People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 446: Eating the Whole Family, Old Customs and Habits
History is a magical thing.

Before Watt used rubber to improve the sealing of the steam engine, allowing the steam engine to drive the First Industrial Revolution, various great ideas and inventions appeared in Europe.

Including Franklin's electrical experiment, Newton's steam car, Huygens' internal combustion engine, Pierre Jaquet Droz computer puppet and so on.

These colorful inventions laid a solid foundation for the West to be the first to complete the Industrial Revolution in the future.

But Zhao Jun was not envious.

Because in his view, the Western path is a mixture of chance and necessity, while the Song Dynasty will definitely move firmly in the right direction.

First of all, after the Middle Ages, the West, through three major movements over hundreds of years, eventually established the concept of the direction of scientific development, thereby making basic education more popular and in-depth and cultivating various talents.

With such a huge base, it is inevitable that quantitative changes will lead to qualitative changes, which is a normal phenomenon.

Secondly, the wisdom of the Chinese has never been inferior to that of foreigners. Now the Song Dynasty also has its own Huygens, who is conducting research on internal combustion engines.

Even if Cai Zhi failed in the end, at least he had accumulated enough experience and might be able to improve in this area in the future.

Last but not least.

The Song Dynasty is now also working hard to develop basic education, and it is still guided by the power of the state. Zhao Jun can also always provide the right direction.

As long as basic education is done well, with the population base of the Song Dynasty and wisdom that is no less than that of Western people, I believe it will not be difficult to produce a few giants like Newton, Einstein and Faraday in the future.

Therefore, the Western path had too many uncertainties, and even if it succeeded in the end, it took hundreds of years. Many of them were accidental discoveries rather than inevitable results.

The Song Dynasty only needed to be led by Zhao Jun, with correct guidance, clear goals, and the whole country's strength, to naturally turn chance into inevitability, thereby greatly shortening the historical process and the time of development.

Perhaps it took the West 1760 years from the start of the first industrial revolution in 1950 to the start of the third industrial revolution in 190, but the Song Dynasty only needed half of that time to accomplish it.

On March 26, after inspecting Wu'an, Zhao Jun drove away the officials of Luzhou Prefecture, and the convoy set off again, continuing northward to Youzhou.

As early summer approaches, the weather in Hebei becomes increasingly hotter at noon. The sun is high in the sky, and people have to stop when the sun is at its hottest and find a relatively cool place to rest.

This is Shahe County, Xingzhou. Dozens of miles to the north is Xingzhou City, which is Xingtai City in later generations. In the distance, the fields in the wilderness are lush and green, the people use canals to irrigate the water, and there are dense forests on the roadside.

Everyone drove the carriage into the edge of the woods and led the horses into the woods. There happened to be a small hill to the west of the forest with a spring flowing out of it. Everyone fetched water from the stream and were boiling the water over a fire to ensure that it was clean and hygienic.

Jiang Dalang boiled a pot of water in an iron kettle, poured the boiling water into an iron cup, then put the iron cup into the cold stream to cool it down, and finally brought it to Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun took a sip of warm water, looked around, and then said to Wang Anshi and others around him: "This trip to Wu'an has also been very rewarding."

Su Huan sighed, "I am just amazed. I have never seen such a scene before when I was an official in a local government."

"Yes, this tall building is amazing."

"It's a pity that only Bianliang and Wu'an have such a grand occasion in the whole country, and the rest of the places are..."

"That's probably why Zhiyuan brought us here."

Wang Anshi and Li Xiaoji, who had only served in local positions before and had rarely even been to Kaifeng, expressed their feelings repeatedly.

In the final analysis, except for Bianliang and Wu'an, the rest of the places are still the same as they were before. After going to Bianliang and Wu'an, you will naturally be visually shocked.

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Now that you have seen the situation in Bianliang and Wu'an, you can analyze how to develop nationwide?"

Wang Anshi thought for a while and said, "I think we should give priority to developing cities like Wu'an that have a lot of coal and iron. We should build more canals and roads in these places and develop steel mills first. When such cities are spread all over the country, they can help build other cities."

"Very good, the rich first will help the poor later!"

Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction and said, "This is also my idea. Resource-based cities need to rely on resources to rise first. Bianliang is a special case. It does not produce coal or iron, so it is not comparable. If other cities want to develop, they must find their own path. As the saying goes, one leads to two, and one is more important than two. Once the steel industry has a pioneer, it can drive other cities as well."

Yang Cha said, "Does the Director want to promote large-scale steel construction across the country first?"

"Ah."

Zhao Jun nodded: "Before, it was only on a small scale, and steel mills were built in various places. But I hope that every state and county with coal and iron resources will have its own steel industry in the future!"

Although the steel industry was promoted in the new policy of the third year of the Qingli period, the situation at that time was not very good.

At present, only one steel plant has been built in each province.

For example, the steel mill in Hebei is in Wu'an, in Henan is in Pingdingshan, and in Hubei is in Huangshi. Moreover, some of the first-built ones have already been put into production, while some of the later-built ones are still in the construction stage, and the progress is not unified.

