"A rat-defying weapon?"
Originally, all the energy was focused on how to capture Kaifeng, but suddenly something changed. Who could be happy? After hearing these words, the generals wanted to refute at first, but after looking at Guo Ning's expression, they suddenly thought of the reason and felt a little resentful.
Since the rise of Ding Haijun, it has always relied on force to overcome all difficulties. Not to mention the weak Song people, even if the king of heaven comes, he will have to take a blow first. At this time, according to the usual thinking of the generals, if anyone dares to seize food from the tiger's mouth in front of Ding Haijun, it is natural to defeat him with force.
This is not the first time that the Song Dynasty has sent troops to steal troops in front of its powerful neighbors, and it is not the first time that the Jin Dynasty has attacked the Song Dynasty people because of this.
Before and after the founding of the Jin Dynasty, the Song and Jin countries established a maritime alliance to jointly destroy the Khitan. As a result, the Song army fought in front and back, and even the 100,000 troops used could not do anything to the remaining Liao army. Instead, they were defeated repeatedly, all because of the blood and sweat of the Jurchens. After the two families settled in Yanjing, the Song people used their words to cause trouble again and again. Finally, they provoked the Jurchens' arrogance and went south in one go, taking away half of the Song people's country.
This is the story of the founding of the Jin Dynasty. Many people know it, and therefore they have become more and more contemptuous of the Song people. The same is true for the generals in the Ding Navy. Under this common understanding, when the Song people blocked the maritime food trade earlier, some people proposed to weigh the weight of the Song army and let them know the power of the navy.
But regardless of the contempt or the eagerness of the generals to try, Guo Zhongyuan was right in saying that the naval power was indeed a weapon that should be ignored.
They voted for the poor rat of the Kaifeng court, and what they were taboo about was not to damage the exquisite but fragile equipment of the Song Dynasty.
In recent years, the trade between Song and Jin has become more and more prosperous, especially the smuggling on the sea, whose scale has been ten times that of the legal trade on the surface. Previously, maritime trade had been supported in the north, but in the south it could not escape the suppression of various municipal shipping departments and naval forces.
But since the second half of last year, as more and more people in the Song Dynasty benefited from maritime trade, many relevant institutions in the Song Dynasty began to turn a blind eye. As a result, many maritime merchants and private ports gradually established The trend from darkness to light brings everyone's expectations for the future very optimistically.
The share of the interests that belonged to the Song Dynasty was carefully distributed by Li Yunzai to all relevant people in the entire line. From the petty officials of the Municipal Shipping Department, to the boatmen and sailors of the coastal navy, to the senior officials who come in and out of the Prime Minister's residence, everyone benefits. Many senior officials have become shareholders of the Maritime Merchant Guild one after another, which has contributed to the establishment of the Maritime Merchant Guild. Shi Miyuan changed his tune.
However, the impact of commercial exchanges on the Jin State was no less than that on the Song State.
Although Guo Ning's Dinghai regime made profits by exporting horses and northern specialties, the Central Plains and the north also needed the food, medicine and other materials produced by the Song Dynasty.
The influx of millions of shi of grain from the Song Dynasty every year brought local stability. After the war with Mongolia came to an end last year, at least hundreds of thousands of people in Zhongdu were saved from starving to death; there were also huge amounts of supplies. Charged with the armaments of the Ding Navy.
In addition, the benefits of sharing profits among senior officials within the regime, as well as the top and middle-level military officials, are considerable.
When Guo Ning first started his army, there were only a hundred defeated soldiers surrounding him. All people thought about was struggling to survive in this world. But since his rise, Guo Ning's power has continued to grow, and his subordinates' thoughts have long since shifted from seeking survival to seizing glory and wealth.
This is human nature, inevitable, and simply unstoppable.
Although Guo Ning's own family is not extravagant, it cannot prevent his subordinates from seeking wealth or enjoyment.
On the other hand, Guo Ning's military household system has been implemented so far, and many people at the bottom have benefited from it. The number of ordinary people's children who are willing to join the army is even greater because they are interested in the hundreds of acres of land provided by the military households and the benefits of the output of the shady households. However, when this system was first set up, it strived to be roughly equal, which limited the benefits that generals and colleges could obtain from the land.
No matter how high your status is, you can only get more land through your military exploits, maybe two to three hundred acres at most; but the number of shady households will not increase any more, and there is nowhere to exploit them if you want.
If anyone is brave and wants to attack the fields and shade houses of his subordinates, it will be even more troublesome.
