Few students of the Great Song Dynasty honestly stayed in the library to read dead books, whether it was Zhu Zi's advocacy of "all things in the world, the truth naturally appears" or Wang Yangming's "unity of knowledge and action". All encourage young people to get out of the study, but to experience the customs of this era.

When the four-level meeting was in full swing, the backbone members of Cheng Qi's self-help association also took the train to Shouzhou Mansion, the capital of Lianghuai Road.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Huainan East and West Roads and Jingdong East and West Roads were established in the vast area between Huanghuai and Huai. In the republican era, Shandong Road was established in the hometown of Qilu, Gyeonggi Road was established in the Central Plains, and the north and south of the Huai River were unified into two Huai Road, and the chief executive was stationed in Shouzhou Mansion.

According to the official system of the Second Empire of the Great Song Dynasty, the highest civil affairs chief at the local road level was the political envoy, and the financial chief was the transit envoy, and these two envoys lived in the same yamen; For example, in Lianghuai Road, the transfer envoy and the political envoy are in Shouzhou, the criminal envoy is in Chuzhou, and the magistrate's court and the fourth-level council of Lianghuai Road are in Xuzhou. This kind of design is of course the "separation of powers" that the Great Song Empire is proud of, just imagine, all the way to the civil, judicial and legislative chiefs are simply not in the same city, how should these feudal ministers rebel?

In addition, with the exception of the chief executive, who has no armed forces, the rest of the institutions have their own armed forces: the tax collector (tax police) in charge of tax collection, the judicial police in the criminal department, and the parliament can directly command the local village soldiers. In addition, there are several regimental training envoys and defenses, so that the forbidden army and the school parade army under their command are only responsible to the Privy Council of the Great Song Empire, and it is even more difficult for the political envoys to rebel than to ascend to the sky.

Under the design of this political system, the political envoys were purely civilian bureaucrats, or to put it more bluntly, they were merely representatives of the road-level parliaments that were pushed to the stage.

If a small number of aspiring political envoys want to show their talents, they must control the road councils as local legislatures and the transfer envoys who hold the power of finance and taxation. In Lianghuai Road, these two key points were controlled by Fei Jianren - he controlled the coal mines of Lianghuai, which was the main source of wealth for Lianghuai Road, and the transfer envoy could be said to be subservient to him, and the well-equipped tax collector could be said to be almost his Fei family's private army. And the road council has become his Fei Jianren's hall. He used all kinds of despicable means to drive out those who did not want to cooperate with him, and finally let the members of the road elect themselves to be the representatives of the fourth council of the empire through voting.

Now on the two Huai Road, Fei Jianren can be said to be an uncrowned king. He controlled the mining and transportation of coal, and then pinched the seven inches of this section of Caoyun. Here he built a small feudal kingdom of his own

Cheng Qi learned these facts from the streets and alleys in only one afternoon when they came to Shouzhou. Don't look at the city center here is no different from the whole world, the official yamen is located in the center of the city, but the locals told these Confucian sword boys from other places: "In Shouzhou, it is useless to find an errand to go to the yamen for a scholar like you, you have to go to the Fei building - yes, it is the six-story building on Xiguan Street, see it, it is more magnificent than the yamen, it is all piled up with gold and silver, and the steps are made of pearls." ”

Six-storey buildings weren't uncommon in this era – they were in Bianliang, Tokyo, or Luoyang, Xijing. In the entire Shouzhou City, Cheng Qi noticed that the buildings in the entire state city seemed to be still in the style of the classical era, and there were no gas lamps on the streets, let alone the bustling night market. The whole city seemed to be napping after it had just gotten dark—except for the six-story building, which seemed to be very bustling when viewed from afar from the inn.

"It is said that Fei Jianren and his staff are not there these days, and his children and nephews are enjoying themselves." Ma Zhan went out to inquire and came back and said, "They have a big feast inside, and they don't know where to get some singers, and they drink and have fun every day, and they look like they are drunk and dreaming of death." ”

Cheng Qi knew that Ma Zhan was most unaccustomed to this kind of extravagant life, and smiled: "Let them live happily for two more days, and we will go to the mining area tomorrow to have a look." ”

Shouzhou is clearly not a bustling city, and there is no nightlife to go to – except for the Fei building in the distance. Everyone also took the train for two days, so it can be said that they were sleepy, so they simply ate a meal of local noodles and went back to their rooms to rest.

