Chapter 433: Unification of the World

When all the civil and military officials went to Luoyang, all the officials were very satisfied with Luoyang. After all, the newly built city of Luoyang is almost twice the size of Kaifeng.

Kaifeng City has developed rapidly in recent years. When Kaifeng was first built, overpopulation was not considered at all. As a result, during the Zhou Dynasty, the population of Kaifeng City continued to increase and the city was extremely narrow.

Many government offices are not even as big as a county government office, and some government offices are actually used by several departments together, making them very crowded.

Now that they have moved to Luoyang City, each ministry has its own government office, and the government offices are also very close to each other, making it convenient to work. The most important thing is that there is an official residence. From now on, all officials in the capital can live in the official residence.

In order to prevent the official residence from being occupied by others, Richard strictly stipulated that only those who were officials in the capital could live in the official residence. Once he resigned, he must leave within a month.

With the imperial court moving its capital to Luoyang, the originally empty city of Luoyang soon became lively. The imperial court moved about 200,000 people this time. Adding in the local population of Luoyang, the people who moved with the imperial court, and powerful families, the population of Luoyang soon exceeded 500,000, and this number is still rising rapidly.

With the convenience of canals and horse-drawn carriages, Sunday became increasingly prosperous.

After moving the capital to Luoyang, Guo Rong issued an edict to make Kaifeng the companion capital, called Tokyo Kaifeng. At the same time, Youzhou Prefecture was promoted to Beijing, Chang'an was named Xijing, and Nanjing was named Jinling, but Jinling is still the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Of course, this was only temporary. After the imperial court completed the move of the capital to Luoyang, Guo Rong had already begun preparing for the southern expedition.

In fact, during this period, the southern countries were already in decay and had long lost their enterprising spirit. They only wanted to settle down in a corner. If it were not for the natural danger of the Yangtze River, the southern countries would have been destroyed long ago.

Just last year, Jingchu took the initiative to send envoys to express its willingness to surrender. At this time, only the Hou Shu, Southern Tang, Southern Han and Wuyue separatist regimes remained in the south.

Guo Rong personally led his army south to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty, and then sent his general Han Lingkun to attack Hou Shu. As for Zhao Kuangyin, he followed Guo Rong to conquer the Southern Tang Dynasty.

As the army moved south, Li Yu, the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, had no power to resist. In addition, Zhou Guo had already trained a naval force, which flowed directly down the river from Jingchu. The army was unstoppable all the way and soon arrived at Jinling. The Southern Tang Dynasty could not hold it back. Surrendered to the pressure.

Guo Rong did not kill Li Yu. Although Li Yu was not good at being an emperor, he was a great talent as a poet. He was immediately named Marquis of Jiangning and asked to live in Luoyang and write lyrics according to orders.

After solving the Southern Tang Dynasty, the remaining leader of the Wuyue Kingdom, Qian Shu, was originally submissive. After seeing that the Zhou Kingdom easily destroyed the Southern Tang Dynasty, he immediately went to Jinling. After seeing the mighty Jinling imperial army and Guo Rong's extraordinary magnanimity, he immediately surrendered and returned to the Zhou Dynasty.

Thirteen states, an army of 86 counties, 556,800 households and 110,000 soldiers were all sacrificed to the Zhou Kingdom, while the Wuyue Kingdom avoided the disaster of swords and successfully recovered.

Guo Rong was very happy that Qian Zhu returned and donated his land. During the dinner, he took Qian Zhu's hand and asked, "After the imperial court regained Jinyang, it has been lacking an important minister to guard it. I wonder if the King of Yue would be willing to share my worries?"

Qian Zhu also held Guo Rong's hand and said: "I, Qian, have been court officials since the pre-Tang Dynasty. Now the saint has orders, so I will naturally obey them. It's just that I am old and weak, and I may not be able to guard the land of Jinyang."

"The King of Yue has been loyal and loyal for generations. He who can maintain peace in this troubled time is the pillar of the country. I intend to appoint you as the King of Jin and guard Jinyang. What does the King of Yue want?"

The banquet scene suddenly became quiet. Qian Zhu took two deep breaths and felt that there were shadowy figures behind the palace screen. It seemed that there were swordsmen waiting for orders with bated breaths. The hand held by Guo Rong was also full of sweat.

In fact, Qian Qian was already mentally prepared when he came. After all, Yuan Dezhao, Pei Jian and other ministers in the Wuyue Kingdom had decided to surrender. What could he, a king without much real power, do?

Therefore, when Qian Zhu saw that Guo Rong was not lying, he immediately said: "If the saint does not think that I am old, I am willing to be driven!"

Guo Rong laughed loudly, pulled Qian Zhu and said to the courtiers around him: "The King of Yue is really a pure minister, he should be the King of Jin."

Immediately he called for people to come and said: "The edict is that King Qian of Yue led his army to the rescue and made meritorious service. He accepted the land and returned it to Zhou Youde. He was granted the title of Taiwei, Prince Taibao, Zhongshu Ling, and was promoted to Jinwang. He moved the town to Jinyang and established four thousand households in Xinzhou. The food of the king of Jin."

