Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 252 Southwest King

"Brothers, not far ahead is the Song Army's camp. Brothers, don't be afraid. When it comes to war, none of us Dali people are afraid of it. We don't need to be intimidated by the Song Army's numbers of [-] or [-]. Let me tell you, it's really a war. Get up, no one is not afraid of death, they are all just showing off, as long as we break into their military formation and attack the Song Army's center, the thieves will definitely be defeated, brothers, let's kill!"

Then, these Dali troops rushed towards the new city built by the Song army.

Then, Cui Yanjin led the most elite Japanese army in the Song Dynasty to charge in the opposite direction. In just one round, the Dali army collapsed and returned the same way they came.

The whole process was extremely smooth, and it looked like a joke. After calculating the results of the battle, it was revealed that there was only one Japanese casualty. When a certain unlucky guy rushed out, the road was too slippery and he fell and sprained his foot.

When Zhao Dezhao heard that the Dali people took the initiative to fight, he curiously went up to a high place to take a look, and then he started to do whatever he wanted.

After Cui Yanjin repelled these Dali troops, he was too lazy to pursue them. Instead, he withdrew his troops back to the city and did whatever he needed to do.

From beginning to end, no one in the Song Dynasty really regarded the Dali Kingdom as an opponent. The southwestern barbarians were difficult to rule because of the special geographical conditions, chaotic human conditions, dilapidated and muddy supply roads, and the smog and miasma here. Altitude sickness.

In fact, it was not until the Nanzhao period that the entire southwest region gradually bid farewell to bronze and began to use all-iron weapons. After the establishment of the Dali Kingdom, a relatively strict military organization was established in the national capital, Cangshan and Erhai. The army was very reluctant, just a group of militiamen, and the methods of warfare were still very primitive, at least 1000 years behind the Central Plains dynasties.

It is no exaggeration to say that the tribal wars here, and the so-called various national wars, will most likely not be as fierce as the territorial grabs among the hall masters within the Yizimen. Whether the Dali army can defeat the Black Panthers may not be possible. Draw a question mark.

It would be a bit too bullying to fight against a soldier like the Northern Song Dynasty who had grown up in military camps during the troubled times of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and whose equipment and weapons had been fully upgraded by trading companies. They were probably the strongest infantry in history.

You must know that the soldiers of the Dali Kingdom are not worthy of armor-breaking hammers, and the Japanese army is now equipped with a new version of full armor. Even if they stand still and let the Dali soldiers attack them casually, these Dali soldiers cannot break their defense.

Such calmness made the barbarian tribes who followed the Song Dynasty break their defenses one after another. You must know that the most important reason why the Duan family can become the emperor and the leader of everyone is because they are in this area. The most capable.

How could Duan, who was so capable of fighting, be so vulnerable in front of the Song people?

Don't say anything anymore, just work for the Song Dynasty honestly. Those chieftains who were still a little hesitant or wanted to wait for the price all put down their arrogance after hearing about the power of the Song Dynasty and took the initiative to express their allegiance and tribute. .

As for what to pay tribute to, it really was about paying tribute to something. Basically, it was all a bit of rags. If there was really nothing interesting, it would pay tribute to beauties. In less than a month, Zhao Dezhao had more than 30 women around him. He also symbolically selected the two most beautiful ones to marry.

Now that you are a 15-year-old kid, it’s time to do some personnel work.

This is not a war at all. In fact, as long as those Western barbarians do not occupy the high mountains and cause trouble for him, the army of the Song Dynasty is almost like training. Zhao Dezhao even ordered the troops to come and go because he was afraid that the Qing and Tang Tibetans would take the opportunity to sneak attack on his rear area. It's time to do some training.

The Dali Kingdom was also confused. They had long known that the Song Dynasty was very strong, but they really didn't expect it to be so strong. In fact, it was impossible to fight at all.

What can be done?Just pretend to be dead.

When the Song army reaches Erhai, try to negotiate terms of surrender with them. After all, the Duan family is also one of the hundreds of tribes. In essence, isn't it just a big chieftain?

In this way, more than three months later, Zhao Dezhao and the supervisors of the Song Army finally figured out the situation of the Dali Kingdom. They simply broke the army into pieces and simply handed it over to the supervisors who accompanied the army. The commander went out to attack everywhere, and the Song Dynasty's attack on Dali finally progressed much faster.

However, the difficulty of traveling to the southwest lies not only in the roads, but also in the climate. Although the Song Dynasty's advancement in the past few months has been smooth, it has always been in the dry season.

As the rainy season gradually entered, the Song Army was really a little confused. After all, most of the Song Army were from the north. Even the Song people from the Sichuan and Sichuan areas had never seen such heavy rain.

