Chapter 1017: The Monarch and His Ministers Are Obsessed with Peace Talks, and the Officials Are Suspicious

In order to allow Zhou Chen to lead the army with peace of mind, Zhao Zhen had to reward Zhou Chen again.

He was awarded the title of Taibao to Prince Zhou Chen, General of Hussars, General of the Liao Dynasty, and was granted the title of Duke of Liang.

When Zhou Chen received this imperial edict, he couldn't help but sneered a few times.

This official of our Song Dynasty did not learn much about the domineering ambition of the king. This suspicious character is very suitable for the emperor.

He was a Taiwei before, but now he has become the Prince's Taibao. The Prince's Taibao is of a very high rank, reaching the first rank, but in terms of real power, he cannot compare with the commanders in front of the palace.

What was the purpose of taking away his position as the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Palace and giving him the position of Crown Prince and Taibao?

Needless to say, the empty-handed military official and hussar general, and the general of the Liao Dynasty, will this position be useless when the war is over?

As for Liang Guogong, his rank is several levels higher than that of a marquis. But the problem is that hereditary Dukes will be lowered one level from one generation to the next. After three generations, if they no longer have the title, they will not even be able to retain the title of Marquis. How can they compare with hereditary Dukes? The title of Marquis of Zhongyong in vain?

Zhao Zhen's little thoughts were clearly visible in his heart, but Zhou Chen did not show it. His main goal now was to complete the side mission first, and he would wait until the other tasks were completed.

When I studied history before, I knew that the emperors of the Song Dynasty were more weird and cowardly than the last, but that was history after all.

But now after experiencing it personally, he realized that the Song Dynasty was a dynasty that was glamorous on the outside but a mess on the inside. Not to mention compared to the Tang and Ming Dynasties, even compared to the short-lived Sui Dynasty, it was still worse than the short-lived Sui Dynasty.

Zhao Zhen, who will be honored as the 'Emperor Renzong' in the future, has really been brainwashed by the civil service group. Those civil servants slapped him in the face, but he could endure it and still responded with a smile. .

But as for himself, he helped him destroy Xixia, solved the threat on the Song-Xia border, and resisted the invasion of the Liao army. Now he had to fight against the angry Liao army again.

As a result, Zhao Zhen was lucky. The battle had not even started yet, but he had already begun to plot against him.

He is really a master at internal fighting, but a coward to others.

However, Zhou Chen has no time or energy to think about this now. His energy is now focused on the Liao Kingdom.

In the previous attack on Xixia, he had planned it for a year without any intention, and finally he was able to destroy Xixia in one fell swoop and capture the founding emperor of Xixia alive, which can also be said to be the emperor who destroyed the country.

The Xixia in this fictional world is not as powerful as the Xixia in official history. It can defeat both the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom.

The predecessor of Xixia, the Dingnan Army, was wiped out once by Zhou Chen. Therefore, although Xixia was established, the emperor who established Xixia was not the same person as the founding emperor of Xixia in history, and his strength was far inferior, so he was defeated by Zhou Chen. After more than a year of planning, the country was destroyed with less than 200,000 troops.

But the Liao Kingdom was different. The Liao Kingdom's military power was stronger than that of the Song Dynasty. Although the Song Dynasty had a large population and a vast territory, it almost never won a few battles against the Liao Kingdom.

Because the living habits of Song people and Liao people were different, it was extremely difficult to send spies to Liao.

Although Zhou Chen had already made a plan, the spies sent to the Liao Kingdom could only give him limited information, and even fewer could touch the core resources of the Liao Kingdom.

Based on the collected information and his own analysis, he roughly came to a general result.

The most prosperous period of the Liao Kingdom should be the era of the previous emperor Liao Shengzong. At that time, the Liao Kingdom's standing army had a standing army of three to four hundred thousand. With the full force of the whole country, it could reach seven to eight hundred thousand, nearly one million. many.

