A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1036: Southern Tang annexed Jiangnan and was pacified, and the plan for the unification of Daxia was detailed
The 19th year of the Great Xiapingning

February
Xia's army captured the Nanchang Pass.

March
The Wu army captured Xinzhou, approached Run'an Town, killed Huangfu Jixun, and lost the southern gate of Nanchang.

Nanchang became a completely isolated city, completely cut off from the loyalist troops in Yunzhou, Fuzhou, Yuanzhou and other places in the south.

June
Xia Nanfang's navy sailed down the Gan River, defeating Nan'an Army, Baisheng Army, Gan County, Luling, Xingan, and the 150,000-strong army of Zhu Lingyun, the governor of Hongzhou of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and joined the Wu army at Xiangyakou.

At this point, Southern Tang's external aid was destroyed, and the Xia army surrounded Nanchang, attacking the city day and night.

There was a shortage of rice and food in Nanchang, and countless people died.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Li Yu did not care about his face and sent envoys to Kaifeng twice to offer a large amount of money and goods and ask Xia to delay the war.

But Bai Xi had only one sentence from beginning to end: "How can I allow others to snore beside my bed? Once all of China is unified, the momentum will be unstoppable."

December

The outer city of Nanchang fell, and the defending generals Wang Yan, Ma Chengxin, Ma Chengjun and others died in battle.

Chen Qiao, the Right Secretary of the Southern Tang Dynasty, hanged himself to show his unwillingness to surrender.

Li Yu, who was surrounded in the palace, knew that he was at the end of his road, so he surrendered, and the Southern Tang Dynasty ended.

The first month of the 20th year of Daxia Pingning

Li Yu was captured and sent to Kaifeng. Bai Xi appointed him as the Marquis of Weiming and appointed him as the General of the Left Thousand Oxen Guard, adjacent to the General of the Right Thousand Oxen Guard Liu Xiong.

In February of the same year, King Qian Hongchu of Wu sent people to the court to express congratulations.

At this time, Qian Hongchu, who was in Hangzhou, heard that Yanshou, a high monk in Yongming Temple and the heir of Deshao, was seriously ill, so he went to visit him in person.

During this period, he sought Yanshou's opinion on the threat posed to the future of Wuyue by the Later Xia's conquest of Southern Tang.

Yanshou tried his best to persuade Qian Hongchu to "surrender the land to Xia and abandon other places to return to the general."

In the end, Qian Hongchu judged the situation, followed the teachings of his ancestor Qian Liu, the King of Wusu, and took the safety of the people of the world into consideration. He adopted Yanshou's dying wishes and took the virtuous act of "putting people before land" to protect the people.

September, 20th year of the Great Chapinin

King Qian Hongchu of Wu personally went to Kaifeng, the capital of Xia, and in accordance with the ancestral teachings, decided to surrender the land to Xia.

He presented all of his thirteen states, one army, eighty-six counties, 556,800 households, and 115,160 soldiers to the Xia Dynasty.

Emperor Xia Baixi was very moved. He put aside his attitude, walked to Qian Hongchu, grabbed his hand and patted it, saying:

"Since I became an emperor, I have believed that the only family with the greatest virtue in the world is the Bai family. Now I can add the Qian family to the list."

Qian Hongchu did not dare to accept it and quickly declined, saying, "The royal family is noble, and your majesty is from a great family that has been around for thousands of years. How dare I curry favor with you? I am just learning from the Bai family."

Bai Xi didn't look at it and said:

"Among the people of the world, how many have the courage to learn and maintain righteousness?"

After that, he took Qian Hongchu's hand, faced the court and announced: "From today on, I and the King of Wu will become brothers with different surnames. I will not bow to you even if you call me by my name."

Afterwards, he issued an imperial decree to grant the Qian family of Hangzhou the titles of "surrender to Xia" and "Chinese righteous clan", and also granted Qian Hongchu a red-lettered iron certificate, which would exempt him from the death penalty once.

In response to the treatment of the State of Wu, Bai Xi removed the title of the State of Wu and changed it to King of Deng, treating him as the equivalent of a prince.

The former Wu State was divided into two routes, namely Liangzhe Route, with its capital in Hangzhou, and Fujian Route, with its capital in Fuzhou.

Jiangnan Road was abolished and Jiangnan West Road was established with its capital in Nanchang; Jiangnan East Road was established with its capital in Jiangning.

At this point, China was reunified. Except for the Nanyue Kingdom on the west side of the South China Sea and the Western Regions, the borders of Daxia regained the appearance of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

From the founding of the Great Xia Dynasty by Emperor Taizu Baijian in the first year of Chengqian to the 20th year of Pingning today, it took a total of 36 years and two generations of emperors for Great Xia to destroy the Eight Kingdoms, drive out the northern barbarians, subdue the southern barbarians, and unify the Central Plains.

So far, there are 31 roads in Daxia, namely: Jingji Road, Jingdongbei Road, Jingdongxi Road, Jingxibei Road, Jingxinan Road, Huainan East Road, Huainan West Road, Hebei East Road, Hebei West Road, Liaodong Road, Chaos Road, Hedong Road, Mo Nan East Road, Mo Nan West Road, Chang'an Road, Fengxiang Road, Gansu Road.

