Chapter 312: Leaving Yongji Pass and Heading Straight for Thang Long

Ordinary people cannot see the impact and use of the reform of vernacular writing. Feng Jing, as a highly intelligent person, can naturally see the tricks.

It is a simple truth that the knowledge level of the people is uneven. Some people are completely illiterate, some know a little, but not many, and some know common characters, but do not know obscure characters.

So sometimes when the court issues policies and releases them to the counties below, even if the notice is posted at the government office, the city gate, or even the entrance of each village, the people still cannot understand it.

At this time, they either ask the scholars in the village for advice, or find those landlords who know characters. It is difficult for them to understand the meaning of the newly promulgated policy by themselves.

This leads to another problem.

There are too few people who know characters, and the landlords can achieve a monopoly on knowledge and text interpretation by winning over those scholars who know characters.

For example, the court is going to reduce some taxes this year. The landlords and gentry and the intellectuals who know characters in the countryside will unite to explain to the people that the court will collect taxes normally this year and hope that everyone will prepare the taxes to be paid in advance.

At that time, the counties were short of manpower, and the tax system was a progressive system.

The county magistrate ordered the clerks to collect taxes, and the clerks would go to the towns and villages to find local clans, landlords, and rich families, and let them organize the people to pay taxes. At the same time, the clerks would collude with these local gentry.

The three parties seemed to supervise each other, but in fact they colluded with each other, which formed the corvée law in the early Northern Song Dynasty, deceiving the upper and the lower, and continuously draining the pond to fish for fish.

Therefore, although the court's way of controlling the local areas is simple, the central officials control the various roads, the various roads govern the various states, and the various states are responsible for the counties. Finally, the officials of the counties govern the grassroots to achieve the purpose of layered governance.

But in fact, the grassroots governance power is not in the hands of the county magistrates. Between them and the ordinary people, there are still local clans, landlords, rich households and corvées.

As long as these parties unite, it is still no problem to want to override a local county magistrate.

Now under the performance evaluation system, only the officials are governed well, and the clerks now also have salaries from the government and have promotion channels, and the situation has improved slightly. The court had no way to deal with the grassroots clans, landlords, and wealthy families.

So Feng Jing immediately realized that the court's reform of vernacular writing was to break the monopoly of local forces on knowledge and text interpretation.

Although people who are completely illiterate still cannot understand it, this will take care of a large number of people who know a little bit of characters and common characters.

Through vernacular writing, these people who know common characters can read it out, which is more convenient for people who can't read characters to understand.

This is undoubtedly a major reform.

So under what circumstances would the court suddenly do this?

Of course, there are more important reforms to be put behind. It is estimated that after two months, when the requirements for vernacular writing spread throughout the Song Dynasty, new policies will follow.

Feng Jing rolled his eyes.

It's hard to say.

In this imperial examination, there is the court's interpretation of the current affairs.

If you can answer well and get the favor of the court.

Maybe you will rise to the top.

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At the end of June, many major events happened in the Song Dynasty.

There are many important ones, such as the rising temperature in May this year, and the severe drought in Shaanxi Road in June, and the court actively provided disaster relief.

In early June, the indigenous rebellion broke out in Qiongzhou, and the court sent the Xiang army stationed in Guangdong to suppress it.

In the middle of the month, Goryeo sent envoys to offer tributes, and the court gave more generous gifts in return.

There are also national public affairs of all sizes in the governance of various places, which must be handled one by one to keep the central court machine running efficiently.

But these can only be said to be normal state affairs.

Qiongzhou was a land of transformation in the Song Dynasty, just like Taiwan, the only difference is that Qiongzhou has been slightly developed, but the local indigenous people have repeatedly rebelled.

So later in the Shenzong period, when the army was used against Vietnam, it was simply to set up Zhuya Army, Changhua Army, and Wan'an Army in Qiongzhou, harassing Vietnam from the sea while suppressing the local indigenous people.

Although Zhao Jun was quite dissatisfied with the issue of envoys from the vassal states, they brought a little gift, and the Song Dynasty gave several times the gift in return, which was really a bit of a face-swelling fat.

However, this is an extremely important tribute system in ancient Chinese civilization. It is not just about the younger brothers paying tribute and the boss giving them some rewards. There is also a deeper level of determining the relationship between the upper and lower, with the attributes of alliance and complete etiquette culture.

In this way, Chinese civilization determined the status of the Celestial Empire, and then exported Confucianism to neighboring countries, gradually converging their cultures, thus causing the entire East Asian civilization to be influenced by Chinese civilization.

Therefore, although the tribute system caused a lot of losses to the Song Dynasty, and it had to send a lot of things back to the younger brothers every year, it also gave these younger brothers a lot of cultural output, expanded the influence of Chinese civilization, and made the people of the surrounding countries worship the Han people, which was a win-win situation.

