Chapter 396

On the eighteenth day of the second month of the fifth year of Tianfu of the Later Jin — the year 940 — Zhang Zhao commanded sixty thousand troops and besieged the city of Xiazhou for more than five full months.

Under the relentless assault, and above all with the imperial army the Dingnan Army had pinned its hopes on never appearing, the soldiers and civilians of the inner western city of Xiazhou could hold out no longer.

At the mao hour of dawn on the eighteenth day of the second month, Li Yiyin, Military Governor of the Dingnan Army, killed all sixteen members of his household and set himself and his family ablaze.

Of course, the self-immolation only half succeeded, because his head and the heads of his four sons were all frantically cut off by Tuoba Chongbin, Xifeng Xili, and others, and placed on platters.

For these men feared that with no witnesses left, Zhang Zhao would hold them to account.

After Zhang Zhao entered the city, the Guiyi Army maintained strict discipline: there was no looting, and not a single person was wantonly killed, so the people's hearts were quickly settled.

The next day, Zhang Zhao arrested more than seventeen thousand members of the Li clan and their kin of the Pingxia tribe, confiscating them all as slaves — but permitting them to buy their freedom with money.

Of those seventeen thousand, more than three thousand gave up their entire fortunes to ransom family and friends, and the Guiyi Army gained goods and treasures worth over three hundred thousand strings of cash.

In addition, the confiscation of the direct-line family property of the Dingnan Army's Li clan yielded more than two hundred thousand strings of cash.

The remaining fourteen thousand and more men and women of the Pingxia tribe who could not pay would be distributed to meritorious officers and become lowly slaves.

After seizing the wealth and treasures, Zhang Zhao again confiscated all the tribal property of the Pingxia tribe, gaining more than eight hundred thousand mu of farmland, over four hundred camels, more than three thousand oxen, twenty-seven thousand mules and horses, over six hundred thousand sheep, seventy thousand shi of grain, several hundred sets of armor, more than a hundred thousand arrows, and countless swords, spears, and bows.

Furthermore, with the occupied Yanzhou and the four great salt pools seized from the Li family — the White Salt Pool, the Green Salt Pool, the Black Pool, and the Huama Pool — he gained several hundred thousand jin of salt.

It could also produce more than a hundred thousand jin a year, and the salt shortage in Hexi and Longyou was immediately alleviated.

Sure enough, war and plunder were the fastest way to make money. Having swallowed the Dingnan Army, Zhang Zhao's six-plus months of campaigning immediately paid off.

On the twenty-fifth of the second month, Zhang Zhao summoned all the Tangut tribes to assemble at Xiazhou.

The Qingzhou Tangut Li Yansi, the Yuanzhou Tangut Li Zhongchao, the Weizhou Tangut and Qiang chieftain Yeli Feng, and the Huizhou Tangut and Qiang tribes.

The Tangut clans of the four prefectures of Yin, Xia, You, and Sui — the Xifeng, Feiting, Wangli, Fangdang, and Miqin clans — with their various branches such as Luoli, Wuyi, Yueyi, Guiren, Baosi, and Baoxiang, in all ten surnames and thirty-seven tribes.

Together with Tuoba Yanchao, chieftain of the largest Tangut Tuoba tribe in Lingzhou, and several dozen others, all arrived at Xiazhou.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Zhang Zhao first ordered a thousand armored soldiers of the Hanshan Capital in cloth-faced iron armor to take up modao glaive glaive glaives, displaying the invincibility of the Guiyi Army's infantry.

Then Li Ruotai's eight hundred fully armored cavalry, with Bai Congxin leading a thousand light-armored elite riders, each bearing cavalry lances and divine-arm crossbows, circled the field, displaying the might of the Guiyi Army's cavalry.

The Tangut of the eleven surnames and thirty-seven tribes across the prefectures were frightened out of their wits.

Several dozen chieftains knelt prostrate before Zhang Zhao, trembling and not daring to move — and not merely not daring to move, they did not even dare raise their heads.

