Chapter 7 The Heyday of the Xixia Empire

Section 1 Qianshun New Deal

After many years of affection, the memory of honor is sparse. I accept the Yan family's post, and who sends the official letter from Zigong. Xixia is conquering Jia, and Dongzhou is settled. Although there are no geese from the south, fortunately there are fish from the north.

Another era of Liang's autocratic power finally came to an end, and the power of the government returned to the hands of Emperor Li Qianshun. Li Qianshun's pro-government was inseparable from the support of the Liao State, so after he took power, his relationship with the Liao State became closer and closer. It strengthened the relationship with the Liao Kingdom. In 1099 AD, a rebellion broke out in the Liao Kingdom. The Liao Kingdom sent out soldiers many times but failed to annihilate it. Li Qianshun received a request for support from the Liao Kingdom, and Xixia sent a large army to help the Liao Kingdom conquer the rebels. In November, Li Qianshun proposed marriage to the Liao Kingdom. This move was actually to eliminate the barriers between the two countries. He hoped to further consolidate the relationship between the two countries through marriage, but I don't know why Liao Daozong actually rejected Li Qianshun's proposal. .

In 1100 AD, Li Qianshun once again sent an envoy to pay tribute to the Liao Kingdom, and once again talked about the marriage proposal. Daozong of the Liao Dynasty asked the Xixia envoy Li Qianshun what kind of person he was. The envoy replied that our emperor is wise and decisive, and he is cautious in handling affairs. An absolutely outstanding person. Daozong of the Liao Dynasty expressed his approval, but he did not agree to the proposal on the spot. Instead, three years later, the Liao Kingdom had changed its emperor, and the Liao Kingdom was gradually declining and on the verge of destruction. .At this time, Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao Kingdom agreed to Li Qianshun's proposal. After the marriage, the relationship between the two countries became even closer.

When Li Qianshun first took office, he ordered the army to be stationed in the border area between Song and Xia to prevent the Song army from taking the opportunity to attack. As a result, the Song army launched a surprise attack and defeated the Xixia army. Faced with the aggressive military pressure of the Song Dynasty, the Xixia Emperor Li Qianshun, who had just regained power, Deciding to change his mother, Empress Dowager Liang's policy of war against the Song Dynasty during her reign, he sent an envoy to the Song Dynasty to negotiate peace, but the envoy handed Xixia's credentials to the border guard of the Song Dynasty. Song Zhezong was very angry after hearing this. It was said that as a border guard, he was not qualified to accept documents from another country, so the general was demoted. Because of this incident, Song Zhezong was also very angry with the Liao State and refused the peace negotiation between the two parties.

Emperor Li Qianshun of Xixia had no choice but to send envoys to Liao to request assistance and ask Liao to act as a third party to exchange relations with Song and Xia. Liao sent people to the Song Dynasty to propose reconciliation between Song and Xia, but Song Zhezong firmly believed that He was capricious and repeatedly violated the border, hurting many soldiers and civilians of the Song Dynasty. Therefore, Song Zhezong firmly opposed the peace talks between the two sides. Li Qianshun, who had no hope of making peace, was completely furious and immediately sent a large army to attack the Song Dynasty border. The Song Dynasty defenders immediately counterattacked, and Xixia The army was severely beaten. After the Song army was suddenly attacked, they then launched a retaliatory action. The Song army went deep into the territory of Xixia and killed several Xixia generals. The furious Li Qianshun did not gain any advantage in fighting the Song Dynasty, so he had to He also sent an envoy to the Song Dynasty to apologize. He also said that the previous war between the two sides was started by the Empress Dowager Liang and Liang Yibu, and it had nothing to do with him. He hoped to get the Song Dynasty's understanding and restore the friendly and peaceful relations between the two countries. Song Zhezong verbally agreed. , as long as the Xixia people no longer invade the Song Dynasty, the Song army will not cross the border to attack Xixia, so Li Qianshun ordered the Xixia army not to harass the Song Dynasty border at will.