So in general, these are things that happen every year, and there is no change.

There are only two real big changes.

The first thing is that the court is preparing for the reform of vernacular, requiring that official documents between various places no longer be in the form of classical Chinese, but in the form of folk vernacular.

The second thing is, of course, to use troops against the Li Dynasty of Vietnam.

After Yang Cha arrived in Guangxi, before Di Qing came, he immediately began to make arrangements.

In addition to internal food, concentrated troops, and weapons and equipment.

He also actively contacted neighboring countries, hoping that East Asian kingdoms including Dali, Champa, Angkor, Lamphun and Bagan would send troops together.

Except for Dali, which responded positively, the other Southeast Asian countries basically did not respond.

The main reason is that although these countries have all fought wars with the Li Dynasty, these countries are basically separated from the Li Dynasty by the Changshan Mountains, and they are even further away from the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, they often choose to ignore foreign affairs, play in their own small circle behind closed doors, and rarely pay tribute to the Central Plains dynasty.

Dali is different.

They actively maintained a good relationship with the Song Dynasty, and they also had a feud with the Li Dynasty of Vietnam. When they heard that the Song Dynasty was preparing to use troops against the Vietnam Dynasty, they naturally wanted to beat up the lost dog, and followed behind their eldest brother to say something about the disastrous defeat in the Jinhuabu Battle. Bad breath.

By June, Di Qing led tens of thousands of troops and finally arrived in Yongzhou with great force.

Yang Cha took officials from Guangnan West Road to greet him.

It was evening, but the sky was not dark in summer. The sun was still hanging over the mountains in the west, and the moon in the east had already risen. It was almost six to seven o'clock in the evening.

The gorgeous sunset was picturesque, and under the burning clouds, groups of dusk crows circled in the sky, and then flew back to the mountain forest, causing a whirling sound in the forest.

A gentle breeze blew over the hills, and in the dense jungle outside Yongzhou City, countless black spots loomed on an official road.

After waiting for almost two or three quarters of an hour, the sun completely set, and the sky and earth were gray. Nong Zhigao and others looked out and saw a neatly-dressed team, lined up in a long queue, approaching step by step.

The general at the front is riding a horse. He is about thirty years old, with a resolute face, and is looking ahead.

When he saw Yang Cha, he slowly rode his horse over, reined in his horse and stopped ten meters away, then turned over and dismounted with a beautiful movement, walked closer to Yang Cha and cupped his hands and said, "I've seen the Commander-in-Chief."

"General Di is polite."

Yang Cha returned the courtesy. He was a transport envoy, not a strategic envoy. He did not have the power to coordinate the entire army like Fan Zhongyan did.

Moreover, when Di Qing came out this time, in addition to his own official position, he was also temporarily awarded the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Military and Horse Command of Guangnan West Road. He was also the highest military officer along the way. He was on the same level as Yang Cha, so Yang Cha came out to greet him in person.

This time the imperial court sent troops to Vietnam, and its meaning was very clear. Yang Cha is responsible for logistics and overall planning, and Di Qing is responsible for main military strategy and tactics. The two men, one civil and one military, divided their labors and cooperated to deal with Li Chao.

"General, you have been tired from traveling all the way, but it is hard work. Please enter the city first and then talk about it."

"good."

Di Qing nodded.

At that moment, he ordered his soldiers to camp outside the city, and he brought a few personal guards into the city.

Nong Zhigao glanced at the imperial soldiers outside the city.

An army of tens of thousands.

Among them, there were only 10,000 regular troops.

The rest are civilian husbands.

The Tang Dynasty stipulated that a troop of 10,000 soldiers must be equipped with ten to eight horses and mules, carrying a large amount of grain, grass and baggage.

The Song Dynasty was basically the same, so if 10,000 people were dispatched, at least 20,000 to 30,000 civilians would be needed to help escort grain, grass and weapons.

These civilian men did not come from Kaifeng, but the imperial court issued an official document to allocate money, and the various roads hired civilian men to help escort it to the border of the road, and then transferred it by other roads.

Therefore, the team outside seems to be very large, with no end in sight. But the only ones who can actually fight are those neatly dressed regular troops.

only.

Nong Zhigao saw that the soldiers all carried a long pole on their backs and had short swords hanging on their waists. They had no armor and no cavalry.

After Di Qing issued the military order, he went to an open space outside the city in twos and threes to prepare to set up tents.

Although the military appearance is quite neat.

However, there is only a ring-headed dagger all over his body.

Can such a force really easily destroy the Yue and Li Dynasties?

Nong Zhigao only had questions in his mind.

