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

Chapter 1039: Xia Weiyuan served three dynasties, and the country was in trouble and talented people emerged

May of the sixth year of Shenglong in the Xia Dynasty
The well-prepared Xia army was ready to start the war machine again.

On the grounds that the tribute items offered by the Western Region Uighurs were of poor quality and insincere, he sent troops to Gansu.

The Xia army defeated the 30,000 cavalry of the Western Region Uighurs in Yizhou at an extremely fast speed.

June
The Xia army besieged Gaochang, the capital of the Western Region Uighurs. The sharp artillery took only half a day to destroy the city walls of Gaochang.

After the fall of Gaochang City, the Uighur Khan of Xizhou and his ministers were escorted to Beijing.

Emperor Xia Bai Mu conferred the title of Black-hearted Marquis on him and placed him under house arrest in his Kaifeng mansion, living next to Li Yu, the Disobedient Marquis.

September
The Xia army, which had not yet returned, continued to advance westwards on the grounds that the Karakhanid Khanate had occupied Khotan, which originally belonged to the Xia Dynasty, and defeated the Karakhanid army at the Badaling Pass.

The Kara army was afraid of the Xia army, so they retreated north to the northern Xinjiang and hurriedly sent envoys to the Xia camp to surrender.

At this time, the foreign people in Annan Road and Mo Nan Road were dissatisfied with the rule of the Xia court and rose up in rebellion. The chieftains who had originally surrendered under the jurisdiction of Kunning Road, with the joint instigation and support of Southeast Asian countries, began to annex and attack each other.

Even the Khitans in the northern desert were ready to make a move, and the Jurchens from the Far East kept moving south to plunder.

In view of the unstable situation, Bai Mu agreed to the Karakhanid Khanate's request for surrender.

The Karakhanid King was enthroned as the Uighur Khan.

The Xia court then established Anxi Road in southern Xinjiang, with its capital in Shule City, and set up the Anxi Military Governor's Office. After leaving 3,000 troops to garrison, the army returned to quell the rebellion.

The eighth year of Thang Long in the Xia Dynasty
Xia Ting finally put down the rebellion of the foreign people in the territory, beheaded the false ruler of Annan, Li Fusan, and wiped out the five Jurchen tribes.

He also sent out a forceful army to divide the three original Kunning chieftains into thirteen small chieftains.

The Ten Years of Shenglong in Daxia
Xia Ting once again sent troops to the Western Regions, completely drove the Karakhanid Khanate back to Central China, and occupied the area north of the Tianshan Mountains.

Daxia once again established Anxi North Road, with its capital in Balasagun; and Anxi South Road, with its capital in Shule.

The Anxi Province was established to govern the Anxi north and south routes, and the Anxi Military Governor's Office was set up with 5,000 troops stationed there. Princes were selected to garrison Gaochang City, and the Anxi Office was set up to manage the foreign peoples under its jurisdiction, in order to stabilize the Western Regions.

Moreover, as Daxia continued to attack the northern desert, the Khitans were completely driven out and, like the Uighurs, fled towards Central China.

Daxia once again established the Mobei Road and changed the Monan Province to Anbei Province, which governed the Monan East and West Roads and the Mobei Road.

The Mobei Military Governor's Office was also established to jointly manage the grassland with the Monan Military Governor's Office.

The Mo Nan Xuan Fu Si was changed to the 'An Bei Xuan Fu Si', which governed the Mo Nan Si and Mo Bei Si.

Therefore, with Daxia's political, military and religious efforts, Anxi and Anbei became somewhat stable and were incorporated into Daxia's territory.

May of the 23rd year of Shenglong in the Xia Dynasty
Emperor Bai Mu of Xia died at the age of seventy-seven. He was posthumously named "Emperor Mingwei Ruiwen Jingxiao", temple name "Kangzong", and buried in "Yongping Mausoleum".

The 58-year-old Crown Prince Bai Feng ascended the throne, and Prince of Qin Bai Ru was named Crown Prince, with Princess Qian as his consort.

The court decided to name the reign title "Kang Le".

October of the 13th year of Daxia Kangle

Emperor Kangle Bai Feng died of illness at the age of 71.

Crown Prince Bai Ru ascended the throne, Prince of Qin Bai Yue became the crown prince, and Princess Yang of Qin was canonized as the crown princess, and the reign was named "Taining".

Bai Feng was posthumously named "Emperor Shengdexianwenxuanxiao", temple name "Zhenzong", and buried in "Yongkang Mausoleum".

During the 13 years of Emperor Kang Le's reign, Daxia did not initiate a foreign war, but occupied Champa in southern Annan, the area north of the Greater Khingan Range in Liaodong, and even Sakhalin Island.

It even had five governorates overseas: Mayit, Palembang, Dayang, South Java, and Abu.

As a result, the population under Daxia's rule soared to 80 million, which was equivalent to the peak period of the Tang Dynasty.

All in all, Daxia had been established for eighty years.

Counting from the time when the world was pacified, more than fifty years have passed.

The reason why Daxia did not take the initiative to launch a national war against other countries was that it gained nearly one million square kilometers of land.

The reason was that the Grand Marshal's Office had dozens of border governors under its jurisdiction, who were out of reach and had to manage 500,000 imperial guards from the central government.

As a result, the frontier governor's office was greedy for military merit and rashly provoked border disputes, which led to the passive expansion of Daxia's territory.

