Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 942 0937 [I am a descendant of the Tang Dynasty royal family]

Loei House.

Li Yu called his son and asked, "Has our family tree not been compiled yet?"

Li Song replied: "It is still being aged, it will take some time."

"Let them hurry up!" Li Yu was a little anxious.

Le Di's great-grandfather was Le Huan, the founding emperor of the Le Dynasty.

After the Li family usurped the throne, some members of the Li family died, but they still survived in the Xin Dynasty. Li Yu even became the prince consort of the Li Dynasty.

Whether it was the Le Dynasty or the Li Dynasty, they all practiced the yellow robe.

Li Huan took advantage of the fact that the young emperor was only six years old, hooked up with the queen mother, and proclaimed himself vice king. Because Zhao Guangyi sent troops, he shouted to lead the army to resist, and put on a yellow robe as soon as he left the capital.

In fact, if the Northern Song Dynasty had been better prepared, Zhao Guangyi would have recovered Annan long ago.

The Northern Song Dynasty prepared for war in July of the previous year, but did not lead its army to set out until March of the following year, without having any idea of ​​the climate in Annan.

This time of dispatching troops coincides with the hot and humid rainy season in Annan!
During the war, the operations of the Northern Song generals were also confusing.

The commander won a great victory and told the other commanders to hurry up and follow. However, the commanders did not advance at the end of the dry season, but insisted on staying where they were and waiting for the navy to join forces. This delay lasted for more than 70 days, right up to the hottest and wettest season, and countless soldiers died of illness due to the hot and humid environment.

The situation with the navy was even more outrageous. Annan planted secret spies in the river, and it took two months to remove them.

Then Li Huan sent people to pretend to surrender. The Northern Song general was already very anxious at this time, so he took a small number of troops and ran to accept the surrender. Then, the Northern Song general was surrounded and killed!
Zhao Guangyi was furious and executed all the generals who led the troops. He was forced to recognize the independence of Annan.

……

After a few days, the Li family's "genealogy" was completed.

Li Yu held the thick family tree in his hand and ran to meet Zhu Kang: "I kowtow to your father, the Regent Prince. I found a family tree in the old house of the Li family."

Zhu Kang smiled and said, "When the Li family ruled Annan, didn't they honor several generations of their ancestors? They didn't say they came from China at that time."

Li Yu explained: "At that time, only four generations of ancestors were conferred titles. Now that I have found the genealogy of the old house, I know that my Li family moved to Annan in the early Tang Dynasty. My Li family is also Chinese!"

Zhu Kang nodded and said, "I see. This family tree must be kept properly."

"I will do my best to keep her," Li Yu said, "My eldest daughter has been remarried to Your Highness as a concubine. Please take in my second and third daughters as well. It's a pity that they are lonely in the palace. The rest of my daughters are married, but there is a twelfth daughter who is still unmarried. If Your Highness is interested..."

Zhu Kang interrupted in surprise: "You have so many daughters?"

Li Yu said: "I have eight sons and twelve daughters, none of whom died young. If I can give birth to a child for Your Highness, it will definitely not die young."

Zhu Kang did not comment, but only commented: "Great!"

How absurd was the late Annan King Li Yanghuan? He did not allow his ministers to marry their daughters. He had to personally select the remaining adult women before they could marry. And the underage women at that time could not marry until he selected a concubine next time.

Minister Annan actually abided by such ridiculous rules, which shows that there are very few people with backbone.

The three sisters of the Li family entered the palace together at that time.

Zhu Kang only married the eldest daughter, and now the second and third daughters are still widows in the palace.

Li Yu's idea was simple. He wanted to remarry his three daughters to Zhu Kang, and even wanted to marry his underage twelfth daughter to Zhu Kang as well.

He is afraid!

The Li family belonged to the royal family of the previous dynasty, and intermarriage with the royal family of the Li Dynasty was a form of political cooperation.

Once the Ming Dynasty annexed Annan, they would become the royal family of the previous dynasty and would completely lose their last bit of political influence.

