Back to the Song Dynasty as a tyrant

But in fact, the people's livelihood in Gyeonggi Road has been improved unprecedentedly this year, and the society has never been more stable since Zhao Ji succeeded to the throne.

It is impossible for the detailed work of the Military Intelligence Department to bring back the real core secrets of Xixia and Jin Kingdom, but the key points are hidden in many fragmented details.

Zhang Jun continued: "I arranged for a group of merchants to inquire about intelligence in Huizhou on a regular basis in the name of trade. In recent years, Xixia has passed, especially in the Hengshan area, and the demand for food has been increasing day by day. Grain is smuggled to the Hengshan area."

Zhao Ning asked doubtfully, "What does this mean?"

"The sudden increase in food demand in Hengshan is due to the large-scale deployment of troops by the Xixia people here, or the increased mining of iron ore there, which requires more food supplies."

Zhao Ning fell into deep thought.

Xixia is a very special country. If you say that it occupies a very good geographical location, it is indeed biased.

Xixia is located in the northwest, with the Yellow River in the east, Yumen Pass in the west, Suguan in the south, and the desert in the north.

At first glance, it looks awesome, and even controls the Hexi Corridor.

But in fact, there are a large number of desert areas in the country, which have great restrictions on commerce and agriculture.

Not only that, the southeast of Xixia is the deadly rival Song Dynasty, and the northeast was once the deadly rival Daliao. Daliao has launched several wars against Xixia to destroy the country.

Now the Northeast has been replaced by the Kingdom of Jin, and the Kingdom of Jin continues to put pressure on Xixia.

As for the north of Xixia, it is the territory of the Mughals, and the northwest is the territory of the Uyghurs, and the heavy cavalry of the Uyghurs is also well-known.

The Xixia heavy cavalry iron harrier (yao) is said to be adapted from the heavy cavalry of the Uighurs.

In short, the country of Xixia is surrounded by powerful enemies on all sides.

If such a country wants to survive, it must not only have the spirit of Xiaoqiang, but also know how to kneel when it is time to kneel.

The biggest characteristic of Xixia is: when the national power is strong, they will attack you with extreme arrogance, and when the national power is weak, they will pretend to be dead and surrender.

The original land of Hengshan had already been seized by the Song Dynasty at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Xixia Kingdom would soon be destroyed.

Song Huizong died suddenly, and he had to join forces with the Jin Dynasty to defeat the Liao Dynasty, which led to the subsequent Song-Jin War.

At the beginning of the first year of Jingkang, Xixia took advantage of the gap between the Jin Kingdom's attack on Liao and the Song Dynasty's mobilization of elite western troops to support the eastward advance. The army went south and took back Hengshan, the barrier of the inevitable country.

Xixia was able to breathe.

And because of the changing international situation, in order to fight against Jin, Zhao Ning did not hesitate to put aside the past hatred and do big business with Xixia.

It has been more than two years since Songxia formed an alliance, and even the folks on Gyeonggi Road showed green and white salt, which shows that Xixia has benefited a lot from this Songxia alliance.

Xixia people, as long as they are strong, they will inevitably send troops to the south!

Alliance contract?

There is no difference between that thing and the Song-Jin Armistice Contract except for the shape of the characters. It is just a tacit understanding between the two sides.

Once the time comes, those contracts are too hard to wipe your ass.

Zhao Ning pondered for a while and said, "If I want to destroy Xixia, how many troops will I need?"

Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect Zhao Guanjia to speak so directly.

"Now is the fashion."

"What I'm asking is, how many troops do you need?"

Zhang Jun said: "If you want to destroy Xixia, you need to take Hengshan first. You need 20 troops, and you need 30 soldiers and civilians for logistics."

The total population of the Xixia Kingdom is about 230 million. Regardless of the small number of Xixia people, Xixia has always pursued that all people are soldiers. At its peak, it can quickly mobilize 50 new troops.

Moreover, there is Hengshan in the south of Xixia, which is high in the north and low in the south, easy to defend and difficult to attack, Helan Mountain in the east to defend the Liao and Jin Dynasties, and the desert in the north.

With such a terrain, as long as Xixia concentrates its forces in one place, even Song, Jin and Liao cannot take it.