However, as the current emperor Yelu Zongsheng succeeded to the throne, internal strife broke out within the Liao Kingdom, and the national power has gradually weakened, and it is no longer what it was twenty years ago.

The Liao Kingdom's standing army now has 300,000 people. Even if there is a national war, it will be overwhelming to have 500,000 to 600,000 people.

It's just that many of the Liao's armies are elite, especially their cavalry, which are even more invincible.

Zhou Chen can despise the Liao army strategically, but he will definitely pay attention to it tactically.

Now, as the general of the northern expedition against Liao, he has summoned more than 200,000 troops from all sides in the north. The number of troops is absolutely sufficient, but the elites are much inferior. They can fight against the Liao cavalry. Cavalry is even rarer.

In short, this battle is not easy to fight.

If he could just repel the Liao army, Zhou Chen would be 100% sure, unless the Liao army went crazy and launched a desperate attack.

But if you want to take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun from the Liao Kingdom, or even attack the capital of the Liao Kingdom, the difficulty will increase exponentially.

"Father, this is what Uncle Jiu sent."

Zhou Bai, dressed in black armor, walked into the mansion and handed the letter in his hand to Zhou Chen.

Two years have passed, and Zhou Bai is no longer a member of the Guards, but a general of the cavalry battalion.

Of course, this was wartime, and he would usually study with Zhou Chen. Everyone in the army knew that he was Zhou Chen's son.

Zhou Chen did not deliberately hide this matter. If Zhou Bai couldn't bear this pressure, it would have been in vain for him to train him for so many years.

Zhou Chen took the letter, opened it and read it. Soon, he frowned.

This is the intelligence sent back by Lei Jiu, saying that the Liao Kingdom sent an army of 150,000, with Xiao Hui as the main general and Yelu Zongyuan as the deputy general. They came from Shangjing and went straight to the Song and Liao border.

Zhou Chen also had a certain understanding of the Liao Kingdom and knew who Xiao Hui was. He was a descendant of a famous general in the Liao Kingdom. He was over fifty years old this year. He was a very famous military general in the Liao Kingdom and was extremely good at cavalry combat. He participated in the battles between Song and Liao many times, including the battle between the Chanyuan Alliance.

Yelu Zongyuan is the younger brother of Liao Emperor Yelu Zongsheng. Although he is young, he is also a fierce character who should not be underestimated.

Of course, the most important thing is the 150,000 troops, half of which are cavalry. Once tens of thousands of elite cavalry enter the battlefield, their lethality is really terrible. If they charge, even the 200,000 troops may not be able to stop them. Live.

He would not doubt Lei Jiu's information. Lei Jiu had been following him for nearly thirty years and would never betray him, so this information was absolutely credible.

But just like this, he frowned. The army of 150,000 was not terrible. He had experienced more wars, but the cavalry of 60,000 to 70,000 was really terrible. If the Liao cavalry was not destroyed, they would have no chance of winning.

Although he had a headache, Zhou Chen was still confident. If he didn't even have confidence, there would be no way to regain the Sixteenth State of Yanyun.

"The cavalry is not invincible."

Zhou Chen had several ways to deal with cavalry in his mind, some were unusable, but some were usable.

Let’s not go too far, let’s just say that General Yue’s method of dealing with the Jin cavalry can be used in the future. However, this method can be used to deal with heavy cavalry, but not light cavalry.

The Liao Kingdom mainly relied on light cavalry, so just one method was not safe. It also needed to train heavy infantry, equipped with heavy weapons such as sabers...

With the war approaching, Zhou Chen could only use the shortest possible time to start training the army, looking for craftsmen, and forging weapons.

In fact, the population of the Song Dynasty far exceeded that of the Liao Kingdom several times. However, the Song Dynasty emphasized culture over military affairs, resulting in a weak domestic military power.

The military strength of the Song Dynasty is not small, but the status of the warriors of the Song Dynasty is not high. There have been fewer wars in recent years. It is very difficult to get promoted through military exploits.

