People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 397 Yan Yun returns and is prosperous

The fighting lasted for a day and night. From noon on the 24th to early morning on the 25th, the Song army chased the Liao people for more than a hundred miles.

Along the way, large forces of the Liao army were defeated and some were killed or captured by the Song army, which was a heavy loss.

By midnight on the 25th, Fan Zhongyan finally began to assemble his troops.

It's not that he doesn't want to continue to expand the results, but the Song Army officers and soldiers are also very tired now. They are tired, sleepy and hungry, and their spirits are extremely tense.

After all, Song Jun had been in a high-intensity fight since they had lunch yesterday. They haven't slept or eaten for a day and a night.

Even an iron-clad body cannot bear it.

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan naturally wanted to gather his troops immediately to give the soldiers a good rest and a chance to reorganize the troops.

At this time, the main force of the Song Army had arrived in Shunzhou and Huairou.

Due to the previous chaotic wars, the various ministries were extremely confused. The generals of each army did not have many troops of their own, and they all fell into the hands of others.

Therefore, the Song army has made timely adjustments and is stationed in Dazhuzhuang, Wangjingguan, Sunhouting and other places south of Shunzhou and Huairou, and has all the troops return to their respective camps to have breakfast and then sleep.

The busiest people now are the logistics auxiliaries and civilian workers.

Before the end of Chenshi, they began to cut down trees, build fences, make food, and then set up tents to provide food and accommodation for the frontline soldiers in these places.

By midnight in the morning, the Song army had already settled in Shunzhou, Huairou and other places.

Inside the fence, which was only half a person high, there were countless simple tents piled up densely. All the soldiers of the Song Army were fast asleep inside. Each camp was snoring like thunder, as if they were not worried about any enemies coming to attack.

Fan Zhongyan, with his hands behind his back, walked leisurely outside the camp with Wang Su, Wei Huanzhi and others, his eyes scanning the wilderness in the distance.

I saw that to the north of the camp, everything was full of vitality and greenery. In the distance, there are rolling hills and dense forests, with some dilapidated villages inhabiting them. Farther away, a city towers on the distant horizon.

That was Shunzhou City in the Liao Kingdom.

"This place is probably where the Liao people are preparing to ambush us. Those mountains should be where they deploy their artillery."

Fan Zhongyan pointed to the distance and said: "It is indeed dangerous. If we pursue rashly and there are forests in the distance, we can only take the main official road. We will definitely be ambushed by their artillery fire, and the consequences will be disastrous."

Wei Huanzhi also put his hands behind his back, stepped on the green grass under his feet, and said with a smile: "It was all because of Xianggong's strategizing and cleverness that he defeated the Liao people's conspiracy."

Fan Zhongyan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I actually didn't do anything. It was the soldiers who sacrificed their lives."

"No way, if it weren't for my husband, I'm afraid we might have fallen into the trap of the Zhongliao people."

"Yes, my husband is truly a divine man. I have only seen in books that the enemy is thousands of miles away, but now I can actually see it."

"Yes, Xianggong has the pearl of wisdom. Every step of the Liao people is clearly calculated. If it had been anyone else, they would never have been able to win. All this is due to Xianggong."

"Who would have thought that when the Liao people retreated, they used retreat as an advance. Only Xianggong has such wisdom."

Everyone praised him, almost complimenting him.

If Fan Zhongyan was in a situation like this in the past, even if he was a civil servant, he would probably have launched a mass attack to prevent him from supporting his troops and pulling him down in the name of self-respect.

But in recent years, the atmosphere in the court has changed drastically. Colleagues no longer feel jealous of talents when they meet them.

It is not that the temperament of officials has improved, but that those who continue to be disobedient and disobedient as before will often be dismissed, excluded, demoted, and not allowed to serve in the court anymore.

As a result, if there is no actual evidence within the imperial court, they will no longer rely on rumors to impeach, spread rumors, and slander colleagues at will.

The leader of all this is naturally Zhao Jun.

It's not that Zhao Jun is persecuting these officials, but that he must change this culture.

Once a dazzling talent appears in the court, like Di Qing in history, he will immediately suppress, criticize, and even spread rumors and slander.

It would be strange if Da Song could still be saved if this continues.

Therefore, Zhao Jun must change this culture to encourage the emergence of talents.

After all, a thousand armies are easy to come by but a general is hard to find. Whether it is governing a country or marching to fight, talents are very important.

As for issues such as supporting soldiers and respecting themselves, they can be solved completely through the system.

For example, under the current system, it is almost impossible for Fan Zhongyan to rebel even if he has more than 200,000 troops.

Let’s not talk about whether the following senior generals and civilian officials like Zhang Kang, Di Qing, Wang Su, Wei Huanzhi, etc. are willing to follow. Simply speaking, after the army is reorganized, it will be difficult to achieve this.

