People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 421 It’s time to destroy Xixia

In July of the eighth year of Qingli in the Song Dynasty, after inspecting the Yellow River for three months and inspecting the conditions along the coast, Zhao Jun returned to Bianliang City, Kaifeng Prefecture, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

At this time, the world is in a state of flux, and the pattern of East Asia has already undergone earth-shaking changes.

The once most powerful Liao Kingdom was on the verge of falling apart. Liao Emperor Yelu Zongzhen died young. Since his eldest son Yelu Hongji was only fourteen years old, he could only pass the throne to the emperor's younger brother Yelu Chongyuan to stabilize the situation.

Although this would prevent his descendants from the throne, Yelu Zhongyuan's domestic prestige was much higher than that of Yelu Hongji. There was no way to prevent the country from being destroyed.

After Yelu Chongyuan ascended the throne, he sued for peace with the Song Dynasty in the south, while reorganizing military affairs and quelling the rebellions in the country. Basically, the Liao Kingdom went from being the strongest in East Asia to a second-rate country overnight.

But even second-tier countries are still in the second tier.

Because after the Song Dynasty defeated the Liao Kingdom, its strength basically jumped to the level of a super first-rate country. The Liao Kingdom used to be a first-rate country at most, but now it has been pushed back to the second rate.

This means that there is no first-rate country in the entire East Asia that can compete with the Song Dynasty, and even the only second-rate country is the Liao Kingdom.

The rest of Xixia, Dali, Goryeo, Japan, and the Yue Dynasty cannot be said to have a large number of heroes. They can only be regarded as local chickens and dogs. They can barely be called third- and fourth-rate forces, and they really can't get on the stage.

Under this situation, the Song Dynasty court became angry. Although it did not directly send a large army to attack Japan, it sent two naval fleets with a total of 10,000 people to fight against Japan.

They received the envoys of the Song Dynasty with extremely high standards of etiquette, because in addition to the envoys of the Song Dynasty, the navy also sent two thousand people to protect them.

late July.

The envoys received by Japan along the way were frightened for fear of offending the envoy.

Separated by such a long distance, their fleet was defeated in an instant. How is this different from the legendary sorcery?
Therefore, under this kind of shock, the Japanese court did not dare to take any measures.

According to the survivors' description, they were still far away from Song's fleet at that time. They only heard countless terrifying loud noises, followed by hundreds of black iron balls falling from the sky, and then their ship was shattered into pieces.

According to survivors, they also saw white smoke rising, and then the charging warriors of the Minamoto Yori rebel army fell one after another. Famous generals including Nobuori Saeki, Keiki Fujiwara, Chisuke Kaiki, and Ji Weiqing all died tragically on the spot.

Although Abe later defeated Minamoto Yoriyoshi, in fact, as soon as the two sides fought, Minamoto Yoriyoshi defeated Abe and killed Abe Yoriyoshi until Minamoto Yoriyoshi pursued him all the way and traveled a long distance in the winter expedition. In the case of lack of supplies, Only then did he return in defeat.

When Zhao Jun returned to Bianliang, the treaty signed between Song and Japan happened to be delivered.

Amidst this hesitation, an even more shocking news came. Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was eager to conquer the Mutsu Kingdom and raised his troops to fight the Abe clan. The Abe clan was caught off guard and was severely defeated. He immediately asked for help from the Song army.

Therefore, under this situation, Japan could only be forced to sign this agreement, known in history as the "Treaty of Heian-Kyo".

Zhao Jun looked at the official document that had just been sent from Jinzouyuan and said with a smile.

He actually came back on the afternoon of the 18th, but it happened to be the "beginning of autumn". Several of the 24 solar terms in the Song Dynasty required a day off, so he didn't have to go to work on the 19th.

However, taking back the minerals would have touched the Song Dynasty's cake. The Japanese thought that complimenting the Song Dynasty would make them look good, and they would turn a blind eye.

However, Ma Mao and the others were unmoved and insisted on waiting until the order from the Song Dynasty court arrived.

It can be said that at this time, Minamoto Yoriyoshi was consistent with the Abe clan in terms of military strength and equipment. Coupled with Minamoto Yoriyoshi's reputation in Mutsu Kingdom, it was only a matter of time before the Abe clan was eliminated.

At the beginning of the eighth year of Qingli, Japan tried to take back its domestic minerals. Once it had money, it sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to learn the system, technology, and culture of the Song Dynasty in order to improve its national strength.

Soon in May, orders and condemnations from the Song Dynasty court accompanied the arrival of Jin Haijun. The news reached Heian Kyo, and Emperor Lengquan and others were left to obey orders.

"They probably want to imitate Gou Jian and endure hardships, but unfortunately it's no longer the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. I'm afraid that if they try it, they will only suffer."

Regarding this series of unequal treaties, the Japanese government and the public were not without opposition, because this seriously harmed Japan's interests.

