I studied in modern times

Chapter 899 The Liao navy really appeared!
As September approached, the temperature in Bianjing City began to drop continuously.

In the morning, there was already frost.

Zhao Xu also changed into autumn clothes, and the hat on his head changed from a silk futou to a brand new cotton futou.

One day, when Zhao Xu had just returned from the imperial lecture in Jiying Hall, he found Guo Zhongxiao already waiting for him in front of the gate of Funing Hall.

When he saw Zhao Xu coming back, he immediately stepped forward and bowed to him.

"Mr. Guo, is there anything wrong?" Zhao Xu asked.

Guo Zhongxiao knelt on the ground and said, "I will inform your majesty that the Ministry of Communications has received an urgent message from the Jianchang Army..."

Zhao Xu narrowed his eyes.

Jianchang Army?
Guo Zhongxiao bowed and said, "The mother of the current ruling official, Shang Shu Zuo Cheng, Mr. Deng, passed away on the Jiachen day of August (August 25th)..."

Zhao Xu listened and was stunned for a moment.

Then he sighed, "Mr. Deng's mother unfortunately passed away. I am deeply saddened!"

"We should follow the tradition and send an envoy to express our condolences, and order the officials to prepare funeral honors!"

But in his heart, Zhao Xu knew.

Due to the death of his mother, Deng Runfu had to return to his hometown to observe the mourning period.

The political landscape in the court will change drastically as a result.

"We can only recall Zhang Qie in advance to balance the government!"

Although Deng Runfu was a member of the New Party when he was in power, his overall stance was centrist and tended towards the new.

Therefore, he was able to reach compromises and concessions with many old party ministers.

At the same time, he was able to run around to the radical members of the New Party, such as Pu Zongmeng, and try to persuade them to work together.

Now, with Deng Runfu returning to his hometown to observe mourning, the court no longer has the person who can reconcile the new and old parties and who can speak to both sides.

The intensity of the struggle between the old and new parties is bound to rise to a higher level.

Fortunately, Zhao Xu is not too worried about this now.

Because soon, both the new and old parties will face a brand new competitor.

A new group of officials represented by handicraft, industrial and commercial interest groups.

Let’s call it the New New Party for now.

Today, this New New Party has actually taken shape and has a foundation in the government.

With another two or three years of development and growth, we will be able to compete with the old and new parties.

So, in Zhao Xu's opinion, it doesn't matter how fiercely the new party and the old party fight each other.

Because they will soon form a group.

In that case, let them fight!

……

Soon, Empress Dowager Xiang of Baoci Palace also learned the news that Deng Runfu had lost his mother.

After learning about this, Empress Dowager Xiang was quite sad. Like Zhao Xu, she issued an edict to send envoys to express her condolences and ordered the officials to prepare for funeral honors.

At the same time, an imperial decree was issued to posthumously confer the title of Lady of the Great Country on Deng's mother.

This is the reward for the contribution Deng Runfu made to her before and after the death of the late emperor.

After learning the news of his mother's death, Deng Runfu cried so hard that he fainted. When he woke up, he immediately submitted a petition requesting to return home to observe the mourning period.

Naturally, his request was granted immediately.

September 2nd of the second year of Yuanyou.

Deng Runfu, Shangshu Zuocheng and Zhongshu Shilang, lost his mother and was appointed as the scholar of Guanwendian, the director of Zhongtaiyi Palace, and the commander of Jianchang Army.

On the second day, Deng Runfu brought his family, dressed in mourning, and accompanied by the Yuan followers, he left the capital and returned to his hometown to attend the funeral.

Zhao Xu and the two palaces all sent envoys to express their condolences and sent trusted confidants to escort him out of the capital.

The emperor also ordered the two government officials and the six ministers to leave the city together to see Deng Runfu back home.

This silent action announced to the world that Deng Runfu was a meritorious official who had served the country, and the palace would never forget his contributions!
The day after Deng Runfu resigned and left Beijing, Zhao Xu began a series of personnel arrangements.

First, it was Guichou (the fourth day) of September.

Hanlin scholar Fan Chunren, as a scholar of Longtu Pavilion, was appointed acting prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, and he remained in his original position.

The Minister of War, Lü Dafang, was appointed as a Hanlin academician and took over Fan Chunren's position.

