Chapter 370 The Song Dynasty Is Finally Showing Its True Colors

The fierce battle lasted for less than half an hour. As the midday sun shone through the clouds and fell on the ground, the setting sun of early winter passed by. Outside the west gate of Yuguan, the ground was already in a mess.

The Song army ambushed two thousand gunmen and cooperated with hundreds of soldiers in the city to launch a fierce offensive against the Liao people who were surging in.

In that situation, a large number of Liao soldiers gathered near the west gate of the city and became live targets for the Song army. It can be said that they suffered heavy losses and corpses were everywhere.

Those who were shot but not dead, those who were killed on the spot, or those who fell and were injured because their horses were frightened were lying on the ground, and all kinds of wailing sounds were heard.

Di Qing coldly issued an order to clean up the battlefield, sending the enemies who were not yet dead to the west to see the Buddha believed by the Liao people, and then ordered to start moving artillery into the city before the new Liao army came.

What he didn't expect was that after the Liao people escaped, they swept in again.

Because there was a Bohai and Jurchen army of more than 10,000 people behind Shulü Chuoliji, and they learned that Yuguan was occupied by the Song army. Under the encouragement of Shulü Chuoliji who escaped, the generals led their troops to Yuguan without stopping.

The reason why they did not stop was that after Shulü Chuoliji and others escaped, they gathered the remaining soldiers from a distance and observed the situation of the Song city. They found that the Song people were unloading artillery from the ship, guessed that they must be installing artillery on Yuguan, so they came to attack impatiently.

After all, once the Song people installed the artillery, and then cooperated with the rifle soldiers to guard the west gate, and there were boats on the river for cover, then the entire Yuguan would be like an iron barrel, and it would no longer be possible to capture it. Therefore, the Liao army tried so hard to stop the Song army's artillery from entering the city.

But that was already at night.

And just when Di Qing cut off the Yuguan passage, he killed one Liao soldier, killed one team, and cut one army.

The war in the northwest was almost coming to an end.

Li Yuanhao stood on the top of the mountain, looking far to the southeast. A large number of Song soldiers were scattered, and the rest of the Song soldiers left a pile of corpses and fled in a panic. Behind them, countless Xixia soldiers desperately chased them, but they couldn't catch up.

Because the Song army had no shortage of war horses, and secondly, they carried firearms and could shoot back on horseback when being chased, so the Xixia people didn't dare to chase too close.

Under this circumstance, it was difficult for the Xixia people to continue to expand their results through close combat with cold weapons after the Song soldiers were bombed.

'What a pity. '

Li Yuanhao licked his dry lips. This was Qiliping in Xixia, and it was also the closest road for the Song army to Xingqing Prefecture.

He planned with great difficulty and hid the main force so tightly, but the final result was not very ideal. The Song army came with more than 10,000 people, but only under the initial artillery attack, less than a thousand people were killed and injured.

'Originally, the Song people didn't have so many war horses. It was because they were forced to sign a treaty during the last peace talks that the Song people had so many war horses. ’

‘But it’s helpless. We sold so many cattle, sheep and horses to make these artillery. There are gains and losses. ’

‘Forget it. It’s not easy to successfully ambush the Song army. Now that the Song army is defeated, we can also confiscate their spoils of war, or even take advantage of the situation and attack all the way to capture their border villages. ’

Li Yuanhao thought to himself.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, because his father Li Deming had a good relationship with the Song Dynasty, Qingtang and Xixia maintained the supply of war horses to the Song Dynasty, resulting in a relatively stable price of war horses in the Song Dynasty at that time. The general war horses were maintained at around 20 strings of cash, and the better ones were only 50 strings of cash.

But during his reign, starting from the Jingyou year, the transportation of war horses to the Song Dynasty was prohibited. Coupled with the continuous blockade of the Liao Kingdom, it became increasingly difficult for the Song Dynasty to obtain war horses, and the price of war horses soared.

According to the "Wenxian Tongkao" written by Bi Zhongxun, an official in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, from the Baoyuan year to the Kangding year and then to the Qingli year, the price of war horses rose from more than 60 guan to more than 100 guan, and the price of a better war horse even reached 150,000 coins, or 195 guan, which shows how expensive war horses were.

This made the Song Dynasty very short of horses. Without mobility, it was defeated repeatedly in the battle with the Western Xia and had almost no ability to fight back.

Now it is different.

