Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 47: Strategies to pacify the world (5k small chapter)
"Guan Jia, these test papers are the test papers and names of the people who won the Enke exam this time."

Zhao Kuangyin didn't even look at it and asked, "How did my third brother do in the exam?"

"The three great kings have unparalleled talents. They are ranked first in poems, essays, and strategies. Only the scriptures are slightly inferior. They are barely qualified. All the ministers in the Chongwen Palace think that they should be the first."

"Top... number one? Number one scholar."

"Yes."

Zhao Kuangyin was in disbelief and said: "You are not showing your favor, are you?"

"This time Enke adopted the method of obscuring names and copying. How can we do favoritism? The test paper is here, and the officials will know it at a glance."

When Zhao Kuangyin heard this, he first picked up the poems with doubts, and then couldn't help but cheered.When I looked at his theory of prison indulgence, I couldn't help but marvel at it.

Occasionally, he laughed and scolded: "This boy would rather look up Li Shimin's achievements in the history books than praise my elder brother. He is really arrogant."

After thinking for a while, he said: "With these two strategies, I can bear the title of leader. I will post the test papers later and record them in the residence newspaper. If the information comes out, I can convince the public."

"Looking further down the official line, the strategies of the three kings are truly the best."

"Oh? Isn't it comparable to Wang Pu's Ping Bian Ce..."

Looking at it, Zhao Kuangyin's expression couldn't help but become serious.

In fact, Fan Zhi and the others asked this question with the intention of lowering the difficulty of the exam. After all, Wang Pu's Pingbian policy was called the first policy of the Five Dynasties. Chai Rong also highly praised it. For ordinary candidates, as long as it was the previous After reading, reading, and understanding this piece of Pingbian policy, I can write something based on Hu Lu's painting.

If you haven't even read the famous Ping Bian Ce, it means that you don't care about national affairs at all, so why are you taking the imperial examination?

However, although it can be seen that Zhao Guangmei's policy is still based on Pingbian Policy, it is from a high position, and its substantive content is actually far higher than Pingbian Policy, surpassing his predecessor.

You must know that Wang Pu is Chai Rong's most trusted person. Even Zhao Kuangyin said after becoming emperor that if Wang Pu was still alive, he would not let me rule the world.

As a result, it now seems that, at least in terms of knowledge, Zhao Guangmei has far surpassed Wang Pu.

"Go and call me the third child."

After a while, Zhao Guangmei entered the palace with a hand full of sawdust. As he walked away, he muttered: "What are you doing? You have to call me. I am doing carpentry work. Brother, you have to allocate some more money to me." The decoration is really too expensive, and I’m almost out of money. Hehe, I’ll take you to my house later to see it, and the effect will definitely be good, much better than your palace.”

Zhao Kuangyin took his test paper and said, "This, the strategy to pacify the world, was it you who wrote it?"

"Huh? Have you finished approving the papers? It's so fast. When will you let me be the governor?"

Zhao Kuangyin snorted when he heard this, turned to Fan and said, "Draw up an imperial edict to make my third brother the King of Qin, and to make the loyal and brave military governor."

"Here."

Zhao Guangmei was overjoyed: "King of Qin? Is this the King of Qin? He's the King of Qin from Li Shimin, right? Brother, you are so interesting!"

Among the three great princes, he has occupied Qin, Fu Yanqing has occupied Wei, and Li Jun has occupied Jin. Hum, when it is the second brother's turn, there will be nothing left for him to use.

At most, give it to Chu, Yan, Shu, etc. They don't sound as domineering as Qin, Wei, and Jin.

"Don't interrupt, please tell me your plan."

"Oh, in fact, the essence is still the policy of the former prime minister Wang Pu. He said it too briefly, I just enriched it a little bit."

Zhao Guangmei took the test paper with a smile and read:
"The strategy of leveling the border is to go south first and then north, first easy and then difficult. The countries in the Southern Dynasties are both rich and weak, so they can use them for military purposes."

"The first strategy for Pingnan is Jing and Hu. The young ruler of Jingchu is suspicious of the country, and civil strife is gradually emerging in Hunan. These two places can be conquered in one battle, or they can use a false strategy to destroy Guo, or they can use a strategy to restrain Guo. If they instigate the Southern Dynasties to attack, I will swallow them up in the name of rescue, and we can win."

