Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 178: Eight hundred miles to spread the beacon smoke
Just here in Kaifeng, when the implementation of the New Deal was in full swing, the relationship between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom seemed to be heading in an increasingly weird direction.

Half a month ago, Handerang received the transfer order and returned to Youzhou to continue to be responsible for the establishment of Youzhou Trading Company. During this period, thanks to Handerang's hard promotion, more and more Khitan goods were sold at a high price in Kaifeng. good.

In addition to horses and furs, various silk cloths, linen cloths, coarse cloths, and some ceramic products were all slaughtered in the Song Dynasty. Only then did Zhao Guangmei find out that the two representatives of the Liao Kingdom, textiles and porcelain, In terms of major items of ancient handicrafts, the level of the Liao Kingdom was actually still higher than that of the early Song Dynasty!
This is really a bit overwhelming.

With the dissolution of the Salt and Iron Department of the Song Dynasty, Liao Salt also began to squeeze a large amount of the salt industry market of the Song Dynasty, and even a certain amount of ironware was circulated here.

To be honest, if it were not for him as a time traveler in this time and space, the Song Dynasty would not be able to do business with the Liao Kingdom, at least in the early Song Dynasty.

Since ancient times, the Central Plains dynasties have been inferior to the grassland regimes in handicraft industry. The early Song Dynasty should be the only one in history, right?Although there are reasons for the troubled times of the Five Dynasties, it has to be said that the governance ability of the Liao Kingdom cannot be underestimated.

Of course, because of the emergence of Zhao Guangmei, the Song Dynasty's trade with Liao in this time and space was still very profitable. It exported a large amount of sugar, tea, soap, soy sauce, rum and other products, and the profits were very considerable, but the Liao Kingdom had to sell A lot of horses, furs, gemstones and minerals, etc.

The two countries established a very large market in Xiongzhou. Zhao Guangmei even made a special trip to Xiongzhou to cut the ribbon for the market with Xiao Siwen.

The people of the two countries sang and danced in the big market in Xiongzhou. Zhao Guangmei and Xiao Siwen exchanged cups and danced together. Even after they got drunk, they got very excited about poetry. They recited poems together and commented on the figures of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Just like a pair of old friends who have known each other for many years, they hold hands and look at each other, feeling that it is difficult to find a close friend, and the good ones would like to become brothers with different surnames on the spot.

Even the cultures of the two countries blend very well with each other. Whether it is dance, opera, various musical instruments, or sumo wrestling performances, everything is available here. Both sides are exporting culture to each other. The Song Dynasty emphasized that National orthodoxy, which emphasizes tolerance and inclusiveness, is a legacy of the Tang Dynasty.

In restaurants and restaurants in Xiongzhou, Song and Liao people could eat, drink, and chat at the same table without any grudges. I even heard that some merchants were already marrying each other.

Of course, most of the so-called Liao merchants are actually powerful Han people from Yanyun, and serious Khitan people rarely come here.

However, on the other side, in the northwest region, the relationship between Song and Liao could not be described as tense, but it was already at war.

Zhang Qiong and Yelu Wuzhi have clearly begun to fight each other. Their love for each other in the east does not affect their fight to the death in the west. The relationship between Song and Liao has clearly reached the most critical moment here, but they are hiding in their respective Behind the agent.

The Song army was pretending to be a Guiyi army, and the Liao army was pretending to be a Uighur army. Even though they knew that the other side was actually the Song (Liao) army, and they also knew that the other side knew that they were pretending, they were both very special. Mother maintained a tacit understanding.

After all, Yelu House Hostage was no ordinary person, and Zhang Qiong didn't take much advantage either. The two of them fought with each other with some degree of restraint.

The fighting between the Dangxiang and the Tubo people now seems more and more like they are pretending. The Dangxiang people understand the principle of self-respect for the bandits, and the Tubo people also understand that when they play a game with each other, a total of not many people can die. On the one hand, they asked Song and Liao behind for help, and successfully dragged the war into a war of attrition between Song and Liao.

On the other side of the sandbank, the fighting became more and more chaotic, and the fighting became more and more exciting.

In just two months, the Ganzhou Uighurs actually sent another envoy to pay tribute. They even wanted to agree to the harsh conditions of the court and merged with the Guiyi Army. They could even talk about religious beliefs. Zhao Guangmei was even worried. I felt surprised, but I really didn’t dare to answer it.

Because the Guiyi Army drove out a large number of Shazhou Uighurs, the Ganzhou Uighurs initially supported the Shazhou Uighurs under the control of the Liao Kingdom. As a result, they fought back and forth, and a large number of Shazhou Uighurs flooded into Guazhou. The Ganzhou Uighurs and Shazhou Uighurs The fight started.

Originally, the number of Shazhou Uighurs was the smallest in the northwest. As a result, the fight started in order to suppress the Guiyi army. As a result, everyone was surprised to find that there were more and more Shazhou Uighurs in this place.

