The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 420: Drafting of a System
Guo Rong successfully defeated the Khitans on the front battlefield in a northern expedition. The Liao Dynasty, which was at the peak of its national strength, was directly put to an end to its upward momentum. In addition, the issue of succession in the Liao Dynasty had not been resolved, and this disastrous defeat made the Liao Dynasty's government even more chaotic.

The political bloodiness of the grassland peoples is no less than that of the Central Plains. If the balance is broken, war will soon break out, and the Liao Kingdom will fall into chaos and will no longer be able to move south.

Guo Rong captured and killed tens of thousands of Liao soldiers in one battle, and also obtained a large number of cattle and sheep. When the northern nomadic peoples went to war, they usually brought a large number of cattle and sheep as food.

In this battle, Guo Rong successfully obtained more than 100,000 sheep, more than 20,000 cattle, and more than 10,000 war horses, which can be said to be a great victory.

After this great victory, Guo Rong was rewarded in Youzhou, and the pass of Yanshan was renovated. He also recruited and trained soldiers in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. In this battle, Guo Rong's prestige was greatly won, and he completely suppressed other generals.

Coupled with the auspicious signs from heaven and the flying phoenix, even the most unruly guards became obedient.

Guo Rong also took the opportunity to start integrating the army, promoting and demoting those not very loyal generals, giving them higher official titles, distributing them wealth, and then letting them go home to retire.

Then he let his trusted subordinates take control of the army, and then he disbanded and adjusted some of the troops, and successfully took control of all of them.

It can be said that through the Northern Expedition, Guo Rong successfully cleaned up the factions in the army and took control of the vast majority of the troops.

Those military governors who had their own little thoughts were either promoted in public or demoted in private, or served as officials in the court. Basically, the situation of local warlords becoming too powerful was temporarily solved by him.

The military governors of the vassal states became almost in name only, and all their troops were incorporated into the imperial guards.

With 200,000 elite imperial guards at hand, the central authority reached its peak at this moment.

Guo Rong stayed in Youzhou for more than a month, thoroughly sorted out the situation of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and then stationed 30,000 troops in various places in Youzhou to guard the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

All military supplies and wages were provided by the central government, and local garrison troops could no longer recruit soldiers and collect food and fodder locally.

After the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were pacified, the only remaining state in the north that had not surrendered was Northern Han. This battle defeated the Khitan, recaptured the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and completely cut off Northern Han's reinforcements.

After losing the support of the Khitans, the Northern Han Dynasty was basically a dead body in a grave, and it was only a matter of time before it was destroyed. The garrisons in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were partly used to defend against the Khitans, and partly to attack the Northern Han Dynasty from the northeast.

Guo Rong led his army back, and on the way back, he took advantage of the situation to capture several states of Northern Han. In the end, only a few states around Jinyang were barely left of Northern Han.

When the army returned to Kaifeng, Guo Rong did not relax, but summoned his ministers to prepare for the expedition against Northern Han. As for Southern Tang, Wuyue, and Hou Shu, they had almost lost their ambition to make progress, and their final solution was nothing more than their demise.

Richard looked at the huge golden dragon of luck in the sky above Kaifeng City. After surviving the Northern Expedition, the originally somewhat frivolous golden dragon of luck became solid. More importantly, the golden dragon of luck directly transformed into three dragon claws, which were so majestic that people dared not look directly at them.

After seeing the transformation of the golden dragon of luck, Richard also received some feedback. A stream of luck from the Great Zhou Dynasty fell on him. Richard did not integrate the luck into his body, but collected it. He planned to use the luck to make several talismans to prepare for the future of the Zhou Dynasty.

After the Northern Expedition, Richard also began to formally participate in the government affairs, and was granted the title of Tongzhongshan Menxia Pingzhangshi by Guo Rong, participating in the government affairs, and was given a large number of honorary titles.

The power of the prime minister in the Zhou Dynasty had been greatly weakened, and several deputy prime ministers were set up.

Richard didn't care much about the position of prime minister. The power of the secular world was of no use to him. If it weren't for supporting Long Ting, he wouldn't have any contact with the court at all.

Next, Richard began to make changes to the Zhou Dynasty according to his ideas. Richard suggested to Guo Rong that the State Council be established. The role of the State Council was to teach officials how to govern. After all, most of the officials who passed the imperial examination had no experience in handling government affairs. The State Council was to teach them how to handle government affairs.

At the same time, Richard printed a large number of books he compiled as teaching materials for the Administrative Council, and further reduced the cost of books by improving printing and papermaking techniques.

He also suggested to Guo Rong that all counties and cities in the country should donate books, which would then be proofread, re-typeset and compiled into a book, and then printed in large quantities.

Due to the advancement of printing and papermaking technology, the price of books soon dropped again, and because a large number of books were printed, books began to be sold throughout the Zhou State, giving more and more people the opportunity to learn.

At the same time, a large number of cattle, sheep and horses were seized in the Northern Expedition. Most of the sheep were distributed as rewards. Almost all soldiers who participated in the war received one or two sheep as rewards, as well as copper coins, cloth and grain.

Soldiers who fought bravely received greater rewards. Seeing that the Imperial Guards received such generous rewards, many people signed up to join them.

