Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Zongwu set out from Luoyang, the royal family and clan members of Xixia also set out from Yinchuan Prefecture and were taken to Luoyang.

Li Renxiao, the last emperor of Xixia, was very pleased that Xingqing Prefecture was changed to Yinchuan Prefecture.

He even felt that it was his decisive surrender that preserved this bit of dignity for the glorious Great Xia.

The real Yinchuan was actually in the northeast of Mizhi, which was Yinzhou City, which was first captured by Wang Yasha.

It was called Yinchuan County in the Tang Dynasty and Yinchuan City in the Song Dynasty. It was the birthplace of the Xixia Dynasty and the ancestral tomb of the Xixia royal family.

Now that Xixia has been destroyed, the capital of Xixia has been renamed Yinchuan. What else is this if it is not to preserve the dignity of Xixia?

Haha, Li Renxiao certainly didn't understand that the reason why Emperor Zhu changed the name was purely because of some special memory.

Before leaving, Li Renxiao asked to worship Buddha, and Ningxia Governor Zhao Ding readily agreed.

The royal family and clan members escorted by the soldiers walked towards Chengtian Temple with their heads down. Before they entered the temple gate, they found that the plaque with the three characters "Chengtian Temple" was removed.

"Alas!"

Li Renli sighed.

Soon after entering the temple, there were more and more sighs.

Because everyone had seen clearly that everything with Xixia characters had been or was being destroyed.

In the square in front of a hall, more than a dozen carpenters were busy.

The carpenters took planes and plane off all the characters on the plaques removed from the temple. It is estimated that they did not want to waste wood, and after plane off the Xixia characters, they could re-carve Chinese characters.

Li Renxiao wanted to see the stele carved by his biological mother, so the Ming soldiers took everyone to the stele forest.

"Hohoho..."

The chaotic friction sound came from the stele forest. The royal family and clan members of Xixia walked over and saw that the characters on all the stone tablets were being smoothed.

Li Renxiao cried and muttered to himself: "Why is it so, why is it so..."

Li Renli whispered: "Destroy history and writing, and there will be no more Great Xia Dangxiang from now on. Emperor Zhu did the same to the Jin Jurchen."

It is not directly destroyed.

Before grinding the stone tablet, a copy must be made and transported to the Luoyang Palace for document storage. These inscriptions have historical value, recording a certain year, month, event, and person, and are left for future literary and historical scholars to study.

In addition to being preserved as literary and historical materials, Xixia characters are not allowed to exist anywhere else.

As groups of monks were escorted out of the temple, Li Renli could not help asking, "How will the Ming Dynasty deal with the monks?"

The civil servant in charge of escorting the Xixia nobles said, "Chengtian Temple, Gaotai Temple, and Jietan Temple are only allowed to retain 100 monks each, and the rest must return to secular life. Each temple is only allowed to retain 800 mu of temple land, and the rest of the land is all given to the families of soldiers, Han immigrants, and local farmers."

Li Renxiao could not help saying, "This is a great disrespect to the Buddha, you shouldn't do this. Keeping the temples and monks can actually bless the Ming Dynasty."

The civil servant laughed and said, "The three major temples in Yinchuan Prefecture have countless monks and temple properties. They have exploited so much of the people's fat, but why didn't they bless Xixia with good weather and good harvests? Instead, they caused Xixia to suffer disasters year after year?"

After asking this, Li Renxiao was speechless, and silently bowed his head and turned away.

The next day, everyone set off for Luoyang.

They sailed south along the Yellow River and found that the farmland on both sides had been replanted, but due to the severe water shortage caused by drought, even the water level of the Yellow River had dropped significantly.

The Ming generals and civilians who stayed in Yinchuan Prefecture, as well as the families of the military and civilians who were sent later, and the local Xixia farmers, were using various methods to get water for irrigation.

Many craftsmen were making water wheels by the river. Some water wheels were already made. They were powered by human power and animal power, and were pumping water from the Yellow River into the ditches.

Some of those irrigation canals existed, while others were newly dug this year.

From time to time, many farmers and herdsmen were gathered together to dredge the half-abandoned irrigation canals. They were all for work-for-relief. While the government was building infrastructure, it was also solving the problem of food. Otherwise, many of these farmers and herdsmen would starve to death.

"King Shu..." Li Renxiao quickly changed his words and asked, "Brother, why weren't these irrigation canals dredged before?"

Li Renli replied ashamedly: "They are dredged every year, but corrupt officials profit from it, embezzle the court's funding, and withhold the rations of the people. They also tortured and starved the people to death, causing them to riot, and then nothing was done."

Li Renxiao sighed: "Alas, with such neglect of water conservancy and agricultural policies, how can Daxia not be destroyed? If I could succeed to the throne ten years earlier, I would definitely restore production and give the people a rest."

Western Xia is gone, and it's useless to say more.

Li Renli comforted himself: "It's better to surrender early, at least countless people can be saved. With the degree of drought this year, Daxia will inevitably suffer from famine again. I don't know how many of these farmers are starving to death. Now that the Ming Dynasty has come, organizing farmers to build water conservancy projects can also be regarded as giving farmers rations to survive."

They came all the way to Lanzhou, crossed the entire Shaanxi Province, and found that Shaanxi was also dry.

