The Republican Congress mentioned by Zhang Xianyu was not just called casually, but there was indeed a Republican Congress among the Zhuxia Kingdoms in the five far western provinces.
Moreover, it was proposed, designed and approved by Zhang Yan.
The reason for its establishment is that the five extreme western provinces are too far away from China. From the westernmost Jinlan City (Selazi) to the sacred capital Luoyang, it is a full 13,000 miles.
With such a long distance, if the Xia Kingdoms in the five extreme western provinces do not set up a mechanism to solve most things themselves, then I don't know how many things will be delayed.
Therefore, under Zhang Zhang's design, the Xia Kingdoms in the five extreme western provinces came up with the model of Zhou Gong, Zhao Gong and administration after the people rioted.
In this set of political designs, the kings and grand dukes of the Xia Kingdoms in Hezhong first selected national officials at home and distributed the candidates according to the shares received by each vassal state.
After the scholars of these vassal states arrived at the Republican Palace in Kangju City (Bukhara), they formed the Wuweiyuan with broad representative significance.
The Wuweiyuan is just like the House of Commons in England in the past. It is composed of vassals and big merchants from gentlemen and below. The head of the house is called the Wuwei doctor.
The word Wuwei is actually the order of the words Weiwu. It comes from the memory of the Duke of Wei who led his troops to Haojing after the riots in the past and was finally elected as the ruling Duke.
At the same time, the word "武卫" also points out the foundation of the five extreme western provinces, which were protected by force by Han vassals.
Compared with Wuweiyuan, the lower house, the upper house is called Zhaogongyuan. Now that Zhou has become the national title, Zhou Gong cannot use it casually, but Zhaogong can still use it.
The Zhaogongyuan was composed of vassals above Fang Bo of each vassal state, kings, Confucian scholars, eminent monks of the Six Methods Sect, and officials stationed in various provinces by the imperial court. The head of the court was called Gongbo.
Every five years, leaders from the five far-western provinces were selected through nominations by the Wuweiyuan and approval by the Zhaogongyuan. They were then reported to the imperial court for approval and issued golden seals, edicts, etc.
The leader's full name is Jijiquan Regent of the Military and Political Affairs of the Five Western Provinces. Since this position must only be held by the king of the vassal state, he is also referred to as the Regent of the Five Provinces, commonly known as His Highness the Western King.
Well, even Xibo has it, so there is no wrong country title.
After the regents of the five provinces are elected, the regents will form the shogunate with the permission of the court.
This shogunate generally does not do anything, and only operates during wartime. It is responsible for coordinating and commanding the unified actions of the armies of the Xia Kingdom in the five provinces in the far west.
According to the law, the officials of the shogunate offices of the five provinces were composed of officials from the imperial court and officials from the Xia Kingdom in the five provinces according to the sixty-four ratio.
Of course, in the seventeen years since the establishment of the Five Provincial Republic Assembly, there was only one person holding the power to take charge of the military and political affairs of the five provinces for four terms, and that was King Zhang Xianyu of Anguo, who was known as the Western Medicine Master of the Liufa Sect, Liuliguang King Buddha.
That's why Zhang Xianyu called for a Republican Congress, because he had to use the Republican Congress to complete authorization and mobilization first, and then the regent shogunate of the five provinces could start operating and enter a wartime state.
Now, the messengers summoning the scholars of the two academies began to rush towards the Xia Kingdoms in the river, and a big war was about to start.
. . . .
Mulu Mansion, by the Tianshui River, Tianjin Ferry.
Wei Silang and Wei Yingxiong were having breakfast, two fried eggs, a piece of lamb chop that they had not eaten last night, and a plate of green onions and purple onions mixed with olive oil.
The staple food is the freshly prepared flatbread with a small bowl of curry, and then a bowl of white rice porridge, which is many times richer than in Qianxian County, Guanzhong.
It can even be said that when they were in Guanzhong, for several generations of their Wei family, the dinners during holidays were not as sumptuous as the breakfast he had on an ordinary day.
Oh, by the way, there is also a small bowl of vinegar soaked peanuts. This is Wei Yingxiong’s must-have side dish for every meal.
Twenty-one years ago, Wei Yingxiong’s last bite of hometown rice was vinegar-soaked peanuts from his father.
