In the fourth year of Xianping (1001 AD), the imperial court decreed that Lü Mengzheng was a scholar of Zhaowenguan University with his own official Tongping Zhangshi. Since the beginning of this dynasty, only Zhao Pu and Lu Mengzheng have been appointed as prime ministers three times. After the suburban ceremony, he was crowned as a commonplace and a squire. When Lu Meng was at home, he heard about Yang Peng, and Yang Peng built a new city, and Lu Meng was deliberately coming from Luoyang to Tianjing New Town near Cangzhou before taking office.

Lv Mengzheng, the word Shenggong, a native of Luoyang, Henan Province, his ancestral home is in the village of Junzhai Village, Chenggang Road Street, Laizhou City. Prime Minister of the Northern Song Dynasty in the early years. In the second year of Taiping Xingguo (977 AD), Lü Mengzheng was admitted as the first Jinshi and appointed as a general and a general judge in Shengzhou. When he resigned to the emperor, the emperor ordered that if there was any inconvenience in handling political affairs, he was allowed to come to the court on a stagecoach and gave him 200,000 yuan. When he was transferred back to Beijing, he met Song Taizong and summoned him to the palace to see him.

In the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo (980 AD), Song Taizong personally appointed him as Zuo Buque and Zhizhi. At the beginning, his father Lu Guitu had a lot of dependents, and he was at odds with his wife Liu, so he drove Liu and Lu Mengzheng out together, Lu Mengzheng's mother and son were very poor and embarrassed, and Liu vowed not to marry again. After Lü Mengzheng became an official, he welcomed his parents to live with him, and his parents lived in the same room but in different rooms, and Lü Mengzheng served them very thoughtfully. Lü Guitu died soon after, and the imperial court decreed that Lü Mengzheng should be reinstated. Soon, he was promoted to the capital official Langzhong, entered the court as a bachelor of Hanlin, was promoted to the left counselor, participated in political affairs, and gave him a residence in Lijingmen.

After Li Fang was deposed as prime minister, Lü Mengzheng was appointed as a Zhongshu squire and a secretary of the household department, Tongping Zhangshi, and a supervisor of national history. Lu Mengzheng is kind and tolerant, has a high reputation, and adheres to the right path and self-discipline. Dare to speak out in case of trouble, every time he discusses current affairs, if there is unfairness, he must insist on opposing opinions, and the emperor praises him for being able to hide everything. Zhao Pu is the founding father, and Lu Meng is an official who was promoted later, and has held various official positions for 12 years, so he was the same prime minister, and Zhao Pu praised him very much. Soon, he was mourned by his mother, and after less than three years of mourning, he was reinstated.

Previously, when Lu Duosun was the prime minister, his son was appointed as a member of the Ministry of Water as soon as he came out, which was later regarded as a regular practice. In this regard, Lu Mengzheng said: "The minister was born as a scholar and a first, and when he was a minister, he was only awarded the official of Jiupin Jing. Moreover, there are many talented people in the world who live in seclusion in the mountains and forests all their lives, and there are many people who have not received the slightest benefit from the imperial court. Now, the minister's son has just come of age, and he is afraid that he will be condemned by heaven, and he is asked to replace him with the official position when the minister first came out. From then on, the prime minister's son was only granted to the Jiupin Jingguan, which became a legal system.

In the early years of the Dao (995 AD), the edict ordered Lü Mengzheng to serve as the general judge of Henan Prefecture and the guard of Xijing as the right servant. After Lü Mengzheng arrived in Luoyang, he often invited relatives to have a banquet, advocated leniency in political affairs, appointed subordinates, and only made overall decisions on political affairs.

Song Zhenzong ascended the throne, and Lu Mengzheng shot for the left servant. When the imperial court built the Fengxi Mausoleum, Lü Mengzheng recalled the generous kindness given by Dai Xianchao, and contributed more than 3 million yuan of family wealth as a supplement to the construction funds. On the day of Song Taizong's burial, Lü Meng was crying on the ground and was extremely sad, and people thought that it was a courtesy of the minister.

Lu Meng was walking by the river in Yanshan County with his personal guards, and was shocked by the scene of the hot wasteland. In these years, the war was chaotic and precarious, and the bureaucrats and gentry did not know what tomorrow would bring, and when they considered things, they became more and more short-sighted, thinking only about how to oppress small peasants without backgrounds, and the water conservancy facilities in various places were in shambles. But if there is a little natural disaster, all localities can turn small disasters into major disasters, and the tragedy of refugees fleeing the famine and their wives being separated will come out, where will there be people to develop new fields and build water conservancy facilities?