Construction projects were being built everywhere, some were building city walls, some were repairing riverbanks, some were expanding official roads, some were digging canals, and some were digging deep wells... After several years of drought, the people of Shaanxi could no longer bear it. Every household had no surplus food, and the government could only absorb the hungry people with work-for-relief.

Relying on the food transferred from other regions, the people of Shaanxi were supported to overcome the difficulties, and Shaanxi's infrastructure was seriously built.

Li Renxiao was born in the deep palace since he was a child. Although he knew what this meant, he only knew it.

Li Renli was shocked along the way: "Only China has a vast territory and can mobilize a lot of food for disaster relief. In such a severe drought in Shaanxi, no one was found dead on the roadside, and it is unimaginable that they can take the opportunity to carry out large-scale construction." "

In fact, this year's drought is not the end, next year will be the most serious drought year!

The people of the northwest and the Ming court had to continue to carry on for another year, gathering the strength of the whole country to support several provinces in the northwest, and even more than half of Henan and Shanxi.

The temperature during the Little Ice Age has bottomed out, and the average annual temperature at this time is lower than that in the late Ming Dynasty.

It will take a few more years to start to recover. The next hundred years or so will be a period of recovery, and it will not fall again until the mid-Yuan Dynasty in history.

Floods in the south and drought in the north, floods in the south and drought in the north... floods in the south and drought in the north every year!

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty has been building water conservancy projects in the south since the founding of the People's Republic of China. A large amount of farmland was forcibly returned to lakes, and landless farmers were directly immigrated to counties that lacked people. Otherwise, I really don’t know how to handle it.

"Brother, look over there!" Li Renxiao pointed to the construction site in the distance.

Li Renli looked toward the northeast of the official road and saw an official from the Ming Dynasty sitting on a high platform under the scorching sun. A huge flag was erected on the high platform. The flag was embroidered with four big characters: Man can conquer nature!

Li Renli was shocked: "How can you use these four words? Isn't it blasphemy against the emperor!"

They were escorted to the front station, and Li Renli couldn't help raising doubts.

Yi Cheng explained: "Those four characters are the emperor's imperial pen and were given to the Shaanxi Drought Control Governor. The official on the high platform you see is the Shaanxi Drought Control Governor appointed by His Majesty. He has been stationed in Shaanxi since last year."

Night falls and the heat lingers.

Li Renxiao stood in the small courtyard of the post house, followed by two sergeants who were guarding him.

At some point, Li Renli came over.

Li Renxiao seemed to be talking to himself or talking to Li Renli: "My mother taught me Chinese studies since I was a child, and my father asked the great Confucians to teach me the classics. I feel that I already understand the meaning of those classics, but along the way these days, I have learned Really know what it means to be a king in a place hundreds of miles away."

Li Renli was also proficient in "Mencius" and recited the original text according to his words: "The king is like a benevolent government to the people, saving punishments, thinning taxes and collecting, deep farming and easy farming..."

The meaning of this passage from Mencius is that if you can implement benevolent government, light corvee and low taxes, let the people have enough food and clothing, and know all kinds of principles and moral qualities. Even a small country only a few hundred miles away can let its young men hold wooden sticks to defeat the strong and sharp tiger and wolf troops of Qin and Chu. Although the two countries Qin and Chu were strong, they fought all year round and delayed agricultural work, so the people could not work hard to support their parents. My parents are starving and freezing, my brothers, wives and children are all running away. How can I defeat a benevolent and righteous man who is well fed and clothed?

Mencius said, This is called the benevolent and invincible!

Li Renxiao said: "The Ming Dynasty has not sent troops to attack, but the people of Dingzhou and Jingzhou have already rebelled near our capital of Daxia. This is because they don't have enough to eat, don't have warm clothes, can't support their parents, and can't raise their wives and children. . When the Ming Dynasty sent troops to attack, how could such people be willing to fight for the country? So before the two armies fought, the armies fled. "

"Your Majesty... my dear brother is smart, but it's a pity that he was born at the wrong time." Li Renli couldn't help but sigh.

This wise and benevolent emperor of Xixia, the emperor who brought Xixia into its most prosperous era, was now escorted to Luoyang as a subjugated king before he had time to reform his administration.

He could only sigh in the small inn and use his own experience of national subjugation to confirm Confucian scriptures.

The team continued to move forward and finally arrived in Chang'an.

An angel, who had been waiting for a long time, came and read out an imperial edict, and then took away a large number of the Xixia royal family and female family members.

Those who were taken away were mainly Li Qianshun's young concubines and dozens of Brother Richard's young concubines. Due to their special status, they had to decide where to go. Now they are being taken to reward the meritorious officers.

Senior generals will all have a share, and Yue Fei will also get one of Li Qianshun's concubines.

The two queen mothers were also taken away and will be sent to Wangchuan Valley to spend their later years with Dean Zhu.

Zhu Ming didn't bother to care whether the Supreme Emperor took it or not, he just threw it away anyway. Lao Zhu is really unable to do what he wants, so let the two queen mothers be maids, otherwise he really doesn't know how to arrange it.

Li Renxiao's queen was not taken away, but all the concubines dispersed.

He carefully inquired about the whereabouts of his biological mother and learned that Queen Mother Cao was going to serve the Ming Dynasty Emperor. He was angry and ashamed but also a little happy. At least, this arrangement did not humiliate the Xixia royal family too much, and it was considered the best destination for Empress Dowager Cao.

The night before leaving Chang'an, Li Renxiao lay in bed and cried loudly.