People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 332 Yelu Zong is really sad

In November of the sixth year of Qingli, the ocean-going fleet came back and brought back a lot of things.

In fact, only part of it was brought to Bianliang.

Because first, the passenger ships used to carry heavy loads in Bianliang are too small. Compared with sea-going ships that are tens of meters or even hundreds of meters long, they are vastly different and cannot carry so much cargo.

The second is because of climate issues.

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

They circumnavigated the Chukotka Peninsula and chose to cross the Bering Strait near the Arctic Circle in May and June this year, when the weather was hottest.

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 tropical rainforest climates.

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.

If this kind of grouping for warmth were normal, it would definitely be very loose and not form a strong alliance.

For example, when Kong Daofu framed Wang Deyong, a fourth-grade civil servant who was a Jinshi could even use his appearance to humiliate a first-grade Privy Councilor who was a military general. This is enough to show how much the civilian officials oppressed the military generals.

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

of course.

Under such circumstances, reforming the army is a matter of course as long as it has the support of the emperor and the civil service group.

Although the Liao Kingdom was much stronger, with the advent of the firearms age, their cavalry became less and less useful and their combat effectiveness fell further and further behind. Naturally, they felt that threats were approaching.

Unfortunately it backfired.

Therefore, after the Song Dynasty imposed news control in Kaifeng, the news media industry rapidly developed in these cities, and the newspaper industry also began to reach thousands of households.

The problem with the Liao Kingdom was that their upper-class dignitaries held a lot of real power. The leaders of the Khitan tribes were also powerful figures in the Liao Kingdom.

For a time, the story of how much land was available overseas spread throughout the country.

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

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

Moreover, the military system of the Song Dynasty was a joke in front of civilian officials.

It's like the Three Kingdoms period, except that Sun Quan was short-sighted and launched a sneak attack on Jingzhou, resulting in the consequences of the Battle of Yiling. After that, Wu and Ji Han never had a war, but allied to fight against Cao Wei.

And the news spread quickly.

Therefore, since the rise of the Song Dynasty, Yelu Zongzhen has been very diligent, trying to strengthen the country's power in order to compete with the increasingly powerful Song Dynasty.

In fact, in addition to secretly accumulating strength and vigorously developing firearms, he had also secretly formed an alliance with Xixia and formed the Liao-Xia alliance. It was agreed that one party would go to war with the Song Dynasty, and the other party must also send troops to support it.

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

It is now a friendly "brotherly country" in name only.

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

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

At this moment, he was reviewing the memorial in the palace study, looking at the official document in his hand with great distress.

Zhao Jun was able to complete the reorganization of the army because he was a well-known time traveler in front of Zhao Zhen and the prime ministers, and he could exchange his status as a future prophet for their strong support.

Who are the people who are most concerned about the situation in the Song Dynasty?
In addition to die-hard brothers like Goryeo and Dali who followed the Song Dynasty, there were naturally only two hostile countries, Xixia and Liao.

But now, with the disastrous end of the war between the Liao and Song Dynasties, and the signing of a trade agreement between the Liao and Song Dynasties, although the agreement was beneficial to the Liao Kingdom, under bilateral trade, the Song Dynasty, as the main importer of raw materials, must have far more income than the Liao Kingdom.

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

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

But it also illustrates from the side that in the triangular relationship, when any party is in an absolute lead, the other two weak parties are bound to be closely connected in order to prevent being annexed.

In mid-December, in the Xingying Palace in Zhongjing of the Liao Kingdom, Emperor Yelu Zongzhen of the Liao Kingdom now lives here most of the year.

Starting from the beginning of the year, the imperial court relaxed press controls, and a large number of private newspaper and magazine industries were born.

Moreover, the system of the Liao Kingdom also made it really difficult for the Yelv Sect to handle.

Although most of their joint operations ended in failure because Sun Quan was blocked in Hefei.

Therefore, seeing the unstoppable rise of the "brotherly" countries in the south, Emperor Yelv Zongzhen of the Liao Kingdom was naturally very anxious.

It has also spread abroad.

There was no time traveler from the Liao Kingdom who came to help him get rid of his shortcomings and clear away old obstacles.

In fact, Yelu Zong was not an emperor without a sense of crisis. On the contrary, he still hoped to make some achievements in history and was a relatively ideal and ambitious monarch. Otherwise, his temple name would not be Liao Xingzong.

