I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 162 Dreams Come True, Five Women Together

...

Just as Yelü Yanxi and his ministers were at a loss as to how to handle this diplomatic situation, and Xiao Sese was preparing to help Yelü Nanxian go to Western Xia to become Li Qianshun's empress, the imperial examinations of the Zhao Song Dynasty were also being prepared in full swing.

Because the purpose of this imperial examination was to cultivate talents for the recovery and governance of Western Xia, Emperor Zhao Yu and his ministers decided, after discussion, to specify that the provincial examination would test knowledge of the geography and customs of Western Xia, and that the court would distribute the study materials.

To ensure fairness, this year's imperial examination was postponed by one month and held in March.

The imperial court subsidized the food and lodging of the candidates for a month, and they only needed to study the learning materials provided by the court.

The initial draft of the study materials on the Western Xia period was compiled by Zhang Chun.

The study materials Zhang Chun prepared for the imperial examination candidates were straightforward and packed with practical information.

Firstly, Zhang Chun commissioned a skilled map artist to draw ten complete and detailed maps of the Western Xia, which were then posted in ten public open areas for the candidates to study and compare.

Secondly, Zhang Chun brought out all the wars related to the Western Xia and analyzed why they were won and why they were lost.

—Regarding this part, Zhang Chun completely ignored the fact that she was having a cold war with Li Lin and the others, and directly took Li Lin's war case analysis (Western Xia volume) as her study material.

Thirdly, she raised the question of how the Song Dynasty should govern Western Xia if it were able to recover it, and what system should be adopted. She also kindly suggested that since Western Xia was located on the frontier and its people were fierce, a combination of kindness and severity was needed to win their hearts and minds.

In short, Zhang Chun laid everything out on paper, including what could and could not be said, to avoid any major blunders during the reconquest of Western Xia.

For example, the Song Dynasty had previously been very cryptic about Emperor Shenzong's five-pronged attack on Xia, out of consideration for him. But Zhang Chun, on the other hand, openly and frankly discussed it all.

Zhang Chun even directly provided the result and deduced it backwards.

Zhang Chun's summary:

In the five-pronged attack on Western Xia, the Song army did not lose a single battle in the field, but lost 140,000 of its 350,000 regular troops, a loss of 40%. Of the 200,000 civilian laborers, less than half returned. The vast wealth generated by Wang Anshi's reforms was almost entirely consumed in this war. The only two gains the Zhao Song Dynasty made in the entire war were Lanzhou and Mizhi. The other regions were all returned to Western Xia because the Song Dynasty was unable to defend them.

The Western Xia's response was simple: to defend one city with the army of the entire nation, implement a scorched-earth policy, and launch surprise attacks on the Song Dynasty's supply lines.

Zhang Chun believes that the reason why the Song Dynasty suffered a major defeat due to the offensive and defensive actions of both sides is due to three reasons—two secondary reasons and one primary reason.

The first minor reason was that Emperor Shenzong of Song was incompetent in his personnel choices; Zhang Chun practically said that Emperor Shenzong was bad at using people.

—Zhang Chun was somewhat restrained because Emperor Shenzong was her father-in-law, but she showed no leniency to others, even directly criticizing Gao Zunyu and Wang Zhongzheng for being too selfish and incompetent, thus harming the country.

The second minor reason is that the timing was wrong.

Zhang Chun believed that the best time for an agrarian civilization's army to launch an attack on the northern frontier was spring, not autumn, because autumn was when the northern horses were at their fattest and the cavalry were at their strongest. However, the awkward situation for the Song Dynasty was that the feud between the Empress Dowager of Liang and Emperor Li Bingchang of Western Xia happened in June. It would be a pity if the Song Dynasty did not send troops, but if it did, as it is now, the incident happened in June, and the army set off in September, and the battle went straight into winter. The severe cold of the Northwest not only caused a large number of non-combat casualties in the Song army, but also greatly increased the difficulty of logistical supply.

Of course, the main reason for the failure of the five-pronged attack on Xia was the supply of food and provisions for the Song army.

The Western Xia and the Song Dynasty were separated by the Hengshan Mountains and the 700-mile-long Gobi Desert and the Mu Us Desert.

The 700-li-long Gobi Desert and the Mu Us Desert are connected, forming a desertified area. The 800-li-long road is mostly sandy and deep, making it difficult for light vehicles to travel. A cart carrying grain can only carry 20 shi (a unit of dry measure), and it will inevitably get stuck whenever it crosses deep sand.

If the Central Plains regime wanted to attack Lingzhou or Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Western Xia, it would have to cross this desertified area.

Some people may be wondering how the Mongols destroyed the Western Xia in history?

That's because the Mongols came from the north and could cross this desertified area, making it much easier for them to fight.

How difficult is it to maintain logistics in this desertified area?
The data that Zhang Chun presented was provided by Shen Kuo, the then-commissioner of the capital.

