No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 26 The Other Side of Prosperity (Please read and vote)

If we set out from Su Ze's house at 11:00 PM, even if we took a horse carriage, it would still take us half an hour, or an hour, to reach Caofang City.

Unlike square capitals like Chang'an and Luoyang, Bianjing City was not square because it had a river running through it, and the roads inside the city were mostly winding paths.

When Qian Chu, the last ruler of the Wuyue Kingdom, entered the city of Bianjing, he once boasted to Emperor Taizu of Song that he had two jade belts handed down from the Tang Dynasty.

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin pointed to the city of Bianjing and said that Bianjing had four rivers running through it, namely the Bian River, Jinshui River, Wuzhang River and Cai River, so it also had four jade belts.

Upon hearing this, Qian Chu, the last ruler of Wuyue, felt very ashamed and presented the two Tang Dynasty jade belts to Zhao Kuangyin.

Among these four jade belts, the Bian Canal is the most prosperous.

The Bian Canal is a man-made river, which was actually the Tongji Canal dug by order of Emperor Yang of Sui to connect the Yellow River and Huai River waterways.

The Bian Canal connects Luoyang with the southeastern water system, so all grain transport from Jiangnan and Liangzhe must be transported through the Bian Canal into Luoyang. In the Tang Dynasty, it was regarded as the lifeline of the capital.

The city of Bianjing was originally a water transport hub city with developed water transport relying on Luoyang and the southeast.

However, due to the chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the water system between Luoyang and Bianliang became difficult to use. Emperor Taizu of Song chose Bianliang as the capital because of its convenience in water transportation.

Caofang City was built on the largest natural shallow land along the Bian River. It was the central hub for the transport and unloading of grain in the entire Bianjing City, and naturally became the largest trading market in the entire Bianjing City.

In "Dongjing Menghualu", this place was described as "the eight wildernesses gather together, all countries are connected, and the treasures from all over the world are gathered."

Sure enough, it was almost midnight (11 o'clock at night), but there was a traffic jam in front of the entrance of Caoshifang!

As a member of the Imperial City Department, Li Dutou was very familiar with the situation in Bianjing City. He said to Su Ze:

"Mr. Su, the grain from Jiangsu and Zhejiang is coming to the capital these days, and the porters have to unload it overnight. We should abandon the cart and walk."

Su Ze nodded. The government collects grain twice a year, which is divided into summer grain and autumn grain according to the different maturity times of crops.

However, after the grain was collected, it had to be loaded, unloaded and transported. Even though the city of Bianliang had water transportation, it still required manpower organization in ancient society, which was a very long cycle.

Summer grain from Jiangsu and Zhejiang is usually shipped in autumn and arrives in Bianliang before winter.

Then these grain-carrying ships would have to return to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions before winter.

Because in winter, the water flow in the river will become less, and some colder areas will freeze, making it impossible to navigate.

After the first month of the lunar year, when the waterway was open again, the autumn grain stored in Jiangsu and Zhejiang last year was loaded onto ships and transported to Bianjing City.

For the people of Bianliang, the waterways were unobstructed in early spring, and grain from Jiangsu and Zhejiang was brought into the capital. After enduring a winter of high grain prices, they would fall, which was naturally something to be thankful for.

Therefore, the opening of the Bian Canal every year is a major event in the city of Bianliang, and it is even about to evolve into a festival.

Moreover, every time the Bian River was opened, merchant ships entering the capital would not only bring food, but also deliver various supplies along the Grand Canal to Bianjing.

The docks near the Bian River were filled with the work chants of the dock porters. Su Ze also saw two teams of porters competing with each other while shouting slogans, and they soon finished unloading the two barges.

All this gave Su Ze a great shock. Come to think of it, the daily food consumption of a city with a population of one million is an astronomical figure. If there was no developed water transport system, the people in Bianjing would have starved to death long ago.