The next day was Jiayin (the fifth day).

Fan Ziqi, who was a member of Longtu Pavilion and the Transport Commissioner of Hedong Road, was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture.

The former Minister of Agriculture, Song Pengnian, was convicted and demoted to Lizhou in August.

The charge is "Xian Ke", which, as the name suggests, means that the person is insidious and mean, and is not capable of doing anything important. It is a typical charge.

But Zhao Xu didn't care about all this and directly used the excuse to arrest Song Pengnian.

Who asked this guy to be in the court? Not only did he not take the initiative to move closer to Zhao Xu's line, but he also kept chattering and yelling nonsense.

The worst thing is that he is of no use.

He had neither the ability that Zhao Xu could tolerate, nor did he have a family background that would make Zhao Xu look at him with respect.

He was able to take up the crucial position of Minister of Agriculture because of Sima Guang's recommendation.

If not for this, Zhao Xu would have stopped tolerating him long ago.

Today, Sima Guang has been dead for more than a year.

Zhao Xu naturally had no scruples any longer, but he still didn't know what was going on and continued to talk nonsense.

It would be fine if he just kept yelling, but he even went against Zhao Xu!
Especially in July, Shen Kuo led people to conduct an experiment of dropping two iron balls to the ground at the same time in Kaibao Temple.

However, he was just making a lot of noise and mobilized a lot of upright people to slander and ridicule Shen Kuo's experiment.

He said that he was just trying to attract attention, and that his so-called "investigation of things to gain knowledge" was a heresy of "strange and lewd tricks"! He was "using the name of a saint to do the things of Shao Zhengmao". He also called on "you two or three people to beat the drum and attack him" and "eliminate this heresy for the orthodox teachings".

As a result, Shen Kuo's experiment did not achieve the expected sensational effect, and was drowned out by the waves of attacks from "contemporary Shao Zhengmao" and "heretic of the orthodox teachings."

Can Zhao Xu tolerate him?
I can't bear it.

Therefore, as soon as the Kuncheng Festival was over, he sent someone to instruct the Censor Zhao Ji to impeach him and expel him from the court.

Zhao Yu was a young imperial censor discovered by Zhao Xu.

This man has a clean family background - his father, Zhao Yan, was a famous honest official in the Song Dynasty.

At the same time he is very spirited.

Only four months after entering the court, he had already brought down seven or eight guys, including Song Pengnian, who were just sitting there doing nothing or blocking Zhao Xu's way.

Therefore, Zhao Xu was very optimistic about him.

As for Fan Ziqi who was promoted, he was the opposite of Song Pengnian.

Fan Ziqi is the grandson of Fan Yong, and Fan Yong is the old Fan Laozi who once dominated the Western Xia in Shaanxi, and the young Fan Laozi is Fan Zhongyan.

These two famous officials of the Song Dynasty, surnamed Fan, were the pioneers of the fortification-building competition between the Song and Xia countries on the border.

At the same time, Fan Ziqi and Zhang Dun had a good relationship.

When Zhang Dun opened up Jinghu, the person who first launched the initiative for the development of the south was Fan Ziqi, who was then the deputy envoy of Jinghu South Road.

Afterwards, Zhang Dun went south, and Fan Ziqi helped with a lot of the early work.

Of course, the most important reason why Fan Ziqi was promoted was that he was very competitive.

Not only did he have good political achievements, but he was also one of the officials in the prefectures and counties who had the best attitude and was the most thorough in implementing the court's policies.

Especially in the three years since Zhao Xu ascended the throne, his performance has been particularly outstanding. He is a model of the Yuanyou New Deal!

If such capable officials cannot be promoted, wouldn't it hurt the hearts of loyal officials and filial sons all over the world?

Therefore, Zhao Xu promoted him to the position of Minister of Agriculture without hesitation, intending to train him as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue after Zhang Heng.

At the same time, Zhao Xu also began to promote the official positions, dispatches, and other benefits of several other role models of the Yuanyou New Deal.

First, on the sixth day of September (Yimao), an imperial decree was issued to promote the Jingdong Road Transport Commissioner Kumamoto from the rank of Chaoyi Daifu (sixth rank) to Zhongsan Daifu (fifth rank), and from Longtu Pavilion Direct Scholar to Longtu Pavilion Scholar. He was also given a part-time job - ambassador in charge of the preparation of the Jingdong navy.

