The prince is more stable

Chapter 437 Post-war review
It has to be said that Zhao Hao, having lived half his life, understands yin and yang.

Giving gifts to the prime ministers and envoys of the Council of State and the Privy Council, whether sincere or insincere, is ultimately a matter of courtesy. Others will simply accept them with pleasure, and both sides will say a few nice words to each other.

But when Zhao Hao gave Zhao Ji a gift, although the nice words remained unchanged, it was extremely heartbreaking and full of sarcasm.

What is the meaning of giving gifts to Zhao Ji?

It's a mockery.

You see, my son won such a great victory in Zhending Prefecture, an unprecedented victory since the founding of the Song Dynasty. He annihilated nearly 50,000 Liao troops and changed the offensive and defensive pattern of the Song and Liao dynasties for a hundred years in one battle.

Look at you again, a waste who only knows how to practice calligraphy, painting and playing with stones. Aren’t you ashamed?
Remember to maintain this useless state in the future. Love you.

Not only that, there was another meaning behind Zhao Hao's gift to Zhao Ji.

I'm watching you all the time, so you'd better not do anything tricky under my nose.

As for how Zhao Ji would react after receiving Zhao Hao's gift, Zhao Hao said it didn't matter.

Although we cannot get rid of Zhao Ji for the time being, we can still make him feel disgusted.

At dusk, a luxurious carriage from the palace stopped quietly outside the gate of the Prince of Chu's Mansion. Zheng Chunhe, dressed in court robes and with a warm smile, walked into the Prince of Chu's Mansion with a respectful attitude. He respectfully invited Prince of Chu Zhao Hao to get on the carriage and go into the palace for a banquet.

Zhao Hao also wore formal court robes and a double-winged official hat. He walked into the Daqing Hall of Yanfu Palace with a solemn face. After entering the palace, he met countless familiar or unfamiliar officials. Zhao Hao greeted the officials with a smile, and his attitude was neither humble nor arrogant, but humble and polite.

Faced with the envy and congratulations of the court officials, Zhao Hao just smiled indifferently and humbly said that my son's small military achievements were all achieved under the instructions of the emperor. My son was just an executor and did not dare to take credit for it.

Tonight's palace banquet is one of the few highlights in Zhao Hao's life, and it is all thanks to his son.

The more important the moment, the more tired Zhao Hao felt. As a well-known old playboy in Bianjing, Zhao Hao behaved extremely humble and courteous tonight. He did not dare to show any expression of arrogance, otherwise he would end up in tragedy.

As the sun set in the west, palace lanterns were hung high in the Daqing Hall of Yanfu Palace. Under the colorful glazed lanterns, Zhao Hao and Zhang Dun politely gave way to each other, then walked into the hall side by side.

After the great victory in Zhending Prefecture, a banquet to celebrate the victory of Zhao Xiaoqian and the Longwei Camp has begun in the distant Bianjing.

…………

Zhending Prefecture, the headquarters of the Longwei Camp.

After the great victory, it took two days to deal with the aftermath, including receiving Liao prisoners, counting the captured spoils, and burying the Song soldiers who died in the battle.

Zhao Xiaoqian was busy for two days and was almost exhausted.

On the border between Song and Liao, Zhao Xiaoqian personally selected a piece of land as a cemetery for the soldiers who died in battle, and summoned hundreds of stonemasons from Zhending City to erect an extremely large stone tablet outside the cemetery for the dead.

The stone tablet is engraved with details of the cause, process and result of the battle, while the north side of the stone tablet is densely filled with the names of the Song army soldiers who died in the battle for future generations to commemorate them.

On the day the stone tablet was erected, Zhao Xiaoqian personally led all the generals and ordinary soldiers in the army to line up in front of the stone tablet in the cemetery. A group of monks and Taoists set up an altar in front of the stone tablet and performed rituals to pray for the soul of the hero. Amid the chanting of mantras and Buddhist scriptures, Zhao Xiaoqian took the lead in kneeling on both knees and offering burning incense.

