Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

March, Yinchuan Prefecture.

Governor Zhao Ding personally inspected the spring plowing, not only bringing some officials, but also hundreds of cavalry.

Last year, the war delayed the farming season, and the replanting of grain was hit by drought, resulting in a severe grain harvest failure in Ningxia. Even many grasslands are withered and yellow. The herdsmen are allocated livestock but have no fodder. They cannot produce milk or grow fat, so they can only eat them one by one.

"The water conservancy projects in all counties were repaired last year, and two new irrigation canals were dug in exchange for work," Jiang Zuoyi, the prefect of Yinchuan, said, pointing to the farmers who were busy with spring plowing. "The snow has just melted and the water level has gradually recovered. These days it is normal." Seize the opportunity to irrigate the fields to avoid another spring drought. "

Zhao Ding nodded in approval, and then reminded: "It is better to plant some millet, so that you can still get some harvest if there is a severe drought. If you plant all rice, it will be all over when there is a drought."

Jiang Zuoyi said: "Last year, corn seeds were transferred. This year, half of each household's acres will be planted with rice and half with millet. Many farmers don't know how to grow millet. I urge agricultural officials to teach them step by step."

"Excellent." Zhao Ding praised.

While Zhao Ding continued to inspect the spring plowing, suddenly flocks of birds circled and screamed, many field mice and rabbits emerged from the ground, and the cats and dogs inside and outside the city became restless.

No matter the officials, civilians, or soldiers, they all froze on the spot and looked around.

After a long time, Zhao Ding suddenly realized: "In fear of an earthquake, I order the officials, soldiers and civilians to stay in the house for at least the next half month. It is best to sleep in the open space outside the house."

There are officials who go everywhere to deliver orders, but it’s hard to say whether everyone will listen or not.

Because there were so many visions, many people were still willing to listen that night, and many people inside and outside the city did not dare to stay at home.

Nothing happened.

The next night, many people stopped living outside their houses.

On the third night, many officials went back to their houses to sleep peacefully. Zhao Ding personally patrolled inside and outside the city. When he appeared, the officials would call the people to come out of their houses. When he left, the officials would turn a blind eye.

Fortunately the earthquake happened during the day!

The fourth day, half morning.

Zhao Ding is working in the Governor's Mansion, which was renovated from a pavilion in the Xixia Palace.

Suddenly the earth shook and the mountains shook. Zhao Ding was so shocked that he stood up holding on to the table, and then quickly ducked under the table to hide.

The temple shook for a while, and the earthquake finally stopped.

Zhao Ding got out from under the table and shouted: "Get out, get out and hide!"

He didn't need to remind him at all, the officials of the Governor's Mansion were already running out quickly, and the streets of Yinchuan City were full of people.

The capital commanders, inspectors, prefects, and county magistrates brought people over one after another, and reported in panic that another house had collapsed.

Just when everyone thought it was over, the ground shook again, and it was more violent than before!

Zhao Ding saw with his own eyes that a house collapsed in front of him.

He forced himself to calm down, summoned officials from both the military and political systems, and ordered everyone to immediately appease the people and organize rescue.

All the people inside and outside the city were quickly moved to open spaces in the suburbs and resettled in units of houses. At the same time, brave men were recruited from the common people to dig through the ruins to see if they could rescue survivors, but they were not allowed to approach the houses that had not collapsed.

As for the garrison, part of it is responsible for maintaining law and order, and part of it also participates in disaster relief.

"Boom!"

There was another less powerful aftershock, which frightened the soldiers and civilians involved in the rescue and fled to the open space in shock.

After staying in the suburbs for three full days, Zhao Ding allowed the soldiers and civilians to return in an orderly manner after confirming that there were no aftershocks.

Inspector Yan Bingxiao ran to Zhao Ding and whispered: "There is no need to worry about the foreign soldiers and civilians, but the local people are spreading rumors. It is said that the souls of the Western Xia rulers are unwilling to accept the destruction of the country and have come back to seek revenge... "

Zhao Ding looked serious and summoned military and political officials for a meeting again.

