Became a feudal lord in the late Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 292 A bridge of fate
"In a fight, your opponent will not stop fighting just because you cry out in pain. In a war, the enemy will not stop fighting just because you retreat."

In the study, Liu Ling sat opposite his son and reached out to point out that Liu Cheng had written a typo.

There was a simple document in front of Liu Cheng, which probably contained part of the military report of the Song Dynasty's civil war. Liu Ling did not teach his son in advance, but just asked him to read the military report and then make annotations based on his own understanding. .

Of course, the annotations were written in Liu Cheng's own notebook and could not be written directly in the military newspaper.

Regarding war, Liu Cheng grew up listening to his father's stories. He only knew that his father was very powerful in the north and south, so he wrote:

Taking advantage of the civil strife in the Song Dynasty, he sent troops southward again.

Liu Ling did not immediately confirm or deny, he said slowly:
"National affairs are important to the military. Marching and fighting is not a matter between a general and a group of soldiers. You have to consider how many troops, how much manpower, and how much food will be used to win the battle efficiently."

Liu Cheng immediately wrinkled his face and said blankly: "I only learned a little arithmetic, I don't know."

"Sometimes you don't need to know the specific number, but if you want to know it, you have to know who you can find to achieve your goal."

"For example, in my case, for political affairs, I ask the prime minister, for military affairs, I ask the generals, and for the back house, I ask my mother."

Liu Cheng thought for a while, then looked up at his father and whispered, "Can you write this down? I'm really worried now."

Liu Ling smiled, reached out and rubbed his son's head, put away the military report and put it aside. While writing, Liu Cheng suddenly asked: "Did many people die in the Song Dynasty?"

"Right or wrong, doesn't it matter?" Liu Cheng found it even more difficult to understand. Black is black and white is white. How could he not be able to distinguish right from wrong?
Liu Ling looked at him and said calmly: "You will understand later."

"Then remember my words, you should memorize the scriptures, they can tell you what is right and wrong.

"Father." Liu Cheng couldn't understand it at all, and said calmly: "Son, I don't understand."

"The prime minister can be removed from office if he fails to answer three questions about political matters. A general who does not know much about major military matters and only knows how to obey is a mediocre general and should be killed.

"Do you like reading?"

"Just memorize the scriptures. What the master teaches you is the principle of life, but it is not the rope that binds you. It seems that these great principles and rules are everywhere on weekdays, but"

"They taught me reading and how to be a good person. I'll memorize two scriptures in a while."

"Yes." Liu Ling nodded and added: "Many people died. Some died of hunger. They didn't eat for several days before they died. Some even stuffed mud into their mouths to satisfy their hunger. There were also some who died in battle. On the battlefield, the corpses were mutilated.

"of course."

"How did your mother and master teach you before?"

When you were in Yanjing, although you were not extravagant, on weekdays, burning incense and lighting lamps everywhere in the palace was still much better than ordinary people or even wealthy families. But because of this, what you saw was really It's too little. "

"Of course you feel that you are wrong now, that you should not have disrespected the master by listening to those people. In fact, even if there are indeed many correct truths written in those scriptures, if a person has not experienced some things, he will not be disrespectful to the master. Those who may believe and understand those principles.”

Think as you read.

Liu Ling took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and continued: "But after you get a few years older, people will tell you that these principles and rules are of no use to you, and that you can do whatever you want, and even some people will tell you that these principles and rules are of no use to you. To encourage you to do other things, for example, not long ago, you were encouraged by a group of people to contradict the master. "

"Son" Liu Cheng hesitated for a moment and said with difficulty: "I like it."

But at some point, the scriptures can be put down, the principles can be put aside, and even right and wrong may not be important to you. "

Liu Cheng listened in horror. Just these two ways of death made him feel sick in his heart, and he hurriedly lowered his head and continued writing. Liu Ling was not surprised by his son's reaction, but he couldn't give his son much time to adapt.

"My son is wrong."

When you see a military newspaper, you should first have these thoughts in your mind. If you can't solve it, then think about who can help you achieve your goal. "

"I, the envoy of the Emperor of Goryeo, pays homage to the Lord of Han Dynasty!"

In the Han Dynasty, the process of three resignations and three concessions has not yet ended. Therefore, Liu Ling is still the leader of the country for the time being, but preparations for various ceremonies have begun. Even the envoys from several countries temporarily staying in Yanjing know privately. This issue.

Because Yanyun was almost invincible when it rose in the past two years, the Jin people retreated again and again. Previously, they suffered heavy casualties in front of Songting Pass. Marshal Wanyan Gao died in the battle. This news gave the Jin people a heavy blow in the country.

But for Korea, this is great news.