Shannan Road, Jiannan West Road, Jiannan East Road, Xiaxi North Road, Xiaxi South Road (Qianzhou Road), and Kunning Road.

Jinghu North Road, Jinghu South Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Liangzhe Road, Fujian Road, Guangnan East Road, and Guangnan West Road.

Looking at such a vast territory, Bai Xi believed that it would be impossible to completely suppress it with only the capital city of Kaifeng.

He then ordered the upgrading of Chang'an to "Xijing", Beiping "Jibei" to "Beijing", Jiangning to "Nanjing", and Kaifeng to call itself "Tokyo".

In this way, the Great Xia Dynasty formed an administrative structure of "four capitals and thirty-one roads".

Not only that, in order to better suppress the newly annexed lands, Bai Xi sent princes of the royal family to take charge of the local areas and equipped each prince with at least two personal guards.

The emperor's younger brother, Prince of Yan Bai Tao, was stationed in Liaoyang Prefecture of Liaodong Road, the Prince of Qi Bailang was stationed in Kaihan Prefecture of Chosun Road, the Prince of Yong Baichao was stationed in Ganzhou of Gansu Road, the Prince of Shu Baiyang was stationed in Qianzhou of Xiaxi South Road, and the Prince of Chu Baihai was stationed in Guangnan Prefecture of Guangnan East Road.

Using princes to guard the frontiers is the ancestral system of Daxia.

In order not to disappoint his brothers, Bai Xi convened a special royal meeting, summoned the kings to the capital, and frankly stated that Daxia now needed the kings to stay in the border areas and maintain stability.

He also promised that once the places where the kings were stationed were stabilized, they would be recalled immediately.

The kings were all the best among the Bai family. They were the products of high-quality education in the royal family. Naturally, they were reasonable and agreed to Bai Xi's request.

Therefore, Bai Xi was not stingy when it came to providing the kings with personnel, personal soldiers, and property.

As a result, every convoy of a prince leaving for the border would stretch for several miles, and the number of craftsmen and scholars they took away would be in the thousands.

It is called "the first time that the kings guarded the border" by historians.

In addition, these princes guarded the border in exchange for the princes and grandchildren being able to serve as officials in the court as usual.

According to the regulations of the kings of Daxia, any heir to a title could not take part in the imperial examinations or military examinations, and could only be summoned by the emperor to serve as an official in the court.

The best way out for these adopted sons is often to enter the Palace Front Office or the Imperial Front Camp.

Or, instead of entering officialdom, one could enter the National Academy or Imperial College and make a career in literature.

Twenty-five Years of Peace
As the Great Xia dynasty stabilized, governors were constantly sent by the central government to supervise various places, and the country gradually shifted from military preparations to civil governance.

Bai Xi continued to abolish the Military Governorates, from the 36 Military Governorates in the 20 years of Pingning, to 12.

That is, the Mo Nan Military Governor's Office, the Northwest Military Governor's Office, the Liaodong Military Governor's Office, the Korea Military Governor's Office, the Chengdu Military Governor's Office, the Southwest Military Governor's Office, the Xia Nan Military Governor's Office, the Hunan Military Governor's Office, the Jiangning Military Governor's Office, the Guangdong and Guangxi Military Governor's Office, the Donghai Military Governor's Office, and the Gyeonggi Military Governor's Office.

Among them, the five military governorates of Monan, Northwest, Liaodong, Southwest, and Guangdong and Guangxi mainly played a role in border defense.

The five military governorates of Korea, Chengdu, Xiannan, Hunan and Jiangning were mainly responsible for suppressing rebellions by the foreigners in their jurisdictions.

The East China Sea Governor's Office was mainly responsible for the navy, maintaining peace and stability in the coastal waterways of Daxia. Even its administrative center was located in Hangzhou to coordinate the Beiyang and Nanyang naval divisions.

The Jingji Military Governor's Office was mainly responsible for protecting the capital. It was not only under the jurisdiction of the Grand Military Governor's Office, but also often received orders from the emperor. It was one of the internal and external offices of the Dianqian Division, and served as a garrison.

At the same time, in order to better manage the local areas, Bai Xi set up provinces on the roads, which meant the local offices of the Shangshu Province, and sent commissioners to supervise multiple routes.

Thirteen provinces were then set up in the local area, namely: the Province of the South of the Desert, which governed the East and West routes of the South of the Desert; the Province of the Far East, which governed the Liaodong and Korea routes;
The Hebei Province governs the east and west routes of Hebei; the Shaanxi Province governs the Hedong, Chang'an and Shannan routes; the Northwest Province governs the Gansu and Fengxiang routes.

The Jingdong Province governs the north and south routes of Jingdong; the Jingxi Province governs the north and south routes of Jingxi; and the Huainan Province governs the east and west routes of Huainan.

The Jiannan Province governed the Jiannan East and West and Kunning routes; the Xiaxi Province governed the Xiaxi North and South routes; the Jinghu Province governed the Jinghu North and South routes.

The Jiangnan Province governed four routes: Jiangnan East and West, Liangzhe, and Fujian; the Guangnan Province governed Guangnan East and West.

This formed the 'Four Capitals and Thirteen Provinces' following the 'Four Capitals and Thirteen Provinces'.

(End of this chapter)