But when I arrived in Yanshan County, it was a waterwheel to repair the canal, and tens of thousands of people in the field of vision were in full swing. The poor peasants did not feel forced to build the canals, and they took the initiative one by one. Some of them, in particular, shouted and shouted, as if it was a great joy to do this physical work. Lü Meng was seeing a woman carrying two buckets of water to the construction site, handing water to other farmers to drink. The joyful attitude of the owner makes people feel that good days are just around the corner. A cylindrical waterwheel was placed on the edge of the Zhanghe River, and a few farmers resting by the waterwheel shook it experimentally, and some water was put into the canal. When the peasants saw the water, they smiled happily.

Which family took the lead in building a water conservancy project, and there are still people in my Great Song Dynasty who organize such a large water conservancy project, and there is such a sharp place? Lü Mengzheng stopped the team and sent three personal soldiers to the construction site to inquire which family was repairing the canal. The three pro-soldiers asked for a while and ran back, and Lu Mengzheng hurriedly asked, "Ask me which family it is?" The soldier half-knelt on the ground and replied loudly: "I asked clearly, my lord, it was Yang Peng, the general of Cangzhou, who cultivated private land and repaired the canal." ”

Lu Mengzheng was stunned, why was it Yang Peng again. This Yang Peng fought a great war, and the Khitan was terrified, how could he be so outstanding in construction? The canal that more than 10,000 people are building is a big project at first glance. And this is what Lu Mengzheng saw on the side of the official road, where he can't see it, I don't know how many projects there are? That's a lot of money.

Lu Mengzheng touched his beard and thought about it, and said, "This Yang Peng cultivates private fields for his own profit. How can these people be so enthusiastic and jubilant? The soldier said, "My lord, now that the peasants are idle, those people have nothing to do. But he can get one or two or a half yuan of silver a month for helping Yang Peng work, and he will pay it every half a month and never default, so the hired farmers work hard one by one. Moreover, some of these farmers were tenant farmers hired by Yang Pengxin, and they were planted for them when the fields were opened, so they were very happy. ”

Lu Mengzheng thought for a long time and asked, "What is there to be happy about being a tenant farmer?" The soldier said, "I also asked, and the peasants said that the tenant farmers of the general's family are completely different from other people's families. First of all, there is a lot of land, a man or a strong woman is divided into 20 acres of land, and the second is that the field is good, there is a canal irrigation that can be watered enough, and the general also divides the cattle to ensure a good harvest. Finally, the land rent is thin, including the tax on the military fields, and the general only collects 30% of the grain from the land rent to return the grain money, and the remaining 70% of the peasants can stay. In this way, the peasants will be rich in less than a year! ”

Because of this, the tenant farmers who were allotted the fields were so elated. It is equivalent to the fact that the field is a white seed, that is, you must pay 30% of the grain, but Yang Peng will pay back the money for the grain paid. After hearing this, Lu Mengzheng was stunned for a long time, and said: "This Yang Peng killed the Khitan fiercely on the battlefield, how can he be so kind to the peasants when he returns to Cangzhou?" However, he calculated, and roughly settled Yang Peng's account, and said: "But this Yang Peng still makes money by opening Xintian, and he can make a lot of money." ”

Lu Mengzheng seemed to be a little jealous of Yang Peng's organizational ability, snorted coldly, waved his sleeves and said, "Go!" Check it out in Tianjing New Town! Reaching the boundary of Tianjing New City, Lu Mengzheng became more and more surprised. On that day, there didn't seem to be much land on the boundary of Jingxin Town, but by a few small rivers, large canals were opened to irrigate the new fields. The new fields had already harvested winter wheat and were planted with a low, broad-leaved plant.

The broad-leaved plant Sun Chuanting knew that it was the corn that the Zhejia had failed to promote in Shaanxi. Because of the high corn harvest, the Zhe family forcibly demanded that farmers plant corn in Shaanxi, which almost provoked a popular uprising. However, the rotation of corn and winter wheat is a good solution, and planting a previous crop of corn a few months after the winter wheat harvest can fill up the half year of the fallow period. Those corn people are uncomfortable eating too much, but feeding pigs is good pig food.

But what surprised Lu Mengzheng was not the corn, but the wealthy villages near Xintian. There were no thatched huts in those villages, but they were all brick houses, which were very strong. Moreover, the houses occupy a large area, and it can be seen that they were added after a period of time, and the new rooms are of a slightly different color from the bricks and tiles used in the original rooms, and they are combined.

