It's midsummer in May, and everything is beautiful and full of life.

When the congratulatory envoy team led by Zhang Shuye, the Privy Council of the Great Song Dynasty, and Cai You, the Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Great Song Dynasty in the Great Zhou, crossed the border between the Song and Zhou dynasties and entered the jurisdiction of Tianjin Prefecture, they immediately felt a different kind of vitality and vitality.

The road leading from the countryside of Tianjin is paved with large and neatly cut stones, wide and smooth. The four-wheeled carriage traveled on it, smooth and comfortable, in stark contrast to the bumpy shaking in Cangzhou and the situation of sinking into the mud pit from time to time.

Because they wanted to observe the Great Zhou Republic carefully, Zhang Shuye and Cai You gave up the route of taking the official boat along the Yellow River and the Jiehe River to Tianjin, and instead got off the boat in Nanping County, Cangzhou, and then changed to a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage produced in Tianjin, and went north to Tianjin along the Cangzhou official road and the Tianjin Provincial Highway (the road of the citizen's country is of course a highway).

The official roads in Cangzhou are all dirt roads, and almost all the land on the side of the roads is large pastureland, enclosed by wooden fences, planted with pasture grass, and full of cattle and sheep.

Zhang Shuye, who is very familiar with the situation in Cangzhou, knows that the owners of these ranches are almost all wealthy merchants in nearby Tianjin. The scale of the cattle and sheep trade between the Song and Zhou dynasties (Youzhou) was very large. The profiteers of the Zhou State were able to exchange salt, cloth, grain, and wine from the grasslands for large quantities of cattle and sheep every year. Some of them would be sold to the Song dynasty for a good price difference.

However, now the land of the Zhou State is basically linked to military service, and there are very few private fields that can be freely bought and sold. Therefore, the wealthy merchants of the Zhou State, who were engaged in the cattle and sheep business, could not obtain pastures in Tianjin, so they could only fight the idea of the land in Cangzhou, which was under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty.

They either bought, or colluded with the gentry of the Cangzhou government to encroach on (many Tianjin wealthy merchants were originally Cangzhou people, and also had power on the Cangzhou side), or obtained the knights' fields in Cangzhou through various means - Cangzhou (referring to the southern part of Cangzhou, which belonged to the original Song Dynasty) was also the area where knights were placed in those years, so there were many knights' estates. But the owners of these estates now have their own homes, and basically have no time to take care of the estates. However, the Great Song Dynasty was afraid of causing trouble, and did not take back these positions. So it gave Tianjin wealthy businessmen the opportunity to rent for a long time at a low price.

The merchants who got the land in Cangzhou did not lease the land to tenant farmers - because it was difficult to rent it out, Cangzhou was too close to Tianjin, and most of those who had the strength to farm went to Tianjin to work, and some of them became landlord citizens.

Therefore, the establishment of pastures in Cangzhou to fatten and shear the cattle and sheep purchased on the grassland has become a transaction that can generate the greatest value of Cangzhou's land.

Therefore, by the time of the first year of the republic (the fourth year of Zhenghe or 1114 AD), Cangzhou had already seen a situation of "sheep eating people". Except for the Nanpi Shang Market, which flourished because of the Song and Zhou trades, the rest of the place is left with increasingly dilapidated towns, almost deserted villages and large pastures, which seem to be a bit depressed.

However, after entering the territory of Tianjin, depression and dilapidation were suddenly replaced by a thriving prosperity.

Not only is the road smooth and wide, but there are trees planted on both sides of the road, making it very comfortable to walk through the shade of the trees.

Through the gaps between the trees, Zhang Shuye and Cai You saw a manor divided into rows of ash trees (ash trees are an economic tree that can be used to raise ash insects and the trunk can also be used to make spears), all of which are half-cultivated and half-pasted.

The cultivated part is now a lush greenery, and in addition to the wheat that is abundant in the northern plains, there are some low shrubs, which are supposed to have been brought in from the territory of the Tianzhu Metropolitan Protectorate.

Most of the pastures used to store livestock are horses. Most are tall and strong, with brightly colored coats. Among them, there are many good horses that can make Uncle Zhang's eyes shine at night!

In the middle of a large field of wheat, cotton and pastures are docks surrounded by moats and red brick walls.

These docks do not occupy a large area, they are small square walled buildings, and some of the four corners of the wall protrude outwards to form a structure similar to a "horse face" (a raised platform that protrudes from the outside of the city wall).

"How do you have a castle?" Cai You looked at a wall dock near the highway and asked with a frown.

These are called wall docks, and they are the dwellings of the knights of the Zhou Kingdom in the countryside. A wall dock is usually built by four or five families, and it is surrounded by four or five knights' manors, each of which is 1,500 acres of land. One hundred wall docks will build a hundred townships, and four or five hundred knights will make a township covenant, elect the village elders, and set up a township school ......"

Uncle Zhang talked eloquently at night, and his words were full of envy for the society in the countryside of Tianjin.

"What? Township covenant, township elders, township learning...... Is this Tianjin or Lantian? ”

As the son of Cai Jing, the boss of the "old party", Cai You certainly has to respect the Lu's township appointment in Lantian. But he never thought that in Tianjin, where etiquette collapsed and there was no father and no king, there were actually people practicing the township covenant.

And...... Looks pretty good!

"How can Lantian compare to here?" Uncle Zhang sneered, "What kind of family is the Lu family?" What kind of appointment do you have with the small people of Shengdou? The so-called township covenant is just the words of the Lu family.

