Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 220: The Pretext of War
Xiande's five years passed peacefully, Shi Congyun didn't do anything except bring a lot of presents to visit Liu Renshan and Zhou Xingfeng who were at home idly, and closed the door to see no one.

Liu Renshan's complexion gradually improved, and when he saw him again, he was relatively peaceful. Although the two were enemies, the old Liu was a Confucian general who read a lot and didn't care too much. admiration for his achievements.

Zhou Xingfeng became much irritable, and he was still yelling that if Shi Congyun hadn't cheated (using fire and thunder) in the Sanjiangkou battle, he would never have lost, but when her wife opened her mouth, she immediately cursed and became much more honest. .

In fact, for him, such a day is also very good.

Years passed quickly, and in Xiande's sixth year, everything was busy.

"Is there only these?" Shi Congyun clapped a large pile of armor piles, extending from one corner of the warehouse to the other side. The piles of things filled the entire long room, which was tens of meters from east to west, and the height was even higher than he.

The surface of the armor was coated with butter, smooth and greasy to the touch, without any dust.

In addition to the warehouse here, there are several long rooms like this outside, which are used by the Ministry of War to store armor and weapons.

"There are currently 1 armors in the warehouse, including 210 six iron armors. If we work overtime now, it is estimated that we can add about [-] pieces by May, mainly because the cowhide in the warehouse is running out.

Over the past few years, the imperial army has been expanding its army, and it has been fighting for years, which has caused a huge loss. The cowhide turned in by the local area is not enough for a while, and it cannot be replenished. I hope the commander will take care of it. Many, I hope the commander-in-chief will give us more time. "Military Minister Tao Gu said cautiously, his face was full of nervousness, and there were faint beads of sweat on his forehead. He was originally a timid person.

Now that the Imperial Army has expanded to over 4 hatchbacks, the Ministry of War suddenly doesn't have that many armors to distribute to the soldiers. He is very afraid that Shi Congyun will get angry and blame him.

Shi Congyun nodded. The main material of armor is cowhide, and because of years of wars, cowhide is an important strategic resource.

The amount of these things can almost determine how many armors a country can make, and how many armors can determine the country's military strength.

In the simplest terms, a tall person like Shi Congyun doesn't need to know any martial arts at all, as long as he is covered with more than five layers of cowhide to ensure that arrows will not easily kill him, and he rushes to the place with an ax or a big sword. If you go into the crowd of people on the other side, you can kill the other side with fear.

When the Mongols attacked the cities of the Southern Song Dynasty, they used a trick. They couldn’t make good armor like the Song Dynasty. They often found some tall and strong men, put ten layers of cowhide on the ordinary armor, and they could hold the ordinary bow. The crossbow charged into battle.

So cowhide is an important strategic material in this era.

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, due to successive years of wars, the supply of cowhide has been in short supply. Various dynasties and separatist regimes have strictly controlled and required every state and county to hand over a fixed amount of cowhide to the court every year, which is much more than before.

Moreover, since the end of the Tang Dynasty, it has been stipulated that all cowhide must be handed over to the imperial court. Even if the amount is enough, it cannot be kept privately, traded privately, let alone sold to neighboring countries, otherwise it will be a capital offense if found.

In the year before the Great Eve, the government was sympathetic to the people all over the world, so they ordered that as long as there was enough cowhide that should be handed in that year, the rest of the people could buy and sell by themselves. Of course, they still could not be sold to neighboring countries, but it was already a great thing for the people.

Shi Congyun thought to himself that the official family is a wise ruler in many aspects. At least it is a blessing for the country to have Guo Wei and Guo Rong.

"I don't blame you for this incident. The increase in troops last year was indeed too much. In the past few years, the increase in troops has been increased year after year, and there have been many wars in the south and north. It is certain that the loss is huge.

Last year, there was an increase of two troops, close to 5 people. There are a large number of armor and weapons. I have also been to the military supervisor under the Ministry of War. The craftsmen there are indeed busy. There are hundreds of workshops by the Bian River. They are all working overtime, so someone can see all this, Master Tao can rest assured.

However, Master Tao, please continue to urge the craftsmen of the Ministry of War to work overtime, make more as soon as possible, and then think of a way. This is a major matter related to the survival of the country, and it cannot be neglected, otherwise you and I will not be able to bear this responsibility. "Shi Congyun said as he walked.

Tao Gu nodded again and again: "I will definitely do my best, please rest assured, Commander!"

Shi Congyun nodded. He has been inspecting these war supplies for the past few days, from the warehouse in the north of the city to the warehouse of the Ministry of War. Because the successive victories in the past few years have made the Imperial Army flourish, the officials' confidence in the Imperial Army has skyrocketed, and the army has continued to expand.

