People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 215 Offensive and defensive transformation

In April of the second year of Baoyuan, the news of Li Yuanhao's defeat had already spread throughout the world.

The Liao Kingdom was also speechless.

They also thought of threatening Li Yuanhao's invasion to blackmail the Song Dynasty and increase the annual coins that the Song Dynasty gave them every year.

As a result, Li Yuanhao was so defeated that he thought he had strong troops and horses, so he took the initiative to attack the Song Dynasty, and then was beaten to the point of running away. He was really the younger brother among younger brothers.

The Song State replied to the Liao State, and the irony contained in it made Liao Xingzong Yelu Zong really unhappy. However, the strength shown by the Song Army also made the Liao State fearful, so they could only let it go.

After Zhang Yuan helped Li Yuanhao stabilize the situation and formulated a new strategic plan, he was ready to go towards the Liao Kingdom in March.

It's just that the distance between the two sides is too far.

Where is the capital of Liao Kingdom?

In later generations, it was located in Balinzuo Banner County, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia.

The capital of Xixia is Yinchuan City in Ningxia.

The two places are more than 600 kilometers apart.

In addition, Zhang Yuan's envoy had to bring gifts and there were many carriages and horses, so the movement was slow and it was estimated that it would take more than a month to arrive.

However, Yelu Zongzhen also already knew the news that Xixia sent an envoy. He was also very interested in why Xixia had an army of more than [-], but was defeated so quickly in the northwest of Song Dynasty.

Has Song become stronger, or is Xixia just as lazy as ever?

And just when Li Yuanhao joined forces, begging for mercy from the Song Dynasty, he secretly colluded with the Liao Kingdom and prepared to attack the Song Dynasty together with the Liao Kingdom.

In April, Zhao Jun visited Sichuan and went north to Shaanxi.

At this time, more than a month had passed since the Song-Xia war. Zhao Jun met Pang Ji in Chang'an, inspected the agricultural construction in Guanzhong, and affirmed his diligent governance in the rear.

The prototype of Taishi Pang in "Young Bao Qingtian" is obviously somewhat stigmatized. In fact, this person is not only outstanding in ability, but also an honest and upright official.

After Fan Zhongyan was transferred back to the capital, Pang Ji continued to reuse Di Qing as his successor to repair and manage the border, making the border defense strong and preventing Li Yuanhao from continuing to attack, which ultimately led to the Qingli peace talks.

To some extent, this person is indeed an excellent management talent.

Zhao Jun saw in Guanzhong that during his two years in office, he had taken care of the huge Guanzhong Plain in an orderly manner, repaired water conservancy facilities everywhere, restored agriculture that had been over-cultivated in the Tang Dynasty, and even planted trees on both sides of the Yellow River and Weishui River.

Although this is a government order that Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi have been implementing, in fact, planting trees on both sides of the Yellow River and Weishui River has long been neglected by local officials. He has this responsibility, obviously for long-term considerations.

Seeing that although today's Guanzhong is not as prosperous as recorded in the Tang Dynasty in history, the region has been considered stable and agricultural production has resumed, which makes Zhao Jun feel very satisfied.

After praising Pang Ji's abilities, Zhao Jun headed north to Yanzhou.

Yan'an Mansion was also a place he had always wanted to visit. He wanted to see the cave dwellings here and see the traces of the great men of later generations before they came.

But unfortunately he was disappointed.

Only when I arrived in Yanzhou did I realize that this place was actually a mountain depression. Looking around, I could see mountains surrounding it. They were all hilly slopes that were tens of meters high and less than 200 meters at most.

Although it was the end of April and the mountains were covered with green, you could still vaguely see the desolation of the high loess slopes, as well as the vastness and silence.

Yanzhou City is located at the foot of the mountain. To the west of the city, the Yanshui River flows endlessly. To the east, in the small mountain depression, is a small city covering an area of ​​four to five square kilometers.

Zhao Jun entered Yanzhou City under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan. The two of them chatted for a while and entered the city.

