Throughout July and August, court officials above the fifth rank were extremely busy.
In addition to normal work, there were too many things to do, such as the preparation of the new yamen, the selection and transfer of personnel, the handover of work, the division of interests, etc., so that they devoted most of their energy to it.
Compared with the court officials in the South Yamen, the Fanyuan in the North Yamen, and the Privy Council, it is much easier.
Their most important work recently is related to the three cities of Mobei.
The westernmost Linyuan City is located in the area of later Khovd, with a circumference of more than eight miles. In addition to the three thousand Forbidden Army horse and infantry soldiers stationed in rotation, after two years of operation, more than 900 households of Fan and Han people have reclaimed the city.
settle down.
Khovd is a good place, with forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains. The terrain is relatively conducive to defense, and the agricultural and animal husbandry resources are rich enough. Later Qing troops continued to fish, hunt, and farm here to provide supplies for the Western Expedition.
——The grassland is generally dry, but if you search carefully, you can still find some areas suitable for farming.
Heichengzi is a ready-made city, but it has undergone reconstruction. It is about fifteen miles in circumference and currently has more than 2,200 settled households. They make a living by growing rye and millet, and grazing cattle and sheep.
This city is probably the central core of the three cities in Mobei, and it is more convenient to provide support in any direction.
Heichengzi is the common name, and its current name is "Supreme City".
Kedun City on the east side is more than ten miles away, and now there are only five or six hundred households, half of which are Khitan and half of which are immigrants from Hedong and Hebei.
In order to avoid confusion with the Hun family's Kedun City at the northern foot of Yinshan Mountain, this city was renamed "Suiyuan".
After entering late July, the area around Suiyuan City was repeatedly attacked by bandits. Not only were the Khitans under Abaoji's tent, but also the Tatars who were attracted and seduced by him, or who felt that they could not bear the "squeeze" and "control" of Daxia.
Shiwei tribe.
After hearing the news, the Privy Councils of the South and North Yamen immediately issued an order to mobilize troops. The Forbidden Army sent 10,000 horsemen, levied 10,000 Liaodong Prefecture soldiers, and 20,000 Tibetan soldiers from various tribes to go north to search for the enemy.
However, before the army could gather together, the vanguard of Liaodong's army had just arrived, and before they had time to fight, many Khitans and vassal tribes came to surrender.
They are not mainly a tribe, but are divided into small clans. It seems that the internal opinions are not unified. Some people are willing to surrender, while others are not, and it is a chaos.
After interrogation, it was learned that Abaoji had already fled far away with his people, and this time he went south to plunder, just to grab some things before leaving.
The vanguard troops sent people to pursue them and intercepted many tribes that were running slowly. Seeing that they could not escape, they surrendered.
The court ordered all the surrendered people to be demoted as slaves. As expected, a rebellion arose. After a long fight, most of them surrendered. After being dispersed, they were sent to the Liaodong states and were made slaves by the soldiers of the government.
With such a group of people coming, Liaodong Road's army troops are basically complete.
From the end of the Tang Dynasty to the five years of Tongguang, over the past 20 to 30 years, miscellaneous names have been continuously placed. So far, the historical debt has basically been replenished. This year, 3,000 of the last 5,000 men of the Fengguo Army were transferred to make up for it.
The remaining 2,000 people from various departments of the Forbidden Army went to Muzhou to serve as government soldiers.
Including Andong Mansion, there were a total of 77,000 soldiers and 200,000 households. Liaodong was deformed. There was no doubt that it looked like a large-scale slave society.
In this society, there is a small number of superiors, half normal people, nearly half de facto slaves, plus some savages. The ethnic groups are mixed, savage and fierce. It will take at least several decades of stability before they can be completely integrated and digested and become a stable society.
territory.
Fortunately, the Great Xia Dynasty was like the rising sun and had this time to accumulate.
****
On the fifth day of September, Shao Shude personally convened officials from the North and South Yamen and the East Palace to discuss the draft fiscal and tax reform put forward by Zhao Guangfeng and Xiao Yu in the Guanfeng Hall.
The prince himself was also present.
After being out on tour for so long, he has a deeper understanding of the sufferings of the people and the actual situation of the lower-level officialdom. Shao Shude once had a long talk with him and found that his son's political philosophy has also changed accordingly. He is very satisfied and seems to go out more
It is still necessary to take a walk and take a look.
