The Red Chamber: Starting from Saving Xue Baochai

Chapter 56: Extraordinary Palace Examination

Three quarters after noon.

Outside the martial arts garden, tens of thousands of people were eagerly waiting for the final announcement of the results.

In the martial arts park, the results of the spring martial arts examination have been summarized.

After comprehensively considering the scores of literary examination, skills and bravery, archery on foot and archery on horseback, the top 113 were ranked, and these 100 people will be selected as military scholars.

There is no doubt that Shen Yuan, Feng Ziying and Jiang Fan rank in the top three.

Liu Xianglian was fifth, Zhao Huan was tenth, Ni Er was thirtieth, and Shen Yuan didn't know the others.

In general, although there are some differences from the "Winners List" previously compiled by Hanmo Zhai, it is basically the same.

Next was the palace examination. According to convention, the emperor first summoned the top three to his presence, asked them questions, and selected the top three martial arts candidates. Then he would call out the names of the second and third place candidates in the hall.

At this moment, Shen Yuan and the other two had already arrived before Emperor Yuanzhen, waiting for the emperor to ask questions.

After a short silence, the majestic voice of Emperor Yuan Zhen was heard: "Yesterday, a report came from Shanhaiguan that the Jianlu sent 50,000 troops to invade Korea three days ago, and the King of Korea sent an envoy to the pass to ask for help."

After a brief pause, the emperor glanced at the three young men below with his deep eyes and said in a deep voice: "How should we deal with it? I want to hear your opinions."

Shen Yuan and the other two were all surprised when they heard this.

In previous palace examinations, the test questions were basically about the deduction of famous battles in history. There had never been any analysis of actual events, let alone military and national affairs!

All the civil and military officials were equally surprised at this time. They suddenly felt that today's palace examination was extraordinary and they all took it more seriously.

Does the emperor want to use this to examine the young men's military strategies?

Or do you really want to use this opportunity to ask for specific solutions?
There was a sudden silence. Shen Yuan, Feng Ziying and Jiang Fan fell into deep thought, and Emperor Yuan Zhen waited for their answers.

Ever since the loss of Liaodong in the Battle of Sarhu and the retreat of the Great Zhou to Shanhaiguan, the situation in the northeast has become increasingly severe.

The Jianzhou Jurchens are preparing for war and their power is growing rapidly. Now they are going to attack Korea.

Such important matters must be carefully considered and one should not make random suggestions.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Fan spoke first, saying, "I think we should send troops out of Shanhaiguan to aid North Korea!"

"Tell me about it." Emperor Yuanzhen looked at him intently.

Jiang Fan sorted out his thoughts and said loudly:

“There are three reasons for sending troops:
First, Korea is still a vassal state of our Great Zhou. If we sit back and watch it being destroyed by the Jianlu without saving it, it will inevitably alienate other vassal states of the Great Zhou, and will make Tubo and Dongwo feel that our Great Zhou is weak, and their desire to covet it will become even stronger;
Second, now that Liaodong has been lost, the threat of the Great Zhou to the Jianlu has been greatly reduced, and Korea can directly reach the heartland of the Jianlu and pose a great threat to them, so this place cannot be abandoned;

Third, if Korea sees that our Great Zhou will not rescue it, it will certainly choose to surrender to the Jianlu in despair. At that time, the Jianlu will get hundreds of thousands of vassal troops without spending a single soldier, and it is very likely that it will unite with the Eastern Japanese and form a joint attack on our Great Zhou. "

Emperor Yuanzhen nodded but remained silent.

Jiang Fan’s words made sense, but a military general had already put forward a similar view at the court meeting yesterday.

Even so, Emperor Yuanzhen recognized Jiang Fan's talents, which at least showed that he was indeed a military commander, not just a simple warrior.

At this time, the Minister of Finance Huang Zhun retorted: "You are an ignorant child, how can you talk about mobilizing troops so easily? You only consider the benefits of war, but have never thought about how much money and food will be needed once the army is launched?

This year, the Great Zhou has suffered many disasters. Shaanxi is suffering from drought, Shandong is suffering from floods, and the capital is suffering from snow. The national treasury has long been empty. How can there be money to support this war?"

Although Huang Zhun's words may seem to suppress military men, they are not without reason.

Emperor Yuanzhen did not say anything to stop him. He had originally intended to treat today's palace examination as a small court meeting. This way, he could better test the quality of Shen Yuan and others.

"According to what you said, doesn't that mean that the soldiers of the Great Zhou are useless?" Jiang Fan retorted.

