Zhao Si and his concubines, princes and princesses, ministers and generals, great monks, Taoist priests and more than two hundred people, escorted by three thousand guards, went north to Huairou, Miyun, left Gubei Pavilion, and came to Luanhe River north of Yanshan Mountain. area.
After resting here for a day, we continued on our way, crossed the Luan River, passed Qilaotu Mountain, and arrived at Dading Prefecture, the capital of the former Liao Dynasty, now renamed Dingcheng.
Dingcheng is located in the upper reaches of Tuhe River (Laoha River), on the alluvial plain of Tuhe River, with Qijin Mountain (today's Jiutou Mountain) in the north, Mayu Mountain in the west, and Tuhe River in the south.
The climate here is mild and the water and grass are abundant, making it suitable for farming and grazing.
After returning to the Xuanfu Division in the northern part of the Song Dynasty, adhering to Zhao Si's will, the area was converted from farmland to grazing on a large scale, and the original appearance of the grassland and pasture was eventually restored - there were uncultivated fertile fields everywhere, and the Song Dynasty was short of people but not land. , there is no need to dig out cultivated land from the grassland.
Zhao Si was riding a horse, pointing to Dingcheng in the distance, and said to the concubines, princes and princesses who were also riding horses: "In the 22nd year of Tonghe of the former Liao Dynasty (1004 AD), Emperor Shengzong of the Liao Dynasty passed by here. Looking in the distance to the south, the rays of light are shining, and there is a look like a pavilion in Guoguo. It seems auspicious, so I decided to build the capital here."
"It was completed in May of the 25th year of Tonghe. The layout of Dingcheng is similar to that of Kaifeng City in Tokyo, which is divided into outer city, inner city and imperial city. The outer city is four thousand meters long from east to west and 3,500 meters wide from north to south; the inner city is four thousand meters long from east to west; It is 2,000 meters long and 1,500 meters wide from north to south. The inner and outer cities are slightly in the shape of a 'back'. The imperial city is square, with each side one thousand meters long. It is located in the north-central part of the inner city. The north wall of the inner city is the north wall of the imperial city. The city wall All six meters high..."
"Have you seen that tower? It's the Daming Tower, an octagonal thirteen-story brick tower with dense eaves. The tower is seventy-four meters high and sits on a 48-meter-square, six-meter-high rammed earth base. The tower is the widest Thirty-four meters. The base of the tower is a Xumizuo, and the upper part is built with lotus petals. After our government took over, we repaired it and made it a straight wall 14 meters wide on each side and 17 meters high."
"There are many reliefs on the pagoda body, mainly Bodhisattvas, earth statues, and flying sky statues. The sword skills are exquisite and they are truly superior. According to the archives compiled by Beiping City, this pagoda should be dated to the fourth year of Chongxi reign in the former Liao Dynasty ( Built in 1036 AD)."
After listening to Zhao Si's explanation, the eldest prince Zhao Kuo couldn't help but muttered: "Father, the emperor, and my sons and ministers all used the reign name of our dynasty when they heard the teacher talk about the history of Xixia, Northern Liao and other countries."
"Using the reign name of my dynasty makes it easier for you to remember. I use the reign name of the former Liao Dynasty out of respect for it. Could it be that by using the reign name of my dynasty, we can deny that Northern Liao occupied the sixteen states of Yanyun and dominated Mobei and Northeast China for hundreds of years? Of course, the only country I can respect is Northern Liao."
After Zhao Si finished answering, he waved his hand and said: "Let's go into the city quickly. Starting tomorrow, everyone will be busy."
According to Zhao Si's order, more than 100 households in the four banners, each of the Jia household, the main household and the deputy household, elected a certain proportion of representatives, and gathered near Dingcheng before the spring and March of the thirteenth year of the Apocalypse.
Some households and representatives from the Zhuque and White Tiger Banners who had traveled far away started their journey last autumn. They rested for a season in Hexi and other places during the winter. After the weather warmed and the snow melted, they continued their journey and finally arrived here.
Now, more than 6,000 representatives of hundreds of households and banner people have gathered outside Dingcheng.
They were stationed in different areas according to their respective flags. Together with the nearby herdsmen who heard the news and came to join in the fun, as well as the merchants and traders who smelled the business opportunities, there were more than 20,000 people.