These peasants live well. Not only that, but the farmers came out of their yards with short brown and short clothes without patches, either brand new or half-new. The peasants were all very good-looking, and by no means as thin as the peasants in other places. Those farmhouse yards are hung with bacon, dried fish and other dried things, these other local farmers can't eat meat during the New Year, it seems that Fanjiazhuang farmers eat ordinary things every day. Sun Chuanting observed all the way, and saw several times a farmer sitting leisurely in the yard with his trouser legs pulled up and smoking dry tobacco.

Can a farmer afford to smoke dry tobacco? In Shaanxi, small landlords can't afford to smoke dry tobacco! Lu Meng was walking, and he had the illusion that he was not in the Great Song Dynasty. When Lu Meng was passing by a township market, he was even more shocked. The market was full of people, and the people who bought things were farmers from the neighborhood. In the bazaar, there are those who kill pigs and sell meat, chickens and ducks, vegetables and condiments, iron pots and clay pots, cloth and needlework, tobacco and tea, rice wine and soju, and even fruits and melons. Those people carried bamboo baskets to buy goods, and one by one they returned with a full load, and bargained with the vendors in the market, which was very lively.

A township is more prosperous than the bazaars in other county towns. There was a small winery next to the bazaar, and it was noon, and there were already many farmers with their sleeves rolled up and drinking and eating in it, making a loud noise. The store was overcrowded, and the tables were already set up on the road outside. The three shopkeepers shuttled back and forth like butterflies between the tables, collecting money to serve food, and they were very busy.

Lu Mengzheng took a closer look, and even found that there were four people each leading a horse on the side of the winery to sell. The smiling faces of the horse-sellers shouted at the crowd of passers-by. The four horses were pack horses, not good horses, but it was the first time that Lu Mengzheng had heard of a country market town where horses were sold. At first glance, this neighborhood is full of Yang Peng's private land, but there are no landlords and gentry. Could it be that among the farmers in Tianjing New Town, some are already so rich that they want to go out on horseback?

Lu Meng was quickly calculating in his heart, thirty percent of the land rent, the couple planted forty acres of land, if they were one out of ten farming experts, they could harvest fifty stone of grain a year, and there were seventy taels of silver after cutting the land rent. Seventy taels of silver, you can really afford to buy a horse, and that's not counting the harvest of corn.

Lu Mengzheng remembered that he had indeed seen someone riding a horse on the official road just now, but he hadn't paid attention to it just now, thinking that it was a gentleman's family from the city. Now that I think about it, these horseback riders may have been local farmers. The more Lu Mengzheng looked, the more shocked he became, and then thinking about Shaanxi, where the people of Chidi were thousands of miles away, Lu Mengzheng seemed to have traveled through two worlds.

Lu Meng stopped on the official road next to the market, and sighed in distraction: "This Yang Peng went into battle to kill the enemy with one enemy and one hundred, and he didn't think that governing the territory could also benefit the people, he was really good at civil and military affairs!" No wonder the officials look up to him so much! "If you have Yang Peng's ability to protect the territory and the people, where will there be Western Xia in Shaanxi? It was Lu Mengzheng, who was always conceited, who was also shocked at this time, and glanced at Yang Peng again. Gritting his teeth, Lu Mengzheng shook his head and said:

"Get on the horse to kill the slaves and get off the horse to enrich the people, this Yang Peng's talent is to be a Zaifu and do it!" When they arrived in Tianjing New Town, Yang Bamei, a newly promoted guard officer, received Lu Mengzheng and his party at the city gate and brought him into the city. Entering the city of Tianjing New Town, Lu Mengzheng was even more surprised.

From the outside, Tianjing New Town looks like a county seat, and when I entered the city, I found that it was much more prosperous and tidy than the county seat. The first feeling is that it is clean and tidy, and the city is so clean that it really doesn't look like a city in the Great Song Dynasty. The main street is straight, and the main street is flanked by wide drainage ditches. There was no garbage or feces on the street. On both sides of the road are neat two-story villas. The walls of the villa were white-painted, and the ceiling was covered with pitch-black tiles, which was very spectacular at first sight.

If you look closely, you will find that the city is rich and prosperous. Most of the people on the street wore cotton round necks, and there were very few patches on those clothes, so they threw them away when they wanted to wear them. There are even many citizens who wear silk and drop out, and they are not obtrusive in the crowd, and they look extremely ordinary.

Lu Mengzheng could see a few fat people every few steps, and found that the proportion of fat people in Tianjing New City was much higher than that in other cities. On both sides of the road, there are one or two teahouses and restaurants every few dozen steps, which are full of wealthy citizens. Some teahouses have built theaters, on which all kinds of operas are sung, and the citizens below watch them with relish and applaud loudly from time to time. A small guy took an iron basin down to collect a reward, and the citizens who watched the play threw copper coins into the iron basin one after another, and laid a thick layer on the iron basin after a while.

