Outside the old Fengqiu Gate, in the Xiangjie Street outside the Shuxiangfang between Chenzhouqiao Street and Guangbei Bridge, Zhao Jun could only say that it was outrageous when he heard the news spread among the people.
It is now past twelve o'clock at noon, and yesterday's meeting in Chui Gong Hall has spread throughout Bianliang.
The government newly established the Constitutional Yuan, which overrides the second government and the third department and takes charge of national government affairs. And has all powers except military power, including the appointment and dismissal of officials.
Such great power has never been seen since the Tang and Song Dynasties.
What shocked the people of Bianliang even more was that Zhao Jun, the former magistrate of the Imperial City, was named the Duke of Song Dynasty, the Jiedushi Envoy of the Three Towns, and was in charge of the Constitutional Yuan, with power comparable to that of an ancient prime minister.
Under such circumstances, the people of Bianliang could not help but think too much.
Even the spies from the Xixia and Liao embassies in Bianliang knew the news and quickly conveyed this important information back to their countries.
Many people speculate that Zhao Jun's true identity may really be the illegitimate son of the late emperor.
Only Zhao Yunrang was calm and acted calmly.
After all, as long as his son Lao Shisan has not been kicked out of the palace, it means that Zhao Jun's identity is false, and he has nothing to worry about.
Zhao Jun went to the Constitutional Yuan this morning and gave some instructions, and then came to Shuxiangfang in the afternoon.
He has a lot of things to do recently, such as organizing and preparing for the establishment of a new department, starting to deal with underground evil forces, and researching and developing new weapons.
The more important thing is the need for a printing plant. This tool will be used to print notices on a large area. Secondly, it will be used to establish newspapers and carry out publicity and public opinion activities in the future.
At present, basic education in the Song Dynasty is still lacking, and the literacy rate is low. This can be seen from the fact that there are only more than 100,000 people across the country taking the provincial examination every year.
Even if this number is multiplied by a hundred times, the number of literate people in the entire Song Dynasty is only 10 million. Compared with the population of hundreds of millions, the literacy rate is about 10%, which is very detrimental to the spread of newspapers.
However, as Bianliang is the capital, the literacy rate of the people is still good.
The main reason is that commerce is developed here, and there are many businessmen and officials. Even street vendors need to know how to read and do arithmetic before they can do business. Otherwise, how can they do business if they can't even calculate accounts?
Therefore, Zhao Jun plans to start the newspaper in Bianliang first, occupy the high ground in the field of publicity through the newspaper, and pave the way for big undertakings in the future.
Recently, I heard that the owner of Yuanjing Books intended to sell the printing factory, so he came over to take a look.
In the Shuxiangfang, when Confucian scholars wearing slant-collar or round-collar robes were passing through, they either wore belts or jade pendants hanging on their waists, or they wore silk belts or silk ropes knotted in the center of their waists, with the excess hanging down from the waist. Below the waist. Wear a shirt and trousers or a skirt underneath to look elegant.
Because there was a light rain last night, the sky was relatively gloomy, so we came and went in a hurry. Some have newly purchased the Four Treasures of the Study and are anxious to go back. Others have just come here to check out some newly released books. Others are sitting in a tea shop, reciting poems and having fun.
Guangbei Bridge is located on the Wuzhang River. There are willows on the river bank. There is also a small horizontal bridge to the east. It is late autumn and early winter. The autumn wind is bleak. The bluestones on the ground still have water stains from last night. The smoke from the Sui Embankment outside the small horizontal bridge Liu, gathered countless tourists and poets.
After Zhao Jun came out of the Constitutional Yuan, he went home and changed into scholarly clothes. He walked into Shuxiangfang. Shops were everywhere on both sides. Unlike other places, Shuxiangfang had mostly bookstores, but there were not many breakfast shops and tea stalls. Not a lot at all. After all, even if literati have a high thirst for knowledge, they still have to eat.
The most talked about thing in front of the stall was yesterday's morning meeting. There are many people in Bianliang, and people like to talk about gossip after dinner. And the biggest gossip now is naturally the news about Zhao Jun. His reputation in Bianliang is at least top-notch.
"Officials have a keen eye. Zhao Qingtian has cleaned up so many beetles in Kaifeng Mansion, and now he has to lead hundreds of officials. This is a great thing for us in the Song Dynasty."