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was born in Luoyang, but he did not make Luoyang the capital like the Tang Dynasty did. This was because of the problem of water transport. The cost of transporting grain from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Luoyang was too high.

"Mr. Su, be careful."

Li Dutou's fat body blocked Su Ze, and the thin military leader grabbed a hand that came out from nowhere.

The arm was as flexible as a snake. It broke free from the thin military leader's grip at an angle that Su Ze could not understand, and then retracted into the darkness.

"Mr. Su, you'd better be careful because the guys from Ronghang often hang out in Caoshifang." Su Ze understood that the so-called Ronghang refers to an organized gang engaged in theft. The city of Bianjing is a mixed crowd, and Caoshifang is the place with the most people moving around, so naturally there are a lot of thieves there.

"Thank you!"

Su Ze thanked Li Dutou, and there were no more problems on the road. After turning around the bustling dock area, the three of them turned into a dark alley.

The thin military leader pointed at the alley and said:

"This is the entrance to the ghost market."

Looking at the dark entrance, Fatty untied the bag on his back and took out a strange lamp.

The lamp was covered with an iron mesh lampshade. Fat Dutou took off the lampshade, lit the wick inside, and then said to Su Ze:

"The Ghost Market is called the Ghost Market because it hides many evil things. Someone once entered with a candle and was shattered to pieces by the evil things."

"This lamp is said to be blessed by a high monk and can ward off evil spirits. As long as you hold it, you will be safe."

Although Fat Head said it was safe, his body was still shaking because there were too many bizarre legends circulating in the ghost market.

Shattered to pieces?

Su Ze thought about it and thought that this unlucky guy must have accidentally entered an area where flammable gases such as methane gathered underground, and the open flame ignited these gases, causing the explosion.

Su Ze had seen this kind of iron mesh covering the wick used in Western mines in the early industrial age. It seemed to be called a David lamp.

However, Su Ze was not an engineering student and did not know the principle of the David lamp, or why an iron mesh lampshade could be explosion-proof.

But he was also shocked. He didn't expect that these people could invent such a thing in order to enter and exit the underground sewer.

It’s not surprising if you think about it. He had met Wang Anshi, and Shen Kuo should have been studying. The fact that the Northern Song Dynasty could write a book like "Mengxi Bitan" means that the development of science and technology must have been very rapid.

It’s a pity that this type of lamp had such a narrow application that it was eventually lost in history.

Li Dutou held a lantern and the group walked to the end of the alley. A hole appeared on the wall. Li Dutou took the lead and squeezed into the hole. Then he called Su Ze and Shou Juntou to come down.

After a dark and narrow passage, the road gradually widened. With the flickering light in Li Dutou's hand, Su Ze saw traces of artificial excavation.

These should be the underground sewers within the city of Bianjing.

What surprised Su Ze was that although it was an underground sewer, the air was not turbid. He thought it was because the ghost market had many entrances and exits.

As the group continued forward, traces of human activities gradually appeared.

Fat Head said:
"This ghost market is not only populated by traders, but also by refugees who can no longer survive on earth. They hide here to avoid capture by the assassination and inspection camps."

Zhaoci Jiankuoying was the organization responsible for recruiting soldiers. Because the Song Dynasty would recruit refugees as soldiers, and after joining the army they would have words tattooed on their foreheads (see Song Jiang), so recruiting soldiers was also called Zhaoci.

In order to maintain the beauty of the city, the city of Bianjing would regularly inspect the homeless population in the city and incorporate them into the army.

The Bian Jing army was notoriously hungry and poorly clothed, and was enslaved by its superiors, so the refugees would rather flee underground than be captured by the Recruiting and Inspection Camp and forced to join the army.

When Su Ze thought about what the underground of the prosperous Bianjing city looked like, he couldn't help but sigh that this was the other side of the prosperous times.

　It’s been released for trial, please read and vote!

　　It’s the new book season recently, and there will be a lot of updates after it’s on the shelves!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)