However, because the two countries have been in a state of war for many years, the two sides have lost mutual trust. Shortly after Li Qianshun took the form of apology, Li Qianshun sent another two thousand gold soldiers to invade the Zhenrong Army. At this time, a minority The leader gathered thousands of people to besiege Huangzhou in the Song Dynasty, and also asked for help from Xixia. Li Qianshun sent 100,000 troops to assist in the battle. The two sides worked together to besiege Huangzhou. They continued to besiege for 16 days but still failed to capture it. At this time, other members of the Song Dynasty Reinforcements from all walks of life came to reinforce them, and the Xixia army had to flee in panic.

In fact, although Li Qianshun kept suing for peace from the Song Dynasty, he never stopped fighting with the Song Dynasty. Not long after, Li Qianshun sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to request peace. In the end, the two sides finally reached a consensus, and the Song Dynasty announced the resumption of peace. Xixia's annual gift. When I read this, I often wondered why the Song Dynasty still had a tough attitude towards Xixia's peace invitation. Since it was not afraid of Xixia's invasion and was not too enthusiastic about Xixia's initial peace talks, why The agreement reached now is that the Song Dynasty will give Xixia coins? Can't we take this opportunity to cancel it?

When the Empress Dowager Liang came to power, the most trusted people around him were the generals Wei Baomei and Ling Jie. After the Empress Dowager Liang's death, these two people became Li Qianshun's punching bags, and she decided to kill them.

When the Liang family was in power, there were three major families in power. We have mentioned before that after the demise of the Liang family’s mother-party regime, only Renduobao Zhong was still leading the army and still had great power in his hands. At that time, Cai Jing of the Song Dynasty heard that Renduobao Zhong and Li Qianshun had always had conflicts, so they sent someone to persuade Renduo Baozhong to surrender. The people who came back reported to Cai Jing that although Baozhong wanted to surrender to the Song Dynasty, no one under his command responded. Cai Jing was still determined to bring Baozhong down. Song.

The person sent out to contact was accidentally captured by the Xixia patrol on the way back. Li Qinshun was very frightened when he heard about this incident. He immediately sent someone to find Ren Duo Baozhong, which gave him more military power. Ren Duo Baozhong had all the military power. After being taken away, his finances were still unwilling to give up, and he still wanted to recruit Renduo Baozhong. Cai Jing, who wanted to make political achievements, did not listen to the advice of his subordinates, and still sent people to use Renduo Baozhong with large sums of money. Li Qianshun was furious when he heard about this behavior of the Song Dynasty. Angry, he immediately sent elite troops to harass the three border states of the Song Dynasty, burning, killing, and plundering everywhere.

All the generals who were close to the Empress Dowager Liang were executed by Li Qianshun, and now Renduo Baozhong has also been deprived of military power. Therefore, the power of the royal family to send the Weiming clan has been greatly enhanced, and Li Qianshun's imperial power has been further consolidated. Li Qianshun's next move is Following the Han system, the royal family was enfeoffed on a large scale.

Li Qianshun first made one of his younger brothers, Cha Ge, the King of Jin. Historical records record that this man was the best military strategist in Xixia after Li Yuanhao. He was also brave and could draw a hard bow and shoot through armor at a very young age. Later, he was able to stand alone. At that time, he achieved military success in many wars against the Song Dynasty. This was definitely not just a brainless general, this man was very strategic. At that time, the Song army adopted a fortress warfare strategy, which made Xixia feel very passive, so in the battle between the two sides In the war, Xixia always wins less and loses more. Chage suggested to Li Qianshun that the Xixia army should learn from the strengths of the Song army. Since Chage was proficient in the art of war and was a rare general in the Xixia royal family, Li Qianshun deliberately cultivated him. I admire him very much and let him take charge of the military.

In 1120 AD, Li Qianshun granted two more kings. These two people were Jing Si and Renli. Jing Si was an old minister during the Li Bing Dynasty. He had repeatedly discouraged the harm to Li Bingchang when Li Bingchang was imprisoned. Li Qianshun believed that he had meritorious service in protecting the previous emperors, so he named him king. Renli was proficient in ethnic minority and Han writing, so Li Qianshun made him the transit envoy to Henan.

Li Qianshun's policy of enfeoffing the kings greatly strengthened the power of the royal faction, which played a certain role in stabilizing the imperial rule and maintaining the unity of the Xixia country. However, later they began to expand from members of the royal family to members of the opposite sex, and even to relatives. In this way, It also posed a serious threat to the imperial rule, which eventually led to the chaos of Xixia being divided by foreign relatives who took advantage of their power.

