Chapter 420: Formulating a System

Guo Rong successfully defeated the Khitans on the front battlefield in a northern expedition. The Liao Kingdom, which was at the peak of its national strength, was directly put to an end to its upward momentum. In addition, the issue of succession in the Liao Kingdom had not been resolved, and this tragic defeat made the Liao Kingdom's government more and more chaotic.

The political bloodiness of the grassland peoples was no less than that of the Central Plains. If the balance was broken, war would soon break out, and the Liao Kingdom would fall into chaos and no longer be able to move south.

Guo Rong captured and killed tens of thousands of Liao troops in one battle, and obtained a large number of cattle and sheep as food. When the northern nomadic peoples went to war, they usually carried a large number of cattle and sheep as food.

In this battle, Guo Rong successfully obtained more than 100,000 sheep, more than 20,000 cattle, and more than 10,000 war horses, which can be said to be a great victory.

For this great victory, Guo Rong was rewarded in Youzhou, and the pass of Yanshan was renovated, and soldiers were recruited and trained in the Sixteen States of Yanyun. In this battle, Guo Rong's prestige was greatly won, and he directly suppressed other generals completely.

In addition, with the auspicious signs from heaven and the flying phoenix, even the most unruly guards became obedient.

Guo Rong also took the opportunity to start integrating the army, demoting those not very loyal generals, giving them higher official titles, distributing them a fortune, and then letting them go home to retire.

Then he let his trusted subordinates control the army, and then he disbanded and adjusted some troops, and successfully controlled all of them.

It can be said that through a Northern Expedition, Guo Rong successfully cleaned up the factions in the army and controlled most of the troops that were not divided.

Those Jiedushi who had their own little thoughts were either demoted or promoted, or served as officials in the court. Basically, the situation of local vassal states becoming bigger was temporarily solved by him.

The Jiedushi of the vassal states almost became in name only, and all the troops were incorporated into the imperial army.

With 200,000 elite imperial troops in hand, the central authority reached its peak at this moment.

Guo Rong stayed in Youzhou for more than a month, thoroughly sorted out the situation of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and then stationed 30,000 troops in various places in Youzhou to guard the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

All military supplies and food were provided by the central government, and the local garrisons could no longer recruit soldiers and collect food and grass on their own.

After sweeping away the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the only one in the north that had not surrendered was the Northern Han. This battle defeated the Khitan, recaptured the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and completely cut off the reinforcements of the Northern Han.

After losing the support of the Khitans, the Northern Han was basically a dead body in a tomb, and it was only a matter of time before it was destroyed. Part of the garrison in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was used to defend against the Khitans, and the other part was to attack the Northern Han from the northeast.

Guo Rong led his army back, and on the way back, he took advantage of the situation and captured several states of the Northern Han. In the end, the Northern Han was barely saved by only a few states around Jinyang.

When the army returned to Kaifeng, Guo Rong did not relax, but summoned ministers to prepare to conquer the Northern Han. As for the Southern Tang, Wuyue, Hou Shu and other countries, they almost lost their enterprising spirit, and the final solution was nothing more than their demise at some time.

Richard looked at the huge golden dragon of luck over Kaifeng City. After surviving the Northern Expedition, the golden dragon of luck, which was originally a little frivolous, became solid. More importantly, the golden dragon of luck directly transformed into three dragon claws, which was so powerful that people dared not look directly at it.

Seeing the transformed golden dragon of luck, Richard also received some feedback. A great Zhou luck fell on him. Richard did not integrate these luck into his body, but collected them. He planned to use these luck to make several town objects to prepare for the future of the Zhou Dynasty.

After the Northern Expedition, Richard also began to formally participate in the government affairs, and was granted by Guo Rong to be the same as the Zhongshan Gate Pingzhangshi, participated in the government affairs, and added a lot of honorary titles.

The power of the prime minister of the Zhou Dynasty had been weakened a lot, and multiple deputy prime ministers were set up.

Richard did not care much about the position of prime minister. The power of the secular world was of no use to him. If it were not for Fulongting, he would not have any contact with the court at all.

Next, Richard began to change the Zhou Dynasty according to his ideas. Richard suggested to Guo Rong that the Government Affairs Council be established. The role of the Government Affairs Council is to teach officials how to govern. After all, most officials who passed the imperial examination had no experience in handling government affairs, and the Government Affairs Council taught them how to handle government affairs.

At the same time, Richard printed a large number of books he compiled as teaching materials for the Government Affairs Council. At the same time, the cost of books was further reduced by improving printing and papermaking.

And he suggested to Guo Rong that all prefectures and counties in the world should offer books, and then after proofreading, they should be re-typeset, compiled into books, and then printed in large quantities.

Because of the advancement of printing and papermaking technology, the price of books soon dropped again, and because a large number of books were printed, books began to be sold throughout the Zhou Kingdom, giving more and more people the opportunity to learn.

At the same time, a large number of cattle, sheep and war horses were seized in the Northern Expedition, and most of the sheep were distributed as rewards. Almost all soldiers who participated in the war would receive one or two sheep as rewards, as well as copper coins, cloth, and food rewards.