Among them, the domestic turmoil in Xixia and Japan was the most serious.

Therefore, in general, with Minamoto Yoriyoshi's prestige in the Mutsu Kingdom, it is not difficult to defeat the Abe clan, especially when they ambushed the troops sent by the Abe clan to support the Riku Dynasty some time ago and captured a large number of weapons and armor.

You must know that historically Minamoto no Yori and his son had a very high prestige in Mutsu Kingdom. As soon as he came over, the Abe family almost surrendered because of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi's reputation.

But the Song army only had 300 people, with zero casualties. The two sides were far apart, and there was another huge "bang bang bang" sound.

Fortunately, the journey went smoothly. The emperor of Japan was scolded by the imperial edict of the Song Dynasty, and all the blame was attributed to Japan's betrayal of trust and failure to fulfill the contract. It brought the blame on itself, and forced Japan to sign various treaties.

Moreover, these high-level officials did not expect that signing these treaties would mean deeper exchanges with the Song Dynasty. They would be able to find ways to introduce the technology and systems of the Song Dynasty to enhance Japan's national strength. It is not without the possibility of a comeback in the future.

Ning Haijun arrived first and defeated the troops of the Japanese court. The news reached Heian Kyo, and both Emperor Reizumi and Fujiwara Yorimichi were shocked and panicked.

If Ning Haijun had used cold weapons to fight Fujiwara Tsuna's army for a long time before finally defeating Fujiwara Tsuna, they might not have been like this. Instead, they might have made up their minds to use the power of Japan to expel the Song Dynasty's forces.

For example, it opened many ports, allowed Song Dynasty merchants to operate, mine, and contract minerals in Japan, ceded Tsushima Island to Song Dynasty territory, allowed Song Dynasty merchants to invest and set up factories in treaty ports, etc.

As for Li Yuanhao's matter, he planned to tell it at the morning meeting of the Constitutional Yuan and discuss it with Zhao Zhen in the afternoon.

The Song army then sent out a small team of 300 men, led by Abe's men, who defeated Minamoto no Yoriyoshi's army of more than 2,000 in just one round with zero casualties.

This incident frightened Emperor Goreizumi, Fujiwara Yorimichi and others even more, and they did not dare to act rashly. They even sent envoys in the hope of communicating with Ma Mao and others.

Unexpectedly, there happened to be news from Xiaotian.

Little did they know that today's Song Dynasty was no longer the dynasty that gave generously and raised a bunch of white-eyed wolves. Instead, it focused on the interests of the country and the people and pursued the policy of giving priority to the Song Dynasty.

I simply rested at home for a day, and did not officially go to court until the 20th today. I reported on the Yellow River inspection work in the morning.

But the whole process was just too weird.

Yan Shu raised his head and said: "It seems that just as Han Long expected, the Japanese country does not have the guts to start a full-scale war with the Song Dynasty."

Zhao Jun smiled and shook his head.

"When I was young, I was a bitch like this. If I didn't give him a good beating, he would break the roof. Now if I give him a good beating, he will become more honest."

But the Japanese high-level officials had no choice. Otherwise, with an order from Song Dynasty Navy Commander Zhou Gang and Ning Navy Commander Ma Mao, Japan could directly change its dynasty.

At the end of the morning session on the 20th, Zhao Jun returned to the Constitutional Court.

"The next step for Hanlong is to support the rebel forces in Japan and weaken Japan's national power?"

Fan Zhongyan turned around and asked.

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "Its national power itself has nothing to weaken. The main thing is to weaken the authority of their emperor."

"The Emperor's authority?"

Everyone poked their heads over, wondering what this meant.

"Yes, they are different from us. Ever since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted and the princes, generals and ministers were convinced, there have been countless rebels challenging the emperor's authority."

Zhao Jun explained: "As for Japan's eternal lineage, the authority of the emperor has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Even if there is a rebellion, it will not eliminate the emperor himself as emperor. At most, he will use the imperial power to become a powerful minister. If the authority of the Japanese emperor is not quelled, then this After all, the country is difficult to occupy. "Then we can just send people to kill their emperor. Why bother?"

Someone wondered.

"Don't you hear that even though Chu has three households, if Qin is destroyed, it will be Chu?"

Yan Shu was still smart, and immediately thought of something, and said with a smile: "If a foreign enemy invades and destroys the emperor, the emperor's prestige among the Japanese people will only cause hatred and make it more troublesome to rule in the future. But if they themselves continue to challenge the emperor's authority, , and eventually bring down the emperor, the emperor’s prestige among Japanese people will inevitably fall to the bottom.”

"good."

Zhao Jun gave a thumbs up and said: "Uncle Lari is still the best, that's what I think."

At this moment, Wang Shouzhong walked in outside the gate of the Political Academy, followed by several young eunuchs. He bowed and said: "Zhiyuan, ministers, it has been hot recently. The officials are afraid that the ministers will suffer from heat stroke, so they specially ordered me to send white jelly. ”

"Thank the officials for us."

