Zhao Xin put down the dazzling flag and stared at Ye Yiwen blankly for a long time.
"They came to Lin'an with only four thousand people? Or did they come from Jiangnan West Road, thousands of miles away? Are they... some kind of heavenly soldiers and generals coming down to punish me?"
Zhao Min's expression was very vain, and his tone was also very vain, as if he was asking someone, or himself, or more like asking the sky.
"Your Majesty, I will send someone to investigate immediately! This matter must be investigated thoroughly!"
Ye Yiwen ran away quickly.
Zhao Xun has not yet recovered from his doubts.
He had no idea what was going on.
When Ye Yiwen finally figured out what happened, Su Yonglin who was far away in Zhongdu also knew what happened.
Su Yonglin knew what happened even earlier than Zhao Min.
Su Yonglin was really surprised when he heard that Zhao Yucheng's general Xu Tong led only 4,000 troops and fought from Jiangnan West Road to the foot of Lin'an City and circled the city three times.
Then he looked up to the sky, laughed, and clapped his hands repeatedly.
"A bold general and four thousand bold soldiers can run rampant in the Southern Song Dynasty. The country of the Southern Song Dynasty has really come to an end. How long can they persist without falling? Can't they wait? Will our army collapse from within when it fully moves south?"
Su Yonglin laughed repeatedly and stopped laughing for a while. Then he picked up his pen and started writing orders, preparing to hand them over to the Privy Council for execution.
Su Yonglin has been paying close attention to Zhao Yucheng's development. Through the channels of the Skynet Army, Su Yonglin can know what is happening with Zhao Yucheng in a relatively timely manner, and appropriately send them some gold subsidies so that they have money to spend. .
Although things like gold and silver are not legal tender and have no market circulation function in a general sense, as a symbol of wealth, few people don't like it.
Although the monetary economy was very developed in the Southern Song Dynasty, this does not mean that gold and silver cannot be used to exchange some important special commodities at equivalent prices.
For example, ordnance, grain, or information about the Song Army, etc.
When Su Yonglin knew that Zhao Yucheng had withstood the Song army's encirclement and suppression, even a wave of counterattacks that annexed tens of thousands of Song troops, and decisively captured almost the entire Jiangnan West Road, he was really happy.
Zhao Yucheng, whom he taught single-handedly, was almost his apprentice. This young man, who was two years younger than him, completed his own transformation in just a few years, growing from the successor of a landlord family to a strong revolutionary warrior.
Abandoning family property, giving up a comfortable life, risking one's life to fight against the enemy in the mountains, just for the sake of one's ideals and unyielding belief.
Then, he finally achieved a certain degree of success and transcendence, surpassed his former self, and embarked on a new path.
This is good.
Su Yonglin wrote to him at that time, congratulating him on his success, and telling him that the Southern Song Dynasty would never relax its campaign against him. The more he developed and grew, the Southern Song Dynasty would become more manic, and in the end he might even attack the whole country regardless of the situation. The army came to encircle and suppress.
Until then, he will still face many tests.
The Ming Dynasty was undergoing various internal reforms, including political and military aspects. The Yellow River was being repaired and Xixia was being annexed. It was impossible to go south and annex the Southern Song Dynasty in a short time. I hope Zhao Yucheng could understand and persist.
The Southern Song Dynasty was too big, and a Ming Dynasty with indigestion could not rashly annex it, otherwise it would starve to death.
Of course, if they could go south and north and open up a sea or land route to connect with the Ming Kingdom, they would be able to get support directly from the Ming Kingdom.
Su Yonglin will do his best to give him a certain amount of support, as long as he can hold on.
Zhao Yucheng wrote back to Su Yonglin, saying that he knew it and was prepared for a long-term struggle. At worst, he would return to Luo Xiaoshan to fight guerrillas. Anyway, as long as he was alive for one day, he would never make things easier for the Southern Song Dynasty court.
He would do his best to divert the attention of the Southern Song Dynasty for the Ming Dynasty, and do his best to attract the Southern Song Dynasty's attention, and prevent the Southern Song Dynasty from doing anything disgusting when the Ming Dynasty was suffering from indigestion.
In short, Su Yonglin can rest assured.
Su Yonglin has maintained correspondence with Zhao Yucheng. Through letters, Su Yonglin will also give Zhao Yucheng some guidance, and Zhao Yucheng will also introduce him to recent events.
Zhao Yucheng admired Xu Tong very much and felt that Xu Tong was a young man with great potential and some military talents, so he was always able to make military exploits when he was used to lead the army, so he was promoted quickly.
Su Yonglin had just heard that Xu Tong had promoted the division commander, but now he learned that he not only defeated Qi Fang, but also launched a counterattack to his hometown in the Southern Song Dynasty. It is said that he scared Zhao Gou away again.
Good guy, this young man can do it!
Su Yonglin decided to give them a group of collective honors and promote them within the Renaissance Association.
At the same time, Su Yonglin paid attention to this young man named Xu Tong and felt that he really looked like a famous general.
This Xu Tong is almost the same as he was back then, just as bold and decisive. Despite Qi Fang's attack, he actually rushed forward and changed sides with the Song army.
How courageous!
Su Yonglin shared this incident with everyone at the subsequent meeting. Everyone was surprised and felt that this young man was very extraordinary.
At the same time, we also felt the corrupt internal affairs and weak army of the Southern Song Dynasty, as well as the extremely chaotic superstructure.
Under such circumstances, many members asked whether preparations could be made for the Song Dynasty.
Su Yonglin expressed his views on this.
"Preparations for conquering the Song Dynasty have been going on, repairing the Yellow River, annexing Xixia, running Guanzhong, Liaodong, anti-corruption in Shandong, etc. Everything is preparing for the conquering of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty is a big country. We must admit that we want to annex it. Song, it takes a lot of time.”
Su Yonglin does not support starting a war with the Southern Song Dynasty now. Even if the current Ming army can do it, he does not support it.
What he needs is not just a piece of land, he needs a piece of land that has not been reduced to ruins and has a more or less economic scale. This can quickly stabilize the tens of millions of people in the Southern Song Dynasty and prevent their lives from being unstable. .
So, he needs time to prepare.
But judging from the current situation, time is indeed on his side, not on the Southern Song Dynasty's side.
Not only is the national strength ebbing and flowing, but there are also other circumstances that are constantly pushing the strength of both sides to grow.
For example, the success of the artillery project.
Starting from the time of the Zhongdu General Affairs Bureau, it took almost five years from the establishment of the project to the successful test firing of the sample. The artillery that can be mass-produced and installed in the army was finally successfully tested.
The various twists and turns during the process were really difficult. The craftsmen only relied on some solutions that were only on paper and verbally proposed by Su Yonglin, and they were able to light up the technological points of the artillery for him.
They followed Su Yonglin's idea. Some of them worked hard on the fuel, while others worked hard on the iron-making furnace. They divided their forces into two groups to tackle the problem.
I don’t know what kind of wonderful collision of ideas and brainstorming occurred in the middle. A group of craftsmen made coke using some extremely earthy furnaces.
They illuminated the technological points of local coking methods and successfully produced relatively primitive and elementary coke.
The fuel group won, and the iron-smelting furnace group also made great progress.
They increased the height of the furnace, enhanced the thickness of the furnace, and enhanced the sealing of the iron-making furnace. According to Su Yonglin's idea, they did not blow cold air when blowing, but blew processed hot air.
After the troops were divided into two groups and made great progress respectively, they combined the results of their labor into one, combined with the improved steel filling method, and finally produced a furnace of steel that was far stronger than before.
This furnace of steel became the main raw material for the first sample.