Only after these Tangut chieftains were thoroughly cowed did Zhang Zhao allow them to rise and be seated.

But before they had even settled into their seats, Great King Zhang's mischief bubbled up again, and he gave a heavy cough.

"My chieftains, do you know whom you should thank for being able to sit here today? Whose grace you have received?"

A few quick-witted ones immediately began flattering him loudly: "That we are able to gather in joy today is all thanks to the Great King's grace. It is the Great King's benevolence and loving protection that have spared us the suffering of war."

"Hmph!" Zhang Zhao gave a cold laugh.

The Tangut and Qiang chieftains present all started, their hearts thumping wildly, wondering what this Great King who had just wiped out the Li clan of the Pingxia tribe was going to do now.

"The kind man gets bullied, the gentle horse gets ridden. Are you saying such things because you want to put a hat of benevolence on me, so that every one of you can come bully me?"

Everyone was speechless. What do you mean, "what you said"? It was clearly just a few bootlickers who said that, all right?

And bully you? If you, Great King Zhang, don't slaughter us all, we'll be thanking heaven and earth.

But though they grumbled inwardly, not one of them dared say it aloud. Seeing Zhang Zhao's dark expression, even those who had only just sat down left their seats and hurriedly knelt again.

"It seems you truly do not know whom to thank! Every one of you has forgotten your roots!"

Zhang Zhao seemed to grow angrier as he spoke. Suddenly he pointed at Li Zhongchao, chieftain of the Yuanzhou Tangut, and asked:

"Li Zhongchao, you tell me. Where did your Black Tangut of Yuanzhou originally live? How did you come to Yuanzhou?"

Li Zhongchao was among the earliest to submit to Zhang Zhao, and his grandson Li Xiaojie had even joined Zhang Zhao's adopted-son army.

He of course knew what Zhang Zhao meant, so he shuffled forward a few steps on his knees, then pressed his head to the ground and answered loudly:

"My family originally dwelt west of Shanzhou. The Tibetans oppressed us grievously. In the first year of Ruyi of the Sage Empress Zetian (692), by the grace of the Sage Empress Zetian, we were moved to dwell near Yuanzhou, and only then did we escape the Tibetans' clutches and flourish to this day."

"Yeli Feng, when did your family move to dwell in Weizhou?" Zhang Zhao pointed next at Yeli Feng, chieftain of the Weizhou Tangut and Qiang.

"My family originally dwelt high in the mountains of Guizhou (Songpan), oppressed by the Tibetan eastern stong-sde. By the grace of the Great Tang Emperor Gaozong, the Heavenly Sovereign, in the first year of Yonglong (680) we were moved to Qingzhou, and later moved again to dwell in Weizhou, northwest of Qingzhou."

Yeli Feng, long since under the Guiyi Army's control, hurriedly came forward to answer as well. By now everyone was beginning to understand what Zhang Zhao meant by "whose grace they had received."

These Tangut had originally all dwelt on the snowy mountains of the Qingtang Plateau. The rising Tibetan Empire had treated them as slaves, and it was indeed by the grace of the Great Tang that they had escaped that control and come to flourish in the rich lands of the Central Plains.

"Li Yansi, when did your Dongshan tribe of Tangut come to Qingzhou? Do you know whose grace it was?" Zhang Zhao continued, turning to the Qingzhou Tangut Li Yansi.

Li Yansi's father, Li Yuanzai, had been forced by Yin Yuanzhu to use Qingzhou to resist the Dingnan Army, and after being accused of reselling military supplies, had been stripped of all offices and arranged by Zhang Zhao to retire in Liangzhou.

The Qingzhou Tangut were now split, with Li Yansi and his younger brother Li Yanli each commanding one branch.

"My ancestors dwelt by the Western Sea (Qinghai), and likewise in the first year of Yonglong of the Heavenly Sovereign, they received grace and moved inward.

