This strange person is called Xu Hongzu, and he has not even been admitted to the show in his life, but in later generations, he is more famous and valuable than most Jinshi, and he is even called a strange person through the ages. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Xu Hongzu is a native of Jiangyin, and Zhou Yanru is a native of Yixing, Nanzhili, these two places are very close to each other, and later generations belong to Wuxi, so Xu Hongzu knows that Zhou Yanru is the top talent, and Zhou Yanru also knows this miscellaneous genius in the township.

Therefore, Xu Hongzu saw that the world-famous champion in the last years of Wanli, the new secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites and the bachelor of Hanlin came to the door to invite him, and he did not make much excuses, so he followed Zhou Yanru to Nanjing Guozijian to take office.

This Xu Hongzu is the famous Xu Xiake in later generations.

Emperor Chongzhen was instructing the Ministry of War, Shi Lang, Zhongniu Juming and others to make a topographic sand table, and suddenly remembered this geographer in the late Ming Dynasty.

When Zhou Yanru resigned, Emperor Chongzhen also mentioned Xu Xiake's name Xu Hongzu to him, and after mentioning it, Zhou Yanru naturally knew who this person was, so he had a trip to Jiangyin after taking office in Nanjing.

The existence of such a genius as Xu Hongzu also shows that the atmosphere in the Jiangnan region at the end of the Ming Dynasty was open, although the atmosphere of advocating Qing discussion originated in Donglin was very strong, but there were still various schools, even if it did not introduce Western studies on a large scale, as long as the imperial court attached importance to guidance, there was still room for self-change and improvement.

Xu Xiake was born in a scholarly family in Jiangyin County, Nanzhili, his ancestors have been scholars for generations, and his father's generation failed in the imperial examination and did not become a scholar, but the old Xu family is very rich, so his father has no intention of the imperial examination, and likes to travel around the famous mountains and rivers.

Xu Xiake followed his father Xu Youmian and traveled all over the mountains and rivers of Nanzhili until his father died when he was eighteen years old.

However, like his father, he had no intention of taking the imperial examination, although he was forced by the pressure of the family to study for a few years, but he got nothing, let alone Jinshi, and he didn't even get into a county school.

Fortunately, the old Xu family is still wealthy, with no worries about food and clothing, and his mother is also enlightened.

Therefore, at the age of twenty-two, Xu Xiake put down the Four Books and Five Classics in his hand and officially started his journey of traveling the world's rivers and recording the geography of mountains and rivers.

And this journey lasted for more than 30 years, until he died of illness in the spring of the 14th year of Chongzhen, which was not over.

Today's Emperor Chongzhen, when he was still in the future, admired the most in his heart is the explorer with an adventurous spirit in the history of the Chinese nation, among which Master Xuanzang is counted as one, traveled to the Western Regions to Tianzhu, and left a "Tang Dynasty Western Regions Chronicle".

The other is Xu Xiake, who traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers of China, and even many remote corners in the southwest, leaving another geographical masterpiece "Xu Xiake's Travels".

There were many people who dared to take risks in Chinese history, such as Zhang Qian and Su Wu, but after these people returned from the Western Regions or the Saibei Desert, they did not record the history, geography, customs and customs along the way in detail, and wasted their valuable experience in vain.

If Master Xuanzang's westward journey was not a geographical expedition, but to seek Buddhist scriptures, and writing down what he saw and heard along the way was just a by-product, then on the contrary, Xu Xiake's travels in the mountains and rivers were completely conscious of the geographical exploration, which was particularly precious.

When Zhou Yanru came to visit Xu Hongzu in the Nanqi area of Jiangyin, Xu Hongzu, also known as Xu Xiake, had just finished his year-long trip to the south of the Shanxi River and returned to his home in Jiangyin to visit his elderly mother.

At this time, Xu Xiake was forty-two years old, and his travels around the Ming Dynasty had lasted for twenty years.

At the same time, he had just completed the first three volumes of his Travels, the largest of which were at his home in Jiangyin.

The later "Xu Xiake's Travels" has been retained in a total of more than a dozen volumes, and different versions are different, but the version with the largest number of words is only more than 600,000 words.

In fact, Xu Xiake compiled and recorded his travelogues intermittently during his more than 30 years of travels, with a total of more than 2.4 million words and more than 60 volumes.

In this life, with the attention of Emperor Chongzhen now, Xu Xiake's next journey will of course be much smoother, and the geographical records obtained by his painstaking investigation will not be scattered and lost because of his illness and death.

Xu Xiake has no intention of taking the imperial examination, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't want to be an official.

