Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 596
Zhao Xu walked a few steps in the room with his hands behind his back, and gradually digested Fan Ning's strange ways and tricks, but now he didn't want to delve into it, and asked again: "Fan Aiqing talked about winning Liao with national strength in his report back then. You once again mentioned using the advantage of the Song Dynasty to defeat the Liao Kingdom, which is far superior to the Liao Kingdom, but I don’t quite understand it, can you talk about it specifically, what does the national strength refer to?”

"Your Majesty, there are many aspects to national strength. To put it simply, resources are limited. Excessive use of military resources will inevitably reduce people's livelihood and production expenditures. Farmers will join the army, and no one will farm the land. It will decrease, coupled with the extravagance of the nobles of the Liao Kingdom, the profligacy of worshiping Buddha, and the Liao Kingdom has no overseas open source, and lost the old coins of the Song Dynasty, how long can they last?"

Seeing that Zhao Xu was fascinated, Fan Ning smiled and continued: "For example, the simplest is pig iron. Like us, the Liao Kingdom also has iron mines, which can be smelted and made into various military materials. It is a consumable. For the needs of the war, the Liao Kingdom will not only recruit more civilians to mine and smelt, but also use most of the pig iron for military purposes.

The reduction of the population used for production and the reduction of iron tools used for production will inevitably affect its production, resulting in a decrease in crops, etc. The same is true for the Song Dynasty. It depends on who is less affected and who can last longer. This is a competition of national strength.

The population of the Song Dynasty was more than ten times that of the Liao State, which meant a steady stream of troops, sufficient financial resources, sufficient food, sufficient pig iron, sufficient craftsmen, and so on.

Therefore, in order to give full play to the advantages of national power, we must first abandon the idea of ​​a big war that determined the outcome of the previous war. That is what the Liao Kingdom expected, but it is by no means the advantage of the Song Dynasty. 50 troops come to completely destroy the mental preparation of the Liao Kingdom.

In particular, Your Majesty must have a strong belief that we will definitely destroy the Liao Kingdom and Xixia. Don't be misled by the weak side of the civil servants. You must never sign any armistice treaty with the Liao Kingdom. In [-], the Liao State collapsed completely, and even if we can persist for five years, the national strength of the Liao State cannot bear it. "

1 "But what if Liao and Xixia attack us?"

"Your Majesty, we have the powerful defensive weapon of iron fire and thunder, and our defense is completely defensible. To deal with Xixia, we will stick to it, and to deal with Liao, we will adopt a defensive and counterattack strategy, gradually eating away at Youyan's city. , and then use the city for defensive warfare, and never engage in open war with the enemy, once the Liao Kingdom sends surprise troops southward, then we will also send surprise troops from the waterway to attack their vital points, forcing the Liao Kingdom not to dare to increase its troops to Youyan."

"What if the Liao Kingdom is willing to hand over the sixteen prefectures of Youyun to achieve a reconciliation and truce?"

Fan Ning smiled coldly, "If we have reached that point, it means that we are not far from taking back the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun by force. Your Majesty, the Liao Kingdom will definitely propose this truce condition, but your Majesty must remember that the reason why the Liao Kingdom agreed Returning Youyun Sixteen States was because they couldn't keep it.

Moreover, the Liao Kingdom is cunning, they will only agree to return the land, but not the population, they will get a precious opportunity to negotiate a truce, and quickly transfer the Han people in Youyan to the north, leaving an open space for us, so please remember, Your Majesty, never If there is no negotiation, Liao and Xixia must be completely wiped out. At that time, His Majesty will be Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty. "

Zhao Xu was so excited when he heard it, he punched the table hard, and said generously: "The Sixteen States of Youyun are the scar of the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Tanyuan Alliance is the shame of the Song Dynasty. Since God has given the opportunity to I, then wash away the shame in my hands, I must let the ancestors rest in peace under the Nine Springs!"

Fan Ning nodded, "Your Majesty is determined, but he must also act. Since I have taken on the important task of the Northern Expedition, I ask Your Majesty to give me power and grant me a request."

"Say it! I will definitely agree." Zhao Xu agreed to Fan Ning without hesitation.

Fan Ning took out a booklet and handed it to Zhao Xu, "This is the militia law that I have considered. I implore your majesty to abolish corvee in all states in the world, implement the militia system, and replace corvee with centralized training of militia, so that in the next ten years, Song Dynasty can Continuously receiving qualified soldiers is the greatest guarantee for the Song Dynasty to defeat the Liao Kingdom, and it is the embodiment of our strong national strength."

That morning, Zhao Xu and Fan Ning met with the Queen Mother Cao, and Fan Ning's protracted war plan won the support of the Queen Mother Cao.

Empress Dowager Cao and Zhao Xu jointly decreed that Fan Ning, the official of Shenzhizheng, be envoy to Zhengliao, Commander of the Eight Guards, and Xuanfu envoy of Hebei Road.

In addition, at the request of Fan Ning, Di Qing was appointed as the deputy envoy of Zhengliao, Han Jiang was appointed as the envoy of Shaanxi Road Jinglue, and Zhong Er was appointed as the deputy envoy of Jinglue to defend Xixia.

The next day, Zhao Xu proposed to hold a meeting of Zhizhengtang, formally put forward the militia law plan, and ordered Zhizhengtang to pass it after discussion.

