Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 971 0966 [Will it be better if you surrender? ]

Among the ruled class of Western Xia, craftsmen must have the highest status.

It’s simple, things are valuable because they are rare, and the same goes for people.

Among the 200,000 people in Xingqing Prefecture, there were at least 10,000 Han craftsmen and their descendants.

They lived a comfortable life in Xixia, at least better than in the Song Dynasty. The Dangxiang herdsmen might think of rebelling, but the Han craftsmen in Xingqing Prefecture would never rebel. They were far more loyal to Xixia than the lower-class people of the Dangxiang.

These Han craftsmen all knew more or less from their fathers that life in Western Xia was better than in the Song Dynasty!

Because most of their ancestors and fathers came from the Shaanxi Imperial Guard.

The Western Army was the most powerful in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Shaanxi Imperial Army was the core elite of the Western Army. So what exactly did the Shaanxi Imperial Army look like?
One third of them are craftsmen!
Carpenters, stonemasons, and blacksmiths are not enough. There are those who can dye cloth, embroider, and sing operas...

The "military officials" of the Northern Song Dynasty specifically recruited such craftsmen when replenishing the imperial guards, and "took one-third of the salary from each commander" to engage in various production activities to make a profit.

If you see a soldier of the Imperial Guards in the Western Army, there is a high chance that he does not know how to use a sword or a gun, and his main job is to embroider with an embroidery needle.

Of course, the money you earn must be handed over.

If the Song army suffered a major defeat, the Western Xia would be able to capture countless craftsmen and bring the best among them back to Xingqing Prefecture.

There is a poem as evidence: Hesitantly ordered all the artists to come together, competing to show their skills and singing and playing. The rest were cut off their heads and released, and they ran eastward with arrows dripping all over their bodies.

These four sentences describe how the Western Xia treated Song prisoners. Because there were too many captured Song soldiers, they were too lazy to take all of them back to the Western Xia as slaves. Those with talents could be exempted from torture, so the Song prisoners competed to perform, playing all kinds of music. The rest without talents would have their noses cut off and then be expelled. When they were released, they were all scared to the point of shitting and pissing.

Such a scene did not happen in the late Northern Song Dynasty, but before Wang Anshi's reform!
When Li Renxiao was escorted out of the palace by his ministers and went to surrender with his concubines and guards, the descendants of the Han craftsmen in the city burst into tears.

Many of them were born in Western Xia and have no idea what the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty looked like.

I only know that being a craftsman in Shaanxi is miserable, working hard and having to endure exploitation by officers. Life in Xingqing Prefecture is much better, and the status of craftsmen is much higher than that of farmers and herdsmen.

Li Renxiao heard the crying coming from both sides of the street, and was moved to tears and said: "There are still loyal people in the country, why are they destroyed in an instant?"

When Li Renli heard this, his ears turned red with embarrassment.

Rela Gongji was thinking about his future. He had made enough money over the years and had countless wealth to bribe the Ming Dynasty.

The Chief Censor of Western Xia was a Han Chinese. As the second-in-command of the Censorate, Rela Gongji always enjoyed the actual power of the top leader.

"Gah..."

The city gate opened and the king and his ministers stopped.

Bali Xinren, the Xixia envoy, hurried out of the city holding the letter of surrender and knelt in front of the horses of Deng Chun and Li Yanxian.

Deng Chun smiled at the civil servant beside him and said, "Please ask Mr. Zhao to take this."

Zhao Ding was already in his fifties, and had been promoted to the position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue a few years ago. This time he was sent to Shaanxi to take charge of the logistics of the various armies, and was to stay in Xingqing Prefecture as the governor.

The governor of the entire Western Xia region is a transitional position. Five years later, Western Xia will be renamed Ningxia Province.

Ningxia means Pingning Xixia!
These military generals had just destroyed a country, and Zhao Ding did not dare to steal the limelight. He immediately said with a smile: "The credit for destroying the country belongs to you generals. How can I, a civil servant, come forward? General, please."

So the soldier took the small box and held it in front of Deng Chun.

After Deng Chun finished reading it, he gave it to Li Yanxian.

After a while, Deng Chun said: "On behalf of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, I accept the surrender of the King of Xixia."

