Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

(Fu Yuanheng's resume has been revised, thank you for your correction.)

Linzhou.

Civil and military officials gathered together.

Yao Pingzhong was in the main position.

Because Yao Pingzhong's official rank was much higher than that of the prefect Hu Xiang. He was not the commander of Linzhou, but the general of Linfu!

Because the Western Xia was destroyed last year, the Linfu area was split.

Part of it was left in Shaanxi, and a large area of ​​the old Western Xia land was demarcated and incorporated into Linzhou to become a new administrative district.

Part of it was assigned to Shanxi and became the northwesternmost territory of Shanxi.

A very small part was assigned to Xihe Prefecture and became the jurisdiction of the Ningxia Governor's Office.

Along with it, there were changes in the garrison.

The core troops were transferred to Linzhou for garrison, and the remaining troops were moved to various prefectures in Ningxia, leaving only a small number of troops in Fugu - because Fugu changed from the front line to the rear.

Yao Pingzhong's troops received many rewards last year because of their meritorious service.

General Wang De was even directly conferred the title of marquis, and his military rank was promoted by two levels, but his military position did not change much, and he was transferred to Yinchuan Prefecture with his troops.

Yao Pingzhong himself was promoted by one level, and his fiefdom and food were increased. His military rank was promoted by two levels, and there were also a lot of material rewards. He was posthumously conferred titles for three generations, and his wife was conferred titles. His military position remained unchanged for the time being, but the court promised that after the local governance was stable, Yao Pingzhong would be transferred to be the general commander of Shanxi.

His troops were split up, and his defense zone suddenly became smaller. It was just a temporary arrangement to deter the Dangxiang tribe in the west of Linzhou. The official documents of the Ministry of War made it very clear that he could be transferred to a high official in two years at most, and he was not the only one who was arranged in this way.

But Yao Pingzhong still felt resentful and thought that this was Zhang Guangdao's revenge.

Now he dared not complain anymore, because he had messed up!

The prefect Hu Xiang said: "The relief grain has been distributed, and the farmland and pastures have been distributed to farmers and herdsmen. However, due to the rebellion, there are very few Xixia immigrants left there, and the Han people must be relocated to farm and graze."

"Are the Han people willing to migrate?" Yao Pingzhong is now trying to make up for it to reduce the court's punishment on him.

Hu Xiang is also looking for faults: "I heard that the Han people in Linzhou are willing to migrate there because they can share the land and grassland. They are originally close to each other, and the migration can be completed in ten days or half a month. Moreover, many of the so-called Han people in Linzhou are actually Xixia serfs and mountain barbarians who have fled here for more than ten years. The Dangxiang people over there have almost died and vacated the land, so the people of Linzhou are naturally willing to move."

Yao Pingzhong sighed: "Thank you, governor, for not making any mistakes in relocating the people."

"I dare not." Hu Xiang said.

The civil and military officials in Linzhou sighed at this moment.

While they were afraid of the court's punishment, they also resented the Xixia remnants for being too cunning.

The Dangxiang tribes in Linzhou rebelled, but they didn't attack the city, nor did they attack the forts, and they were too lazy to plunder the Han countryside. They directly fled across the province with their families, catching Yao Pingzhong, who had been prepared to quell the rebellion, off guard and unable to deal with it.

In comparison, the rebels in Xuanzhou were so obedient. They foolishly went to attack the county town, but were defeated by 500 garrisons in one battle, and it took only half a month to clear the remnants.

If the rebel tribes in Linzhou were a little stupider and fled a little slower, Yao Pingzhong could quickly stabilize the situation.

…

In the torment of living day by day, the people of Linzhou completed the westward migration and received enough oxen, livestock, seeds, bedding and farm tools.

The population of the former Xixia lands that were incorporated into Linzhou was directly replaced. More than 90% of them were Han people who migrated there, and less than 10% were Xixia natives.

The land is vast and sparsely populated.

It is even less than the population during the Xixia rule!

Finally, the imperial envoy sent by the court arrived, and was accompanied by some civil and military officials.