"The top priority right now is disaster relief and rescuing people. Those whose houses have collapsed, organize manpower to rebuild their homes as soon as possible, and provide work relief to absorb the people who have no food."

"The second is to bury the corpse. The old people of Xixia worship Buddhism and they are willing to cremate it. Burn the corpse quickly to avoid plague after the disaster."

"The third is to prepare for rebellion. Those tribal chiefs and herdsmen, whose pastures and fields have been confiscated and divided, are very likely to take the opportunity to spread rumors and start rebellion."

"The fourth is to appease people's hearts. Not only to appease people with disaster relief, but also to use poison to fight poison and take advantage of the opportunity to publicize. Let's say that this earthquake was caused by the overthrow of Xixia Sheji and the complete cutting off of the dragon vein. After the earthquake, the Xixia dragon vein was cut off, and Xixia could never recover. Country! All disasters are blamed on Xixia, and I, Ming Dynasty, are here to save the country."

The Yinchuan Prefecture quickly arranged everything, and at the same time sent these four decrees to various states and counties in Ningxia.

Yinchuan Mansion, where the governor was located, quickly calmed down.

Unexpectedly, twenty days later, there was another earthquake, and the center of the earthquake moved to Xiazhou.

The ground in Xiazhou cracked and springs gushed out!

Then there was an unprecedented sandstorm, and yellow sand piled up into dunes twenty meters high. The sand dunes are connected to each other like long embankments. Thousands of people were buried in the dust.

Historically, this series of disasters led to widespread banditry in Xixia, and rebel armies spread over nearly half of the country. In Xingqing Prefecture alone, more than 10,000 people died in the earthquake.

If Ju Ming had known about such a thing, he would certainly not have sent troops last year, and would have waited until various disasters occurred before taking action.

Now it is like receiving a hot potato, and a lot of energy and money have to be spent on maintaining stability!

…

Eastern part of Mingsha County.

As early as the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the fertile wilderness here was thousands of miles long, and the Qiang Rong and other ethnic groups were nomadic here.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, people from the Guandong region migrated here one after another to cultivate land.

After that, dynasties changed, sometimes grazing, sometimes farming, eventually forming half farming and half grazing.

Soil and water loss has gradually become serious, and many places have turned into bare loess mountains.

In the early decades after the founding of Xixia, the government organized people to dig irrigation canals. Over the past few decades, irrigation canals have been clogged and abandoned, and crops have gradually changed from wheat to millet.

In June, the drought became more severe.

The three tribal chiefs here jointly convened more than a dozen former large herdsmen and landowners to discuss rebellion.

Chief Xingduo Baozhong said angrily: "We surrendered in Lingzhou last year. Although we didn't get much credit, we did a lot of hard work. We helped stabilize public security and carry baggage, but what did we get in exchange for the exhausting work? That abominable magistrate of Xuanzhou, The state magistrates and commanders recruited our tribesmen to dredge the irrigation canals, but only the irrigation canals on both sides of the Yellow River were dredged. None of the irrigation canals here were dredged! "

"I have already inquired about it. Other tribes dredged irrigation canals in Lingzhou and received much more food than we did! We here worked hard digging canals and could only receive a little food to survive. There is also Lingzhou subsistence The amount of seeds and livestock given to the people is several times that of ours. Lingzhou also gives us hoes and sickles, but we don’t have any of them here!”

"Everyone here is a big herdsman and a big landowner. After surrendering, there will be no reward, but our pastures and farmland will be taken away. This was the case in the first year of the Ming Dynasty. Will it not become more and more difficult in the future?"

"I heard that disasters are happening everywhere in those prefectures and counties in the northwest and northeast. This must be the return of the heroic souls of the emperors of Great Xia. They will protect us and drive away the Ming army. We raise troops here, and there are other tribes elsewhere. Raise the army and elect a clan to revive Daxia!"

Similar scenes occurred in various places in Ningxia, but the circumstances were different.

