Chapter 332 Yelu Zongzhen Is Really Worried

In November of the sixth year of the Qingli period, the ocean-going fleet returned with a large amount of things.

In fact, only a part of them were brought to Bianliang.

First, the passenger ships used for carrying loads in Bianliang were too small. Compared with the sea-going ships that were tens of meters or even hundreds of meters long, they were far behind and could not carry so many goods.

Second, it was because of the climate.

Many of the crops brought back by the shipping fleet were rubber trees, cinchona trees and other crops from the tropical rainforests of South America.

They sailed around the Chukchi Peninsula and chose May and June this year, when the weather was the hottest, to cross the Bering Strait near the Arctic Circle.

But even so, many rubber trees and cinchona trees died on the way.

So after arriving in Hangzhou, Zhao Jun immediately asked them to take most of the trees to the south and transplant them to Hainan, Guangxi and other places that also have a tropical rainforest climate.

Most of the things brought to Bianliang were naturally other local products, such as gold and silver jewelry, crystal agate, diamond spices, coral pearls and other precious items.

So under such circumstances, when boxes of gold and silver were moved down, it instantly caused an uproar.

The explosive news in the whole Bianliang these days is the news that the ocean-going fleet returned from overseas and brought back countless gold and silver treasures again.

And this news also spread quickly.

Since the beginning of the year, the court has relaxed news control, and a large number of newspaper and magazine industries have been born in the private sector.

Especially the four capitals of Kaifeng, Yingtian, Henan, and Daming, as well as Chengdu, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangling, Yuezhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and other regions.

Because the characteristics of these places are the traditional political and commercial centers of the Song Dynasty. And they are generally located in well-developed transportation and along the canal. Whether it is news or business environment, they are very good.

So after the news control in Kaifeng, the news media industry quickly developed in these cities, and the newspaper industry began to reach thousands of households.

Driven by newspapers, the population in many urban areas of the Song Dynasty quickly learned about this matter.

For a time, the fact that every inch of land overseas was worth a lot of money spread throughout the country.

It also spread abroad.

Who are the people who are most concerned about the situation in the Song Dynasty?

Apart from the loyal brothers like Goryeo and Dali who followed the Song Dynasty, there were naturally only two hostile countries, Xixia and Liao.

Of course.

Now they are nominally friendly "brother countries".

But everyone knows that with the rise of the Song Dynasty, they are the most uneasy.

Needless to say, Xixia was originally a small country with few people. The stronger the neighbor next to it, the more they will feel the crisis coming.

Although the Liao Dynasty was much stronger, with the advent of the firearms era, their cavalry played a smaller and smaller role, and their combat effectiveness became more and more backward, so they naturally felt that the threat was approaching.

In the past, the Liao Dynasty threatened the Song Dynasty with force from time to time and forced the Song Dynasty to sign various unequal treaties.

But now, with the tragic end of the war between Liao and Song, and the signing of a trade agreement between Liao and Song, although the agreement is beneficial to Liao, under bilateral trade, Song, as the main importer of raw materials, will definitely benefit far more than Liao.

Therefore, seeing that the rise of the "brother" country in the south is unstoppable, the Liao Emperor Yelu Zongzhen is naturally very anxious.

In fact, in addition to secretly accumulating strength and vigorously developing firearms, he had also secretly formed an alliance with Xixia and formed a Liao-Xia alliance, agreeing that if one side went to war with the Song Dynasty, the other side would also have to send troops to support it.

If this kind of group warming up is in normal times, it must be very loose and cannot form a strong alliance.

But once they have a powerful opponent at the same time, which seriously threatens their lives and safety, then this alliance will inevitably be closer.

Just like the Three Kingdoms period, except that Sun Quan was short-sighted and launched a sneak attack on Jingzhou, which resulted in the Battle of Yiling. After that, Wu and Ji Han never fought again, but formed an alliance to fight against Cao Wei.

Although most of their joint actions were declared a failure because Sun Quan was blocked in Hefei.