On the contrary, the knights of Tianjin, rich and poor, seem to be humble, and they all have 1,500 acres of land. Guan Zi said: Cang is honest and knows etiquette, and knows honor and disgrace when food and clothing are sufficient. It's probably people like them, right? Moreover, the children of the knights of the Zhou Kingdom could already enter primary school for free, and there were township schools in the hundred townships. Therefore, the children of knights, almost everyone is well-read, both civil and military. Even women, too, know how to write, and learn swords and bows. In this way, four or five hundred families can carry out the township covenant and study on their own. ”

If we use the class division theory of the West in later generations to divide the knights of the Zhou Kingdom, they are probably rich peasants (rich peasants by Chinese standards are not rich at all), and they are not feudal lords, because they have no territory, only vocational farms. And they all have military obligations, somewhat similar to the Junkers in Prussia.

Hundreds of such military rich peasants gathered together, all of them had culture and force. Economic status is shoulder to shoulder, no one owes anyone, and no one carries the work for anyone. When he enlisted in the army, he was still a comrade-in-arms. Naturally, a township covenant can be made and jointly observed.

If you replace it with a bureaucratic big landlord family and a group of poor middle peasants who are bitter, you have a fart! Even if you make a township contract, you can fool people.

Therefore, even if the "old party" in power of the Song Dynasty has worked hard to implement the township covenant in recent years, it has basically had no effect, and even if someone responds, it is just a matter of deceiving each other and deceiving some political achievements.

"Above the township is the county," Uncle Zhang said at night, "Baiwu is a township, and the five townships usually have a county." The county is located in the commercial city located in the traffic center. The commercial market is usually contracted to the chamber of commerce, which concludes a commercial contract and implements tax autonomy. The county administration of the Zhou State included a county office, a court of inquisition, a county governor's office, a council, a tax office, and a military service office. Among them, the only ones under the jurisdiction of the county decree are the county government, the county governor's office, and the tax office.

The court seat in Zhou Gong is under the direct control of the Ministry of Justice (formerly the Legal Affairs Supervisor), and the county officials are not under their control.

The military service office is under the jurisdiction of the defense envoy of the state government, and is responsible for managing the preparation and convocation of the government soldiers and knights in the township.

The extent of the powers and responsibilities of the council varies from place to place. If it is a county council directly under the state capital, it is a power to supervise and review. If it is a county council in the autonomous prefecture capital, it depends on the arrangement of the prefecture capital, and in some places, the county council can elect a county commander and a county lieutenant...... The real power is not small! ”

Cai You nodded while listening, what Zhang Shuye said was collected by him through the north room of the Privy Council. It's not in-depth, but it's much better than making Cai You's eyes darken.

After listening for a while, he suddenly noticed a problem. The governance of the Zhou state seems simple, efficient, and well-organized. The number of bureaucratic offices at all levels is very small, but the powers and responsibilities are clear, and all of them can be supervised more effectively.

However, according to Zhou Guo's method, the local power and force seem to be too great. For example, here in Tianjin, there are about 2,500 knight households in just one county. If fully mobilized, tens of thousands of riders can pull out!

If it is a county with a majority of military households, I am afraid that the number of troops that can be mobilized will be even higher.

The county level is so powerful, so how strong are the troops at the two levels of the state capital?

The state capital is so powerful, and the imperial court is still so governing?

"Hehe," Uncle Zhang just smiled when he heard Cai You's question, "It's up to Brother Anju to find out by himself...... To be honest, the old man couldn't figure it out. Maybe it's a small state that is easy to govern? Everything is under the nose, where can it be messed up?

In the past, Li Tang was in the early years, Guanlong was the foundation, Guanzhong was full of military houses, but there were not many military houses elsewhere, probably because of this, right? ”

Uncle Zhang is worthy of being the general of Yunwen and Yunwu, and he knows the allusions to the military affairs of various dynasties well. Therefore, it can be seen at a glance that the citizen soldier system implemented by Wu Haogu is actually an upgraded version of the Sui and Tang Dynasty government soldiers. It strengthened the economic strength of the government soldiers (knights) so that they could serve better. At the same time, it raised their social status so that they could resist the expropriation of the powerful and wealthy.

Cai You frowned: "Doesn't that mean that the Zhou State can follow Li Tang's example, take Yan Liao as the foundation, and rule the world with citizens?" ”

"It should be possible!" Uncle Zhang stroked his beard at night, his face was already solemn, "Maybe Wu Haogu hasn't thought of this method yet, maybe Zhou Guo needs to recuperate...... To practice the method of using soldiers in agriculture, you must be relaxed, and you can't blindly use force. Otherwise, the use of military forces will be too much, the agricultural work will be wasted, and the government soldiers and knights will be bankrupt and poor, and they will not be able to afford military service. Youzhou has expanded suddenly, and it has thousands of miles of fertile soil in western and eastern Liaoning, and it is difficult to digest without ten years of recuperation. ”

Cai You asked: "...... in those ten years?"

Uncle Zhang shook his head lightly, "The world is in chaos!" ”

"It's going to be messy?"

"Definitely!"

"Why?" Cai Yu was puzzled.

Uncle Zhang sighed at night: "Because the manor does not divide the property, the knight has many children and grandchildren!" After ten years, when the sons of knights and soldiers grow up, the eldest son can inherit the manor, what will happen to the younger sons? ”

"Really?"

"I can't be wrong, my family knows the pain of my son best! My ancestor has 24 sons! Think about it...... There was no battle after Lan Yuan, how bitter was it? ”

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