"I pay my respects to the Emperor." Qian Jian was overjoyed and thanked him. The Jin State was a great country in the Spring and Autumn Period. He went from being the king of Yue in a remote place to being the king of Jin in a large country in the Central Plains. His rank was upgraded by one level, and he also had 4,000 households in Xinzhou.

Of course, the food was not given directly to him, but the people paid taxes to the government, and the government handed it over to the feudal lord. After this change of hands, how much food can be given depends on the emperor's mood.

In fact, by this period, there were not many 4,000 households left in the city. The annual tax for one household is no more than one, which means that a household of 4,000 people in a small town can only pay 4,000 guan of tax per year, which can be converted into 4,000 silver coins. The annual salary of a second-rank official in the imperial court is more than this.

Of course, this king's food court is another kind of honor, which can be said to be unique. You must know that in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the king's food city of the opposite sex is unique.

By this time, there was only one Southern Han Dynasty left in the south who had not surrendered. The Southern Han Dynasty was a strange kingdom. To put it simply, it was a eunuch dynasty.

All the court ministers were eunuchs. If they wanted to be officials, they had to be castrated. This was extremely outrageous. But for Lingnan, it was also during this period that Lingnan was truly included in the rule of the Central Plains court.

Let the people of Lingnan truly believe that they are the same as the people of the Central Plains in terms of culture and psychology. You should know that even in the former Tang Dynasty, it was Lady Xian who opened the Lady Qiaoguo government. During the Sui Dynasty, Lady Xian took on the great cause of stabilizing Lingnan alone, united the Li and Liao tribes to be loyal to the country, and did not stand on her own like Zhao Tuo.

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, appointed Lady Xian as the Lady Qiaoguo to open the government, which is also the only government led by a woman in Chinese history.

It is precisely because Lady Xian started a good start that from then on, until the founding of New China, the Zhuang ethnic group, as the largest ethnic minority, has been the confidant that the country can rely on in all dynasties.

Although the emperors of the Southern Han Dynasty were cruel, they did a good job in maintaining the hearts of the people in Lingnan. It was also the decades of rule of the Southern Han Dynasty that allowed the Central Plains culture and system to penetrate into Lingnan. After the Northern Song Dynasty, Korea was completely integrated into the country and became an inseparable part.

At this time, Liu Sheng, the third emperor of Southern Han in the Xingwang Mansion, ascended the throne by assassinating his elder brother Liu Yin. In order to prevent his brothers from following suit, he killed fifteen of his eighteen brothers.

The highest record was killing eight of his brothers in one day. Such an approach is rare among emperors in ancient and modern times, and Hu Hai silently gave a thumbs up.

But unlike Hu Hai, this person was very successful in state affairs. He defeated Southern Tang, Jingchu and other countries successively, expanded the territory of Southern Han to the largest, and vigorously promoted the imperial examination and actively developed maritime trade in politics.

The whole person is the same as Gao Shi of Northern Qi, and the main feature is split personality.

Although Liu Sheng was very successful, this kind of split personality was also a serious problem. He had no restraint in killing. When he killed a minister, he actually killed all his very distant cousins. This level has far exceeded the level of killing nine clans, exterminating three clans, and exterminating the clan.

How could the ministers not be afraid of such a mentally ill emperor? Therefore, when the army of the Great Zhou Dynasty marched south, these ministers directly acted as guides. A large number of officials surrendered without a fight, and the army successfully marched all the way to the Prince Xing's Mansion.

The vanguard army marched southward, and it was only a matter of time before the Southern Han Dynasty was destroyed. Guo Rong still had an important thing to do, which was to worship and repair the tomb of Lady Xian.

As for why it was repaired, it was entirely because Lady Xian's tomb was destroyed by Wu Zetian when the eldest house of the Feng family was raided.

Of course, she did not open a museum to kill the corpse or expose the corpse in the wilderness, but demolished the sacred road, mountain tomb, and sacrificial temple that Lady Xian admired, and destroyed the stone statue in front of the tomb. As for the case of Feng's rebellion, later generations did not know the inside story, but even if Feng really rebelled, no matter how much they counted, it could not be blamed on Lady Xian, who had been dead for more than a hundred years.

As a result, she destroyed Lady Xian's tomb in a crazy way, causing the people of Lingnan to be alienated from the Central Plains court at that time. It was not until the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang that Lady Xian's sixth-generation grandson Gao Lishi, who was in power, asked Emperor Xuanzong to order the restoration of Lady Xian's tomb in Lingnan.

But Emperor Xuanzong was not done yet. He only agreed to restore Lady Xian's tomb, and did not order the Ministry of Works to restore it to its previous scale, nor did he vindicate Feng. He only restored it privately. This made Guo Rong look down on Emperor Xuanzong even more after hearing Richard's story.

Richard emphasized this point in his advice to Guo Rong on pacifying Lingnan, so the first thing Guo Rong did when he came to Lingnan to appease the people was to repair Lady Xian's tomb.

