Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 974 0969 [Dismemberment of the Western Xia Territory]

When the news of Sanjar's 100,000-man army being annihilated spread, the 50,000-man army he had left in the west to guard against Ajith scattered.

Those armies, which were originally vassal states, were forcibly recruited by Sanjar to fight.

Now that Sanjar has been defeated and fled back, the first reaction of the monarchs of the vassal states is not to rescue him, but to quickly lead their troops back to their hometowns to stabilize the situation, and at the same time connect with each other to break away from Sanjar's rule.

Ajisi, who was brutally beaten by the Seljuk army last year and even had his son executed, suddenly felt that he was doing well again.

Ajis led an army of 30,000 southwards, first capturing the city of Sherahs, and then capturing the new Seljuk capital of Murug.

Sanjar was defeated and fled the capital. Ajith directly emptied the property and ordered a massacre in the city!
Immediately afterwards, Ajis continued to move south, but was forced to retreat when he encountered the Khorasan coalition forces.

He took away countless people, livestock, and property from the Seljuks, and became so arrogant that he even ordered the nobles, soldiers, and civilians along the way to include his name in their prayers, which was tantamount to claiming to be a sultan in disguise.

At the same time, Ajisi promised last year that as long as Yelu Dashi saved him, Khwarezm would surrender to Western Liao.

Now he has gone back on his word. He no longer considers himself a subject and wants to be on an equal footing with Yelu Dashi.

Yelu Dashi immediately sent out a detachment, led by Xiao Chala Abu, which marched hundreds of miles straight into enemy territory.

When the local lords of Khwarezm heard that the army that defeated Sanjar was coming, they were so frightened that they rushed to surrender.

Xiaochara Abu defeated all enemies along the way and soon reached the capital of Khwarezm.

Ajisi surrendered quickly and stopped clamoring to be on equal footing with Yelu Dashi...

However, as a vassal state of Western Liao, Khwarezm had a very high degree of independence and autonomy. It only had to pay "tribute" to Western Liao every year and did not even have to send troops to help Western Liao fight.

Ajis's performance was not over yet. Two years later, Sanjar reorganized his troops and fought back. After several defeats, Ajis was frightened and surrendered quickly. Khwarezm once again became a vassal state of the Seljuks.

He jumps back and forth all the time and becomes arrogant when he succeeds, just like a clown.

……

However, Yelu Dashi defeated Sanjar and took advantage of the situation to annex the entire Western Karakhanid Khanate.

Although the king abandoned his wife and ran away, his younger brother was still there.

Yelu Dashi did not rule directly. He named the king's younger brother "Taohuashi Khan" (who claimed to be a descendant of a Tang Dynasty princess) and ordered him to continue to rule the Western Karakhanid Khanate. He also left his confidants to supervise the state affairs of the Western Karakhanid Khanate. The people sent by Yelu Dashi turned Hezhong Prefecture into the secondary capital of Western Liao and demarcated a large area as a direct jurisdiction. The local king was not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the direct jurisdiction.

In addition, in Bukhara, which originally belonged to the Western Karakhanid Khanate and was later annexed by the Seljuks, Yelu Dashi also enfeoffed nobles and established the Bukhara Khanate.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to rule directly, but Yelu Dashi doesn’t have enough officials!

He could only select officials from among the scholars or nobles of Central Asia to rule the local areas. These guys were not reliable at all and were prone to conflicts with the locals. It would be better to keep it as it was and establish a vassal state.

The specific ruling methods of each vassal state under the Western Liao Dynasty were adapted to local conditions.

The country with the weakest influence is like Khwarezm, which only needs to pay 30,000 dinars of silver coins every year.

There was also the newly established Bukhara Khanate, where the king was completely autonomous. In addition to paying tribute every year, the army had to unconditionally accept Yelu Dashi's conscription.

The Gaochang Uighurs implemented a governor-general system, but retained some of the king's powers.

