Usurpation of Mongolia: My father-in-law is Genghis Khan

Chapter 234 The Order to Annihilate the Song Dynasty: Specifically for Killing Scholars and Officials!
On August 16th, the imperial examination officially began, and the topic of the policy essay was "A Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Systems of the State of Song and Our Country".

This serves two purposes: to examine the scholars' knowledge.

On the other hand, it was about preparing public opinion for a formal invasion of the Song Dynasty.

On August 19th, the results of the imperial examinations were officially released, and 4,078 people were admitted as Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest level of the imperial examinations).

This number is terrifying.

During the Jin Dynasty, the average number of people admitted to the imperial examinations each year was around one hundred.

The Song state had slightly more, averaging three to four hundred people per year.

Zhao Shuo appointed newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) as grassroots officials. Previously, the number of people recruited each year was around two thousand, which was already quite astonishing. Now, the number has been doubled!
These newly appointed scholars could probably guess Zhao Shuo's thoughts.

Zhao Shuo is about to send troops to the State of Song. The State of Song is not large in area compared to Zhao Shuo's territory, but it has a population of over 80 million.

The Ayyubid dynasty, which the crown prince is about to conquer, probably has a population of close to ten million. This would mean an increase of nearly one hundred million people.

Managing such a large population naturally requires a large number of "our own people".

However, when Zhao Shuo issued the "Decree to Annihilate the Song Dynasty" on August 23, these newly appointed scholars realized that they had been too naive.

The first part of this "Decree to Destroy the Song Dynasty" is the announcement of the reasons for destroying the Song Dynasty.

First, of course, it was the Song state that persuaded Zhao Shuo to ascend the throne and sowed discord, which justified their destruction. However, this reason is not the most important one, and will be mentioned briefly.

Then there's the second reason, which can be summarized in eight characters: "Unification of China, unification of the Han people!"

Unification was the inevitable mission of every Chinese dynasty.

Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Guangyi, abandoned the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun and signed a peace treaty with the Liao Dynasty. Later, Emperor Zhenzong of Song signed the Treaty of Chanyuan, abandoning the unification of China, which was tantamount to abandoning the responsibilities of the Chinese court.

Emperor Gaozong of Song, Zhao Gou, and Chancellor Qin Hui's decision to "let southerners return to the south and northerners return to the north" made them sinners against China.

Today, Zhao Shuo has dispatched troops to reunify China and all Han people under heaven.

What? Zhao Shuo has a Mongol court above him?
Did the Mongol court make Zhao Shuo pay taxes, or did they offer him a beautiful woman?
To put it bluntly, even the current Great Khan of Mongolia, Ögedei Khan, would have to respectfully address Zhao Shuo as his brother-in-law.

The third reason is that the Song Dynasty failed the Han people.

Under Zhao Shuo's rule, the Han people were invincible and their territory expanded by more than ten thousand miles.
However, under the command of the Song rulers and ministers, they first failed to capture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, and later suffered the humiliation of Jingkang, losing half of the northern territory and paying tribute to foreign tribes.

Such a court is not worthy of being a court for the Han people!

If the Zhao Emperor in the South is not suitable, then let's replace him with the Zhao Emperor in the North!

The second part of the "Order to Annihilate the Song Dynasty" was to reveal the details, announcing the deployment of troops.

Firstly, fourteen households from the seven provinces and one household from the Navy's Plain Red Banner all participated in this war to destroy the Song Dynasty.

Although each of the fourteen commanderies had sent out a thousand-man unit during Zhao He's western expedition, they had replenished their ranks within the past two years.

The regular army that conquered the Song Dynasty numbered 150,000.

Their original defense zone was handed over to four regular troops transferred from the six outer provinces: the First Ten Thousand Household of the Plain Yellow Banner of the Semu people, the First Ten Thousand Household of the Plain Blue Banner of the Semu people, the First Ten Thousand Household of the Bordered Blue Banner of the Semu people, and the First Ten Thousand Household of the Bordered Red Banner of the Semu people, to remain as garrison troops.