The rainy season in the south, especially the rainy season in the tropical rainforest climate in the southwest, is a completely different concept from the rain in the Central Plains. Even if Zhao Dezhao and others have been mentally prepared for it, they generally feel uncomfortable when facing the rainy season in the southwest. It's all a state of confusion.

This rain actually rained on eight out of ten days, and it rained heavily on six out of eight days!

The land of Yunnan is already mountainous, and the roads washed away by the rain are extremely muddy, making it impossible to walk on them. It is impossible to talk about building roads. The efficiency is appallingly inefficient. Even some of the cement roads that have been repaired are Road sections were flooded due to lack of preparation, which almost delayed the supply transportation of the army.

It can be said that the consequences are very serious, at least fighting Dali suddenly becomes an almost impossible task.

Zhao Dezhao also couldn't help but sigh: No wonder there was nothing we could do against the southwestern barbarians during the Han and Tang Dynasties. With this road condition and this climate, how could we have ruled this place if we hadn't had the benefit of cement in the Song Dynasty?
Naturally, this place can only be an ownerless land. There is no condition for establishing a centralized regime. The Duan family can establish a tribal alliance-style regime like the Dali Kingdom. In fact, it is already beyond the reach of this area without concrete pavement. It's as far as it can go.

No matter who it is, this place cannot be ruled.

So it really makes sense for Zhao Kuangyin not to want this broken place.

The Song army and merchants have gradually begun to voice their opinions that they will admit defeat this time and will fail if they fail. They want to go back and come back next summer when it doesn't rain.

Overtly and covertly, they ridiculed Zhao Dezhao's grinding tactics. If not, the Song Dynasty's soldiers would have defeated Yangcheng long ago.

Of course, these voices are only a minority. No matter whether they are soldiers or merchants, no one can accept failure. The army cannot afford to lose this person, and the merchants cannot afford to pay this money.

Each of these merchants took out loans to serve as supervisors. Once the Song army withdrew, they would all go bankrupt. Is it so easy to borrow money from a bank?Maybe they will have to sell their sons and daughters.However, Zhao Dezhao was not frustrated by such obstacles. Instead, he simply ordered the army to stop completely, sent most of the soldiers back to Chengdu, and then established Zhengnan Mansion here.

At the same time, while overhauling the roads that had been built in the past, if the drainage was not good enough, we asked for good drainage. At the same time, we ordered an extensive investigation into the customs and customs of each tribe in the territory that had been conquered, and sent envoys from the supervisory army to understand the actual conditions of each tribe in detail. In response to the situation, a prospecting team was formed and people from the local chieftain tribe were hired to explore the mines. They promised that if any mines discovered were developed, only [-]% of the shares would be given to trading companies, and the remaining [-]% would be given to private merchants.

In fact, the minerals here are really rich. Within a few days, a very large iron ore (Panzhihua) was discovered, which happened to be accompanied by a large amount of coal mines. Steelmaking was so convenient that Zhao Dezhao simply ordered The city has been expanded, so I might as well stay here and not leave.

The more it was developed, the more Zhao Dezhao felt that this land was a treasure, so he sent people everywhere to explore the hydrology and mountains here, and spent more than two months drawing a relatively detailed map of the mountains and hydrology. After he finished, he made even more shocking remarks, saying that he wanted to build a canal.

The kind that can directly connect Dali Kingdom from Southwest Yi and then directly connect to Chengdu requires a waterway connection.

Then the merchants who accompanied the army on this expedition were unified, and the Southwest Chamber of Commerce of the Song Dynasty was established in the form of a shareholding in the commercial bank. They also received the Royal Commercial Bank of the Song Dynasty in the name of the Southwest Chamber of Commerce, and the first-phase capital was another [-] million.

Moreover, they made it clear that they would definitely have to borrow money in the future. Anyway, the [-] to [-] million yuan would definitely be unstoppable, and the phone bill would never be less than what he spent on raising his lustful eyes and returning to the Western Army.

The planning summary alone contains more than 6 words, which is like a novel.

Zhao Guangmei was not arbitrary, but called Xue Juzheng over and asked him to review Zhao Guangmei's book together, and said with a smile: "My eldest nephew seems to have really grown up now, what do you think, old Xue? Does Dali have such potential that Zhao'er spends so much effort and money to greet people there? Is this business a profit or a loss?"

Xue Juzheng smiled and chatted with Zhao Guangmei while drinking tea: "Whether it is profit or loss, this way of business, a great Song Dynasty, who can compare with you, Your Highness? Whether you can make money, Your Highness is free to decide." Make a clear decision.”