"The traitor Li Ziqian of our country has now occupied the Great Wall, calling himself the King of Korea and intending to split Korea."

Now in the country of Goryeo, the Li clan's Goryeo, headed by Li Ziqian, is in the north. Supported by the Jin people, they intend to go south and annex the entire Goryeo.

In the south, the Wang family's Goryeo led by the young emperor Wang Kai were exhausted. However, as the Jin people withdrew, they won two more battles and barely stabilized the situation.

"Goryeo and the Han Dynasty are separated by thousands of miles of sea water, and the Han Dynasty has just fought with the Song Dynasty. Even if I want to rescue them, there is really nothing I can do."

Liu Ling said calmly that there was plenty of land in front of him to annex, and there was no need to send troops all the way to Goryeo. Moreover, the shipping industry in Yandi was in decline. Most of the ships were purchased from Song Dynasty, so there was no way to do so. Build ships on a large scale,
Of course, it's not necessary.

Although the Han Dynasty was in a period of extreme rise and its national power continued to increase, the main direction of circulation of money and food was to build cities, rivers, and the army.

These two items are bottomless holes that no amount of filling can fill. Even now, Yan Yun's account is full of holes and he is in desperate need of more money and food.

The entire court is in a state of instability. Unless it achieves another huge military victory and obtains a large amount of population, land, money and food, otherwise this situation can only wait to recover slowly through recuperation.

The loopholes are almost impossible to fill, which will lead to problems in some government decrees, people's livelihood and welfare, and even military rewards. However, the money and food input has indeed been achieved to the extreme.

The combined population of Yanyun, Yinshan Prefecture, Hebei Qizhou, Yan'an Prefecture, and Taiyuan Prefecture is nearly 10 million. In fact, the total number of troops to be supported is more than 200,000.

Liu Ling could bring up to 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers and more than 100,000 civilians each time he went on an expedition. It was considered a large-scale war, and losing even once would be a serious injury.

It is really impossible to support an army.

If he really wants to attack the peasant soldiers, Liu Ling can now easily pull out a million "army", but the quality of such an army is not much higher than that of the Song army.

"I sympathize with the leader of Korea, but military and national affairs cannot be decided by me alone. I am responsible for the Han people. I can't say that the lives of you Koreans are our lives, but the lives of us Han people are not, right?" ?”

"My lord, I never said that!"

The Koryo envoy knelt down in front of him and begged: "My great Koryo is willing to pay 300,000 yuan and 80 ships. Even if I ask you to send only 1,000 people, I only need to take a tour of our country with the banner of the Han Dynasty." , I don’t even need the Han soldiers to fight against the rebels, and I will be satisfied.”

Hearing this, Liu Ling began to think. The idea of ​​the Korean people is simply that Li Ziqian has the backing of the Jin people and is confident, while the Wang family in Korea can only rely on a group of old nobles and small landowners to lead troops to protect "half of the country". Over time, people's hearts will definitely change. scattered.

If the Han army walked around, it would be equivalent to peeing there to mark the territory. At least Li Ziqian should not dare to risk offending the Han army and continue southward.

Liu Ling thought silently for a while and then said: "I will do as you say."

"What if the king is...?"

The Korean envoy was stunned for a moment, and then he was overjoyed. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily.

"The Lord of our country and all the subjects of the country will surely be grateful to the Lord for his kindness day and night!"

"Send the money and ships first."

Liu Ling said calmly: "If you add another hundred thousand coins to the money, you will have at least a hundred ships. I can't ask for your money in vain, so I will give you a thousand war horses."

"Thank you so much, Lord Han."

"Go down."

The hall became empty again. Liu Ling stood up and stretched, looked at Tong Guan who was waiting next to him, and said with a smile: "There is a war in the Song Dynasty. Do you want to put you back to practice your skills?"

Tong Guan immediately knelt down and said with an apologetic smile: "How dare you have such extravagant hopes? For the rest of my life, I only hope to meet my master. I don't dare to do other things."

Liu Ling smiled noncommittally, and there was an announcement outside. Immediately, a civil servant came in with the latest military report and presented it to Liu Ling. The latter reached out to take it, read it hastily, and suddenly said: "I am alone." Give you a chance to go back and lead the troops? "

"Nunu really don't dare!"

Tong Guan kowtowed again in panic. Seeing that Liu Ling didn't speak for a while, he bravely raised his head and asked doubtfully: "My lord, what happened?"

Liu Ling came back to his senses and said calmly: "Zhao Gou is about to capture Bianjing, and I am even more useless than him."

Chenqiao Town.