Secondly, the seven provinces in the interior contributed a total of 140,000 troops to participate in this war against the Song Dynasty.

Two years after the fall of the Song Dynasty, taxes in the seven provinces were uniformly reduced by 10%.

After Zhao Shuo destroyed the Jin dynasty, the tax burden in Hebei and Shandong had already dropped from 40% to 30%. After the destruction of the Song dynasty, it dropped another 10%, leaving only 20%.

The tax revenue of the remaining five provinces will also be reduced from 40% to 30% after the fall of the Song Dynasty.

This was the clearest signal Zhao Shuo was sending to all Han Chinese: I will share the world with you! The sooner you surrender, the more meat you will eat!
The third and most important part of the "Decree to Annihilate the Song Dynasty" announced the measures taken against the Song Dynasty during and after the war.

Firstly, wherever the army goes, those who surrender at the mere sight of it will be protected. The safety of the soldiers, civilians, and their homes and property will be guaranteed.

Anyone who resists will be slaughtered, and all male members of the official and gentry families in the city will be killed; the women will be reduced to slavery. Two out of every ten ordinary soldiers will be executed.

Although it seems cruel, it is much more merciful than Zhao Shuo's annihilation of the Jin dynasty and even his conquests beyond the borders.

Secondly, after conquering the Song Dynasty, the government implemented the equal-field system and the militia system, and enforced the laws of the North. Anyone who disobeyed was beheaded if male and enslaved if female.

This should have been the point of the question, but Zhao Shuo emphasized it specifically.

Because the systems of the Song Dynasty and those of Zhao Shuo were vastly different.

The State of Song did not curb land annexation. Scholars and officials of the court used various means to seize and plunder large amounts of land and own a large number of tenant farmers.

Take Qin Hui, for example.

In Lishui County, there are approximately 100,000 mu of polder fields in Shijiu and Gucheng Lake, stretching for eighty-four li, known as Yongfeng Polder. Initially owned by the government and leased to the people, it later became Qin Hui's private land. In addition, Qin Hui also owned Yongningzhuang and Jingshanzhuang in Nanjing, with all his land holdings totaling around 600,000 to 700,000 mu.

Even after Qin Hui's death, when his family fortunes declined, he still owned 40,000 to 50,000 mu of land.

For example, Zhang Jun, one of the "Four Generals of the Restoration", owned as much as one million mu of land.

Other officials and scholars, though not as powerful as the two of them, would never be lenient with ordinary people.

Roughly speaking, more than half of the population in the Southern Song Dynasty became tenant farmers.

The tenant farmers faced not only exploitation by landlords, but more importantly, a complete inequality in their legal standing. They couldn't even guarantee their own lives, let alone the safety of their wives and daughters.

Originally, during the Northern Song Dynasty, if a landlord killed a tenant, the punishment was to be exiled to a neighboring prefecture.

That's already quite lenient.

However, during the Southern Song Dynasty, the punishment became even more severe, escalating to exile within the same prefecture. How far away was this prefecture? What deterrent effect did this punishment have?

Contemporary records indicate that tenants were therefore "more and less likely to die, and the rich dared to kill them at will."

More than forty years ago, during the reign of Emperor Guangzong of the Song Dynasty, things got even worse. It was stipulated that tenant farmers had no right to sue landlords.

Previously, it was said that "the rich dared to kill at will," but now landlords can kill tenants without paying any price; it's almost as easy as crushing an ant.

For officials and scholars, this kind of life was like paradise, and they hoped it would last forever. For tenant farmers, however, it was like hell, and they suffered terribly.

Zhao Shuo's "Order to Destroy the Song" was meant to clearly tell the scholar-officials that after conquering the Song Dynasty, he would seize their land and privileges, and destroy their paradise-like lives. If they were not convinced, they were welcome to organize their armies to resist and see whose swords were sharper.

This clearly tells the tenants that the new dynasty will not only allocate land to them, with a land rent tax of only 40%, but will also grant them the right to live with dignity. In foreign lands, they could even rise above others!
In short: the Song state shared the world with the scholar-officials, while Zhao Shuo shared the world with the Han and Mongol people who were willing to accept his system!