There are also many snack bars on both sides of the road, selling sugar gourds, fried chestnuts with sugar, and selling champion sugar alabaster cream, all over the place. Some greedy women and children held copper coins and exchanged them for candy in the store.

Lu Mengzheng passed by a green building and saw two pinkheads with a pretty good look standing at the door of the green building, looking at him with affection. Lu Mengzheng is not good at Qinglou, but he also knows that the appearance level of those fans is definitely more beautiful than that of ordinary Qinglou in the capital. The fans standing at the door are all in this way, and the other fans in the Qinglou can be imagined. In other words, the pimped bustard made a lot of money in Fanjiazhuang, so he bought the most beautiful powder and ran a business here.

The wealth of this Tianjing New City can be seen. Lu Meng was looking at Yang Bamei and asked, "General Yang, why are the people of Tianjing New City so rich?" ”

Yang Bamei said with a smile: "In the general's industry, the workers are all paid for two or two months and have three meals. Coupled with the money of more than 10,000 soldiers for three or two months a month, a large number of people grabbed the money to find a place to spend money, and the various needs in the entire Tianjing New City were extremely strong. If you do any small business in Tianjing New Town, you can earn more than two taels of silver a month. As long as you are a little diligent in your hands and feet, you can live a well-off life. ”

Lu Mengzheng took a breath and nodded. The city is very safe, and from time to time you can see auxiliaries with swords patrolling in groups of ten. The petty thieves that were common elsewhere in the Great Song Dynasty were not seen anywhere in the Tianjing New Town. After walking for a while, Lu Mengzheng noticed the details of those streets and alleys, and he was even more surprised.

Signs are erected in many places in the city, and the name of the road is written on the wall of each road, as if the people of Tianjing New Town can understand it. There is an information bar on every street, and dozens of people stand in front of each information bar to browse. Lu Mengzheng went up to take a look curiously, and found that the information column was pasted with Fanjiazhuang's notice and the national events copied from the Di newspaper. The notices and transcribed texts were written in the most understandable language, and the wording was accurate and understandable at a glance, unlike the notices in other places, which were exaggerated and disregarded for the sake of writing pun.

Lu Meng was walking a few steps forward, and saw several children carrying book bags and holding the candy they had just bought, jumping back on the street, as if they had just come out of the school. A few steps further, Lu Mengzheng saw another group of children with book bags on their backs. Lu Mengzheng was taken aback and asked Yang Bamei:

"Do all the children in Beijing New Town have the money to go to school?" Yang Bamei smiled and said, "My lord, the children of the age in Tianjing New City all attend the school opened by the general, and there is no tuition fee. After a pause, Yang Bamei said again: "In recent years, the general has advocated literacy, and most of the people in the city have learned to read and write spontaneously, and now at least three adults are literate. ”

Three Adult Literacy! Aren't the people of Tianjing New City all knowledgeable people? Not to be underestimated. Lu Mengzheng was taken aback again, and looked at Tianjing New City with wide eyes. Lu Meng was walking all the way to see the strangeness, and Lu Meng just didn't have a good time walking to the official hall of Tianjing New Town. After entering the second hall, Lu Mengzheng found Yang Peng who was waiting there.

Lu Mengzheng saw Yang Peng, took a breath, and arched his hand and said, "The general's Tianjing New City really let Lu Mengzheng see it." Yang Peng smiled, looked at Li Xing, who was sitting on the side, and said, "What did Xiangguo see?" "Now Zhang Xiang is the secretary of the military department of Tianjing New Town, and this official hall is nominally used by Zhang Xiang. However, Yang Peng also often has some reception work, and has dominated the official hall for a long time.

Lu Mengzheng arched his hand and said: "Lu Mengzheng saw that the town was prosperous and the people were rich. The so-called royal paradise is nothing more than that! Yang Peng smiled and said, "Xiangguo has won the award!" Lu Mengzheng did not let go of Yang Peng, and said: "The old man wants to ask the general about the key techniques for protecting the territory and the people, and I hope that the general will not hesitate to give advice." Yang Peng was stunned, he didn't expect Lu Mengzheng to be on a par with him, and he wanted to tell the secret himself. This Lu Mengzheng was originally an arrogant person, but he called himself an old man in front of Yang Peng, which was extremely admired by Yang Peng.

