Song Gexing

Chapter 4 has really changed a bit

Zhao Fang smiled and took him to the desk, pointed to the map in the book and said: "Dad, please read, it will be interesting to compare these two books."

Zhao Zhen picked up the book curiously and took a look. When he opened the page, it was a topographic map from Yanzhou to Xiazhou.

"Yuanhe County Map" is a geographical book compiled by Li Jifu, a famous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, covering the entire territory of the Tang Dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, Dr. Taichang, a music historian, felt that there was a shortage of books and compiled the book "Taiping Huanyu Ji" based on the "Yuanhe County Map" during the Taiping and Xingguo years.

The scope of content has been greatly expanded, including not only geographical atlases, but also folklore from various places, biographies of outstanding figures, calligraphy inscriptions, etc.

A total of two hundred volumes and more than 100 million words are similar to an encyclopedia, and even legends about immortals and Buddhas are included.

The little kid Zhao Fang is now reading this book. Zhao Zhen is naturally very curious and doubts whether he can understand it.

But after Zhao Fang heard what he said, he proudly pointed to the canyon near Xiji County at the foot of Liupan Mountain in the picture and said: "This place is so strange. It looks dangerous, but through it is our Yangmulong Fortress." , Dad, why do we set up a fortress here? This road can easily be ambushed!"

Zhao Zhen's expression changed, and he stared at him suspiciously and said, "What kind of ambush? What on earth are you reading? Are children allowed to talk too much about military matters?"

After asking three times in a row, Zhao Fang pursed his lips and looked like he was about to cry.

Empress Cao suddenly felt distressed. She hugged him and looked at Zhao Zhen and said, "Brother is right. This is indeed a good place for an ambush. Officials don't know how to fight, so they know how to scare children."

Zhao Zhen looked at the always virtuous queen and was speechless. He shook his head and looked at her and said, "This book belongs to the queen, right?"

Empress Cao nodded and said, "The officials won't find a teacher for him. After I become a military commander, there are only books like this. I can't even learn the classics myself, so how can I teach him."

Zhao Zhen had no choice but to admit his mistake and promised to take this matter into consideration and find a good teacher for his son as soon as possible.

Empress Cao then looked at Zhao Fang curiously and asked, "How do you know about the war? Mother didn't remember telling you this."

"The eldest lady didn't say anything, but my son is reading the military books by himself! My son has read both "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Wu Zi's Art of War"."

"Yes, a monster was born."

Zhao Zhen touched his head helplessly and said solemnly: "Brother, remember that you are a prince and you should read more scriptures. Military commanders learn military books and strategies. If you let the courtiers know that you read military books at such a young age, they will be scolded. .”

"Yeah! Why?"

Pretending to be ignorant of the world, Zhao Fang blinked and asked.

Zhao Zhen shook his head and said: "Our Song Dynasty uses culture to control military affairs. The prince should not learn this."

"wrong!"

Zhao Fang retorted crisply, snorted and wrinkled his little nose and said: "Dad, have you forgotten that Emperor Taizu was a military general? Taizong also went to the battlefield. Although he was far behind Taizu, he also learned the art of war. Son Is it wrong to inherit the ancestors? Which minister is not willing to ask him if he dares to call Taizu Taizong a martial artist?"

With a "hiss", Zhao Zhen froze in astonishment, and asked hesitantly after a long while, "Brother, did you come up with these words yourself?"

"alright!"

Zhao Fang nodded his head as if it was a matter of course.

The news spread outside the palace that day, causing a commotion immediately.

The generals high-fived each other and gathered together secretly to be excited. The civil servants frowned, worried that the next emperor would change the ancestral system, but no one really dared to refute this.Who dares to deny that Taizu Taizong immediately conquered the world and said that they are warriors, that is a serious crime of deceiving the emperor.

Besides, the eldest son of the emperor didn't say that he didn't study. No matter how smart a young child is, can you still ask him like an adult?

"Do you think the words of the eldest son of the emperor are slandering Taizong?"

"It seems to be hey!"

"Why are you paying attention to this? He is the great-grandson of Taizong, and he is not of the same lineage as Taizu. What we need to focus on now is to find another emperor."

"Yep……"

Soon the news spread to the northwest. Han Qi, who was arguing with Fan Zhongyan about whether to send troops or not, curled his lips and said disdainfully: "A child is worthy of Fu Yanguo sending news here."

Upon hearing this, Pang Ji frowned and said, "Zhigui should not underestimate the emperor's eldest son. His words in Chongzheng Palace half a year ago were very insightful. It's just that we had to retaliate, so we decided to attack Li Yuanhao."

Han Qi still didn't care, but his attitude improved a lot. Fan Zhongyan ignored them and spread out the map to study.

"Brother Chun, Zhigui, look!"

Fan Zhongyan shouted urgently, attracting Pang Ji and Han Qi to come around.

"This is a good water river. Sixty miles of good water flows into the Hulu River here. It is surrounded by Liupan Mountain outside. As long as we hide soldiers here..."

Looking at the terrain pointed out by Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi frowned and thought. As one of the most outstanding talents in the Northern Song Dynasty, Han Qi was certainly not given for free.

The conflict between him and Fan Zhongyan is that Lao Fan advocates defense first and it is not suitable to attack at the moment, while he advocates offense and defeats Xixia as soon as possible.

In fact, both of them were right. Fan Zhongyan's method was very sound, but it required the court to spend a lot of financial resources.

Han Qi understood that the imperial court was now short of financial resources, and the Song army had been defending for nearly a year. Many people were slacking off and even complained, fearing that if they continued to suppress the troops, their soldiers would become war-weary.

"Tell the generals to be careful about ambushes."

After pondering for a while, Han Qi decided to fight this battle.

But when Pang Ji heard this, he shook his head and said: "Instructions alone are not enough. Zhigui doesn't understand the thoughts of these people. In the battle of Sanchuankou, the sons and daughters held back their breath and needed to vent. They must be strictly warned to beware of Li Yuanhao's false defeat, otherwise even if They should be punished as if they win or lose too much."

Fan Zhongyan nodded in agreement. Seeing that the two brothers were unified, Han Qi had no choice but to nod in agreement. Moreover, Pang Ji was the highest military and political officer in the northwest, and he and Fan Zhongyan were just officers in charge of their own affairs.

Seeing that he agreed, Pang Ji looked at Fan Zhongyan and said: "Xiwen is opposed to sending troops, but I know that since this battle has been decided, we can't just sit back and watch. At least the Yanyan Road must force the opponent to divide their troops and reduce the pressure on the Jingyuan Road."

"Brother Chun, don't worry. Now that I have agreed, how dare I not do my best?"

History began to change from this point on. Fan Zhongyan's decision changed his history. He did not care about Han Qi's solo battle in Xixia and the defeat of Haoshuichuan. It should be said that Fan Zhongyan also had to bear part of the responsibility.

It is one thing to oppose Han Qi's sending troops, but when the war actually started, as a commander in charge of tens of thousands of troops, he sat back and did nothing. This is unjustifiable.

Fortunately, things were different now, and he no longer persisted in his objection.

In February of the second year of Kangding, Xixia Li Yuanhao led an army of [-], and went south from Zhejianghui, wanting to avenge the anger of returning without success in the previous battle.

(End of this chapter)