Even a fool can see that the Liao Kingdom is moving the Gaochang Uighurs to the northwest region and making them Shazhou Uighurs.

Is the Sandbank Uighur originally the Kucha Uighur? The Kucha Uighur and the Gaochang Uighur are indeed close relatives.

As a result, these people kept migrating one after another. The Shazhou Uighurs had no foundation in Shazhou, so they could only keep sucking the blood of the Ganzhou Uighurs to fight against the rebels. As a result, those who came from Gaochang continued to fight. The Uighurs are not the same as the original Laoshazhou Uighurs. After all, they have been neighbors with the Ganzhou Uighurs for so many years, and they understand each other a little more culturally. When these people come together, they do bad things. .

The Uighurs started fighting with themselves.

You must know that the Shazhou Uighurs and the Guiyi Army mainly have ethnic conflicts, but they have religious conflicts with the Ganzhou Uighurs. One of them believes in Buddhism and the other is Neo-Manicheism, which is Mingjiao.

The ethnic conflicts are not irreconcilable because everyone believes in Tathagata Buddha. The reason why they have been fighting and making peace with the Guiyi Army for so many years is indeed because everyone gave Sakyamuni some points. Thin noodles.

But religious conflicts, although this thing is a weapon of those in power, sometimes those in power cannot control it, and it does not always serve political interests.

As more and more Shazhou Uighurs entered Ganzhou, more and more temporary Buddha statues and temples were built, and then... Anyway, the fighting between the three became a mess, and the Song Army and the Liao Army continued to fight. They are fishing in troubled waters by fanning the flames of competition with each other, and fighting each other every now and then to stretch their muscles.

One word, chaos.

Gaochang and Khotan even started fighting. Everyone speculated that Khotan's request for help must have been on the way. Except for Zhao Guangmei, who was worried about the world being in chaos, everyone in the civil and military dynasty pinched their temples with worry.

Khotan was a vassal state of the Song Dynasty, and was the most respectful to the Song Dynasty in the northwest region. It was even more obedient than the Guiyi Army. This was indeed something that could not be ignored. The entire northwest war situation was obviously on the verge of getting out of control.

And the more chaos there is and the more fierce the fighting, the more prosperous the trade between Te Niang's Song and Liao in Xiongzhou will be.

According to Zhang Qiong's memorial, Yelu Wuzhi actually already had gunpowder weapons in his hands, which he obviously bought from the Song Dynasty.

Of course, the Song Dynasty bought a lot of horses from the Liao Kingdom and sent them all.

Then they kept asking the court for reinforcements, and the court could only send a reinforcement army every once in a while, and another reinforcement army every once in a while. The money was spent like water, and there was no end in sight.Naturally, the opposition between the DPRK and China is growing.

"Brother, Brother Pu, isn't this our original plan? Is there any better way to consume the Liao Kingdom than this? The Liao Kingdom is not monolithic in the first place, and neither are their surnames Yelu and Xiao. The contradiction is that the east is friendly and the west is at war. The more this happens, the amount of trade between us and the Liao Kingdom must be increased, and we may even give them profits so that they can make more money. The Xiao family has the final say in Youzhou. This is called this. The other waxes and wanes.”

"Yes, the war on the west side has been completely ruined, but we have more experience than them in fighting for consumption. Although our court is suffering, the Liao Kingdom, especially those with the surname Yelu, will definitely suffer even more."

"The current situation is obvious. The people who are friendly to us in the Song Dynasty are mainly the Yanyun Han people and the Xiao family. The ones fighting in the west are, at least on the surface, the Guiyi Army and the Uighurs. It is a religious conflict. For the Xiao family and Youzhou For people, even the Bohai people, Koreans, and Wei people in the eastern region, it has nothing to do with them what happens in the west. They have no intention at all, because the question of whether the Uighurs should believe in Manichaeism or Buddhism has nothing to do with it. They couldn't understand the Song Dynasty's war. The Liao Kingdom wanted to start a war because of this matter, and even the country itself was unsatisfied. What a great opportunity!"

"Besides, aren't Youzhou also doing business and urbanization? It's a good thing, a great thing. The stronger the business is, the stronger the Xiao family will be. Our Song Dynasty's business is in my hands, and I belong to the eldest brother. My dear brother, the Liao Kingdom’s trading firm is in the hands of the Xiao family. If we continue like this for a few more years, I don’t believe that they will always be monolithic within Daliao. Their internal conflicts are already much more intense than ours."

Zhao Guangyi smiled bitterly while adding firewood and said: "Third brother, it's winter now. It's very cold in the northwest. The imperial troops sent there have already suffered unbearably. Our soldiers in the Central Plains will suffer after all." Without the bitter cold in the northwest, supplies will be too difficult after all. Although the New Deal is in full swing, have you ever calculated how much money you have spent this year?"