"Hmm~"

Zhao Guangmei thought for a while after hearing this, nodded and said: "From a purely economic point of view, it is really hard to say whether it is a profit or a loss. At least the court will probably have to pay some compensation. After all, he has an army of [-] in his hands, and he is out on an expedition. Naturally, this military expenditure is not a small amount of money. The southwest border is not a popular war zone in the first place. If he is so timid, this military expenditure will probably exceed Hedong. As for the loan of [-] million... it still depends on what he can do. So what, I’m more concerned about the agricultural situation over there.”

In principle, Zhao Guangmei actually supports Zhao Dezhao's approach. After all, the Central Plains dynasty's governance of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau has never been in-depth enough in history. Even the Ming and Qing dynasties in history were the same. To a large extent, this is the reason. The production on this piece of land is obviously not enough, and the management costs almost always exceed the management benefits.

It is also particularly easy to cultivate warlords.

But at the same time, if this place can be completely ruled, the benefits will actually be quite high, and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau can be used to further radiate Southeast Asia.

Geographically, the Confucian cultural circle stopped when it reached South Vietnam. The rest of Asia actually belonged to Indian culture. It was later divided by Westerners into three geographical units: the Indian subcontinent, the Indochina Peninsula, and Indonesia.

In fact, at least the southern part of the current Dali Kingdom is in the same cultural zone as them. How can I say this cultural zone...it is quite easy to conquer.

Such a large area of ​​land, but the cost of governing it is really not high.

The unique culture of the Greater India region causes the people in the region to be more...submissive.

In other words, the colonial value is actually extremely huge.

Historically, the reason why Confucian culture has not been immersed is entirely because the Nanyue Kingdom, that is, the Vietnamese people's martial virtues are relatively strong, which blocked the influence of a certain eastern power. But was the Nanyue Kingdom also the Zhenhai Jiedushi of the Tang Dynasty? , also split from the great eastern countries.

This time, Zhao Guangmei definitely did not mind having too many colonies. Besides, the Song Dynasty was becoming more and more imperialistic. The market was short of raw materials and labor, so the practical significance of opening up new territories was becoming more and more important. If nothing else, This naval governor will definitely return.

If we can go straight forward, we only need to occupy some key land hub nodes. The Confucian influence of the Song Dynasty can completely affect or even cover the entire Greater India region. I dare not say that it is not necessary to make these areas the territory of the Song Dynasty. , but it is really not a big problem to use this area as a market dumping ground and raw material supply place.

Looking at it this way, what Zhao Dezhao is doing now is indeed very valuable, and he is playing a grand strategy.

Moreover, if Dali is properly developed, as long as the roads can be basically normal, the resources there will indeed be far richer than those in the Central Plains. After all, that land has not been seriously developed, such as copper, gold, silver, iron, etc. Salt, jade, lead, tin and other commonly used minerals are available there, and their reserves are huge.

It was agriculture that made him a little unsure.

The rainy season is so long, can the food be transported?
Xue Juzheng is now more professional than Zhao Guangmei in this regard, so he explained: "His Royal Highness King Lu ordered people to send back some unique grains from the Southwest Yi region. Everyone in the Ministry of Revenue has seen them, especially one of them, rice. , the yield is actually higher than the mainstream rice varieties currently used in the Song Dynasty. The food there should be barely self-sufficient, but it is also difficult for the court to receive taxes."

Zhao Guangmei nodded and said: "This is not a big problem. As long as we can be self-sufficient in food, we can grow some spices, Chinese medicine, tea, etc., which are all things that we cannot grow in the Central Plains. Looking at it this way, Zhao'er calculated this comparison , it should still be profitable.”

When Xue Juzheng heard this, there was a trace of embarrassment on his face. He opened his mouth, but hesitated for a long time and closed it again.

"If you have anything to say, just say it. Between you and me, why are you so hesitant to talk? What is our relationship? Is there anything we can't say?"

Xue Juzheng thought for a while and said: "It's not that I hesitated to speak, it's just... Your Highness, King Lu has not come back for three years since he went south to Shu two years ago. The whole of Chengdu was controlled by him." It is said that the development of what was built is also extremely extraordinary. The entire Chengdu Road and even the entire Shu region are now their own sect. Headed by King Lu, he now has an army of [-] in the crusade against Dali. This The little Dali can be destroyed in a matter of seconds, but if we follow His Highness King Lu's method of fighting, I'm afraid it will take... at least three to five years to fight, right?"

Zhao Guangmei was stunned, but smiled and said: "I understand, that is to say, Zhao'er is in the southwest now. He needs people, soldiers, territory, and the loan I want, and money. Money is essentially the king of the Southwest."

(End of this chapter)