But it also shows from the side that in a triangular relationship, when any party is in an absolute leading advantage, the other two weak parties will inevitably be closely linked to prevent being annexed.

In mid-December, in the camp palace of Zhongjing, Liao, the Liao emperor Yelu Zongzhen now lives here for most of the year.

At this moment, he was reviewing memorials in the study of the palace, looking at the documents in his hand with great distress.

In fact, Yelu Zongzhen was not an emperor without a sense of crisis. On the contrary, he still hoped to make some achievements in history. He was a monarch with ideals and ambitions, otherwise his temple name would not be Liao Xingzong.

So since the rise of the Song Dynasty, Yelu Zongzhen has also been very diligent, trying to work hard to strengthen the national strength to counter the increasingly powerful Song Dynasty.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.

The Liao Kingdom did not have a time traveler to help him eliminate the malpractices and clear the old obstacles.

And the system of the Liao Kingdom also made it difficult for Yelu Zongzhen.

The problem of the Liao Kingdom was that their upper-level dignitaries held a lot of real power, and the leaders of the Khitan tribes were also dignitaries of the Liao Kingdom.

For example, the Yelu family and the Xiao family were the two most powerful ones, in charge of the military and financial resources of many Khitan tribes.

At this time, 140 years after the founding of the Liao Kingdom, the earliest batch of Khitan soldiers and horses had already begun to corrupt and degenerate, and the strength of the army was also worrying.

For this reason, Yelu Zongzhen had to consider reorganizing the army, eradicating corruption and vacancies in the army, and retraining the army.

But this will obviously seriously hinder the interests of the Khitan nobles and cause a constant stream of domestic opposition.

Zhao Jun was able to complete the military reorganization because he was an open time traveler in front of Zhao Zhen and the prime ministers, and he could exchange his identity as a future prophet for their strong support.

And the military system of the Song Dynasty was a joke in front of the civil officials.

Like Kong Daofu's false accusation of Wang Deyong, a fourth-rank civil official who was a Jinshi could even use his appearance to humiliate the first-rank Privy Councilor who was a military general, which is enough to show how much the civil officials oppressed the military generals.

In this case, as long as the emperor and the civil official group support it, it is a matter of course to reform the army.

But the Liao Kingdom can't do that.

The military generals of the Liao Kingdom oppressed the civil officials.

Zhang Jian, a veteran of three dynasties, was not respected in front of the Yelu and Xiao nobles, let alone other civil officials.

If Yelu Zongzhen and the Han civil servants group wanted to affect the interests of the Khitan nobles, it is likely that these Khitan nobles would rise up in resistance, and then the Liao Dynasty would be in civil strife first.

Therefore, Yelu Zongzhen could not eliminate the cancer in the army like the Song Dynasty and carry out large-scale military reforms. He could only slowly solve the problem of the Khitan army's increasing laziness and lack of training, and slightly improve its combat effectiveness.

In addition to the internal corruption and degeneration of the Khitan, there was also a lot of external pressure.

The most typical one was the tribes of other ethnic groups.

It should be known that the Liao Dynasty had a population of nearly 10 million, and the Khitan people only accounted for about one-eighth of it.

In the case that the main ethnic group did not occupy the majority, it would naturally cause other ethnic groups in the country to express dissatisfaction with the rule of the Khitan people.

This was also the case in the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty had more than 200 rebellions, and the Qing Dynasty had more than 1,000 rebellions in the special years at the end of the Qing Dynasty. There were more than 100 rebellions from Shunzhi to Daoguang.

Therefore, apart from the Song Dynasty, which was a strange dynasty with more than 400 uprisings due to its high taxes, dynasties ruled by ethnic minorities often had various uprisings of varying sizes.

The same was true for the Liao Dynasty.

Although the abolition of the Four Seasons System greatly reduced the internal fiscal expenditure of the Liao Dynasty and reduced the burden on other ethnic groups.

But it also reduced the control over other ethnic groups, allowing them to gradually develop.

