Chapter 166 Core Contradiction

The closer it gets to the end of the year, the less cold the weather becomes. Perhaps it is because spring is approaching and the snow has stopped falling. There is less snow on the streets except for the frozen ice.

The Bianliang canal is flowing slowly, the water flow on the river is reduced, and the ships coming and going have disappeared. It seems particularly relaxed and not as lively as before.

Only the towering treetops in the city and the seven-story iron tower beside the Fantai Chunxiao still retain a touch of snow-white that catches the eye.

There are fewer pedestrians on the street, but it is very lively near dusk, especially outside Donghua Gate. The government and the people celebrate together, distributing porridge and charcoal every day, and on the night of New Year's Eve, there are fireworks and bonfires.

This day is New Year's Eve. In the early morning, many officials had a meal at home first, and went out at about noon, wandering all the way into the palace.

At this moment, the palace is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. The Bianliang Palace is a bit small and does not occupy a large area. There are not many eunuchs and palace maids in the palace. There are only a few hundred people, and they are mainly guarding the palace gates. Therefore, there are not many people walking in the palace.

But today, people coming and going enter the palace one after another. In addition to the prime ministers, there are also many ministers' families, and the wives of various dukes and county dukes, who bring their young children to the palace.

Every year during the New Year, many princes and nobles also have to enter the palace to celebrate. Especially this year, the harem is pregnant with a dragon seed, and the emperor is very happy. He held a big banquet in the palace and invited everyone to celebrate.

However, everyone usually enters the palace officially at noon. Now Lu Yijian and others enter the palace first. First, they deal with some government affairs, and second, they also have some celebrations to participate in. For example, every year during the New Year, the emperor will hold celebrations in the Daqing Hall.

At 3:30 in the morning, everyone had gathered in Chongde Hall, which was Zhao Zhen's study. In the morning, many eunuchs inside and outside the palace were setting up the venue. At about the end of the morning, that is, at 9 o'clock, a grand sacrificial ceremony would be held.

Taking advantage of the time that there was still some time, many prime ministers of the Political System Institute and Zhao Zhen gathered together to chat.

In Chongde Hall, Zhao Zhen sat behind the desk, with an incense burner and a charcoal basin in the center below, and many prime ministers sitting on the left and right sides.

Yan Shu was not there. He was asked by the Minister of Rites Wang Fan to help plan the process of the celebration ceremony, because Wang Fan had just been transferred back from another place, and Yan Shu had been the Minister of Rites before and had experience in this area.

"Today is New Year's Eve, and a new year has arrived."

Zhao Zhen's face showed joy. This year, not only did the two concubines in the harem conceive dragon seeds, but the situation in Bianliang was also much better. At least the national treasury is quite abundant at present.

In addition to the successful collection of autumn taxes, Zhao Jun beheaded many people and confiscated many houses at the end of the year. All these added up to more than 10 million guan for the national treasury, which was almost enough to guarantee the expenses at the beginning of next year.

"Yes, this year, the weather in various places is still good. Although there are some civil unrest, nothing has gone wrong. This is all because of the emperor's great fortune and the blessing of God."

"And the queen and Zhang Meiren are pregnant with dragon seeds. It is very likely that they will give birth to heirs. The foundation of the country is stable and the country is peaceful and the people are safe. This is indeed a series of happy events for the emperor."

"I wish the emperor good health, I wish the dragon seeds to be born smoothly, and I wish my Song Dynasty to prosper next year and reach a higher level."

Lü Yijian, Wang Zeng, Wang Sui, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Sheng Du and others all flattered him.

These guys have always been like this. They praised Zhao Zhen wildly, and then fought internally. They praised Zhao Zhen while reporting and belittling their opponents. It was really a bit outrageous.

Zhao Zhen was indeed a little overwhelmed by everyone's flattery, and his face was full of joy.

But after being proud, he saw Zhao Jun's calm face, so he wondered: "Grandson, the new year is coming, aren't you happy?"

"I am happy, of course."

Zhao Jun sighed and said: "I just miss home a little. I don't know how my parents are doing now."

Seeing that he seemed a little depressed, Zhao Zhen hurriedly comforted him: "Grandson, since the future is still in the future, why should you worry? Even if their world is still there, I think your brothers and sisters can accompany them."

"I am an only child. In response to the call of national family planning, I can only have one child."

Zhao Jun said expressionlessly.

"Ah?"

Zhao Zhen stepped on the landmine accurately, and everyone looked at each other in surprise.

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 was that there was no concept of family planning in ancient times, and having many children and more blessings has always been the tradition of the ancients, so they really didn't think about this aspect.

Now that they know that Zhao Jun is an only child, the parents of later generations will lose their only child. It is estimated that Zhao Jun will not be happy, and the parents of later generations will not be happy either.

After hesitating for a moment, Fan Zhongyan comforted him: "Even if you are far apart, after all, you and they are still alive. Getting married and having children early, leaving bloodlines, is the greatest comfort to your parents."

"Yeah."

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 the New Year, and Fan Qing will also leave soon. Why don't we talk about something serious."

"What should we talk about today?"

Fan Zhongyan also changed the subject, looked at Zhao Jun and said: "Why don't we talk about something about Xixia? Although I have made a lot of preparations, it would be nice to talk more."

"Hmm."

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 contradiction?"

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 needs 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 will have to 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 smooth transition and stable development.”

It is said that in order to resist foreign aggression, one must make peace within the country. In fact, 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. The 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, the internal restructuring can be carried out calmly."

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 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 retreat and seek peace even if they were victorious.

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, let alone 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. If Li Yuanhao is defeated and internally unstable, you can contact 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 past 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 for a tough battle and 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 in history. I will not be stupid enough to send infantry out to fight Zhao Yuanhao 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 the 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.

Just one chapter today, let’s go watch the game. . .