The uprising of the three tribes in the east of Mingsha County was indeed forced by the government. Although farmers and herdsmen at the bottom were allocated farmland and pasture, the relief grains, seeds, and livestock they received were seriously insufficient, and the government did not even bother to distribute a single farm tool. Work-for-relief repairs and water conservancy projects were only carried out on both sides of the Yellow River, and nothing was harvested from the barren loess land here.

From top to bottom, all classes were incited to rebel!

As for Shizhou, it's different.

As soon as the leaders started to instigate, some small herdsmen came to report to the officials.

It is not the shepherd who reports to the official, but the young herdsman.

In agricultural areas, there are large landowners and small and medium landowners.

In grassland areas, there are also large herders and small and medium-sized herders. This was true for the Liao Kingdom, and so was the case for Xixia.

Small and medium-sized herdsmen are similar to the "good family members" on the grasslands and are the main group recruited. At least half of Xixia's larger elite military units come from small and medium-sized herder families, because they have the financial resources to maintain horses, weapons and armor.

Liao and Xixia suffered from the same disease.

Due to frequent wars, corruption, and intensified mergers, the backbone of society (small and medium-sized pastoralists) has become increasingly poor and their number is decreasing.

As a result, tax sources and military resources were affected, and the combat effectiveness of the recruited troops was seriously reduced.

You can understand it as the middle class in a modern country is shrinking in number and becoming poor!

There are even many small shepherds who are so poor that they have to work as shepherds for other shepherds.

In other words, small landowners went to work as tenants for others.

Last year, the Ming Dynasty deprived of pastures and fields, and only targeted large landowners and large herdsmen.

The larger number of small and medium-sized landowners and pastoralists have actually not moved. Although their assets remained unchanged, taxes and military service were reduced, and they felt relaxed and hopeful.

Now that the big landowners and big herdsmen are inciting rebellion, how can it be possible that all the small and medium-sized landowners and herdsmen are willing to follow?

Some people were incited to the point of losing their ability to think.

Some people heard the instigation, but were so frightened that they quickly reported it to the official!

The commander of Shizhou received the report and immediately led his troops to kill him. Those big landowners and big herdsmen were all caught by the Ming garrison before they could complete the connection, and they were all dealt with as if they were rebels.

To be honest, as long as the civil servants and military generals in various prefectures and counties don't mess around, those remnants of Xixia will not be able to cause trouble.

Because the Ming government united the majority, the small and medium-sized landowners, small and medium-sized herdsmen, farmers and herdsmen all stood on the side of the Ming Dynasty!

Maybe they didn't dare to openly reject the rebellion, but some people definitely went to the government to report it, and the government could quickly mobilize troops to suppress it.

Which state or county is causing trouble? There must be problems with the civil servants and military officers there.

The chaos in Mingsha County was very big. Nearly ten thousand rebel troops crossed the mountains and fought their way to the fertile area on the east bank of the Yellow River before they were discovered.

Before this, there was no one to report to the official.

The people on the east bank of the Yellow River were either coerced into joining the rebels, or they refused to rebel and were killed.

Some of those killed were even immigrants from Shaanxi. They don't even have the right to choose, they are beheaded directly after being singled out!

When the rebels crossed the river, the people on the west bank fled to the city one after another, but the county magistrate refused to open the door because he was afraid that spies would be mixed among the people.

Countless people had no choice but to flee to other counties, or drag their families into the mountains.

That night, Pu Quan, the commander of Xuanzhou, came on horseback with five hundred soldiers. Directly attacking the camp at night, more than 10,000 rebels were killed and routed. They chased them north for dozens of miles and killed countless others.

Yang Yuan came to be the governor of the state through Qin Hui's relationship.

There are also state magistrate Yan Shunqing and Mingsha County magistrate, who report their merits together with the commander Pu Quan.

With only single-digit casualties, they eliminated more than 10,000 thieves. This was truly a great achievement.

But there were flaws, as thieves burned down several warehouses!