I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 26: Palace Head Tong Guan
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Tong Guan was a man of sturdy build, with a slender jaw and a dark complexion. His eyes were piercing, a glint of brilliance radiating a sharpness. Surprisingly, he had a hint of beard at the corners of his mouth, completely lacking the often feminine demeanor of eunuchs.

This unique appearance made Tong Guan stand out among ordinary eunuchs, and made Zhao Ya couldn't help but think:
"The fact that you were able to stir up such a great storm in history is probably related to your qualities that transcend the image of an ordinary eunuch, your temperament and aura that are different from ordinary eunuchs, right?"

While Zhao Ya was looking at Tong Guan, Tong Guan was also looking at Zhao Ya subtly.

To be honest, Tong Guan was actually very hesitant about whether to surrender to Zhao Ya, the idle prince.

Yes.

Because of Li Xian's involvement, Tong Guan has been very unsuccessful in recent years.

But Tong Guan did not give up on himself because of this. He longed for the days when he fought in the northwest every moment, missed the golden weapons and iron horses, and hoped to gain glory by military merits, so that his life would not be in vain.

That's right.

Tong Guan was a very ambitious person.

Can Zhao Ya, the idle prince, give him the stage he wants?
Tong Guan was deeply skeptical about this.

But Huang Jingchen was Tong Guan's best friend.

Tong Guan knew very well that Huang Jingchen was loyal by nature and would not harm his friends. Since he wanted to introduce him to Zhao Ya, he must have felt that Huang Jingchen could achieve something if he joined Zhao Ya.

Moreover, Tong Guan found out what happened in Funing Palace that day and that Zhao Ya was planning to marry two maids of Empress Dowager Xiang as princesses, and he felt that Zhao Ya was very unusual.

So Tong Guan came to try his luck.

At this moment, the two looked at each other in silence, and the atmosphere was a little solemn.

Soon, Zhao Ya was the first to break the silence. "Li Xian followed Wang Shao in opening up the border region of Xihe and achieved great military success. You served under him, so I imagine you're well-informed about matters in the northwest. The border is currently in turmoil, and the Dangxiang are ambitious, greedy, and cunning. This is a time to utilize personnel. You will train with me for a few days as a personal guard. If the opportunity arises in the future, I will secure a chance for you to establish your reputation at the border."

Historically, with the outstanding military achievements that Tong Guan had made in the previous decades, he could have simply rest on his laurels and slept soundly until his death.

To be honest, if Tong Guan, who was already in his sixties at the time, did not want to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun for the Zhao Song Dynasty and make an unprecedented contribution, there was no need for him to instigate Zhao Ji to ally with Jin to destroy Liao and recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

If Tong Guan had not taken that wrong step, even if his reputation was not as good as that of famous Northern Song generals such as Di Qing, Wang Shao, and Zhang Qie, it would definitely not be inferior to that of his adoptive father Li Xian.

It’s a pity that Tong Guan wanted to achieve greater things.

During the Song Dynasty, no achievement could compare with the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

If Tong Guan really helped the Zhao Song Dynasty to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, people like Di Qing, Wang Shao, and Zhang Yu would have to be relegated to the back of the list.

However, Tong Guan misjudged the situation at the time and overestimated the political, military and economic strength of the Zhao Song Dynasty, which had been torn apart by their monarch and ministers.

This is how Tong Guan was labeled one of the six thieves, and was nailed to the shame pole of history, from which he could never get down.

How could Zhao Ya, who was very familiar with the history of the Song Dynasty, not know Tong Guan's ambitions and understand what Tong Guan really wanted?
On the other hand, Zhao Ya was an idle prince and could not participate in the politics of the Zhao Song Dynasty, but if he sincerely wanted to recommend a few people, wouldn’t it be easy?
After all, no matter what, Zhao Ya was a first-class royal relative of the Zhao Song Dynasty and someone who could have a say with the emperor and the empress dowager.

Therefore, with just a few words, Zhao Ya dispelled Tong Guan's hesitation and made Tong Guan say willingly: "I obey your command!"

There were no retainers in Prince Shen's mansion, but there were more than twenty guards.

Letting Tong Guan train these twenty or so guards is really a waste of his talent.

However, Tong Guan knew very well that this was just a temporary position assigned to him by Zhao Ya. As long as he could get Zhao Ya's approval, the opportunity he wanted might come.