Before discussing the fiscal and taxation reform draft, Shao Shude happened to take advantage of the news from the northern grassland. He looked at Yang Yao and asked: "Yang Qing, I have not published the memorial about the taxes and servitude of the grassland tribes that you handed over. I think about it."
Even if I think about it for such a long time, I feel that I still need to be cautious."
"What are your orders, Your Majesty?" Yang Yao asked.
"Several tribes responded to Abaoji this time. Why?" Shao Shude asked rhetorically.
"The grassland tribes are disobedient to discipline. Even if they are frightened by God's power for a while, they will still relapse over time." Yang Yao replied.
Shao Shude nodded and asked, "Are there many such tribes?"
"not much."
In fact, the situation is clear. Most of the tribes were not conquered, but followed the trend and came to Heichengzi to attend the National People's Congress and elected Shao Shude as the supreme khan.
But when there are hundreds of people, all kinds of people, there are always some who are unconvinced and dare to risk the disapproval of the world, collude with foreign enemies, and suddenly launch an attack.
Fortunately, such people are only a minority, and grassland political ethics have not been completely destroyed.
But as Yang Yao said, due to frequent wars, the grassland tribes are under great pressure, and their dissatisfaction has been accumulating. Even though last year's disaster relief work created a wave of goodwill, it only made most people feel a little relieved.
If heavy taxes are imposed at this time, the government will force the people to rebel, because they are really poor.
"Each of the three cities in Mobei has its envoys, administrative offices, and dozens of tribes." Shao Shude said: "Pass the order, and each tribe will have a small amount of symbolic intercourse, which will be paid with livestock and skins. You can consider the specific amount.
"
According to Shao Shude's original intention, the grassland tribes can be completely exempt from tax, because they really don't care about their little wealth.
The same is true in some places in the mainland. For example, the imperial court will not take away a penny of taxes from Anxi Road, and even provides more subsidies to speed up local construction.
The same goes for the Mobei grassland, which is divided into three large areas. There is no need to use their money.
But whether to use it or not is one thing, and whether to accept it or not is another matter.
Removing officials, garrisoning troops, and collecting taxes are the three major symbols of actual control and even sovereignty.
The guardians of the three towns of Linyuan, Wushang, and Suiyuan are in charge of military affairs, and Mei Lu sent by the Lifan Yuan is in charge of civil affairs. Each of the three cities has 3,000 imperial troops garrisoned. The first two sovereignty have been exercised, and now only the last one is left.
Collect taxes.
They still have to collect taxes, even if they pay a small amount symbolically, and even if these taxes are still used on them in the end, this process must go on.
The Lifanyuan system headed by Yang Yao had previously formulated a detailed grassland taxation plan, even specifying how many livestock and skins a certain tribe had to pay.
The plan is very detailed, which shows that over the past few years, they have got a clearer picture of the situation in the Mobei grassland, which is good. The only problem is that the tax collected is a bit heavy, basically based on the "tithe tax" standard
It may be okay for a short time, but trouble will definitely occur over time - even if I don't dare to rebel, can't I just leave?
"I obey." Yang Yao and several subordinates looked at each other and decided to go back and modify the taxation standards.
The poorer tribes could just hand over ten or eight horses, oxen, and camels.
Richer tribes have slightly more friends.
The livestock collected as taxes were distributed to the three cities and handed over to the local Mei Lu for management as a supplement to the official herdsmen.
When the official herdsmen raised more livestock, they sold some of them to the Central Plains, exchanged them for tea, porcelain, silk and other luxury goods, and then sold them to grassland nobles. The money they earned stayed in the local area to meet various expenses, such as buying grain from the people in the settlements to provide disaster relief.
etc.
In the eyes of the saint, the status of the entire Mobei grassland is the same as that of Anxi Road, a place in need of financial subsidies.
"What do the princes think?" Shao Shude looked at his son and asked again.
"Your Majesty, I once visited the Great Xianbei Mountains. The tribes on the grasslands are indeed in poverty." Shao Chengjie said: "They participated in the Western Expedition for at least three of the five years, which consumed a lot of money. Many of them even became herders and slaves.
Herding, life has plummeted. Otherwise, Abaoji would not have been able to incite so many people to rebel with him. Now that the fiscal and tax reforms have been carried out, I have no objection to the plan implemented by Han Dynasty, but I feel that the grassland taxes are too heavy.
I think the heavy taxes are very good, but they only cost a little money. The imperial court can still afford to support the hundreds of thousands of people in Mobei."