"Humph."

Zhao Guangmei snorted.

In order to promote the New Deal this year, he really spent money like water, at least more than 1000 million yuan. All the wealth earned by the business in the past few years was spent on it, part of which was used to build houses, and part of which was used to buy the houses of powerful people in the countryside. Although the three major projects of land reclamation and land reclamation by organizing military households are all aimed at making more money in the future, the initial investments are all gold-swallowing behemoths.

Because the war in the west was a war of attrition, Zhao Guangmei had actually spent a lot of money on it. So far, the benefits have been extremely limited.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Guangyi said: "Third brother, I am telling you now as a shareholder of a trading company that even if what you say is correct, you must know that it is not just the Liao Kingdom that is short-sighted. After all, it is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. It's nature. At this point in the war, the core has completely changed. Whether they believe in Buddhism or Mingjiao really has nothing to do with the Han people in Youyun and the forces in the eastern part of Liao Dynasty. But does it have anything to do with our Song Dynasty? Is there a direct relationship? The Liao and Song countries actually bled each other for a group of Uighurs. How do you think our people in the Song Dynasty are any better than those in the Liao Kingdom?"

Zhao Guangmei naturally retorted: "How can this be the same? Our Song Dynasty is not the Liao Dynasty. We are centralized, and the only voice in the world is our Zhao family. We don't have a queen family that has to produce queens and queen mothers from generation to generation. "

Zhao Guangyi said: "I am opposed to it anyway."

As he said that, Zhao Guangyi shrugged, spread his hands, and imitated Zhao Guangmei's look of being generous.

Nowadays, the way Zhao Guangyi and Zhao Guangmei get along is very strange. No matter what Zhao Guangmei does, he always opposes it habitually, but he doesn't do anything other than objecting.

It was equivalent to replacing those who opposed Zhao Guangmei with their mouths, and they were brought down immediately after the replacement.

In fact, his opposition at this time was really like singing a double act with Zhao Guangmei.

It seems to be an objection, but in fact the topic turned to the issue of monarchical centralization, and it clearly pointed out the affairs of the Liao Kingdom. In fact, the person named Yelu couldn't say what he said, so there would be huge internal problems. The tearing force caused Yelvuzhi to suffer tremendous pain on the front line.

So, you civil servants who oppose the increase of troops in the northwest, what are your intentions?Do you mean that the Zhao family’s words in the Song Dynasty don’t count?

In fact, it is a good thing that Zhao Guangyi jumped out to oppose it in this situation, because he has the highest status. After he jumped out to oppose it, he was refuted speechless, and then he abstained from voting on behalf of the opposing shareholders in the commercial bank. Like this, this matter can be pushed forward naturally, and others will not be able to object if they want to.

It's hard to say whether Zhao Guangyi did it on purpose or not. His current political stance is still to twist and turn, and twisting and twisting has become his personal style, acting as the link between Zhao Guangmei's New Deal faction and the old civil service faction. Lubricant.

When Zhao Kuangyin saw that the two of them had finished talking to each other, and everything was brought to his lips, he was naturally very relieved, thinking that his two younger brothers could really share his worries. ah.

Then he nodded and said: "The third one is right, our Song Dynasty is different from the Liao Kingdom. Our internal unity and reinforcement of the northwest will certainly make our Song Dynasty feel painful, but the Liao Kingdom will definitely be more painful, so I decided……"

All the civil servants have shut up. Ever since the New Deal was officially implemented, especially after the chaos in Kaifeng, Zhao Guangmei has become more and more prosperous. Aiding the northwest has always been his most important strategic proposition. Everyone has made it clear that there is no way to stop it.

The militarization of the entire northwest, and business jargon is probably inevitable.

Just as he was talking, the sound of Tata's horseshoes suddenly came from outside. The sound of the horseshoes hitting the ground made all the ministers startled. Then they heard someone shouting from outside: "Report~, eight hundred miles." Expedited.”

Zhao Guangmei was shocked and quickly stepped forward to ask the ordering soldier: "Is there something going wrong in the northwest?"

"It's not the northwest, it's the southwest."

Then he took a deep breath and said: "Report to the official's house, something happened in Yizhou. The people of Sichuan and Shu have no one who will resist. The entire army of Shu generals has appeared with [-] troops. They have surrounded Chengdu. Wang Shuai and Wang Jiedu Make him... call for help."

After saying that, you could hear needles dropping in Nuo Da's Duanwen Hall.

The jade ax originally used to hold B in Zhao Kuangyin's hand fell to the ground with a clatter.

The order to support the northwest was halfway issued, but he swallowed it back.

After a while, he said: "You stay, the second brother and the third brother Zhao Pu stay, and the rest of them retreat from the court."

(End of this chapter)