Because the Song Dynasty forced Li Yuanhao and Yelu Zongzhen to sign a contract, they were not allowed to prohibit the transportation of war horses. In addition, in exchange for the so-called "annual tribute", the Liao Kingdom used 3,000 high-quality war horses that had not been castrated, at a price of about 166 guan per horse, to exchange for 500,000 guan, so that the Song people could breed war horses.

Under such circumstances, the price of war horses plummeted all the way with the transportation of Qingtang, Western Xia and Liao. Starting from the first year of the Qingli period, the war horses that initially cost more than 100 guan per horse fell to 80 guan in the second year, and now only cost more than 10 guan per horse.

With war horses, the Song people's mobility was greatly improved. Although the mobility of heavy artillery and field artillery such as Weiyuan cannon could not be improved, the Song people with muskets were already very powerful.

It was a miracle that Li Yuanhao was able to set an ambush, use artillery to defeat the Song army led by Ren Fu, and then let the cavalry, which mainly used cold weapons, chase and kill.

"Report! King, something bad has happened."

Just as Li Yuanhao looked far to the southeast and watched his soldiers chasing the fleeing Song army, a horse galloped over with a terrified look on his face.

He was still at the bottom of the hill when he was stopped by Li Yuanhao's guards.

But Li Yuanhao also heard the voice, turned his head and said with a gloomy face: "Let him come over."

"Yes."

The guards agreed and let the cavalry pass.

The cavalry galloped forward. He was dirty and his hair was in locks. He got off his horse with difficulty and said with a mournful face: "Your Majesty, the Song Dynasty conquered Zhuo La City and Miaochuan City. Our army was defeated miserably!"

"What?"

Li Yuanhao almost lost his balance and fell off the horse, but the guards next to him helped him to prevent him from falling off the horse.

This news was so shocking that Li Yuanhao's original joy of defeating Song Jun completely dissipated. Instead, he became dizzy, and his whole body now only felt like he was close to collapse.

Because for him, it is now a matter of picking up sesame seeds and losing the watermelon.

You must know that Li Yuanhao's strategic task this time is mainly to cover the Liao attack, and secondly to capture Qingtang, and then defeat the Song army on his own territory on the western front.

Originally, he wanted to let Qingtang and Zhuolu City resist the main force of the Song people first. He first led the main force of Xixia to quickly attack the partial troops of the Song people, and then rushed to the west without stopping to gather all the troops of Xixia. Attack the Song army head-on.

In this way, he completed two counterattacks on his own territory. Even though the Song people had muskets, he had a geographical advantage and had their own Xixia artillery. It should be no problem to repel the Song people.

By then, not only will they have completed the task of containing the Song army's troops in the northwest, but they will also be able to capture Qingtang and expand their Xixia strength.

Unexpectedly, the battlefield in the west was defeated too quickly.

You must know that he only set out half a month ago. Coupled with the time when the Song Army marched, this means that the Song Army may have conquered the second city in a few days at most. This is at least more than what he imagined. The moon is completely different.

"What does Yeli Wangrong do? He originally promised that he could hold it for at least two months. How come it was breached in just a few days?"

Li Yuanhao came to his senses and roared hysterically.

The soldier who reported the news said with a mournful face: "The Song army took advantage of the heavy rain and could not use firearms and could not go out to check the city. They deployed artillery outside the South City Gate. After the heavy rain stopped, they bombarded the South City Gate. General Yeli was caught off guard. If not That heavy rain.”

heavy rain?

Li Yuanhao was stunned for a moment. The artillery was indeed unable to fire in the rain, and it seemed that Ye Li Wangrong was not to blame.

But he was still very angry. If he hadn't known that drawing a knife to kill someone at this time would weaken the morale of the army, he might have wanted to kill the soldier in front of him who reported the news.

"Ming Jin withdraws his troops!"

Li Yuanhao yelled.

"Your Majesty, at this time we should take advantage of the victory and pursue it. How can we withdraw our troops?"

A general admonished him.

Now that the partial division of the Song Army was ambushed, it was time to expand the results.

No matter what, they must at least kill the Song army and plunder everywhere to make up for their losses in Xixia. If they withdraw their troops now, they will suffer a big loss.

However, Li Yuanhao said angrily: "If you don't withdraw your troops, will you wait for them to go north to attack Xingqing Mansion? You idiot!"

Now that the western front has collapsed, the fall of Zhuoluo and Nan means that the Song army can march straight in and directly attack Li Yuanhao's home base of Xingqing Mansion.

Not even giving up a home in order to expand the results is equivalent to giving up the crystal base for a top lane and a tower.

No matter how stupid Li Yuanhao is, he will never commit the crime.

