As we get closer to the end of the year, the weather is not that cold. Perhaps it is because spring is approaching and the snow has stopped falling. Apart from the frozen ice, there are less traces of snow on the streets.
Bianliang Water Canal is long, the water flow on the river has reduced, and the water transport ships have disappeared. It seems particularly soothing and not as lively as in the past.
Only the towering treetops in the city and the seven-story iron tower beside Fantai Chunxiao still retain a touch of snow-white that catches the eye.
There are fewer people walking on the street, but it is very lively in the evening, especially outside Donghua Gate. Officials and people celebrate together, giving out porridge and charcoal every day, and on the New Year's Eve, there are fireworks and bonfires.
It was New Year's Eve. In the early morning, many of the officials had a meal at home, then went out at about 10 o'clock and wandered all the way into the palace.
At this moment, the palace is already decorated with lanterns and decorations. The Bianliang Palace is a bit small, occupying a small area, and there are not many eunuchs and maids in the palace. There are only a few hundred people in total, and the main ones are the palace guards, so walking in the palace There are not many people.
But today, crowds of people were coming and going into the palace. In addition to the chief ministers, there were many family members of the ministers, including the princes, princesses and their wives, bringing their young children and grandchildren to the palace.
Every year during the New Year, many princes and nobles would go to the palace to celebrate. Especially this year, the harem was pregnant with a dragon species. The officials were overjoyed and held a grand banquet in the palace to invite everyone to celebrate.
However, it is usually noon when everyone officially enters the palace. Lu Yijian and others are entering the palace now. Firstly, they have to deal with some government affairs. Secondly, they also have some celebrations to participate in. For example, every New Year, the emperor holds celebrations in Daqing Hall.
At three quarters of the hour, everyone has gathered in Chongde Hall, which is Zhao Zhen's study. In the morning, many servants inside and outside the palace are setting up the venue. At about the end of the hour, that is, at nine o'clock, a grand sacrificial ceremony will be held.
While there was still some time, many prime ministers from the Constitutional Yuan and Zhao Zhen gathered together to chat.
In the Chongde Hall, Zhao Zhen was sitting behind the desk. There was an incense burner and a charcoal basin in the center, and many prime ministers were sitting on the left and right sides.
Yan Shu was not here. He was asked by Wang Juan, the Minister of Rites, to help plan the ceremony. Wang Juan had just been transferred back from another place, and Yan Shu had been the Minister of Rites before and had experience in this field.
"It's thirty this year, and a new year has arrived."
Zhao Zhen showed joy on his face. Not only were the two harem pregnant with dragon seeds this year, but the situation in Bianliang was also much better. At least the national treasury was quite abundant at the moment.
In addition to successfully collecting the autumn taxes, Zhao Jun beheaded many people and ransacked many homes at the end of the year. All in all, he contributed more than 10 million yuan to the national treasury, which can almost guarantee expenses at the beginning of next year.
"Yes, everything has been going well this year. Although there has been some civil unrest, nothing has gone wrong. This is all a blessing to the official family and God's blessing."
"Furthermore, both the Queen and Zhang Meiren are pregnant with dragon seeds. The possibility of giving birth to an heir in the future is very high. The country will be stable and the people will be peaceful. This is indeed a blessing for the official family."
"I wish the official family good health, a successful birth of the dragon seed, and I wish the Song Dynasty will prosper and reach a higher level next year."
Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Wang Sui, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Sheng Du and others all offered their flattery.
These guys have always been like this. They boasted in front of Zhao Zhen and then started fighting among themselves. They praised Zhao Zhen while making small reports and belittling their opponents. It was really outrageous.
Zhao Zhen was indeed flattered by everyone and beamed with joy.
But after he was so proud, he saw Zhao Jun's calm expression and wondered: "Grandson, aren't you happy that the new year has arrived?"
"Of course I am happy."
Zhao Jun sighed and said, "I just feel a little homesick. I don't know how my parents are doing now."
Seeing that his mood seemed a little low, Zhao Zhen quickly comforted him and said: "Grandson, since the things of the future are still in the future, why do you have to worry? Even if their world is still there, I hope your brothers and sisters can be by their side. "
"I am an only child. In response to the national family planning call, I can only have one child."
Zhao Jun said expressionlessly.
"ah?"
Zhao Zhen stepped on the thunder accurately and looked at each other in shock.
They really didn't know that Zhao Jun was an only child because they had never asked before, so they always took it for granted that Zhao Jun must have brothers and sisters.
The main reason is that there was no concept of family planning in ancient times. It has always been the tradition of the ancients to have many children and many blessings, so they really didn't think about it in this regard.
Now that we know that Zhao Jun was an only child, and his parents in later generations lost their only child, I guess Zhao Jun was not happy, and so were his parents in later generations.
After hesitating for a moment, Fan Zhongyan said with relief: "Even though we are far apart, you and them are still alive after all. Getting married and having children as soon as possible and leaving a bloodline is the greatest relief to your parents."
"Um."
Zhao Jun nodded and said nothing.
Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Zhao Zhen said: "There is still some time before the sacrifice. The eldest grandson will leave Beijing soon after celebrating the New Year. Fan Qing will also leave soon. Why don't we talk about business."
"What should you say today?"
Fan Zhongyan also changed the topic, looked at Zhao Jun and said, "How about we talk about Xixia? Although I have made a lot of preparations, it would be good to talk more."
"Well."
Zhao Jun pondered for a moment and said: "This is indeed a core contradiction. Only by solving this problem first can we really do other things well."
"Core conflict?"
Zhao Zhen was confused and said: "Dasun, you have talked about the main contradiction and the secondary contradiction before. What is the core contradiction?"
"According to international relations, a certain party in an international game has a problem that must be solved. If this problem is not solved, it will affect the development of the country, and may even backfire on itself and cause the country's demise. And this problem is often It takes war to solve it.”
Zhao Jun explained: "For example, during World War II, in order to solve serious domestic socio-economic and political problems, Japan's military began to seize power and use aggression to alleviate domestic conflicts. However, Japan did not produce rubber or oil, and the United States cut off its Oil, if the aggression cannot continue, then overseas problems will come back to bite Japan, so Japan and the United States must go to war. This is called the core conflict."
"Well"
Everyone listened with half-understanding. Although Zhao Jun had talked about petroleum and rubber before and Japan's crimes of aggression against China, they had no idea about the specific situation and the importance of rubber, petroleum and other items to Japan, so they were still a little confused. clear.
"As you all know about the Three Kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu divided the world. After Liu Bei and Sun Quan squared the south, for them, each other became the core contradiction of each other, a problem that must be solved."
Seeing that they didn't understand, Zhao Jun had to patiently explain: "It's just that Liu Bei didn't attack Sun Quan out of benevolence and affection. Sun Quan was not moral and launched a war to resolve this core conflict. In the end, although he won the battle in Jingzhou and the Battle of Yiling, but they were unable to completely annex Jihan, resulting in a situation where the three kingdoms stood in opposition to each other."
"I see."
Only then did everyone understand the reason.
"For the Song Dynasty, the deterrence of Xixia and Liao became the core contradiction."
Zhao Jun continued: "As long as they continue to threaten the security of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty will be wary of both internal reforms and external development. Therefore, it is necessary to resolve this core contradiction through external war first, so that the Song Dynasty can be peaceful. The Song Dynasty experienced a smooth transition and stable development."
It is said that in order to resist foreign aggression, one must make peace within the country. This sentence is not necessarily correct. At least it is not suitable for the current Song Dynasty to be interpreted with this sentence.
This is because the Song Dynasty is currently very unstable. There are no less rebels than the Qing Dynasty. There is political chaos, constant natural disasters, and the people are in dire straits. In this case, Qingli's New Deal and Wang Anshi's Reform came into being, hoping to resolve the civil strife.
The problem was that external pressure always affected the border security of the Song Dynasty. The emperor did not feel safe, and the ministers did not have the courage to carry out the reform to the end. As a result, the reform was on thin ice and ultimately failed.
If the external problems are completely solved and the Xixia and Liao kingdoms are defeated, there is no need to worry that the reform will lead to civil strife, and the emperor and ministers will be more determined to reform by cooperating with external forces to attack the Song Dynasty, and the emperor will not waver as happened in history. Uncertainty makes it difficult to maintain the reform.
This is why Zhao Jun has not made drastic reforms at present, but first supports Fan Zhongyan to go to the northwest to fight!
"Um."
After hearing Zhao Jun's words, Zhao Zhen felt that it made sense, nodded and said: "This is indeed our top priority."
"As long as the attacks of Xixia and Liao are repelled, we can calmly restructure internally."
Zhao Jun looked around and said: "There are still eleven years left before the Yellow River is diverted. We have plenty of time left, but we cannot take it lightly just because it is still long. Once the north is completed, we must immediately speed up and carry out nationwide reforms. .”
Fan Zhongyan said: "I personally feel that it is not difficult to defeat Xixia if we anticipate the enemy's opportunity now. Xixia is a small and weak country with insufficient troops. If we can defeat them, should we take the opportunity to attack Xiazhou?"
After hearing this, Zhao Zhen opened his eyes wide and said, "Fan Qing actually wants to capture Xixia directly?"
"hehe."
Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Han Long said that we should despise the enemy strategically and pay attention to the enemy tactically. So when I was thinking about how to fight at home, I simply made a strategy and directly sought Xixia. Isn't this strategy exactly Do you despise them?"
Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "The Xixia army only has more than 100,000 troops. It is not impossible to annex the enemy first. But I think it is not advisable for the time being. I will let them go first and focus on defeating and killing their effective forces."
"Why?"
Fan Zhongyan was puzzled. He felt that he was at least 80% sure of annexing Xixia.
Regardless of the fact that the Song Dynasty suffered consecutive defeats in history, the national power of the Song Dynasty was many times that of Xixia. Even if they lost three times in three battles, Xixia would have to take the initiative to withdraw its troops and seek peace after victory.
