Across the Water Margin: Officials of Ximen

From a historical point of view, the Yanyun area has no great geographical advantages at all. When the Central Plains Dynasty was unable to use its own force, it never stopped the northern nomads from going south.

To say that the loss of the Yanyun area led to the military failure of the Northern Song Dynasty is really putting the cart before the horse.The real situation should be that the strength of the Central Plains Dynasty was insufficient, and military failure would lead to the loss of the Yanyun area.

However, who would admit that they are incompetent?Infinitely exaggerating the importance of the Yanyun area, justifying his own incompetence, and then dumping the blame on a foreigner who died long ago, everyone can sleep comfortably and peacefully, can't they?

It's a pity that the excuses made up by the scholar-officials in the Northern Song Dynasty to excuse their incompetence fooled the Taoist emperor Song Huizong into it.Now the Taoist Emperor Song Huizong thinks that by taking back the Yanyun area, there will be long-term peace and stability, and he will not be afraid of the nomads in the north. He is really naive and ignorant.

In order to unite with the Jin Dynasty to defeat the Liao Dynasty and take back the Yanyun area, Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty sent envoys to the north again.Therefore, Ximenqing was invited to go north to the Kingdom of Jin again.

Song Huizong's bird emperor was stupid and naive, still dreaming of unifying the world, but Ximen Qing knew that their father and son would be beaten into pig's heads by the Jurchen.

Now that the bandits in Liangshanbo were severely injured by Ximenqing's use of the army, it was no longer possible to threaten Ximenqing's foundation in Yanggu County.It can be said that the Liangshan bandits who were expelled from the East and West Roads of Beijing were no longer Ximenqing's great enemy.

Ximen Qing is now frantically expanding and accumulating strength, and the target he wants to target is the enemy after Jurchen goes south in the future.

Not to mention far away, for future marches and battles, at least draw a more detailed and accurate map of Hebei, Jingdong, and Gyeonggi first!

The purpose of bringing Wang Yi and others on this trip is to cultivate talents. After they return from Liaodong, they will be funded to send them to Hebei, Jingdong, and Gyeonggi. good map.

Nowadays, there is no aerial aerial photography, Ximen Qing did not study surveying and mapping before crossing, and he does not have the professional equipment of later generations. Of course, he did not expect to be able to draw the special military maps with contour lines of later generations.

What Wang Yi and others can master is the "flying bird method" invented by Shen Kuo.What Ximenqing can improve Wang Yi and others is mainly some geographical knowledge learned in the geography class in the previous life and some impressions of China's topography left by looking at modern maps, so that they can improve the survey and drawing of mountains, rivers and roads in prefectures and counties. Law.

Due to limited conditions, after using the "flying bird method" to measure the distance between the two places, Ximenqing also asked Wang Yi and others to use the "follow the road" method, and mark the road between the two places in the picture , the difficulty of walking.Only in this way can the newly drawn maps be more handy and have practical value when marching and fighting in the future.

Of course, to refine the imperial court's "Tianxia Junshou Map", even if it is only to survey the Hebei and Jingdong prefectures around Yanggu County, it will not be effective in a short time.There are only painters headed by Wang Yi, and the manpower is far from enough.At this time, the spies Qiao Yunge and Lu Xiaoyi had placed in various places came in handy.

Ximen Qing brought Brother Qiao Yun and his father-in-law along on this trip, and of course he also wanted to teach Brother Qiao Yun the skills of surveying, drawing and understanding pictures.After returning from Liaodong, I will hand over this important task to my most caring confidant.

After Brother Qiao Yun, Wang Yi and others finished drawing the map, Ximen Qing could use his own printing shop to print the map for future use by the armies under his command.

The Song-Jin war will not break out in a few years. For Ximen Qing, there should be enough time to complete this matter. Now, the most lacking are talents who are familiar with the geography of various places and can draw fine drawings!

When Ximen Qing rode on the road, he secretly took inventory. Among his brothers, the former horse thief Duan Jingzhu, the "Golden Retriever", was familiar with the geography of Liao and Jin. Unfortunately, he stole Prince Jin's BMW. It is inconvenient to take him with me when visiting the Dajin Kingdom.In the future, he could only arrange for him to lead people to sneak into the territory of Liao Kingdom and Jin Kingdom to survey the terrain for Wang Yi and others.