Moreover, the Li family was always suppressed by the Li Dynasty, and the descendants of the main clan could only serve as sinecure officials and could not develop their own power at all.

They must cling to a big tree, otherwise the family will have difficulty surviving.

And Daming and Zhu Kang are the big trees.

To this end, the Li family even forged a family tree and turned their ancestors into Han people who migrated south.

……

Since Li was so considerate, Zhu Kang naturally expressed his gratitude.

He married all the widowed sisters of the Li family in the palace. However, Zhu Kang did not accept Li Yu's twelfth daughter, but married her to Han Jing as a concubine.

When the Li family genealogy was released, the government and the public were shocked!

It turns out that the ancestors of the two consecutive generations of the Annan Dynasty, the Le and Li families, were actually Chinese.

Xie Hong took the opportunity to publicize it and even asked for an imperial edict to be posted throughout the country to inform the world. He also took the opportunity to implement the imperial examination reform and listed "Jiaozhi Zhilue" as a compulsory subject.

For a time, people from all walks of life in Annan were proud of their Chinese ancestry and started a craze for compiling family genealogies.

In fact, they have been doing this kind of thing for a long time.

Especially those aristocratic families, many of their family trees have Chinese ancestors, and they like to get closer to the Five Surnames and Seven Family Names.

The same is true for the Dali Kingdom, where those families also have Chinese ancestors, either descendants of a general from the Han and Tang dynasties, or descendants of a civil servant from the Han dynasty, and some even claim to be royal family members from the Han and Tang dynasties.

Only in this way can they demonstrate their noble bloodline and long history.

When Li Yangzhen and Li Yu successively took out their family tree, those who didn't have one improvised one, and those who had one began to look for their relatives. They didn't care whether their family tree was true or not, and they all requested to visit their ancestral home, and even asked the Ming Dynasty and the Annan court to reimburse their travel expenses...

Zhu Kang asked: "This is a great thing, but it is too wasteful."

Xie Hong suggested: "Regardless of the other places of origin, those whose ancestral home is in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian can make an appointment to go together by boat. The court will only be responsible for free transportation to a few ports, and the rest of the journey to find relatives is up to them."

"Good." Zhu Kang agreed immediately.

King Zhiming Li Yangzhen was the most active and personally took a boat to Fujian.

Moreover, the process of finding relatives went extremely smoothly. In Zhongcai Township, Anhai Town, Jinjiang County, Quanzhou Prefecture, the Li Ancestral Hall is still bustling with people.

The founding monarch of the Annan Li Dynasty, Li Congyun, was the second son of Li Chunan of the Anhai Li family in Jinjiang. They were not originally in Anhai Town, but moved there for business. Li Congyun's elder brother, Li Congzao, did not go to sea with his father, but stayed there and became the ancestor of the Anhai Li family.

The family tree is written clearly!

Li Yangzhen originally came here to act, but when he arrived at the Li's ancestral hall and saw the ancestral tablets, even the tablet of his great-grandfather, he immediately knelt there and cried and worshiped.

The clan leader took out the family tree and said, "We are a branch of the Quanzhou Li family. There is a larger ancestral hall over there."

So Li Yangzhen went to the Li Clan Ancestral Hall in Quanzhou again.

Local officials, gentry and merchants all warmly entertained Li Yangzhen. Some Li family merchants took the opportunity to discuss business, and Li Yangzhen agreed immediately, welcoming his relatives from his hometown to do business in Annan.

Everything he saw and encountered along the way was recorded in detail.

Li Yangzhen also discovered some very explosive news in the genealogy of the Quanzhou Li family.

His ancestor was Li Ming, Prince of Cao and the fourteenth son of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin!
God knows whether this kind of family tree is reliable or not, but Li Yangzhen took it seriously.

He asked someone to copy a family tree, wrote down a record of his experiences in Quanzhou, and returned to Annan in a hurry.

After that, banquets were held every now and then.

