Across the Water Margin: Officials of Ximen

In order to cover up the matter, Ximen Qing had asked Cheng Wanli, the magistrate of Dongping Prefecture, to find a man who looked somewhat similar to Song Wan from among the captured Liangshan bandits, and cut off his head with the name "King Kong in the Cloud" In the name of Song Wan, together with the heads of "Winged Tiger" Lei Heng and "Jade Banner Gan" Meng Kang, they were hung on the city wall of Dongping Mansion for public display.

In this way, outsiders who don't know the inside story will only think that Song Wan was also killed when the government army captured Liangshan.The head of the fake "Song Wan" on the city wall has been chopped off to a bloody mess, and even the spies sent by Song Jiang's guy couldn't tell if it was real or fake.In this way, it will be safer for Du Qian to "touch the sky".

In Ximen Qing's team going north on this trip, Ximen Qing also brought a few special people with him to Liaodong to perform a special task.

Chapter 591 The Importance of Maps

Ximen Qing brought with him Brother Qiao Yun's father-in-law, Yu Jiaozhi's father, Wang Yi, a painter of the Daming Mansion, and several people who were good at painting from Ximen Qing's own young backbone training class in Ximenbao.

Ximen Qing went north this time, and the only reason he brought painter Wang Yi and a few painting apprentices was not to draw portraits for Wanyan Aguda and others to please them, but to let these people hone a new skill: observation Draw a more accurate map of the geographical environment of Liaodong.

When Ximenqing was assisting Cheng Wanli, the prefect of Dongping Prefecture, to command the state troops to encircle and suppress Chao Gai's gang of Liangshanpo bandits, he discovered something that he had neglected before, but now it is quite a headache when he is actually marching and fighting, that is, the comparison of maps in this era. Looking at the modern map that Ximen Qing had seen before crossing, it was too rough.

Speaking of which, the Great Song Dynasty also had its own set of maps.

After the founding of the Song Dynasty, a centralized system of power was implemented.After conquering the small countries in the south, in order to consolidate the regime and strengthen the control over the whole country, the imperial court searched for the maps of the separatist countries in many ways, and ordered the prefectures and counties to send maps on time, and draw the maps of the whole country from these maps.

After the founding of the Song Dynasty, it was initially decided to make maps twice every five years. Song Taizong Chunhua changed it to every five years, and Song Zhenzong Xianping changed it to every four years and turned it to every ten years.Taizong, Zhenzong, and Renzong dynasties all compiled national maps.

In the fourth year of Xining, Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty, Zhao Yanruo, the school manager of Jixian, supervised the production of "Map of Military Supervising Counties and Towns of Prefectures and Prefectures in the World". roll.

Dissatisfied with the map supervised by Zhao Yanruo, the governor of Jixian School, Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty ordered Shen Kuo to recompile "Tianxia County Map" in the ninth year of Xining.

Song Shenzong used the right person this time. Shen Kuo was a politician in the Song Dynasty and even an encyclopedic scientist.He is a geographer, physicist, mathematician, chemist, medical scientist, astronomer, water conservancy expert, weapon expert, and military strategist. He wrote the ancient scientific classic "Mengxi Bi Tan" that will last forever.

During his career as an official for more than [-] years, Shen Kuo paid great attention to investigating the characteristics of the country's mountains and rivers, and formed his theory of geography.

Shen Kuo inspected Yandang Mountain in Zhejiang and pointed out that the volleying boulders in Yandang Mountain were the result of thousands of years of rain erosion.He inspected the Yellow River Delta and put forward the scientific conclusion that the delta is formed by the sediment accumulation of the Yellow River.

Another great invention of Shen Kuo is that after accepting the map-making task of Song Shenzong, he used the innovative "flying bird map" to draw the "Great Song World County Governor Map", which made the map of the Great Song Dynasty much more accurate than previous people.

In the Song Dynasty, due to the limitations of ancient surveying and mapping technology, the method of "walking along the road" was used to draw maps, that is, to measure along the road and draw maps with the data obtained on foot.

Due to the twists and turns of the roads and the scattered heights of mountains and rivers, there is a large error between the map drawn by the method of "following the road" and the actual situation.

He used the "flying bird map", that is, "taking the number of birds flying", using the direct distance of flying birds, which is a bit like the aerial aerial view of later generations, which greatly improved the accuracy of the map.

Because of his love for geography, Shen Kuo often engaged in map surveying and mapping by himself.On the way back from his envoy to the Liao Kingdom, he actually observed the situation of mountains and rivers and the customs of the enemy, and compiled the "Emissary Khitan Map Banknotes", and later carved wooden maps, which became early map models.

Shen Kuo’s Map of Prefectures and Counties in the World, also known as Map of County Guards in the Great Song Dynasty, was limited to the scope of the political power of the Song Dynasty at that time, including places where officials such as guards and orders were placed.