Everyone said quickly.

The young eunuch from behind came in and placed white jelly powder on each prime minister's table.

This thing is suitable for people of all ages in later generations. It is recorded in "Tokyo Menghualu" that it is made of plant pectin, with a little ice cubes added. It has a refreshing taste and is a must-have for relieving the heat.

"What are the officials busy with now?"

Zhao Jun's bowl was brought by Wang Shouzhong himself. He came back very late the day before yesterday and rested yesterday. He hadn't seen Zhao Zhen for three months, so he asked Wang Shouzhong casually.

Wang Shouzhong said with a smile: "Don't you know that the Imperial Academy is still trying to generate electricity with two steam engines in the Jinshui River?"

Everyone knows that Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty had four canals passing through the city, but they don’t know that the Jinshui River directly passed through the back garden of the imperial palace and was the only river within the palace.

It's just that the Jinshui River is close to the wall of the North Palace and behind the Guanjia Palace. There is also a small garden and woods where the concubines usually play, so under normal circumstances they have little chance to go to the river.

Zhao Jun smiled when he heard that Zhao Zhen was conducting power generation experiments.

It’s actually not difficult to point out things like the technology tree. For example, after Tesla invented electromagnetic induction in 1831 and developed the first generator, fifty years later, Edison used six steam engines to build the world’s largest The first power plant.

It looks like it took fifty years, but in fact the principle is the same, no one is doing it because there is no point in building a power plant.

The only use of electricity at that time was for lighting.

However, even though someone invented the arc lamp in the early 19th century, the illumination duration was still very short.

It wasn't until Edison improved the carbonized bamboo filament lamp that the carbon filament electric lamp that could last for 400 hours was extended to 1200 hours that electricity had commercial value.

Therefore, it was easy to build power plants in the Song Dynasty, but it was very troublesome to make electric lights.

Even though Zhao Jun knew that bamboo filament electric lamps were still not working and that tungsten filaments should be used to last longer, due to limitations of vacuum technology and another main reason, the electric lighting industry had not developed, and power plants were naturally useless.

And the reason is that Zhao Jun doesn't know the name of tungsten in ancient times.

This resulted in Da Song still having a dark eye in this field, and he needed to constantly experiment with various materials before he could find tungsten wire.

Even though the Song Dynasty discovered electricity very early, it was never able to quickly apply it to daily life.

But there is nothing that can be done about it.

Zhao Jun is not omnipotent.

What's more, science often arises due to accidental factors. Many Western scientists often regard science as theology and miracles. It is not that simple to turn this accident into necessity, and we still need to continue to try.

The only advantage of the Song Dynasty is that someone is guiding them in a clear direction, so that they can avoid many detours and not find the way forward in unknown fields.

The main reason why we can start building power plants now is that the School of Chemistry has developed vacuum technology using mercury.

At the same time, after many experiments, they finally discovered that a metal called heavy stone dissolved in it can achieve long-term lighting after being energized, and the light is not strong and dazzling, just like incandescent lamps in later generations.

Zhao Jun was sure that the heavy stone should be tungsten.

Electricity has really begun to be widely used in life.

"Thank you for your hard work, Guan Jia. Say hello to Guan Jia for me. All the research results of Guan Jia will be recorded in the annals of history and become the cornerstone of the Song Dynasty standing in the world."

After Zhao Jun finished speaking, he added: "This sentence must be conveyed to the officials intact."

"Yes."

Wang Shouzhong responded with a low eyebrow.

do not know why.

Every time the magistrate praises the official family like this, the official family is always full of motivation.

Even in Wang Shouzhong's view, those experiments and research were full of unknowns and difficulties, and officials were always happy to do so.

After distributing ice cold powder, Wang Shouzhong and other eunuchs withdrew.

Some people in the room were eating white jelly, some took a bite because they thought it was too sweet, and others continued to correct official documents.

For a huge empire, these prime ministers have to deal with a mountain of official duties every day.

Although the Constitutional Yuan is now mainly responsible for formulating directions, the actual operation is still left to each department to formulate and plan.

But under this system, the Constitutional Yuan also needs to control whether the direction is correct. It is also a daily task to check the development progress proposed by various departments every day.

After everyone finished talking about the white jelly, Zhao Jun stood up and said, "Okay, it's time for the meeting. Today's meeting is very important."

"What's the matter?"

"Interesting, are there any big things in Hanlong's eyes?"

"That's quite curious."

When everyone heard that there was a meeting, they stopped what they were doing and started to stand up and prepare to go to the conference room.

they asked, smiling as they walked.

Seeing that everyone was curious about what the big deal was, Zhao Jun smiled slightly and said, "It's time to destroy Xixia."

In an instant, everyone's breathing became rapid.

(End of this chapter)