Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Outside of Lao Bai, it is the sky of Shangbaicun.

This was not a joke. He shouldered the pressure from taxes directly, and it seemed as if nothing happened in the village.

At least, the villagers won't feel anything until the Xia Liang expedition begins.

When this matter was brought up, Bai Chongyan was furious: "It's so shameless to serve the government at the expense of the common people!"

Li Hanzhang felt a little helpless when he heard this, because his father was also a tax collector, and he was also on the line to the county magistrate.

The more the county handed over to the state, the more his father could withhold, and the court had already acquiesced in this.

The only problem with Xiangzhi County is that the food looks too ugly.

"Don't talk about this, go find Zhu Dalang," Li Hanzhang avoided talking about the matter and changed the subject. "I heard many new interpretations of the scriptures yesterday. I decided to postpone my return to Yangzhou and stay for a few more days to consult with him."

Bai Chongyan said: "Zhu Dalang has mastered the Three Classics at such a young age, which is simply unimaginable. I just don't know how good his writing is."

Li Hanzhang said: "The writings of the time are not vulgar."

"That's not necessarily true," Bai Chongyan said. "Let's just say that I am as knowledgeable as Brother Shoudao from Yangzhou Academy. But when it comes to writing contemporary prose, I am not as good as him."

Li Hanzhang sighed and said, "I'm the same way. I can't pass the exam, and I'm always a little behind in the Jinshi exam."

Chatting along the way, the two went out together.

As for Zheng Hong, the fat man was still sleeping in and didn't even get up to eat breakfast.

When I arrived at Shen Yourong's house, I could smell the smell of feces from afar.

Bai Chongyan took a closer look, covered his nose and backed away instantly.

Good guy, the compost pile was already mixed with chicken manure, but now it was drenched with water. It doesn’t count the water being poured on it. Just like mixing cement, mix the piled up soil evenly, and then directly start kneading the soil into balls.

Xiao Zhu, a scholar who has mastered the three classics, is sitting under the eaves of the thatched house, quickly rubbing balls of excrement and soil, his hands covered with urine and feces.

"This, this, this... is really out of character." Bai Chongyan exclaimed.

Ju Ming continued to work with his hands, and turned to look back with a look of helplessness on his face: "I don't want to either, this is a method taught by the immortals."

Li Hanzhang said speechlessly: "The immortal will teach you how to rub dung balls?"

"It's not taught to me, but taught to my father." Ju Ming corrected.

This magical technique is too unsightly to behold!

The two young masters retreated far away, but they still felt that the scene in front of them was unreal and they suspected that they were not awake yet.

It was such a big mound of dung, and it all had to be rolled into dung balls.

Both father and son were rubbing the balls. After they had finished forty or fifty balls, Zhu Guoxiang put corn seeds into the dung balls carefully, and then moved them to the vegetable bed.

Mrs. Shen's vegetable garden has been completely leveled.

Zhu Guoxiang placed the dung balls filled with corn seeds neatly on the ground. There is a sieve next to it, sieve out the fine soil and pour it on the dung ball, then sprinkle some plant ash, then splash water to moisten it and it's done.

If the climate is warm, in another twenty to thirty days, the corn seedlings grown from the dung balls can be transplanted into the mountains.

If the temperature drops, you have to wait thirty or forty days.

With Ju Ming's out-of-touch character, having him rub excrement balls all morning was simply more uncomfortable than killing him.

But there is no other way, you have to endure it and just exercise your willpower.

Alas, being an official brings in money quickly, and making a fortune from farming is too laborious.

Bai Chongyan and Li Hanzhang have never seen this method of sowing. Although they are extremely disgusted, they can't help but want to see it. And it lasted for two hours at a glance, and it looked like grown men watching the excavator.

By noon, the dung balls were finally rubbed.

Ju Ming washed his hands again and again, but he always had the illusion that they were not clean, and he couldn't help but feel sad - his two girlfriends were so ruthlessly defiled.

Li Hanzhang came forward with Shi Wen and stopped when he was more than one meter away: "Brother Chenggong, can you take a look at Shi Wen for Brother Yu?"

Three points for asking for advice, seven points for asking for advice.

If Ju Ming is not good at writing, Li Hanzhang is mentally balanced. It's like meeting a top student with perfect scores in mathematics, physics and chemistry, only to find that his composition is as average as mine. This can make people feel more comfortable.

"I don't know much about Shiwen, so just take a look."

Zhu Ming took it easily, sat down on a bench, and started reading seriously.

After reading, Ju Ming asked curiously: "Do you have any fixed format for writing essays on scriptures and meanings?"

Li Hanzhang said in detail: "Broken the topic, original topic, lectured on the topic, demonstrated the proof, and ended. I am quite good at solving the topic, but unable to do the proof, and I can't do it as smoothly as the Jinshi article. My teacher Shi Wen also corrected me many times. But... it’s easy to get confused just by writing. I went to the capital to take the exam twice, and the exam became more and more difficult, and the teacher didn’t know how to teach."

Of course Ju Ming could not write eight-part essays, but he knew the process of eight-part essays and had appreciated some of the Ming Dynasty's marvelous essays.