Therefore, although steel production has been increasing in recent years, there has not been explosive growth. This is because the Song Dynasty is still in the stage of laying the foundation and has not yet expanded from one to two.

As Zhao Jun said, the court's focus will now be on the construction of these resource-based cities.

Just like what happened after we founded our country in later generations.

The difference is that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to catch up with the industrial progress of the West, we suffered a lot, endured a lot, and spent many years before we finally caught up with the United States and surpassed Britain and completed the early industrial accumulation.

Today, every step forward that the Song Dynasty takes puts it ahead of the world by who knows how many eras, especially the construction of steam ironclad ships, which greatly requires steel.

Once industrial construction expands from one to two, and steel production increases from the current hundreds of thousands of tons to millions or even tens of millions of tons, even if it is not as high as the 10 billion tons level in the future, it will be enough to conquer the world with the production of ironclad ships in large numbers.

Therefore, since the destruction of Western Xia, Zhao Jun was not actually in a hurry to destroy the Liao Kingdom and its surrounding countries. Attacking now would not be worth the cost, and it would also take a lot of manpower and material resources to govern.

We just need to wait until the Song Dynasty's industrial capacity reaches a higher level in the future, and then it will be a natural and easy thing to take over these surrounding countries.

Everyone chatted for a while, and then in the afternoon, when the sun was finally covered by clouds, everyone set off again.

As they had not yet reached Xingzhou when it got dark, the group spent the night in a village in Sha County. In the evening, the town was bustling with the sound of gongs and drums inside and outside.

Zhao Jun was originally resting in the inn as he had to continue his journey tomorrow. He had just soaked his feet and called Chen Xiliang to chat when he suddenly heard a noise outside. He put on his shoes, walked to the window and looked down.

His room was next to the window, and he saw a wedding procession passing by. Chen Xiliang beside him said, "Another newlywed couple."

"Something's wrong."

Zhao Jun frowned and said, "Look at the people watching below. They seem to be avoiding this team."

Chen Xiliang noticed this and said, "It's not a girl's bone."

"Dalang!"

"Zhiyuan."

Jiang Dalang pushed the door open and walked in.

Zhao Jun said: "Go downstairs and ask what's going on."

"Yes."

Jiang Dalang responded and went out.

Not long after, he came back to report: "Minister, the people watching said that this is a match for a girl's bones."

"Send someone to talk to the Sha County government and investigate the source of the remains."

"Yes."

"Bad habits and customs are still a big problem." After Jiang Dalang left, Zhao Jun walked back to the chair, sat down to soak his feet and said, "This custom has already wandered on the edge of morality and law. If you are not careful, it may be a crime."

The Song Dynasty was the dynasty in which ghost marriages were most popular. According to Kang Yuzhi's "Yesterday's Dream Record", whenever an unmarried man or woman died, their parents would ask a "ghost matchmaker" to arrange a marriage for them.

In other words, in the Song Dynasty, as long as a man or a woman died young, their parents would definitely hold a ghost marriage for them. This shows how important the ghost marriage custom was in the Song Dynasty.

As the saying goes, where there is demand, there must be a market, and where there are buyers, there must be sellers. What happens if the product is missing?

As a result, the ghost marriage market formed an industrial chain in the Song Dynasty, with "ghost matchmakers", "corpse diggers", and even in the end, there were people who kidnapped and sold bones of people who had been killed.

For example, when Zhao Jun first toured the country, he encountered a landlord who was planning to kill people and share their bones. He also followed the clues and arrested a large number of corrupt officials.

But obviously, as long as the market exists, this phenomenon will not stop, just as it still happens in the 21st century.

"I think this matter still needs the guidance of the court and cannot be banned blindly."

Chen Xiliang also came over and sat next to him, soaking his feet together and said, "If we directly ban the matching of daughters' bones, the people will be ignorant and will not understand the good intentions of the court. But if we find a way to guide them, it should be much better."

"Well, your suggestion is very insightful."

Zhao Jun pondered, "The reason why the practice of marrying daughters' bones is so popular in the Song Dynasty is that the court did not intervene, which led to this bad custom. But if we forcibly ban it, the people will definitely oppose it. Perhaps we can first transition to legal ghost marriages, and then wait until the education level develops and more and more people realize that this practice is evil, and then ban it completely."

"Oh?"

Chen Xiliang asked curiously, "What's the meaning of this legal ghost marriage?"

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "It's simple. In order to prevent the theft of human remains and even murder and corpse matching, the imperial court ordered that anyone in the country who wanted to match the bones of a girl must go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to register, just like getting married."

Chen Xiliang thought about it for a moment, then gave a thumbs up and said, "This is a brilliant move by the dean. In this way, when matching bones, the source of the body must be disclosed to prevent those who steal bones or even kill people and match the bodies."

"It is impossible to completely eliminate it. For example, if they collude with the local civil affairs bureau, they can conceal the truth. But if we can reduce most of them, we can reduce a lot of crimes."