If things go on like this, many military attaches have no room for improvement, and naturally they cannot raise their ambition to fight. As time goes by, the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army becomes worse and worse.

Decades later, the Jin Kingdom invaded Bianjing, captured the second emperor alive, and destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty. It was simply a shame for the Central Plains Dynasty.

Throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, there are really few dynasties as weak as the Song Dynasty.

…………

Zhou Chen originally thought that the battle with the Liao army would be a difficult battle, but to his surprise, the Song army led by him achieved an astonishing victory in the first collision between the two sides, killing thousands of people. Thousands of Liao people were captured alive, and the Liao army was defeated.

This battle stunned Zhou Chen. What about the Liao army that they promised to be invincible? Why was it so fragile in the first fight?

But he quickly realized that it was not that the Liao army was too weak, but that they were underestimated.

In the previous battles between Song and Liao, the Song army was no match at all and had almost no victories. The Liao army that invaded last time was destroyed. What they thought more about was not that they were incompetent in combat, but that they were defeated by the despicable Song people's intrigues.

Therefore, in the first battle of leading an army of 150,000 people, he still underestimated the Song army and suffered such a defeat.

Although it is strange, this should be the most reasonable explanation.

After suffering this defeat, the Liao army was obviously much more cautious and began to use light cavalry to clear the way. Even though Zhou Chen was well prepared, he still suffered heavy losses in the face of the charge of the Liao army's cavalry.

The Liao army is the invading party, and Zhou Chen cannot just hold on. With the mobility of the Liao army, if they are not blocked, they can use their flexible mobility to bypass the Song army and invade the hinterland of the Song Dynasty. By then, the people of the Song Dynasty will Was bloodbathed.

Therefore, Zhou Chen knew that the Liao army's cavalry was unstoppable, but for the sake of the innocent people of the Song Dynasty, he had to lead his army to stop the Liao army's offensive.

The Song army outnumbered the Liao army, and coupled with Zhou Chen's iron-blooded orders, no one on the battlefield retreated. No matter how strong the Liao army's cavalry was, they could not break through the Song army's defense line.

But in this way, the number of casualties of the Song army far exceeded that of the Liao army.

Zhou Chen has been on the battlefield for a long time and is used to seeing life and death. He knows that in order to win, casualties are inevitable, so he can be ruthless.

His son Zhou Bai, on the other hand, has seen too much life and death these days, and his spirit is a little dazed, and his character has not yet been tempered.

This time was different from the last expedition against Xixia. Under the command of Zhou Chen, that battle almost ended with a crushing victory. But this time, although they were able to resist the Liao army every time, they even continued to repel them. The Liao army achieved victory, but the level of casualties far exceeded that of the Song-Xia battle.

The Liao army originally had only 150,000 people. At first, Zhou Chen took them by surprise and killed many prisoners. Later, they were surrounded by Zhou Chen. Even though they killed countless Song troops, they themselves suffered heavy casualties, especially when they were attacked by the Song army. The light cavalry targeted suffered heavy losses.

After more than a month, more than half of the 150,000-strong army was lost. Winter just entered again. With a lack of food and grass, the Liao army had to retreat.

The good news that Zhou Chen had defeated the Liao army came back to Bianjing, and the government and the public were shocked. Even the civil servants who disliked Zhou Chen breathed a sigh of relief and did not target Zhou Chen as before.

As for the people, it caused an uproar. Zhou Chen was already a celebrity in the Song Dynasty. He became famous at a young age. He destroyed Xixia before and now defeated the Liao army.

For a time, his prestige among the people reached its peak. Even young children knew about General Zhou Chen. Many people even called Zhou Chen the God of War of the Song Dynasty.

The Song-Liao War was temporarily stopped, but something strange happened again. Song Dynasty official Zhao Zhen once again sent an envoy to the Liao Kingdom to hold peace talks with the Liao Kingdom.

Zhou Chen was already used to the various tactics of the imperial court. These big men did not regard the soldiers on the front line as human beings at all.

