Of course, China has public bathhouses, which also provide services such as back rubs, nail clipping, shaving, and massage. They also provide tea, wine, and fruits to guests.
Its basic service content is not much different from that of a modern bathing center.
The largest public bathhouse in Luoyang is at Tianwang Temple, and the largest public bathhouse in Kaifeng is at Xiangguo Temple.
Because public baths originally came from India following Buddhism. As early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties, public baths had become a necessary facility in large and medium-sized temples. They were mainly used by monks and pilgrims to wash away disasters and obtain blessings.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, with the rise of the citizen class, public bathing places broke away from religion and became completely secular.
Why can’t I find a public bath in Aksukh?
Because the officials who accompanied him to Beijing were in a hurry, they said perfunctorily that they didn't have that thing.
Even when he was in Kaifeng, he wanted to walk around Kaifeng City, but he gave up after only walking half a circle. Officials accompanying him came to urge him to get on the ship.
At this moment, six second-generation officials were in the bathhouse of Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng.
Several monk attendants were giving them manicures and faces.
Beards and hair should also be trimmed.
Hair that is too long is prone to dryness and breakage, and must be trimmed regularly to look more beautiful. The same goes for beards, especially beards, which must be taken care of regularly, otherwise they will look too sloppy. A beautiful long beard requires a lot of effort.
After pruning, Bai Shihou looked in the mirror and said with emotion: "It's still comfortable at home. In order to accompany those envoys to Beijing, we didn't even enjoy it when we came back."
Lu You had a goatee on his chin and a mustache under his nose: "I have to go back to Luoyang after all. Do you dare to go back?"
"You have to go back if you don't dare," Bai Shihou sighed, "Let's have fun in Kaifeng for a few days first."
The elders in the family knew that the second-generation officials secretly went to sea. They were all anxious, fearing that their children would die outside and Bai Shihou would definitely be beaten when he returned home.
After their hair, facial hair, hands and nails were repaired, the monk took them to a simple rinse before entering a private room in the bathhouse.
There was a new batch of monks and waiters, this time they came to give us a bath and massage.
In fact, these are not regular monks, they cannot obtain ultimatums, they just dress up as monks.
The second-generation officials sat in the same bathhouse and chatted. The monk first helped them take a bath and used scented soap. They moved to another bathhouse midway and changed to clean hot water to continue soaking. The monk continued to massage them.
As we chatted, we didn’t say anything, just closed our eyes and enjoyed the massage techniques.
After coming out of the bathhouse of Xiangguo Temple, everyone felt refreshed, so they went to Goulan to listen to music together.
They even brought their Armenian maids with them to let the foreign maids experience the Ming Dynasty folk art.
Those maids were shocked and numb for a long time. They came from the county of Edessa and had never seen a huge city like Constantinople. The longest they saw was when they were sold to Baghdad, and because of their status as slaves, they only
I stayed in the countryside for a month.
When the maids landed at the outer port of Guangzhou and followed their master into Guangzhou city, they thought they had arrived in heaven.
Although the size of the city of Guangzhou after the expansion was still slightly smaller than that of Baghdad, they could only view Baghdad from a distance in the suburbs, but now they could freely enter and exit Guangzhou. The constant flow of people and the dazzling array of goods had a huge impact on these Armenian maids.
.
Then came Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Shangqiu, and Kaifeng. Guangzhou, which they thought was unique, seemed to be everywhere in the Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and Kaifeng are larger than Guangzhou!
They followed their master to a high-end tile house, but before they even entered, they attracted a lot of sideways glances.
"Learn from Brother Pu!" A young man called to Bai Shihou.
Bai Shihou turned around and saw that it was his friend Su Ping in Kaifeng. He immediately introduced to everyone: "This is Su Liulang, Su Ping, Su Dingbang, the great-grandson of Su Ziwengong (Su Shunyuan)."
"Disrespect, disrespect!" Everyone stepped forward to salute.
Su Shunyuan was originally from Shuzhong and was an official with outstanding political achievements. He later returned to Beijing to serve as an official and settled in Kaifeng.
The tribesmen who stayed in his hometown of Mianzhou also paid to recruit rural soldiers to follow the Chengdu Fulu envoy to resist Ju Ming's march south. The Sichuan army of the Song Dynasty suffered a major defeat, and the Mianzhou Su family instantly changed their attitude and quickly sent several tribesmen to
Take refuge in the red thief.