A bad feeling lingers in Wei Yingxiong's heart. Last year, his eldest brother wrote to him saying that his father was in poor health and kept clamoring to see them again.
"There should be a caravan passing by tomorrow. Take fifty guans out to buy some rare items. After the new year, you and I will go back to Guanzhong to meet your parents and pay homage to your ancestors."
When the woman next to Wei Yinghu, who clearly looked like Hu Ji, heard this, her eyes could not help but shine with surprise. She nodded sharply. Although she did not speak, her expression of joy was palpable.
The choice of a wife by the Han warriors from Xia Jun Yimin to Hezhong is actually a very interesting thing.
This place is thousands of miles away from the center of the motherland, and it is not easy to marry an authentic Han girl.
The long journey, the inability to adapt to the local conditions, the natural fear of weapons by most women, and the fact that she can get married well in the Middle-earth and there is no need to go to the river are all obstacles that prevent young Han women from traveling to the five far western provinces.
Even if they come, most of them are hard to describe in terms of appearance and age.
Of course, there are also people who are good in appearance, age and even talent, but Wei Yingxiong is a gentleman who is short and ugly and looks like a short-legged tiger. Basically, don't even think about it.
Moreover, Wei Yingxiong didn't want to marry him. Generally, women from the Han family tend to have high self-esteem and are difficult to deal with.
Just like when his seventh brother Wei Yingbiao married the sixth daughter of Bai Congxin, the King of Zheng, Princess Baihe, it was miserable.
Wei Yingbiao has the authority to govern the Linhai princes with 27,000 households and more than 300,000 people in total. However, it is very frustrating to find a wife who has to look at Princess Baihe's face.
It wasn't until the death of King Bai Congxin of the State of Zheng five years ago. The successor of the King of Zheng, Bai Xuanyi, was not the same mother as Princess Baihe, causing Princess Baihe to lose the strong support of her natal family. Only then did Wei Yingbiao dare to take away his concubine and his children. Take it back.
Therefore, Wei Yingxiong was very open-minded. If others could not marry a Han girl, they would have to marry a grassland girl, plateau girl or even a Sogdian girl with black hair and brown eyes who looked similar to Han people.
Wei Yingxiong didn't. He married three orchids in the fiefdom in one go, each one more beautiful than the last, and each one treated him like a lord.
Isn't this better than marrying a barbaric girl with big hands and feet, rough skin, who can't even speak Chinese, and who holds her head high and pretends to be a Han jade girl, who wants this or that?
However, it is quite refreshing, but there are also sequelae. The sons born by these Hu Ji have some Hu people's appearance. In today's five provinces in the far west, there are indeed no divination women and Tubo ladies. They are almost the same as the Han people. Unique children have a future.
Wei Yingxiong hasn't gone back for so many years, because he is a little worried that if he brings a bunch of Bodhisattva wives and sons who look like Su Nu back, his father will be angry.
Of course, there are no solutions.
Nowadays, there are quite a lot of Zhang Zhou who look like Hu people but are actually Han people.
For example, some Shatuo Wuxun in Daibei and Hedong in Daibei.
For example, when someone passed away fifteen years ago, today's saint personally carried his coffin like a son to his funeral. He was buried in the Beimang Mountain of Luoyang, where every inch of land is precious, and he was given posthumously as Li Shengtian, the Yizu of the West, with the posthumous title of Kang, commonly known as Li Shengtian who supported the emperor.
There are also the Bai family of the Zheng Kingdom on this side of the river, and the Xue, Pei and Li families of the three royal families with five surnames.
They all have a lot of barbarian ancestry and have barbarian looks. Especially Li Shengtian is completely Scythian in appearance, more like a barbarian than the Sogdians and Khorasan people in the river, but you can say that they are Hu people?
Definitely not!
Therefore, a recognition system was formed in the five extreme western provinces. He could speak fluent Heluo Mandarin, knew the hundred Chinese heroic stories compiled by Zhang Shengren when he was in Anxi, and served in the vassal country for two years. above.
Those who meet these three conditions are given a bronze fish charm, engraved with their name, origin, place of origin and other information, and paired with a blue fish bag, which means they are Han Chinese.