During that western expedition, the Zhao Song Dynasty mainly relied on people carrying grain on their backs and shoulders, at most using a rickshaw. Animal power such as donkeys and camels was not used at all.

This is mainly because, although livestock can carry more fodder each time, they also consume more fodder, and the terrain around Hengshan is too harsh, making it easy for livestock to block the fodder routes, as they are not as agile as humans.

At that time, Richard, the transport commissioner of Huanqing Road, used donkeys to transport grain and fodder. As a result, the donkeys blocked the grain route, and the grain and fodder could not be transported at all. In the end, tens of thousands of soldiers starved to death, and even the tragedy of cannibalism occurred.

Previously, during the reign of Emperor Renzong, camels and mules were often used to transport grain, but that was mainly for transporting grain from Guanzhong or Hedong to Hengshan. Once inside Hengshan, animal power was not as effective as human power.

Shen Kuo also gave the limits of human labor in transporting grain.

According to Shen Kuo's observations and calculations, a laborer transporting grain could carry six dou of grain. Combined with the grain carried by the soldiers themselves, this could supply two people for a round trip of nine days. In other words, a laborer could support a soldier to travel nine days into Xia territory. Beyond that, the grain would not be enough for the return journey.

The current method the Zhao Song Dynasty is using to solve this problem is to launch shallow attacks on fortified villages.

Q: Besides this, what other ways are there to solve this problem?
In short, the information Zhang Chun produced was comprehensive, with questions and answers, and she shared everything she could think of about Western Xia without holding anything back. It allowed people unfamiliar with Western Xia, those who didn't understand the difficulty of conquering Western Xia, and those who didn't know how the Song Dynasty would govern Western Xia after its conquest, to gain a deeper understanding of Western Xia and to reflect on how they helped the Song Dynasty conquer and govern Western Xia.

Zhao Yu showed the study materials provided by Zhang Chun to the group of chief ministers.

To Zhao Yu's surprise, both the leaders of the new party and the old party highly approved of Zhang Chun's summary.

Moreover, seeing that Zhao Yu was not concerned about exposing Emperor Shenzong's mistakes and allowing newcomers to learn from them, they all stepped in and, with their exceptional experience and knowledge, supplemented and upgraded this learning material.

And so, the young people of the Zhao Song Dynasty collectively began to study knowledge about the Western Xia Dynasty...

……

That evening, Zhao Yu was walking in the Imperial Garden with Zhang Chun, and Zhang Chun took the opportunity to recommend talented people she admired to Zhao Yu.

Just then, Zhao Yu and Zhang Chun encountered Li Lin, Ye Shiyun, Ma Xiaojiao, and Yuan Qingcheng.

The four women glanced at Zhang Chun subtly, then bowed gracefully to Zhao Yu in unison: "Your Majesty, we, your humble servants, pay our respects."

Zhao Yu glanced at the four women, then at Zhang Chun, who had turned her head away.

Clearly, the conflict between the five women has not been resolved and they are currently in a cold war.

Sometimes, Zhao Yu was really speechless. The five of them were already over thirty years old in their previous life, and three years had passed in this life, yet they were still so childish.

After paying their respects to Zhao Yu, Li Lin, on behalf of the other three women, said, "We dare not delay Your Majesty's important business, so we will take our leave now."

It seems the four women intend to leave now and are not planning to take the initiative to resolve the matter.

Zhang Chun, on the other hand, raised her chin high, showing no intention of backing down first.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu didn't waste any words and directly called out to the four women: "Come with me, I have something to tell you."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chun surprisingly said, "Then I shall take my leave."

Zhao Yu glared at Zhang Chun: "You come with me too."

After speaking, Zhao Yu led the way to Zhang Chun's residence. Seeing this, the five women hesitated.

In the end, Zhang Chun thought, 'It's going to my house anyway, what am I afraid of?'

With this in mind, Zhang Chun was the first to follow Zhao Yu's footsteps.

Li Lin and the other three women really didn't want to go to Zhang Chun's place, but they didn't dare to disobey the imperial decree, so in the end they could only follow Zhao Yu to Zhang Chun's residence.

After Zhao Yu arrived, he went inside.

Zhang Chun followed closely behind Zhao Yu and went inside as well.

When it was Li Lin's, Ye Shiyun's, and Ma Xiaojiao's turn, they hesitated only slightly before following them inside.

Finally, it was Yuan Qingcheng's turn. She paused to look at the palace she hadn't visited in a while, sighed, and then stepped inside.

Li Shishi diligently helped Zhao Yu lift the blue cloth curtain and then the bamboo blind. Zhao Yu turned into the middle door and saw a bowl of mandarin duck lanterns hanging there. Below, on a rhinoceros-hide incense table, was an ancient bronze incense burner, from which incense was gently wafting. On the two walls hung four landscape paintings by famous people, and below them were two rhinoceros-hide armchairs.

Zhao Yu sat down at the head of the table.