Zhao Jun said: "Even if we don't find a suitable corpse, we can go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to register. In this way, the Civil Affairs Bureau provides a platform for people who are willing to match bones to have a place to go. We don't have to go around looking for ghost matchmakers to find corpses like before."

When Chen Xiliang heard this, he felt it was even more clever and kept saying, "The governor is wise."

Only Zhao Jun smiled bitterly and said, "It's just a helpless move."

If it were in the new era in the future, no matter what kind of monsters you are, we would catch them all in one fell swoop.

Still worthy of ghost marriage?

They were all sent to the police station to eat jail food.

But in the Song Dynasty, if a child died young, a ghost marriage would be arranged. How could it be banned immediately?

Once the imperial court issues a ban, if the people's thinking does not change in time, it is very likely to evolve into a situation like the Prohibition in the United States in the 1930s, where the more it is banned, the more prosperous it becomes, and crime becomes more frequent.

Therefore, in order to prevent taking too big a step and causing trouble, Zhao Jun would not impose a comprehensive ban.

The only way is as Chen Xiliang said, to guide people step by step, transform private behaviors into legal ones, and determine the sources of corpses, so as to reduce the crime rate.

This will also be convenient for the people and provide them with information, so they no longer have to rely on ghost matchmakers to earn high prices by taking advantage of information gaps as in the past.

The only thing we need to prevent is local civil affairs officials from doing this kind of thing.

The next day, early in the morning, before Zhao Jun set out, the Shahe County magistrate and the county lieutenant came hurriedly to report the situation to Zhao Jun.

They heard last night that Zhao Jun passed by Shahe and saw someone matching a daughter's bones. They wanted to find out the source of the corpse. They were almost scared to death and arrested the family of the victim and the ghost matchmaker overnight.

After interrogation, it was confirmed that the corpse was indeed stolen.

After all, ghost marriages are often time-sensitive. It's rare that there's a son who died in your place and a daughter who died nearby. If there's no local match, you can only go to other places with the help of a ghost matchmaker.

If the ghost matchmaker wants someone to find a corpse from another place, there are two ways. One is to buy it, and the host family will reimburse you.

Second, if you don’t want to spend money to buy it, then you can only steal it.

Moreover, compared to purchasing the bones yourself, stolen bones are a cost-free business, and you can still ask the owner for reimbursement, thus making two profits.

Therefore, grave robbing is very common.

Upon learning of this, Zhao Jun instructed the local authorities to severely punish those involved in the case, and instructed that if anyone used the bones of a daughter in the future, they must find out the source of the corpse.

The Shahe County Magistrate and the County Lieutenant agreed in succession, and then Zhao Jun set off again, heading towards Xingzhou.

Two days later, after inspecting Xingzhou, he passed Neiqiu, left Xingzhou, and arrived in Zhaozhou, which was on the border between Zhaozhou and Xingzhou, with Lincheng to the north.

It was afternoon when the convoy passed by a village and saw a grand banquet being held in the village. Dozens of tables were set up in the village, and villagers were coming in and out in groups, making the scene very lively.

When Zhao Jun heard the sound of gongs and drums, he put down the book he was reading, lifted the curtain and glanced outside. After looking for a moment, his brows frowned.

After a while the convoy stopped.

This is the junction of Lincheng and Neiqiu. A tributary of the Lishui River flows through here, and the two villages are separated by the river.

The villages on the east bank were holding a grand banquet, but the villages on the west bank were doing what they were supposed to do. There were even a few old men squatting under a big tree at the entrance of the village to enjoy the cool air, pointing at the opposite bank and talking.

Zhao Jun felt that something was wrong, so he got off the car and told everyone to stay where they were. He only took Jiang Dalang, Huang Sanlang and a few other followers across the river to inquire.

There is a wooden bridge connecting the two banks of this tributary. The official road runs along the river. The convoy stopped by the bridge, while the old men were under a tree at the entrance of the village on the other side of the bridge. When they saw a few strangers coming, they looked at him curiously.

"Everyone, we are merchants passing by. The village across the street is beating drums and gongs, but there are no weddings or funerals. Why would we hold a banquet?"

Zhao Jun pointed across and asked.

"Ah."

The people in this village might have conflicts with the neighboring village. Someone immediately sneered, "What else could it be? Eating up all the families."

"How to eat it?"

Zhao Jun frowned even more tightly.

"The third son of the Liu family died, and his sons seized his family's property and sold his wife and daughter to brothels. Now they are hosting a banquet for the whole village."

the man said.

In an instant.

Zhao Jun's expression turned serious.

Compared with the previous trip where he stayed more at the official level, this time he hopes to go deeper into the people.

Although I also traveled among the people on my previous trip, they were in dire straits at the time, and some of their problems were overshadowed by bigger problems such as not having enough food to eat and not having warm clothes to wear.

Now that people are living and working in peace and contentment, more problems have emerged.

(End of this chapter)