If you go further, you are required to be able to recite one of the classics such as Zhouyi, Shangshu, Gongyang Chunqiu, The Analects of Confucius, and Xiaojing. You can be given a silver fish charm and a silver fish bag.
Naturally, this requirement is not low. When it comes to reading, some people just don't have the talent and get a headache when they read a book.
Then such a person can participate in the hometown shooting ceremony held by the Republican Council of the five extreme western provinces, obtain a status as a capital, and finally travel to his hometown, meet the elders in the family, learn the rules of his hometown, and after returning, he can also be given the silver fish talisman and match it. Silverbait bag.
As for the most advanced goldfish charms and goldfish bags, you need to go to Middle-earth to participate in the civil and military examinations, and you can only get them after you come back.
And in order to encourage this kind of return to China to participate in the imperial examination, the Republican Assembly of the five far western provinces will fully reimburse the travel expenses, food and accommodation expenses.
Therefore, in the five extreme western provinces, if you look at whether a person is Han, what his strength and status are, in addition to his appearance, you also need to look at what color belt he has around his waist and what kind of fish charm he can hold in his hand.
This is also the reason why Wei Yingxiong's wife is happy. Wei Yingxiong has seven sons and three daughters. The sons have basically no talent in reading, but they are good at using guns and sticks. Among the seven sons, except for the youngest son who is underage, all have won the title of Dutou.
Among them, Wei Weizhao, the most outstanding second son, won the titles of the five capitals of Qiangu, Bubow, Qianbao, Qiji, and Shenzhen. He was a famous young general in Anfan Kingdom and even among the Xia Kingdoms in the five extreme western provinces. Zheng Guo The great king Bai Xuanyi once praised this son for his great uncle, the famous general Bai Xiaode of the Tang Dynasty.
But because of Wei Yingxiong's worries, he was unable to travel to his hometown in Middle-earth. Now he only wears copper fish charms and cyan fish bags.
Therefore, the wives and children were all eagerly waiting for Wei Yingxiong to take them back to their hometown to exchange a shot with a gun.
Even Wei Yingxiong's two unmarried daughters jumped for joy after hearing this. After their father and brothers were certified, they would be able to obtain corresponding certifications. In the future, whether they are at home or married, their status will be different.
The younger daughter ran out of the door with a smile, then climbed onto a tall horse skillfully, and happily headed to Tianjin Ferry to inform her brothers who were on duty at the ferry.
. . . .
The name Tianjin Ferry comes from the story that Crown Prince Zhang Xianjing led his army to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river 20 years ago. Now it has become one of the main transportation routes connecting Baoshan and Dingyuan provinces in Hezhong.
The Gobi desert side of Mulu City is vast, and the only land that can be cultivated and grazed is on both sides of the Tianshui River. Therefore, the jurisdiction of Tianyang Baron Wei Yingxiong, who has jurisdiction over 7,000 households and 50,000 people, is the land on both sides of the river more than 200 miles above Tianjin Ferry.
At the same time, there was another vassal from Tubo named Qu (Duo) who was sealed in the Tianshui River. Wei Yingxiong was named Tianyang Nan in the upper reaches, and Tianyin Nan in the lower reaches.
Tianjin Ferry, which is like a cash cow, is guarded by two of them, one of whom is responsible for one year.
They could keep 20% of the commercial taxes and taxes on ferry stations, inns, and restaurants, and the remaining 80% were handed over to An Xiaoyuan, Mulubo, who guarded Mulu in Anfan Kingdom.
An Xiaoyuan was the son of the great hero An Sicun, who defeated the Bouveshi dynasty in the battle of Jiasanbao. On Zhuangzhi Mountain outside Jiasanbao, he used hundreds of people to fight against tens of thousands of food troops and held back the main force of the food army.
After An Sicun died in battle, Zhang Xianyu, the king of Anguo, felt his loyalty and took his two sons into his care.
When he grew up, he married his second daughter, Princess Tongcheng, to An Xiaoyuan, the second son of An Sicun. He broke the earth and sealed the Lu Bo here. He commanded two sons, six men and twenty-seven inspectors, and governed 60,000 households and 300 people. Fifty thousand people.