After thinking about it, Yang Peng changed his mouth and said: "If you want to make farmers rich, it is nothing more than to reclaim new fields and build water conservancy projects." My dragon tail waterwheel is sold, fifty taels one, do you want to buy it? Lu Mengzheng thought about it and said, "Fifty taels is worth the money." It's just that Tianjing New Town is too far away from Bianjing, and it is really inconvenient to transport it, and I am afraid that the road will be broken. ”

"Then if you don't buy a waterwheel, what are you going to buy in my Tianjing New Town?" Lu Mengzheng thought for a while and said, "I came to Tianjing New City this time, originally to discuss with the general, and I wanted to buy some strong crossbows!" The general's strong crossbow is lightweight, and it can kill dozens of Western Xia thieves with a single arrow, which is really sharp. ”

Yang Peng nodded and said, "I can also sell you some strong crossbows, but this strong crossbow can only be cast in a month, and it can't be sold too much." Sell you up to twenty doors. He said, "How much silver for a door?" Taibao can give cheaper, the western army is hard, and it really can't get much silver. "Six hundred taels and one door, any less will be a loss."

Lu Mengzheng thought about it, gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, if I buy twenty doors, it will be 12,000 taels." After a pause, Lu Mengzheng said again: "But I can't raise any silver this month, and I won't have a sum of money until September, which can be paid to the Taibao." Yang Peng knew that the Western Army was poor, and said with a smile: "I'll build a strong crossbow first." In fact, I still have some strong crossbows in stock, and when Xiangguo's silver comes, I will deliver them directly to Xiangguo. ”

Lu Mengzheng nodded and said, "That's very good, thank you general." Lu Mengzheng chatted with Mrs. She again. In order to adapt to future naval battles, Yang Peng decided to make some grenades to pop out. At present, the grenades that Yang Peng can make can only be black powder grenades with arquebus. To light such a grenade, it is necessary to carry a fire. Fighting with tinder is very troublesome and affects the combat effectiveness of the troops.

For field warfare, this kind of grenade is of little use, because the grenades of black powder are very heavy, at least seven or eight pounds. If it's not so heavy, it's not powerful. And such a heavy grenade can't be thrown far, it's good to be able to throw twenty meters. At a distance of twenty meters, the enemy rushed up after a few steps, and it was easy to dodge the damage of the grenade. Instead of throwing a grenade at the expense, it's better to shoot it.

So Yang Peng has not developed grenades. But if it's a naval battle, it's different. The space on the ship is narrow and densely populated, which is where the grenade comes into play. In naval warfare, ships are like two cities with guardrails to block bullets, and attacking the opposing ships is like attacking a city. If the enemy dodges under the ship's side railing, the rifle will not be able to find its target, or even shoot through the thick ship's side guardrail. Broadside battles are like siege battles, and without grenades, they often have to fight the enemy hand-to-hand.

And with grenades it is possible to bombard the enemy. When the two ships approached in a naval battle, whether the other side was hiding behind the guardrail or behind the mast, throwing dozens of grenades at the other side could blow each other up. Moreover, grenades can bounce off ship buildings and blow up enemy soldiers hiding on the lower decks - the entrances and exits between the decks are small, making it very difficult to get in and out. If you don't have grenades, you can easily be held by your opponent with a few arquebuses or a few broadswords.

The earliest grenadiers in the West were configured for siege. The same is true of Yang Peng's use of grenades to attack enemy ships. In order to win the future naval battle, Yang Peng asked the craftsmen who cast the dragon tail cars to stop their work and start casting grenades—Yang Peng's warehouse had a large number of dragon tail cars, enough to meet the needs of this batch of newly cultivated farmland, and there was no need to build new ones.

The grenade made by Yang Peng weighed eight pounds, and was covered with cast iron, and inside was black powder and broken iron slag. The black powder ignited and exploded, sending sharp iron slags in all directions, killing and injuring enemy personnel. A wooden handle is made under the grenade, and there is a fuse on the handle, and usually the fuse is screwed with an iron cap on it, and it is turned open when the fire is lit.

Yang Peng placed the grenade next to the scarecrow and lit it, and found that this grenade could probably kill and injure enemies who were one step in the vicinity. Such lethality is also considerable. Yang Peng is in Cangzhou and Dingzhou, and it is very convenient to buy saltpeter and gunpowder, and Yang Peng's warehouse has a lot of black powder materials. The craftsmen of the dragon tail car workshop made the molds and soon cast more than 2,000 grenades and popped them out. Yang Peng put the grenade into the warehouse, ready to arm the future sailors.

After all, what happens next, let's see how it will be broken down next time.