This picture was drawn in the second year of Yuanyou, and it consists of twenty pictures: one large picture, one foot two feet high, one foot wide, one small picture, and eighteen roads.The big map is the general map of the whole country, the small map is the map of the four capitals of the Song Dynasty, and the road map is a road map.

This set of maps is divided into two inches and hundreds of miles. The scale is double that of Pei Xiu's "Abbot Map" in the Jin Dynasty.

24 to use twelve branches, A, B, C, D, G, Xin, Ren, Gui eight dry, dry, Kun, Gen, Xun four hexagrams as indicators.The 24 to the nautical compass used in later generations was taken from Shen Kuo's important creation.

Shen Kuo's geography theory and "Map of Governors of the Great Song Dynasty under Heaven" played an important role in the border negotiations with Liao.

The war between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom continued. After signing the "Chanyuan Alliance", the two sides ceased fighting.However, the Liao Kingdom coveted the prosperity of the Central Plains, and relying on its brave cavalry, it continued to make territorial claims.

In the eighth year of Song Xining, the Liao State sent Minister Xiao Xi to Tokyo to demand the re-drawing of the border.The boundary he proposed was Huangwei Mountain in the north of Shanxi. The north of Huangwei Mountain was owned by the Liao Kingdom, and the south was owned by the Song Dynasty.If the Song Dynasty agreed to his request, it would be equivalent to advancing the territory of the Liao Kingdom to the south by more than 30 miles.

Huangwei Mountain is an obscure and little-known mountain range. No one in the Northern Song Dynasty knew about it, and the court was in a mess.

At this time, the imperial court thought of Shen Kuo, who was familiar with geography, and ordered him to be the special envoy for negotiations, asking him not to initiate war lightly, nor to show weakness to the enemy and accept unreasonable demands.

The weapons Shen Kuo relies on are his geography theory and "Tianxia Junshou Tu".He pointed out to Xiao Xi that the border between the two countries was divided according to the "Chanyuan Alliance", and the border was Baigou River. It should be the territory of the Song Dynasty, not the territory of the Liao Kingdom.

Xiao Xi didn't have a map of his own, and he didn't know the exact location of Huangwei Mountain. In front of the map, he felt unreasonable, and his arrogance unknowingly became short. After a few days of arguing, both sides returned without success, but The debate was not pushed to extremes.

Soon, Shen Kuo was ordered to go to the Liao Kingdom because of this matter, and discussed the border between the two countries in Shangjing, the capital of the Liao Kingdom.

At this time, Liao's negotiator was changed to Liao's Prime Minister Yang Yijie, which showed Liao's determination to redraw the border.

During the negotiations, Shen Kuo once again proposed to use the "Chanyuan Alliance" as the basis and the "Tianxia Junshou Tu" as the basis, which is reasonable and restrained, and will not give an inch.

The Prime Minister of the Liao Kingdom, Yang Yijie, was also inferior to Shen Kuo in terms of geographical knowledge, and his words were poor and rational, and he could not find a reason to redraw the border.

At this time, Shen Kuo showed the wooden terrain model of the Song Dynasty again, which surprised the Prime Minister of Liao Kingdom and deeply felt that the Song Dynasty had extraordinary talents.

After a battle of words and guns, Shen Kuo finally made the Liao Kingdom give up its territorial claim to the Song Dynasty. As a diplomat and cartographer, he used his wisdom to defend the dignity of the Song Dynasty and avoided the loss of territory of the Song Dynasty. .

Because of the constant disputes with Liao and Xixia in the Song Dynasty, it attached great importance to the production of maps.However, due to the limitations of the times, there were many fallacies on the maps drawn, some of which were fatal.

When Ximenqing assisted Cheng Wanli in eradicating Liangshan Po bandits, he used the "Tianxia County Guard Map". With the knowledge before traveling, he found that this map had many mistakes and omissions, so he came up with the idea of ​​​​cultivating map-making talents.

Chapter 592

When Ximenqing checked the "Tianxia Junshou Map" preserved in Dongping Mansion, he found that the boundary between Song and Liao on the map did not match the actual situation.

For example, the drawing of the Great Wall is the product of Song people's own imagination.Although the situation of the Great Wall in the Han and Song dynasties was very complicated, due to the lack of on-the-spot investigations when drawing the maps in the Song Dynasty, the vague statement in "Historical Records" and other classic texts that "starting from Lintao and extending to Liaodong for more than ten thousand miles" prevailed. Drawing on the map presents the ideal shape of the Great Wall.

In fact, many of the majestic Great Walls that Ximenqing saw before crossing were products of the Ming Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, because they were in disrepair for a long time, and the Great Wall was located in the Khitan of the Liao Kingdom and had no border defense function, it was abandoned for a long time. In many places, the Han Dynasty The ruins of the Great Wall have long since disappeared.

