Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Xie Shen, a general of the grain transport army who was transferred to help, remarked during a casual chat with Zong Wu:

“My ancestral home is in Daming Prefecture. More than 20 years ago, the Yellow River breached its banks and flooded the prefecture city, drowning countless people. That’s when my family moved away from our hometown.”

"When I was a child, my grandfather told me that when he was a few years old, the Yellow River changed its course, and the river changed from the south of Daming Prefecture to the north..."

"Alas! Daming Prefecture was the former Beijing of the Song Dynasty, yet it has been repeatedly flooded."

"Just as the population was recovering, a flood drowned countless more."

Zongwu said, "The current Holy Emperor is a man of great talent and strategy. The Yellow River floods have been brought under control, and Daming Prefecture can now enjoy peace and stability."

"Indeed, he possesses great talent and ambition," Xie Shen nodded.

He was a military commander who frequently escorted goods around the country, and he knew how the Ming Dynasty managed the Yellow River.

Leaving aside other complex projects, just relocating a prefecture capital and five county towns would have been impossible for the former Song Dynasty.

Any minister who dared to do this when managing the river would be criticized and forced to resign on the spot.

Even if the former Song emperors and ministers wanted to do this, they faced numerous local obstacles in the actual implementation.

Unlike Zhao Yuan, who could command the local authorities to obey his orders unconditionally.

Zongwu looked at the prosperous city of Daming and sighed with admiration. Then he took the Ming Dynasty banknotes to exchange for money and rewarded the local soldiers who had participated in the campaign against the Western Xia.

This place is different from Kaifeng.

The warehouses outside Kaifeng belonged to the national treasury, and the Ministry of Revenue could allocate supplies with just a single official document.

The treasury in Daming Prefecture was a local government treasury, so the Ministry of Revenue could naturally use its funds.

However, the procedures are relatively complicated, so it's better to just exchange the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes for money directly.

After receiving the rewards from Daming Prefecture, Zongwu's only remaining task was with Yue Fei—the army east of Kaifeng, during the Xia campaign, had only mobilized troops stationed in Daming Prefecture at its furthest point.

Moreover, the garrison in Daming Prefecture is large, and its main task is flood control and disaster relief. Once a flood occurs, all of them must be mobilized.

Zongwu traveled by boat all the way to Baoding Prefecture, where he exchanged most of his paper money for silver dollars and copper coins.

There are no more money exchange bureaus further north, so we can only exchange money here and then transport it all the way to the grasslands.

Even the transport troops in Baoding Prefecture were few in number, as they were busy transporting disaster relief grain to Kaifeng. Zongwu then asked the prefect to help gather a team of laborers.

"So the angel is actually the grand-nephew of Master Zong! My apologies for not recognizing you!" Prefect Zheng Pu warmly received him.

Zongwu returned the greeting with a bow: "My great-uncle had a dying wish that his descendants would have the opportunity to visit Hebei again."

"Having traveled this far, I have discovered that Hebei is just as prosperous as Henan. My great-uncle would surely be pleased to know this in the afterlife."

Zheng Pu said with a smile, "Hebei was in ruins in the past because it was in confrontation with the Liao Dynasty. Even when there was no war, the taxes were heavy."

"Now that the Liao Kingdom has been destroyed, there is no need to station a large army and waste money and food."

"All the abandoned water conservancy projects have been repaired, and many new irrigation canals have been dug. With light taxes and levies, how can we not be prosperous?"

“In Baoding Prefecture alone, hundreds of thousands of shi of grain have been transported to the imperial court in recent years, and there is still surplus grain in the Ever-Normal Granary.”

"I heard that there was a severe drought in the Northwest this year. After the summer harvest, Baoding Prefecture transported an additional 30,000 shi of wheat to Kaifeng, in addition to the grain taxes that should have been paid."

Zongwu exclaimed, "In addition to the regular tax, you can also add to the tax. Prefect Zheng's achievements are outstanding. He will surely be promoted next year."

