Chapter 1181 Postscript Thirty-Seven Ancient Racing Party
Chapter 1181 Postscript Thirty-Seven·Ancient Speed Racing Party
Two of Li Dunshi's friends came to visit excitedly the next day.
Both Wen and Li are the sons of gentry in the suburbs of Beijing.
The liberal arts student is named Shi Shouli, and his distant ancestor is the Shi family of Ku Lai, who moved from Laoling to Tai'an in the late Tang Dynasty. He was a village tycoon at first, and became a general during the Five Dynasties period.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Shi Jie, a great master of Confucianism, was born, and the family once became culturally prosperous. It was only cultural prosperity. Shi Jie was as clean and honest as his life. After his death, his wife had to rely on friends for support.
The construction of the Shi family system is of great significance to the development of Chinese family culture. It was inherited from the Sui and Tang Dynasties and started from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. From the Song Dynasty to the Republic of China, the family ancestral hall and ancestor worship system can be said to have evolved from the Shi family.
For a thing, you cannot simply evaluate its quality or badness, but you must look at the environment in which it was located at the time.
The five generations of melee destroyed China, and various cultural inheritances were also destroyed. The reconstruction of the family system was of progressive significance at that time.
The Shi family has a high reputation in the cultural world, but compared to the real wealthy families, they have always been "poor and powerless."
Shi Shouli's family moved to Luoyang in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty and always belonged to the small landlord class. It was not until eighty years ago that his family finally began to prosper when a top scholar came out.
Another science student is Han Wanli, the sixth generation grandson of Han Shizhong.
The descendants of Han Shizhong are mainly divided into three branches. The main branch is in Luoyang, one branch is in Shaanxi, and the other branch is in Qihe Protectorate.
The main clan who stayed in Luoyang was the eldest son of Han Shizhong. His eldest son was a civil servant and married Yue Fei's daughter.
"It turns out that they are all from famous families. How disrespectful!" Xie Yan received him warmly and was more interested in Han Wanli. After all, he had the blood of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei.
Li Dunshi said: "Brother Siyuan (Han Wanli)'s great-grandfather made many military exploits in the Dingtai Dynasty and was restored to the position of Duke!"
Han Wanli said modestly: "It's just your duty to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country."
Han Shizhong's eldest son became a civil servant, and his descendants could not even pass the Jinshi examination. The direct lineage could only inherit the title and rest on their laurels.
Han Wanli's great-grandfather was also worried about his studies, so he simply went to military school. But he was the disciple of Emperor Dingtai!
Emperor Dingtai felt that Luoyang's army was out of control, so he called back two generals and four thousand troops from the frontier. One of the generals was Han Wanli's great-grandfather.
Afterwards, Emperor Dingtai reorganized the army and quelled the rebellion. Han Wanli's great-grandfather was entrusted with important responsibilities, and he was promoted to county magistrate for his meritorious service. Later, he died of illness in the Qihe Protectorate.
Emperor Dingtai loved Wujiwu and made Han Wanli's grandfather the commander of the imperial guards.
But his performance was really bad. Once when he went to work drunk, he fell down several times in front of many ministers. He also took in numerous concubines, indulged in sensuality, and made the management of the Imperial City guards a mess.
Emperor Dingtai tolerated it many times, but refused to change despite repeated admonitions, and finally beat this guy to the end. As a result, the Han family escaped the coup and watched the whole process without supporting any party.
Han Wanli's grandfather died of illness two years ago, leaving behind more than 20 sons. They are clamoring for a separation of the family every day, and the family property has not yet been clearly divided.
Han Wanli's father was born from Xuxian, and he was also the legitimate son. He followed his brothers to make trouble. Now he was allocated more than 200 acres of land in the suburbs of Beijing and a building in Fuguo Street, but he had no title or official position to speak of.
As for the bastards of the Han family, they only made some extravagant wealth, and just gave them a few dollars to get through their work.
If future generations don't work hard, Han Wanli's family will only be able to live in apartments and landowners.
