The weather in September, a little cool in Shanxi surrounded by mountains, and the temperature in Hebei is just right, it belongs to the kind of cool and pleasant weather when the sun shines on the body, giving people a warm feeling, and the wind blows on the body, and it is cool, it seems to combine the advantages of summer and winter. Unlike in summer, people who are exposed to the sun do not want to go out, nor in winter, where the wind blows and the nose runs.

Now Zhou Nanzheng and two colleagues are riding along the G18 highway from Fanzhi County, Shanxi Province to Yixian County, Hebei Province. In the past few days, after they finished running affairs from Taiyuan City, they went all the way north, through Xinzhou, through Dai County, and then to Fanzhi. Stop and go, look at the historical sites and attractions along the road, and be tired enough.

Zhou Nan, who is already thirty years old, can be regarded as just entering the age of establishment. Zhou Nan has been working in the police station since he worked, and it is a rural police station in a small county town in the north, there is nothing vigorous, and there are no big ups and downs, originally his dream has always been to be admitted to university, learn the ancient literature he likes, and after graduation, he can enter the government department, work in a certain department in a safe and stable manner, be a civil servant who is not big or small, and live a life in peace. But fate, I didn't joke with him until he graduated from college. When he hadn't graduated from high school, a distant relative who was passing by at home, an old man who had been practicing well, once told him that he had been a martial artist all his life, and he was doing a job with knives and guns. At that time, I was full of curiosity and expectation about everything, so I didn't reject it. However, when he chose to major in Chinese literature in high school, and when he chose to major in ancient literature when he was admitted to university, he thought of that prophecy, and then he thought of that prophecy, he felt that it was just an old man's pretended unfathomable nonsense.

This time, Zhou Nan went to Taiyuan on a business trip with his colleagues, and the work was successfully completed, and the three of them discussed playing for a few days before going back, so they had this three-day trip to Shanxi. Along the way, Shanxi, as one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, has a long history and dangerous terrain, and many scenic spots in Shanxi are related to ancient wars. He suddenly remembered the old man's prophecy.

It seems that this life is not a joke, originally according to the trajectory of his choice, it has nothing to do with his current work, but he doesn't know where the power is, so he changed the direction he chose slightly, and as time goes by, the change is getting bigger and bigger, from a secretary of a government agency, to a martial artist who really moves a knife and a gun (don't mind the police brothers, anyway, what he eats is the meal of dancing knives and guns, hehe), he really can't figure out where this is a change.

Fate is really magical, just like the book he is holding in his hand now, it is a book about the history of the Song Dynasty, one of which is about two coincidences in the Song Dynasty, saying that it is a coincidence, it is more like the theory of fate: the first is that after Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, established the country, his younger brother Zhao Kuangyi took over the position of the scoop of the Great Song Dynasty in a silent palace change, and the Northern Song Dynasty passed on a total of nine generations, a total of one hundred and sixty-seven years; After the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, Zhao Gou, the son of Song Huizong and the younger brother of Zhao Huan of Song Qinzong, was lucky to escape because he was on a business trip at the time, and was not captured by the Jin army. However, Zhao Gou did not have a son (this is also a common problem of most emperors of the Song Dynasty: the heirs are difficult), and history is fair here by Zhao Kuangyin's seventh grandson Zhao Yan became the emperor, and the throne of the Great Song Dynasty was returned to Zhao Kuangyin and his family by the magical hand of fate. The Southern Song Dynasty survived for one hundred and fifty-three years, and it happened to be passed on to the ninth generation. It can't help but sigh: sometimes in life you have to have it, and there is no time in life to ask for it.

Another coincidence is more interesting, Zhao Kuangyin took the throne from the orphans and widows left by his eldest brother Chai Rong, and three hundred and nineteen years later, Zhao Songhua was also taken away by the Mongols from the hands of the orphans and widows at that time, Empress Dowager Xie and Gongzong Zhao Xian. An unknown poet of the Yuan Dynasty wrote "Beike Poems" and ridiculed: When he was in Chenqiaoyi, he deceived his widows and orphans. Who knew that more than 300 years later, widows and orphans were also bullied.