If they lose, they will negotiate for peace, and if they win, they will still negotiate. In their eyes, the life and death of the frontline soldiers is not important at all, and the outcome of the war is just a bargaining chip for them.

If they lose, they have to pay more tribute coins, gold, silver, silk, land resources, etc.; if they win, they have to pay less tribute. Anyway, no matter they win or lose, they put themselves in a weak position.

There is also another possibility, that is, they have always regarded the Liao people as barbarians, and believed that the Liao Kingdom invaded the Central Plains just to grab some yellow and white goods, some food, etc.

In this case, it's better to simply 'reward' them and send them away. There is no need to start a war.

In their view, fighting consumes money, and in the end they have to pay tribute. It is better not to fight and just give money directly. Isn't it good for the world to be stable?

Using money and dignity to pray for the enemy to be spared was something only the Song Dynasty could do.

The Emperor of Liao was already furious because of the defeat. When he heard that Song actually wanted peace talks, he was confused, but he quickly realized and sent someone to contact him.

The boys who bring money are all here, so why not?

Again, Zhao Zhen wanted peace talks, but Zhou Chen refused to let him have his way. He took advantage of the peace talks between Song and Liao to direct and act by himself, once again staged a drama of Liao people invading the border, and then his generals led The soldiers went out to fight, massacred the Liao army, and entered the hinterland of the Liao Kingdom, imitating the invasion of the Liao people, killing and plundering the Liao people wantonly.

This act directly angered the Liao State, and the peace talks collapsed again. The angry Liao people even killed the Song peace envoy.

The War between Song and Liao, which had been suspended for several months, broke out again.

The monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty who were far away in Bianjing all felt that their hearts could not bear it. For more than a year, the war had been going back and forth, and the peace talks had not stopped. But every time when the talks were about to succeed, something went wrong, which made the longing... The emperor and his ministers found it difficult to accept the truce.

Especially as the emperor, Zhao Zhen always felt that things were not under his control and was very uneasy, so he made a decision.

Gu Qianfan walked slowly into the hall and paid homage to the official Zhao Zhen: "Your Majesty, Gu Qianfan, pays homage to the official."

"Gu Qing is here."

Zhao Zhen saw Gu Qianfan and nodded. Gu Qianfan had been in charge of the Imperial City Division for twenty years. He had made many contributions and was loyal. He was a person he trusted very much.

"I heard that Gu Qing and Liang Guogong were Jinshi at the same time. You must have a good relationship, right?"

While asking, he stared at Gu Qianfan, trying to see Gu Qianfan's reaction.

Gu Qianfan's heart skipped a beat, but he still answered with the same expression: "Back at the official residence, I do know Duke Liang, but it is only a friendship between gentlemen."

Zhao Zhen nodded and asked: "What do you think of Liang Guogong?"

Gu Qianfan clearly sensed something was wrong and answered cautiously: "Liang Guogong is a famous general in the world. He is dedicated and loyal to the court, and I also admire him."

"Loyal?"

Zhao Zhen was moved in his heart and did not answer. He just said: "Liang Guogong is indeed an important minister of the imperial court. He is my confidant and I have full confidence in him. However, recently there have been some remarks in the court that are unfavorable to Liang Guogong. There are even memorials to impeach Liang Guogong. He supported his own troops and sabotaged the Song-Liao peace talks many times."

"Of course I don't believe what these villains say, but in order to prove Liang Guogong's innocence, this matter still needs to be investigated carefully. Gu Qing has been in charge of the Imperial City Division for many years and is an expert in this field. I want to send you to the northern border to investigate This matter must be investigated clearly to restore Liang Guogong’s innocence.”

Gu Qianfan lowered his head: "I am determined to live up to the official's orders and immediately arrange for personnel to go to the border."

After Gu Qianfan retreated, Zhao Zhen recruited another person. He couldn't figure out how close the relationship between Gu Qianfan and Zhou Chen was, so he was worried that Gu Qianfan was alone, so he secretly sent another person.