Shi Shouli and Han Wanli came to see him today simply because they thought Xie Yan was awesome.
After chatting for a while, Xie Yan asked: "The eldest princess will hold a polo match in two days, but I have never played polo. Do the three gentlemen understand this?"
"Know something." Han Wanli was a little embarrassed.
His grandfather has too many children and grandchildren, and they all receive different treatment. Every time he participates in such aristocratic activities, Han Wanli stands by and makes up for the numbers. There are very few opportunities to play, and he doesn't even have his own dedicated horse.
Shi Shouli and Li Dunshi were even worse. They had never played polo several times.
Seeing this, Xie Yan quickly changed the subject and asked his follower Xie Chang to take out the chess set.
These three are all nobles or officials. Although they have fallen into decline, they are still natives of Luoyang and can get a lot of information.
Han Wanli said: "The most powerful people in Luoyang today are undoubtedly the civil and military ministers. The civil minister is naturally Prime Minister Deng, but the military minister is Privy Council Wu."
Xie Yan asked: "I know Prime Minister Deng, but who is this Privy Councilor Wu?"
Han Wanli knew this very well: "Privilege Wu's ancestors were rogue bandits in the late Song Dynasty. At that time, Song Jiang, a giant bandit from Shandong, led his troops to surrender to Emperor Taizong. Song Jiang himself continued to lead the troops. He had a general named Wu Song, but he
Disarmed and returned home in Kaifeng."
Xie Yan's expression became very strange. Why did "Water Margin" come out?
Han Wanli continued: "When the imperial court sent troops to regain Anxi, Wu Song's son immigrated to Anxi with the army. Because of his excellent riding and shooting skills, he was recruited as his son-in-law by the garrison general. My ancestors, Han and Yue Ergong, when they conquered the Western Liao Dynasty, this military general
They all followed him, and he was promoted to a fourth-grade military attaché after his military exploits, and he moved to the Qihe Protectorate to settle down."
"Privy Councilor Wu of the current court came to prominence when my great-grandfather put down the Qihe Rebellion. He was not even thirty years old at the time, so he was recommended to the late emperor by my great-grandfather and transferred back to Luoyang to become a general of the imperial army. When King Yong launched a coup, he was also
Privy Council Wu led a team of elites to escort the Queen Mother and Her Majesty out of Luoyang."
"Having the ability to protect the emperor and being from Qihe like the Queen Mother, Privy Council Wu naturally rose to prominence."
What Han Wanli said was not obscure, and Xie Yan could understand it.
This Privy Councilor Wu was transferred to Luoyang from Qihe. He was not closely involved with the powerful people in the capital, and he was from the same hometown as the Queen Mother Ye. Therefore, he was the most suitable to be Tuogu military general and a key chess piece in Emperor Dingtai's plan.
In order to win the trust of King Yong, Privy Council Wu even took the initiative to join forces with others to make the group of rebellious ministers and traitors become careless.
For Privy Council Wu, his support for King Yong's ascension to the throne was only the icing on the cake, and the success of the coup would not bring much benefit. If he helped the young emperor ascend the throne, then he would be the first military minister of the Ming Dynasty!
Moreover, Privy Council Wu did not know how many chess pieces Emperor Dingtai had arranged, and always felt that the success rate of King Yong's coup was not high. When the coup actually happened, Privy Council Wu subconsciously followed Emperor Dingtai's arrangements.
Xie Yan thinks this Ming Dynasty is so interesting.
The descendants of Yang Zaixing, the descendants of Han Shizhong, and the descendants of Wu Song all appeared alive.
As for Li Dunshi, a descendant of Li Yanxian, I'm really sorry, Xie Yan is so ignorant that he has never heard of Li Yanxian.
After playing chess and chatting for a while, and having lunch at Li's house, Han and Shi didn't say goodbye until mid-afternoon.
Xie Yan sent them out and asked Li Dunshi privately: "What is the maximum temperature that the furnace for smelting ore can reach now?"