In the middle of every banquet, he would ask his servants to take out the family tree, pointing at it and saying, "I am a descendant of the Tang Dynasty royal family, and my ancestor is the fourteenth son of Emperor Taizong. Who dares to say that my great-grandfather was a merchant who usurped the throne? Is it considered usurping the throne for a descendant of the Tang Dynasty royal family to be the king of Jiaozhi? Jiaozhi was originally the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and it was divided and ruled by those vassal states and small-time officials. My great-grandfather just took back the power!"

This guy showed off everywhere that he was a descendant of the Tang Dynasty royal family. Zhu Kang just laughed it off when he heard the news and was happy to see him continue to publicize the matter.

You know what, this kind of thing spreads very quickly in Annan.

Especially those scholars who were not successful in their studies were more willing to believe that they were descendants of the Han people and hoped that Annan could return to China. After the return, they would have more room for development and might even be able to take exams and become officials!
The imperial examination system in Annan was controlled by the powerful families and was only slightly better than that in Goryeo and Western Xia. It was difficult for scholars from poor families to climb up.

……

Just as Zhu Kang was promoting "A Brief Account of Jiaozhi", the royal palace of Western Xia was under heavy guard.

Li Qianshun has been bedridden for more than half a year. His condition improved for a while and he was even able to attend court in person. Now he finally can't bear it anymore.

Fifteen-year-old Li Renxiao succeeded to the throne, and his biological mother Cao became the queen dowager.

The power in the court has basically not changed. Li Renzhong is still the head of the civil officials, and Richard is still the head of the military generals.

But a rebellion is brewing somewhere!
Not only was Xiao Heda, a remnant of the Liao Dynasty, plotting rebellion, but also the Mu brothers of Tuyuhun.

Their ancestors had some interactions with Fan Zhongyan.

Fan Zhongyan tried to win over Mu En and the chiefs of various tribes, rewarding them with clothing and money, in an attempt to get the Mu family to help the Northern Song Dynasty fight the war.

The Mu clan is a simplified version of the Murong clan, which came from the royal family of Tuyuhun.

They had their own territory in Western Xia and had been providing war horses to Western Xia.

The brothers Mu Wei and Mu Rong were promoted by Li Qianshun because they refused to join Brother Richard. Now that Li Qianshun is dead, Brother Richard will naturally take action.

Historically, Mu Wei and Mu Rong were forced to surrender to the Jin Kingdom, but they were caught and executed by Richard.

"Brother, the king is dead!" Mu Rong rushed over on horseback.

Mu Wei was shocked: "Is the news true?"

Mu Rong said, "The spies I have stationed in the capital have been running day and night to bring back the news."

Mu Wei frowned and said, "I'm afraid Brother Richard won't let us go, but our sons are both guards in the capital (hostages in disguise)!"

Mu Rong said: "We should inform the tribesmen to be on the alert for the army's attack at any time."

Mu Wei turned around and looked to the east: "If Brother Richard really can't tolerate us, we can only surrender to the Ming Dynasty with our entire family. Send someone to contact Xiao Heda immediately. He also has a grudge against Brother Richard. We can make an appointment to surrender to the Ming Dynasty together!"

Mu Rong hesitated and said, "But the Ming Dynasty lured our slaves. We once crossed the border to capture slaves and fought a battle with the Ming army. If we surrender to them, will the Ming Dynasty not bear a grudge?"

"Stupid," Mu Wei said, "If we can help Ming Dynasty destroy Xixia, what does the previous incident mean? What's more, you have seen the Ming border troops before. Dozens of cavalry killed hundreds of us and forced us to flee. Can Xixia stop such a strong army? Our tribe is on the border. Once the two countries go to war, my tribe will be the first to be attacked!"

The two brothers sent someone to contact Xiao Heda, but Xiao Heda's messenger arrived first.

Historically, the three people died within only one year of each other.

Xiao Heda rebelled first and was executed, and the Mu brothers were captured and killed before they had a chance to rebel.

Soon after, uprisings broke out all over the Western Xia border, and many tribes in Weizhou, Jingzhou and Dingzhou rebelled.

The reason for the rebellion was simple. Due to years of natural disasters without relief, the border tribes could no longer survive!

(End of this chapter)