Outside the city wall, there are more than a dozen catapults that have been set up, and they are constantly smashing huge boulders towards the city head. However, the style of the city wall here makes it impossible for the boulders to cause much damage. The defenders at the top of the city are resisting extremely tenaciously. Liu looked at it. Guangshi was annoyed for a while.

On the surface of the city wall, his soldiers continued to fall like dumplings. The moat was only half filled, and corpses could be seen floating in the unfilled river.

Even if it is a miscellaneous army, it is still his force. Now it is suffering casualties at a visible speed, and Liu Guangshi feels distressed.

"Hold your troops, pull back!"

Yue Fei, who was watching the battle from the side, subconsciously said: "At this moment, if we attack the city for half a day, we will definitely be able to capture the city."

"Then please ask Commander Yue to support some soldiers, okay?"

On weekdays, Liu Guangshi still supported Yue Fei a little, but these days, the other party was not only unwilling to give him some cavalry, but also had many disagreements with him on major military matters.

If that's all it is,
But this Yue Fei actually led his army to defeat three troops of the King of Qin in just a few days. The officials sent people to the army overnight to express condolences, promoted Yue Fei to a third-level official position on the spot, and gave him the title of a male from Jianguo County. title.

Liu Guangshi knew that Hebei was in decline now, and his ability to reach here depended on the opportunity given by the court. It was hard to say what he would do in the future, but it did not prevent him from being jealous of Yue Fei at this time.

Having said that, I obviously led the troops first to help you, Zhao Gou, seize power. Now you don't compensate me for the troops, but instead give others promotions. Why, are you trying to build another mountain in the army to block me?
Liu Guangshi said something strange, and Yue Fei immediately stopped talking. All his men were cavalry. Who would be so stupid as to use cavalry to charge the city wall?

The troops were withdrawing outside, but suddenly there was a commotion in a corner of the battlefield, and the siege army sent by Liu Guangshi suffered a small collapse.

This situation is too common. But after the leading officer ordered the two deserters to be hacked to death on the spot, the other soldiers rushed forward and hacked the officer to death first. Then, without stopping, they directly began to attack the surrounding military formations. , wanting to take the opportunity to escape from the battlefield.

"Damn it, you rebelled against them!"

Liu Guangshi was furious when he heard the news. He immediately got on his horse and took his own barracks to the battlefield to suppress the rebellion. Yue Fei stayed where he was. Standing next to him was a young general, who was Liu Qi.

"Uncle Xin, what do you think?"

Yue Fei asked.

"The Hebei Army has been defeated too much and can't be controlled at all." Liu Qi gradually became familiar with Yue Fei. After he got to know the latter, he began to get close to Yue Fei from the bottom of his heart. In his eyes, Yue Fei was not Bad guy.

Yue Fei admired him very much. Even if Liu Qi did not want to lead troops to attack the imperial court, he was quite talented in leading troops to fight, and Yue Fei was willing to take him with him.

"The imperial court has been fighting for years and was defeated in two years. In addition, Tan Zhen's 700,000-strong army on the Yongxing Army was completely wiped out. This is equivalent to destroying all the bones of the imperial court in one battle."

In addition to Liu Qi's motley army that was hastily organized to fight against the Hebei Army, several troops from King Qin came later, but all of them had extremely poor combat effectiveness. The soldiers were extremely prone to mutiny and disintegration, and the army was disorganized. Among them, Those who can form a formation to face the enemy are considered rare "elite soldiers".

Yue Fei had three thousand cavalry under his command. Fighting against these peasant soldiers was a natural victory, so Zhao Gou began to trust Yue Fei's fighting ability more and more, and began to try to win over him.

Speaking of this, Liu Qi couldn't help but sigh: "If Tan Zhen's 700,000-strong army is still there, if the Western Army's wealth is still there, and if the Imperial Court's forbidden troops are still here, how can we fight this domestic chaos?

It is said to be a civil war, but in fact anyone who knows a little bit understands that it was only the Yan talents who defeated the imperial court, and Hebei wanted to take advantage of this troubled waters.

This is the Yan people bleeding us. They are so ruthless in their calculations that they have calculated everything. "

It can't be said to be some kind of conspiracy.

Zhao Gou will not suddenly change his temper, and it is even less likely for his father, Zhao Ji. As long as both parties are allowed to sit in that position, it is actually not difficult to guess what they can do next.

"actually."

He paused and whispered: "Now, it's not about who has a better chance of winning, but whichever side Marshal Yue is on now will win."

"With these three thousand cavalry in the hands of the commander-in-chief, it will be easy to attack Hebei or the imperial court. How can their stinky army stop you?"

"Commander, you have to think carefully."

Liu Qi pointed at the city in front of him and said meaningfully: "This is Chenqiao Town."

(End of this chapter)