On May 18, Zhao Yang and his party returned to Weizhou.
After entering the city and returning to the official residence where he was staying temporarily, before Zhao Yang could take a breath, a servant from the Weizhou government sent by the government came to report that it was Zhang Kang, the governor of the state, who asked to see him.
Zhao Yang sent Wang Zhongzhong to invite Zhang Kang in. When the latter saw Zhao Yang, he smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Deputy Zhao."
Zhao Yang had a strange look on his face and opened his mouth not knowing what to say. After all, Zhang Kang, Guo Kui and others had already joined him, and they were all his own, so there was no need to be so polite.
Zhang Kang also noticed Zhao Yang's strange expression and quickly explained the reason: "Three days ago, Bianjing sent an envoy with more than 20 people from the imperial army to deliver a cart of supplies. The official documents on the passage were stamped with the words "Enter the Inner Province, Privy Council, The officials did not dare to touch the seals of the Third Division and the Technical Department of the Ministry of Industry, so they left the people and cars at the prefectural government office. I just heard that Deputy Zhao had returned to the city, so I hurriedly came to report it."
Zhao Yang suddenly realized: "Where?"
"I have brought all my subordinates with me. The leader even claimed to be acquainted with Vice Envoy Zhao."
"Oh?" Zhao Yang was a little surprised, so he walked out of the mansion with Zhang Kang. Sure enough, he saw a carriage parked outside the mansion. Standing beside the carriage were more than ten or twenty people dressed as the Forbidden Army. The leader was indeed familiar to him. , it is Zhang Yaozuo's nephew Shi Butong.
"Brother Butong?" Zhao Yang greeted in surprise.
Hearing this, Shi Butong looked at Zhao Yang, and then walked quickly to Zhao Yang, cupping his hands and clasping his fists: "Shi Butong, who is in the third class, has met Zhao Sijian."
Zhao Yang smiled and punched Shi Butong, and asked curiously: "Serving in the third class? Why, do you want to transfer to military service?"
Shi Butong grinned and rubbed the area where Zhao Yang had hammered him. He shrugged and said, "That's not true. Personally, I hope to be appointed as a county magistrate or county magistrate. If I can't become a county magistrate from the eighth grade, I'll find one." Going down to the county, I should be qualified to be a county magistrate. After all, I am also a Jinshi. Unfortunately, my uncle rejected the request. He said that the state road officials are not as good as the capital officials, and he wanted to ask for an inner palace Chongban for me..."
Zhao Yang shook his head speechlessly and joked: "Then why did he become a third-class employee?"
"I was impeached by Taiwan's remonstrance."
"Which Taiwanese admonisher is so brave?"
"Du Yan, Mr. Du." Shi Butong looked up and saw that Zhao Yang was only accompanied by Zhang Kang, Wang Zhongzheng and others, but did not see Fan Chunren, so he lowered his voice and explained: "This Mr. Du is over seventy years old. In the past two years, He has already become an official, and was invited by Mr. Fan to return to the court some time ago to serve as a censor... People in the court are talking about it, saying that Mr. Fan is making a comeback."
Zhao Yang frowned and asked, "Have Han Qi and Fu Bi returned to Beijing?"
"It wasn't there when I came." Shi Butong shook his head and said, "I heard from my uncle that Han Qi seems to be planning to build a new market in Hebei, and Fu Bi went on an envoy to the Liao Kingdom..."
That's okay.
Zhao Yang was relieved.
It's not that he opposed Fan Zhongyan's implementation of the New Deal again. The problem was that the current official administration of the Song Dynasty was simply not enough to fully implement the New Deal, not to mention the opposition of Song Xiang, Xia Song, Jia Changchao and others. Hidden... As long as civil servants came from aristocratic families, In fact, most of them do not support it. If the reform is pushed forward forcefully, it will only cause another disaster, just like Wang Anshi. Although he raised money for Shenzong, he made the entire country's people's livelihood a mess, so he was scolded for nine hundred years. The treacherous officials were not "reset from chaos" until the last hundred years.
"By the way, what is in the car you brought?"
"I don't know either." Shi Butong shook his head and said, "I was just ordered by the officials to bring this cart and hand it over to you."
So Zhao Yang asked Wang Zhongzheng and others to drive the carriage to the courtyard first, and then unload the things in the carriage.
Not to mention, there were a lot of things in large and small boxes in the car. Among them were two large wooden boxes with interior seals. Zhao Yang tore them off and opened them, only to find a box of bedding. Blankets and other items, while another box contained clothing.