Then under the introduction of Lao Fan, I met Liu Ping, Ren Fu, Shi Yuansun, Wang Zhongbao, Xu Huaide, Zhang Kang and others.

After that, it’s time to catch the wind and wash away the dust.

As the saying goes, win with smile, lose with MMP.

Because of the victory, everyone at the dinner table was chatting and laughing.

At the dinner table, Zhao Jun pointed out that the Xixia people were ambitious and Li Yuanhao would not change his stubbornness. Even if he won this battle, he still could not take it lightly. He still had to take the necessary precautions and never underestimate the enemy.

He emphasized that offense is the best defense. If there is an opportunity to send troops outside the wall and inflict heavy damage on Xixia, we must not miss the opportunity to beat the drowned dog.

As the saying goes, "It is better to chase down the poor bandits bravely than to be a famous scholar." The soldiers of the Song Dynasty must have the spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice and having the courage to pioneer.

As long as they have the determination to not be afraid of difficulties, dare to fight, and be able to fight tough battles, the court will not be stingy with food and salary.

The encouraging words were heard in everyone's ears, and everyone was very happy.

In addition to praising the magistrate for his literary talents, they also praised the magistrate for his far-sightedness and giving them such constructive suggestions.

Everyone said hello to each other, complimented each other, ate until they were full, drank enough wine, and then dispersed happily.

In fact, everyone knows that Zhao Jun is just talking for a moment.

But the sentence at the end that the court will not be stingy with food and salary is a real benefit.

Moreover, Zhao Jun also made a promise that as long as the soldiers who made meritorious service in this battle would be heavily rewarded by the court.

In this age of recognizing money, nothing is more motivating than giving money.

Although Zhang Kang made many military exploits in history, he was repeatedly impeached, suppressed, and even imprisoned for a time. He was criticized in his later years, and his official career was bumpy, and he failed to achieve prominence until his death.

The reason is that in order to reward his subordinates and stimulate their fighting spirit, he repeatedly tried to make money, such as using public funds to let his subordinates go to Chengdu to do business, and colluding with businessmen who entered China and France through false estimates of salt to embezzle the assets of the imperial court.

But what he did was all for the sake of his subordinates. Later, the court did find out that he had no selfish intentions, and all the money he earned was distributed to his subordinates.

It is a pity that due to Zhang Kang's upright character, he offended Shangguan Zheng Jian and Xia Song many times, and they retaliated by asking the censor of the Yushitai to impeach him for using public funds to do business, and framed him for personal gain, which later led to Zhang Kang being Transferred from the northwest.

So to a certain extent, Zhao Jun's promise to reward the army is more important than the promise to promote these generals.

When the food and salary are in place, Yuan Hao is broken into pieces.

They need to send money to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army.

Now Zhao Jun has promised a reward.

Everyone is happy.

After appeasing the soldiers, in the evening, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan finally had a chance to chat alone.

In the back office of the state capital, you can see the towering hills when you raise your head. Two people are walking in the backyard.

"I haven't seen you in more than two years. Old Fan, you have gone through many changes."

Zhao Jun smiled.

"This place in the northwest is very boring."

Fan Zhongyan glanced at the white spots on Zhao Jun's temples, frowned and said, "Why is your hair white?"

"It is true that there are some gray hairs, and my dad also has gray hairs at a young age, but it is not that serious. Except for some genetic reasons, this is the case."

Zhao Jun sighed: "I knew from the history books that the people of the Song Dynasty were suffering, but I didn't expect it to be even worse than I imagined. Have you ever seen a family with several brothers who go out and who wears the only pants in the family?"

"I have seen."

Fan Zhongyan said expressionlessly: "I've seen him as much as you have."

"Okay, I'm just messing around."

Zhao Jun shrugged.

"How's it going? How do you feel?"

"I have written a lot of things, I will leave them for you to read when the time comes."

"Yes." Fan Zhongyan nodded, and then said: "Yuan Hao wrote to me a few days ago, saying that he wanted to surrender."

"Do you believe it?"

Zhao Jun asked back.

"If he really wanted to surrender, he wouldn't have just said it in a letter."

Fan Zhongyan is not stupid.