After careful comparison of the format, it can be seen that the classics and meanings at this time already have the prototype of eight parts, but they are called differently.

The meaning of the sutra: breaking the title, original title, lecture, proof, and conclusion.

Eight-legged essay: break the topic, carry the topic, start the speech, (entry into the topic, start the strand, middle strand, back strand, end strand), and conclude.

The biggest difference is that in the formal discussion part, the classics and meanings of the Song Dynasty can be used at will, while the eight-legged essay of the Ming Dynasty is divided into several steps.

Zhu Ming didn't know what to say, so he asked again: "Did you bring a sample essay?"

Bai Chongyan handed over the "Selected Editions of Shiwen": "All the good articles in the past ten years are in this."

Ju Ming casually turned to the middle and chose an article to read.

Unfortunately, although it is very well written, it does not conform to the eight-legged format and would definitely fail in the Ming Dynasty.

Look at the second article, the same is true.

After reading the ninth chapter, the eight-part pattern finally appeared. Ju Ming said: "Practice the ink."

Bai Chongyan subconsciously ran to study ink, studying and studying, but felt something was wrong. Why did he listen to Zhu Dalang's words so much?

It doesn’t matter, just grind the ink first and then talk about it.

Ju Ming took a child's brush and directly drew vertical lines on the article.

Underline a paragraph and mark it as "Topic". Draw another section and mark "starting stock". Draw another section and mark "China Stock"...

After marking everything, Ju Ming handed the book back: "It may be much easier to write articles according to this format. Hmm... I am also blind, maybe I am wrong."

The two gentlemen studied the article and marks carefully, then compared it with other examples in the book, and soon realized there was something wrong.

Bai Chongyan said: "This subdivided format seems to be easier to write."

Li Hanzhang frowned and said: "It is indeed easier, but the division is too detailed and there is no room for improvement."

"You can't say that," Bai Chongyan retorted, "Although the sparrow is small, it has all five internal organs. No matter how detailed it is, what to write down depends on our knowledge."

To put it bluntly, there is no format for the argumentation process of the classics and meanings, and candidates can express themselves completely freely. If you have good literary talent, you can write brilliantly. It is difficult for those with poor literary talent to stand out.

As for the eight-legged essay, the format is subdivided and the text requirements are not so high. The disadvantage is that it makes people constrained.

It depends on how these two choose.

In the afternoon of that day, they carefully wrote an article according to the eight-part essay format.

The effect is immediate, and the level of articles is visibly improving.

Li Hanzhang suddenly said: "Don't tell others."

Bai Chongyan immediately understood: "Yes, you can't tell it."

Neither of them are stupid. This routine must be hidden. If one more person knows about it, they will have one more competitor.

After putting down the article and remaining silent for a long time, Li Hanzhang asked: "I'm afraid the Zhu family and his son are not just maritime merchants, right?"

"Indeed," Bai Chongyan said, "I'm afraid the scholarly family offended some powerful person and fled here from Guangnan to avoid trouble."

Li Hanzhang said: "No matter where I come from, I accept his affection. If I really pass the Jinshi examination, I will be richly rewarded in the future."

Bai Chongyan said: "I would like to see early what their seedlings can grow into."

In fact, it doesn't look very good.

The two practiced Shi Wen every day, Fatty Zheng kept listening to stories every day, and the seedlings in the rice fields finally sprouted.

Occasionally, villagers passing by the rice-growing field thought that Zhu Xianggong had overturned his car.

Compared with the traditional method, Zhu Guoxiang's method of raising seedlings not only found no benefits, but the seedlings even grew very slowly.

In the eyes of villagers who are skilled in farming, these seedlings are useless.

If it grows slowly, it means the roots are not good.

If the roots are not good, they will not be drought-tolerant in the future, and the amount of fertilizer must be increased, otherwise they will not be able to produce full ears.

Lu An couldn't bear it anymore and ran to report the news: "Master, the person named Zhu is a liar. The seedlings he bred have shallow roots and weak seedlings!"

"Let him continue planting and wait until the rice is harvested."

Lao Bai's focus is no longer on this.

Summer grain collection in Hanzhong begins in May and lasts until the end of July. The land taxes owed in arrears from previous years were handed over together with the summer grain.

Asking the magistrates to apportion taxes from the landlords is tantamount to asking the landlords to collect taxes. Regardless of whether they collect enough, the landlords have to pay the promised taxes.

Member Lao Bai didn't want to be a bad guy, so he had to take action from the five Baiford brothers.

He has asked Bai Erlang, who is the custodian, to cancel the qualifications of the Bai family brothers to be Changming Yamen. The next step is to turn into Luncha Yaqian, responsible for collecting taxes and paying compensation, so that they can charge forward and take the front line.

The accident happened again.

The five brothers of the Bai family had their errands at Changming Yamen canceled, and they heard news that tax arrears from previous years would be collected. They, who have been assisting in collecting taxes for a long time, immediately understood what it meant, and then... ran away!

He didn't want any of his family's real estate and fields, but took some extravagant money. He fled with his wife and children overnight, and fled to Heifeng Village to become a bandit.

The old white member was a little dumbfounded.