"It's not necessarily a good thing. It's true that Zhao Qingtian investigated and punished those people. But investigating corrupt officials and governing the country are two different things. And I heard that this Zhao Zhisi is only more than 20 years old, which is too young. If he doesn't know how to govern the country, he will Will it not cause the country to decline?"
"Indeed, what's more, even if the officials think that Zhao Zhisi is a talented person, I heard that he has not taken the imperial examination to become an official. I don't believe that the ministers in the court will agree. Even if he is forced to govern, I am afraid he will be blocked from administering the government."
"Who said he didn't take the imperial examination and become an official?"
On the tea stall in front of Yuanjing Bookstore on the street of Shuxiangfang, several scholars were drinking tea and chatting.
There were basically no literary inquisitions in the Northern Song Dynasty. Even the Wutai Poetry Case was an internal struggle among the scholar-bureaucrats. The emperor would not specifically use literature to persecute the scholar-bureaucrats, so it was not taboo to talk about the court on the street and criticize current ills.
Especially in places like Shuxiangfang, where there are many scholars and officials, scholars often talk loudly and express their opinions in order to be appreciated by senior officials.
For example, Xia Song originally entered the official position as a military officer, but because of his good literary talent, he showed a collection of poems he had written to the prime minister Li Hang at the time, so he transferred from military to literary, and then participated in the court system and passed the court policy. Become one of the literati.
Therefore, criticizing the current evils was something that literati at that time often did. After all, the policy analysis in the imperial examinations was also one of the methods of criticizing the current evils, which was beneficial to improving their policy analysis level.
At this moment, the scholars were chatting.
Zhao Jun was stepping into Yuanjing Bookstore. Since there were many bodyguards around him, he naturally attracted everyone's attention.
One of them was stunned for a moment when he saw him, and then he hesitated. Seeing that Zhao Jun was about to step into the book club, he finally plucked up the courage to stand up and shout: "Brother Hanlong!"
"Um?"
Zhao Jun turned his head and said with a sudden smile: "Brother Song!"
Song Cai left a few scholar friends behind and walked towards this side. The Royal City Imperial Guard next to him was about to stop him, but Zhao Jun waved his hand to let him come over.
"I didn't expect it was really Brother Hanlong!"
Song Cai was very excited, but she suppressed the joy in her heart and tried to keep herself calm. She stepped forward and said, "Brother, why do you come to Shuxiangfang? I'm very familiar with this place."
"There are some things. Since Brother Song is here, why don't we go for a walk together?"
Zhao Jun greeted with a smile.
"Then let's go for a walk together."
Song Cai suppressed her joy and turned to the group of scholars: "Brother Wang, Brother Li, and Brother Sun, I met an old friend. I will go with him for a walk first, and I will come back to you later."
"Okay, then go ahead. We will go to Baihua Building later. You can come directly then."
The person over there also replied.
Song Cai suddenly looked embarrassed and said to Zhao Jun: "I don't even know what Baihua Tower is. Does Brother Zhao know?"
"I don't know either. Let's go and take a look next time."
Zhao Jun smiled.
He naturally knew that Baihualou was a prostitute's garden located on Beixie Street, not far from Shuxiangfang.
It seems that the scholars in Bianliang still lived a happy life.
After finishing speaking, Zhao Jun walked into the book club.
The book club probably covers an area of more than 100 square meters, with more than ten bookshelves on which are neatly stacked a large number of books.
A smell of paper pulp, ink, and incense hit my face.
The shopkeeper had long noticed that many people had gathered at the door. As a businessman, he knew that a big customer was coming when he looked up.
Maybe this big customer doesn't buy much, but his status is definitely high.
After all, whose yamen would go out with so many bodyguards?
I'm afraid even my husband's son wouldn't have such luxury.
"Brother Zhao came to Shuxiangfang today to buy books? If you want to buy books, then you have met the right person."
Song Cai followed Zhao Jun into the bookstore and recounted: "Xunzi annotated by Han Jia, The Analects annotated by Confucius, Spring and Autumn Annotated by Gai Jia, and the Book of Rites annotated by Lu Jia are the most popular ones on the market today. The best commentary and explanation. If you like other miscellaneous books, there are also "Taiping Guangji", "Taiping Yulan" and "Yi Wen Lei Ju"."