The moment this "Decree to Annihilate the Song Dynasty" was issued, the whole world was shaken!

……

……

Zhongdu City, Chunming Tower.

Chunminglou is the largest restaurant in Zhongdu City. Now that the imperial examinations have just ended and the scholars have not yet been assigned their duties, it has naturally become a gathering place for them.

"Alas! His Majesty's benevolence towards the people of Song is commendable. However, now that this 'Decree to Annihilate Song' has been issued, why bother with talk of equal land distribution? Those officials and scholars, for the sake of their land and privileges, won't they fight His Majesty to the death? This is too hasty, far too hasty!"

In a private room, Huang Zhen drank a cup of wine and looked at Wen Yi, a new friend he had made in Zhongdu.

Huang Zhen was also a native of the Song Dynasty. He lived in Guyao, Cixi County, Qingyuan Prefecture (now Rongjia Village, Zhangqi Town, Cixi City, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province) and was 21 years old this year.

If history had unfolded normally, he would have passed the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty twenty years later, eventually rising to the position of Judicial Commissioner of Jiangxi and Supervisor of the Ever-Normal Granary and Salt Administration in Eastern Zhejiang. He was known for his integrity and uprightness, which made him a target of resentment among powerful figures. After the fall of the Song Dynasty, he died in seclusion, starving and destitute.

The country where Zhao Shuo lived was not the court of the Hu people, and it had long been poised to unify the world. Therefore, Huang Zhen, who had become famous at a young age, also came to participate in Zhao Shuo's imperial examination.

Zhao Shuo's imperial examination was much easier than that of the Song Dynasty, and he passed the examination this year.

Huang Zhen's family didn't own much land, and he was well aware of the hardships of tenant farmers. He had no complaints about Zhao Shuojun's order to protect the tenant farmers' land, but he thought, why make it so clear now?

Now, the name "Zhao Shuo, the Emperor of the North" has spread throughout the Song Dynasty. With Zhao Shuo's military might, most of the Jiangnan region can be pacified with a single proclamation.

Then, Zhao Shuo could make those scholars and officials agree or disagree as he pleased.
If we announce our strategy towards these officials and scholars now, wouldn't that be like stirring up a hornet's nest and inciting them to fight back to the death?
Huang Zhen and Wen Yi are both from Jiangnan, about the same age, and passed the imperial examination in the same year. Now they have become friends.

Huang Zhen, with his youthful spirit, inevitably became more intimate with his acquaintances after a few drinks.

However, Wenyi shook his head slightly and said, "Is it too hasty? Didn't you see how excited our classmates were after the King issued the decree to destroy Song? How jubilant were those scholars who failed the exam?"

Huang Zhen smiled wryly and said, "Of course they support it. The more officials in the south Your Majesty kills, the more vacant official positions will be created, and our classmates will have more opportunities for promotion. The more scholars in the south are killed, the more opportunities those who failed the imperial examination will have to participate in the examination in the future. I am genuinely concerned for Your Majesty, which is why I think Your Majesty's move is too hasty."

Wen Yi shook his head again and said, "Is it possible that His Majesty's original intention was to kill more scholars and officials from Jiangnan?"

"why?"

"The logic is simple. Who are the king's supporters, and who are his opponents?"

"Of course, the tenant farmers and common people are the king's supporters. The officials and scholars who are unwilling to give up their vast lands and numerous privileges are the king's opponents."

"Yes, it still is!"

Wen Yi smiled slightly and said, "If Your Majesty does as you say and implements the equal-field system and the militia system after conquering Song, those officials and scholars will not dare to resist openly, but they will inevitably make small moves in secret, right? How long will it take for Song to be completely stable?"

"If the sons of these people pass the imperial examinations and become officials in the court, and then secretly disobey the king's decrees, wouldn't that be even more troublesome? The king can't possibly prohibit people from Jiangnan from participating in the imperial examinations, can he?"

"Your Majesty's ambitions far surpass those of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han. He probably wants to bring every inch of land under the sun into his grasp. How much of Your Majesty's time will be wasted if you get entangled with these opponents? Are they even worthy?"