The officers and soldiers of the Dragon Guard Camp and the Wing Army were all moved and shocked, and they all knelt down.

The simple ceremony inadvertently made the soldiers feel respected. For a moment, the soldiers even envied their comrades who died in the battle. For a poor and rough soldier in the army, it was worth dying for him to receive the kneeling worship of the current duke and all the generals in the army.

After kneeling and paying tribute, Zhao Xiaoqian did not say any nonsense, but ordered the entire army to return to the camp and reorganize their armaments.

The soldiers suppressed their excitement and returned to the camp silently, but the scene of Duke Zhao paying tribute to the fallen heroes today was deeply engraved in everyone's mind.

An inexplicable emotion spread in the hearts of the soldiers. They suddenly felt that the purpose of joining the army and fighting in wars did not necessarily have to be for money. Perhaps they could also pursue other things.

Most of the soldiers were illiterate and did not understand the meaning of "sacrifice one's life for righteousness", but an indescribable and ignorant feeling quietly sprouted in their hearts.

Perhaps even Zhao Xiaoqian himself did not expect that it was just an ordinary ceremony to commemorate the heroic spirits, but it once again brought the soldiers of the three armies back to their hearts.

The main camp of the Longwei Camp was newly built. After annihilating the Liao army, given Zhao Xiaoqian's character, he would certainly not be so honest and retreat back to the national border. I won the battle, and the occupied land belongs to me. Why should I retreat?

The location of the camp was fifty miles northeast of the original border.

Zhao Xiaoqian certainly had a purpose in choosing to set up camp here.

This place is not only an open plain, suitable for military offense and defense, but also suitable for firearms to play the greatest role. It is also closer to the Feihu Bingmasi of the Liao Dynasty.

If the Liao Kingdom makes another military movement, Zhao Xiaoqian’s first target will be the Feihu Military Division.

The so-called "change of offense and defense" between the two countries is not just a casual verbal statement, but is actually reflected in the change of the offensive and defensive situation of the military.

Under the instruction of Zhao Xiaoqian, the main camp of the Longwei Camp was set up in the territory of Liao State, and the troops were pointed directly at the Feihu Bingmasi, ready to attack at any time. This is the true "changing the offense and defense."

Throughout history, the most harmful thing has actually been the misinterpreted Confucianism and Legalism. The Confucian and Legalist advocacy of "harmony is the most precious" has a prerequisite: grudges and hatreds have been resolved. In other words, if you provoke me and I avenge you, neither of us gains advantage, and then we can sit down and talk about "peace."

If you provoke me, and I swallow my anger and dare not retaliate, and even talk to you about "peace" with a smile, that is not called "peace is the most precious", that is called cowardice, a wuss, and a turtle.

Zhao Xiaoqian didn't talk about these things. He believed in the law of the jungle between countries.

I am stronger than you, so I deserve to take advantage of you.

I am weaker than you, so I will endure it for now, practicing and improving myself silently until the day I become stronger than you. Then I will slap you in the face with my palm, and finally pull down my pants and take a dump on your ancestors' graves.

The principle of the survival of the fittest remains the mainstream melody of the world even thousands of years later.

This time the Song army defeated the Liao army, so it was only natural for Zhao Xiaoqian to decide to set up camp on the territory of the Liao Kingdom.

It should be the same in the future. Every victory will bring one step forward.

The commander's tent of the Dragon Guard Camp.

Zhao Xiaoqian beat the drum to gather the generals. After three drum beats, all the generals were present, including the two commanders of the wing army, Shao Jing and Feng Sheng.

This gathering of the generals is very important, as it is a post-war summary and review.

In this battle, a total of 10,000 soldiers from the Longwei Camp and the Xiang Army were killed. Perhaps this was nothing compared to the casualties of the Liao Army, but Zhao Xiaoqian still felt that the number was exaggerated and unacceptable.