Under Guo Rong's edict, the Ministry of Rites quickly drafted posthumous titles and rewards for Lady Xian, and sent people to various places in Lingnan to publicize the Zhou Kingdom's reconstruction of Lady Xian's tomb, and at the same time let people know that the Zhou Kingdom court recognized Lady Xian's achievements and offered sacrifices to Lady Xian with the dignity of an emperor. In order to attract Lady Xian's descendants.

Guo Rong recruited 10,000 people to rebuild Lady Xian's tomb, and then established the shrines of Lady Xian and her husband Feng Bao, offering sacrifices with three animals.

When Guo Rong officially offered sacrifices, the Xian and Feng clansmen who were now entrenched in Leizhou Peninsula and Qiongzhou Island had already arrived.

Guo Rong immediately announced that Lady Xian would be posthumously awarded the title of Xia Nanhai County King, with the posthumous title of Zhongzhen, and allowed temples to be built in various places to offer sacrifices and the title of Zhongzhen Protector of the Country Nanhai King. When Guo Rong's edict was issued, tens of thousands of onlookers cheered, and the Xian and Feng clansmen who came from Qiongzhou and Leizhou knelt down and cried bitterly.

There are only a handful of women in Chinese history who can be given posthumous titles based on their virtues. In the past, there was Princess Pingyang, the sister of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, who was posthumously named Princess Pingyang Zhao. In the future, there was only Qin Liangyu in the Ming Dynasty, who was posthumously named Loyalty.

Seeing this scene, Guo Rong hurriedly asked people to help them up, and asked them to move a tribe to live here, responsible for worshiping and guarding the mausoleum. At the same time, Guo Rong announced that he would vindicate Feng Junheng, the governor of Guangzhou who was killed during the Wu Zetian period, and then return the land that was confiscated by Feng during the Wu Zhou period.

Seeing Guo Rong do this, Xian and Feng knelt down three times and kowtowed nine times to thank him, and expressed their willingness to obey the Zhou Dynasty and never rebel.

Guo Rong immediately stated that after the army entered Lingnan, it was not allowed to rob, rape, plunder, or commit crimes. At the same time, he ordered that if the people had grievances, they could come to appeal. Guo Rong ordered the Ministry of Justice to send officials to conduct special interrogations.

As Guo Rong's edict spread throughout Lingnan, Lingnan was settled, and the nobles from all over the country came to pay tribute and expressed their willingness to donate money and food to help the king's army.

Then, the army was really unstoppable, and the people from all over the country lined the streets to welcome it, and the local nobles also donated money and food to support the army. Guo Rong ordered to buy supplies at a price higher than the market price, and paid the people to serve the army.

At this time, the taxation and corvée of the Southern Han Kingdom had been greatly improved, and the officials were equally fierce. After the imperial army arrived, a group of corrupt officials were immediately tried in public, which won the support of the people. Then the people in Lingnan spread the word, saying that the royal army had arrived.

It can be said that after a set of combined punches, the people of Lingnan were loyal and settled down. The Zhou army fought almost on its own land in Lingnan, and all the movements of the Southern Han army were reported to the people.

The Southern Han was struggling to death, and even sent out the elephant army to attack. More than a dozen elephants two or three meters high charged, with terrifying momentum, but Guo Rong was prepared. When the elephant army was first dispatched, it was indeed powerful, but elephants were actually afraid of fire and loud noises.

Richard had reminded him long ago, so Guo Rong asked the front army to be careful, and prepared fire arrows and gunpowder. Gunpowder had already appeared in the late Tang Dynasty, but because of the formula problem, it was not very powerful.

Richard organized craftsmen to make improvements, and the power of gunpowder was greatly improved. Although muskets and cannons had not yet been made, it was used to make bombs and then thrown with catapults, which was also very powerful.

So after seeing the elephant army attack, the Zhou army directly used fire arrows and gunpowder. The huge noise and flames scared the elephants and turned their heads and ran away. The elephant army not only failed to break through the Zhou army, but because the elephants were defeated and trampled on each other, they directly broke up the army of the Southern Han.

Seeing this situation, Guo Rong immediately ordered the army to attack. The Southern Han army had not yet recovered from the defeat of the elephant army, and was beaten by the Zhou army again, and the army soon collapsed.

Then the Zhou army took advantage of the situation and attacked the city. Liu Sheng heard the sound of the defeated army fleeing outside in the inner city. He did not dare to stay any longer. He immediately took his guards and ministers to escape to the port.

The Southern Han Dynasty had developed maritime trade, so it naturally formed a navy with hundreds of large ships. Liu Sheng wanted to escape by ship to Qiongzhou or Champa, but what he didn't know was that the navy had already defected to the Zhou Dynasty, and the Xian and Feng families also came to help.

Liu Sheng fled to the port but found that it had been occupied by the Zhou Kingdom. At this time, the Southern Han Dynasty was doomed, and the Zhou soldiers who came to chase him blocked Liu Sheng and arrested him and his son.