Therefore, although the territory of Daxia was increasing, the number of tributary states was constantly decreasing, so that the countries in the Arab, Indian, and African regions were unwilling to send envoys to communicate with Daxia.

In order to solve this problem, Emperor Kang Le reused civil officials, re-established the Prime Minister's Council, and prepared to bring local governors' offices under the Prime Minister's Council in order to use civil officials to check and balance military officials.

Unexpectedly, the frontier governor reacted violently.

Almost at the same time, all four sides rebelled, and only Kunning was relatively better because it was suppressed by the Qianwang Mansion. Fortunately, the central military force was strong enough, and the Shenji Army in the imperial army also had nearly 50,000 people and hundreds of cannons.

Therefore, the central government sent imperial guards to quell the rebellion. As the rebels lost their logistical support, it took only a year and a half to suppress all the rebellions.

More than a dozen high-ranking military officers and hundreds of middle- and low-ranking military officers were executed.

Even some princes were implicated, and the six clan members who had their titles stripped were all princes of counties or above.

In the end, Emperor Kang Le abolished the authority of the Border Military Governor's Office to manage the garrison troops within its local jurisdiction.

All garrison troops were under the unified command of the Ministry of War. The Governor's Office was only responsible for the city defense within the defense zone and was instead under the management of the Privy Council.

The Grand Marshal's Office was transformed into a special unit for managing the central government's 500,000 imperial guards.

As a result, the power of the Privy Council increased, and the power of the Ministry of War also increased.

Moreover, since the new firearms troops performed particularly well in this battle, Emperor Kang Le established a New Army Department in addition to the Infantry Department, Cavalry Department, Naval Department, and Palace Front Department, and appointed a New Army Commander-in-Chief to take charge of all firearms troops.

The new army has six armies under its jurisdiction, namely the Left and Right Shenji Army, the Left and Right Leijie Army, and the Left and Right Bengshan Army.

Together with the Six Infantry Armies and the Six Cavalry Armies, they are collectively known as the "Central Six Armies".

The Grand Marshal's Office is also known as the "Six Military Governor's Office".

After solving the border army problem, before Emperor Kang Le Bai Feng could take a rest, another thorny problem was placed before him.

As the land area increases, the number of troops, naval warships, and bureaucrats naturally increase, which means that the cost of governance rises sharply.

Not to mention that the Far East and Anbei, Anxi, Annan, Kunning and other places are almost all big grain consumers and have little income.

However, because of offending the Western countries, Daxia's foreign trade was targeted and its income dropped sharply.

In particular, the Arab Empire in Central China collapsed and fell apart, and Daxia's land Silk Road suffered severe damage.

On one hand, costs are skyrocketing, while on the other hand, revenues are plummeting.

Even after decades of development, Daxia fell into a dilemma of lack of money and food.

If it weren't for the savings in the Da Xia Bank spread across the country, the Xia court would have faced financial bankruptcy long ago.

What’s even worse is that he passed away before Bai Feng could start to solve the problem.

The third year of Taining in Daxia
The fifty-year-old Emperor Taining Bairu is still relatively young compared to previous emperors.

As soon as he came to power, he set about preparing to resolve the dilemma of financial collapse.

He knew that in order to solve this problem, he must first select a capable person, and he could not do it alone.

March
Prime Minister Wen Yanbo, who knew Emperor Taining's mind well, recommended Wang Anshi, the judge of the Ministry of Revenue, to Bai Ru.

After the Embroidered Uniform Guard's visit and investigation, Bai Ru learned about Wang Anshi's past.

Wang Anshi was a native of Fuzhou in the west of Jiangnan. He followed his father to Beijing when he was young. He met the great scholar Ouyang Xiu through his literature and won his admiration.

Later, he took part in the imperial examination, passed the exam and ranked second.

After passing the imperial examination, he was appointed as the seventh-rank judge of the Huainan Road Provincial Government.

After completing his term, he gave up the opportunity to take the imperial examination and enter the imperial court, and was transferred to be the magistrate of Yin County.

During his tenure, he built water conservancy projects and expanded schools, which initially showed his political achievements. He was later promoted to Tongpan of Shuzhou and was praised by the people for his outstanding political achievements.

Later, he served successively as Censor of the Censorate, Judge of the Herdsmen, Magistrate of Hangzhou, and Judge of the Ministry of Revenue.

After reviewing the files, Bai Ru was very satisfied and ordered someone to summon Wang Anshi to Beijing to report on his work, which was actually to make a memorial.

Wang Anshi, who had been informed in advance by Wen Yanbo, submitted a memorial entitled "Your Servant Anshi Dares to Comment on State Affairs" after arriving in Beijing.

The book takes his own experience as a local official for many years as a starting point, pointing out the reality of the country's current weakness and poverty:

The economy is in distress, social morals are corrupt, extravagance is rampant, the international environment is worrying, soldiers are redundant, and government offices are duplicated.

He believed that the root of the problem lay in the complicated system, unclear employment, unexamined local laws, the gentry replacing the powerful, and the rampant lending of usury.

He also put forward his own talent policies and program ideas, and suggested that the court reform the recruitment of officials, reorganize the army, and innovate finances.

Bai Ru was overjoyed after hearing this, but because Wang Anshi's position was too low, it was not appropriate to promote him suddenly to a high position to avoid discussion among the court and the public.

He was then summoned to serve as a Hanlin scholar and lecturer.

(End of this chapter)