Fu Song

Chapter 702 Xiao Chuo's Worries

(Work tasks have been adjusted again, serving people's bowls, serving people's management, there is no way! I have never touched the new job before, my eyes are darkened, I don't understand anything, I am so busy day in and day out that I am still full of brains Muddy. Now I can’t even guarantee that a chapter is updated every day. If there is no update at [-]:[-] a.m. every day, then it’s nothing. Everyone scold me. But I will still work hard to ensure the update.)
The summer of the fifth year of the Song Dynasty was hotter than in previous years, but compared to the current confrontation between Song and Liao, it seemed nothing.

Since the two sides broke out in Sui County in the third year of the Tian Song Dynasty, a battle involving 10 soldiers from both sides, in the past two years, both sides have seemed extremely calm.

The battle in Sui County was destined to be recorded in the annals of history.

This battle was an absolute victory for the Song army against the Liao army after the fall of Tokyo. Tens of thousands of people from both sides participated in the battle, and gunpowder weapons appeared on the battlefield on a large scale.

Dozens of cannons fired at the same time and began to mop up the charging Liao cavalry several miles away. Then, within a range of nearly a hundred steps, they used dense bows to cover and shoot, allowing the Liao cavalry who rushed past the range of the artillery to attack again. hit.

The Liao cavalry used throwing gunpowder weapons to attack the dense infantry formation of the Song army.

The infantry phalanx was originally a magic weapon for the Song army to deal with the Liao cavalry attack, but under the attack of gunpowder weapons, it suffered heavy losses for a while.

Although this battle ended with Song's victory, the Song army also paid a huge price.

And this battle also represents that since then, the face of the war has been changing step by step.

The two years of peace did not bring much benefit to the people of this world, especially the people in the north.

Because the Liao Kingdom and its affiliated countries are trying their best to accumulate a force that can destroy the world in their eyes, and they want to sweep the Song Kingdom with the momentum of Mount Tai, and will never give the Song Kingdom any chance to breathe.

Heavier taxes, heavier corvee, and the people in the north, not to mention the people in the former Song territory of the Puppet Jin, Puppet Zhao, and Puppet Qi, even the mainland of Liao Kingdom, are also complaining.

If it hadn't been for these years, the political reform presided over by Empress Dowager Chengtian Xiao Chuo had made certain achievements, thus alleviating the internal conflicts in the Liao Kingdom, I am afraid that the Liao Kingdom would have been in chaos long ago.

The political reform of the Liao Kingdom made the power highly concentrated in the hands of the Zhongjing court. Strictly speaking, it was concentrated in the hands of the Empress Dowager Chengtian.

And Xiao Chuo's purpose is to have a final decisive battle with Song State in a short time.

Endure temporary pain in exchange for long-term peace and stability.

This is the strategy Xiao Chuo used to persuade the dignitaries of the Liao Kingdom.

Yeluzhen, Yelu Longxu and other senior officials of the Liao Kingdom who knew the domestic situation of the Song Dynasty also recognized Xiao Chuo's national policy. The imperial party and the queen party reached a rare agreement on this matter.

No one wants to have another hundreds of years of confrontation with Xin Song who has been entrenched in Jiangning.

And now it seems that Jiangning Xinsong is a thriving young tiger. If he can't be strangled when he is still young, it is really uncertain who will win and who will lose in the future.

The Battle of Sui County was a wake-up call to the elites of the Liao Kingdom.

Lu Ben'an was not a waste. In that battle, apart from the fact that Chen Tiansong of the Puppet State of Qi slipped away because of his wrong knowledge, there were not many problems with Lu Ben'an's command and arrangement in other places.

And in the later replay, it became clear that even if Chen Tiansong didn't run away, the Liao Kingdom had no hope of winning this battle, and it could only cause more damage to the Song Kingdom.

The more he felt that Jiangning and Xinning had shown their ferocious minions, the more hasty the pace of launching the Southern Expedition again became.

In the border areas such as Hebei Road, Jingji Road, and Jingdong Road, people already felt that the cloud of war had weighed heavily on their heads.

That is, in this August, a shocking news about the Western Army shocked the entire Zhongjing.

The Western Army under the command of Great Xia King Xiao Ding announced to return to the banner of the Great Song Dynasty, and Xiao Ding resigned to the throne.

And the Song Dynasty re-established the Anxi Dadu Protectorate.

Xiao Ding was appointed as the guardian of Anxi Dufu Mansion, and was given the title of Grand Master.

Different from the Anxi Metropolitan Protector in the Tang Dynasty, Xiao Dingren's Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate also included Qingtang under the rule of the Metropolitan Protectorate.