After looking at Zhao Yang who was in a daze, Zhang Kang, Shi Butong, Wang Zhongzheng and others were quite envious.
There was another slightly smaller wooden box with an introspective seal on it. Zhao Yang tore it off and opened it. He saw a pair of wide-belly celadon vases inside the box. When he opened the lid of the porcelain vase on the left, a stream of water flowed out. The refreshing aroma of tea hits your nostrils.
This is?
A trace of surprise flashed across Zhao Yang's face. He reached deep into the bottle and picked up a cluster to identify it carefully. It turned out to be fried tea.
Unsurprisingly, it should be the tea leaves before the Qingming Festival this year. Calculating the time, it is probably the first batch. I don’t know how many good tea leaves were wasted in the introspection to get the right temperature.
"Is this tea? It smells so good." Zhang Kang sniffed and couldn't help but say.
Zhao Yanghuai said with some emotion: "This is the tea that I made using the fried tea method in Neishang Province. I will give you some later. Just go back and soak it in boiled water."
As he said that, he opened another porcelain vase and saw some candied fruits, dried fruits and other food in the vase, which was probably Concubine Zhang's wish.
Just when Zhao Yang was about to ask someone to move the two porcelain bottles out of the car and prepare for a tea party, Wang Ming found that the boxes underneath were all sealed with seals from the Technical Department of the Ministry of Industry, and there was also a letter from the famous envoy of the Technical Department of the Ministry of Industry. Shen Tao.
Zhao Yang put the letter in his arms, opened the box, and saw a gray powder in the box. He immediately understood and ordered Wang Ming and others to move the box to a corner of the courtyard.
At this time, there was nothing else in the car, which made Zhao Yang feel a little regretful, and secretly complained to Shen Yu: You said you even sent cement for me to check, why don't you bring some gunpowder bombs by the way?
Of course, he also understood that what Shaanxi urgently needed was cement for quickly building forts, not gunpowder bombs and other items. A mere one or two hundred gunpowder bombs would not change the situation of the war.
After moving things, Zhao Yang invited Zhang Kang and Shi Butong to the main hall, followed by Fan Chunren and Wen Tong.
When Wang Zhongzheng and others brewed the tea leaves fried in Nei Sheng, a refreshing aroma of tea suddenly filled the room. Wen Tong couldn't wait to pick up a bowl, sip and sip, and then he was full of praise.
Zhao Yang also tasted the tea. It was indeed much better than the previous tea groups, and it was just as good as his impression.
It seems that tea has not changed much in a thousand years, especially the imperial tea specially provided for the palace, which must be much better than the tea he drank in later generations.
As for other people, naturally they also applauded.
While enjoying tea, Zhao Yang casually asked Zhang Kang: "I have been away from Weizhou for half a month. What progress has been made by Mr. Gao?"
Zhang Kang immediately straightened his face and reported: "During this period, Xianggong Gao met with Du Qi, the military envoy of Huanqing Road, who knew Qingzhou, Cao Yingshu, the military envoy of Qinfeng Road, who knew Fengxiang Prefecture, and Cao Yingshu, the military envoy of Yanyan Road, who knew Pang Li Zhaoliang of Yanzhou, Cheng Kan of Hezhong Prefecture, Liang Shi of Qinzhou, Wang Zhenglun of Jingzhou, Liu Ji of Pizhou and others finally agreed that I, Jingyuan Road, would take the lead in implementing the household registration system for the people..."
"Want a breakthrough?" Zhao Yang understood immediately upon hearing this.
"Yes." Zhang Kang nodded and said: "Our Shaanxi Fourth Army has 100,000 Tibetan soldiers for the Song Dynasty alone, and the local Tibetan tribes have a population of no less than 200,000 to 300,000. If implemented at the same time, I am afraid that these Tibetan tribes will Connected to each other..."
Zhao Yang sneered and said: "If the dates are staggered, these Tibetan tribes will no longer be connected to each other? Once the Jingyuan Road is changed, anyone can guess that the other three roads will also be changed."
Zhang Kang said sarcastically: "That being said, but...what if?"
Zhao Yang shook his head and said: "Are you trying to paralyze the other party, or are you deceiving yourself? If you ask me, the four parties must announce the implementation of this matter at the same time to show that the Song Dynasty will definitely implement the position of 'registering households to equalize the people'... Forget it, you can’t decide on this matter, I’ll discuss it with Mr. Gao later.”
Zhang Kang said goodbye knowingly and left happily holding half a can of tea.
Zhao Yang said goodbye to Shi Butong and came to the study room, taking out Shen Yu's letter from his arms.