At that moment, Li Yuanhao hurriedly mobilized his troops and returned to defense. Regardless of whether he recaptured Zhuoluo and Nan, at least he had to ensure that the Song army would not continue to go north to capture Xingqing Mansion.

Xixia occupied Qingtang in May, and the Song army launched a counterattack in August. In less than half a month, they successively recovered Qingtang, and also captured Zhuoluo and Nan areas of Xixia. The results of the battle were very fruitful.

In October, Li Yuanhao led the main army to return for reinforcements, but was repelled by Zhang Kang and Jingtai's troops.

Only then did Han Qi in the northwest know that Li Yuanhao had actually hidden the main force, but it was of no use. Although Ren Fu was defeated, the Song Dynasty's strategic mission had been completed and a large area of ​​territory had been successfully captured.

In early October, the war in the Liao Kingdom had just begun. Fan Zhongyan led the Hebei Road army to surround the Xijin Mansion of the Liao Kingdom. Di Qing led a partial army to set off from the sea to cut off the Yuguan channel.

Bianliang has not received the battle report yet. After all, it is too far away. In the era without telegraphs, it would be four or five days before we could get the battle report from Xijin Mansion. It would be even more difficult to get the battle report from Yuguan direction. There was no news until half a month later.

Therefore, the Constitutional Yuan does not yet know the situation on Di Qing's side.

They are currently busy with another matter - the reorganization of the Constitutional Yuan in October.

Since the Constitutional Yuan was established in September of the third year of Jingyou's reign, this department has formulated relevant rules and regulations.

In accordance with the powers conferred by the Supreme Constitution of the Song Dynasty, the full name of the Constitutional Yuan is the "National Government Affairs Development and Institutional Reform Institute of the Song Dynasty", or the Constitutional Yuan for short.

This department oversees national government affairs and has all the power to appoint and remove all officials except for officials below the Compositional Yuan. It has supervision, management, decision-making and even law enforcement powers over all departments, and has all powers except the military.

It can be said that the Constitutional Yuan is equivalent to the power of the prime minister in ancient times. Zhao Jun, the Zhiyuan Zhiyuan, is the emperor who has the command power of the Xiang Army and the Imperial City Division Imperial Army in addition to the vast majority of the Imperial Army.

It is obviously unfair to say that Zhao Jun is inferior to one person and superior to ten thousand people, because the person above him in name is often threatened, intimidated, beaten, and even beaten by him.

So Zhao Jun is very powerful now.

After the morning session on October 8th, Zhao Jun sat on his desk with a pot of tea, and Yan Shu was chatting with him next to him.

"This morning was quite lively. The officials stole the love of Song Gong and Cai Gong on the spot, so they can be re-elected."

"But in contrast, they naturally have to give up the power of recommendation."

"If you give up, you will gain something."

"Why do you feel so happy, Uncle Lari?"

"No way, but Hanlong, your status is as stable as Mount Tai. Back then, you told me that you wanted to be the executive deputy emperor. How about it? Now you can get your wish."

Yan Shu said with a smile.

In the morning, the reorganization of the Constitutional Yuan was put on the agenda. Cai Qi and Song Shou pretended to submit a letter stating that they would resign and be laid off.

After all, the court now has regulations that the rules below the prefecture and county level are still the same as before, with a three-year survey, that is, after three years of serving as a magistrate or county magistrate, he should be transferred to another place. This is also to prevent the magistrate and county magistrate from colluding with local forces. , thereby falling into corruption.

Those above the road level belong to senior officials and are replaced every five years. Including the chief officials of the five departments including the transportation envoys and pacification envoys, as well as the chief officials of more than 50 departments under the Constitutional Yuan, all have five-year terms.

An exception is the Constitutional Yuan, which can serve two terms for a total of ten years.

However, Zhao Zhen announced on the spot that Zhao Jun, the magistrate, was not subject to term limits and could stay in office forever. This caused shock to both the government and the public, and many officials complained.

Although Zhao Jun was supported by the entire Political Yuan prime minister and their affiliated forces, and he also had many younger brothers, such as Li Di, Xia Song, Yang Cha, Yang Gao, Zhao Pian, Chen Xiliang, etc., who were very powerful among the government and the opposition.

Ding Ding said that when power was in power, there were still countless people who opposed it, let alone Zhao Jun, who was not a Jinshi and was not a dark horse who rose up from lower-level officials.

Reaching the sky in one step sounds comfortable, but you also have to bear the jealousy, jealousy, and dissatisfaction of countless people.