His father Jiang Zhongnian was also a second-rank official and a loyal minister. Therefore, Jiang Fan had no fear of the official in front of him and he would argue with him based on reason.

"I never said that. I will wait until next year when the treasury is full."

"Next year? By then, I'm afraid the Jianlu will have already reached the capital city!"

"Okay!" Emperor Yuanzhen interrupted, "I asked you to give me some advice, please don't have any meaningless arguments." The emperor glanced at Feng Ziying and asked, "What do you think of this?"

Feng Ziying thought for a moment, then clasped his hands and said, "Now that Liaodong has been lost, it is difficult to reach Korea by land. If we want to rescue them, we need to advance by land and sea.

As far as I know, there are still tens of thousands of military supplies in Jizhou. Although it is not enough to support a long expedition, it is still possible to fight a few battles nearby.

I suggest that while the Jianlu are using their troops against Korea, our Great Zhou can mobilize the troops in Jizhou, march out of Shanhaiguan, and raid Liaodong as a means of containment.

At the same time, the Shandong, Fujian and Zhejiang navies were drawn to form an expeditionary force, which advanced northward along the coast to aid Korea.

In this way, we can not only help Korea, but also hope to recover part of Liaodong territory."

At this time, Prime Minister Yang Yanzhi said: "To cross the sea and take the water route, tens of thousands of soldiers and military supplies cannot be transported without thousands of large ships. It is impossible to prepare in a short time. Moreover, as Minister Huang said, the treasury is really empty."

The old Prime Minister said this with a tone full of helplessness. It was not that he did not want to lead the war, but that he could not!

Make bricks without straw.

Emperor Yuanzhen knew this very well. After a moment of silence, he said quietly, "No matter what, we cannot ignore North Korea."

He turned his gaze to Shen Yuan and said thoughtfully: "Shen Yuan, tell me what you think?"

The views expressed by Jiang Fan and Feng Ziying above are quite insightful, but their insights are not unique.

At this time, Emperor Yuanzhen placed his last hope on the young man in blue.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan took a step forward and said, "The Jurchens have occupied Liaodong for more than ten years. Although we have a strong army and sufficient food, our Great Zhou has Shanhaiguan as a barrier, and it is difficult for the Jurchens to cross.
I speculate that the Jianlu’s attack on Korea, in addition to expanding territory, is also intended to seize the Korean navy.”

Before Shen Yuan finished speaking, Beijing Prince Shui Rong asked in surprise, "You mean the Jianlu intend to seize the Korean navy and then attack our Great Zhou by water?"

Shen Yuan nodded.

Shui Rong's expression suddenly became solemn. He was also the commander-in-chief of the Left Army and had trained navy in Fujian and Zhejiang. He quickly understood the meaning of Shen Yuan's words.

These words woke everyone up.

When Emperor Yuanzhen discussed this with his court officials before, no one paid much attention to the Korean navy.

Just a few words made Emperor Yuanzhen and his ministers look at Shen Yuan with new eyes.

Emperor Yuanzhen listened with a solemn expression. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "From your point of view, how should we respond?"

Shen Yuan said: "North Korea can be rescued, but we cannot send a large army directly there."

He knows better than anyone what kind of person North Korea is.

Shen Yuan didn't want to see that the Great Zhou had to provide both money and manpower, allowing the descendants of Yan and Huang to travel far to the peninsula and work for that ungrateful foreign race. It was not worth it.

After a pause, he continued, "We can station troops at Shanhaiguan for deterrence, but we can only send light cavalry to harass, and we must not advance with a large army."

An official was puzzled and said, "The Jianlu are fighting fiercely in Korea. Isn't it the best time for our Great Zhou to recover Liaodong? Why don't we advance?"

Shen Yuan pondered and said, "We can easily think of this, how could Jianlu not be prepared?

Moreover, the enemy only mobilized 50,000 men to attack Korea. As far as I know, the Jurchens now have no less than 200,000 soldiers. The remaining 100,000 men have probably already set up traps in Liaodong, waiting for us to exploit them.”

Upon hearing this, Emperor Yuanzhen's expression became even more solemn.

If what Shen Yuan said was true, then their previous decision to march out of Shanhaiguan was a trap set by the Jianlu.

Thinking of this, Emperor Yuanzhen felt a sense of fear in his heart.

Before this, he had always been resentful, thinking that it was the carelessness and recklessness of the emperor that led to the disastrous defeat at Sarhu, making the current situation so difficult.

And now, he was not careless and almost turned Shanhaiguan into the second Sarhu.

(End of this chapter)