquer, wood and other things to the boat, Yang Zhi took the boat to escort the goods and went north along the Yingshui River.

Except for the boatmen, there were only twenty or thirty garbage troopers left. He had to wait for Sun Li to come and go with him, so as not to be robbed by water bandits halfway.

"Why is there no meat today?" Yang Zhi asked the postman.

The postman said: "The road is blocked by heavy snow, and the food is almost gone. Where can I get meat? If the county doesn't send food over, we can't help it."

A few days later, the post house no longer provided meals.

Yang Zhi could only eat at a restaurant outside the city with Xiang Jun, who was escorting the boat, and it became more and more expensive because of the heavy snow.

When he went south, he had almost used up his coils.

Now that he is so shy in his pocket, he doesn't even have money for food, so he looks at the treasured sword in his waist.

This is an ancestral hundred-refined steel knife.

When the heavy snow stopped for a while, Yang Zhi went to the city to sell knives. The situation was different from "Water Margin".

He stood there from morning to evening, and finally someone came to buy a knife.

He was a young gangster, Yang Zhi didn't even bother to ask the price, and he couldn't afford it after seeing the other party.The gangster felt that he was underestimated, and walked away cursing, and soon called a group of accomplices to stand beside Yang Zhi, mocking him.

The two sides developed from quarreling to pushing and shoving. The gangsters wanted to grab the knife, and Yang Zhi killed one person in a hurry.

The rest of the gangsters scattered and rushed to the county government to report to the officials.

During the entire Spring Festival, Yang Zhi was locked in a prison.First it was the county government prison, then it was transferred to the state court prison, and it was not until the end of the Lantern Festival holiday that Si Li joined the army that he came to try his case.

Killing people will pay for their lives. Considering that Yang Zhi committed a crime by escorting Hua Shigang, Si Li joined the army and sent him to Weizhou (Xinxiang, Hebi area).

This punishment is really light, and the distribution is too close.

It was only at this time that Sun Li came over with Hua Shigang, just in time to meet Yang Zhi who was about to board the ship (Yang Zhi still had to carry the shackles and continued to escort Hua Shigang).

Both of them belong to failure, but the crime is not enough to die, at most they can't be officers.

Sun Li asked in surprise, "Brother, why did you commit a crime?"

Yang Zhi said: "I've been waiting for you for a long time, and I can't leave until it snows. I ran out of money, and the posthouse didn't give me food, so I thought about selling knives for money, and I killed people when I argued with others. Go back to Beijing to find Grand Master Zhu, let’s see if I can be exonerated from this crime.”

The two arrived in Tokyo with Hua Shigang, first went to hand in the errand, and Sun Li went to inform the sworn brothers.

Sun Li said: "Brother Yang is waiting for me, otherwise he will leave before the snow falls. I am going to ask Mr. Zhu, if he refuses to help, I will kill the guards and save Brother Yang and go to Luocao."

"Forget me," Li Jinyi said, "it's not very interesting to stay in the capital. I'm called around by those bird officials. I worked hard for a trip to Huashigang, but I didn't earn half a penny, but I posted it myself several times. In this world , Even being an officer is unlucky, so I simply fall into the grass and become a robber to have fun."

Lin Chong said: "The twelve of us, since we are sworn brothers, the business of Brother Yang is my business. If Master Zhu doesn't help, I'll go and rob the prisoners!"

The rest of the people agreed one after another, but none of them flinched.

Just for the sake of loyalty, they have to abandon their family and career to rescue Yang Zhi as a robber.

After some discussion, they went to Zhu Guoxiang's residence together, claiming to be Zhu Ming's old acquaintance, and asked Zhu Guoxiang to see him on important matters.

Zhu Guoxiang was left in the palace by the emperor, and after waiting for two full days, he finally saw a carriage come back.

Eleven people stopped the driver and knelt down, shouting: "Mr. Zhu, help!"

Shi Biao immediately took up his weapon to warn Zhu Guoxiang, opened the curtain and asked, "Who are you?"

Sun Li said: "My name is Sun Li, and this is my sworn brother Li Jinyi, Lin Chong, Hua Rong, Chai Jin, Guan Sheng... I and brother Yang Zhi have known Zhu Tanhua for a long time. Zhu Tanhua also said that when he met We will help when things are difficult. Brother Yang accidentally killed someone, and we have nothing to do, so we ask Mr. Zhu to help him."

Zhu Guoxiang was numb when he heard these names, staring at everyone like a giant panda.

After a long time, Zhu Guoxiang said, "Go in and talk about it."

"Thank you, Mr. Xiang!" The 11 people were overjoyed when they heard the words.

(End of this chapter)