Surrender must also have the appearance of surrender.

His father, Li Deming, was a role model. Not only did he often send envoys to Bianliang with gifts, he also went to Yanzhou in person many times to communicate with officials of the Song Dynasty at that time, engage in business exchanges, and discuss border security issues between the two countries.

It was precisely because of this sincerity that Song Zhenzong was moved, so Song Zhenzong returned many rewards and gave Li Deming an official title, which established the friendship between Song and Xia.

As a result, by the time of Li Yuanhao, he not only turned against the Song Dynasty, but also took the initiative to attack the Song Dynasty.

Now that you are defeated, go to the table and ask for surrender.

Isn't it noisy?

If you want to be truly sincere, you should send gifts to Bianliang and go to Yanzhou in person to apologize. It is much better than the last two hypocritical letters of surrender.

"If it's fake and he just wants to delay time, guess what he wants to do?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"Do you still need to guess?"

Fan Zhongyan sneered and said: "You can tell with your toes that he is looking for the Liao Kingdom."

"Learn what I say, right?"

Zhao Jun rolled his eyes.

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "It's quite interesting."

"As long as you know."

Zhao Jun said: "The Liao Kingdom actually did not go to war with the Song Kingdom in history, but the emergence of grenades will definitely make the Liao Kingdom feel threatened. If the Liao Kingdom cannot threaten the Song Dynasty with force, is it still the Liao Kingdom? So the Liao Kingdom Xingzong's side is probably going to fight for real."

"The situation has changed, and there is nothing we can do about it."

"But we cannot give them the opportunity to attack from both sides. Although grenades can change the battlefield situation, being trapped in two fronts at the same time is really unfavorable for the Song Dynasty."

"what do you mean?"

Fan Zhongyan thought for a moment, looked to the north and said, "Cripple Xixia first?"

"good."

Zhao Jun nodded: "Even if Xixia cannot be destroyed, at least we must ensure that Xixia no longer has the ability to invade the Song Dynasty. After dealing with the Liao Kingdom, we can slowly deal with Li Yuanhao."

"Forget about destroying the country. If Xixia is destroyed, the Liao army will come directly from Xiazhou, which will be detrimental to us."

Fan Zhongyan shook his head.

Although he also wanted to destroy Xixia, from an overall strategic perspective, it was not appropriate to start a full-scale war with the Liao Kingdom.

The Song Dynasty was troubled by foreign aggression, and its internal conflicts were already very acute. If it continued to fight the Liao Kingdom, its finances would be tight, and additional taxes would have to be levied, it would inevitably lead to domestic unrest and frequent uprisings.

And if Xixia exists, then the soldiers and horses of the Liao Kingdom will not attack from the Xixia side.It is true that Li Yuanhao was hostile to the Song State, but he was also worried that the Liao State would attack Guo on false roads and swallow him up by the way, so he would never allow the Liao State's army to enter Xia.

So what were the areas bordering the Liao and Song states at this time?

One is Hebei and the other is Shanxi.

The area north of Yanmen Pass in Shanxi is currently the territory of the Liao people, and the two sides are facing each other in Yanmen Pass, Hequ County and other places.

The soldiers and horses of the Liao State were in Shuozhou, and the soldiers and horses of the Song State were in Daizhou and Lanzhou.

The two sides are basically bounded by Luliang Mountain and Hengshan Mountain.

The Liao Kingdom almost never attacked the Song Dynasty from Shanxi, except that the Luliang Mountains were to the west, blocked by the Hengshan Mountains in the middle, and the Taihang Mountains were to the east, which was not conducive to cavalry attacks.

The most important ones are several military towns including the Huoshan Army, Baode Army, Yanlan Army, Ninghua Army, Jinning Army, and Pingding Army, with more than [-] troops.

It was difficult for the Liao cavalry to break through the mountains, and the Song army had so many troops relying on favorable terrain to block the attack, so naturally they could not pose any threat to Shanxi.

Therefore, the Liao Kingdom could only march from Hebei every time, where the terrain was flat and more suitable for cavalry to gallop.

