Under such circumstances, Emperor Zhao neither paid attention to Zhe Keqiu's plea nor cared about Li Ganshun's life or death. He just returned with Yelu Dashi and the two Mongolian kings, and led the army to withdraw along the old Hetao Road, preparing to return to Guanzhong from Xingling.

Arriving at the Hetao Wulahai City, the two Mongolian kings were the first to say goodbye. Zhao Jiu couldn't help but hold their hands and see them off. His attitude was much better than Wuqimai's... and Qu Duan and Yelu Yudu also led part of the troops to stay.

At the end of June, in late summer and early autumn, Zhao Jiu and Yelu Dashi turned south together.

By the beginning of July, after the army entered the Keyi Gate, the surrendered Dangxiang soldiers had been properly divided. Emperor Zhao promised a temporary imperial camp of 10,000. Those who had made contributions and the elite among them were absorbed into the imperial camp system by Yue Fei, Wang De and Li Shifu, and the rest were gradually released according to their age, region and tribe. A small number of older and literate Dangxiang people were granted positions such as Tongpan and Acting County Magistrate.

However, more of those who served as the so-called "acting county magistrates", or even were directly appointed as acting military governors or acting prefects by imperial decrees, were the Jinshi scholars who had sufficient qualifications and military merits in the army... According to the public political commitment announced by Emperor Zhao at Keyi Gate, these Jinshi scholars who originally only had fifth-class scores in the palace examination and would never have had the possibility of entering a proper official career in their entire lives, would not be demoted as long as they could ensure the stability of the Xinna area and the operation of basic affairs such as the autumn harvest and taxation, even if the capital province later adjusted and merged small states and counties such as Xixia, they would be transferred to other places to serve as officials.

In other words, a considerable number of Jinshi who served in the army accumulated military merits and qualifications and actually officially entered the official career.

Not only that, as soon as they passed the Keyi Gate, Zhao Jiu once again officially issued an edict to dismiss Hu Hongxiu from his title of Assistant Minister of War and replaced him with the official post of Governor of Ningxia Road. He also redeemed the political promise he had made in the Wende Hall on the spot and conferred the title of Marquis Dingyuan on this civil servant who was a former Taixue student.

General Hu, who still had short hair, jumped from an almost marginalized editor of the Privy Council to the rank of general, and became the highest-ranking local official in the empire in just over half a year. Because of his title, he even surpassed his old boss Liu Ziyu, Lin Jingmo, who was the top civil official among his former close ministers, and Wang Yan, who once touched the threshold of becoming a general... This almost crazy thing, but no one opposed it.

Because everyone knows that the meritorious service rendered by this young soldier Hu is enough to make him go down in history and transcend the shackles of an ordinary official position.

When history books are written in the future, this almost legendary experience of his may take up more words than the life stories of some prime ministers.

Towards mid-July, the Song-Liao coalition forces arrived at Xingqing Prefecture.

Moreover, after hearing that Emperor Zhao had entered the Keyi Gate, Guanzhong sent a large number of accumulated documents, memorials, and notes. When they arrived at Xingqing Prefecture at this time, the densely packed memorials just came pouring in.

Yelu Dashi understood the situation and went into the city to sit down. Not only did he ask to stay the night outside the city, he also directly asked for leave to return to the west.

Of course Zhao Jiu knew that this was supposed to happen, and he had made preparations early on, letting Wang De stay behind to protect him, while Yue Fei led all the other troops to "escort" the Khitans out of Lanzhou... He also intended to take over the entire Lanzhou area and sweep the Xishou Baotai Military Division which had not yet been stabilized.

Of course, no matter what, as we said that day, after we say goodbye today, we don’t know when we will meet again. Besides, he is the emperor after all, so Emperor Zhao must personally go out of the city thirty miles to see him off.

But on the previous night, someone dared to wake up Emperor Zhao from his sleep as he was going to do some physical exercise the next day.

"Your Majesty!" Yang Yizhong, who had arrived overnight, bowed down in the old palace of Western Xia despite being exhausted.

"Just say it!" Zhao Jiu sat up from the couch. He just heard the voice and was unable to urge him under the candlelight that had just been lit.

"I am incompetent!" Yang Yizhong bowed his head in front of the couch. "I am so ashamed that I have not found any information. After careful investigation, I found that the names of several people who reported were all fake. I only found some distant descendants of Zhang Yongzhen's clan, and they couldn't explain it clearly... But Hou Dan has a legitimate cousin whose family is still alive. I took the initiative to find a child from his cousin's children and adopted him. The rewards and favors were also given directly according to the orders of the government."

"That's good... In fact, it's been six or seven years, and Lou Shi has been to Yan'an twice, so it's normal that he can't find it. But cousin Hou Dan is lucky." Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment, then he laughed dryly.

"Yes." Yang Yizhong responded quickly.

"Those women and children who pretended to be Zhang Yongzhen's wives and children to look for you, you didn't cause any trouble for them, did you?" Zhao Jiu suddenly remembered something.

"No, I just scolded them and sent them back. Some of them were obviously deceived by their clans and husbands, so I took the initiative and dealt with the men."

"That's good. You've worked hard, go and have a rest!" Zhao Jiu couldn't urge her, and he didn't ask in detail, nor did he dare to ask in detail. "Let the local officials of Yan'an and Longxi look for this matter slowly and carefully later."

"yes……"

"Is there anything else?" Zhao Jiu came to his senses.

"Just before I left, the Prince of Yan'an returned from the Jinning Army and held a grand banquet in the city for several days. He seized the spoils and stocks of Yan'an Prefecture and used them as rewards for his relatives and friends."

"Got it." Zhao Jiu nodded, his expression unchanged. "Anything else?"

"Only 20 to 30 percent of the registered permanent residents in Yan'an remain. The actual population is estimated to be 20 to 30 percent less."

"Anything else?"

"Yang Zheng..."

"Let's wait and see what Wu Jie has to say to me about this matter."

"Zhe Keqiu..."

"We'll talk about this when we get back to Beijing."

"yes."

"Anything else?" Zhao Jiu asked.

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