In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

In April of the second year of Baoyuan, the news of Li Yuanhao's defeat had spread all over the world.

The Liao Kingdom was speechless.

They also wanted to use Li Yuanhao's invasion to threaten and blackmail the Song Kingdom and increase the annual tribute from the Song Kingdom.

As a result, Li Yuanhao was so weak that he thought he had a strong army and took the initiative to attack the Song territory, and then was beaten and fled. He was really a brother among brothers.

The Song Kingdom replied to the Liao Kingdom, and the implicit irony in it also made Liao Xingzong Yelu Zongzhen very unhappy, but the strength shown by the Song army also made the Liao Kingdom wary, so it could only be left unresolved.

After helping Li Yuanhao stabilize the situation and formulating a new strategic plan, Zhang Yuan was ready to go in March and set off towards the Liao Kingdom.

It's just that the distance between the two sides is too far.

Where is the capital of the Liao Kingdom?

In the Balin Zuoqi County of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia in the future.

The capital of Western Xia is in Yinchuan City, Ningxia.

The two places are more than 1,600 kilometers apart.

In addition, Zhang Yuan's envoys had to bring gifts and had many carriages and horses, so they moved slowly and it was estimated that it would take more than a month to arrive.

However, Yelu Zongzhen had already learned about the news that Xixia had sent an envoy. He was also very interested in why Xixia raised more than 100,000 troops but was defeated so quickly in the northwest of Song.

Was it that Song became stronger, or was Xixia still as weak as before?

Just when Li Yuanhao was making alliances and begging for mercy from the Song Dynasty, he secretly colluded with the Liao Kingdom and prepared to attack the Song Dynasty together with the Liao Kingdom.

In April, Zhao Jun inspected Sichuan and went north to Shaanxi.

At this time, more than a month had passed since the Song-Xia War. Zhao Jun met Pang Ji in Chang'an, inspected the agricultural construction in Guanzhong, and affirmed his diligent governance in the rear.

The prototype of Pang Taishi in "Young Justice Bao" was obviously somewhat stigmatized. In fact, this person was not only outstanding in ability, but also honest and upright in his official duties.

After Fan Zhongyan was transferred back to the capital, Pang Ji, as his successor, continued to use Di Qing, repaired and governed the border, made the border defense strong, and made Li Yuanhao dare not continue to attack, which eventually led to the Qingli Peace Talks.

To some extent, this person is indeed an excellent governance talent.

Zhao Jun saw that he had been in office for two years in Guanzhong, and he managed the huge Guanzhong Plain in an orderly manner, repaired water conservancy facilities everywhere, restored agriculture that had been over-cultivated in the Tang Dynasty, and even planted trees on both sides of the Yellow River and Weishui River.

Although this was a decree implemented by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, in fact, planting trees on both sides of the Yellow River and Weishui River had long been neglected by local officials. He was able to have this responsibility, obviously for long-term considerations.

Seeing that Guanzhong today is not as prosperous as the historical records of the Tang Dynasty, it is already considered a stable region and agricultural production has been restored, which also makes Zhao Jun feel very satisfied.

After praising Pang Ji's ability, Zhao Jun went north to Yanzhou again.

Yan'an Prefecture was also a place he had always wanted to visit. He wanted to see the cave dwellings here and the traces left before the great men of later generations came.

But unfortunately, he was disappointed.

When he arrived in Yanzhou, he realized that this place was actually a valley. Looking around, he was surrounded by mountains, all of which were hills and slopes that were tens of meters high and less than one or two hundred meters at most.

Although it was the end of April and the mountains were green, he could still vaguely see the desolation of the loess plateau, as well as the vastness and silence.

Yanzhou City is located at the foot of the mountain. To the west of the city, the Yan River flows endlessly. In the small valley to the east, there is a small city covering an area of ​​four or five square kilometers.

Zhao Jun entered Yanzhou City under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan. The two exchanged greetings and entered the city.