After Mulubo received the 80% of the tax, he would keep 30%, and then hand over 50% of it to the Anfan shogunate. This is how it is done in the five extreme western provinces.
Commercial taxes were collected by the lower vassals, who contributed 20% of the money, and the princes or magistrates in charge kept 30%, and 50% went to the shogunate of the vassal state.
As for land taxes, they were paid directly to the shogunate in the form of tribute, while corvees were assessed based on headcount and wealth.
As for land taxes, they were paid directly to the shogunate in the form of tribute, while corvees were assessed based on headcount and wealth.
The princes and ministers in the vassal country cannot directly manage the princes, princes and inspectors below. They only have command authority when authorized by the shogunate and in wartime. Every vassal, no matter how big or small, is a direct minister of the vassal king. genus.
What the princes and uncles granted further down were their retainers and tribes. These people came from the land they owned, so they were completely under their control.
Gentlemen and below are not allowed to crack the soil, lest they fail to stabilize the place.
When Wei Xiaomei arrived, Wei Erlang Wei Weizhao was drinking at the ferry. Although his father Wei Yingxiong was granted the title of Junnan and was a large baron with jurisdiction over 7,000 households, no one below the rank of a gentleman could crack the earth.
In other words, this Baron Tianyang, Wei Weizhao has no share at all. In addition to having food and drink, he can only get a start-up fund from his father after getting married, and then go to various yamen in the vassal state to beg for food. eat.
Of course, with Wei Weizhao's strength, it would be no problem for him to be the Duke of Yu among the three guards of the king.
But now the situation in the Xia Kingdom in the five extreme western provinces has been basically stable, and there are not many places where swords are needed. It is foreseeable that Wei Weizhaokong is very capable, but his future can be seen at a glance.
This was the reason why he was so depressed that he drank alcohol even when he was a teenager.
Wei Weizhao let out a long sigh. He wished he had been born a few decades earlier, so that he could catch up with the good times of his fathers, the kings of Xia and the barbarians, and establish a huge vassal fiefdom for himself.
The more he thought about it, the more depressed he became. Wei Weizhao waved his servants to get him another two kilograms of wine.
The servant team is wearing a chainmail armor of average workmanship. He has a black face and curly hair. At a glance, he can tell that he is the son of a serf from Tianzhu.
This is a very common phenomenon in the five extreme western provinces, because most of the imperial troops composed of Han people are assigned to wealthy areas and have become the core base of the vassal king.
The lower the title, the fewer Han soldiers there are. At the level of the gentleman, there are only a few Han people who have a good relationship with the gentleman and don't want to go to the mountains and deep valleys to work as patrol officers.
Jun Nan and below, there are almost no Han soldiers in the area.
For example, in the Wei family's fiefdom, among the 7,000 households, only more than 100 households of herdsmen from the grasslands, as well as Wei Yingxiong's wives and concubines, were considered the ruling class.
Of the remaining 6,780 households, 5,500 are from Sogdian, Persian, Oghuz and other Turkic-speaking groups.
They are local indigenous people. Each family cultivates and grazes traditional small plots of land, and bears taxes and labor.
The remaining 1,200 households were basically Wunu bought from Tianzhu one after another. The land they farmed and grazed belonged directly to the Wei family, so in fact they were serfs of the Wei family.
However, being a serf does not mean that your status must be low. After all, the Wei family manages 7,000 households and 50,000 people. The Wei family's eight father and son alone cannot manage them even with three heads and six arms.
Therefore, they need to promote a group of trustworthy people from among these serfs who are completely dependent on them in person and property to become a subordinate.
Some of these tribes were sent to other manors to assist Wei Yingxiong's sons as stewards, and some formed the Wei family tribe of 120 people, responsible for the security and theft in the baron's territory, as well as the most important taxation.
For example, the servant next to Wei Weizhao is Wei Youfu, whose status is far above that of the peasants under the Wei family, and can even be regarded as half of the ruling class.
Curly-haired and dark-faced Wei Youfu had just stepped out of the checkpoint at Tianjin Ferry when he saw a trail of dust brought up by horse hooves in the distance, as if dozens of knights were approaching.
The loyal black-faced Asan felt alarm bells ringing in his heart. He screamed strangely and climbed up to the highest point of the sentry tower.