In addition, the Shanbei Army and Horse Division mobilized 30,000 elite divisions to station in the surrounding area, plus the accompanying guards. The city was a hundred miles away, and more than 70,000 people came to the city at once. Together with local herdsmen and residents of Dingcheng, there were almost
More than 100,000 people.
The people of the four banners who came early were already walking among each other.
They had various relationships - some originally belonged to the same tribe, some had gone on expeditions together, or maybe their children were in-laws, and they knew their relatives at home, and they quickly became familiar with them.
After the friendship is over, let’s get down to the topic: Do you have a boy of the right age in your family? I have a daughter to be married; or if you have a suitable girl in your family, can you give my boy some advantage?
The imperial court encouraged such intermarriage. Intermarriage between hundreds, thousands, and ten thousand households and banners would be rewarded with material rewards such as cattle and sheep. The farther away the banner, the higher the reward. Intermarriage under a banner would not only cover travel expenses, but also divide the cattle and sheep rewards.
Give newcomers a piece of pasture - Now that the Four Flags are becoming more and more stable, the opportunity to divide the pasture is becoming increasingly rare.
The princes and princesses in disguise, accompanied by their guards, were running around. After learning about this "policy", they were greatly puzzled and consulted their father Zhao Si when they came back.
"All this is for integration. The sons of the four banners with more than 100 households will be sent to Bozhou, Xining, Helin, Liaoyang, Koning (Khobudo) and other cities to study. The sons of more than 1,000 households will be sent to more
Go to big cities to study. They will read the same books as you and receive the same education as you. Then many of them will marry Han women in various cities..."
"If each banner has less than a hundred households, the imperial court will encourage them to intermarry with other banners, Wanhu and Qianhu, as far away as possible, to break the rigid self-containment and form a circle of their own. In conjunction with other measures, over time, the four banners will
The people will be no different from the people of the Central Plains. They are connected by blood to each other and to the people of the Central Plains and can no longer be separated..."
"In addition, if you marry from a distance, you will have the opportunity to go out and walk around, and you will no longer be isolated. Remember, the more isolated you are, the more ignorant you will be, and the more ignorant you will be, the more stubborn you will be. Stupidity and stubbornness are like stones in the pit, smelly and hard!
"
Hearing that their father's last sentence was a vulgar metaphor, the princes and princesses couldn't help being shocked, and then they couldn't help laughing.
Next is the first grassland athletic competition. The rules were distributed to each banner two or three years ago. Each hundred households, one thousand households, and ten thousand households also conducted layer-by-level selections to select those with outstanding results to serve as the banners.
Fight for glory.
Competitive competitions include horse racing, flat racing, cross-country racing, driving and relay racing.
Flat horse racing is a pure competition of speed, divided into four categories: 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and 3,000 meters.
Cross-country competitions are competitions on complex terrain such as woods, hills, rivers, bushes, etc. There is only one event of 8,000 meters.
Driving competitions are horse-drawn cart races. They are divided into single person and single horse, single person and two horses, two people and two horses, and two people and four horses. They compete on hills, rivers and other terrains - the terrain is less complex than cross-country horse racing and higher than flatland horse racing.
.
The relay race is the best. It is a 200-mile circular route around Qijin Mountain, with grasslands, mountains and forests, and rivers. It is divided into five sections and requires five groups of riders and horses to compete in the relay.
It not only tests the rider's riding skills, the speed and durability of the horse, but also tests the rider's ability to identify directions in the wild, the horse's cooperation and teamwork.
Archery competitions, step shooting and mounted shooting, as well as pursuit shooting of live animals.
Wrestling competition, classified by weight.
There are also events such as horse roping, cattle roping, bull riding, and sheep herding.
The last and most important item is hunting.
All events are based on wings, and each flag has a number of players from each wing to participate in various events, and then the players from each wing who achieve the best results in each event form the hunting team of that wing.
Twenty-eight hunting teams specially set up a hunting ground with a radius of hundreds of miles in the Mamen Mountain area. They hunted for one day and one night, and their results were ranked according to the number of prey hunted by each team.
In other events, Changsun Moli, Liu Fa, Hu Luxiong and others came forward to present medals. Only the hunting gold medal was awarded by Zhao Si. This is equivalent to the best team award of Four Flags and Twenty-Eight Wings.
Fight! We must fight! The hundreds of households, thousands of households, and ten thousand households with four flags and twenty-eight wings, as well as the contestants, all held their breath.
82 Chinese website This chapter has been completed!