"Now that Jinghu Lake has fallen, the connection between the Southern Tang and Hou Shu has been severed, and there is no way to form an alliance to resist the Song Dynasty. Only then can we divide and annihilate them. I think that although the Southern Tang was rich and powerful, its ruler was very respectful. It can be slowed down a little. Although Hou Shu is weak, Meng Chang is a thief who has always been ambitious and unwilling to surrender. His prime minister, Wang Zhaoyuan, often compares himself to Prime Minister Zhuge. He is thinking of the Northern Expedition. He is like a rat, and it is ridiculous and incompetent."

"This is because God has given me the friendly troops of the Song Dynasty. The road to Shu is difficult and dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. However, if we have friendly troops in the Song Dynasty, we will leave Xiongguan and take the initiative to attack with me. We should lure them to defeat and lure the Shu army. Defeat them in the Guanzhong Plain, win in one battle, and conquer Shu."

"Now that I have gained the territory of Shu, I have full control of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. I should train the navy to overwhelm the Southern Han Dynasty and encircle it in three directions. Then go to the Southern Tang Dynasty. The bandits of the Southern Tang Dynasty will not be able to stop it. Since the Southern Tang Dynasty is gone, the south will be determined. "

"The south is determined, and Yanyun should be captured. However, I believe that if you want to determine the north, you must first secure the west and fight the Liao Dynasty. It is better to go slowly rather than hastily, and it is better to go slowly than quickly. To seize Youyan, the first thing is to win the hearts of the people. The so-called strategy of attacking with troops. , if one hundred thousand infantry soldiers take the initiative to march north and fight with millions of Liao troops in the field, this is a strategy made by a sincere soldier, which is ridiculous."

After reading this, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help but interrupted: "The previous strategy of Pingnan is quite meaningful. Many of my ideas coincide with mine. But why is this strategy of Pingnan suitable for slowing down the Liaoning strategy?" Shouldn’t it be urgent?”

Zhao Guangmei sighed silently in her heart when she heard this, and thought to herself, why else, isn't it all a lesson learned from my good second brother?

But he analyzed it solemnly: "I dare to ask, big brother, compared with our Central Plains heroes, which one is stronger and which one is weaker?"

"Of course our Central Plains soldiers and horses are more powerful, but..."

Zhao Guangmei answered: "It's just that in the battle between our Central Plains Dynasty and the Khitan, we usually win first and then lose. Although there are constant small victories, it is always difficult to win a big victory. Big brother thinks I am right."

Zhao Kuangyin nodded with deep understanding and said: "This is exactly the reason. To be honest, in my eyes, the southern countries are just chickens and dogs. It's easy to be peaceful. Only Khitan, whose national power is so strong, has Far from being comparable to the likes of the Xiongnu and Xianbei, they are actually a serious thorn in the side of our Song Dynasty and a life-or-death enemy."

Zhao Guangmei smiled and said: "The advantage of our Song Dynasty is that our soldiers are talented and brave. All the soldiers are professional soldiers. They train day and night. Once we go to war, there is no reason for us to lose in a war of the same number, even if it is one against two. With one against three, or even one against ten, the Khitan rats are really not strong enough to compete with us, but... if it really is a decisive battle, once both sides invest more than [-] troops, we won't be able to do it."

Saying that, Zhao Guangmei sighed herself.

In fact, if you study the Song-Liao war in depth, you will find that even after Zhao Da, the second brother or the eldest nephew, the Song army actually won more than the Liao in the battle. In the middle, there is no way to defeat the Song Army!
Of course, except for a small number of elites in the Liao Kingdom.

However, the Song Army has a big shortcoming, that is, if the Song Army only has 1 troops, it can have the same effect as the Liao Army with 10 troops.

But if the Song army has 20, then... the effect of fighting is still [-].

To put it bluntly, the Northern Song Dynasty was full of professional soldiers. Compared with the temporary conscripts of the Liao Kingdom, professional soldiers had no more than one or two advantages on the battlefield. They were almost bullying.However, precisely because they are professional soldiers, there are many mountains in the Forbidden Army. To put it more broadly, the Forbidden Army is different from the border troops of Jiedushi. At least thirty divisions must have been separated!Each division has its own interests and calculations.