There is a gong there as a warning. As long as it is rung, smoke will be set off at three secret locations on the ferry.
Then Tianyang Fort, which is twenty miles upstream, and Tianyin Fort, which is seventeen miles downstream, will receive the news.
After receiving the warning, Baron Wei Yingxiong of Tianyang was able to gather fifty prairie cavalry, one hundred and fifty servants and his five sons who were skilled in bow and horse to come to support within two quarters of an hour.
Similarly, Baron Qu Gui of Tianyin will also come with no less than thirty grassland cavalry, one hundred servants and more than three Han soldiers.
Today, in the five far-western provinces, the political situation and public security are basically stable. Occasionally, the original indigenous nobles who are unwilling to be deprived of their privileges make trouble, which is only the scale of a dozen or twenty elites holding a hundred and eighty farmers hostage.
So this arrangement is very suitable, because they obviously can't defeat the dozen or so strong soldiers of the Wei family and the Qu family, the seventy or eighty prairie cavalry, and the two to three hundred servants, not to mention that the Wei family and the Qu family will also set off smoke notices. Nearby large and small Han vassals.
But this time, before Wei Youfu climbed up to the height of the sentry tower, the furious knights rushed into Tianjin Ferry.
Wei Youfu was still crawling, but an arrow with a strange sound and wrapped in cotton was shot three inches above his head with incomparable accuracy.
Wei Youfu immediately stopped moving, because the enemy would not shoot him with arrows. This thing was used for training without arrowheads. It hurt a little but it was difficult to hurt people. Secondly, the opponent's archery was so precise that it was meaningless for him to move. Not big anymore.
However, he was not idle. Although he was sweating profusely from fear, he still shouted at the top of his lungs, shouting for his young master Wei Weizhao to run away quickly.
Of course Wei Weizhao did not escape, because the knights who came were wearing brocade robes with three rabbit ears and three rabbits, which Han nobles like to wear.
This kind of coat of arms was commonly used in the Dunhuang area in the past. Some people say it represents the past life, present life, and next life of Buddhism, while others say it represents the Taoist teachings of one life, two, three, and three.
In any case, the pattern of three rabbits sharing ears was not popular in China. It was not until after Zhang Xuan established the world that this heraldry, which was popular in Dunhuang, became one of the favorite heraldry of Han nobles.
"Zhang Canjun is here. Could it be that the king has some mission?" Wei Weizhao, with more than ten servants, asked the knight at the front with his hands raised.
The visitor was Zhang Zheng, a soldier from Prince An's palace. He was born in ancient times and was the son of a domestic slave brought by Prince An from the grassland.
He joins the army from the eighth rank. He has no fixed position and can be arranged flexibly by the king. He is regarded as a close confidant of the king in the palace.
Wei Weizhao thought that Zhang was here to find him, because Zhang Xianyu, the king of Anguo, knew that Wei Weizhao was proficient in bow and horse and had superb martial arts and had the intention of conquering.
However, Zhang Zheng did not come to find Wei Weizhao. He looked at Wei Youfu who was still lying in the middle of the sentry tower and looked at him very warily and said to Wei Weizhao: "He is a good slave. Wei Erlang, you have trained him well!"
Later, Zhang Zheng took out a roll of brown silk from his waist to teach, ordered people to put up the royal flag and banner of the regent of the five provinces, and shouted:
"In accordance with the order of King Anguo to supervise the military and political affairs of the five provinces, the national scholar Tianyang Man Wei Yingxiong should arrive at the Kangju Republican Palace before the fifth day of September to participate in the emergency republican conference."
"A certain family also wants to inform the vassals and state officials east of Mulu City. Please ask the Wei family brothers to select some principals and juniors who are familiar with the roads."
At this time in the river, the herders coming from the grasslands were also broadly considered to be Han people.
Didn't the Xiongnu say in the past that they were descendants of Xia? In this era of Xia kings and barbarians who needed the joint efforts of the grassland people, the court would naturally pick up this topic.
Therefore, the grassland people are also considered to be Han people, and some are also called Zhu Xia people.
Of course, it is not exactly the same. For example, if people from the grassland do not become vassals, they will be placed under feudal management and resettled on a scale of more than 100 households per male.