Although it was just a name change, it was Xi Jun who showed his attitude to the world.

In this great battle between Song and Liao, the Western Army stood on the side of Song.

For a long time, the Liao State has adopted a policy of wooing and sticking to the Western Army. Even if it cannot make the Western Army fall to itself, it will never allow him to fall to the Song State.

And the Western Army has always shown considerable enthusiasm for self-reliance.

Regarding this point, the Liao Kingdom is happy to see its success.

Now, without any warning, the Western Army suddenly fell to Song State, which had to be shocking.

This represents the northwest direction of Daliao, which will face a great threat from the Western Army.

When Yeluzhen stepped into the water room where the Empress Dowager Chengtian rested, Xiao Chuo didn't deal with political affairs, but sat there leisurely embroidering flowers.

There is no heat in the house. The huge water wheel outside lifts the water from the pond and sprinkles it on the roof. The cool water gurgles down the roof, taking away the heat.

This was the first time Yeluzhen saw Xiao Chuo working as a female celebrity, which made him a little dazed.

From the time he met Xiao Chuo, Xiao Chuo gave him the impression of an extremely strong character.

Even in front of Yelujun, Xiao Chuo never showed any weakness.

Talking to Yelujun about governing the country, she was clear and straightforward, without any stage fright. The key is her many insights, even Yelujun, Yeluzhen and Lin Ping at that time were ashamed.

At that time, Xiao Chuo was only a teenage girl.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Chuo was already in his early thirties.

And he will be fifty years old.

"Sit!" Xiao Chuo smiled and handed the embroidery stretcher in his hand to Yeluzhen: "The emperor will be sixteen in two months, and I am going to embroider a purse for him as a gift."

Yeluzhen took the embroidering stretcher with a smile, looked at the lifelike white horse galloping on it, and said: "I really don't know that the Queen Mother is also good at female red, which is comparable to those embroiderers in the palace." It's much better."

Xiao Chuo laughed: "When I was young, female celebrity was a compulsory course for us. It doesn't matter if you don't know poetry, but if you don't know female celebrity, you will really be disgusted by others."

"The empress dowager is a god, no matter what she does, she is always the best!" Yeluzhen didn't feel that she was flattering, and in his heart, Empress Dowager Xiao Chuo was really such a person.

Governing the country is not inferior to Yelujun.

Although the burden on the people of the Liao Kingdom is extremely heavy now, and it has not improved much compared to Yelujun's era, this is because Daliao is exhausting all its strength to prepare for the Southern Expedition. If it were not for this, the current Daliao would definitely be The wealthiest era ever.

And in terms of poetry, song and Fu, he is not inferior to those scholars in Daliao.

"I originally embroidered a purse with a green cow and planned to give it to Xiao Se, but I didn't expect it to be delivered!" I took out another purse from a bamboo radish beside me, and threw it to Yeluzhen: "It's really for me. Two months of hard work went to waste, and I was pissed off."

Xiao Se, Xiao Bo's daughter, was destined to be Ye Luxian's queen two years ago, and she will welcome her after Ye Luxian turns 16.

Ye Luxian will be 16 years old in two months. Originally, Zhongjing was already preparing for the emperor's wedding. No one thought that at this time, it would be revealed that Xiao Se had another lover. She was caught by the emperor who went to see her.

The youthful emperor was furious, and even led his men to personally chase and kill the man of God who had fascinated Xiao Se.

In broad daylight, this divine man was beheaded by the emperor on the streets of Zhongjing.

The emperor vented his anger, but this incident was completely exposed, and the Liao court couldn't cover it up even if it wanted to.

The embarrassment is not limited to the emperor Ye Luxian!

Under the rage of the Empress Dowager Chengtian, the dead god-man was killed by the barbarian clan, while Xiao Se was bestowed to death, and all his clan members were reduced to shepherd slaves.

Many people think that this matter is the masterpiece of Empress Dowager Chengtian from beginning to end, because she did not want the emperor to get married.

Because once the emperor gets married, she will return to power and lose her power.

Xiao Chuo never defended this matter.

But Yeluzhen learned more from Yelu Longxu.

The matter between Xiao Se and that person is still true.

Xiao Se was chosen by the imperial party because it was easy to control.

Xiao Se's father, Xiao Bo, has already died in battle, and his family's influence is not great. Xiao Se's high position, his family is not to be feared.

But Yelu Longxu also believed that it was the Empress Dowager Chengtian who was clever in her methods. After finding out about this matter, she arranged all this skillfully, leaving people speechless.