For example, the Mongolian Qiyuan tribe in the northern grasslands and the Shixian tribe of the Jurchens in the northeast continued to annex small tribes around them, and their power gradually grew stronger. They did not respect the Liao Dynasty very much, which made Yelu Zongzhen very annoyed.

Therefore, in summary, in the past ten years, although Yelu Zongzhen tried to change the Liao Dynasty and achieved considerable results, the national strength of the Liao Dynasty has been greatly improved.

It can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. Unlike the Song Dynasty, it has executed a large number of officials, nobles, and evil forces, and may also deal with landlords in the future. To a certain extent, it has solved the problems of official corruption, military darkness, and poor local security.

Basically, the internal and external troubles of Liao still exist, but they are temporarily suppressed by Yelu Zongzhen, the paperhanger, and have not erupted in a concentrated manner.

So although the national strength of Liao has also increased to a certain extent, the gap with Song Dynasty is getting bigger and bigger.

"Alas."

Looking at the official document in his hand, Yelu Zongzhen sighed.

This official document actually talks about the rebellion of Shixian tribe. This Shixian tribe is a branch of Shengnuzhen tribe. It is powerful and has developed rapidly in recent years. Recently, it has cut off the Haidong Eagle Road and openly provoked Liao.

"Your Majesty."

Zhang Jian asked, "What happened?"

Yelu Zongzhen threw down the official document in his hand and said, "The Eagle Road in Haidong has been cut off by the people of Shixian tribe. If this matter spreads out, I am afraid it will cause a great wave."

"Hmm"

Zhang Jian nodded slightly and said, "The Eagle Road is of vital importance to our Liao Dynasty. Many nobles love Haidongqing very much. If the Eagle Road is cut off, they will definitely be furious. I think this is a good opportunity."

"Oh?"

Yelu Zongzhen said hurriedly, "Please tell me, father."

Zhang Jian said, "Sending troops to Liaodong can train soldiers, deter all tribes, and take the opportunity to collect military power."

"Hmm"

Yelu Zongzhen pondered for a moment and understood what Zhang Jian meant.

Although the new army is now equipped with firearms, it has mostly been trained and has not been in actual combat. It is still unknown how effective it is in actual combat, so it is a good choice to practice with the Jurchens.

Secondly, as the Liao Kingdom's control over various tribes has weakened, it is bound to cause many tribes to be restless.

If this matter is not handled properly, other tribes may see that the Liao Kingdom cannot even deal with a Jurchen tribe, and they may think that the Liao Kingdom is in decline, and they may take the opportunity to rebel.

So sending troops to deal with Shi Xian's tribe directly can reduce the ambitions of other tribes.

Finally, once the war breaks out, the soldiers originally belonging to the various Khitan tribes will be commanded by the Liao emperor, so that Yelu Zongzhen may be able to weaken the military power of those Khitan nobles.

This is a way to kill three birds with one stone.

"Okay."

After a brief thought, Yelu Zongzhen felt that there was no problem, so he nodded and agreed.

"Your Majesty, there is another official document here."

Liu Liufu, who was responsible for reviewing the official documents next to him, said: "It was reported by Wanyan Wugunai, saying that Shi Xian instigated the other Jurchen tribes to refuse to return the fugitives of the Liao Kingdom, and they seemed to be colluding with the Song Kingdom."

"They colluded with the Song people, it seems that sending troops is inevitable."

Yelu Zongzhen realized the seriousness of the matter, and then asked: "Who is this Wanyan Wugunai?"

"He is from the Wanyan tribe and has a grudge against the Shixian tribe."

"Well, reward him and let him be an insider to help us attack the Shixian tribe."

"Yes."

Liu Liufu wrote down the matter.

What they didn't know was that this Wanyan Wugunai was Wanyan Aguda's grandfather.

Wanyan Wugunai relied on the backstabbing of Shi Xian, a fellow Jurchen, to get the support of the Liao Kingdom, annex other Jurchen tribes everywhere, and gradually grow stronger.