When Xixia was first founded, it had always implemented the policy of advocating martial arts and respecting the law. However, with the changes of the times, this policy of founding the country became increasingly inappropriate for the current situation of the new country. Li Qianshun decided to change this policy based on the new situation.

First of all, from the economic point of view of Xixia, the economic level has been greatly improved, and the feudal land ownership system has been further developed and consolidated. Some feudal bureaucrats and large landowners used their power to launch cruel and violent plundering of the peasant class. As the saying goes The economic base determines the superstructure. This increasingly developing feudal system in Xixia determined that Xixia must change its previous policy of advocating force to rely on the rule of culture and law.

Then from a political point of view, I thought that the long-standing struggle between the mother party and the imperial power in the country has come to an end. After the traditional conservative forces were destroyed, the power of the royal faction has been stabilized and strengthened. Li Qianshun also solved several other holdings. The powerful generals and families brutally suppressed the tribes who disobeyed their rule, which greatly improved the situation of local powerful mercenaries respecting themselves, and also played a positive role in maintaining the unity and stability of the desired country.

In addition, from a military point of view, since Li Yuanhao, Xixia has been at a disadvantage in fighting the Song Dynasty, and has even been defeated repeatedly. One of the important reasons is that Xixia basically still uses the old method to fight. On the contrary, the Song Dynasty The army constantly summed up experience and lessons in the process of fighting with Xixia for many years, and gradually summed up the weaknesses of Xixia's cavalry, identified new weaknesses, and found ways to deal with them, so that Xixia became more and more passive in subsequent battles. In addition, It was due to the change of the Song Dynasty's strategy in the border areas of Xixia, from the original passive defense to fortress warfare, that they advanced step by step to consolidate the Song army's forward positions, and then continued to tire out the Xixia army by invading small groups of troops into the Xixia territory. , and through these small-scale wars, the Song army was equivalent to conducting field exercises, which greatly enhanced its combat effectiveness. Later, in order to change the increasingly difficult situation of fighting the Song Dynasty, Xixia Li Qianshun adopted Cha Ge's advice and began to learn The strengths of the Song Army were to reform the Xixia Army, and the two countries began to move towards a military confrontation.

After the founding of Xixia, the etiquette of ethnic minorities and the etiquette of the Han people were constantly fighting against each other. When Li Yuanhao first founded the country, because he needed a large number of Han intellectuals to help him govern the country, Li Yuanhao made a reform of the original Xixia etiquette and implemented all Han etiquette. Etiquette measures. But later, when the Liang family’s mother party came to power, they restored the old system and abolished Han rites, which caused the decline of Sinology in Xixia. After Li Qianshun took power, due to his deep understanding of Confucian culture and Han civilization, In addition to the objective requirements for the development of Xixia's feudal society at that time, Li Qianshun began to advocate Sinicization and change Xixia's backward habits. As Li Qianshun strengthened centralization and the need for domestic rule in Xixia, a large number of intellectuals were needed for himself Service. Li Qianshun set up Guoxue in Xixia to teach Chinese studies. He also personally selected more than 300 people from the royal family and nobles, and the government was responsible for funding them to train them to learn Confucian culture. From now on, Confucianism in Xixia developed faster and faster, and Han rituals gradually It achieved a dominant position and completely ended the decades-long dispute between Tibetan rites and Han rites in Xixia.

Li Qianshun not only attached great importance to the cultivation of talents, but also attached great importance to the appointment and selection of officials. During Li Qianshun's reign, it was officially implemented, and special preferential treatment was given to those who were good at literature based on the method of appointment management based on qualifications.

Li Qianshun himself also had a high level of literary accomplishment. At that time, there was a minister in Xixia. A Ganoderma lucidum grew in his house. Li Qianshun thought it was auspicious. In front of all the civil and military officials, Li Qianshun improvised a song called "Ganoderma lucidum". ". This poem has beautiful rhythm and is completely in the format of ancient Central Plains poetry.

Li Qianshun was deeply influenced by his mother. He believed in Buddhism since he was a child. In 1103 AD, a monk discovered this place in Zhangye County and reported it to the imperial court. The imperial court sent people to dig at this place and unearthed three Ancient Buddha, Li Qianshun built the magnificent Reclining Buddha Temple in Ganzhou, and later rebuilt the Gantong Pagoda of Huguo Temple in Liangzhou.

