Song Yi

Chapter 410
Gao Taotao shook his head and said: "That's not necessary. You should be more detailed. I want to know more so that we can decide how we should deal with them in the future."

Du Wenhao said: "Okay. After that, our army fought against the Liao army, and there were few victories. After the battle of Qigouguan, the Liao army tasted the sweetness, and then invaded south again in the winter of that year. We fought against the Song army in the Junzi Pavilion. The army was surrounded by the enemy, and tens of thousands of people were wiped out. Only the commander escaped. The Liao army took advantage of the victory and drove straight in. After looting several states, the victorious squadron returned. Afterwards, the Liao army cavalry took advantage of their speed and quickly assembled their forces. Afterwards, he claimed that I hadn’t reacted yet, so he invaded and attacked the counties in the south. After conquering them, he retreated immediately after looting, not giving us a chance to gather troops to encircle and suppress. In the second year, the Liao army invaded the south again. It was repelled. It was not until the death of Emperor Taizong and the accession of Emperor Zhenzong that the two sides did not organize a large-scale battle. This stage was mainly in the confrontation between the Liao army's southern invasion and the defensive battle of our army. Although there were victories and defeats for each other, the overall From the looks of it, our army is still at a disadvantage, and the ratio of defeats to victories is [-] to [-]."

Gao Taotao sighed: "Yes, the enemy's cavalry has an advantage, they can quickly concentrate their forces in a certain place, and run away when they fight. We must be at a disadvantage for our passive defense. What happened next?"

"Later it was the last battle of Song and Liao, the Battle of Chanyuan. Our army has learned a lot from several years of defensive warfare, and our border defense capabilities have been greatly strengthened. This time, Empress Dowager Xiao of the Great Liao Dynasty sent 20 troops to invade the south and attack our border Many places in Zhenzhou County suffered setbacks along the way, and not a single city was breached, but neither side lost much."

Hearing this, Gao Taotao finally tried his best to smile: "Thank you for eating so much, you should learn to behave yourself."

"Yeah, although we don't suffer from the war ahead, but the news of the 20 Liao army's massive southward invasion spread to the court, the officials in the court are panicked, most of them advocate moving south to the imperial capital, and some even say to flee to Chengdu Yes. The main combat faction headed by Kou Zhun argued hard. Originally, Emperor Zhenzong also wanted to escape, but under the begging and force of Kou Zhun and others, Emperor Zhenzong decided to march in person and came to Chanyuan , and climbed up the tower tremblingly..."

Gao Taotao gave him a strange look: "Where did you get that from?"

The Chanyuan Alliance is very famous in ancient Chinese history. The middle school history teacher explained it very carefully. What Du Wenhao said was actually an exaggerated description by the teacher, including mocking the ancient emperors. Du Wenhao and Gao Taotao were lovers , speaking a little casually, and said it casually, and now listening to Gao Taotao's words, I realized that it was a great disrespect to tease the late emperor like this.

After Du Wenhao's apology and a series of flattery, Gao Taotao finally laughed: "The words you said before were also in front of me. If others listened to them, it would be very wrong. You have to be more careful in the future."

"Understood!" Du Wenhao put his arms around her and kissed her fondly, "I just came here so casually in front of you. If it were someone else, even my wife, I wouldn't say it."

"Okay, our emperor Zhenzong personally marched, and our morale was greatly boosted. Seeing a yellow-robed general in the Liao army gesticulating in front of the battle, he seemed to be a high-ranking official, so he reported to Emperor Zhenzong. A volley of thugs from the bed in the distance shot the general of the Liao Army to death immediately with arrows like flying locusts. Only later did I find out that this man was the vanguard of the Liao Army!"

Gao Taotao clapped his hands and laughed, "Good shot!"