Why did they suffer such heavy casualties when they had such advanced firearms? As the commander-in-chief of an army, this is something that must be summarized and improved.

Inside the general's tent, Zhang Rong and Zhe Keshi first recounted the entire course of the battle in detail, explaining all the details clearly. They also summarized the reasons why the soldiers suffered such heavy casualties.

The reason is that although firearms are powerful, if the number of enemies and our forces is greatly disparate, they will be powerless.

For example, during the Liao army's attack, Yelu Chun first mobilized 10,000 cavalry to charge, but was easily defeated by Zhang Rong and Zhe Keshi's troops. However, the sharp-eyed Yelu Chun also saw the shortcomings of the Song army's firearms, so he ordered the entire army to attack for the second time.

With 30,000 Liao troops charging at the same time, the Dragon Guard Battalion with only 10,000 soldiers was unable to cope. When the enemy rushed into the range, they could not defeat them all, and could only watch helplessly as the surviving enemy troops tore through their own defense line.

The process of loading and reloading flintlock rifles took too long and was too complicated. Even though the line shooting was temporarily changed to a four-stage method, it still could not stop the enemy force that was three times its size.

Zhao Xiaoqian took note of this with a serious expression. This was indeed a shortcoming of the flintlock rifle.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to solve the problem at the moment. After all, it is ancient times when industry is basically in a primitive state. Even if Zhao Xiaoqian understands the principle of bolt-action rifles, he has no way to build machine tools for mass production. If it is made by hand, it will not only be rough, but also have great hidden dangers, and it will hurt yourself instead of the enemy.

The reasons have been summarized, but the solution is not easy.

The flintlock is a primitive form of firearm. If it is to be upgraded further, whether it is a conical ejection bullet or a firing pin to ignite the primer, it requires relatively mature industrial machine tools to succeed. It is difficult to rely on blacksmiths to make it by hand.

As for manufacturing machine tools...

I'm sorry, Zhao Xiaoqian was not a science and engineering talent in his previous life. After entering society and working, he basically forgot all the knowledge he learned in school. He simply couldn't make anything too complicated.

Since the flintlock rifle cannot be upgraded, we can only create another firearm suitable for close combat.

Zhao Xiaoqian kept this in mind and then looked at Shao Jing and Feng Sheng.

"What were you two thinking? I asked you to lure the enemy, and you lured the entire Liao army here. Do you think you've exceeded your expectations? I'll give you each a big red flower to hang on your chest."

Shao Jing said with a bitter face: "My Lord, please allow me to explain..."

Zhao Xiaoqian smiled and said, "Did you see that three-meter-tall flagpole standing outside the commander's tent?"

Shao Jing and Feng Sheng nodded inexplicably: "I saw it."

"If you two can't explain yourself today, you'll be hung from that flagpole later, your bare bottoms waving in the wind. The entire army will be able to see exactly whether you have internal or external hemorrhoids."

Shao Jing and the other man felt their scalps tingling and their whole bodies freezing cold.

"Please allow me to report this, Lord. I was ordered to lead 5,000 troops and lay in ambush in a forest ten miles west of the Liao army camp. Later, for some unknown reason, I inexplicably attracted the Liao army to come out in full force. But I swear, it was not us who initiated the attack!"

"Did Yelu Chun take the wrong medicine? He came out in full force just for your five thousand troops?" Zhao Xiaoqian asked dissatisfiedly.

Shao Jing sighed, "I also think Yelu Chun has taken the wrong medicine. No one knows what he's thinking. We are only 5,000 soldiers, with incomplete armor and weapons, and yet 40,000 Liao soldiers came out of the camp to hunt us down. I'm a little flattered. We... don't deserve it!"

Zhao Xiaoqian's face darkened a little: "Isn't your self-deprecating humility misplaced?"

(End of this chapter)