The Linzhou civil and military officials welcomed them ten miles outside the city, but the emperor's messenger who was responsible for delivering the imperial edict had a blank expression on his face.

The emperor's messenger announced the content of the imperial edict on the spot: "Linzhou Governor Hu Xiang, State Judge Du Wenyuan, and Household Department Li Jun are detained for trial. If there is no corruption or abuse of power, each will be demoted three levels. If corruption or abuse of power is found, it will be handled according to the law! The rest of the civil servants will not be investigated for the time being, and those who are found to be involved will be punished by law."

The three civil servants who were named collapsed to the ground in an instant.

With so much relief money and grain in their hands, how could they not be greedy?

Because they were afraid of the law, they didn't get much greed. If the matter didn't get out of hand, they would definitely not be investigated, but now it has to be escalated!

The rest of the civil servants had mixed emotions. On the one hand, they were glad that they were not named, and the court obviously didn't want to expand it. On the other hand, they were afraid that they would be implicated in the corruption case and be punished by law.

The group of military officers had similar thoughts at this time.

The court only named three civil officials, and it didn't look like they were going to massacre the Linzhou officialdom. They probably wouldn't be too harsh on the military officers.

The emperor's messenger turned to the other side: "Yao Pingzhong!"

"Here!"

Yao Pingzhong knelt down hurriedly, and even kowtowed several times out of fear.

The emperor's messenger said: "Yao Pingzhong, be demoted to a baron. Your military position and rank will be reduced by five levels each, and you will return to Beijing immediately to serve."

Yao Pingzhong collapsed there immediately.

It's over, it's all over.

His title was reduced, his military position and rank were both reduced, and he was back to the time before the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Even if he could still be a military officer, it would definitely be a sinecure, and he would never be able to lead troops to fight and make merit again.

At the same time, Yao Pingzhong felt lucky to have survived a disaster.

At least he was given a baron position, and at least he was allowed to return to Beijing to serve as a sinecure, without his property being confiscated or exiled.

Fu Yuanheng walked up to Yao Pingzhong, patted his shoulder and whispered: "Hand over all your property here honestly, don't force me to investigate. His Majesty has left room, you have to think it through yourself."

"Yes!" Yao Pingzhong trembled.

Yao Pingzhong did not have a backer, but Wu Jie, Wu Lin, Wang De and others were all generals of Yao Pingzhong. Even the Liu brothers served as generals of Yao Pingzhong for a year.

Moreover, Yao Pingzhong and his son led the army to surrender and voluntarily handed over tens of thousands of troops and the Hehuang area.

All these things must be considered.

Again, the emperor needs to consider a lot of things, and can't kill Yao Pingzhong with one stick.

Yao Pingzhong's second half of life has been arranged. He will be sent to Luoyang Military Academy as a teacher to teach some basic military subjects.

Fu Yuanheng no longer cares about those civil servants, and there are relevant personnel to deal with them.

The person who temporarily replaced Yao Pingzhong was Yang Yun, a Qiang general transferred from Hebei.

Yang Yun had already been a marquis, and his original position was the general of Hebei. He was more than capable of coming here to intimidate Yao Pingzhong's old subordinates.

Summoning all the generals to the general's residence, Yang Yun said: "The court has set up a military supervisor, which is affiliated with the Inspectorate. This Fu Xianggong is the military supervisor. There is also a military supervisor in Linzhou. In the future, the military laws will still be managed by the military judges, but other military-related cases will be handed over to the military supervisor for handling."

The generals were shocked.

Fu Yuanheng said: "When the court investigated the corruption and abuse of power among civil officials, it said that except for murder, crimes committed before a certain date would be forgiven. Now the Military Supervisory Bureau is investigating all the armies, and we will give you a chance. From the date when the military supervisory bureau was established in your unit, crimes committed before that date will be forgiven, except for murder."

"Also, voluntarily hand over the money and grain you have embezzled since the destruction of Xia! Those are either military funds or disaster relief money and grain. If you voluntarily hand them over, the court will treat them as if nothing happened. If they are found out in the future, the Military Supervisory Bureau will handle them according to the law!"