The important consequence of the military expansion is that the armaments cannot keep up. After all, Dazhou is only a regional power with a separate regime, and its economy and population are far behind.

At the beginning of the Han and Tang Dynasties, almost 50 million troops were raised, and these were only standing troops. If the whole country went to war, a large number of reserve personnel could be temporarily recruited and armed with huge arsenals in time, just like an important Han Dynasty discovered by contemporary archaeologists. The county has more than 50 crossbows in stock, and such a huge armament needs the support of comprehensive national strength.

They have a huge territory and a large population, so it will not be so difficult to raise them.

But now, let alone the 50 forbidden army of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it has already begun to be unable to do what it wants as soon as it has expanded to about 18, and armor weapons and other armaments have begun to be in short supply.

Shi Congyun's head hurts. There are about [-] vacancies for armor and weapons. This is the number announced by the court.

Because war must have reserve reserves, armor and weapons are good, the wear and tear in the war is very large, it is necessary to have enough reserves, and these surplus materials are actually only enough for reserves, so he did not rush to ask the Ministry of War to send these things to the camp Send out the generals.

This is not a small amount, he is now the chief inspector in front of the palace, he didn't need to worry about these things before, but now he has to worry about them.

Shi Congyun lamented that the national power is still not enough.

He never had to worry about these things before, he could just concentrate on fighting, but now he can't, he needs to manage the entire 12 imperial guards in front of the palace.

The Privy Council is a military decision-making body, with great power, but it is not their responsibility to manage and coordinate the eating, drinking and messing of soldiers, and ultimately he is in charge.

Before going to bed at night, he told Zhao Shijian about these troubles, and the little girl suggested whether to seek help from those military commanders, such as Fu Yanqing, the military commander of the Tianxiong Army.

Shi Congyun was taken aback. This is indeed a solution. These local large-scale military governors, such as Zhaoyi Army Jiedu Envoys and Tianxiong Army Jiedu Envoys, who have been guarding the frontier for a long time, pay taxes first before they go up. If you hand it over, you must hoard a large amount of military supplies to strengthen your own strength.

He has a good relationship with the Fu family.
But in the end Shi Congyun dismissed this idea. The Fu family was already a huge force. If he begged like this, he would owe the Fu family favors. He didn't want to be swayed by the Fu family.

He vaguely sympathized with the official family, or felt the same way. They all married the daughters of the Fu family. On the one hand, they all needed help from the Fu family.

Not to mention the three generations of the Fu family who were crowned kings, only Fu Yanqing's generation, they have seven or eight brothers, four Jiedu envoys, a bunch of assassins, defense envoys, etc., who can guarantee that if the Fu family continues to grow, will they follow suit? What about the immortal king Guo Wei coming with a yellow flag?

Shi Congyun also didn't want to be in debt to the Fu family, so he didn't agree to this matter.

We can only suppress the matter for the time being, at worst, the more than 4 recruits will not go north for now, he thought so.

At the beginning of March in the sixth year of Xiande, Shi Congyun discussed with the officials and several prime ministers and decided to let Han Tong go north first, and recruit civilians to Hebei to repair and widen the river in Cangzhou, so that the follow-up army ships can go north smoothly.

Han Tong took the order, and on the second day of March, he was ordered to leave the capital and go north to deal with this matter.

At the same time, on the fourth day of March, Li Jixun, who was beaten by Liu Renshan because of his negligence in Shouzhou, was also transferred back to the capital. He was already the commander of the guard infantry and the third in command of the guard department, but he was punished and demoted He was the envoy of the Heyang Festival, and now he is finally transferred back to the capital after several years. The officials are preparing to fight a big war, and all the generals will be transferred back.

On March [-], the Huainan Jiedu envoy and the commander of the bodyguards and horse infantry troops, Li Chongjin, rushed back from Yangzhou, Huainan, and began to command the bodyguards again.

Shi Congyun didn't go to see him. He and Li Chongjin had a bad relationship, and they couldn't speak well when they met. In addition, they are now the leaders of the two divisions of the Imperial Army, so it's not appropriate to meet.

In addition, a large number of generals from other towns were gradually transferred to the capital.

Anyone with a little brain knows that the government is going to make a big move, and this time the move is different from the previous ones. Almost all the generals have begun to mobilize back to Beijing.

By March [-]th, Shi Congyun rode to the Privy Council Office early in the morning to discuss with Wei Renpu and others about the dispatch of troops, and everyone had already begun to prepare an excuse for dispatching troops.

It is very important to be famous, even if you have absolute power.

Comparing the two superpowers in the future, country m and country s, they both sent troops to Central Asia, and their heads were broken and bloody. They are all naked aggression, but the difference is that country s is almost boycotted by the whole world, and country m But there is not so much public opinion pressure.

why?
Because country S is stupid, it doesn't use its brain when doing things, and thinks that its armed forces are extremely powerful and invincible in the world.As a result, even the famous war excuses of a division were not bothering to find. As a result, the domestic people did not support it, and the morale of their soldiers was low and they did not want to fight.