Then, under the introduction of Lao Fan, he met Liu Ping, Ren Fu, Shi Yuansun, Wang Zhongbao, Xu Huaide, Zhang Kang and others.

After that, he was welcomed.

As the saying goes, if you win, you smile, but if you lose, you say MMP.

Because of the victory, everyone at the dinner table was talking and laughing.

At the dinner table, Zhao Jun pointed out that the Xixia people were ambitious and Li Yuanhao was stubborn. Even if they won a great victory in this battle, they should not be careless. They should still be well prepared and never underestimate the enemy.

He emphasized that offense is the best defense. If there is a chance to send troops to the frontier and severely damage Xixia, they must not miss the opportunity to beat the fallen dog.

As the saying goes, "It is better to pursue the enemy with the remaining courage, and not to learn from the tyrant for fame." The soldiers of the Song Dynasty should have the spirit of not fearing sacrifice and being brave to open up.

As long as they have the determination to not fear difficulties, dare to fight, and be able to fight hard battles, the court will not be stingy with food and wages.

Everyone was very happy when they heard the encouraging words.

In addition to praising the good literary talent of the prefect, they also praised the prefect for his foresight and for giving them such a constructive proposal.

Everyone was good to each other, flattering each other, eating to their heart's content, and drinking to their heart's content, and then they left happily.

In fact, everyone knows that Zhao Jun is just talking about formalities.

But the sentence at the end that the court will not be stingy with food and wages is a real benefit.

Moreover, Zhao Jun also made a promise that the court would reward the soldiers who made meritorious contributions in this battle.

In this era of recognizing money, nothing is more motivating than giving money.

Although Zhang Kang made many military achievements in history, he was repeatedly impeached and suppressed, and even imprisoned for a time. He was also criticized in his later years, and his official career was bumpy. He did not achieve success until his death.

The reason is that in order to reward his subordinates and motivate their fighting spirit, he tried to make money many times, such as using public funds to let his subordinates go to Chengdu to do business, and colluding with those merchants who entered China and France by falsely estimating salt permits to embezzle the assets of the court.

But what he did was for his soldiers. Later, the court found out that he had no intention of seeking personal gain, and all the money he earned was distributed to his generals.

Unfortunately, due to Zhang Kang's upright character, he offended his superiors Zheng Jian and Xia Song many times, and was retaliated by them. The censors of the Censorate impeached him for using public funds for business and framed him for seeking personal gain for themselves, which led to Zhang Kang being transferred away from the northwest.

So to some extent, Zhao Jun's promise to reward the army was more important than the promise to promote these generals.

With the food and wages in place, Yuan Hao was crushed.

They needed to pay money to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army.

Now Zhao Jun promised to reward.

Everyone was happy.

After pacifying the soldiers, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan finally had the opportunity to chat alone in the evening.

In the back court of the prefecture, you can see the towering hills when you look up, and the two people are walking in the backyard.

"I haven't seen you for more than two years. Old Fan, you have changed a lot."

Zhao Jun smiled.

"The northwest is a tough place."

Fan Zhongyan glanced at the white spots on Zhao Jun's temples and frowned, "Why are your hair white?"

"I do have some white hair. My father also had white hair at a young age, but it's not that serious. It's just genetic reasons. This time..."

Zhao Jun sighed, "I know from history books that the people of the Song Dynasty suffered, but I didn't expect it to be more miserable than I imagined. Have you ever seen a family where several brothers go out and who wears the only pants in the house?"

"I have."

Fan Zhongyan said expressionlessly, "I have seen as much as you."

"Okay, I'm showing off my skills in front of an expert."

Zhao Jun shrugged.

"How is it, what do you think?"

"I wrote a lot of things, I'll leave them for you to see when the time comes."

"Yeah."

Fan Zhongyan nodded, then said, "Yuan Hao wrote to me a few days ago, saying that he wanted to surrender."

"Do you believe it?"

Zhao Jun asked back.

"If he really wanted to surrender, he wouldn't just say it in the letter."