In the second year of Guangde of the Great Dynasty (764), when the Uyghur Pugu Huai'en rebelled, my ancestor Tuoba Qimei entered the court to pay respects to the Emperor of the Dai Temple, and was thus moved again to the fertile lands of Qingzhou, where we came to be called the Dongshan tribe."

"So you do still know. You still know why you are here, and whose grace you received, that you were able to come to the fertile lands of Shuofang to flourish.

I have often heard it said that this land is the ancestral homeland of the Tangut people. Hmph!"

Zhang Zhao gave a cold snort and slammed the table before him heavily. "Your ancestral homeland is up on the snowy mountains of the Qingtang Plateau. Were it not for the grace of the various sovereigns of the Great Dynasty, you would still be treated as slaves by the Tibetans, still enduring hardship on the snowy mountains.

From this day forward, if I hear anyone dare say again that Shuofang or the Guannei Circuit is their ancestral homeland, then I will move his entire clan to the Qingtang Plateau, where snow falls even in the sixth month, and let them return to their ancestral homeland to taste what it is like!"

At these words, the Tangut chieftains were all struck dumb with terror. To say the Qingtang Plateau had snow in the sixth month was no exaggeration at all at this time — it was the plain truth. Being sent back there now would be worse than death.

"We would not dare! We will reverently remember the Great King's teaching!" The terrified men hastened to declare.

Zhang Zhao nodded with satisfaction, then pointed at Li Yimin, who was kneeling at the very front.

"What I like most are those who know how to repay grace and do not forget their roots. Li Yimin, come forward!"

This cousin of Li Yiyin, who had been forced by Li Yiyin's Hengshan infantry to serve as rearguard, was the first of the Dingnan Army's Li clan to submit to Zhang Zhao.

Although he had not succeeded in persuading Yinzhou to surrender, he had nevertheless helped Zhang Zhao win over Li Yijun of Youzhou and the Tangut tribes of Dijinze and Woyebo.

"Although the brothers Li Yichao and Li Yiyin harbored evil intentions — not only refusing to be transferred to another post, but also forcibly seizing the court's Yanzhou and more than ten salt pools —

yet in those years your ancestors, the brothers Tuoba Sigong and Tuoba Sizhong, served the state loyally and rendered great merit.

Though I have sent a great army to destroy the disloyal Li Yiyin, I will not pursue everyone.

Today I return to you, Li Yimin, four thousand people of your Pingxia tribe, and appoint you Prefect of Yanzhou, overseeing the Huamachi salt pools, so that the ancestral line of Tuoba Sigong and Tuoba Sizhong may continue."

Zhang Zhao's move here was extremely shrewd. It showed he had not attacked Xiazhou to seize the wealth of the Dingnan Army, but to punish disloyalty on behalf of the court.

It also meant that these three thousand people, who had already been reduced to slavery, were suddenly set free at this moment — their gratitude can well be imagined.

This Li Yimin had been quite respectful ever since surrendering. Giving him some benefit — the nominal post of Prefect of Yanzhou, with his main duty being oversight of green-salt production at Huamachi — was enough to reward his service, and it made Zhang Zhao look all the more magnanimous.

Sure enough, when he heard that Zhang Zhao had released his clansmen and appointed him Prefect of Yanzhou and Supervisor of Huamachi, Li Yimin threw himself to the ground and wept aloud.

"Your servant Li Yimin kowtows in thanks for the Great King's grace. From this day forth, I shall forever be the Great King's subject and servant."

Hmm, Zhang Zhao's meaning was now perfectly clear — he had set his mind on establishing himself as a ruler, and wanted all the Tangut tribes to swear loyalty to him at once!

Otherwise, by what right could he, as King of Han in Hexi and Grand Commissioner of Military Affairs for Hexi and Longyou, dispose of the tribes on the lands of the Lingwu and Dingnan armies?

At once, as if struck by sudden inspiration, the chiefs of the thirty-seven tribes of the eleven clans all declared in turn that they would forever be subjects and servants of Great King Zhang.

The moment had come! Guo Tiance, standing behind Great King Zhang, cast a glance at Yeli Feng, the Tangut chief of Weizhou.