Soldiers who fought bravely received more rewards. Seeing that the imperial guards had such generous rewards, many people signed up to join the imperial guards.

On the other hand, Richard suggested that Guo Rong rebuild the horse farm. At that time, there was no large-scale military horse farm in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Most of the war horses of the imperial cavalry were obtained from the trade in the Dangxiang and Qingtang areas.

This time, the army obtained tens of thousands of war horses, and Guo Rong also wanted to build a war horse farm. In ancient wars, the role of war horses was too important. After the Song Dynasty lost its horse breeding land, it had almost no organized cavalry corps and was almost passive in the face of the Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia.

Originally, the largest warhorse farm in the Central Plains Dynasty was the Shandan Military Horse Farm, which was located in Hexi and was established by the champion Hou Huo Qubing during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. This military horse farm in Hexi is the best and largest military horse farm in China.

Shandan Military Horse Farm is located in the Hexi Corridor, at the foot of the Qilian Mountains, with abundant water and grass, cool climate, and open land. It is the best place to raise horses. Since its establishment, it has been the most important place for raising horses in successive dynasties.

At its peak, the Shandan Military Horse Farm alone once raised 300,000 war horses. At the peak of the Tang Dynasty, there were more than 700,000 war horses in the country. During the Han Dynasty, there were 500,000 war horses in the country.

But after the Song Dynasty, the total number of war horses in the country was only 200,000, and most of these 200,000 war horses were produced in Sichuan. The war horses produced in Sichuan are short in size and cannot compare with the war horses in Saibei, Longxi, and Hexi.

Moreover, the Sichuan war horses were not as capable of carrying loads as the Hexi Longyou war horses, nor were they as explosive as the others. Their only advantage was that they were good at climbing.

This kind of war horse was OK in the south, but was completely suppressed in the north.

At the same time, most of the 200,000 war horses were strictly speaking unqualified and could only be used as inferior horses. The result was that they were suppressed in the wars with the Western Xia and Liao.

The cavalry of the Western Xia and Liao could wear heavier and better armor, but the cavalry of the Song Dynasty could not. Under the low defense of the armor, the war horses were not as fast as others, and they could only be suppressed when they encountered the cavalry of the Western Xia and Liao.

Now that the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun have been recovered, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are also a place for raising horses. So Guo Rong ordered the establishment of the Imperial Horse Administration and the establishment of thirteen military horse farms in Youzhou and Jizhou to breed and raise war horses.

At the same time, he ordered the use of salt and cloth to exchange good horses for breeding with tribes such as Qingtang, Huihe, and Dangxiang.

If war horses are not well bred, their quality will be worse from generation to generation. Even if they were all thousand-mile horses before, they will degenerate into poor horses after a few generations.

After establishing the Imperial Horse Administration, Richard collected people who were good at raising horses from all over the world and ordered them to raise horses.

While the military horse farm was established, Richard classified the cattle seized this time. At this time, the Central Plains had just settled down, and production began to resume in various places, requiring a large number of oxen.

Richard suggested to Guo Rong that the slaughter of oxen should be prohibited, and at the same time, the oxen seized from the Khitans should be trained and then sold to the people for use.

Most of the cattle seized from the Khitans were free-range grassland cattle. These cattle were not trained and were not suitable for farming. The domestication of oxen mostly started when the cattle were young. In order to train these cattle into oxen, Richard ordered people to pierce the noses of the cattle.

The technique of piercing the noses of cattle is very strange. In fact, it first appeared in the Han Dynasty, but it was lost later. Later, it appeared in the Tang Dynasty, but disappeared again in this period.

The main reason for the loss of this technology is the war. During the war, a large number of books were lost, and craftsmen were killed or abducted, resulting in the loss of many technologies. Now Richard is making this technology reappear.

The technology of nose piercing is not complicated, but the effect is very good. No matter how bad-tempered the cow is, it can only be led by the nose after being pierced.

Among the 30,000 cows, more than 20,000 oxen were successfully trained, and these cows were transported to various parts of Zhou for sale. In order to prevent these oxen from being monopolized by local tyrants, Richard specifically ordered that several households be allowed to buy a ox together.

The emergence of a large number of oxen has increased the arable land of Zhou again. The national strength of Zhou began to increase continuously.

All of Richard's suggestions to Guo Rong were seriously implemented, and the fastest one was the salt drying method. In the past, the salt drying method was promoted due to time reasons. After half a year, the salt field expanded several times, and the salt production also increased rapidly.

The treasury is getting fuller.

In addition to these, the court also began to build ironworks to forge weapons and armor, and allowed civilians to build ironworks on their own. However, all ironworks needed to be supervised by the court, and it was forbidden to sell ironware to the grassland.

Guo Rong and Richard reformed the imperial examination system, established the Imperial Academy and the Imperial College, and ordered all prefectures and counties to set up state and county schools. State and county schools were established to facilitate the study of ordinary people and prevent the imperial examination from being controlled by those aristocratic families.

Richard set up many ways to restrict the aristocratic families, and tried to give ordinary people the opportunity to study, using this method to ensure the vitality of the court.