The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 369: Explaining the Classics to a Great Confucian Scholar

Merchant ships continued north along the canal...

Along the way, Fu Songqing noticed that there were many boats on the Grand Canal!

This doesn't resemble a river between two warring countries at all, but rather a canal between two cities within the same country, with all sorts of merchant ships bustling about on its surface.

Some transported cotton cloth, some transported cotton directly, some transported cotton thread, and some transported cotton-padded clothes directly.

There was also grain being transported from the north to the south...

There were silk shipments transported from the south to the north...

Besides large merchant ships, there were also small merchant ships, small sampans that could only carry a few people. They could not travel long distances, only short distances, and carried only a small amount of goods, which were extremely diverse, including not only food, but also daily necessities such as needles and thread.

There are also a large number of fishing boats on the river, and the people are happily fishing on the river. On the riverbank, you can see fishermen exchanging live fish with farmers for grain.

Fu Songqing had only occasionally seen merchant ships at the docks in Yangzhou before, and had never personally come to the Grand Canal to take a closer look. Now he was shocked to realize that the place had changed so much.

"There's a war going on, how could this happen?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed and said, "Because the people of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties did not want to fight, things turned out this way."

Fu Songqing murmured, "The common people don't want to fight? The common people don't want to fight?"

He muttered to himself for a while, then sighed, "When I was first dismissed, I felt wronged, but now that I hear what you've said, it seems that my dismissal wasn't so unjust after all. Was my urging of Zhang Jun and Liu Guangshi to wage war against the Northern Song Dynasty a way to harm the people of Huaidong?"

Yue Wenxuan sighed softly, "Yes! You could say that."

Fu Songqing: "..."

Yue Wenxuan: "The Northern and Southern Song Dynasties were actually both Song. The princes were vying for the throne, but for the common people, whichever prince ascended the throne would not change the fate of our Great Song Dynasty. Compared with foreign enemies like the Jin Dynasty and the puppet Qi Dynasty, it was not a concept."

Fu Songqing agreed with this and nodded.

Yue Wenxuan said, "So, for the common people, whichever prince can make their lives better is more suitable to be emperor, isn't that right?"

Fu Songqing: "You can't say that! The current emperor was appointed by Empress Meng and his accession to the throne is perfectly legitimate, while the seventeenth prince was enthroned by a group of gentry in Jiaodong and declared himself emperor. His title is not legitimate... Besides, even if we were to rank them by seniority, the current emperor is the ninth in line, which puts him ahead of the seventeenth prince. The seventeenth prince would be ranked much further ahead."

Upon hearing this, Yue Wenxuan was no longer in a hurry to argue with him.

Traditional civil officials could talk about theories like seniority and order of seniority for years on end.

There's no need to argue with him; let him wait and see.

As they chatted, much time passed, and they admired the bustling Grand Canal along the way.

As evening approached, we arrived at Chuzhou Wharf.

At this time, three shipyards had been built next to the Chuzhou dock. One of them was a warship shipyard built by the Northern Song government, which had begun producing small and medium-sized naval warships.

The other two are small shipyards built with private capital, which are responsible for building fishing boats and merchant ships.

Fu Songqing saw a large number of shipwrights hammering and tinkering in the shipyard, inlaying wooden planks onto the beams of the ship, a scene of bustling activity.

He spotted the "centipede boat" at a glance. This kind of boat not only has sails, but also oars. The dozen or so oars pre-installed on both sides of the hull are like the legs of a centipede, extending out densely along the hull.

Fu Songqing was startled: "This ship looks like it's going very fast."

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "That's right! This is a ship that is faster than the carts and boats of the pseudo-Chu Kingdom."

Fu Songqing: "!!!"

Yue Wenxuan: "The vehicles and ships of the pseudo-Chu Kingdom used paddle wheels, but paddle wheels are not the optimal solution when the two basic aspects of bearings and sealing are not well done. Our centipede boats of the Northern Song Dynasty are the optimal solution."

Fu Songqing didn't understand the technical details, but he could see Yue Wenxuan's confidence.

If his confidence was not arrogance, then the Northern Song navy would be more difficult to deal with than the navy of the pseudo-Chu.

Fu Songqing felt a chill run down his spine. The navy of the pseudo-Chu Kingdom was very powerful. The Southern Song Dynasty sent several generals to besiege the navy of the pseudo-Chu Kingdom, but they were all defeated by Yang Yao, which gave the emperor a great headache. Now he was hoping that Yue Fei would quell the bandits in Jiangxi as soon as possible so that he could transfer Yue Fei to Dongting Lake to deal with the pseudo-Chu Kingdom.

If the Northern Song Dynasty's navy was stronger than that of the puppet state of Chu, then the Southern Song Dynasty would have been utterly crushed.

He forced himself to remain calm as he disembarked at the dock and said to Yue Wenxuan, "Since you are my guide, please take me to see the Privy Councilor."

Yue Wenxuan: "Come with me!"

Bring Fu Songqing into the city...

Just like when Qin Hui first came to Chuzhou, Fu Songqing felt a vigorous and upward force in the city as soon as he entered. Although the city was under construction and construction was in full swing everywhere, the whole city had a feeling of "about to take off".

There wasn't a single beggar in the city, and everyone seemed to have enough to eat.

The streets were bustling with merchants, all hurrying about. It was clear that many of them had come from out of town. These merchants varied in size; the larger ones hauled goods in carts, while the smaller ones carried them on shoulder poles. The scene was as lively and prosperous as the capital of the Song Dynasty.
According to the traditional literati, "No merchant is without cunning." If a city is full of merchants, wouldn't that be the same as a city full of wicked people? Wouldn't the common people be driven to their deaths?
But Fu Songqing could tell that the people here were all happy and had not been killed by the unscrupulous merchants who filled the city.

Yue Wenxuan laughed and said, "There are many merchants here, so prices are lower and wages are higher."

Fu Songqing: "The lady mentioned the low prices on the ship, and I understand. But what about the higher wages?"

Yue Wenxuan: "When there were few merchants, out of a hundred porters, perhaps only ten could be hired by them. The other ninety couldn't find work, so they lowered their prices, and wages kept decreasing... until everyone died of poverty. But when there are many merchants, they might need to hire a hundred and ten porters to move goods, and they'd still be short ten porters' strength. So they have to raise wages and compete for porters, otherwise their goods will have no one to move them... This applies to porters, textile workers, and brewers alike..."

Fu Songqing thought about it carefully: It seems that it really is true!
But he immediately had another question: "For there to be more merchants, there must be more goods, right?"

Yue Wenxuan smiled: "Congratulations, you've grasped the essence! To attract so many merchants to come and buy goods, Chuzhou must have more advanced productivity. In other words, the production link also needs to be strengthened. Chuzhou's grain, cotton cloth, wine, ceramics, and sea salt are all striving to increase production, far exceeding the cities of Huainan East Road. Merchants will naturally flock to Chuzhou... And with more merchants, the produced goods will be sold and turned over quickly, which will encourage producers to work harder to increase production..."

(End of this chapter)