This chief of the various Qiang tribes of Weizhou, thoroughly terrified by the Guiyi Army's ferocious methods, suddenly shouted.

"We are willing to be the Great King's subjects and servants, but your servant has one request to make!"

"Please rise, all of you!" Zhang Zhao said with a kindly smile, first bidding the Tangut chiefs of the thirty-seven tribes of the eleven clans to rise from the ground, and only then turning to Yeli Feng: "Chief Yeli, speak!"

"We have all received the Great Tang's great favor, and for generations have been sons of Tang. Now we have received the Great King's grace as well. That being so, why should we still use surnames such as Yeli and Xifeng?

Your servant ventures to beg the Great King to bestow Han surnames upon us, so that Tangut and Han may become one, with no distinction between them!"

"Good!" Zhang Zhao shouted, and without waiting to see whether anyone else agreed, he decided on the spot to bestow surnames.

"Chief Yeli's loyalty is commendable. I hereby bestow upon the Yeli clan the surname Zhang, appoint Zhang Feng as Prefect of Weizhou, and grant him one hundred head of cattle, two thousand sheep, fifty jin of sugar, and two hundred bricks of tea."

The dagger had come out from behind the map, so to speak. But the other great clan chiefs raised no objection either — after all, it was just changing to Han surnames, and that was a good thing!

And so Zhang Zhao immediately bestowed the surname Zhang upon the Yeli, the Tuoba of Lingzhou, and the Baoli and Baoxiang clans of Youzhou.

He changed Luoli to the surname Luo, Xifeng to Feng, Miqin to Mi, Feiting to Fei, Fangdang to Fang, Wuyi to Wu, and Yueyi to Yue.

The various clans that already bore the surname Li were left unchanged, and those tribes that still wore the left-fastened robe and loose hair were ordered to change at once.

Finally, he moved the Li family of the Pingxia tribe, the Zhang family of the Baoli, and the Fei family of the Feiting — more than fifty thousand people in all — to Lanzhou and Hezhou for resettlement, to balance the local forces there.

He moved the Wu clan of the Wuyi tribe and the Yue clan of the Yueyi tribe — more than twenty thousand people — to Taozhou and Minzhou, to hold the local Tibetan tribes in check.

And the land thus vacated was not intended to receive the people of Yunzhou; the people of Yunzhou would be settled on the lands of the Dingnan Army's Li family that Zhang Zhao had acquired.

Zhang Zhao's decision to move these seventy thousand-plus people, and to spend great sums of money and manpower doing so, was in fact made so that the Mu Us Desert, where the Dijin Marsh lay, could be closed off for grazing, with special tribes dispatched to plant trees.

Because one of the major sources of silt in the Yellow River is the Mu Us Desert.

Here, overgrazing by the various Tangut tribes had caused severe desertification, and every year hundreds of millions of tons of silt entered the Yellow River from this place.

If it was not dealt with now, by the time of Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song in history, it would be too late.

By then, the Yellow River at Kaifeng and other stretches would long since have become an elevated river above the ground, and the cost of controlling it would be unimaginably great. In fact, the problem was already very serious now, but there was still time.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao did not intend to deal with the Mu Us alone. In the future, Fengzhou, Fuzhou, Shengzhou, and all the other prefectures that sent large amounts of silt into the Yellow River would also be brought under control, in order to restore the ecology of northern Shaanxi and the Ordos region.

After the surname-changing, once the intimidation was done and the big stick had been swung, it was time for the sweet dates.

Zhang Zhao bestowed great quantities of sugar, tea, curios, and valuables, granted offices to the various tribal chiefs, and finally led them all in a sacrifice to Heaven and a sworn oath.

And outside the east wall of Xiazhou, by the Wuding River, he erected a great stone stele more than six meters high, with the content of the oath engraved upon it.

The eleven clans and thirty-seven tribes of the Tangut Qiang swore together never to betray the Tang, henceforth to regard themselves as Han, and to guard the great dynasty's northwest together!

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