Shao Shude smiled and said: "That's right. You can't just look at small profits when doing things, you must have a big picture."
To put it bluntly, it is a question of resource allocation.
Rich people in wealthy areas will feel unhappy if their hard-earned money is used by the court to subsidize people they have never met.
Not only China is like this, but foreigners are also unhappy.
Take Germany as an example. Part of the taxes paid by the wealthy state of Bavaria will be used by the government to subsidize the poor brothers in the former East Germany. Are you happy?
But the country always tolerates each other for the sake of the country. Anxi, grassland, Qianzhong, etc. are definitely losing money from a financial point of view, but what can you do? Give them all up? It is obviously impossible.
"Abaoji was afraid of Master Wang and led his people to flee. Where do you think he would go?" Shao Shude asked again.
"I concluded that he ran to the west." Shao Chengjie said: "It's just like the old story of the Tatars."
The westward migration of the Tatar tribes began when the Uighurs collapsed.
The fall of the Uighur Khanate was a major event for the grassland and had an extremely far-reaching impact.
The Khitans and Xi people in the eastern part of the Khanate rose up one after another. After a battle, the Xi people were defeated and became vassals. The Khitans went south to encroach on the Tang Dynasty, conquered the Bohai Sea in the east, conquered Shiwei and Jurchen in the north, and conquered the Tatars, Ugu, and Lin in the west.
, arrogant.
Perhaps it was the rise of the Khitans that led to the turmoil among the 30-year-old Tatars, and waves of westward migration began.
Now that the Khitans have been destroyed by Daxia, the momentum of the Tatars' westward migration has weakened, but there are always some people who are unwilling to continue their westward migration with a government on their heads.
If I can't walk due west, then I will go north first, then west, in short, I have to run away.
Shao Shude's attitude toward these people was that if they didn't surrender before, let them be.
If someone surrenders and runs away, send someone to chase him. If he can't catch him, forget it.
The leaders of the tribes that were caught up were put to death. Some of the tribesmen were rewarded by the tribes that gave the troops, some were sent to Liaodong as tribes, and some became official slaves, herding cattle and sheep and even farming for the three cities.
Overall, his attitude is very relaxed.
The tribe's westward migration stems from a strong sense of insecurity, because the east is too busy. Although they are obviously strong, they do not have the confidence to stay and live there.
All the tribes that moved westward were able to fight. In history, there were tribes that were closely related to the Khitan people. They moved westward to Ukraine in one go and even gained dominance. This was not easy. A tribe that spoke the Mongolian language went to
Living in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by Turkic-speaking tribes, being able to conquer a world is actually quite impressive.
Let them go to the west. Because of the disadvantaged population, they will eventually be assimilated and the situation will be unbearable. And the space they left behind actually alleviates the contradiction between man and land in the grassland.
In the future, if the descendants of Daxia look westward, they might be able to gain some connections.
"Are you so sure that Abaoji is going to run west?" Shao Shude thought about it carefully and felt that this possibility is really not small.
"Abaoji must have lost confidence after repeated defeats in the Great Xianbei Mountains." Shao Chengjie said: "If you don't run, you will be waiting for death. If you run, there is still a glimmer of hope."
Shao Shude thought about it and realized that it was indeed the case.
When the Khitans were attacked and destroyed, Abaoji had 200,000 troops around him. Later, the remnants were gradually collected, and the number of troops should be more than 300,000.
From now on, it will be difficult to judge his strength.
In the Great Xianbei Mountains, he annexed most of the Ugu and Xi people through military conquest and political wooing. In the following years, unsatisfactory battlefield conditions caused him to lose many Dingkou cattle and sheep, as well as many
The tribe went south to join Xia.
But then he won over the rebellious Shiwei tribes, and may have annexed some Tatars. His whereabouts are erratic. Who knows how many people he still has.
If this group of people goes west, Shao Shude doubts whether the Xigas and Ogus people can withstand it, and it will probably be difficult.
However, this may also be a good opportunity for the Daxia court to intervene.
Just wait quietly.
"Pay close attention to Abaoji's whereabouts." Shao Shude said: "But don't spend too much effort. With so many people migrating westward, over time, their flaws will always be exposed, so don't worry. Now, let's clarify the taxes of the grassland tribes first.
, perfect it.”
"I obey the decree." Everyone responded one after another.
Shao Shude nodded, stood up and left.
He will leave the city and head west tomorrow.
The Persians who set off from Bukhara were about to arrive in Luoyang, and he wanted to welcome them personally.