If it were up to personal will and just to get his mind clear, Zhu Ming would punish the soldiers severely.

But the results of the thorough investigation of civil servants across the country in the past few years proved that too harsh an investigation would cause big problems. At that time, officials across the country were terrified, and everyone was in danger. They couldn't even do their jobs. Many government offices in provinces, prefectures, and counties were shut down, and even tax collection was delayed.

As a last resort, Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming could only order a halt and announced that they would not investigate after the New Year's Day of the following year. At the same time, they drew a timeline, indicating that previous crimes would be forgiven, and that the old crimes would be tried together in the future, and the "Great Ming Law" was revised after the major case.

Such a decision restored peace in the officialdom of the whole country and allowed the government offices at all levels that had been suspended to resume work.

The emperor's goal was not to punish corrupt officials and make all corrupt officials get what they deserved. Instead, it was to stop the evil wind and rectify the administration of officials throughout the country. As long as this goal was achieved, it was enough.

It was achieved.

Although there are still countless corrupt officials at large, the atmosphere of corruption since the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty has improved.

Even the concept has been reversed. In the past, people were greedy and unscrupulous, and believed that officials should reach out for money. Now everyone knows that they should not be greedy and cannot be greedy. That thing is a crime and must be severely punished.

Even if they can't help but embezzle, they only dare to do small things or be greedy secretly.

No one dares to be so blatant again!

This is the most important thing. Corruption has changed from what it should be to what it shouldn't be, and a new consensus has been formed in the officialdom.

If the concept does not change, what's the use of punishing more corrupt officials?

They keep going one after another, and they can't stop killing.

And rectifying the army is more difficult than rectifying the officialdom. If the civil officials are killed too hard, at most they will just be in a mess. If the military generals are killed too hard, there may be a big mess!

Now that the Military Supervisor has just been established, it has directly learned the lessons of rectifying the officialdom and has drawn a timeline right from the start.

Fu Yuanheng glanced at the generals, and those generals bowed their heads hurriedly.

Seeing that these guys were still hesitating, Fu Yuanheng sneered: "All the property of Yao Pingzhong in Linzhou must be handed over. Can you still hide it? Hand over the money and grain you have embezzled after destroying Xia, and every penny will be recorded in the Military Supervisor. His Majesty will come forward to guarantee that you will not be punished for this. Of course, whoever dares to commit a crime in the future will be held accountable for the past crimes!"

Those two sentences moved the generals.

One sentence is "Yao Pingzhong hand over the property of Linzhou", and the other is "Your Majesty will come forward to guarantee it."

The former is a threat, that is, the military supervisor can follow Yao Pingzhong to investigate.

The latter is a promise, and the emperor's guarantee is not something that can be said casually. At least from the time Zhu Ming started his army to now, he has not broken any promise.

One scare and one comfort, the generals know how to choose.

The next day, the generals under Yao Pingzhong took the initiative to go to the temporary military supervisor's office, hand over the money and grain they embezzled after destroying Xia and make a record.

Fu Yuanheng did not punish them as expected.

But the effect of not punishing is better than direct punishment.

This is equivalent to all the military generals in Linzhou, all of whom have a handle in the hands of the military supervisor. If you want to embezzle and pervert the law in the future, you must think twice, otherwise the military supervisor will dig up the old accounts.

One boot fell to the ground with a clang, and the other boot was put down at some point, which is the most uncomfortable.

Fu Yuanheng left Linzhou quickly and threw the specific affairs to the military supervisor of Linzhou.

Then he went straight to Xuanzhou, where the main task assigned by the emperor was.

Rectify the officialdom and the army, and change the policy based on the final result.

But punishing Qin Hui was purely Zhu Ming's will. If he didn't kill this man, he would be unreasonable!

Yang Yuan had been targeted for a long time. Whenever he came to Beijing, he would claim to be a student of Qin Hui, fearing that others would not know how he got promoted.