Du Wenhao also laughed: "That's right! The Liao army went deep alone and failed to attack the city continuously. Now the vanguard was shot to death. Seeing the emperor of the Song Dynasty marching personally, our army's morale was greatly boosted. I felt timid and proposed to negotiate peace. On the road of Emperor Zhenzong's personal expedition, he saw that our border people had suffered from military disasters for more than 20 years. , to quell the flames of war. The two sides negotiated and became a country of brothers. Liao Shengzong respected Song Zhenzong as his brother, and Song Zhenzong called Chengtian Xiao Empress Dowager as his aunt; my Song Dynasty gave 20 taels of silver and 10 pieces of silk to Daliao every year As an old coin; the two sides communicate with each other. It is called the Chanyuan Alliance in history."

"Then, have we lost or won this battle?"

"This battle should be said to be a win-win situation. Neither side suffered any obvious losses in the early stage of the battle. The Battle of Chanyuan was not fought in the end. The amount of New Year's Coins promised by the Chanyuan Alliance is not large. This amount of money is a drop in the bucket for our Great Song Dynasty. It was a big pie for Daliao. They were naturally very happy, and they didn't have to take the risk of going south to plunder. With this money, they could live a relatively rich and healthy life. Therefore, they no longer sent troops to invade the south. The two sides lived in peace and there was no more war. The common people I also lived a prosperous and healthy life. Emperor Zhenzong was far-sighted and used such a small amount of money to exchange for decades of peace on the border between Song and Liao. Thousands of our generals fought bloody battles, and the lives of the people on the frontier were devastated. The merits are immeasurable, and Emperor Zhenzong's compassion for the common people in the world is incomparable!"

Du Wenhao's series of horses made Gao Taotao smile, but he couldn't understand the last sentence, and said strangely: "Bird raw fish soup?"

This sentence is Wei Xiaobao's catchphrase, Du Wenhao said it casually, with a sense of ridicule, when she heard her question, he hurriedly changed his words: "I'm sorry, it's Yao Shun Yu soup, I said it too fast, I didn't make it clear, hehe."

Gao Taotao smiled and said, "You! Make trouble!"

"Hey, it's mainly because what I said earlier is too heavy, let's adjust my mood."

The smile on Gao Taotao's face disappeared, and he let out a long sigh: "Yes, I heard from you that in so many battles with Daliao, we won at most [-]% and lost [-]%. In the end, we have to spend money to buy peace. Why don't we let They spend money to buy peace from us? In the end, they still can’t beat them, alas! It really makes people feel heavy.”

Du Wenhao smiled wryly and said: "What is this? After you have heard the several battles with Xixia, it will be nothing."

"Huh? When we fight Xixia, will we lose even worse?"

"Isn't that right? We have just established our country when we fought against Daliao, and we have a strong army. Although we suffered a loss, it was not too big. When we fought against Xixia, we had experienced too long a peaceful life, even though we had a team far away in number Far surpassing Xixia's huge army, but as a result of the war, we were completely defeated!"

"No way?" Gao Taotao tried his best to smile, "I heard before that they can play well."

"Listen to those literati's propaganda, then our record is definitely good. You know, Xixia was originally our territory, and we couldn't make it surrender with all the power of the country, but suffered a big loss. How can we say such a thing? After all, we want to save face as a big country in the Celestial Dynasty."

"Then how do you know?"

Du Wenhao said: "Don't forget, more than a month ago, you promoted me to be the commander of the Sanya Capital, and the Sanya is in charge of the army, and there are a lot of relevant information about previous wars. It is very rich. These days I No time wasted, almost all my spare time was spent in the military information cabinet of our Sanya. I can naturally see the truth from the original materials, but you can only hear white lies from the mouths of propagandists. "

Gao Taotao stood up and walked to the pavilion with his hands behind his back. The rain outside the pavilion had stopped at some point, and the haze had gradually dissipated. There were even a few small stars blinking in the gaps in the clouds.

She turned around and said seriously to Du Wenhao: "Wen Hao, you need to learn more about the truth in the future and tell me. I want to know the truth, not lies. Whether it is good intentions or not, I only want the truth! To govern the country well, you must master the truth. The true truth of the country!"

"Okay!" Du Wenhao hurriedly got up and went to hug her gently, "Don't worry, I will definitely help you govern the country well, rectify the army, and build a brave army that is invincible in all battles!"