This shows that Xixia's national power really cannot afford to delay it. Except for sneak attacks and perfect tactics, it is almost impossible to completely defeat the Song Dynasty.
Now that Zhao Jun has appeared, even sneak attacks and clever tactics will no longer work.
Because Zhao Jun has told the Song Army all Xixia's tactics, this is equivalent to opening up the entire map. Instead, the Song Army knows the enemy's opportunity and can lay out traps for Li Yuanhao to attack.
Once Li Yuanhao is defeated, given the national strength of Xixia and the fact that Li Yuanhao has offended the minority groups around Xixia over the years, I am afraid that when the Song army defeats them, the surrounding Xizhou Uighurs, Huangtou Uighurs, and Tubo tribes will all attack together. when.
It was very difficult to defeat the Song Dynasty, not to mention being beaten by a group of people. The possibility of destroying Xixia after its founding was very high.
However, Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "How will you defend it? How will you govern it? The Liao Kingdom is still watching eagerly. Although the Liao Kingdom also wants to annex Xixia, for them, the existence of Xixia is the most suitable for them. interests, so once we really defeat Li Yuanhao, the Liao army will immediately move south."
"well"
Fan Zhongyan sighed and said, "Yes, this is what I'm worried about too."
"So if we want to completely resolve the worries, we must inflict pain on the Liao Kingdom and cut off their hands heading south."
Zhao Jun looked at everyone and said: "In terms of grand strategy, I think we should re-arrange the layout. During the confrontation with Li Yuanhao in the northwest, we should deploy and control the defense line to prevent Li Yuanhao from defeating him one by one. We only need to set up traps, defeat him once, and kill him several times." Ten thousand people, let him flee back to Xiazhou in despair, then it will be the first stage of victory."
"Victory in the first stage? Is there a victory in the second stage?"
Zhao Zhen was curious.
Zhao Jun nodded: "The second stage is that Lao Fan can send people to pretend to prepare for a large-scale attack on Xiazhou. Li Yuanhao is defeated and internally unstable. You can then contact the Xizhou Uighurs, Huangtou Uighurs and Qingtang Tubo to attack Xixia and let Xixia Falling into panic."
Fan Zhongyan pondered and then said: "Now that Zhao Yuanhao has heard this, he will probably send someone to Liao for help immediately."
"Yes."
Zhao Jun nodded and said: "After Liao Xingzong heard this, he would definitely lead his troops southward to attack Hebei without stopping. At this time, Lao Fan will fight back and defeat the Liao army, and then everything will be over."
"Defeat Xixia first, and then the Liao Kingdom. This second battle will definitely help us stabilize the country of the Song Dynasty and keep the rivers and rivers safe."
Lu Yijian said happily.
"Don't be too happy too early. This battle will definitely severely damage Xixia's vitality, and it will no longer be able to invade. But after all, the Liao Kingdom is a strong country and has sufficient troops."
Zhao Jun poured cold water on him and said: "Liao Xingzong was in need of a great battle to establish his authority. In history, the Liao-Xia war was fought twice. Li Yuanhao defeated the Liao Kingdom one after another, inflicted pain on the Liao Kingdom, and quickly sued for peace. The war is over. If the Song Dynasty had not hurt the Liao Kingdom, Liao Xingzong would definitely make a comeback and avenge his previous humiliation."
"In other words, we may have to fight at least two wars with the Liao Kingdom?"
Zhao Zhen looked troubled.
For the Liao Kingdom, they, the monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty, were still quite afraid.
"Yes."
Zhao Jun said: "So we must be prepared to fight a tough battle, and we must not take it lightly. Lao Fan."
"Um?"
Fan Zhongyan responded.
Zhao Jun looked at him and said: "When you go to the northwest in the next year, remember what I said, accumulate grain widely, build high walls, and build many forts. The Xixia cavalry comes and goes like the wind. The Song army will definitely suffer in a mobile war, so use positions." In battle, it is necessary to restrict cavalry movement through terrain, construction of trenches, bunkers, etc., in order to achieve victory."
"rest assured."
Fan Zhongyan said in a deep voice: "You told me that this is what I have done historically. I will not be stupid enough to send infantry out to fight Zhao Yuanhao to the death without cavalry."
"You have some connotation, Han Qi."
Zhao Jun smiled and said.
Everyone laughed.
Han Qi was so outrageous in history that he took the initiative to send infantry out of the city to fight, but was completely wiped out by Li Yuanhao.
Now it is regarded as fun by everyone.
Anyway, it is impossible for Zhao Zhen to send him there again. From now on, Fan Zhongyan will be in charge of the northwest alone, with full power over military and civil matters. This is also the trust that Zhao Zhen gave him.
Everyone discussed strategies for facing Li Yuanhao for a while. At the end of Chen Shi, Wang Shouzhong came in and informed everyone that the sacrifice had begun.
Today is just one chapter, let’s go watch the game. . .
(End of chapter)