Back then, when Li Yuanhao fought the Song Dynasty and the Daliao Dynasty, he concentrated his forces in one place to fight, and both Song and Liao were defeated and returned.

As for the strategy to seize Hengshan, it was decided in Fan Zhongyan's time.

Fan Zhongyan said this at the time: Yu Qi should train troops and select generals, and gradually return to Hengshan to break the arms of the bandits. In a few years, it can be expected to be pacified.

Hengshan produces grain, salt, and iron ore, and the terrain is high.

Hearing Zhang Jun report this number, even Zhao Ning's heart is sinking now.

Xixia is a hard bone, and it really needs a lot of troops, food and money to destroy it. What's more, if Song Xia really wants to destroy Xia, the Kingdom of Jin will definitely intervene.

This is the balanced deterrence of the three countries.

The future situation is much more difficult than imagined.

Zhao Ning said: "Do you think it is necessary to destroy Xia?"

Zhang Jun resolutely said: "If Your Majesty wants to resist Jin, Xixia must be destroyed!"

"I made a ten-year plan last year. The goal of the ten-year plan is to destroy Xixia. There are still nine years left, can it be destroyed?"

Zhang Jun fell silent.

Zhao Ning said: "I will provide enough logistical support, troops, money, and food. I will give you as much as you want. Will it be destroyed in nine years?"

Zhang Jun stood up, then knelt down and said, "I would like to do my best before I die!"

Zhao Ning helped him up. This task of exterminating Xia must be impossible to complete with Zhang Jun alone, and a lot of backup support is needed.

In the long run, if we want to provide substantial logistical support, we must resolve the shortcomings of internal affairs.

In the short term, if we want to destroy Xia, we still need to build a strong army.

The Western Army is not weak in combat, but there are many factions, doing their own thing, and the internal consumption is huge.

If you want to destroy Xixia within nine years, you must also solve the military and political issues.

"Xi Gong has been imprisoned in the prison. Over the past year, I have received memorials from many civil officials and generals of the Western Army. They all want to protect Xi Gong. What do you think of this matter?"

Zhang Jun said bluntly: "If the war between Song and Jin had not stopped, Xi Gong would not be able to kill him, but now that the war between Song and Jin has officially ceased, His Majesty has full power to deal with it."

"If I not only want to kill Xi Gong, but also Liu Guangshi, will everyone in Shaanxi be in chaos?"

"This is a brief period of peace among the three parties."

"I understand what you mean."

Both Xi Gong and Liu Guangshi made big mistakes in the third Song-Jin war.

However, due to the special nature of the Western Army, killing these two men during the critical period of the war will definitely have an impact on the frontier army, especially the Western Army.

To rectify the Western Army, start with killing these two men.

Chapter 313 The layout of the iron mine (second update)

"How about Wu Jie staying in the area of ​​Taiyuan Mansion for the time being to contain Taiyuan City?"

"feasible."

After chatting with Zhang Jun, it was already evening.

After a cold autumn rain fell, maple leaves fell in front of Wende Hall.

Autumn is a season that makes people feel soothed. Apart from the harvest, it seems to tell people that it is time to stop and rest, let everything fall first, and don't worry about continuing to grow.

No rush to grow means it's time to get rid of some residual impurities.

The sky slowly calmed down, like an elegant blue grinding, slowly melting away.

The maids sent some warming items to Wende Hall, and lit candles again.

Not long after, Song Shuyuan, the inner minister, arrived at Wende Hall.

Song Shuyuan was wearing a peach-colored silk gown, with a lily bun, two willow-leaf eyebrows, and a pair of almond eyes, looking beautiful and elegant.

She has a calm and capable demeanor about her.

"Officials."

"You came."

"From now on, the roster of all township supervisors includes the township supervisors under the prefectures and counties of Jingji Road and Huaixi Road."

There are 34 counties in Jingji Road, [-] counties in Huaixi, two armies and one prison.

A total of 265 supervisors and town officials were dispatched from the two routes.

Most are from the University of Tokyo, and went to Shinkankaku for a period of time.

Song Shuyuan said: "This year, Jingji Road collects the summer tax. The role of the township supervisor cannot be ignored. Among them, the three township supervisors in Weishi County paid off the tax at the end of June, faster than ever before."