Cheng Qi wanted to go out and find a bathhouse to take a dip, but he was unfamiliar with the place, and there was not even a street lamp on the road, so he solved it in the house. He called Xiao Er and asked them to boil hot water - this poor country didn't even have gas to boil water. You must know that in the inns in Bianjing, there are gas pipes, and tourists can enjoy the convenience of industrialization and take a hot bath at any time. And this inn actually claims to be one of the best in Shouzhou City, and it can't even compare to the worst in Bianjing.

Cheng Qi was also broken-mouthed, supervising the juniors to boil water, and at the same time telling all his complaints. After taking a bath, he lay on the bed and flipped through an atlas he bought on the train, which is also interesting, the Song people followed the Buddhist tradition in the era of the great geographical discoveries, and named the Chinese Kyushu as Nanganbu Continent, which includes the Qin and Han dynasties in China and the Liaodong, Mobei and Western Xia, all of which include the vast areas from the middle of the river to the Indus Valley. The vast land to the north of the Liao mainland to the North Pole is called Beiju Luzhou, and Cheng Qi's world is called the vast territory of Central and Western Europe, Africa and West Asia, which is called Xiniuhezhou; The scientific name of the Americas is naturally Dongsheng Shenzhou, but because there are too many gold and silver minerals there, the common name given by the Liao people in the Americas is more widespread than that of Dongsheng Shenzhou.

Unconsciously, he seemed a little confused in the intersection of the world and reality of Journey to the West. But just as he was about to fall asleep, he seemed to hear a knock on the door.

"Is there a thief?" Cheng Qi rubbed his eyes and got up from the bed with a yawn - this trip out, because he was taking over from Ma Zhan, a few Mohist ascetic fundamentalists, he didn't even bring a caring constant companion, and he had to do everything himself, but he was tired of people.

Cheng Qi walked to the door in a daze, and subconsciously pulled the door bolt open: "Who ......?"

It was not a big man who was coming, but a weak girl in light blue clothes. Before Cheng Qi could react, the girl had already fallen on top of him: "Master, do you need the service of a slave?" ”

It's over, is there also door-to-door service in this era?

Cheng Qi suddenly sobered up a lot, pushed his hands with a very dignified gentleman, and said sternly and righteously: "Girl, please respect yourself." ”

Immediately, he noticed that his hand seemed to be holding exactly two important points.

Before he could take back the claws of Lushan, the people had already posted them: "Master, they have already come......"

Cheng Qi hurriedly jumped back: "Girl, please respect yourself." He walked around to the edge of the table and held up the half-missing candle. At last I saw the girl who had broken in recklessly—she was delicate, and although her clothes were clean, they were not very good materials, and she seemed to have been washed many times. It seems that the economy of this place is really not good, and even those who are engaged in businessless have a dismal income.

At the beginning, Cheng Qi wondered if there was a leak of the news, and someone wanted to make a beauty trick for himself, but this beauty trick seemed to be a bit picky. He began to wonder if it was the local socially vibrant groups who saw that they were outsiders who had come to do the fairy jump.

However, the girl and he looked at him across the table, and they no longer pounced, and it was impossible to turn away, so they could only bow their heads and pull the corners of their clothes. Cheng Qi looked her up and down, and estimated that she was only fifteen or sixteen years old, and she looked a little pitiful.

Cheng Qi hurriedly settled down, and scolded how could he be in the same stream with the water being too cold, this kind of thing of eating tender grass should be left to Scholar Qian. He put the candlestick on the table and said, "Girl, I don't need any service, please go out." ”

The girl looked up at him, disappointed. Every time she comes here to do business, whether she succeeds or not, she has to give five copper plates to the uncle who is in charge of the back door. Today, it was easy to hear the guy who ran the hall say that there were a few guests with foreign accents, and they were full of joy to change into their best clean clothes and rushed over. But I didn't expect to meet an antique "hypocrite".

She noticed that the clothes on the bedside seemed to be high-end silk robes, and a sword hung from the coat rack, all of which indicated that the owner was a scholar—and not a poor scholar, but a Confucian nobleman. Such a young talent will obviously not be short of money when he goes out.