On the same day, another imperial decree was issued, promoting Su Shi, the prefect of Dengzhou, from Chaoqinglang (seventh rank) to Chaosandafu (sixth rank).

He was appointed to the Jixian Academy and later promoted to the position of Academician of the Baowen Pavilion.

Su Shi was assigned to a long list of official positions.

He was appointed as the governor of Dengzhou military affairs and concurrently the deputy envoy of Jingdong navy preparation, the envoy of port selection and the envoy of Jingdong fishing development.

This is the PPT that officially launched the JD Navy project at the national level.

At the same time, the state also recognized Su Shi's policy of developing fisheries in Dengzhou over the past three years, and used government envoy money, travel exemption money, and military service exemption money as loan principal for private shipyards and fishermen to purchase ships.

In fact, this matter has been raised to the same level as agriculture.

The so-called envoy to promote fishing is essentially an envoy to encourage farming.

After the imperial edict was issued, Zhao Xu first allocated 100,000 strings of cash to Jingdong Road through the Ministry of Revenue as initial start-up funds for the Jingdong navy and port.

This is unprecedented!

Because, in the Song Dynasty court, everything has always been a local matter, and the localities have to solve it themselves.

Do you want the court to allocate money and carry out fiscal transfer?

Unless there is a large-scale natural disaster or a civil unrest, there is no way!
However, this matter received unanimous support in the court.

Because the Liao navy's threat theory was showing off.

In August, a ship carrying a batch of armor that the Song army was selling to Goryeo encountered the Liao navy near the coast of Goryeo.

then……

This Song ship was boarded by the Liao people in the strait near the coast of Goryeo...

Yes, we are joining the team!

After capturing the ships, the Liao people found that they were carrying hundreds of sets of armor and hundreds of divine arm bows.

In a rage, he got angry for a moment.

Then they sent people to send the captured Song sailors back to Dengzhou by boat.

The Liao people who came on the same ship also brought a letter signed by [Yelü Zhe, the Liao Dynasty's Kaijing Recruiting Envoy].

The content of the letter was very peaceful, stating only that Song and Liao were brotherly nations. However, the Song ships secretly delivered military equipment to the Goryeo people.

This is really against the Song-Liao alliance.

The rest is nothing.

The Liao people took such an attitude because they were concerned about the Jiaozi trade between Song and Liao.

Therefore, only the weapons were seized, and the Song Dynasty sailors on the ship were not harmed.

Except for a few unlucky people who fell into the water and died, the rest were sent back to Dengzhou safely.

However, in the Song Dynasty, when this incident was learned, the entire court was in an uproar and the whole country was shocked.

The two palaces were even more shocked!
The Liao people’s ships really appeared on JD.com!
Although, there were only two ships, and although they were only there to deliver the captured Song sailors, and although their attitude was very friendly, and they did not even condemn the Song Dynasty for sending weapons to Goryeo, they only expressed [concern].

But this still shocked Bianjing.

The reason is very simple.

Today, the Liao people can send two ships to Dengzhou for a friendly visit and send back sailors and officials from the Song Dynasty.

So, what if an entire Liao fleet appeared off the coast of Dengzhou tomorrow, and the people on board were all fully armed Liao soldiers?
Aren’t the Liao people allowed to come and go freely on this thousands-mile sea border?
During this process, Zhao Xu took the opportunity to have the Bian Jing Xin Bao publish an article, loudly proclaiming that the Song Dynasty now had "sea but no defense" and the Liao people could cross the sea at any time.

He also cited Japan as an example, using the voice of a Japanese monk named Yorien who lived in Kaibao Temple to describe how the Liao navy crossed the sea to attack Japan and defeated this "great country in the east sea" so badly that it had no choice but to cry and ask for help from the Song Dynasty. The description was vivid.

After this article was published, the "Liao Navy Threat Theory" which had been forgotten became popular again.

The construction plan of the [East China Sea Warship Circuit] defense zone, which was once mentioned in the court, was quickly brought up again and then passed at the speed of light.

As a result, Kumamoto and Su Shi were respectively appointed as the chief and deputy envoys of the Jingdong Navy.