In traditional classics, there are many sayings that the Great Wall is used as the boundary to separate Huayi.Under this concept, the Great Wall in the map of the Great Song Dynasty became the northern border of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Khitan of Liao State, which straddled the Great Wall from north to south, was wrongly drawn to the north of the Great Wall.

In addition, although the Sixteen States of Yanyun were not under the control of the Song Dynasty, and were actually scattered inside and outside the old Great Wall, because in the minds of the scholars of the Great Song Dynasty, the Great Wall was the boundary between the Fan and the Han, and the Sixteen States of Yanyun were the border of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the Yanyun Sixteen States must be south of the Great Wall.Therefore, on the map of the Song Dynasty, the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun were all drawn south of the Great Wall.

Of course, on the map, the drawing methods of Youzhou and other Yanyun sixteen prefectures are still different from those of the areas actually controlled by the Song Dynasty, but consistent with the icons of Southwest and other Jimi prefectures.

In the national concept of the painters of the Song Dynasty, the lost land in the north was the same as the Jimi Prefecture in the southwest.

In the southwest, the map of the Song Dynasty would use words to indicate the Southwest Yi or Zhuge Liang's crossing Lu in May to show that it was a barren land.Regarding the southwestern border, the Song Dynasty widely circulated the story that Taizu used a jade ax to draw the Dadu River and Nanzhao as the boundary, and used the words "the sky set up dangers to limit the barbarians" to clarify the boundaries of Huayi.

In addition, although Annan was independent, it was still drawn together with Bozhou, Nandanzhou and other Song Dynasty Jimi prefectures in the maps of the Song Dynasty, which seemed to indicate that the Song Dynasty court and scholar-bureaucrats did not recognize Annan's independence.The map of the Song Dynasty established the boundaries between the north and the south in order to conform to the division of Kyushu and prove its rationality and legitimacy.

It seems that before Ximen Qing crossed, the map Kaijiang that was often ridiculed on the Internet is really not an original creation of later generations, but has a long history, from Shen Kuo and other scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty!

However, the maps drawn by the scholar-bureaucrats of the Great Song Dynasty with various political thoughts are politically correct, but they are full of mistakes and omissions in practical application, causing endless harm.

Today's Daoist Emperor Song Huizong is so rejoicing, he wants to "take back" the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, and complete the great achievements that the previous emperors did not complete. I am afraid that he often looks at the map drawn in the palace south of the Great Wall and separates from the Liao Kingdom. The sixteen prefectures of Yanyun who left always mistakenly think that it was originally the territory of Song Dynasty!

However, in fact, when the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun were ceded to Khitan of the Liao Kingdom by Shi Jingtang of the Later Tang Dynasty, the Great Song Dynasty had not yet been established!Strictly speaking, the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun in the Liao Kingdom have nothing to do with the Song Dynasty.

To talk about the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, we have to start with the Tang Dynasty, which the Han people of later generations like to brag about most.However, Datang is not a purely Han country, but a multi-ethnic country.

Strictly speaking, the Datang regime is the regime of the Xianbei Tuoba lineage handed down from the Northern Wei Dynasty. There are not only Han people in the country, but also Hu people, Turkic people, Khitan people in the north, Shatuo people, Qiang people and other ethnic groups in the northwest. people.It is these various ethnic groups that jointly built the vast country of Datang.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Jiedu envoys An Lushan and Shi Siming launched a military rebellion that shook the rule of the Tang Dynasty.An Lushan is a Sogdian Hu, and Shi Siming is a Turkic. Their heroic Hebei troops are composed of Han, Hu, Khitan and other ethnic groups.

As for the troops sent by the Tang court to resist Anlu Mountain, the famous general Gao Xianzhi was from Goguryeo, the famous general Ge Shuhan was a Turkic man from the Western Turks, and the famous general Li Guangbi was a Khitan prince. Most of the troops led by these three were Turks and Khitans. Wait for aliens.Although the famous general Guo Ziyi was Han, there were many Qiang and Dangxiang people under his command.

It can be seen from this that in the Tang Dynasty, from the royal family to the court ministers and then to the imperial army, many of them were foreigners from the north. The Tang Dynasty was not a purely Han dynasty.Then, when Datang collapsed suddenly, its successors would naturally be varied.

The ancestors of the Dangxiang people of the Xixia people were settled in the current Xiazhou and Lingzhou areas precisely because of their meritorious service in fighting with the Anlushan and Shi Siming armies with Guo Ziyi.After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, it was finally forced to establish an independent country because of Song Taizong's wrong policies, and Xixia was established in the northwest.Of course, during the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, these party members were still loyal to the Central Plains Dynasty.

The Shatuo people of the Western Turks, together with the Khitan people led by Li Guangbi, became the main force to defeat the Anshi regime. The Shatuo people and the Khitan people also gradually intervened in the internal affairs of the Tang Dynasty and became the main military force in the late Tang Dynasty.