Although the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty did this thing inauthentically, in general, Zhou Nan still liked the history of the two unlucky fathers and sons of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was the most economically prosperous, the most developed science and technology, the most prosperous culture, the most profound art, and the richest living standards in the history of China's feudal dynasty. The Song Dynasty was also the period when China made the greatest contribution to the world. Even the famous French sinologist Xie Henai said: "In the fields of social life, art, entertainment, institutions, and craftsmanship, China (the Song Dynasty) was undoubtedly the most advanced country at that time, and it had every reason to regard the rest of the world as a mere barbarian state." ”

The Song Dynasty is the most glorious dynasty for China, more than half of the important inventions in Chinese history appeared in the Song Dynasty, three of China's four major inventions were invented in the Northern Song Dynasty or began to be used on a large scale, the Song Dynasty was far ahead of the world in astronomical calendar, machinery manufacturing, navigation, shipbuilding, textile, porcelain technology, etc.

The Song Dynasty was also an era of independent personality and the most free thinking in ancient times. Don't kill scholars, freedom of speech, and the crime of engaging in struggle is not as good as the family, not to mention the cultural aspect, Chen Yinke once praised the Song Dynasty as the culture of the Chinese nation, which has evolved for thousands of years, and was created in the era of the Zhao and Song dynasties.

The Song Dynasty was the richest country at the time, and it was also the richest among the feudal dynasties of all dynasties. The Song Dynasty was the only dynasty in China's feudal society that could not ban commerce, and the GDP of the Song Dynasty accounted for 50% of the world's GDP at that time, while the United States, which is the most powerful in all aspects of the world, accounted for only 24% of the world's GDP. When the Ming Dynasty was prosperous, the total annual fiscal revenue was less than one-tenth of that of the Northern Song Dynasty and less than one-sixth of that of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty had a wide variety of industries, reaching more than 440 kinds. Among the various taxes of the Song Dynasty, non-agricultural income exceeded agricultural income.

When it comes to the Song Dynasty, you will think of the azure porcelain of "the rain has passed the sky and the clouds, and this color will be used in the future", and you will think of the Bian embroidery that overwhelms the four famous embroideries in China, and you will think of the Qingming Shanghe Tu, if you live in the Song Dynasty, if you are a small citizen, you can work during the day, and the daily salary is enough for you to eat and wear. If you are rich, the all-night restaurant is enough for you to linger.

Living in the most enlightened Song Dynasty of the feudal dynasty, as a literati, according to Article 2 of the "Great Song Dynasty Constitution", "no killing scholars and doctors, and writing and saying things", as long as you don't rebel, the emperor can't do anything to you, for example, Li Shishi, a woman from Song Huizong, was prostituted by officials, and the emperor hated so much that his teeth were about to be broken, and he could only find a stubble to remove the official from the office.

The accumulation of civilization in the previous dynasties, the affluence of the economy, and the enlightened and humane atmosphere made the Song Dynasty reach the highest peak of the scientific and technological development of China's feudal society. The last appendix of this book in Zhou Nan's hands now contains some inventions of the Song people, from the water transport instrument to the image table, the textile machine, the civil engineering technology, shipbuilding, the small to the musket, the abacus, the crystal lens, etc., many things even Zhou Nan, as a modern person, does not understand the principles and methods, and now he goes to the street to stop a random person, ask him about the composition of the high-order vertical and horizontal diagram in combinatorial mathematics, ask him about the geomagnetic declination, the twenty-four solar terms dating method, it is estimated that few people can answer. If these are purely theoretical, then ask him about the production of the chiming robot, ask him about the water transport instrument, and ask him how to make the tie-rod piston bellows...... These things, if it weren't for the simple introduction in the book, Zhou Nan would also be in a semi-confused state.

Zhou Nan couldn't help but sigh, it is popular to travel now, if you really want to travel to the Song Dynasty, you may not be stronger than the Song people. In terms of physical strength, the physical strength of modern people is definitely inferior to that of the ancients, after all, the direction of human evolution is the development of the mind and the atrophy of limbs. In terms of brain power, calligraphy and painting are incomparable, poetry is even worse than others, and ordinary people's scientific and technological theories can only be confused by ordinary people in the Song Dynasty, and when they encounter technical officials like Shen Kuo and Su Song, they can only hide clumsy.