Opening the letter, Zhao Yang first looked at the date on the last page and saw that it said April 24th. He could roughly guess the content of the letter.
As expected, the first thing Shen Tao mentioned in his letter was the new government office of his Technology Department, saying that the main body of the new government office had been basically completed, and what was left was the carvings and decorations of some buildings, as well as the services for the families of officials of the Technology Department that Lu Dafang was responsible for. The house we live in is expected to be completed in September.
The second thing I mentioned was cement. Although the optimal proportion of the masonry project had not yet been clarified and further research was needed, it was no longer a problem to put it into use. Shen Tuo personally inspected it and led people to build a long section outside the city. The city wall, which is ten feet high, two feet high and more than ten feet wide, was blown up with thunderbolts of fifty kilograms of gunpowder on the wall, on the side of the wall, and half buried at the base of the wall. The effect was surprisingly good. The wall was broken but did not collapse, and even sank. He also sketched a picture of the wall after being bombarded by thunder.
Of course, Shen Tuan also mentioned that the wall was in disrepair after two rounds of testing, but he believed the problem lay with the bricks.
This coincides with Zhao Yang. After all, the bricks in the Song Dynasty were seriously polarized. The bricks used in the palace were beautiful and strong, but the cost was also extremely high, while the bricks circulating in the market were dingy. It is extremely ugly, heavy, brittle, and extremely susceptible to weathering. If left in the open for a year or two, even a child of several years old could probably chop it into pieces with his fists.
After finishing the formal work, Shen Tao also wrote a few casual things in the letter. For example, Wang Anren, who was also a Jinshi this year with them, was Wang Anshi's half-brother and stepmother. He had just been in charge of supervising the Salt Institute of Jiangning Prefecture in early March. The lucky messenger actually passed away at the end of the month, which shocked them all.
Some people familiar with the matter said that Wang Anren himself was suffering from a terminal illness, and knowing that his time was running out, he took advantage of the last moment to obtain meritorious status.
Shen Dun didn't know the exact identity, but he finally collected 50 coins with Qian Gongfu, Lu Dafang, Huang brothers and others, and entrusted someone to give it to the Wang family to express their feelings.
Secondly, Shen Tao also mentioned in his letter that the court seemed to be improving its official administration. This phenomenon seemed to have started after Du Yan became the censor. Zhang Guan and Guo Quan, the censors, also strongly agreed. It seems that the imperial students also participated.
The next few pages were written by Shen Tao to Fan Chunren and Wen Tong, so Zhao Yang invited the two of them, handed them those pages of letters, and then walked out of the study, taking Wang Zhongzheng and others to immediately mix cement and test the cement. utility.
As for where to use it, this official building that has been built for many years is full of areas that need to be repaired. Zhao Yang only needs to wait for the cement to dry and see how strong it is, and he can roughly judge whether it can be put into use.
Of course, considering that he had been out for half a month, Zhao Yang did not use too much cement during the inspection. He only took half a washbasin, and asked someone to get some fine sand outside. After adding water and mixing, he used the original material used to build the wall in the courtyard. A small wall was built with the remaining bricks. About half a person tall, a person wide, and an inch wide.
When I went to look at it the next morning, I found that the cement on the wall had already hardened. I pressed it with my hands and found it to be quite solid.
"Smash it."
Following Zhao Yang's order, Sun Chang and Wei Tao picked up the wooden hammers they found and smashed them randomly, knocking down the wall.
"Smash it again." Zhao Yang ordered.
So Sun Chang and Wei Tao worked hard again and smashed the fallen wall into more than a dozen pieces.
At this time, Zhao Yang squatted down and carefully observed the fracture. He saw that the fracture was mostly the masonry itself rather than the cement bond, so he nodded with satisfaction.
In fact, Shen Tuo had already mentioned in the letter that there would be no problem putting the cement into use, but Zhao Yang still wanted to confirm it in person.
After all, these cements are used to build cities. The cost of building a small city may be hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. If something goes wrong, it is unimaginable.
After being satisfied, Zhao Yang returned to the study and picked up a pen to write a reply to Shen Tao.
There are two main things. One is to ask Shen Tao to communicate with the Third Division immediately, or directly report to the officials, and ask the Third Division to prepare a new company to make cement as soon as possible and transport the finished products to Shaanxi as soon as possible.
Second, let Shen Tao find a few craftsmen who are good at firing bricks and stones in the masonry case and send them to Shaanxi to help build a masonry workshop nearby on Shaanxi No. 4 Road. After all, cement can be transported from Bianjing to Shaanxi, but if bricks Stone also relies on transportation, which is too costly.