Every sergeant is a small landowner who is self-armed and may not be willing to be bullied; and because of the existence of military schools, there are various connections between the grassroots soldiers in various ministries. If something goes wrong, they may stab the sky at any time. When Ding Haijun first took control of the three prefectures of Deng, Lai and Ninghai, there were officers who worked hard on this, but the matter was exposed and Guo Ning killed them with heads.
Now that this road is blocked and people's hearts want wealth and honor, what should we do? Guo Ning had to open another way for his subordinates, otherwise his subordinates would become disloyal sooner or later.
Therefore, in the past two years, the benefits that Guo Ning has given to middle-level and high-level generals, in addition to political dividends and salaries, a very important one is the right to invest in the official maritime caravan, that is, the right to travel to Shanghai.
This trading company held hundreds of ocean-going ships as stock capital, and could freely travel to the ports of the Jin Kingdom, Goryeo, and Song Dynasties, and the profits it earned were extremely generous.
After Guo Ning proposed to divide this piece of interest, many people immediately cheered and praised Zhou Guogong's generosity.
Not to mention others, people like Guo Zhongyuan, who were born as vagrant hawkers, had smarter minds than ordinary people, so they invested all the salary they had saved for a long time in the Shanghai trip early in the morning.
In the past two months, the Shanghai Bank reported to Guo Zhongyuan that he could earn the equivalent of one hundred guanwen per month. Considering that this number continues to grow, and ships used for maritime trade are also constantly being built, the whole country There are at least two thousand guan per year, and it is not impossible to expect 3,000 guan.
You know, not everyone is like Jia She, Jia Sidao and his son, who hold mountains of gold and silver in their hands every day. Guo Zhongyuan became one of the few important generals in the Ding Navy, and he was worshiped as a third-grade Jiedu envoy. According to the rules of Dajin, his annual salary was only sixty pieces of stone for money, millet, and wheat, and ten pieces of rice and silk. Twenty-five horses, one hundred and twenty taels of cotton.
This income is ten times higher than his salary. Why shouldn't people be overjoyed?
With the money, Guo Zhong did not spend it on his own life. Instead, he supported many old troops who had fought under him on a monthly basis and were later retired due to injuries and illnesses. This was certainly due to his temperament, and it was also the reason why he employed people in the military. part of the means.
Another person who invested all his assets into Shanghai Bank was Monk Luo. After he got the dividend, he built a large temple in Yidu. The monks in the temple chanted Buddhist scriptures, but they could drink wine and eat meat, and they were very happy.
Of course, they are not as discerning as Guo Zhongyuan and others, so there are many officers who cling to their salaries. But generally speaking, almost all high-level generals benefit from sea trade, and once they benefit, the benefits are several times their salary.
Half of the middle-level officials and generals invested their capital in the sea, and they also became wealthy because of this.
This created a situation in which the admirals of the Ding Navy could treat the Song State as an enemy in terms of military affairs; but in terms of daily life and actual personal and family benefits, they and many officials of the Song State , is actually deeply bound to one place.
If in the early years of the founding of the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchen military nobles were all barbarians who drank their hair and drank their blood, and the only way they could think of to gain benefits was to fight and plunder on the battlefield, then they would naturally fight and plunder without any scruples.
But Guo Ning's regime was not the Jurchens' regime. To some extent, Ding Haijun was a regime that relied on trade from the beginning. Their military advantage comes from their economic advantage, and some military operations are even aimed at ensuring or seizing economic advantage.
Therefore, even if the Song Dynasty blocked sea trade last year, the navy's response strategy was not to use force. Because everyone knows that if the two families fight, sea trade will be affected, and the interests of countless people within the two families will be lost.
Under this circumstance, the Song people's attempt to balance the situation in the north by relying on economy cannot be said to have completely failed.
At this moment, they are coming with their troops, and if they take the initiative to turn against them, the generals will definitely retaliate with their swords and kill them with blood. But if the Song people come under the banner of mutual aid as allies, the generals of the Ding Navy will really be a bit embarrassed. Be cautious, lest the Song army suffer any additional injuries that may affect the diplomatic relations between the two countries.
In this case, if the Song army plans to Kaifeng, how can we stop it? If Kaifeng intended to rely on the power of the Song people to seek self-protection, wouldn't it be a trap for itself?
"Send an envoy to ask the Song people what their plans are." Someone suggested.
Before he finished speaking, the sound of horse hooves sounded again outside.
This time it was a messenger: "To inform the Duke of Zhou, Mr. Jin Qing has arrived. Also accompanying him is the envoy of the Southern Song Dynasty, the examiner Wai Lang Xuan Zhen... He has brought a letter written by Shi Miyuan, the right prime minister of the Song Dynasty."