"Yeah!" Gao Taotao's pretty face finally burst into a smile: "With you here, I feel very at ease in my heart."

"Hey, but the late emperor once said that my ideas are often unimaginable. If you find another way, you may not adopt it."

"I know it! The late emperor said it. But as long as you make sense, what's the point of being ingenious?"

"That's good. Then I can rest assured. ——I'll talk about the war between Song and Xia."

"Wait." Gao Tao said, "The food is cold. I asked them to remove the food and bring it up again. Let's chat while eating."

Du Wenhao said: "Okay, let them wait on the sidelines. Anyway, the two of us are only talking about war now, and we don't do anything else."

Gao Taotao panted and slapped him lightly: "Stop making trouble, sit down and talk about the war, we lost so badly, you still have the mind to tinker with this."

"Hey, these defeats are all in the past. Next time we will win them quickly and beat them so hard that they can't stand up. Wouldn't it be enough to get back the capital and the profits?"

Du Wenhao said: "While the Great Song Dynasty was fighting the Daliao, the Xixia Party Headquarters rebelled against the Song Dynasty many times. Because at that time, the Great Song Dynasty was doing its best to deal with the Daliao Dynasty, and had no time to take care of the Party Headquarters. It adopted the strategy of using the barbarians to control the barbarians. Use Tubo and other alliances to deal with the party, and occasionally send troops to crusade. During this period, the Xixia army was invincible, and the Song Dynasty did not use many troops. The two sides were roughly tied. By 40 years ago, Xixia Yuanhao rebelled against the Song Dynasty and called himself emperor After establishing the Xixia Kingdom, they fought five major battles with us successively."

"Needless to say, we lost badly again!" Gao Taotao smiled wryly.

Du Wenhao smiled and said: "The first battle was called the Battle of Sanchuankou. The Xixia army launched an attack first and surrounded Yanzhou. The Song general misjudged the situation and thought it was just a small-scale attack by the Xixia army, so he mobilized [-] The soldiers rushed to the reinforcements. Who would have expected that this time Yuan Hao came prepared, with a force of [-]. He adopted the strategy of encircling the reinforcements and surrounded the [-] reinforcements of the Song Army at Sanjiangkou. After a few breakthroughs, the [-] Song army was almost wiped out. Fortunately, the Xixia army was unable to conquer Yanzhou due to the heavy snow for several days, so they withdrew their troops and went back."

Gao Taotao sighed: "The enemy's situation is unknown, so if you go rashly, it's strange that you are undefeated."

The court lady and eunuch Du Wenhao served was under the pavilion, and he didn't dare to call her name directly, he slapped his thigh and praised: "The empress dowager is so right! In fact, before breaking into the enemy's encirclement, our army had already found Xixia There are a lot of troops, it’s not that a small group is harassing, but it has not aroused vigilance. And the commander in charge of the battle is a literati, who doesn’t know anything about military affairs at all, so it’s no wonder that the leader of the army is not defeated by an amateur leading an expert!”

Gao Taotao glanced at him: "Civilian officials lead the army, this is the legacy of the Taizu."

Du Wenhao was about to say that this kind of legacy can only lead to defeat, when he saw the court lady and eunuch standing next to him, he changed his words again: "Yes! The minister continued, the next battle is called the Battle of Shuichuan. My Song Dynasty lost Even worse. The battle took place in the second year of the Battle of Sanchuankou. Xixia's 1 troops invaded the south again, but they ambushed the main force in Haoshuichuan and used a small number of troops to lure the enemy into a feigned attack. Our army of more than [-] troops faced the battle, and the enemy pretended to be defeated. The army planned, pursued for a long distance, and fell into the enemy's pocket formation. Of more than [-] soldiers, only a thousand fought bloody to break through, and the rest of the army was wiped out."

"Hey! The whole army was wiped out again!" Gao Taotao sighed, "Can't we let the Xixia army be wiped out?"

"Empress Dowager, when the two armies are at war, it's almost like a fight between two people. The stronger one with good martial arts will definitely be able to fight the weaker one with poor martial arts."