For this reason, Yelu Zongzhen must consider reorganizing the army, eliminating corruption and vacancies in the army, and re-training the army.

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

Because the characteristics of these places are the traditional political and commercial centers of the Song Dynasty. And they are generally located along canals with developed transportation. Both the news and the business environment are very good.

Needless to say, Xixia is a small country with few people. The more powerful the neighbors are, the more they will feel the crisis coming.

But once they have a powerful opponent at the same time that seriously threatens their life safety, then this alliance will inevitably become closer.

But Liao Kingdom can’t do that.

The generals of the Liao Kingdom suppressed the civil servants.

Veterans of the Three Dynasties like Zhang Jian were not respected in front of Yelu and Xiao nobles, let alone other civil servants.

If Yelu Zongzhen and the Han civil servants group try to move the interests of the Khitan nobles alone, I am afraid that these Khitan nobles will raise troops to fight, and the Liao Kingdom will be in civil war first.

Therefore, Yelu Zong really couldn't eliminate the cancer in the army and carry out large-scale military restructuring like the Song Dynasty did. We can 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 of Khitan, there was also a lot of external pressure.

The most typical ones are other ethnic groups and tribes.

We must know that the Liao Kingdom has a population of nearly 10 million, and the Khitan people only account for about one-eighth of them.

When the dominant ethnic group does not occupy the majority, it will naturally cause other ethnic groups in the country to express dissatisfaction with the rule of the Khitan people.

This is also true for the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty had more than 200 rebellions. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the more than 1,000 rebellions in the special years of the late Qing Dynasty, there were also more than 100 rebellions from Shunzhi to Daoguang.

Therefore, except for the strange dynasty of the Song Dynasty, which caused more than 400 uprisings due to taxation, dynasties in which ethnic minorities were in power often had various uprisings, large and small.

The same is true for the Liao Kingdom.

Although the abolition of the four-season restraint system greatly reduced the Liao's internal financial expenditures and reduced the burden on other ethnic groups.

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

For example, the Mongol Qiyuan tribe in the northern grassland and the Shixian tribe in the northeast kept annexing the surrounding small tribes and became increasingly powerful. They did not respect the Liao Kingdom very much, which made Yelv Zong really annoyed.

Therefore, in summary, in the past ten years, although Yelu Zongzong really tried to change things in the Liao Kingdom, he also achieved considerable results, which greatly improved the national strength of the Liao Kingdom.

It can treat the symptoms but not the root cause, unlike the Song Dynasty, which 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 problems such as official corruption, military darkness, and poor local public security.

Basically, the internal and external troubles of the Liao Kingdom still existed, but they were temporarily suppressed by Yelu Zongzhen, the paper framer, and did not break out in a concentrated manner.

Therefore, although the national power of the Liao Kingdom has also increased to a certain extent, the gap with the Song Dynasty has become wider and wider.

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

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

"His Majesty."

Zhang Jian asked: "Did something happen?"

Yelu Zongzhen threw down the official document in his hand and said: "Haidong Ying Road was cut off by people from the Shixian tribe. If this matter spreads, I am afraid it will cause great waves."

"Well"

Zhang Jian nodded slightly and said: "The Eagle Road is very important to us in Daliao. 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 quickly: "Father, please tell me."

Zhang Jian said: "Sending troops to Liaodong will, firstly, train troops, secondly, it will shock the tribes, and thirdly, it will take the opportunity to gather military power."

"Well"

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

Although the new army is now equipped with firearms, most of them can be trained and have not been used in actual combat. It is not yet known how effective they will be in actual combat, so it is a good choice to practice with real girls.

Secondly, as the Liao Kingdom's control over various tribes weakens, many tribes are bound to be ready to take action.

Once this matter is not handled well, other tribes will see that the Liao Kingdom can't even handle a Jurchen tribe, and they may think that the Liao Dynasty is in decline, and they may take the opportunity to rebel.

Therefore, directly sending troops to deal with the Shixian tribe can lower the ambitions of the other tribes.

Finally, once the war started, the soldiers originally belonging to the various Khitan tribes would be commanded by the Liao emperor. In this way, Yelu Zongzhen might be able to weaken the military power of the Khitan nobles.

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

"it is good."

After Yelu Zongzhen thought for a short time, he felt that there was no problem, so he nodded in agreement.