When Ju Ming led his army to capture Chengdu, the Su family in Mianzhou directly defected to Marshal Zhu!
And when Ju Ming captured Kaifeng, he persuaded all the Kaifeng Su family who had separated to join the new imperial court.
Bai Shihou introduced several second-generation officials, and everyone bowed to each other.
Su Ping pointed at the foreign female slaves: "Hu Ji or Bodhisattva Barbarian?"
Bai Shihou said: "They are considered Hu Ji. They come from a certain country in the sky. Because of the defeat and the destruction of the country, they were sold as slaves by a Seljuk governor."
Su Ping commented: "But it is slightly different in appearance from the Orchid from the East and West Beijing. I also have an Orchid at home, from Gaochang, and I have never seen the Orchid from Tianfang."
Bai Shihou smiled and said: "It's a pity that I only have one. If there are more, I will give them to you."
"No need, no need," Su Ping waved his hands repeatedly, "A gentleman doesn't take advantage of others, he just asks out of curiosity."
As he spoke, everyone walked into Wazi.
We sat down, tea and preserved fruits were served, and an ordinary geisha was warming up the scene.
Suddenly, several more people came in, and Su Ping pointed at one person with his mouth open: "The king of Xixia's country is here. He has been very prosperous recently. He has been admitted as a scholar in Kaifeng County based on his ability, and will soon be specially recruited to study at Luoyang Imperial College."
Li Zuqia said puzzledly: "I'm just a scholar, what's the point of being worthy of glory?"
Su Ping said: "The king of the subjugated country took the exam to become a scholar, and the exam was all based on ability. He gave up his position as a prince and determined to take the imperial examination and become an official. Although he only had the title of scholar, he was recognized by the scholars in the two capitals.
We will treat him as a subjugated king and accept him as one of our own."
Fan Chengda nodded and said, "This is precious sincerity."
Su Ping continued: "There are many scholars who sympathize with him, and they all feel that the destruction of the Xixia Kingdom was not his fault. It was due to the long history and hard work. Wen Tian and Wuxi, if placed a hundred years ago, he would have been an accomplished monarch."
As soon as this was said, everyone chuckled.
It is true that Xixia and Song Dynasty were mortal enemies, but that was already in the past, and now they actually sympathized with the Xixia emperor.
Wang Lianqing suddenly asked: "How is Zhao Kai?"
Su Ping said: "Even more crazy. He often slept drunk on the street. Last year, he got seriously ill and was rescued by a famous prostitute who hired a doctor. After recovering from the illness, he became even more crazy, but his paintings were also
More expensive. I don’t know much about painting, but according to the evaluation of painting experts, Zhao Kai’s paintings have become magical.”
"Bewitched?" Li Zuqia was startled.
Su Ping nodded: "It's very ghostly. At first glance, it just feels weird, but upon closer inspection, it's creepy. There are also strangers among the people who say that the soul of the former Song Dynasty Emperor Hunjun came back, possessed Zhao Kai and opened his yin and yang eyes. So the same thing
In Zhao Kai's eyes, something is different from ordinary people. What Zhao Kai saw is most likely what everything looks like in the underworld."
Everyone couldn't laugh or cry when they heard this, but they chose to believe it.
They played in Kaifeng for several days. Bai Shihou, Lu You and Wang Lianqing's father sent people to urge them, so they had to leave Tokyo and go to Luoyang to be beaten.
Fan Chengda and the other three people gloated over the misfortune and ran to Luoyang to watch the excitement.
It's worth appreciating the good show of good friends getting into trouble.
Lu You and Wang Lianqing only received a scolding, but Bai Shihou received a real beating. Bai Sheng's son's legs were so lame that he walked taller and shorter, and he didn't know how long it would take for him to recover.
Unfortunately, there was no time for him to recover, and they were soon called into the palace to face the saint.
Prior to this, the Eastern Roman envoys had already met with the emperor.
Ju Ming asked many indirect questions and finally confirmed that the Byzantine emperor at this time was the famous Manuel I.
To be honest, this man's political and military abilities were far inferior to those of his father John II.
But what John II inherited was a mess, and there were many nobles who opposed him as emperor. In such a situation of internal and external troubles, he could continue to improve the national strength, carry out some reforms, and save relatively generous capital for his son. He did not even leave a bad reputation.
Known as a "good man" and a "beautiful man", his private life is also very simple and frugal.