Li Dunshi shook his head: "I don't know. They all rely on the color of the flame. No one knows the specific temperature."
Xie Yan laughed when he heard this and asked a very stupid question.
Even during the Industrial Revolution, it was impossible to accurately measure furnace temperature.
If you want to improve the performance of cement, the furnace temperature of the traditional calcining method is not enough. As long as the furnace temperature is raised, the remaining ingredients can be easily processed.
Xie Yan asked again: "Where is the most famous place for smelting steel?"
Li Dunshi thought about it carefully: "Xuzhou, Zunhua, Hanyang...well, it seems there are also Qiongzhou, Suzhou and Guangzhou."
"Do you know those who smelt iron?" Xie Yan asked.
Li Dunshi shook his head.
Xie Yan stopped discussing this topic and planned to ask the princess in two days.
When the time comes, we will cooperate with the princess and invest in our own technology. The princess will provide funds and connections. Then we can use the Li family’s cement factory to conduct experiments. There is no need to deliberately repay afterwards, and we will just charge less on the Li family’s cement patent royalties.
For commodities like cement, the market is very regional, and long-distance transportation will cause costs to soar.
In the future, they can build a factory in Beimang together with the princess, and the market will radiate to Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and other places. The Li family's small cement factory can be left to their own devices, and they will definitely get some soup.
You can also license the patent to the Xie family, so that the Xie family, who are not officials, can also set up a cement factory in their hometown in Hebei.
As for others, just pay the patent fee and authorize it. Anyway, the formula is in your own hands and will not spread to a large area in a short period of time.
This thing not only requires increasing the oven temperature, but also adding other ingredients!
…
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
Xie Yan went out with four male attendants and two maids, and borrowed the Li family's carriage to take Li Dunshi with him.
If you bring one more person, the princess won't say anything.
However, Li Minqiu was overjoyed that his son could sneak into the circle of powerful people again. It was indeed a good move for him to win over Xie Xueshi.
He watched the carriage leave, feeling quite emotional.
I think the Li family was also a top power before the coup. Although his family had already fallen out with the main clan in the city. But the main clan was doing well, so he was proud of it.
The polo match was held at the Royal Racecourse, more than 20 miles away from the Li family's house.
Halfway through, Xie Yan could hear the sound of horse hooves from time to time. He must have been invited to attend the polo club.
Many sons of powerful men were riding horses in the countryside, even trampling on the wheat that was about to be harvested.
These guys actually know how to compensate.
Behind them, there were servants riding donkeys, mules or bad horses, laughing all the way and throwing copper coins into the wheat fields. And the copper coins were deliberately not tied with ropes. The purpose was to scatter the coins and watch the farmers pick up coins in the fields.
Xie Yan saw five or six young men from powerful families, deliberately riding horses into the wheat fields, chasing and playing recklessly. Their followers, of course, followed suit, throwing copper coins and laughing.
"Whose bad boys are these?" Xie Yan asked.
Li Dunshi observed carefully: "It's too far to see clearly. The late emperor also severely punished this kind of behavior. Throwing copper coins was the countermeasure of the bad boys. Even if the court punished them, they could still claim that they didn't mean it and had already compensated the farmers.
.”
Xie Yan said: "The owners of the land in the suburbs of Beijing all have backgrounds, right?"
Li Dunshi smiled bitterly: "They trample on farmland, and they have to pick on others. They are just bullying the weak and fearing the tough. For example, my family's farmland is often trampled by the bad guys who go to Longmen Grottoes. These bastards don't do anything serious all day long, they only know how to play tricks.
happy."
Xie Yan was silent.
Li Dunshi said: "The Queen Mother and the Prime Minister purged the rebels, beheaded and exiled many powerful people. Now these evil young men have restrained themselves. In the past, they were even more unscrupulous, and some deliberately set horses to hurt people."
Xie Yan is very familiar with this kind of people and often sees them in the media.
A group of rich and powerful racing gangs only pay money if they kill someone.