But it would be different if Xixia was wiped out.

The Liao cavalry was able to attack the Loess Plateau from the Xiazhou grassland. Although the Loess Plateau also had mountains, they were all small hills and could not stop the cavalry's attack.

When the Song Kingdom destroys Xixia, it will usher in the Liao Kingdom's attack at the end of its heyday.

Even though the Liao Kingdom at this time was no longer as powerful as it was during the Liao Shengzong period, a skinny camel was bigger than a horse. At least in the hands of Liao Xingzong, there was still no problem in suppressing the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Song Dynasty from being under huge pressure from the Liao State when it needed to alleviate its internal conflicts first, it was better to keep Xixia first so that the Liao State could not attack the Song Dynasty from the northwest and northeast at the same time.

This is also in line with Zhao Jun's original strategy.

Not only did Xixia be crippled so that Xixia was unable to threaten the northwest border of the Song Dynasty, but then it fully resisted the Liao attack and pushed back the Liao.

After the border is stabilized, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan can calmly carry out internal reforms, alleviate social conflicts, improve the national power of the Song Dynasty, and then start to reorganize their troops, first destroy Xixia, and then deal with the Liao Kingdom with all their strength, suppressing the Song Dynasty for more than 100 years. The huge empire collapsed.

Hearing Fan Zhongyan's words, Zhao Jun nodded slightly and said: "This is best. As I said before, we must seek to take the initiative. If we are passive and beaten, there will be no end after all. Only by taking the initiative can we change the passive situation."

"I have already sent party members who are willing to surrender to the border. I am drawing a map of Xiazhou and investigating Yuan Hao's troop deployment. If nothing goes wrong, I will send people to take the initiative to attack in the second half of this year."

Fan Zhongyan said with a smile: "Di Qing is indeed a good seedling. In the battle of Kaocheng City, he chased Li Yuanhao for more than 100 miles, killed dozens of enemies with his own hands, and beheaded several enemy generals. However, after the war, he felt very dissatisfied and asked The blacksmith in the army made him a bronze mask.”

"Bronze mask, why?"

Zhao Jun asked subconsciously, but then regretted it because he suddenly remembered that Di Qing had a reason to wear a mask.

really.

I heard Fan Zhongyan say: "Di Qing lacked majesty on the battlefield because of his good looks. He led more than ten people to break through the enemy's formation of hundreds of people. The enemy not only refused to surrender, but also dared to fight back, which made him very angry. He said Only by wearing a mask can you show your majesty."

"Then he really should wear it. I just remembered that he has worn that thing in history. He is too fair and handsome enough to seriously threaten my status as a handsome man."

Zhao Jun made a joke.

"You're so shameless. You're far worse in appearance than Di Qing, and you're no better than an official. At most, you're better than a bad old man like me."

Fan Zhongyan rolled his eyes.

"Hahahahaha."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

In the second half of this year, the Song army will go out for the first time in history and attack Xixia.

Offensive and defensive transformation!
　In fact, I really want to finish writing the next part, which is when Zhao Zhen discovered the little secret. This is actually the beginning of the mid-term climax, which is funny, unexpected, and the protagonist is about to promote reforms.But Naihe started to feel dizzy and weak again in the afternoon. I don’t know what happened. Anyway, my thinking was very poor.

　　I even secretly wrote the beginning of a new book recently, just one chapter. The beginning is very good and attractive.But I found that it didn’t take long after I wrote the beginning to become mediocre. First, I often spent a long time polishing the beginning. After it was put on the shelf, I had to write more than 8000 words a day. I really didn’t have that much time to repair and polish it. There are so many typos.Second, it is really difficult to grasp the plot of this kind of long novel. Even if you write an outline, who can write it completely according to the outline?

　　I can only say that my writing skills are still insufficient, and I hope I can grow up, but the good news is that each book is better than the other, and the results are also better than the previous one.

　　But don't worry, everyone, there is a beginning and an end. I just have some ideas for the new book. The main thing is to try my best to write the current one. The situation is a little better tonight. Tomorrow will be the plot that everyone likes to read.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)