Because his father laid the foundation, although Manuel still faces foreign aggression, at least he has been sorted out internally and has enough national strength to support him in resisting foreign enemies.
In Ju Ming's view, the character of Manuel I was a bit like the later Sun King of France.
He was very happy with his achievements, extremely luxurious, and often sent out troops to fight.
In his later years, he even became more popular and even joined the Crusaders to invade Egypt.
It was possible to win the battle, but during the siege, the Byzantines and the Crusaders were holding each other back, both wanting to leave their allies and seize the fruits of victory. Also, during the withdrawal when the army ran out of supplies, half of the Byzantine elite were killed in a storm in the Mediterranean Sea.
And because of the attack on Roma (a sultanate entrusted by Seljuk), the entire army was annihilated, and Byzantium lost the ability to expand externally.
But Manuel I was really brave.
Faced with the backstab of the Antioch Crusaders, this guy didn't wait for the main force of his troops to arrive on the battlefield, and personally led 500 cavalry in his capacity as emperor. He arrived on the battlefield like a divine soldier descending from heaven, and directly destroyed Armenia (a country formed by Armenian refugees).
) The king was so frightened that he fled into the mountains, forcing the Duke of Antioch to kneel down in sackcloth and ask for surrender.
As the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, he not only often led military expeditions in person, but also led small teams to reconnoiter the enemy's situation many times.
Reconnaissance and reconnaissance turn from reconnaissance to ambush.
"That emperor of yours wants to obtain the Ming Dynasty's books?" Ju Ming said with a smile.
Aksukh said: "Yes, His Majesty the Great Peach Blossom Stone. The books brought back from Peach Blossom Stone by Fatima (Egypt) are secretly hidden in the Caliphate Library. Our emperor has sent people to borrow them many times but has been rejected."
Ju Ming asked: "What did Rome give in exchange?"
Aksukh said: "The Great Roman Empire allowed Confucian monks from Maohuashi to preach and build churches in Constantinople. After we rebuild a powerful Roman navy and capture the capital of Fatimid, we will purchase a large amount of goods from Maohuashi
.”
Confucian monks went to Constantinople to preach?
Ju Ming couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this. He didn't even bother to explain anything, so he just let them continue to misunderstand: "I can give Rome a batch of books, and they have been translated into Arabic characters. They were translated by those scholars in green clothes in the Ming Dynasty."
Aksukh was overjoyed: "Praise you for your kindness, His Majesty the Great Peach Blossom Stone Emperor."
Ju Ming said: "When you go back, I will also send a team of envoys to follow you. These Ming envoys can browse the Roman collection at will. How about it?"
"As you wish," Aksukh said, "I heard that the Ming army is about to go on an expedition to Jurhan. Can I accompany the army to witness this great war?"
Ju Ming thought about it carefully: "Yes. But you must be restrained when you arrive in the army. You are not allowed to move around at will, and you are not allowed to interfere with the war. Otherwise, you will be dealt with according to military law."
Aksukh knelt down and praised: "May the Lord bless you."
Ju Ming then carefully inquired about the various systems of Byzantium, and finally sent Aksukh away.
In Ju Ming's opinion, it is possible to help Byzantium, but it is best to keep Byzantium there.
It's not that he is a genius, but that Byzantium has a special role.
It restrained the eastward expansion of the European Catholic Church, blocked the westward advance of the Sudan of West Asia, and suppressed the Egyptian Caliphate from moving north. It also carried the HRE and Kievan Rus southward. Ju Ming did not like these forces very much, and Byzantium stood firm.
The longer the better.
In addition to not being able to give away firearms, Ju Ming even planned to give away 200 sets of high-quality cotton armor.
Except for science books, all other books can be given away.
No matter how much support is given, Eastern Rome will not become a true Rome. It will be difficult for them to expand in the land of the Four Wars. Not only are ethnic issues, but religious issues are even more troublesome, only the barbaric Russians can urinate in the same pot as them.
Byzantium was completely Hellenized, and only official documents and religious texts had to be in Latin.
People use Greek for daily communication, ordinary official documents, religious brochures, poems and articles... most of them are written in Greek.
The real enemy of Byzantium was not the pagans from West Asia, but its own allies, the Crusaders.
Constantinople was captured by the Crusaders!
Ju Ming muttered with a strange expression: "I wish the Roman Empire will last forever."