Fan Zhongyan is not stupid.

To surrender, you must also look like you are surrendering.

His father Li Deming was a role model. He not only often sent envoys with gifts to Bianliang, but also personally came to Yanzhou many times to communicate with the officials of the Song Dynasty at that time, to engage in mutual trade and discuss border security issues between the two countries.

It was because of this sincerity that Song Zhenzong was moved, so Song Zhenzong gave back many rewards and gave Li Deming official positions and titles, laying the foundation for the friendship between Song and Xia.

As a result, in the era of Li Yuanhao, he not only had an enemy relationship with the Song Dynasty, but also took the initiative to attack the Song Dynasty.

Now that he was defeated, he submitted a letter to surrender.

Isn't this a joke?

If he was really sincere, he should have sent gifts to Bianliang while personally coming to Yanzhou to apologize, which would be much better than pretending to submit two letters of surrender.

"If it's fake, he just wants to delay time, so guess what he wants to do?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"Do you still need to guess?"

Fan Zhongyan sneered: "You can tell with your toes that he went to the Liao Kingdom."

"Imitate my words, right?"

Zhao Jun rolled his eyes.

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said, "It's quite interesting."

"It's good that you know."

Zhao Jun said, "In fact, the Liao Kingdom did not go to war with the Song Kingdom in history, but the appearance of grenades will definitely make the Liao Kingdom feel threatened. If the Liao Kingdom cannot threaten the Song Dynasty with force, is it still the Liao Kingdom? So Liao Xingzong will probably really fight."

"The situation has changed, and there is no way."

"But we can't give them the opportunity to attack from both sides. Although grenades can change the situation on the battlefield, it is too disadvantageous for the Song Dynasty to be caught in a two-front war at the same time."

"What do you mean?"

Fan Zhongyan thought for a while, looked to the north and said, "First, cripple Xixia?"

"Yes."

Zhao Jun nodded: "Even if we can't destroy Xixia, at least we must ensure that Xixia has no ability to invade the Song Dynasty again. After dealing with Liao, we can slowly deal with Li Yuanhao."

"Destroy the country, forget it. If Xixia is destroyed, the Liao army will come directly from Xiazhou, which is not good for us."

Fan Zhongyan shook his head.

Although he also wanted to destroy Xixia, from the overall strategic point of view, it was not appropriate to go to war with Liao.

Song was worried about external troubles and internal contradictions were already very sharp. If it continued to fight with Liao, the finances would be tight and taxes would be levied, which would inevitably cause domestic turmoil and frequent uprisings.

If Xixia existed, the Liao army would not attack from Xixia. It was true that Li Yuanhao was hostile to Song, but he was also worried that Liao would use the excuse of attacking Guo and swallow him up by the way, so he would never allow Liao's army to enter Xia territory.

So what were the areas bordering Liao and Song at this time?

One was Hebei and the other was Shanxi.

The area north of Yanmen Pass in Shanxi was currently the territory of Liao people, and the two sides confronted each other in Yanmen Pass, Hequ County and other places.

The Liao army was in Shuozhou, and the Song army was in Daizhou and Lanzhou.

The two sides were basically separated by Luliang Mountain and Hengshan Mountain.

The Liao Kingdom almost never attacked the Song Dynasty from Shanxi, except that it was blocked by the Luliang Mountains in the west, the Hengshan Mountains in the middle, and the Taihang Mountains in the east, which were not conducive to cavalry attacks.

The most important thing was the Huoshan Army, Baode Army, Kelan Army, Ninghua Army, Jinning Army, Pingding Army and several other military towns, with more than 100,000 troops.

When it was difficult for the Liao cavalry to break through the mountains, the Song army had so many troops relying on favorable terrain to block, so it naturally could not pose any threat to Shanxi.

Therefore, the Liao Kingdom could only march from Hebei every time, where the terrain was flat and more suitable for cavalry to gallop.

But it would be different if Xixia was wiped out.