Bali Xinren had been kneeling on the ground. When he heard this, he kowtowed immediately, then bowed and took his leave and returned to the city.

A moment later, Li Renxiao led civil and military officials out of the city.

The little emperor knelt before the Ming emperor facing southeast. The Ming generals did not dare to accept his kneeling and all lined up neatly and stood beside him.

After the Xixia monarch and his ministers knelt before the emperor, they turned around and knelt before Deng Chun and others.

Li Renxiao held the Xixia national seal and handed it to Deng Chun respectfully. This seal was given by Zhu Guoxiang. There were several other seals with different functions, which were temporarily held by the eunuchs. Li Renxiao handed them over one by one.

Prime Minister Li Renzhong lost too much blood and is still lying in bed.

Li Renli, on behalf of the prime minister, handed over the yellow household register of Xixia. The specific household register was too complicated, so only the general list was handed over on the spot, which was considered a process.

The Privy Councilor Wang Shu is currently at Keyi Gate, and the Grand Commandant Eluotai handed over the Western Xia military register on behalf of the military.

Immediately afterwards, Xingqing Prefecture Governor Zhang Gongfu also handed over the relevant documents.

The Ming generals just passed these things over and soon handed them all over to Zhao Ding.

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!" Deng Chun shouted.

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

Troop after troop followed suit and shouted. The roar of hundreds of thousands of troops was like a tsunami, which frightened the rulers and ministers of Western Xia pale.

Li Renxiao took off his crown and his dragon robe. The Xixia civil and military officials also took off their hats and clothes and handed them over to the Ming army soldiers, no longer having their previous noble status.

Generals such as Deng Chun and Li Yanxian each led their troops into the city through different gates.

The Xixia monarch and his ministers lost their hats and coats, and were dejected and tied up with their hands behind their backs as they entered the city. Although they looked very embarrassed, for the monarch and his ministers of a fallen country, this situation was already very decent.

If they dare to defend Xingqing Prefecture to the death, they will be treated differently after the city is captured!
Out of hundreds of thousands of troops, only 50,000 entered the city.

Among them, 30,000 troops were well-organized, while the remaining 20,000 were extremely disorganized.

Because everyone who sees it has a chance, all the generals have to go into the city to experience it. The 20,000 troops were temporarily assembled by the generals. You bring a few hundred, I bring a few hundred, all of them are elite troops under your command, and there are a lot of officers.

The people of Xingqing Prefecture were terrified, but they soon calmed down.

Since those who entered the city were all elite troops with strict discipline, no one was harmed and there was no robbery, killing, arson, etc.

This is also the benefit of a country surrendering. If the city were attacked by force, the scene would not be so harmonious.

Each unit knew their mission before entering the city, and now they were carrying it out in an orderly manner.

Some were responsible for collecting the weapons and armor of the defenders, some went to occupy the palace, some went to occupy the warehouses, and some went to occupy the city walls...

"Pick it!"

Deng Chun pointed at the door plaque of the Western Xia Imperial Palace.

Not only the door plaques had to be removed, but all the prohibited items in the palace had to be removed and escorted to Luoyang for the imperial court, such as the dragon throne.

After bringing the Xixia monarch and his ministers back to the main hall, Deng Chun and Li Yanxian smiled and said, "Please come in, Mr. Zhao."

The dragon throne was being dismantled and a team of soldiers brought the chair.

Zhao Ding moved a chair and sat under the dragon throne. Several main generals also sat down, while the Xixia monarch and his ministers knelt on the ground.

Zhao Ding introduced himself: "My surname is Zhao, my given name is Ding, and my courtesy name is Yuanzhen. Previously, I was the left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue and served as the general logistics officer of Shaanxi during the conquest of Xia. His Majesty the Emperor ordered that after the conquest of Xia, the land would be changed to the Governor-General's Office of Ningxia. I served as the Governor-General of Ningxia until the establishment of Ningxia Province..."

"Greetings, Governor!" The Xixia monarch and his ministers kowtowed hurriedly.

Zhao Ding continued, "Before I left the capital, His Majesty recited a poem: Xia Song never stood tall, Han Qi was not surprising enough. The river is full of dragon and tiger chariots, but they still talk about military strategies. Is there any descendant of the person who wrote this poem in the palace?"