As for gossip, it was naturally to advise Shen Tao not to participate in the struggle between the DPRK and China, and it would be better not to associate with those "clear-eyed" imperial students. In the history of temple fights, imperial students are almost always the victims of conspiracy and exploitation, but there are still some Many people jumped into it.
After writing his reply to Shen Yu, Zhao Yang wrote another letter to the officials.
After all, although the official did not write a letter this time, he ordered Neishang to send nearly thirty kilograms of tea. If Neishang hadn't fried the first batch of tea, then this should be the first batch of fried tea in the Song Dynasty. ,Significance.
Zhao Yang naturally wanted to express his gratitude for this kindness.
Including Concubine Zhang also wanted to express his gratitude. Although this concubine's reputation among the government and the public and even within the palace was not very good, she was not bad to him.
So Zhao Yang first wrote about his journey to Shaanxi, and then wrote about what he saw after going to Shaanxi, including the comments of the officials and generals on Jingyuan Road, and what he planned to do in the future, etc., regardless of the size.
After writing the letter, Zhao Yang sent someone to invite Shi Butong.
When he learned that he had to return to Beijing to deliver the letter, Shi Butong's expression suddenly dropped. Whatever the reason, it was simply that his uncle Zhang Yaozuo put too much pressure on him.
To be honest, when they first saw Shi Butong's submissive look, Zhao Yang and Fan Chunren thought he was actually a fool. Wen Tong even tried to persuade him at the wine table. Later, when Shi Butong became a Jinjin Scholar in High School, everyone knew that this person was real. Talented, but his uncle Zhang Yaozuo had higher requirements for him and made arrangements for his career. This made Shi Butong, who was only in his twenties, a bit unbearable, so he would rather serve as county magistrate than stay here. In Beijing.
Seeing his expression, Zhao Yang patted him on the shoulder and gave him an idea: "If you don't want your uncle to influence your career and want to travel around while you are young, I can recommend you to be a transporter who will be responsible for helping me transport some things in the future. Transported from Bianjing to Shaanxi."
"Okay!" Shi Butong's eyes lit up and he quickly agreed.
Zhao Yang was also quite happy to get a labor force for free. After all, Shi Butong was considered to be in his group. Letting him be responsible for escorting cement in the future made him feel more at ease than others.
So Zhao Yang added a few more sentences to the letter to the officials and stated his interests, allowing Shi Butong to take him away happily.
In the next few days, Zhao Yang stayed in Weizhou and discussed with Zhang Kang and Guo Kui about the garrison and fortification. During this period, he also met with the survey envoys sent by the Privy Council and obtained the records of those survey envoys. According to the original Zhao Yang's suggestion to the Privy Council was that there would be a small city, or garrison fortress, every twenty miles. The entire map of Jingyuan Road was densely packed, which made Zhang Kang and Guo Kui stunned when they saw this map.
"This... at least dozens of places must be built with fortifications?" Zhang Kang swallowed his saliva and asked.
"Yes, they must be built! The main goal is to be impregnable and invulnerable."
"..."
Zhang Kang and Guo Kui looked at each other.
I remember that they were secretly glad that Zhao Yang and Fan Zhongyan had the same views, and both advocated building a city for defense. It was not until they saw this "city building orientation map" that they realized that Fan Zhongyan's city building and Zhao Yang's city building were completely different things.
During this period, Zhao Yang also mentioned the construction of a brick-burning workshop to Zhang Kang, and Zhang Kang nodded blankly.
At the same time, the news about the Song Dynasty's intention to abolish the tyranny and reorganize the Tibetan households in Shaanxi was first spread on Jingyuan Road and intensified. A total of more than a dozen Qiang and Tibetan tribes, large and small, learned the news. He quickly sent people to Weizhou to find out what happened.
Gao Ruone personally came forward to negotiate with these tribal leaders, but the results were not optimistic. However, almost all leaders with a total tribe population of more than 10,000 people would not accept it.
As a result, the relationship between the two sides quickly became tense. All the "six states and three armies" in the Jingyuan Road area were put on alert. Each army counted their sergeants and weapons, and in a rare tough stance, told the people inside the area that it was imperative to establish households to equalize the people!
This alarmed and worried the Qiang and Fan tribes in the Song Dynasty. Many people wanted to unite to put pressure on the Jingyuan Road and organized the leaders of various tribes to go to Weizhou to negotiate with the Weizhou side.
Zhao Yang also attended this negotiation.