Because the overall military structure of the Song Dynasty was only at the corps level, with each army having 5,000 men, Fan Zhongyan had more than 30 corps under his command, led by nearly a hundred mid-level and senior generals.

Unless Fan Zhongyan can instigate more than a hundred middle- and high-level generals including Zhang Kang and Di Qing to rebel, it will be almost impossible to rebel.

Therefore, it is imperative to clean up the atmosphere in the court.

When Fan Zhongyan heard the compliments from everyone, he could only smile awkwardly and said nothing more on this matter.

In fact, he knew his own abilities, and he was at best a second-rate commander.

It's far behind those first-class commanders in history, let alone top commanders like Sun Wu, Bai Qi, and Han Xin.

There are two main reasons why he can do this.

One is poor information.

A person from later generations told him the information in advance, so that he could predict the enemy in advance, and he would naturally be victorious in every battle.

The second is the arrival of the firearms age.

Especially for the latter, their advanced thermal weapons allowed them to qualitatively crush the Liao army, which mainly used cold weapons.

Otherwise, given the previous situation of the Song Army, even if there was information gap, it would be difficult to win against the Liao people with real swords and guns on the frontal battlefield.

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan was able to achieve a great victory over the Liao State this time, largely due to the improvement of the Song Dynasty's comprehensive national strength and more advanced weapons and equipment.

To sum it up, "Times have changed, my lord."

If he takes credit for this reason and thinks he is great, outsiders like Wang Suwei Huanzhi who don't know the inside story will naturally not find anything strange.

But if the people inside the political system who know the inside story learn about it, they will probably laugh at him for pretending to be powerful, but he will be complacent.

Several people were talking.

Zhang Kang walked out of the camp and said, "Mr.

"Gongshou woke up so soon, didn't I ask you to have a good rest?"

Fan Zhongyan couldn't help but frown when he saw that Zhang Kang had a pair of panda eyes, obviously not having a good night's sleep.

Zhang Kang was indeed tired, but he said: "I can't sleep because I think about it. I wonder if this would be inappropriate? The soldiers are all resting. What if the Liao army suddenly comes out in the city?"

He didn't sleep all night last night and kept fighting. It wasn't until this morning that he went to take a short rest.

But I lay in bed and slept for an hour or two, and still woke up due to a sense of uneasiness. It was really imprudent to be so unprepared.

Fan Zhongyan slapped his forehead and said: "Gongshou didn't sleep all night last night. I only asked you to rest, but I forgot to tell you this."

As he spoke, he smiled and pointed in the direction of Shunzhou City and said: "Yelü Zong was so frightened that he fled north overnight. There are only five thousand people in the city now, and the general is still our internal response."

"Forehead"

Zhang Kang was dumbfounded.

Is the garrison commander in the city one of theirs?

It seemed like my worries were in vain all night.

But think about it carefully.

There seems to be no problem.

What's the situation now?
The Liao people were defeated miserably.

Yelu Zongzhen fled north in panic. The Pishi Army suffered heavy losses.

Although the battlefield is still being cleaned in the rear, the war supervisor is counting battle achievements and casualties.

However, the rough estimates of the various ministries alone put the number of prisoners at more than 50,000 to 60,000, and the casualties would only be much higher than this number.

And not only the Pishi Army, but also soldiers from other ethnic tribes of the Liao people suffered numerous casualties.

This not only seriously weakened the strength of the Liao people and affiliated tribes.

At the same time, the Khitan's prestige will inevitably plummet, making other ethnic tribes who are already ready to take action dissatisfied.

It can be said that under such a blow, it is a question whether Yelv Zong can really maintain the Liao Kingdom.

Therefore, it is reasonable for the enemy to assess the situation and change the court.

"My husband is still wise and mighty."

Zhang Kang said hurriedly: "Then let's take advantage of the situation and conquer Yan Yun first?"

"Well, of course that's the case, not only Yanyun, but also Shenzhou outside Guan."

"Shenzhou?"

"good."

Fan Zhongyan nodded and said: "Although Shenzhou was just a small city before, it became prosperous after Yelu Abaoji migrated a large number of Han people and became the Liaoyang Prefecture of the Liao Kingdom today. But since Qin Kai of the Yan Kingdom cast Hou Cheng here, this place has How can we, the Han people, let our territory be left alone outside the Pass?”

Everyone felt something was wrong.

Wei Huanzhi wondered: "My lord, are you only going to recover Yanyun and Shenzhou?"

"Yes, sir."

Zhang Kang said hurriedly: "With this great victory, it is time to take advantage of the victory to pursue and attack the central capital of the Liao Kingdom. Why did we only recover Yanyun and stop moving forward?"