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

Liu Liufu, who was in charge of reviewing the official documents, said: "It was reported by Wanyan Wugunai, saying that Shi Xian incited the rest of the Jurchen tribe to refuse to return our Liao escapees, and they seemed to be vaguely colluding with the Song Dynasty."

"They actually 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 Wugu?"

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

"Well, let's reward him and make him an internal correspondent to help us attack the Shixian tribe."

"Yes."

Liu Liufu wrote down the matter.

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

Wanyan Wugunai relied on his backstabbing of Shi Xian, a fellow Jurchen who also gave birth to a Jurchen, to gain the support of the Liao Kingdom, and annexed other Jurchen tribes everywhere, gradually growing stronger.

By the time of Wanyan Aguda, the Wanyan tribe was already very powerful, and they finally swore to conquer the Liao Dynasty, establish the Jin Kingdom, and become the Taizu of the Jin Dynasty.

"Report!"

At this moment, an attendant suddenly came in from outside and said, "Your Majesty, there is a domestic emergency report for us in the Song Dynasty outside."

"Pass it in immediately."

"Yes."

The attendant went out to summon someone.

After a while, an eunuch quickly entered and saluted Yelu Zongzhen.

This person was a spy placed by the Liao Kingdom in Zhuozhou during the Song Dynasty.

Since the Song Zhenzong period, when the Song people discovered that Liao spies disguised as beggars were inside, the Liao Kingdom had established a more complete spy network.

At that time, the main reason for internal exposure was that there was no "public verification."

The Song Dynasty had relatively complete household registration information, and it was necessary to have "public verification" before going out.

This thing was called Lu Yin in the Ming Dynasty, and it was called an ID card in later generations.

If a person travels a long distance, even a beggar will be arrested without "public inspection".

Therefore, the spy network established after the Liao Kingdom was linked to each other and passed on layer by layer. For example, the spies from Bianliang spread the news to Fengqiu, Fengqiu spread it to Huazhou, Huazhou spread it to the famous names, and so on.

The advantage of this is that the distance is short, so you don’t need to go out too far when you are inside, which reduces the risk of being easily exposed when you go out without an ID card.

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

That's it this time.

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

But this was already last month. It can be seen that many Liao spies were captured during the Song Zhenzong period, which had a great impact on the Liao spy network.

Yelu Zongzhen's face became heavier after listening to the report from the internal affairs officer who came back from Zhuozhou.

The national power of the Song Dynasty was once again improved.

"Father."

After Nei Ying left, Yelu Zongzhen looked at Zhang Jian and said, "Song State went overseas and brought back countless gold and silver. If this continues, the gap between us and Song State will only become wider and wider. Should we also form a fleet and go to sea to hunt for treasure?"

"This"

Zhang Jian hesitated for a moment, forming an ocean-going fleet?

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

Can this be set up?
And the funds needed are countless. Now the national power of the Liao Kingdom has indeed increased a lot, but most of its financial resources are invested in firearms and the army like the Song Dynasty before.

If they build a fleet now, can the Liao Kingdom afford such expenses?

So he hesitated for a moment, and then persuaded: "Your Majesty, I heard that the last time the Song Dynasty went to sea, the cost was more than one million yuan. This time it will only be more than last time, not less. And they only count the money once they go to sea. Over the years, there have been many difficulties at sea, and if you are not careful, the ship may be destroyed and people may be killed, and the money will be wasted, so we still need to be cautious about this matter.”

"Are you just watching the Liao and Song countries grow stronger and stronger?"

Yelu Zongzhen was also very angry.

The Song Dynasty could bring back countless gold and silver jewels from one trip to sea, which were said to be worth tens of millions of guan. But now the Liao Kingdom's annual income is less than 10 million guan. How can it continue like this?

Zhang Jian thought for a moment and said: "How about recruiting craftsmen and sailors from the Song Dynasty first, and then see if we can get the map for their voyage. Otherwise, even if the fleet is formed, there will be no one to pilot it and there will be no map. , I’m afraid that in the end it will be all in vain.”

"Ugh"

Yelu Zongzhen let out a long sigh, looked out of the palace sadly, and said, "Then let's do this for now."

As he spoke, he slowly stood up from behind the desk, walked to the door of the palace, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the distant sky with sorrow in his eyes: "What should I do if Daliao continues like this!"

The gap with the Song Dynasty is getting wider and wider. After losing its cavalry advantage, the Liao Kingdom finally became just an ordinary country surrounding the Song Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)