And country m is very cunning, it is best to have a reason to go to war, and if there is no reason to create a reason, it must be "famous".

This is a bit like the reason why Jushou and Tian Feng dissuaded Yuan Shao from fighting Cao Cao in a hurry to fight Guandu. Our own strength is strong, but the emperor is still with Cao Cao. Can we become rebels once we fight?At that time, the outside world will criticize and criticize, and their morale may be low and unpopular. They should find a reasonable excuse to start the war.

As for the pretext for the Liao Kingdom's war, everyone discussed it all afternoon, and one of them was unquestionable, that is, to take back the Sixteen States of Yanyun.

In this way, they already have something to say to the outside world, which can reassure countries such as Southern Tang, Shu, Southern Han, Wuyue, and Northern Han.

But internally, how to appease the domestic people and soldiers still needs an excuse.

Their top leaders have ambitions, but the common people think differently.

At this time, there was no concept of the Chinese nation, nor any sense of historical responsibility or national responsibility.

Most of the common people do not know a single character, and it is difficult to live. How can they have the time to learn and understand these things from you.

Most people will only think that if you don’t fight, we will live the same way. Why do you want us to work hard, shed blood and tears, and our families are destroyed. Is there any benefit for us to fight down the sixteen states?Anyway, it's not a hard life.

It is indeed reasonable to think about this matter from the standpoint of every ordinary person, and many people have this kind of thinking at present.

Therefore, we also need an excuse for war internally. They proposed that the Liao Kingdom sent troops last year and before, looting their border people, killing hundreds of people, and looting thousands of people as an excuse. This kind of real hatred is necessary. .

In the afternoon, the officials also came, and they showed the officials the written proclamation they discussed, and the officials were very satisfied after reading it.

While everyone was discussing, the north sent an urgent battle report. In order not to disturb them, Wei Renpu went out to the outside room to listen to the battle report, but he came in with a smile after he went out for a while.

The official asked curiously: "Is there any good news from the front line?"

"Reporting to the official family, it's not a good news, it's from Hebei. Xiao Siwen, who stayed behind in Nanjing in Liao Kingdom, led his army to seize a county in the north of our Hebei."

Everyone was stunned, isn't this bad news? We Wei Renpu still laughed like this, but we quickly realized it.

"The teacher is famous now!" Wang Pu also stroked his beard and smiled.

At the end of spring and March, Xiao Siwen, who stayed behind in Nanjing, Liao Kingdom, gave a pillow to Da Zhou, who was sleepy. He was probably eager to perform or get some military exploits to get promoted, or he might simply be cheap. Seeing that Zhou Jun was lax in defense I was moved.

No matter what it is, his approach has helped Da Zhou a lot. The imperial court was trying to arouse the enthusiasm of the people and soldiers for war and reduce conflicts. Xiao Siwen immediately did such a thing.

In the next few days, the officials ordered Tao Gu, Lu Duoxun, and Jurun of the Imperial Academy to immediately draft articles angrily denouncing the crimes of the Liao Kingdom. Many of them were exaggerated and then circulated, saying that the Liao Kingdom attacked the northern border town and captured the large In several counties in Zhou Dynasty, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were massacred.

For a time, the people of Da Zhou were full of grievances, and the capital and its surrounding counties were indignant. Many scholars went to Beijing to petition outside the Donghua Gate, hoping that the imperial court would send troops to severely punish the Liao Kingdom.

At most, there were as many as a thousand people, and the streets outside Donghuamen were full of people.

The officials then took Shi Congyun and Li Chongjin out to meet people under the protection of many Forbidden Army officers and soldiers, and at the same time assured them that they would severely punish the Liao Kingdom and seek justice for the people.

The matter spread quickly, and by the end of April, after more than a month of fermentation, the matter had spread widely in Zhou State, and the whole country of Zhou State began to support the Northern Expedition.

Unsurprisingly, the most suitable general in the minds of the common people and soldiers was Shi Congyun who had successively defeated the Northern Han Dynasty, Khitan (Xinkou had a small victory, blowing away), Shu Kingdom, Tang Kingdom, Nanping, and Wuping.

Officials also complied with public opinion. At the Great Court Meeting on April 28, Tong Zhongshu was formally appointed as Pingzhangshi, the inspector of the school, and Shi Congyun in front of the palace.

Shi Congyun thought to himself, I'm afraid Xiao Siwen is still confused.

He probably thought that fighting a county would be the same as before, and it was not a year or two since they fought with Da Zhou on the border. He didn't expect that this time they would recruit a hundred thousand troops from Zhou!

(End of this chapter)