After the Secretary of Agricultural Affairs vigorously promoted the new policy of equal land renting, what was collected was rent, but its essence was still tax.

However, the amount of expropriation per mu has been greatly reduced, and the pressure on the people has become so small for the first time.

The town supervisor also has a promotion channel. If the town supervisor does a good job, it is not the county magistrate, but the general judge.

The general judge was originally set up only by the state capital, but now each county also has a general judge.

Song Shuyuan continued: "The most important thing is that the supervisor of Jingji Road has re-measured the fertile land on Jingji Road. In the past household booklets, there are 130 acres of fertile land on Jingji Road. However, the latest survey and summary The number of fertile fields is 560 million mu, which is a full 430 million mu more.”

Zhao Ning said: "From this point of view, there are not a few famous households in the area."

"It's true that there are not a few of them. I'm wondering if there will be more fields in Huaixi?"

"Not only in Huaixi, but also in Hebei, Hedong, Jingdong, and even Shaanxi." Zhao Ning stood up and walked to the map. Shaanxi is next to a strategically important place. Now Shaanxi Sixth Road has 500 on its account [-] mu of land, but it must be more than that.

Surveying fields in ancient times was a very tedious and complicated job.

Now it seems that the supervisory officer system has surprisingly good effect on the new agricultural policy.

Although once any organization expands, management costs will rise rapidly, and concealment and corruption will also appear, but now is not the time to deduct these things.

"The University of Tokyo has recruited more than 5000 new recruits this year. You have to make good use of these people."

"I understand."

"Kang Kang went to Jingdong Road, you quickly arrange staff for him." Zhao Ning picked up another letter, "This is the letter from Tang Ke on Jinghu North Road, and send a group of people to him next year."

"Jinghu North Road is in the south, and there are still a lot of vacancies for supervisors in the northern roads. Do you need to fill the northern roads first?"

"No, no, Jinghu North Road needs to be replenished with sufficient personnel. The imperial court plans to vigorously develop Jinghu North Road next."

Not just fields, but also iron.

There are a lot of iron mines on Jinghu North Road, and we must make adequate preparations for the next war against Xixia and the Kingdom of Jin.

Iron armor, swords, even muskets and thunderbolts must be adequately prepared.

Most of the iron mines in the Northern Song Dynasty were concentrated in Hebei and Shandong, and these places would be threatened by the Jin army at any time.

If the southern iron mines are not exploited in large quantities, once a larger-scale war breaks out in the future and the Jin army attacks the Dasong iron mines, it will be passive.

Not only the iron mines on Jinghu North Road, but also the development of iron mines in Fujian is also on the agenda, and Huaixi also has iron mines.

"Yes, I will arrange manpower for Jinghu North Road first."

"You've worked so hard this time."

"I don't think it's hard work. Your Majesty needs to take care of the Eucharist."

Zhao Ning smiled and said, "Go back, go back and rest earlier."

"His Majesty……"

"What else?"

Song Shuyuan hesitated for a moment, and said: "It's nothing, Your Majesty also rested earlier, and I will leave."

Just as Song Shuyuan was about to walk out of the Wende Palace, Zhao Ning's voice came from behind: "By the way, Shuyuan, you are not young anymore. Is there a man you like? I will marry you."

"Your Majesty, the minister is now an important minister of the Central Committee, in charge of the core secrets of the New Deal. If you marry rashly, it will be troublesome if it is leaked."

"Then you can't be unmarried all your life, how can there be a daughter who is unmarried?"

Song Shuyuan said excitedly: "I would like to swear to follow His Majesty to the side and do my best for His Majesty."

Zhao Ning was taken aback, and laughed quickly: "I just mentioned it casually, you don't have to take it seriously, you can decide on your own about the marriage."

"My minister retire."

September [-]th, Xixia Xingqing Mansion.

Brother Li Cha met Li Qianshun alone.

Li Qianshun said: "Now my Great Xia has been recovering for several years, and I have a strong army. Song Guogang fought a few games with Jin Guo, and his vitality was seriously injured. If we take the opportunity to go south and surprise the Song army in Shaanxi, do we have a chance of winning?"

"What is the purpose of His Majesty's attack on Song Dynasty?"