He talked about more than 20 popular books on the market in one breath. The imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty required proficiency in the Seven Classics. There were many commentaries on the Seven Classics by great scholars, but there were also great scholars. Therefore, the recognized great scholars include Han Yu, Kong Yingda, and Gai Wenda. , Lu Deming and others, their annotated books are hot sellers on the market.
There are also many other miscellaneous books, such as the books he mentioned, that collect various things on the market. In addition, there are history books, works by hundreds of scholars, collections of poems, transcripts of current affairs, analysis of political commentaries, and collections of prose songs and poems, which were collectively called the Classics and History Sub-Collection at that time.
"certainly."
After Song Cai talked about some mainstream books, he suddenly smiled and said: "If Brother Han Long likes story books, they are also available here."
He said meaningfully: "Everything is available."
In fact, it already existed in the Song Dynasty, and even due to the popularization of vernacular, scripts appeared, with the number of words reaching dozens or millions.
Many people think that ancient Chinese was all written in classical Chinese. In fact, classical Chinese was only written language, and the spoken language was mainly vernacular.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the vernacular was already spoken among the people, and by the Song Dynasty, the vernacular was basically popular.
Even during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the way people spoke was not much different from that of later generations.
If a modern Beijinger returns to Beijing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, his authentic Beijing accent is guaranteed to be regarded as a local Beijing master.
Although the vernacular of the Song Dynasty was slightly different from that of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the difference was not much.
As the market developed and prospered, Huaben naturally became popular, greatly enriching the lives of the people in Bianliang.
Zhao Jun heard Song Cai's words and wondered: "What does it mean?"
"That's the one."
Song Cai winked, her expression gradually becoming lewd.
When Zhao Jun heard this, he immediately sternly refused: "What did Brother Song say? I am not that kind of person. I, Zhao, read "Spring and Autumn"! If I see this kind of thing, I must criticize it severely." !”
Song Cai changed his expression, nodded repeatedly and said: "Exactly, what I mean is to take some of these books and send them to Brother Zhao's house to criticize him!"
"That's the best."
Zhao Jun nodded and looked around.
The boss came over and said to Song Cai with a smile on his face: "This official is really knowledgeable. Our Yuanjing Bookstore has the most books in Shuxiangfang, and we have all kinds of books."
Then he said to Zhao Jun: "What book does this young master want to buy? As long as you can give a rough idea, the store will be able to meet any of the young master's requirements."
He called Song Cai an official and Zhao Jun a young master, which was just like looking at someone's food. It was not easy to recognize Zhao Jun's identity.
Song Cai was not annoyed, and pointed to the inner room with a familiar face and said: "I was thinking of buying some story books and going back to read them. The shop owner will take me to have a look later."
"Yes Yes Yes."
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly.
Zhao Jun said: "I heard that your Yuanjing Publishing House has a printing shop?"
The shopkeeper's eyes suddenly flashed with golden light and he said: "Yes, yes, sir, do you want to publish a collection of poems or write an article?"
This is a big deal.
If the ancients wanted to publish their works, they did not submit it to a publishing house, but found a printing house at their own expense.
At that time, printing was relatively difficult. If you wanted to publish your own poems and articles, you had to have the printing company engrave the plates yourself, which was very expensive.
A complete set of engravings often requires dozens or even hundreds of guan depending on the number of words. If the number of words is large, such as tens or millions of words, it can cost thousands of guan. Therefore, publishing poetry collections can make more money than simply selling books. No matter how many books others print, they will be sold for the price of the engravings.
Therefore, the shopkeeper is naturally very happy to meet such a big customer.
But what he didn't expect was that Zhao Jun said: "Well, I want to buy a ready-made printing shop and print it myself. I heard that you want to sell the printing shop, so I came here to ask."
The shopkeeper had a big mouth at that time.
I thought he was a big customer, but I didn't expect that he was so rich that he wanted to buy a printing factory.
He advised: "If you want to print your own poems and articles, there is no need to buy a printing shop. You can just send the sample paper later and we can help with the engraving."
"You don't understand. There are too many things to make in the future, so it would be more convenient to buy a printing shop."
Zhao Jun said: "Aren't you selling it to others?"
The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "This matter is indeed my boss's order, but I still have to ask my boss about the specific matters."
"Go and call your boss."
"yes."
The shopkeeper knew that the bodyguard who was looking outside knew that he was an important guest, so he did not dare to neglect him. He asked the waiters in the store to treat him well, and he hurried out.
(End of chapter)