Zheng Pu stroked his beard and smiled, waving his hand modestly: "This is the duty of a subject, to report to the holy ruler and to bring peace to the people."

Chapter 3848 The Khitan People

Zheng Pu also wanted to hold a literary gathering, inviting scholars to go sightseeing with Zong Wu.

Zongwu politely declined, saying that he had an imperial mission to complete and that he could deal with these matters upon his return.

He led laborers to escort the money northward, crossing the Juma River to the former territory of the Liao Dynasty.

It is said that this place was ravaged by the Jin Dynasty, and when it was first recovered, there was no one living for thousands of miles, except for farmers cultivating the land around the towns.

Zongwu discovered many newly established villages, and upon inquiring, he learned that they were settlements of people who had migrated from the south.

The Yellow River project relocated many villages and towns, half of which were moved to the north of the Juma River.

In some villages, Han and non-Han people live together, herding livestock and farming.

Those people of the Xi, Khitan, Bohai, and Jurchen ethnic groups, although they all learned to speak Han language,

They still had to wear the Han Chinese hairstyle, but they still retained some customs of other ethnic groups.

Zongwu rested in a village, where the village elder who was in charge of entertaining him was a Khitan.

Although he is called a village elder, he is actually not yet fifty years old.

The age structure here is very distorted. The years of famine and war during the Liao and Jin dynasties caused almost all the elderly people of various ethnic groups to die.

The Khitan village elder said to Zongwu, "Fewer and fewer people are herding livestock, and more and more people are farming."

“Look at those fields outside the village. A few years ago, half of them were used for grazing, but now they’ve all been converted to grow beans.”

"The agricultural official said that planting beans in the first few years can increase fertility, and after three to five years, wheat can be planted instead."

Zongwu originally had a deep prejudice against the Khitans, but the village in front of him had already become half-Sinicized and was not much different from the Han people.

“There are more children than adults in the village,” Zongwu said, describing what he had observed.

The Khitan village elder laughed and said, "Three years of tax exemption and two years of tax reduction by half, every household has surplus grain, life is better than in the Liao and Jin dynasties."

"The government also encouraged us to have children. For each child we had, we would be exempt from the grain tax on three mu of land for a year. There were also rewards for the children when they reached adulthood and were registered in the household."

Zongwu then asked, "Are all the different ethnic groups intermarrying?"

The village elder of the Khitan ethnic group nodded and said, "The government forbids intermarriage within the same ethnic group, but intermarriage between Khitans and Xi people is permissible."

"Intermarriage with Han people is allowed, but intermarriage between Khitan people is not permitted."

"Men of all ethnic groups like to marry Han women because they are very capable."

"They can pick mulberry leaves, raise silkworms, weave cloth, and also help tend the farmland."

"It's a pity that there aren't many women in the Han family. When a young woman comes of age, the threshold of a household is worn down by suitors."

“Those have all become treasures,” Zongwu said with a smile.

An old man from the Khitan village said, "Isn't she a treasure? My youngest daughter-in-law is a Han woman. She raises silkworms very well and spins beautiful yarn."

“I never let her do heavy work. I let my second daughter-in-law from Xi ethnicity do the washing and cooking.”

"These Han women are truly different. I'll have my eldest grandson learn to farm."

"But she sent my eldest grandson to study, saying that he could pass the imperial examination and become a high-ranking official in the future."

Zongwu exclaimed in surprise, "There's a village school here?"

An elder from the Khitan village explained, "There's a village school in the next village; it's about seven or eight li away."

“In the past, when the area was barren, there were wolves, but we killed them all by working together from several villages. Now, the children can go to school without fear.”

After chatting for two hours, Zongwu had a meal with the village elders.

He discovered that the ordinary people living here were more relaxed and comfortable than in many parts of the south.

Chapter 3849 Prefect

Every household has its own land, but they must cultivate it themselves because they cannot find tenants.

The downside is the lack of daily necessities; you have to walk a long way to buy salt and vinegar.

When a peddler occasionally comes to the countryside, he always becomes the center of attention and receives a warm welcome from the villagers.