Of course, Li Qianshun's implementation of these reform measures will definitely be dissatisfied by some conservative nobles. At that time, floods, droughts and famines occurred in Xixia, and some conservative forces began to make a fuss about the reforms. They not only demanded the restoration of Xixia's old customs, but also Li Qianshun did not accept the request to continue waging war and plundering the Song Dynasty to satisfy the needs of the party nobles.

These reform measures and policies established by Li Qianshun adapted to the objective development laws of Xixia's economy, brought a relatively peaceful development environment to the appreciation society, and promoted the development of Xixia's feudal economy. But at the same time, it also brought Serious hidden dangers are that many nobles opposed Li Qianshun's measures to promote Han rituals, which caused instability within the country. Moreover, Li Qianshun advocated the use of Confucianism and law to govern the country, and gradually gave up the use of external troops. The strength of the Xixia army increased greatly. Laxity. These reform measures weakened the original martial and aggressive customs and habits of Xixia and affected the fighting spirit of the Xixia people. They made Xixia culture become more and more refined and refined, which may have posed hidden dangers in the future when Xixia was destroyed by the Mongolian cavalry. In fact, It's not entirely because of this. I personally think that even if Xixia did not reform and still had the same martial and aggressive folk customs, it would still be impossible for the Mongolian cavalry to be an opponent. Later, Xixia was destroyed by Mongolia, not only because of its combat effectiveness. The reason for the weakening is that there are also big internal problems. Only in the situation of internal and external troubles can a country be destroyed.

Life insights: Wang Anyi said: "Happiness must be read with the heart." Understand our heart, learn to talk to it, see clearly where the source of our happiness is, and let us follow the trajectory of happiness to find it. Who can say that it is not the process of pursuit? What about a kind of happiness? When we can feel that our mentality is becoming more and more peaceful, our hearts are becoming more and more purified, and we no longer arm ourselves with aggressiveness, but just deal with everything calmly and calmly, we actually realize happiness. The true meaning of.

For those who have a mind to blindly compare, if you can calm down and think about it carefully, you will see a very simple truth right in front of you: people are born with great differences. Some people are tall or short; their appearance is beautiful or ugly; their IQ is different. High and low; family background and different... In life, people's own environment and personal conditions are different. Therefore, people cannot transcend their own environment and conditions and compare without restrictions. Then He will undoubtedly be close to endless troubles, and the result of the troubles will be that he will feel the pain of living a tiring life, a lack of fun in life, and in the end he will age prematurely and live in such a miserable life. How unworthy it is!

Life is like a mirror, how you treat it will be how it will repay you. In other words, what you pay for is what you get; what you cultivate is what you harvest. If you treat others sincerely, you will also gain from others. Sincerity. As the saying goes, if you treat people sincerely, your dreams will come true.

Maybe, in some people's inherent thinking mode, they think that to help others, they have to make sacrifices. If others gain, they will definitely lose. In fact, if you treat the people around you with sincerity, then others will also treat you with sincerity. You, you will win more things.

There is something magical hidden in each of our hearts, called "emotion". You don't know how or when it happens, but you know that it always brings us special gifts. You will also understand Emotion is the most precious gift God gives us. Love is like a rare treasure. It brings us laughter and inspires us to succeed. It listens to our inner words and shares every word of praise with us. Its heart is always open to us. .

There is no doubt that love and emotion will affect your thinking. If you lack love and sympathy for the weak, sometimes you will make wrong decisions. Because in fact, the misfortune you face may be just a Illusion, this illusion is a test of your emotions. At this time, tolerance can often make the right decision for you.

Understanding is the most frequently used word, a state that many people yearn for and long for, and a topic that many literati sing about.

Understanding is a kind of empathy, it is mutual. There is no pure understanding in the world, and there is no pure being understood. If you want to be understood by others, you must first learn to understand others.

Understanding is a kind of respect for personality. Each of us has inadvertent mistakes. Everything we do cannot be nearly perfect, and there is no clear boundary between people. But no matter the face-to-face Whether it is noble or humble, great or ordinary, luxurious or simple, we should experience and understand it with respect and a gentle smile. This kind of respect is the best understanding.
Chapter completed!