Zhang Chun wanted to sit down next to Zhao Yu.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Yu didn't even lift his eyelids before saying, "Stand."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chun could only obediently stand in front of Zhao Yu.

After Li Lin and the other three women entered, they all consciously stood in a row next to Zhang Chun.

Liu Mingda was always able to read Zhao Yu's mind, and upon seeing this scene, she immediately summoned all the servants out.

At this point, Zhao Yu said, "Why do you still harbor resentment towards each other?"

None of the five women spoke, and they all seemed quite resolute in their attitudes.

Zhao Yu knew that with him present, the five women couldn't say certain things, so he said, "I'll give you a cup of tea's time. If you still can't reach an agreement, I'll help you."

After saying this, Zhao Yu waved his hand, telling them to find a place to talk on their own.

The five women tacitly arrived at Zhang Chun's secret room. Four of them found their usual seats and sat down, while Zhang Chun, as usual, sat on the bed.

The scene was quiet, and no one made a move to speak first.

Time passed bit by bit.

Finally, Ma Xiaojiao couldn't hold back any longer and said, "A cup of tea's time isn't much. Once the officials get involved, our secrets won't be easy to keep."

"If we can't hide it, then we won't hide it. I'm actually quite curious what kind of shocked expression Zhao Yu will have when he finds out we're time travelers?" Ye Shiyun said.

“If it’s just shock, that’s fine. What I’m afraid of is that Zhao Yu will think we’re possessed by ghosts and have Master Song exorcise us, or he’ll think we’re monsters and lock us up in some temple or Taoist monastery,” Yuan Qingcheng said.

“This… Zhao Yu wouldn’t do that, would he? Could he really bear to abandon us?” Ma Xiaojiao said.

“I’m not afraid of bad things happening, I’m afraid of bad people. Don’t forget the witchcraft case. This is, after all, a feudal society. It’s normal for those natives to have backward ideas. Hmm… Zhao Yu is slightly stronger, but we can’t overestimate him. After all, this is related to the freedom and happiness of the five of us,” Yuan Qingcheng said.

Ye Shiyun and Ma Xiaojiao nodded, indicating their agreement with what Yuan Qingcheng said.

At this moment, Li Lin looked at Zhang Chun and asked, "Don't you have anything to say?"

Zhang Chun said indifferently, "What do I have to say? It's not like I fired the four of you. It's because you didn't want to hang out with me, okay? Does it matter what I say?"

Ma Xiaojiao said, "Of course it's important. As long as you promise to give up being empress and empress dowager, we will forgive you."

Zhang Chun scoffed: "Why should I ask for your forgiveness?"

"You!" Ye Shiyun said angrily, "Fine, then let's break up completely!"

Zhang Chun showed no sign of backing down, and she provocatively said, "Ha, what a joke! Aren't we now completely breaking ties?"

Li Lin stopped Zhang Chun and Ye Shiyun from stirring things up, and instead said calmly, "You can leave us, and we can leave you. The problem now is that Zhao Yu is going to interfere in our affairs. He is the emperor, and he wants us to reconcile. Do you dare to refuse?"

"I……"

Zhang Chun wanted to say, "What wouldn't I dare to do?"

But once the words were on the tip of her tongue, Zhang Chun couldn't bring herself to say them.

Seeing this, Li Lin calmly said, "You dare not disobey Zhao Yu, and neither do we. The key is that we have secrets that Zhao Yu cannot know, and we cannot let Zhao Yu interfere in our affairs. More importantly, with us around, you, who already had no chance, will never become Empress, let alone Empress Dowager. So, you might as well face reality, give up these unrealistic fantasies, and let's continue to be friends?"

As soon as Li Lin finished speaking, Ye Shiyun, Ma Xiaojiao, and Yuan Qingcheng all looked at Zhang Chun, waiting for her decision.

Zhang Chun looked at the four women one by one and said slowly, "Even if I said I was willing to give up, would you believe me?"

"This……"

To be honest, the four women didn't really trust Zhang Chun, who rarely spoke the truth.

Zhang Chun sneered: "See, is the problem with me? It's because you don't trust me. If you trusted me, we would have put these things on the table and talked things out openly and honestly. Would it have come to this?"

The four women were speechless.

After a long while, Ye Shiyun finally said, "Hmph! You're blaming us now? If you hadn't been crying wolf all the time, would we have believed you?"

Zhang Chun was speechless.

The two sides seem to have reached a stalemate again.

After waiting a while, just as Li Lin was about to say, "Why don't you swear an oath and we'll move on from this matter?", Zhao Yu suddenly pushed open the door to Zhang Chun's secret room.

Upon seeing that Zhang Chun and the four women were still clearly separated, Zhao Yu laughed and said, "Since you can't untie this knot, then I'll use my method to untie it."

After speaking, Zhao Yu turned and closed the door, thinking to himself, 'I've been waiting for this day for a long time…'

……

(End of this chapter)