It was planned to build a large military port in Jingdong Road and to form a naval fleet capable of protecting the coastal defense of Jingdong Road and keeping the enemy out of the country.

Facts have proved that the appearance of the Liao navy's ships in Dengzhou once was worth a million words from the court.

Under the real threat of the Liao navy, neither the Dutang nor the Ministry of Revenue cared about money anymore.

Following this trend, Zhao Xu listed Quanzhou, Fujian, Mingzhou, Zhejiang, and Guangzhou, Guangdong as the next naval bases.

He also stated that the Song Dynasty had thousands of miles of coastal territory and needed a strong navy to protect it and prevent foreign invasion.

Because it's just a plan and a vision.

Therefore, although the court officials felt that there could be no foreign enemies in Fujian, Mingzhou, and Guangzhou, they did not say anything.

Some of them even thought that the little emperor was frightened by the appearance of the Liao navy ships in Dengzhou and that it was a stress response.

It may be fine after waiting for a while.

Just like last time, when the threat of the Liao navy was first brought to the surface, didn't the emperor also clamor every day to build a large and special naval fleet in Jingdong?

Didn’t there be no movement later?

Little did they know that Zhao Xu had been promoting related construction in private.

Not only did he continue to increase investment in shipbuilding technology, equipment and infrastructure, he also ordered Su Shi to look for a good port in Dengzhou for construction.

They even used Jinming Lake outside the city of Bianjing as their base, gathering a large number of craftsmen to study shipbuilding and ship repair every day.

At the same time, an oak trade agreement was reached with the Liao people, agreeing to purchase oak that was more than 100 years old in Liaodong from the Liao Kingdom.

When the Liao ships appeared in Dengzhou in August, in addition to returning the Song sailors, they also wanted to deliver the first batch of oak.

Although there are very few, there are less than a hundred plants.

But since then, Su Shi from Dengzhou has been ordered to send people to Fuzhou, Suzhou (Lushun) and other places in the Liao Kingdom to transport back oak.

In just over half a month, hundreds of oak trees were transported back. Now, these precious giant trees are properly placed in the shipyard in Dengzhou to dry in the shade, waiting for further technical processing (experiments) next year, so as to make them truly reliable raw materials for shipbuilding.
Last month, Zhao Xu sent Lin Xi as an envoy to the Liao Kingdom to congratulate the Liao ruler on the Holy Day. One of his missions was to continue to expand the scale of oak trade with the Liao people.

Nowadays, it is also normal.

September Dingsi (the eighth day).

Zhao Xu issued another decree, promoting Chen Mu, the governor of Mingzhou and the transport commissioner of Liangzhe Road, to a higher position in the imperial court, from the position of Longtu Pavilion attendant to the position of Longtu Pavilion direct scholar.

At the same time, an imperial edict was issued to commend Jiang Zhiqi, the transport commissioner of Guangnan East Road and the governor of Guangzhou.

He also ordered Gao Gonghui and Xiang Zongliang to be the supervisors of Mingzhou Maritime Customs/Guangzhou Maritime Customs respectively.

These two royal relatives were sent to Mingzhou and Guangzhou to be in charge of these two important centers of foreign maritime trade respectively.

Zhao Xu had only one request for them - to develop maritime trade, expand sea routes and draw nautical charts at all costs.

In order to stimulate the subjective initiative of these two people, Zhao Xu promised that they could withhold half of the taxes collected from foreign trade by the Mingzhou Maritime Customs and the Guangzhou Maritime Customs as funds for their own offices, just like the money for envoys.

This made Gao Gonghui and Xiang Zongliang overjoyed!
Who doesn't know that the public money of the Song Dynasty government is actually the legal slush fund of the chief official?
Some bastards even openly used the ambassador's money to visit prostitutes!
As a result, the two are ready to go to Minnesota/Guangzhou to make great achievements and build their careers and fortunes.

After doing all this, Zhao Xu issued an edict, ordering Zhang Yu, the governor of Qingzhou and pacification envoy of Huanqing Road, to return to the court to report on his work.

Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that this was most likely intended to allow Zhang Qie to enter the two governments.

I just don't know whether he will go to the West Palace to form a team with Li Qingchen, or go to the East Palace to replace the position vacant after Deng Runfu returned home.

(End of this chapter)