Even the government turned a blind eye to illegal salt dealers.

It didn't even take several generations. Due to the coexistence of Han and non-Han peoples and the prohibition of intermarriage within the same ethnic group, the first generation of non-Han peoples had already begun to automatically assimilate into Han culture.

……

The closer one gets to Yanshan Prefecture (Beijing), the more prosperous the population becomes, reaching the level of a county in southern China.

It's quite sad.

Despite being a prestigious prefecture and once the capital of the Liao Dynasty, its population was only equivalent to that of a county town in Jiangnan.

The age structure remains the same, but there are a lot of children, all born in recent years!

The prefect of Yanshan was named Shao Yi. When Zhao Yuan raised his army in Jinzhou,

He was a clerk in Xicheng County, and he was unwittingly dragged into the rebellion.

This person is adept at petty tricks to gain power and profit, and likes to make money but dares not be too greedy.

Limited ability, limited courage.

When he was forced to join the rebellion, he even prepared for the possibility of being granted amnesty.

The city will surrender immediately as soon as the government troops arrive.

This kind of person has actually become a prefect.

Who could blame them for their seniority? They were old acquaintances of Zhao Yuan when he was the prefect of Jinzhou.

At the beginning of Zhao Yuan's uprising, he appointed four county magistrates, and Shao Yi was one of them.

If Shao Yi were even slightly more capable, he would have been promoted to a high-ranking official in the central government long ago.

This prefect was promoted purely by accumulating seniority.

Considering my age, it's time for me to retire.

Shao Yi was quite old and lacked the stamina for women.

He thus developed a fondness for literature and art, and frequently gathered scholars from his jurisdiction to hold literary gatherings.

Moreover, he inscribed poems everywhere he went while sightseeing, though his calligraphy was rather mediocre.

Poetry is even more mediocre, yet it is always engraved on stone tablets and cliffs.

They also did serious work, such as promoting education and culture.

He allocated funds from the government treasury to support the construction of community schools and village schools, and provided subsidies to the teachers of community schools and village schools.

Then they would boast about it as their own achievement, and every time a literary gathering was held, scholars would write poems to flatter them.

He would also visit schools at all levels every now and then, in his words, to encourage learning and mentor younger generations.

The real reason is that there are too few people in the area. Apart from organizing the people to dredge irrigation canals during the off-season, there is nothing else to do.

For routine matters, it didn't matter whether the prefect was there or not; only certain matters required the prefect's signature and seal.

At this very moment, Shao Yi was inspecting the Yanshan Prefectural School.

Professors and instructors, along with their students, gathered in the courtyard, wasting precious time listening to Prefect Shao boast.

Those boasts have been uttered countless times; we're sick of hearing them.

But Shao Yi continued to repeat himself with great interest:

"During the Song Dynasty, Ankang Prefecture was called Jinzhou."

"Xicheng County is the county seat attached to Jinzhou. I work as a clerk in Xicheng County..."

"As you all know, during the Song Dynasty, there were incompetent emperors and treacherous officials in power, and many corrupt officials were also in power in the local areas."

"Although I am upright and honest, the prefect, judge, and magistrate are all corrupt officials!"

"One year, the prefect was suddenly changed. Can you guess who it was?"

At this point, Shao Yi deliberately kept everyone in suspense.

The teacher and students could only pretend not to know and asked in unison, "Is it His Majesty the current emperor?"

Chapter 3850 Even a lowly official dares to steal

Shao Yi laughed and slapped his thigh: "It is indeed the Holy Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty!"

"When His Majesty took office in Jinzhou, he traveled incognito and saw many farmers panning for gold during the spring planting season at the northern foot of Phoenix Mountain and west of Hengkou Town."

"After asking an old farmer, I was surprised to learn that the magistrate of the prefecture was forcing farmers to pan for gold, and they couldn't even stop during the spring planting season."

"Why did the prefect dare to do that? It's because the Song Dynasty was too corrupt, and officials could arbitrarily exploit the people..."