In this way, the day of the emperor's wedding must be postponed indefinitely, and what happened, the imperial party also lost the right to choose a queen for the emperor, because they had no eyesight before.

At this time, if he hurriedly proposes to choose another concubine for the emperor, the empress dowager must be the main one, which the imperial party does not want to see.

So they also fell silent.

"The daughter of the Xiao family is so stupid that she has shamed the royal family!" Yeluzhen said: "The queen mother has already given her a great grace by not punishing her three clans."

"Xiao Bo died for the country after all." Xiao Chuo shook his head: "We must not let the soldiers feel cold. King Zhennan, let's put this matter aside for now, and choose a virtuous man for the emperor after it cools down." Shude's daughter!"

"The empress dowager is very worried. If she is in a hurry to choose a concubine for the emperor, the world will only remind the world of this scandal again." Yeluzhen nodded and said: "And empress dowager, the change of flag in Northwest Xiao Ding is of great importance, and this is the top priority right now."

"Although my eldest brother held the Song flag to declare the independence of the Western Army, I knew him, and he still regarded himself as a Song minister in his heart. After the second brother rose to power in Jiangning, his heart became stronger!" In front of Yeluzhen, Xiao Chuo Yeluzhen never shy away from talking about her life experience, and has always been open and honest. Yeluzhen appreciates this kind of calmness, but at the same time, she feels more at ease.

"However, the composition of the Western Army is complex, with mixed forces. Although the Song people occupy a dominant position in the Western Army, they are not the majority. The armies of various tribes are the main force. Although the iron kite and Bubazi are excellent in combat power, But if the tribes rebel, it will be hard to fight with two fists. But this time, what made the Western Army suddenly unify their thinking? You must know that the leaders of these tribes all responded one by one. Thinking of being a country for themselves, they would like to be appointed as a marquis and prime minister!"

"Half a year ago, Tuoba Yangwei and Xiao Jing visited Jiangning, and they lingered in Jiangning for a month." Yeluzhen took a deep breath and said, "They must have seen what made them there. So much so that they all thought that in this battle between Song and Liao, the Song people would have the upper hand."

"That's right!" Xiao Chuo nodded and said, "The chiefs of the tribes headed by Tuoba Yangwei have always been fearful of power and not virtuous. They are convinced only by those whose fists are harder than theirs. Can make Tuoba Yangwei You think the Song people will win, what do you think, King Zhennan?"

"It can only be a gunpowder weapon!" Yeluzhen said with certainty: "It is true that the Nanren navy is stronger than ours, but whether it is the Huaihe River or the Yangtze River, it is impossible for our Daliao to attack with all our strength. Tuoba Yangwei is the Dangxiang clan The knowledge of the wise man in the middle is not inferior to that of a minister, so I thought about it and found the only thing that can make him make a decision. The Song people are now ahead of us, and that is the gunpowder weapon!"

"Gunpowder weapons!" Xiao Chuo narrowed his eyes, "When I was very young, my second brother described the power of gunpowder weapons to me. Later, my second brother really made gunpowder that can easily kill people But at that time, he must have thought that one day I would stand opposite him, so he never kept these things from me."

"So our Daliao now also has gunpowder weapons."

"But as far as I know, it's only superficial!" Xiao Chuo shook his head and said, "In the past ten years, we have been thrown away by them. With the appearance of bronze artillery, the range can reach more than four miles. Even the fastest horses are doomed. We have made ceramic projectiles, but they are even better with iron hand cannons. But just these, how can we make Tuoba think that we will definitely lose?"

"He must have seen something more powerful than these." Yeluzhen said.

"King Zhennan, I think you can understand better now why I am afraid of my second brother and why I am eager to fight to the death with Song Guo?" Xiao Chuo said: "When I was young, I thought that what my second brother told me , are all stories. But when I grew up, I suddenly found that those stories that my second brother said are becoming reality one by one. Although more than ten years have passed in the middle. If those are not stories but true, then if we continue to delay like this, I'm afraid the people of Song Dynasty will easily defeat us."

"What exactly did Xiao Fuzheng tell you?"

"I thought it was a myth!" Xiao Chuo shook his head and said, "Now that I tell you, you will never believe it. In fact, I don't really believe it, but even if I discount the story of my second brother , I am also frightened, so Zhennan Wang, I want to quickly defeat Song Guo and capture my second brother back."

"As long as Xiao Fuzheng is willing, when the time comes to our Daliao, I think he can also serve as assistant government. I will definitely support it!" Yeluzhen laughed.

Xiao Chuo laughed loudly: "The king of Zhennan is full of fists, I know, let's talk about it after we defeat them and capture my good second brother back to Zhongjing!"

(End of this chapter)