The abolition of corvee has always been the idea of ​​the right minister, Fu Bi, but Han Qi and Wen Yanbo opposed it, and now the emperor is forcing it. Among the five ministers currently in the Zhizheng Hall in Beijing, although Wen Yanbo and Wu Chong still do not agree with the abolition of corvee, Fu Bi, Fan Ning and Zhang Fangping supported it with three votes.

The abolition of the corvee system was passed in the Zhizheng Hall and replaced by the Militia Law.

On October [-], Zhao Xu formally promulgated an edict to the world, ordering all the state capitals to implement the militia law, and the militia associations were formed in all counties and townships. Linghe County Captain is in charge of this matter.

The imperial court distributed hundreds of thousands of half-used infantry bows and millions of spears and swords stored by local government to the militia for training.

At the same time, the Song Dynasty abolished the corvee system that was hated by the people. The decree came into effect on the first day of November, but the civilian husbands temporarily recruited due to the war were not included in the abolished corvee.

Fan Ning got a very interesting title, and the Eight Guards were all under control, which meant that the Song Dynasty would invest 40 troops on the Hebei Road, including 35 for the Six Guards Army and 5 for the One Guards Navy.

Among them, the army is divided into cavalry and infantry. In Fanning's first stage of operations, there was not much demand for cavalry. Only 30 cavalry was mobilized, and [-] infantry were mobilized.

In addition, the imperial court used the opportunity of winter to recruit 40 civilians from Hebei to open up the channel between the Hutuo River and the Yellow River. Since the Yellow River was diverted three years ago, the northern section of the Yongji Canal was robbed in Hejianfu, passing through Hejianfu, Cangzhou, and finally In the north of Cangzhou on the border of Song and Liao, it flows into the Bohai Sea, which is today's Tanggukou in Tianjin.

Then it is only necessary to dredge and widen a section of silted small river in Shenzhou fifty miles to connect the Yellow River and the Hutuo River.

At that time, the fleet going north along the Yongji Canal could not only take the Yellow River directly to the border of Song and Liao, but also pass through the Hutuo River and Baigou connected by the Yellow River. The fleet sent food and materials to Xiongzhou, Bazhou, Baozhou, Dingzhou State, Zhending Prefecture and other places.

Therefore, the strategic significance of the fifty-mile river project is very important. Once it is opened, the entire waterway in Hebei will be fully revitalized, and countless grains and materials can be transported from Yangzhou to the Song and Liao borders by steam engine ships and transport tugboats, saving a lot of money. human and material resources.

While enlisting 40 people to dredge the river, the imperial court also enlisted [-] transport tugboats, which will be jointly manufactured by the imperial craftsman and Fan's Machine Workshop, and strive to reach [-] within a year.

The Zhizhengtang immediately issued a war mobilization order. The imperial court will use 500 million taels of war reserve gold, requesting to increase the mining and smelting of iron ore and saltpetre, increase the construction of lucky boats with more than [-] stone, and increase overseas grain cultivation. At the same time, [-] miners were recruited, and they planned to go to Luzon Island to increase the number of gold and iron mines after the spring of next year.

Seven days later, Fan Ning, in the capacity of Liao envoy, commander of the Seven Guards, and Hebei Road Xuanfu envoy, led an army of 20 troops from Xiaoqi, Xiongqu, Shesheng, and Longshen four guards across the north of the Yellow River, and stationed troops in Hejianfu. With the addition of 30 frontier troops, the Song Dynasty had invested [-] troops on the front line of Hebei.

The 4 sailors from Quanzhou also went north to Laizhou on [-] lucky boats, bringing the strength of the sailors gathered in Laizhou to nearly [-], including [-] Wanshi lucky boats, [-] [-] stone paddle boats, and others. There are thousands of warships under ten thousand stones.

There are 5 navy troops in the Great Song Dynasty. Except for the 1 people stationed overseas, all the navy troops from other parts of the Song Dynasty have been mobilized to Laizhou to join the battle of Liao.

Fan Ning's military government office is located in Hejian County, which is second only to Daming City on the Hebei Road. The city is more than 20 miles in circumference and has a population of [-]. The city is tall and strong. Hejian County is close to the Hutuo River and has shipping The convenience of the city, with Mozhou, Xiongzhou and Bazhou in the north as a buffer, is an ideal command center.

As soon as Fan Ning arrived at Hejian Mansion, Han Qi rushed over from Baosai County.

At this time, Fan Ning was checking the defense map of Hebei in the military camp outside the city. This map of Hebei defense was given to him by the emperor Zhao Xu.

This map was carved by dozens of craftsmen in the period of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty in three years. It fully reflects the superb wood carving skills of the craftsmen of the Song Dynasty. Mountains, hills, forests, wheat fields, rivers, bridges, towns, etc. are all depicted Lifelike, including the size of the city is reduced according to a certain ratio, and the strength of the city is also expressed in color. The darker the color, the taller and stronger the city wall.

But after all, this is the map engraved in the Song Zhenzong era, and there are still some changes that it has not reflected. For example, the moat in Hejian County was excavated in the third year of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty. It is not on the map. All the craftsmen are comparing the latest Map carefully modified wooden map.

"Is Mr. Fan here?" Han Qi's resonant voice came from outside the big tent.

(End of this chapter)