Western Liao inherited the Liao Dynasty's system of northern and southern officials. The northern officials were those brought by Yelu Dashi, and the southern officials were the conquered local officials and nobles.

Yelu Dashi also abolished the feudal system and divided the directly governed territories and vassal states into more scattered ruling areas. The ruling areas were forbidden to fight with each other, especially to annex each other, otherwise they would be attacked by the whole people.

In principle, all officials must be appointed by Yelu Dashi.

But in actual implementation, Yelu Dashi would basically not object to the candidates for officials recommended by the monarchs of vassal states, especially those hereditary heirs.

Yelu Dashi carved out a large area of ​​direct jurisdiction in the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate, and divided the people into farmers and herdsmen.

Take the farmers for example. Each household was taxed only one dinar, which was a very light tax in Central Asia. Countless Central Asian farmers were extremely loyal to Yelu Dashi.

"Your Majesty, more than 30,000 Xixia soldiers and civilians, with a large number of war horses, livestock and property, have arrived in Gaochang and said they want to surrender." Yelu Songshan reported urgently.

Yelu Dashi was surprised and asked, "When did it happen?"

"Twenty days ago." Yelu Songshan said.

"So fast? The Ming army actually opened up the Hexi Corridor," Yelu Dashi asked, "What about other prefectures in Western Xia?"

Yelu Songshan shook his head: "I don't know."

Yelu Dashi said, "Send someone to find out."

More than 30,000 soldiers and civilians fled to Western Liao from Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Shazhou and Guazhou. The farmers were settled in the Fergana Basin and the nomads were settled in the Katwan grassland.

That large area belonged to the Hezhong Prefecture, which was also directly under the jurisdiction of the Western Liao Dynasty. Yelu Dashi could arrange it however he wanted. The original farmers and herdsmen were directly relocated. Anyway, the Western Karakhanid Khanate had been fighting for years, and many arable lands and pastures were underpopulated.

At the same time, 300 young men and children among the soldiers and civilians were selected to study at the Imperial Academy of Western Liao, so that they could be assigned as officials in the future.

Yelu Dashi wanted to centralize power step by step, but he had too few bureaucrats. Another month passed, and Yelu Songshan reported: "Western Xia was destroyed."

"Sure enough." Yelu Dashi sighed.

Yelu Songshan said: "The Ming army crushed them with ease, and the Western Xia had no power to fight back."

Yelu Dashi said: "You should take gifts with you to the Ming Kingdom, and your attitude should be neither humble nor arrogant. Tell Emperor Zhu of the Ming Kingdom that I defeated the most powerful monarch in the Western Regions, brought the former Black Khanate under my rule, and also conquered several vassal states. The territory of my Great Liao is not much smaller than that of the Ming Kingdom, and the two countries will continue to be brotherly countries in the future."

Yelu Dashi was very polite in his attitude, but he was not polite at all in his actions.

He added central direct-administered territories to the Gaochang Uighur territory and increased the number of standing troops in the Hami area, making it clear that he wanted to be prepared for an invasion by the Ming Dynasty at any time.

……

Luoyang.

Zhu Ming was also reading various reports. Governor Zhao Ding summarized the suggestions of the generals, hoping to deploy more troops in Ningxia.

The reason is very simple. The number of troops in Ningxia set by the imperial court was drawn up before the war.

No one expected that the war would go so smoothly, with tens of thousands of prisoners or surrenders, resulting in too many Xixia troops surviving. In the future, the scale of the rebellion will definitely be larger than expected after the arable land and grassland are divided, and the number of garrisons must be increased to quickly put it out.

After reading the report sent by Zhao Ding, the cabinet proposed to increase the salary by 10,000. Zhu Ming wrote:

"The field army will be increased by 10,000, and the garrison army by 20,000."

"In the area north of the Yangtze River, all criminals will be relocated to the Hexi Corridor to replace the Xixia population that escaped there. After stabilization, the two cities of Shazhou and Guazhou will be reinforced."