Taking out one of these armies alone can defeat the Liao army, but if they are taken out all at once, it will be doomed.

Because large corps operations are different from small corps operations, each combat department must have precise coordination to win a battle. However, when the Song Army fights large-scale operations against the Liao Army, there will always be one or two armies. If the chain is lost, the cooperation is not good, then one piece collapses, and the whole game is lost.

The Liao army used one trick to deal with the Song army, and even the Zhou and Han armies before: lure the enemy deep, gather them and annihilate them.

If I can't defeat you, I will run. If I run, you will have to chase. If you keep chasing, there will definitely be a certain army that runs too fast and underestimates the enemy and rushes in, or a certain army that runs extremely slowly. The situation of falling behind.

Then I concentrated my forces to eat this lone one first.

This is not a weakness of the Song army. In fact, Chai Rong was also like this at that time. When fighting the Khitan, Shi Yanchao, the most powerful general of the Zhou Dynasty, chased the Liao army too fast, causing Fu Yanqing and Li Jun to retreat. He failed to keep up, and as a result, Shi Yanchao was kicked out by the Liao army.

Originally, although this shortcoming was huge, it was not fatal.

But after Zhao Kuangyin released his military power after a glass of wine, he kept the top officers in front of the palace, the deputy inspector, the guards and the horse infantry commanders, and the deputy commanders, and sent them out without hesitation.

In other words, these positions have been part-time jobs for the emperor from now on. Except for the emperor himself, no one in the army is qualified to command so many armies at the same time to complete a battle with a scale of more than 20 or [-]. of large-scale war.

This was no problem during the Zhao Kuangyin era, and even his original intention was not necessarily that these official positions would not be awarded in the future. He himself checked the origins in front of the palace, and dozens of commanders were all promoted by him personally. There is nothing wrong with being the Generalissimo of the Armed Forces, and there is no reason for him to grant these official positions to others.

But other emperors after Zhao Kuangyin really didn't know how to fight!
This was the situation Zhao Er encountered at that time. Because there were no inspections and general commanders, no one in the entire Song Dynasty except himself had the power and qualifications to command the coordinated operations of dozens of regiments in the entire army.

Then he can only direct it himself.

What a fucking boss!

In the Battle of Gaoliang River, the Song Army actually did not lose at all, and the losses of each department were not much. However, inexplicably, his headquarters disappeared. It was simply the result of poor coordination and chaotic command among the departments. It looked like those generals were trying to do it deliberately. Like killing him.

Those generals didn't even take it seriously. They helped Zhao Dezhao become emperor and still wanted to fight against the Liao army. The main force was not damaged at all.As a result, I heard out of nowhere that the emperor had fled back, and he was defeated in confusion.

As for the teaching of formation diagrams that came out later, it was already abnormal, and the principal had to praise him for his expertise after seeing it.

When it came to Zhao Heng, some commanders simply refused to listen to him as the emperor. You can command as you like, but I don't listen anyway. I'll beat you when you order me.

The reason why he was forced to lead the expedition in person was because if he had not shown up, the generals would have started to fight on their own. They would send civil servants to convey orders, but no one would even read them. He had to go to the battlefield himself and give orders personally. The people below dare not disobey, and in this way, the command will not be delayed, and the Song Army's combat effectiveness will be restored.

After the Chanyuan Alliance ended, Zhao Heng's fear of the generals of the Forbidden Army almost reached the extreme. From then on, he slowly became a civilian-controlled army. Because there was no war between Song and Liao, the military pressure was not so great, and then , emphasizing culture over military affairs, the Forbidden Army was completely abolished.

Thinking of this, Zhao Guangmei couldn't help but feel heartbroken. It is obvious that our army of the Song Dynasty is invincible in the world!
Shaking away the messy melancholy in his mind, Zhao Guangmei solemnly said to Zhao Kuangyin:

"The advantage of the Song Dynasty lies in fighting small battles, while the advantage of the Khitan lies in fighting big battles. The way of fighting is to exploit strengths and avoid weaknesses. Therefore, my main purpose later is actually the core idea: 'Fight small battles, do not fight decisive battles, and cannibalize them. Make a plan to recapture Yanyun and destroy Daliao!'"

Zhao Kuangyin pondered and said: "That's why you said that if you want to determine the north, you must first move to the west?"