The Liao cavalry was able to attack the Loess Plateau from the Xiazhou grassland. Although the Loess Plateau also had mountains, they were all small hills and could not stop the cavalry's attack.

When the Song Kingdom destroys Xixia, it will usher in the Liao Kingdom's attack at the end of its heyday.

Even though the Liao Kingdom at this time was no longer as powerful as it was during the Liao Shengzong period, a skinny camel was bigger than a horse. At least in the hands of Liao Xingzong, there was still no problem in suppressing the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Song Dynasty from being under huge pressure from the Liao State when it needed to alleviate its internal conflicts first, it was better to keep Xixia first so that the Liao State could not attack the Song Dynasty from the northwest and northeast at the same time.

This is also in line with Zhao Jun's original strategy.

Not only did Xixia be crippled so that it was unable to threaten the northwest border of the Song Dynasty, but then it resisted the Liao attack with all its strength and drove the Liao back.

After the border was stabilized, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan could calmly carry out internal reforms, alleviate social conflicts, improve the national power of the Song Dynasty, and then start to reorganize their troops. They first destroyed Xixia and then dealt with the Liao Kingdom with all their strength, suppressing the Song Dynasty for more than a hundred people. The huge empire collapsed.

Hearing Fan Zhongyan's words, Zhao Jun nodded slightly and said: "This is best. As I said before, we must seek to take the initiative. If we are passive and beaten, there will be no end after all. Only by taking the initiative can we change the passive situation."

"I have already sent party members who are willing to surrender to the border. I am drawing a map of Xiazhou and investigating Yuan Hao's troop deployment. If nothing goes wrong, I will send people to take the initiative to attack in the second half of this year."

Fan Zhongyan said with a smile: "Di Qing is indeed a good young man. In the battle of Kaocheng City, he chased Li Yuanhao for more than a hundred miles, killed dozens of enemies with his own hands, and beheaded several enemy generals. But after the battle, he felt very dissatisfied. Ask the military blacksmith to make him a bronze mask."

"Bronze mask, why?"

Zhao Jun asked subconsciously, but then regretted it because he suddenly remembered that Di Qing had a reason to wear a mask.

really.

I heard Fan Zhongyan say: "Di Qing lacked majesty on the battlefield because of his handsome appearance. He led more than ten people to break through the enemy's formation of hundreds of people. The enemy not only refused to surrender, but also dared to fight back, which made him very angry. He said Only by wearing a mask can you show your dignity.”

"Then he really should wear it. I just remembered that he has worn that thing in history. He is too fair and handsome enough to seriously threaten my status as a handsome man."

Zhao Jun made a joke.

"You are so shameless. You are far worse in appearance than Di Qing. You are not as good as an official. At most, you are better than a bad old man like me."

Fan Zhongyan rolled his eyes.

"Hahahahaha."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

In the second half of this year, the Song Army will go out for the first time in history to attack Xixia.

Offense and defense have changed shape!

In fact, I really want to finish writing the next part, which is when Zhao Zhen discovered the little secret. This is actually the beginning of the mid-term climax, which is funny, unexpected, and the protagonist is about to promote reforms. But Naihe started to feel dizzy and weak again in the afternoon. I don’t know what happened. Anyway, my thinking was very poor.

I even secretly wrote the beginning of a new book recently, just one chapter. The beginning is very good and attractive. But I found that it didn’t take long after I finished writing the beginning to become mediocre. First, I usually spent a long time polishing the beginning. After it was put on the shelf, I had to write more than 8,000 words a day. I really didn’t have that much time to repair and polish it. There are so many typos. Second, it is really difficult to grasp the plot of this kind of long novel. Even if you write an outline, who can write it completely according to the outline?

I can only say that my writing skills are still insufficient, and I hope I can grow up, but the good news is that each book is better than the other, and the results are also better than the previous one.

But don’t worry, everyone, there is a beginning and an end. I just have some ideas for the new book. The main thing is to try my best to write the current one. The situation is a little better tonight. Tomorrow will be the plot that everyone likes to read.