When these words were spoken, Xingqing prefect Zhang Gongfu was so frightened that he paralyzed.

Zhao Ding asked again: "Does Zhang Yuan have any descendants in this hall?"

Zhang Gongfu gritted his teeth and knelt down to walk out of the line: "I am Zhang Gongfu, the descendant of a criminal, and I kowtow to His Excellency the Governor."

Zhao Ding said, "The emperor has issued an oral decree that all male descendants of Zhang Yuan and Wu Hao who are over twelve years old will be beheaded, and females who are over fifteen years old will be given to unmarried soldiers as wives. Those who are over fifty years old will be exempted from punishment. Boys and girls must change their surnames and be taken to Keats Homes in various provinces for upbringing. All the property of the two clans will be confiscated!"

Zhang Gongfu was completely paralyzed, and couldn't even kneel straight on the ground.

Zhang Yuan and Wu Hao were both poor scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty. They deliberately changed their names to these two names and went to Li Yuanhao's favor. They wrote poems and left their names everywhere in the territory of Western Xia, which soon attracted Li Yuanhao's attention, and then assisted Li Yuanhao in fighting against the Northern Song Dynasty.

If it were just that, it would actually be understandable.

Zhang Yuan actually made it his lifelong ambition to destroy the Song Dynasty. He even wrote a poem mocking the Northern Song ministers in the Haoshui River, which was full of the corpses of the Song army. The poem was full of resentment and pride. He used the corpses of countless Song soldiers as a ladder and finally became the prime minister of Western Xia.

Even when Li Yuanhao wanted to negotiate peace with the Song army, Zhang Yuan stood up and firmly opposed it.

After Zhang Gongfu was dragged out, Zhao Ding continued, "Search Richard's property. Treat his family members like the descendants of Zhang Yuan and Wu Hao!"

"Search Ren Dejing's property and deal with his family members according to the rules. Because of her special status, Ren Dejing's daughter will be taken to Luoyang to await her fate."

"All the noble families in Xixia must truthfully report their assets, especially the amount of farmland and pastures. If they are found to have concealed information, they will be punished according to the above examples."

"The Ningxia Governor's Office was under military control for the first three and a half years, and then under civilian administration for the next two years. Five years later, the Ningxia Province was established."

"Take them all away and lock them up..."

The aristocratic families of Western Xia were extremely wealthy. Their wealth not only came from the blood and sweat of the people of their own country, but also a lot of it was looted from Shaanxi.

Will everything be alright if I surrender?
Several teams of soldiers rushed into the hall and dragged all the Xixia emperor and his ministers to prison.

Countless civil and military officials have already regretted their surrender. Even after surrendering, this still happened. If they had known earlier, they would have fought to the death with the Ming army!
In the empty hall, only the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty were left.

Li Yanxian said with a smile: "If the Governor does this, I'm afraid there will be rebellions in the next few years."

"Then we have to rely on you generals," Zhao Ding explained. "Your Majesty's intention is very simple. It is to thoroughly rectify the land of Xixia. Break the bones of those aristocratic families, especially those tribal chiefs, and divide their fields and pastures to give to the common people. If we don't govern now, in less than 20 to 30 years, the power of those chiefs will grow again. How will the court collect taxes by then? How can the civil officials wrestle with the local chiefs?"

Deng Chun asked: "We are going to station heavy troops in the former Xixia territory?"

Zhao Ding said: "30,000 garrison troops and 20,000 field troops, their families will also be moved here. Allocate the most fertile land to them so that they can firmly take root and multiply in Ningxia. These troops will be mainly transferred from Shaanxi, which will no longer be a border area. The cabinet and the Ministry of War have decided to reduce the number of troops in Shaanxi."

Li Yanxian smiled and said, "This is easy. There are many Shaanxi soldiers outside the city. Just let them stay and send their families back later."

"I'll trouble you all with these," Zhao Ding took out a document from the Ministry of War, "It contains the specific locations and numbers of troops stationed. Some civilians will also stay and move their families here. In the next two or three years, there will definitely be rebellions everywhere. We'll take the opportunity to kill another group of them! This year's battle is not the end, but just the beginning."

(End of this chapter)