I will never be Renzong

Chapter 119 Defense of the Song Dynasty
The next day, above the court, Zhao Zhen spoke out about sending troops to take back the Taiwan government. Some were in favor of it, and some were against it. It has not yet been prototyped by Xixia. Although it emphasizes civility over martial arts, the arrogance of the wicked man is still there.

How dare you stroke a tiger's beard in such a tiny place, is it because you are impatient to live.

Of course, the opposition led by Cao Yong did not give in at all. Seeing that a confrontation was inevitable, Zhao Zhen immediately settled on the dragon chair and sent troops to recover Taiwan, but then the officials had a dispute over who should be the commander.

Zhao Zhen proposed Di Qing, but in the eyes of the court ministers, Di Qingnian was under [-] years old, and he was a soldier who had never been on the battlefield. He is a general, and this kind of battle is actually to gain credit. The civil servants are naturally eager to try, and they recommend the candidates in their hearts.

The power of civil officials in the Song Dynasty was a very large group. Even though Zhao Zhen now has the military power, sometimes he can't do anything with the civil officials. After all, governance of the world is still inseparable from them.

Therefore, Zhao Zhen finally appointed Di Qing and Yang Wenguang as deputy commanders to lead more than [-] soldiers and horses to recover Taiwan. Youyou's mouth.

In the third year of Tiansheng, on March [-]th, Zhao Zhen issued an edict, saying: "The barbarians in Taiwan, who refused to accept their education, killed my soldiers and destroyed my city. Now I send the king's division to crusade. I swear: Anyone who offends the great power of the Song Dynasty will be killed even if he is far away." punish!"

The soldiers and horses were not moved, and the food and grass went first. Although it was only a small battle and only more than [-] troops were dispatched, because it was an expedition and crossed the sea, Zhao Zhen also attached great importance to it. What Zhen expected was that Di Qing chose a battalion of cavalry from the Qinglong Army, while Yang Wenguang chose a battalion of light infantry.

Di Qing led the cavalry to set off first with enough rations, and Yang Wenguang set off later with money and grain. Of course, he only brought rations. After all, it was easy to feed six thousand soldiers with the grain stored on Fujian Road.

In the Chongzheng Hall, Zhao Zhen was thinking about how to rationally optimize the national defense of the Song Dynasty.

Inheriting the Tang system in the early Song Dynasty, the country was divided into 13 roads—Henan Road, Guanxi Road, Hebei Road, Hedong Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Longyou Road, Shannan East Road, Shannan West Road, and Jiannan East Road , Jiannan West Road and Lingnan Road.

In the fourth year of Chunhua (993), it was changed to two capitals and ten roads - Tokyo, Xijing, Henan Road, Guanxi Road, Hebei Road, Hedong Road, Huainan Road, Jiannan Road (Jiannan East and West Roads merged), Jiangnan Road East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Guangnan Road (formerly Lingnan Road) and Liangzhe Road (newly added).

In the 5th year of Chunhua (994), the road was officially abolished and changed to a road system.

In the third year of Zhidao (997), the world was initially set as 15 roads—Jingxi Road, Jingdong Road, Hebei Road, Hedong Road, Shaanxi Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan Road, Liangzhe Road, Fujian Road, Jingnan South Road, Jinghu North Road, Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road, Xichuan Road and Xia Road.

In the fourth year of Xianping (1001), Xichuan Road was divided into Lizhou and Yizhou [-]nd Roads, and Fenxia West Road was divided into Kuizhou and Zizhou [-]nd Roads, namely Chuanshan [-]th Road.

In the fourth year of Tianxi (1020), Jiangnan Road was divided into Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road.

That is to say, in the third year of Tiansheng, there were 18 roads in the Song Dynasty.

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Song Taizu and Song Taizong had always held the spirit of pioneering and enterprising, so they had been planning to take back the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun and extend the territory of the Great Song Dynasty to the Great Wall. , Internal conflicts broke out and uprisings were frequent. Therefore, the Song Dynasty changed its national defense strategy and signed the Tanyuan Alliance with the Liao Kingdom.

But even so, the Song Dynasty still had heavy troops in the north. The 80 forbidden troops in the Song Dynasty excluded the previously reorganized 50 and the 20 forbidden troops stationed on Shaanxi Road and Hebei Road to guard against the Yellow River. The remaining 3 forbidden troops were stationed near the Yangtze River. There are less than 15 soldiers in the south, and the remaining [-] soldiers are all stationed in the border towns of Xixia and Liao.

In fact, the Song Dynasty did not strictly enforce the internal defense. The so-called internal defense refers to the defense of Kaifeng. After all, there were more than [-] imperial troops stationed on Jingxi Road.

In Zhao Zhen's eyes, the Liao Kingdom needs to take precautions, but it should not station so many troops in the north, and he has promised the Liao envoy that the two sides will reduce each other's border defense troops. Of course, the premise is that the Liao Kingdom agrees to send those Thirty thousand war horses were sold to the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Zhen's plan is to station a total of 6 troops on Hebei Road and Hedong Road. After all, the Song Dynasty did not have the Great Wall defense line. If the Liao Kingdom suddenly tore up the covenant and there is no corresponding garrison in the north, it is likely that troops will come to Kaifeng in a few days.

The 3 troops stationed on Shaanxi Road are naturally to guard against Xixia.In addition, [-] troops were stationed on Guangnan West Road to guard against Jiaozhi Kingdom, and [-] troops were stationed on Chengdufu Road, Zizhou Road, and Lizhou Road each to guard against Dali Kingdom and Tubo tribes.

These seven roads plus Jingxi Road have a total of 8 roads, and the remaining 10 roads, each with two battalions of troops, is 6 people. In this way, the total number of troops stationed in national defense is 21 people. The imperial guards are Zhao Zhen There are only 9 troops that are going to be stationed in various roads. Zhao Zhen plans to send the [-] imperial guards to Hebei, Hedong, and Shaanxi after reaching a further trade agreement with the Liao Kingdom.

From the very beginning, Zhao Zhen did not plan to abolish the forbidden army on a large scale, but his ultimate goal was to reduce the Xiang army.

The Xiangjun system of the Song Dynasty was the first to select the elite from the army to form the Forbidden Army, which was directly under the central government and weakened the local military power. This system solved the problem of warlord separatism since the Tang Dynasty. In order to solve the problem of peasant uprising.

But most of the Xiang armies have no combat effectiveness. When the country is in war, they are just food and grass transportation personnel. When the country is not in war, they are equivalent to corvee workers. It is equivalent to a civilian husband hired by the imperial court for a long time.

In the history of the various peasant uprisings in the Song Dynasty, the local Xiang army failed to take the initiative to send troops to suppress them. Basically, the imperial court sent a large army to suppress them. It can be said that the Xiang army may not even be able to beat the mountain bandits. This shows that Under the Song Dynasty's policy of guarding the inside and emptiness from the outside, how chaotic the law and order should be.

Of course, there are Xiang armies with good combat capabilities, but these are very few, and they are all near the border, such as the Zhejia Army.

In addition to the Xiang army, there are also Fan soldiers. The Fan soldiers are composed of ethnic minorities who surrendered to the Song Dynasty. In [-] years, reducing the Xiang army and completing all-round national defense deployment are top priorities.

(End of this chapter)