"General Shi" Shi Yong used to be a hero who ran around in Hebei and Shandong. He is familiar with the geography of Hebei and Shandong. He can also help Brother Qiao Yun survey the terrain of Hebei and Shandong.

"Faceless" Jiao Ting is also familiar with the geography of Hebei and Shandong, but as the captain of Ximen Qing's bodyguard, he cannot leave Ximen Qing for a long time, so he can only be excluded.

The gang of salt smugglers under "Big Sword" Xu Wen must be very familiar with the geography of the states on Jingdong East Road, and they can entrust them with the topographical survey task of Jingdong East Road in the future.

There are still not enough talents in this area!It seems that after returning to Yanggu County from the Kingdom of Jin this time, it is necessary to recruit some more special talents.

Along the way, during the day, Ximenqing, Qiao Yunge, Wang Yi and others rode side by side, observing and recording the customs and mountains and roads along the way from Yanggu County, Yunzhou, through Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Weizhou and other places.At night, Ximenqing and them compared the "Picture of the Governor of the World" obtained from Dongping Mansion, and made detailed records on paper.

When they entered Laizhou, Brother Qiao Yun, Wang Yi and the others had already mastered some geographical concepts that would only be available in later generations, and Wang Yi also began to try to draw a new map.

When drawing a map, it is not easy to describe mountains, rivers and rivers in a square inch.While drawing, he sighed to Ximen Qing: "Master, drawing this map is really not an easy task. The brush strokes are very delicate. My specialty is painting Buddha statues, figures, flowers, etc., and I can be regarded as using a brush. It's fine. But when it comes to the subtlety and precision of the brush, it's really not as good as my old friend! If he is here today, it will save a lot of worry."

Huh!Wang Yi also knows the drawing talents that the officials are in urgent need of?That's right, as a well-known painter in Daming Prefecture, how could he have a few friends who are proficient in painting? How could I have overlooked this point?

Ximen Qing hurriedly asked Wang Yi who the old friend he was talking about was.

Wang Yi said: "Master, my old friend is Zhang Zeduan from Zhucheng of Mizhou."

Chapter 595 Compass and Cement

Zhang Zeduan, where did I hear this name?Could it be a famous painter?With a twitch in Ximen Qing's heart, he became interested in the painter Zhang Zeduan Wang Yi was talking about.

Under Ximen Qing's questioning, Wang Yi told Ximen Qing that his friend Zhang Zeduan was from Zhucheng, Mizhou, and now lived in Bianliang City, Tokyo.

Wang Yi said that his friend Zhang Zeduan was eager to learn since he was a child. He traveled to Bianjing in his early years and later studied painting.

During the reign of Xuanhe, Zhang Zeduan once worked in the Hanlin Academy of Painting, served as an imperial edict, and painted paintings for Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty.For some reason, Zhang Zeduan resigned after working at the Hanlin Painting Academy for several years, and now stays in Bianliang City, Tokyo to sell paintings for a living.

Different from Wang Yi who was good at Buddha statues, figures and meticulous flower and bird paintings, Zhang Zeduan specialized in boundary paintings of palaces.His boundary painting standard is quite high, especially good at painting boats, shops, bridges, streets, and city walls.The genre paintings made by him depict shops, bridges, streets, and city walls in detail, with precise boundary paintings, and the images are lifelike.

Although Ximenqing is good at piano, chess, calligraphy, painting and various other arts, he is still not very familiar with the division of labor in ancient painting.Ximen Qing didn't know what a boundary painting was, so he humbly asked Wang Yi for advice.

Wang Yi told Ximen Qing that boundary painting, also known as boundary painting, is a name for a Chinese painting technique.When drawing, use a ruler to lead the line, so it is called Jiehua, which refers to the drawing method of using a ruler to draw lines.

The drawing of the boundary painting is to cut a piece of bamboo about two-thirds of the length of a pen into a semicircle and polish it, and carve a groove at the other end according to the thickness of the pen barrel as an auxiliary tool.When painting, place the ruler on the desired position, put the groove of the bamboo against the pen tube, hold the paintbrush and the bamboo so that the bamboo is close to the edge of the ruler, and move the brush in the direction of the ruler to draw even and straight lines.