The old Xu family was originally an official eunuch, and was a big landlord in Jiangyin for generations, it is said that the maximum field reached 40,000 acres, but from the middle of the Ming Dynasty after Xu Xiake Gaozu, for hundreds of years, the old Xu family has not produced a jinshi, and most of the children are stopped at lifting people.

In his father's generation, the two lifters couldn't pass the exam, and in his generation, the two Xiucai couldn't pass the exam.

Although he is not here, he has some regrets in his heart.

Now Zhou Yanru, the new secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites and a bachelor of Hanlin, personally came to Nanqi, Jiangyin to invite him to come out, and he was naturally happy to go.

However, what he didn't expect was that he served as a miscellaneous teaching assistant in Nanjing Guozijian and compiled and revised his travelogue for just over a month.

In terms of rank, the miscellaneous teaching assistant of Nanjing Guozijian is a nine-grade sesame official, and the secretary of the staff department is just a nine-grade petty official who has just entered the stream.

But in terms of status, the nine-rank petty official in Nanjing Guozijian cannot be compared with the secretary of the Ministry of War, who is also a nine-grade petty official.

Sun Yuanhua was born as a secretary of the Ministry of War, which shows that although the rank of this secretary is low and the official position is small, its status is very important.

The emperor's order was given, and Zhou Yanru quickly complied with the order.

After all, Xu Hongzu's current position in Nanjing Guozijian was mentioned by him, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, in his recital to the emperor.

For him, this was a small political achievement after he took office as the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and he also took the opportunity to show the emperor who liked miscellaneous learning, that he Zhou Yanru attached great importance to miscellaneous learning.

However, what he didn't expect from him, the new secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, was that the current emperor would attach so much importance to this Xu Hongzu, and he was directly assigned to the Ministry of War from Nanjing Guozijian one step later.

The idea of arranging Xu Hongzu to the Ministry of Staffing is, of course, the current Emperor Chongzhen himself.

Xu Hongzu's value lies in his interest in conducting geographical expeditions, but also in his detailed investigation and recording of mountains, rivers, topography and landforms, which are very useful for the top priority that Emperor Chongzhen has now assigned to the Ministry of Justice.

Since the task of making the topographical sand table of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty was handed over to the Ministry Division, a few months have passed, Niu Juming took the staff of the Ministry and the directors to organize the manpower, and ran all over the prefectures and counties in Gyeonggi separately, and successively made preliminary calculations on the Great Wall Pass, the Yanshan Mountains and the mountains and rivers in Gyeonggi.

The topographic sand table such as the Great Wall passes, mountains, rivers, cities, roads, etc., inside and outside the prefectures of Beizhili, has basically been completed.

However, compared with the entire Ming Dynasty, the three capitals and thirteen provinces and several town guards, the sand table production of the staff division is only a dozen times completed.

For Emperor Chongzhen, to make the terrain sand table of the entire Ming Dynasty, he did not lack silver, nor did he lack materials, and even did not lack the manpower to know how to measure the height of the mountains and rivers, the size of the city, and the distance of the road, what he lacked was a geographer who had surveyed most of the provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

And this man appeared just when it was needed most, with the survey records that he had been going on for twenty years.

Therefore, as soon as Zhou Yanru's recital was sent to Jingshi and to Emperor Chongzhen's desk, he immediately ordered that Jin Yiwei command Gong Yonggu to send someone to send 600 li to expedite the decree and get Xu Hongzu to the Ministry of War.

If there is anyone in the current time and space who understands the value of Xu Hongzu and his geographical records best, then it must be the current Emperor Chongzhen!

At this time, Xu Hongzu, that is, Xu Xiake, had already surveyed the entire geography of North China in the Ming Dynasty, including Fujian, Zhejiang, Huguang and other places, and then he would go to the southwest, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, and ten years later in Tengchong and other places on the Sino-Burmese border contracted malaria, and then was transported back to Jiangyin and died.

Historically, Xu Hongzu's feat, in addition to his own family, he has not received any official, community or personal financial support, all his inspection trips, all by his own money to hire people to accompany him, and many times the money can not hire people, so he has to trek through mountains and rivers by himself, deep into the barren.

This is unthinkable compared to the expeditions of the Western geographers who are officially funded and go on expeditions in droves.

Now, since Emperor Chongzhen can help him, of course he must find a way to help him, fund him, create conditions for him, and more conveniently complete the exploration and investigation of the entire Ming Dynasty and its surrounding mountains and rivers.

First, the geographical survey done by Xu Hongzu is very useful for making the panoramic terrain sand table of the Ming Dynasty.

Second, Xu Hongzu's career should have been presided over by the imperial court, so he was given the official status of a staff department, so that he could take care of both public and private interests and get the best of both worlds, why not?