On the other hand, Richard suggested that Guo Rong rebuild the horse farm. At that time, there was no large-scale military horse farm in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Most of the war horses of the imperial cavalry were obtained from the trade in the Dangxiang and Qingtang areas. This time, the army obtained tens of thousands of war horses, and Guo Rong also wanted to build a war horse farm. In ancient wars, the role of war horses was too important. After the Song Dynasty lost the horse breeding land, it had almost no organized cavalry corps and was almost passive in the face of the Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia.

The largest horse farm in the Central Plains Dynasty was the Shandan Military Horse Farm, which was located in Hexi and was established by Huo Qubing, a champion marquis during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. This military horse farm in Hexi was the best and largest in China.

Shandan Military Horse Farm is located in the Hexi Corridor, at the foot of the Qilian Mountains. It has abundant grass and water, a cool climate, and open land, making it the best place to raise horses. Since its establishment, it has been the most important horse-raising place for successive dynasties.

At its peak, the Shandan Military Horse Farm alone raised 300,000 war horses. During the peak of the Tang Dynasty, the country had more than 700,000 war horses. During the Han Dynasty, there were 500,000 war horses in the country.

However, after the Song Dynasty, the total number of war horses in the country was only 200,000, and most of these 200,000 war horses were produced in Sichuan. The war horses produced in Sichuan were short in stature and could not compare with the war horses from Saibei, Longxi, and Hexi.

Moreover, the Sichuan war horses are not as capable of carrying weight as the Hexi and Longyou war horses, nor are they as capable of explosive power. Their only advantage is that they are good at climbing.

This kind of war horse is fine for fighting in the south, but it is completely suppressed in the north.

At the same time, most of these 200,000 war horses were strictly speaking unqualified and could only be used as inferior horses. As a result, they were suppressed in the wars with Xixia and Liao.

The cavalry of the Western Xia and Liao dynasties could wear heavier and better armor, but the cavalry of the Song Dynasty could not. The defensive power of their armor was low and their horses were not as fast as those of the Western Xia and Liao dynasties. When they encountered the cavalry of the Western Xia and Liao dynasties, they could only be suppressed and beaten.

Now that the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun had been recovered, they were also a place for raising horses. So Guo Rong ordered the establishment of the Imperial Horse Administration and set up thirteen military horse farms in Youzhou and Jizhou to breed and raise war horses.

At the same time, he ordered the use of salt and cloth to exchange for good horses for breeding from the Qingtang, Huihe, Dangxiang and other tribes.

If war horses are not well bred, their quality will decline with each generation. Even if they were once good horses, they will degenerate into poor horses after a few generations.

After establishing the Imperial Stables, Richard collected people who were good at raising horses from all over the country and ordered them to raise horses.

While the military horse farm was being built, Richard sorted the cattle seized this time. At this time, the Central Plains had just settled down, and production in various places had begun to resume, requiring a large number of oxen.

Richard suggested to Guo Rong that the slaughter of oxen should be prohibited, and the oxen captured from the Khitans should be trained and then sold to the people for use.

Most of the cattle captured from the Khitans were free-range grassland cattle. These cattle were not trained and were not suitable for farming. The domestication of oxen for farming mostly started when the cattle were young. In order to train these cattle to be oxen for farming, Richard ordered people to pierce the noses of the cattle.

The technique of piercing the nose of an ox is very peculiar. In fact, it first appeared in the Han Dynasty, but was lost later. It appeared again in the Tang Dynasty, but disappeared again in this period.

The main reason for the loss of this technology was the war. During the war, a large number of books were lost, and the craftsmen were killed or abducted, resulting in the loss of many technologies. Now Richard is trying to make this technology appear again.

The technique of nose piercing for cows is not complicated, but the effect is very good. No matter how bad-tempered the cow is, after piercing its nose, it will be led by the nose.

Among the 30,000 cattle, more than 20,000 were successfully trained and transported to various parts of Zhou for sale. In order to prevent these cattle from being monopolized by local tyrants, Richard specifically ordered that several households be allowed to jointly purchase a cattle.

The emergence of a large number of oxen allowed the Zhou Kingdom's arable land to increase again. The Zhou Kingdom's national strength began to increase continuously.

All of Richard's suggestions to Guo Rong were implemented seriously, and the one that showed the fastest effect was the salt-drying method. Previously, the salt-drying method was only part of the promotion due to time constraints. After half a year, the salt field expanded several times and the salt production also increased rapidly.

The treasury is becoming increasingly full.

In addition to these, the imperial court also began to establish iron factories to forge weapons and armor, and at the same time allowed private citizens to build iron factories on their own. However, all iron factories needed to be supervised by the imperial court, and the sale of ironware to the grassland was prohibited.

Guo Rong and Li Cha reformed the imperial examination system, established the Imperial Academy and Imperial College, and ordered all prefectures and counties to set up provincial and county schools. The purpose of provincial and county schools was to facilitate the study of ordinary people and prevent the imperial examination from being controlled by the aristocratic families.

Richard set up many ways to restrict the powerful families, and tried his best to give ordinary people the opportunity to study, in order to ensure the vitality of the court.

(End of this chapter)