Boundary painting is suitable for painting buildings, and other scenery is matched with fine brushwork techniques.Commonly known as "gongbijiehua".

Ximenqing listened to Wang Yilian explain it with gestures, and finally understood, it turns out that this boundary painting is a drawing method in which the ancients used a ruler to assist a brush to draw straight lines!That appearance is very similar to the construction engineers of later generations drawing engineering drawings with a ruler.

Hehehe~ It seems that Zhang Zeduan is really good at fine painting.If you take him in as a subordinate, give him a set of rulers, compasses, protractors, etc., and train him a little bit, he will definitely become a master of drawing!

Ximenqing is determined to take the painter Zhang Zeduan under his command.He made an agreement with Wang Yi to invite his old friend to Yanggu County, Yunzhou after returning from Jin Kingdom.

After arriving in Laizhou City and visiting Zhao Mingcheng and Li Qingzhao and his wife, Ximenqing and his party continued eastward towards Dengzhou.

On the way, Ximen Qing was still surveying the road along the way with Brother Qiao Yun, Wang Yi and others.

Ma Kuo, Xu Wen and other accompanying people also joined in with great interest.These people are all his own brothers, of course Ximen Qing will not hide it from them.

At this time, Brother Qiao Yun, Wang Yi and the others used a simple compass—compass fish—to identify the direction.

The Chinese discovered the directional effect of natural magnets very early, and invented Sinan, which was polished into a spoon shape with natural magnets, between the Warring States Period and the Han Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, alchemists who were good at using ingenious techniques to confuse people used natural magnets to make compass and geomantic compass on the basis of Sinan.

In this regard, Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" has a detailed record of the compass: "Fang's family uses a magnet to grind the needle, and it can guide."

Although people in the Song Dynasty had mastered the method of making natural compass, since most of the ancient magnets were produced in Cishan, Cizhou, Hebei, the output was scarce, so the compass made of natural magnet was not popular.

At this time, people in the Song Dynasty used more "guide fish" produced by another method.

The military book "Wu Jing Zongyao" of the Northern Song Dynasty records: Heating the fish-shaped iron sheet until it turns red, then holding the fish head with iron tongs to quench it, floating on the water, you can guide it!

Don't think that this method is a fantasy. The records in "Wu Jing Zong Yao" are for the army to march and fight. It will never randomly record nonsense that has not been verified by practice.

In fact, what Wang Yi and others used was the guide fish made by "Money Leopard" Tang Long using military methods.

In terms of scientific principles, iron pliers for blacksmithing are probably magnetic because of the principle of thermomagnetism. It is said that the surface magnetism of the pliers is about [-] times higher than the earth's magnetic field.Therefore, the fish head is magnetized into a magnetic pole by the iron tongs and points south.That is to say, the "fish method" to obtain thermal remanence is to utilize the remanence of iron tongs.

Real knowledge comes from practice. In short, the Tang Long brothers have mastered the "fishing method" of producing "compass fish". They can equip Ximen Qing's army with a large number of such simple compasses to meet the needs of the army to identify directions in the wild.

If it is paired with Ximen Qing's detailed map, marching and fighting in the future will definitely be like a tiger with wings added.

Stopping and stopping along the way, Ximen Qing and others finally arrived in Dengzhou and moved into Ximen Mansion outside the city.

At this time, Zhao Liangsi, the secret envoy of the imperial court, had already left Beijing, but had not yet arrived in Dengzhou, Ximenqing was just in time for a rest.

Brothers Xu Wen, Wang Dingliu, and Song Wan led their men to reorganize the navy.Wang Yi, brother-in-law Qiao Yun and his son-in-law led a team, accompanied by Shi Yong, to investigate the geography of Dengzhou and draw a map of Dengzhou.

After Ximenqing entered Dengzhou City and visited Wang Shizhong, the prefect of Dengzhou, he either studied cross-sea trade with Korea and Japan with Ximenzhong, or studied the construction of private docks and water villages with Tao Zongwang.