Eunuch Cao on the side felt that Du Wenhao's words were too offensive, and he was afraid that the Empress Dowager would be unhappy, so he interjected with a dry smile: "The general's words are wrong. I have a great country in the Song Dynasty, with millions of soldiers, it's hard for me. Have you become weak in martial arts? Xixia is a barbarian country, with a mob army of 20 to [-], but it is strong and good in martial arts?"

Before Du Wenhao could speak, Gao Taotao said first: "Little Jiaozi, you don't understand! What's the use of having more troops in the Great Song Dynasty? This is like a big yellow ox and a hungry wolf. The big yellow ox is bigger than a wolf." Big and strong, how can it be an opponent of a wolf? Our vast country does not have a team of brave and good fighters, just like a big yellow ox without fangs or horns, only to be eaten!"

Eunuch Jiao laughed and said: "That's right, the Empress Dowager is right. The General is an expert in this field, and his comments are very accurate, thought-provoking, and awakening. Hehe"

"Oh, that's right, General Du's words really woke Aijia up! - General Du, you continue."

When Du Wenhao heard Gao Taotao's words, he was secretly happy, and his words were not in vain, and he said: "Okay. The next battle is called the Battle of Dingchuanzhai. The Xixia army attacked in two ways. Our army also divided our troops to meet it. , Dingchuan village was defeated after fighting all the way, trampling each other and retreating to the city, the general was almost trampled to death by the rebel army. After the enemy's water source was cut off, there was no hope of defending the city, so the general could only order a breakout. As a result, nearly [-] soldiers were ambushed completely annihilated."

"Ah! The whole army was wiped out again! Forget it, let's have some wine!"

Du Wenhao hurriedly said: "Empress Dowager, we also won a small victory. The other army of Xixia was stubbornly blocked by our army, and it also suffered a lot of losses. Xixia stopped fighting."

Gao Taotao smiled: "Yo, we also have a chance to win?"

"Yeah, hehe, so after the Third World War, Xixia reached an agreement with us, claiming to be a vassal to us, saying that it is a vassal. In fact, Xixia has become completely independent. We have to give it 13 pieces of silk, 5 taels of silver, and tea every year." Thirty thousand catties of old coins."

"The loss of power and humiliation of the country! It's a shame!" Gao Tao stood up, his face pale with anger, his silver teeth clenched, and his fists clenched.

Du Wenhao sighed and said, "Oh, there is no other way to do this, let's spend money to buy peace. Fortunately, we have a lot of money, so we don't care..."

"No matter how much money you have, you can't spend it on this!——This is not spending money to buy peace, this is spending money to buy shame!"

Seeing her so angry, Du Wenhao was even more happy in his heart, but his face was frowning, and he nodded repeatedly: "Yes, we can't beat her, so what if we don't spend money? Just like what the Empress Dowager said just now A big ox with no fangs or horns can only be bullied by hungry wolves!"

Gao Taotao was taken aback, stared at Du Wenhao for a moment, then sat down slowly: "Is there something in your words?"

Du Wenhao glanced at Eunuch Cao and the others beside him, and sighed long and long: "The battle is like this, even if there is something to say, it can only be speechless."

Gao Taotao nodded, picked up the wine glass, drank it down, put it down slowly, and said, "You go ahead and talk about it first——just pick the most important ones and talk about it."

"Yes! After the peace talks between the two sides, the border has remained peaceful for more than 30 years. After that, the war resumed..."

Gao Tao said: "The next two battles are the battle of Lingchuan and the battle of Yongle City, right?"

"Yes."

"Then needless to say, the Ai family has heard a lot from the late emperor in these two battles. I know we lost both of these battles. But the specific losses are not clear, so you can just talk about it briefly."

"Okay, in the battle of Lingzhou, our army sent 30 troops to wipe out Xia in one fell swoop. At the beginning, we triumphed all the way and wiped out more than [-] enemies. The Xixia army retreated steadily. Our army rushed forward and drove straight into the enemy's territory by hundreds. The enemy troops from all walks of life began to encircle and attack from all sides, our army was forced to retreat, and the loss of troops will reach tens of thousands!"

(End of this chapter)