So in the past ten years, everything seems to be going smoothly for Zhao Jun, but many people in the government and the public are watching, and if he is not careful, countless people will write letters of impeachment. If it weren't for the resolute attitude of many prime ministers in the Constitutional Yuan and Zhao Zhen, I am afraid that he would have stepped down by now.

"Uncle Larri, what you said is that you, an old comrade, still have low consciousness. The officials and the people have given me this position. What I have to do is to serve the officials, the Song Dynasty, and the people. How can you say that I am the deputy emperor?"

Zhao Jun squinted his eyes and took a sip of the veteran cadre tea, his sly eyes were like a little fox.

I have been ups and downs in the officialdom for so many years, and I have studied with Lu Yijian, an old fox with rich experience in officialdom struggles, for so long. I must have gained a lot of wisdom.

"You are still acting cunning in front of me. You are a person who knows the basics. Do you need to use such official tone?"

Yan Shu smiled and teased.

Since Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng were laid off, he has now vaguely replaced Lu Yijian's position, only under Zhao Jun. Naturally, the two of them don't have so many worries when talking to each other.

After all, Yan Shu's political attitude has always been very clear, which is to be a political tumbler, impartial and standing in the absolute middle.

And no matter what policy Zhao Jun pursues, he fully supports it, so naturally there is no need to be an outsider.

While the two were talking, an official on duty from the Constitutional Yuan hurriedly came in from outside and said: "Zhiyuan, Tongzhi, report on the battle situation in the northwest. Our army has captured Qingtang, Zhuoluo and Nan, and now Li Yuanhao is leading his army back to defend. "

"oh?"

Zhao Jun took the battle report from the official and glanced at it. It was a letter from Han Qi, explaining the current situation in the northwest to the Constitutional Yuan.

"Han Qi is very anxious. I heard that he even arrived at the front line to watch the battle in person and urged the soldiers to fight bravely."

Yan Shu came over.

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The Constitutional Yuan is about to be reorganized. Can he not be in a hurry? But it is not his fault. Even if someone recommends him, I will not agree. This person is not good at fighting. He is a good player in politics, but his qualifications are not enough." Too bad, what the Constitutional Yuan needs is a group of mature and prudent people.”

This statement is also obvious, meaning that the Constitutional Yuan needs a group of old men.

It's not that Zhao Jun suppresses young people, but that he needs to consider his own interests.

It is a good thing that the Constitutional Yuan is getting younger, but the younger it is, the more it means that it has its own political opinions.

New parties like the Qingli New Deal, and later Wang Anshi, Lu Huiqing and others were all in their thirties and forties. They became prime ministers at a young age and then carried out drastic reforms.

If they enter the Constitutional Yuan and have their own political opinions, which are contrary to Zhao Jun's political opinions, it will obviously cause instability within the Constitutional Yuan.

So it's easier to control a group of old guys coming in.

As the old man got older, he was less motivated to carry out reforms, so the Constitutional Yuan naturally became Zhao Jun's talking point.

Although this seems to mean suppressing dissidents, in many cases it is necessary to protect one's own political interests, otherwise it may cause the loss of political power.

And this is already the mildest method. Compared with later Western political elections, Mark Twain's "Running for Governor" is considered a legitimate campaign method.

What's more, what Zhao Jun is engaging in now is strongman politics. He uses strong means to develop the country. He will definitely not promote some obstacles to come in and make himself unhappy. Therefore, when the Constitutional Yuan is selected as the prime minister, he will definitely check it personally. .

Yan Shu naturally understood what he meant, smiled and said, "In that case, just take care of it yourself."

"Now that our strategic mission in the northwest has been completed, Xixia will feel pain after seizing such a large area of ​​land from Xixia. Let Han Qi guard the northwest."

Zhao Jun thought for a moment, then said: "Starting this year, let Han Qi severely crack down on smugglers in the northwest, cut off all trade activities with Xixia, and severely punish them. No Western merchants are allowed to trade with them. In the next few years, I will paralyze the Xixia economy and let them collapse internally."

After planning for so long, it is time to show the truth today.

Xixia and Liao have vigorously developed arms, and the economic lifeline of the entire country is controlled by Song. If economic sanctions are imposed now, without business, their herdsmen will have no source of tea and ironware, and their cattle and sheep will not be able to sell. When winter comes, they will freeze to death.

By then, the entire grassland will fall into economic collapse. I am afraid that it will not take long before the Song Dynasty does not need to take action. Xixia and Liao will fall into civil strife, allowing the Song Dynasty to easily defeat and capture them.