Huang Zhen said thoughtfully, "So, His Majesty's intention is to have these people step forward voluntarily and achieve victory in one fell swoop?"

“That’s right, exactly. Also, the Eight Banners army has fought hard and deserves sufficient rewards. If these people don’t step forward, wouldn’t the money and women His Majesty uses to reward the Eight Banners soldiers come from the national treasury?”

"So, you agree with the king's decision?"

Wenyi nodded without hesitation and said, "Of course. Kill! Kill! Slaughter the scholars and officials of Jiangnan until their heads roll, and carve out a bright and clear world! Since the rise of the Mongols, the whole world has changed. Whether we Han people can seize this opportunity and achieve a great cause for the ages depends on this. We must not let these scholars and officials of Jiangnan hold us back!"

Wenyi was originally uninterested in world affairs, believing that the world was merely a cycle of order and chaos. Therefore, he only loved reading and passed down the family tradition of combining farming and scholarship.

However, he was extremely intelligent. After discovering that it was possible for "the world to be free from hunger," he decided to enter officialdom and devoted himself to the affairs of the world.

He discovered that not only was it possible for "the world to be free from hunger," but also that the most glorious era for the Han people was about to arrive.

If the literati of Jiangnan become stumbling blocks in this era, then of course they should be crushed without hesitation!
……

……

Helin City, Wan'an Palace.

"Great Khan, this is Zhao Shuo's 'Decree to Annihilate the Song Dynasty'." Zhenhai handed a document to Ögedei.

Ögedei Khan has been in a very bad mood lately. Güyük participated in the western expedition, and although his troops were all steppe warriors, his military achievements were far inferior to Zhao He's, resulting in the defeat of the Ayyubid dynasty. Not only that, many true god-kings broke out from his direction, causing him great embarrassment.

However, after reading the "Decree to Annihilate the Song Dynasty," Ögedei Khan couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Zhao Shuo has become so arrogant! This is the Eternal Heaven protecting me, Ögedei Khan! Protecting my Golden Family!"

Zhenhai asked, "Why does the Great Khan say such a thing?"

Ögedei said, “Zhao Shuo has the blood of the Song imperial family, which is known to almost everyone in the world. If he had directly acknowledged his ancestry in the ‘Decree to Destroy the Song,’ wouldn’t the Song state have been easily subdued? Now, by issuing this ‘Decree to Destroy the Song,’ he is forcing those officials and landlords in Jiangnan to fight him to the death. In this light, isn’t he just being too complacent?”

Zhenhai shook his head slightly and said, "If Zhao Shuo acknowledges his ancestry, those officials and scholars will only not oppose him becoming the emperor of the Jiangnan people, not that they will not oppose his system. Perhaps, Zhao Shuo is doing this to wipe out all those who oppose him?"

“You don’t understand, you don’t understand,” Ögedei said confidently. “Of all the cities in the world, the Song Dynasty has the most advanced city-building technology and a population of over 80 million. If the Song Dynasty insists on holding its ground and does not engage Zhao Shuo in open battle, Zhao Shuo will likely be bogged down in the fortified city, suffer heavy losses, and suffer the greatest defeat of his life!”

"Uh... I hope so."

Given Ögedei's confidence, Zhenhai didn't dare to say much.

However, he thought to himself: The Song Kingdom does indeed have a large population and fortified cities. But Zhao Shuo's siege skills are unparalleled!
While those officials and scholars might fight to the death against Zhao Shuo, the tenant farmers, who make up half the country's population, would be very supportive of him!

If Zhao Shuo fails to conquer the Song state, that's one thing. But if he manages to annex the Song state cleanly under these circumstances, he will gain more than 80 million Han Chinese people who are truly loyal to him.

By then, even the combined might of the other four Mongol lineages would be far from enough to contend with them.

Even if Mongolia and all the European countries combined, they would find it difficult to resist!
Because, in terms of population, after Zhao Shuo destroyed the Song Dynasty, he probably controlled two-thirds of the country.

(End of this chapter)