Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 511: Three people make a tiger, officials spread slander
As he spoke, Zhao Mu took out a map from his arms.

Afterwards, Zhao Mu spread it out on the dragon desk of the King of Western Xia.

After Zhao Mu spread out the map, he said to the King of Xixia: "Father-in-law, please look, this is the XJ territory that I have arranged for you."

The King of Western Xia looked at it and said, "This is much bigger than I imagined. Before, I only wanted to take over Qingtang, but the land you gave me seems to be bigger than the current Great Xia Kingdom."

Zhao Mu smiled and said, "Father-in-law, you are too kind. I am just being generous. These lands belong to the Tibetan tribes. Although the Emperor of the Song Dynasty has granted them to you, you still need to take them back. But the Song Dynasty army will also lend a helping hand to you."

The King of Xixia looked at the markings on the map and said, "So, the Tubo Kingdom was divided up among the three of us?"

Zhao Mu nodded and said, "Yes. For now, we can only take land from Tubo. Tubo is divided into three parts. My Song Dynasty occupies a part of western Sichuan, while my father-in-law occupies most of Qingtang. As for Dali, we will take some of it. The areas south of Tubo adjacent to Dali will be given to Gao family of Dali to establish a country. As for the rest, let's leave it to that Zamp."

Zhao Mu sighed and said, "But if my father-in-law is not satisfied with my allocation, then after we destroy Liao in the future, my Song will take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and Liaodong. The rest of the Liao territory will be up to my father-in-law to claim."

The King of Western Xia shook his head and said, "No! Qingtang is the ancestral land of our Dangxiang people. It has been occupied by the Tibetans for hundreds of years. Now it is good to return to Qingtang and establish a country. After seeing the strength of the Song Dynasty, everyone is now sincerely loyal to the Song Dynasty. I believe that everyone will be loyal to the Song Dynasty as they are to the Tang Dynasty. But, how do you plan to resettle the people?"

Zhao Mu replied, "It's very simple. Those who are willing to follow my father-in-law to Qingtang to establish a country will be allowed to take their families and property with them. However, the land and houses under their names cannot be taken away. The Song Dynasty is willing to redeem them at an official price. Those who are unwilling to leave can also register and become citizens of the Song Dynasty. As for the officials of the Western Xia Kingdom, those who are unwilling to follow my father-in-law can also be temporarily retained, and then registered by the Ministry of Personnel of the Song Dynasty and undergo assessment by the Ministry of Personnel of the Song Dynasty."

The King of Xixia nodded and said, "Very good. Yinchuan and mother were not wrong about the man. In this way, we can also hand over the throne peacefully. Haha, since ancient times, no king of a fallen country has ever had the good fortune of having a brother."

Zhao Mu laughed and said, "Haha, my father-in-law is not the king of a fallen country, it's just that Xixia has moved to a new place."

They both looked at each other and smiled.

Afterwards, a grand banquet was held in the Xixia royal palace, where everyone sang and danced, toasted each other, and showed no sorrow for the loss of their country.

After the banquet, Zhao Mu followed Li Qinglu back to her bedroom. Although the Xixia Palace was already Zhao Mu's, the handover between Song and Xia had not yet been completed. His father-in-law was still the King of Xixia. But now that he had entered Lingzhou City, it didn't take long.

After the dust settled, Zhao Mu brought all his wives and concubines to fill the harem of the Western Xia Palace.

In the next few days, other members of the Song army also arrived. There were many things that needed to be handed over during this period, and Zhao Mu had to handle them personally.

The news of the Song army's victory and the Xixia's surrender soon spread back to the Song Dynasty. Zhezong happily held a three-day banquet in the palace to celebrate.

In the Qi Wang Mansion in the capital, there were also lights and decorations, and everyone was celebrating Zhao Mu's victory. However, there was one person who did not attend the celebration banquet at home. This person was Hu Yanjin. On the day Zhao Mu arrived in Lingzhou City, Hu Yanjin felt unbearable abdominal pain and gave birth immediately. She gave Zhao Mu a daughter. Now she is in confinement, so she did not attend.

The news of Zhao Mu's victory and the Xixia king's surrender was sent back at an urgent speed of 800 miles, just in time for the child's third birthday. When Zhezong heard the good news and knew that Zhao Mu had given birth to a daughter, he made a special move to confer the title of "Princess" on the eldest daughter of the King of Qi and bestowed a golden fruit.

However, amidst the celebration of victory, there were also some slanderous words from villains.

In recent days, Zhezong has received many memorials, most of which are asking Zhao Mu to resign as soon as possible and appoint court officials to take over Xixia. Some memorials even compare Zhao Mu to Han Xin, using the story of Han Xin's self-declaration of kingship in the Three Qi states to illustrate the danger of Zhao Mu.

In short, their goal was to get Zhao Mu to hand over power as soon as possible and then return to the court to accept the reward. Don't let him control the military power again.

Some censors even began to fabricate some unfounded charges, intending to get rid of Zhao Mu just like they had gotten rid of Di Qing. They said that Zhao Mu openly lived in the palace of the Western Xia king, that Zhao Mu had great prestige in the army, that the soldiers only knew the King of Qi and not the emperor, and that they only respected the King of Qi's military orders and did not obey the imperial edict.

When Zhezong saw these memorials, he was so angry that he tore them up on the spot. However, these officials continued to make endless suggestions to Zhezong.

These bastards can't help at all when foreign enemies invade and fight, they just ask for peace and send tribute. But their ability to persecute loyal people is getting better and better.

If it weren't for the ancestral system of the Song Dynasty that forbids the killing of censors and prevents speech, Zhezong would have wanted to kill all three clans of his family.

Now Zhao Mu has been criticized in the court because his laws are not merciful and have offended some officials in the court.

Before the expedition, in order to get all the officials in the court to cooperate with Zhao Mu, Zhezong stuffed all the children of officials into the army to give them military positions.

This time, Zhao Mu strictly ordered his soldiers not to harm the people.

However, these sons of noble families were used to being extravagant and licentious in the capital. Now that they had won, they naturally became even more arrogant. They did not dare to provoke the wives of officials, but ordinary women could not escape their clutches.

When Zhao Mu completed the handover of Xixia, many reports of high-ranking officials' children violating military regulations were reported. Among them, the most powerful ones were the son of the Prince of Nanping and the son of Prime Minister Cai. As for other officials' children, there were also some.

Zhao Mu didn't care who these people were. He just waved his pen and sentenced them to military punishment. Then he executed them on the spot.

When the news of their death reached the capital, it immediately shocked the officials and dignitaries in the capital. If their sons had died in the war, they could have barely accepted it.

However, when the army was victorious and was about to return to the court to receive rewards, Zhao Mu killed them all because they randomly found a few Xixia women and smashed a few shops. How could the officials in the court not hold a grudge against them?
Therefore, the censors in the court, headed by Cai Que, began to submit memorials one after another, constantly slandering Zhezong.

(End of this chapter)