Zhao Jun stayed by the river, staring blankly at this place that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. Everyone could see that something was wrong with him, but no one dared to disturb him.
"What is the prefect doing?"
Huang Sanlang was tidying up the tent when he asked Jiang Dalang beside him, "Today is strange."
"I don't know either."
Jiang Dalang scratched his head and said, "Maybe it's because the government affairs are too busy. I should go for a walk in the mountains occasionally to relax my body and mind."
"You're wrong. It's the dean who's worried."
The magistrate of Shaozhou was well-educated, after all, he was a Jinshi, and he could see Zhao Jun's current condition at a glance.
Are you worried about something?
Everyone looked at each other, confused.
No one understood why Zhao Jun suddenly changed his route and came to a desolate mountain area under a remote town in Shaozhou.
But no one dared to go.
Time flows slowly like water in a stream.
It’s late at night and the New Year is approaching.
Zhao Jun spent the end of the fourth year of Jingyou in this mountain cave and also entered the new year.
At the beginning of this year, Song Renzong Zhao Zhen announced that the reign title would be changed to Baoyuan.
At the end of this year, historically, Li Yuanhao officially attacked the Song Dynasty, triggering the Song-Xia War that lasted for several years.
The next morning, Zhao Jun set out on his southern tour again.
On the first day of the new year, after his soldiers had packed their luggage, he stood on the ridge, took another deep look at the small valley, and then left without looking back.
If he could change the fate of the Song Dynasty, perhaps the situation in the future where the ancestors of the Zhao family fled here at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty would not have happened again.
At that time, there was naturally still no one here, and perhaps other Han people would have moved here.
But at least his ancestors will never come here again.
Here, there are only a few thoughts and memories left of him, and it will no longer have any other connection with him.
"Let's go."
Back in Baisha Town, the boat Zhao Jun rented was still waiting at the dock.
The Zishui River flows slowly.
This time we did not continue heading north, but went south back to Shaozhou.
On the boat, Jiang Dalang was still curious. Seeing Zhao Jun standing at the bow, hands behind his back, still looking in the direction of Baisha Town, he couldn't help but ask, "Dean."
"Um?"
"I don't quite understand why the dean came here on purpose."
"Just come and see, something happened here before."
"oh."
"Okay, tell the boatmen to speed up. We still have to go south to Guangzhou."
Zhao Jun didn't want to explain too much to Jiang Dalang, because there was actually nothing to explain. He just came to see his former hometown.
That's the only time.
Maybe he will never come back in the future, so this time he has put an end to his thoughts.
Jiang Dalang left in confusion.
The ship slowly sailed away from the port. Zhao Jun was still looking at the distant mountains until the fleet turned around a cliff and the distant mountains were completely blocked by the mountains behind. He sighed and returned to the cabin.
In the past, he never had much of a sense of belonging to the Song Dynasty. Even though his last name was Zhao and the Emperor Zhao of the Song Dynasty was indeed his ancestor, it still lacked a certain meaning.
In Zhao Jun's cognition, the small mountain village that he missed so much was his hometown where he was born and raised for more than 20 years. Even after he went far north to study in Beijing, he still could not forget everything in the mountain village.
But now, after taking this look, I can officially say goodbye to my former self.
Because no matter what, even his ancestors didn't exist here, so there was no trace of him at all.
So he came here, but couldn't belong here, so it would be better to break off completely.
future.
He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the cause of the Song Dynasty.
The fate of our ancestors changed completely.
This hometown will become a thing of the past and remain only in dreams.
In February of the first year of Baoyuan, Zhao Jun went south to Guangzhou and inspected the Panyu Port. He witnessed the grand sight of many foreign ships docked densely at the dock.
In fact, if this situation happened at any Chinese foreign trade port in the future, it would only be considered a small scene not worth mentioning.
But in the Song Dynasty a thousand years ago, no matter which empire of the same period, there had never been so many foreign ships flocking in, just to take away the country's specialties such as tea, porcelain, silk, spices, etc.
Zhao Jun asked local officials whether they had any contact with Southeast Asian countries and whether they had taken the initiative to send ships to investigate the situation there.
The response he received was surprisingly, "You are a small nation, so there is no need to send envoys." "Foreign nations are the only ones that have the right to pay homage to the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty has never sent envoys to other countries, with the exception of the Liao Kingdom."
Hearing such arrogant words, Zhao Jun was speechless.
If he had not learned from the investigation that Fan Shidao, the transport envoy of Guangnan East Road who said this, was a man of strict moral integrity and a rare honest official, he really wanted to knock the other party on the head and ask him why he was so arrogant with the military power of the Song Dynasty.
Finally, Zhao Jun ordered him to form a fleet this year and go to Southeast Asia for investigation.
In addition, Nanyang has abundant grain production. If conditions permit, I hope he can find a way to import grain from Southeast Asia to alleviate domestic food pressure.
The Song Dynasty did import grain. For example, the northern part of the Song Dynasty frequently traded with Tubo, Xixia, and Liao, often buying cattle, sheep, and other livestock. During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, grain was imported from Yue to provide relief to the victims of disasters in the south.
Champa rice was also introduced to China at that time.
However, importing grain was too troublesome and costly. It took more than half a year to transport it from Guangzhou to Hunan via the Lingqu Canal, then from Hunan via the Xiangjiang River to the Yangtze River, and finally via the Grand Canal to Bianliang.
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