Over the past few days, Huang Jingchen, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan and Tong Guan have introduced nearly a hundred talents to Zhao Ya, some of whom are eunuchs, some are junior eunuchs, and some are their relatives and friends. Among them are some real talents.

For example, Tong Guan introduced Wang Bing, a famous general of the Northern Song Dynasty who served as a vanguard in the battle to quell the Fang La uprising and led the Battle of Taiyuan, one of the five famous defense battles during the two Song Dynasties, to Zhao Ya as a retainer.

Normal people like Wang Bing are easy to deal with. As long as they don't go too far, Zhao Ya can recruit as many as he wants. But eunuchs and eunuchs are more troublesome.

Because there is a limit to how many people the prince can use.

but it does not matter.

Zhao Ya first selected some eunuchs and eunuchs recommended by Huang Jingchen and others to stay in Prince Shen's mansion for use.

Zhao Ya promised to give the remaining eunuchs and eunuchs an extra salary every month, let them return to their original positions, and gather information for him, and said that as long as they made meritorious contributions, he would not hesitate to reward them.

Zhao Ya didn't just talk about it, but readily paid each of them three months' salary in advance.

Although they could not join Prince Shen's Mansion immediately, the eunuchs and eunuchs introduced by Huang Jingchen and others were very happy to receive an extra salary!
They all expressed their loyalty to Zhao Ya and vowed to complete the task with all their heart and effort.

After Zhao Ya encouraged them for a few words, he let them go and collect the money.

Zhao Ya, who had worked at the grassroots level, knew very well that the best way to motivate grassroots employees was to give them money. Don't talk about other nonsense, such as ideals or serving the country. The only thing they cared about was whether you had enough money to spend recently and whether you could get enough necessities for survival.

In other words, don't talk about ideals, sentiments, visions, or missions with these eunuchs and eunuchs living at the bottom of society. It's all bullshit. First, solve their food and clothing problems, and they will naturally work for you and even be grateful.

Huang Jingchen and others who introduced these talents to Zhao Ya saw Zhao Ya's brilliance and realized that Zhao Ya was meticulous, good at managing his subordinates, and generous. He was a person worth following, so they respected Zhao Ya more and more.

However, such lavish spending caused Zhao Ya, who was not very wealthy to begin with, to quickly reduce his wealth.

Fortunately, Ma Xiaojiao gave Zhao Ya the method of making soap, otherwise Zhao Ya really didn’t know how to solve his financial problems for a while.

As a prince, Zhao Ya certainly could not develop soap himself, and he did not have the time.

Zhao Ya handed the matter over to Huang Jingchen, whom he trusted the most, and asked Huang Jingchen to personally recruit a group of reliable people to develop the soap and keep it confidential.

Seeing that Zhao Ya attached so much importance to soap, Huang Jingchen did not dare to neglect it. He went to the Military Equipment Bureau in person to recruit the best craftsmen.

At the beginning, after Song Shenzong ascended the throne, he was worried that the military equipment in Hebei would be unusable.

How to effectively supervise weapons production and achieve the goal of strengthening the military became a key issue in Wang Anshi's reform at that time.

Attaching importance to and improving the quality of weapons production is a key point in strengthening the military.

In order to eliminate the drawbacks of weapons manufacturing institutions, Wang Anshi set up the Military Equipment Supervisory Office.

After the establishment of the Military Equipment Supervisory Office, it not only lived up to Song Shenzong's expectations and significantly improved the quality of weapons, but also completely ended the phenomenon of no full-time officials in charge of weapons production in the Song Dynasty, leading the Song Dynasty's weapons production into a new stage.

After the establishment of the Military Equipment Inspectorate, great efforts were made to improve old weapons and continuously develop new weapons. Among them, the most famous of the improved weapons was the "Shenbi Bow".

This also enabled the Military Equipment Bureau to gather a large number of the most outstanding craftsmen in the world today.

Huang Jingchen went directly to the Military Equipment Inspectorate to recruit the best talents, and developed the product according to the very detailed method that Ma Xiaojiao had written. Isn't it easy to make a small soap?
That day, just as Huang Jingchen presented Zhao Ya with a sample of soap and was waiting for Zhao Ya to personally test its effectiveness, Liang Shicheng arrived with a report: "Prince Duan has sent Gao Qiu, the servant from his palace, to invite Your Highness to come over and play Cuju tomorrow..."

……

(End of this chapter)