During the Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty, Yumen Pass was moved to the vicinity of Yumen City in later generations. The ancient Yumen Pass has become desertified, and now Shazhou and Guazhou are at the forefront.

Yelu Dashi needs to digest the newly occupied territory, and the Ming Dynasty also needs to digest Western Xia. The two countries can probably live in peace for many years.

From then on, Xingqing Prefecture was changed to Yinchuan Prefecture.

Dingzhou, Huaizhou, Jingzhou, Shunzhou and Lingzhou were all downgraded to counties and placed under the jurisdiction of Yinchuan Prefecture.

Twenty thousand troops were stationed in the entire Yinchuan Prefecture area.

The Hexi Corridor plus Heishui City (Ejina Banner) will be changed to Gansu Prefecture from now on, with the capital in Ganzhou (Zhangye), and 25,000 troops will be stationed in each prefecture and county of Gansu Prefecture.

Keyi Gate and the surrounding areas were changed to Dingyi Prefecture, with a garrison of 5,000 troops.

The name of the Western Han Dynasty was restored in Taowai, and Shuofang Prefecture was established. Han people were moved from Shanxi to cultivate the fertile land. A garrison of 15,000 people was stationed there.

The three cities in Hexi and a small area to the north of Shanxi were renamed as the Western Han Dynasty, and Xihe Prefecture was established. Han people were moved from Shanxi to cultivate the land, and 5,000 troops were stationed there.

In the rest of the areas, there are 10,000 troops stationed.

A small area in the southeast of Western Xia, namely Yongdeng, Gaolan and Baiyin in later generations, was placed under the jurisdiction of Lanzhou Prefecture in Shaanxi Province.

A small amount of area to the northeast of Western Xia, together with the prefectures and counties of Shaanxi there, were placed under the jurisdiction of Shanxi Province, which is roughly the same as the Shanxi Province in later generations.

A small amount of eastern territory of Western Xia was also assigned to Shaanxi Province.

That is, the eastern defense line where the Western Xia confronted the Northern Song Dynasty, those areas with mountain barriers, were all split and assigned to Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. This was not only to prevent the remnants of the Western Xia from rebelling, but also, like the assignment of Hanzhong to Shaanxi, it was a decision made with long-term considerations.

In this way, 80,000 troops would be more than enough to garrison the former territory of Western Xia.

The hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians who participated in the expedition against Western Xia are returning one after another, but many of them still remain in the local area.

For example, the Shanxi civilians who transported grain for Yue Fei and Han Shizhong basically did not have to go home, and all stayed in Shuofang Prefecture and Xihe Prefecture to farm. These were all fertile fields washed out by the Yellow River. The army took the civilians to check it out, and after seeing it, the civilians were very happy.

The land there is more fertile than the arable land in many places in Shanxi.

If a person had family, the government would send their family over, along with seeds, farm tools, and oxen.

For those who had no family or were unmarried, the government would arrange for women to marry them. All the people of Xixia were conscripted to fight in the war. Although they surrendered quickly, many men were killed, and countless widows or orphans were waiting to get married.

The same was true in other places, with large numbers of troops and civilians remaining behind.

There were 100,000 Shanxi and Shaanxi civilians left in the former Xixia area. All of them were given weapons and armor, ready to fight at any time.

If the remnants of Western Xia rebel, they can simply drag the farmers and herdsmen into rebellion, and a hundred thousand armed civilians will be enough to give them a hard time.

There were also a large number of military rations and livestock that were transported to the front line but not consumed, and were also retained on the spot. Some were distributed to the soldiers and civilians who moved there, and some were stored in warehouses for emergency use.

On the Hexi Corridor, a large number of captured war horses and livestock were sent to the Shandan Horse Farm for breeding.

The Tiansijian horse farms in Kaifeng and Luoyang are selecting good horses and sending them to the Shandan horse farm for breeding.

(End of this chapter)