By the time of Wanyan Aguda, the Wanyan tribe had become very powerful, and eventually vowed to attack the Liao, establish the Jin Kingdom, and become the Jin Taizu.

"Report!"

At this time, a servant suddenly came in from outside and said: "Your Majesty, our insider in the Song Kingdom needs to report."

"Send it in immediately."

"Yes."

The servant went out to call people.

After a while, an insider quickly came in and saluted Yelu Zongzhen.

This person was a spy planted by the Liao Kingdom in Zhuozhou, Song Dynasty.

Since the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty, after the Song people discovered that the Liao Kingdom had a spy disguised as a beggar, the Liao Kingdom established a more complete spy network.

At that time, the spy was exposed mainly because there was no "public verification".

The Song Dynasty had relatively complete household registration information, and "public verification" was required when going out.

This thing was called a road permit in the Ming Dynasty and an ID card in later generations.

If a person traveled a long distance, even a beggar would be arrested without "public verification".

Therefore, the spy network established by the Liao Kingdom was a chain of links, layer by layer. For example, the spy in Bianliang passed the news to Fengqiu, Fengqiu to Huazhou, Huazhou to Daming, and so on.

The advantage of this is that the distance is short, so the spy does not need to go too far, reducing the risk of being easily exposed when going out because of not having an ID card.

The disadvantage is that the message transmission speed is relatively slow, and sometimes it may take a month to pass the message back.

This is the case this time.

The news from the insider was that the Song Dynasty's ocean-going fleet had returned, bringing back a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, and that the Song Dynasty had begun to build a strange road in the eastern suburbs.

But this happened last month, which shows how much impact the Liao Dynasty's spy network had because many Liao spies were captured during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song.

After listening to the report from the insider who ran back from Zhuozhou, Yelu Zongzhen's face became more and more serious.

The national strength of the Song Dynasty has been improved again.

"Father."

After the insider left, Yelu Zongzhen looked at Zhang Jian and said, "The Song Dynasty went overseas and brought back countless gold and silver. If this continues, the gap between us and the Song Dynasty will only get bigger and bigger. Should we also form a fleet and go out to sea to search for treasures?"

"This"

Zhang Jian hesitated for a moment. Form an ocean-going fleet?

Whether the Liao Dynasty's navigation technology can go so far, whether the ocean-going ship technology can allow the ship to go so far, and whether there is a complete map are all unknown.

Can this be formed?

Moreover, the funds needed are countless. Now the national strength of Liao has indeed increased a lot, but most of its financial resources are invested in firearms and the army, just like the Song Dynasty before.

If Liao builds a fleet now, can it afford such expenses?

So he hesitated for a moment, and still advised: "Your Majesty, I heard that the last time the Song Dynasty went to sea, the cost was more than one million guan, and this time it will only be more than the last time, not less than the last time. And they go to sea for several years at a time, and there are many difficulties at sea. If you are not careful, the ship may be destroyed and people may die, and the money will be wasted. This matter should be cautious."

"Are you going to watch the gap between the national strength of Liao and Song Dynasty getting bigger and bigger?"

Yelü Zongzhen was also very angry.

The Song Dynasty can bring back countless gold, silver and jewelry from a sea voyage, which is said to be worth tens of millions of guan, but now the Liao Dynasty's annual income is less than 10 million guan, what will happen if it continues like this?

Zhang Jian thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we first find a way to recruit craftsmen and sailors from the Song Dynasty, and then see if we can get their voyage maps. Otherwise, even if we form a fleet, without a navigator and maps, it will be a waste of time in the end."

"Alas"

Yelu Zongzhen sighed, looked out of the palace with a sad look, and said, "Let's do it this way for now."

As he said this, he slowly stood up from behind the desk, walked to the door of the palace, put his hands behind his back, looked at the distant sky, and looked sad: "If my Liao Dynasty continues like this, what will happen!"

The gap with the Song Dynasty became larger and larger. After losing its cavalry advantage, the Liao Dynasty finally became just an ordinary country around the Song Dynasty.