There is a small temple for every hundred households, and a master who has returned from studies in Dunhuang, Liangzhou, Chengde and other places is sent to be responsible for the beliefs of these grassland people.
There are no officials among the hundred households, but they are divided into upper and lower ranks: the Disciplinary Knight, the Guiyi Langjun, the Jiabing, the Zhengding, and the Zhuanding.
Among them, in addition to being extremely brave, the disciplinary knights must also be trustworthy in their religious beliefs.
Every disciplinary knight must go to the imperial palace in Luoyang, the divine capital, and be canonized by the supreme emperor himself before he can be called a disciplinary knight.
After these disciplinary knights returned to the five extreme western provinces, the status of vassals below the rank of king and male was not as good as theirs, and they could still receive rewards from the royal family every year.
They were not only the main force in the war, but also an important means for the imperial court to suppress the vassal kings of the five far western provinces and maintain centripetal force.
In fact, there are also such disciplinary knights among the Han people, but they are more hidden. Those Han people who have been to the Central Plains to worship their ancestors, are familiar with the classics, and can tie silver fish bags and hold silver fish charms are all warriors above the head.
The identification of Guiyi Langjun is much simpler. In addition to his bravery, the right to identify him religiously lies in the hands of the Western Medicine Master Liuliguang King Buddha Zhang Xianyu and the Six Dharma Sects of the Five Provinces in the Far West.
The Punishment Knights and Guiyi Langjun together formed the main force of the cavalry in the Xia kingdoms in the five far western provinces. They accepted double-level leadership and were the sharp blades in the hands of the Xia kings and the golden hoops on their heads.
But precisely because of this characteristic, there are not many disciplinary knights and Guiyi Langjun. If there are too many, it will weaken the authority and sense of security of the kings of Xia.
Therefore, a gentleman like Wei Yingxiong only has a small number of armored soldiers and a certain number of regular soldiers among the grassland herders in his hands.
These grassland cavalry are completely unable to accept the leadership of vassals compared with the disciplinary knights and Guiyi Langjun.
It was Zhang Zheng who had come to deliver the message before, and he only asked for a few principals and zhuanding to lead the way.
However, Wei Weizhao was completely shocked by Zhang Zheng's words, because the Republican Congress only held once a year, and there was only one possibility of holding a special conference in the autumn. He suddenly opened his eyes wide, looked at Zhang Zheng in surprise and shouted:
"Zhang Canjun, His Highness the King of the West is in such a hurry to convene a Republican Congress. Is he about to go to war?"
Zhang Zheng came out originally to promote the war. After all, the five provinces in the far west have been stable for so many years. The Han soldiers who originally conquered the world from them all have great careers. They lost Tianjuan City to the Persians twenty years ago. Occupied because the Han soldiers were full and could no longer attack.
Therefore, Zhang Xianyu was still a little worried, fearing that the Han soldiers below would no longer be as fierce as before.
But Zhang Zheng didn't expect that at the moment he nodded, loud cheers rang out. Wei Weizhao and his two brothers jumped up, and the serving principals and junior officers also cheered enthusiastically.
Even Asan Gewei Youfu who was on the guard tower jumped down excitedly and sang and danced.
Twenty years!
Enough for the next generation to grow up.
Wei Yingxiong, the fifth son of Webster, is so full that he can no longer move, but there are still a group of sons below them who cannot inherit the title!
These children have been diligently practicing their killing skills since they were born, and none of them are willing to eat and wait to die. Their parents are full, but they are still hungry.
Even a loser like Wei Youfu is waiting for his only chance to stand up.
Ji performed meritorious service with his master in the war, then learned Chinese characters, spoke Chinese, read classics, and finally went to the conquered place and became a strange Han Chinese. This was the only way out for people like Wei Youfu.
At this time, Wei Xiaomei also rode her horse to Tianjin Ferry. She also heard the news of the upcoming expedition, and looked at her big and round brothers with admiration.
“Young lady, please go back quickly and inform Ye Ye that the King is convening a Republican Congress!
Tell Yeye that my brother has sent Zhang Canjun to Mulu City. When we win the battle, we will go back to Guanzhong to see my grandfather in glory. "