During this time, Yang Cha led Di Qing into the city and went to the only restaurant in the city for dinner.

The two parties chatted happily, and by the time the banquet was over, the sky had completely darkened.

Originally, Yang Cha meant to let Di Qing take a day off and start talking about business again tomorrow.

But Di Qing was obviously very interested and rejected Yang Cha's proposal, hoping to discuss sending troops as soon as possible.

Seeing his persistence, Yang Cha did not object, so he left Zhao Wenzuo and Nong Zhigao behind, and the four of them discussed together in the backyard of the Yamen of the state capital.

In the backyard room, Yang Cha sat in the main seat, Di Qing sat in the first seat below, Zhao Wenzuo and Nong Zhigao sat in turn.

Candles were lit in the room, and after the attendants served strong tea and closed the door, Di Qing said, "Commander Commander, I believe you understand what the court means this time. I wonder what the situation is like?"

"During this period, I coordinated some troops and horses, stored some food and grass, and also sent spies to the border to investigate the situation, and found two possible attack routes."

Yang Cha spread out the map and said to Di Qing: "Since the imperial court changed this year, the Li Dynasty must have noticed this and deployed a large number of soldiers and horses on the border, led by their Taiwei Guo Shengyi, stationed in the Langzhou area."

He pointed to the dots on the map and said: "The road from the Song Dynasty to Jiaozhi is rugged and difficult. Even the best road is not easy to walk. The Yongji Pass Ancient Road is the only road. But besides Yongji Pass, there are This road goes south from Siling Prefecture, passing through Siming Prefecture and Lu Prefecture, and leads directly to Li Chao Beijiang River!"

Di Qing scanned the map. Yongji Pass is the Friendship Pass in later generations. It was called Zhennan Pass in the Ming Dynasty. Since ancient times, it has been the best way for the Central Plains dynasties to send troops to Vietnam. The Han Dynasty conquered Jiaozhi and the Sui Dynasty conquered Jiaozhi by taking this road.

But it is foreseeable that since this road is the best way to go, the Li Dynasty will definitely choose to station a large army here when it is already alert.

"General."

Yang Cha said again: "I think the Li Dynasty will definitely guard the ancient Yongji Pass Road. Although we control Yongji Pass, if we send troops south, we will be ambushed by Jiaozhi's troops. So what I think is to feign an attack here and let the elite troops go south from the small road."

Di Qing thought for a while, turned his head and looked at Nong Zhigao and said: "Nong Tongzhi, I heard that you are familiar with the local roads and have traveled back and forth between Jiaozhi and Guangxi many times. What do you think of this?"

Everyone introduced themselves at the dinner table just now, so now everyone knows each other.

Hearing Di Qing's question, Nong Zhigao quickly replied: "General, I think it's best to do so. This road is very rugged and difficult to walk on. If you are ambushed, it's likely to be dangerous. The only way is to select a group of elite soldiers who can cross mountains and ridges and bypass the ancient Yongji Pass Road."

"I don't think so."

Di Qing shook his head and said: "This is a war to destroy a country, not just going south to attack Jiaozhi. If we bypass the road, how can we supply food and grass? Once the enemy garrisons the city, how can our army still stay in Jiaozhi? Therefore, only by opening up this road can a steady stream of supplies come, so that we can march straight in and conquer Thang Long!"

"This"

Everyone looked at each other. Everyone had considered this problem.

This trail is no worse than the Shu Road. The soldiers under Nong Zhigao are originally ethnic minorities living in the mountains, so crossing mountains and ridges is definitely not a problem.

The problem is what to do if we take the trail to Jiaozhi?

If you want to cross the mountains, you must travel light. Carriages cannot pass through, so the only result is to harass. Once the food and grass you carry are eaten, you still have to withdraw and cannot pose too much threat to Jiaozhi.

So if you want to destroy the Li Dynasty, you still have to open up the road.

However, Nong Zhigao thought that if you want to open up the road, the court would have to send at least 200,000 troops, but only 10,000 were sent. How can you fight?

Therefore, he could only say tactfully: "General, it's not that we don't want to open up the ancient Yongji Pass Road, but we have too few soldiers."

"How many troops do we have now?"

"Guangnan West Route Army has more than 8,000 people, plus the many tribes on the border who are willing to send troops, there are only 20,000 to 30,000. Dali is willing to send 30,000 troops, but they will definitely not charge in the front."

"Enough."

Di Qing smiled faintly, pointed to Yongji Pass and said: "After leaving Yongji Pass, sweep across the enemy Liangzhou, and then go south to Beijiang Prefecture. I checked the documents before coming here and knew that this is an endless plain. Once here, the army can go all the way south and take Thang Long!"