"Not going north."

Fan Zhongyan shook his head.

"why?"

Everyone was confused and very puzzled.

At present, the vitality of the Liao Kingdom is greatly damaged. This is the best time to destroy the Liao Kingdom.

However, Fan Zhongyan shook his head and said: "When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty destroyed the Huns, it was because the Huns had threatened the Han Dynasty, so Han Wu assembled hundreds of thousands of troops and launched an attack on Monan."

As he spoke, he continued: "Although Han Wu destroyed the Xiongnu in that battle, the country itself was almost collapsed. Can you see the desert returning to Han soil?"

"What do you mean, Mr. Xian, destroying Liao will not be beneficial to us?"

Wang Su somewhat understood what Fan Zhongyan meant.

"good."

Fan Zhongyan tapped his chin and said: "Not only is it useless, but it is harmful. Therefore, destroying Liao at this time is not the best policy. This is also the meaning of the Constitutional Yuan."

After finishing speaking, Fan Zhongyan smiled mysteriously and said: "The Constitutional Yuan's consideration is not one day, but changes in the next few decades or even hundreds of years. These are not things that you can know, you just need to listen immediately. "

"I see."

When everyone heard that it was the consideration of the Constitutional Yuan, they looked at each other and naturally did not ask any more questions.

Nowadays, the Constitutional Yuan has too much power.

In the past, when the emperor's power was still limited, for example, when an imperial edict was issued, and someone in Zhongshushe felt that there was something wrong with the emperor's order, he had the power to reject it.

But the current Constitutional Yuan has almost no obstacles to power. As long as the decisions made by many prime ministers are made, there is no room for rejection.

Therefore, it can be said that there is no longer any voice questioning the Constitutional Yuan in the whole government.

In fact it is.

In essence, the Constitutional Yuan actually represents the ancient power of the prime minister.

The power of the prime minister and the power of the emperor have been fighting since ancient times.

Wasn't the case of Hu Weiyong in the Ming Dynasty essentially a case of Lao Zhu suppressing the power of the prime minister and taking power into his own hands?

But today's prime minister power has undergone tremendous changes because of Zhao Jun.

The conflict between imperial power and prime minister power is due to the overlapping of powers and mutual distrust between the two parties.

Not so now.

The Constitutional Yuan and the emperor are grasshoppers tied on a rope.

If the imperial power is combined with the power of the prime minister, won't there be no obstacles to power and the power will be overwhelming?

Therefore, the current system of the Song Dynasty is, to a certain extent, the best system in ancient times and a model set by the prime minister.

There is no suspicion between the monarch and his ministers, and the high concentration of power greatly improves administrative efficiency, thus forming the almost perfect administrative system now.

of course.

The emergence of this system is a special case.

Without Zhao Jun, Zhao Zhen would not have been able to allow a place with such a high concentration of power, such as the Constitutional Yuan, to appear, nor would it be possible to delegate power to the subordinates.

So in general, as long as Zhao Jun is here, this system can be maintained.

If one day he is gone.

It is difficult to say whether this system can continue to be maintained.

The only good news is that Zhao Jun is still very young and can live a long time.

"Okay, now Yelu Zongzhen has fled north in panic. There are only a large number of fleeing Liao soldiers in Youyan and part of the Liao army outside Yuguan."

Fan Zhongyan said: "Our task now is to eliminate the remnants of the Youyan and Liao people. Then we divide our troops into two groups, rush to aid Di Qing all the way to attack Shenzhou, and then head west to aid Yunzhou. We must capture the people who have been lost to the Han people for a hundred years. Take back the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun."

"Yes."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Then Fan Zhongyan looked at Wang Su and said with a smile: "Zhongyi, such good news should be reported immediately. You should write a note immediately and report to Bianliang immediately. It will also make His Majesty and the civil and military officials happy."

"Yes."

Wang Su burst out laughing: "Your Majesty knows how happy he is to know this."

"Yes, this is the recovery of Yanyun. In the past, it was simply a dream."

"Who would have thought that the Liao people, who were so arrogant when they attacked Chanzhou City, were now beaten by the Song Dynasty and fled north in panic, not daring to look south?"

"It's a pity that my uncle was an official in Hebei in his early years. When the Liao invaded, something unexpected happened. My father has wanted to avenge him all his life. Today, the great revenge has been avenged, but my father can no longer see it."

Everyone was filled with emotion and looked at the sky above their heads.

The warm spring sun is shining so warmly and peacefully that the entire land of Youyan seems to be filled with tranquility and peace.

It has been a hundred years since the Song Dynasty lost Yan Yun.

And today.

It was like a breath of turbid air in the chest, suddenly spurting out.

Very comfortable.

(End of this chapter)