"Yes, the policy also said later that our Song Dynasty should be based on the three continents of Lin, Fu and Yan, gradually encroach and annex the six tribes of Tubo, the Xiazhou Li family, the Uighurs, and the Guiyi army, stabilize the western front, and suppress the Liao Dynasty country, extend the front.”

"If the Liao Kingdom wants to fight a decisive battle with us, we will defend it. Even if we fortify layers of defenses, build strongholds, and fight stupidly, it doesn't matter even if we lose one or two battles. As long as the battle line is long enough, we will retreat when the enemy advances, and we will retreat when the enemy retreats." Just go in."

"The Liao Kingdom has a conscription system, and we have a recruitment system. If the war lasts for one month, they will delay the production of the year. If the war lasts for half a year, there will be a great famine in their country. If this kind of war lasts for two years, the people in their country will starve. Damn it, how can he have the strength to compete with us?"

"So after the Liao army is mobilized, although it is strong, it will not last long. As long as he retreats, we will fight back. We are professional soldiers. As long as he does not engage in large-scale mobilization, he will definitely not be able to defeat us. He has done so. If we mobilize, we will not fight with him. Can the Liao Kingdom mobilize once a year to fight a big war with us? This year we will capture five of his cities, and next year we will capture ten of them. Such a long-term battle, although we will definitely spend a lot of money. It will definitely be difficult, but the Liao Kingdom will definitely be more miserable than us!"

Zhao Kuangyin nodded when he heard this. Although Zhao Guangmei's strategy was very conservative, it had to be said that it was almost foolproof. To put it bluntly, it was a war of attrition.

As an army with a recruitment system, am I still afraid of being wasted by you?I usually have to spend money to raise troops even if I don't fight.When fighting, the war consumes money and food, but when not fighting, the soldiers are hungry?It's just that the reward was a little more during the fight. Most of the reward came from the seizures.

The reason why the later Song Dynasty did not dare to go to war, and once it went to war, it was said that the country was poor and could not afford to fight. That was because it valued civil servants over military affairs, and the military expenditures could be transferred as much as possible. All the soldiers were in arrears, so when they went to war, they The army had to be repaid, and then the civil service group was corrupt and deducted layers of money. If the pay was not enough, it had to be repaid. Naturally, it was impossible to fight. It was completely different from the army in the early Song Dynasty at this time.

The Liao Kingdom was different. They had a conscription system. Every major conscription was a strain. If they could not achieve a big victory in the large-scale conscription campaign for two consecutive years, they themselves would collapse.

"anything else?"

"Also, it's time to use time. Since we are fighting a war of attrition, the local people in the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun are very important. In recent years, the Liao Kingdom has changed its national policy and begun to fully operate Yanyun. The treatment of the local Han people has been better. Quite a few, if the Han people in Yanyun are interested in the Liao Kingdom, then that place will indeed be difficult to fight, so we must break their game."

"For this purpose, I summarized it into four strategies, namely 'cultural export', 'spy infiltration', 'money redemption', and 'economic dependence'. If we can finally peacefully unify Yanyun, that would be the best. If not, , at least it will be much easier when playing."

"I don't understand this section very well. Please explain it to me in detail."

"The so-called cultural export is to strengthen the cultural identity, national identity, and identity of the Han people in Yanyun. We can use stories, books, cultural exchanges, etc. to keep the people of Yanyun from forgetting their national hatred. At the same time, we convey to them the idea that the people of Song Dynasty live a good life and that this is a paradise on earth, so that they can think about it day and night and hope that our king will go north. If this is done well, Yan Yun does not need to fight. You can come back."

"The so-called spy infiltration means sending a large number of spies to Yanyun. On the one hand, it is to convey military information to us, but more importantly, it is to let them provoke ethnic conflicts in the Yanyun area. In fact, this is too simple. Yelu Abaoji and Yelu Deguang killed hundreds of thousands of my Han people. As long as he keeps repeating this incident and mentioning it constantly to prevent this hatred from being forgotten, he will cause troubles from time to time and rebel every now and then. It will be pacified. , the rift between the Khitans and the Han people will become wider and wider, and there are quite a few conservatives in the Liao Kingdom who are unwilling to accept the Han people."

"Money redemption is even simpler, just bribe and bribe local grassroots officials. Today, the national policy of the Liao State is that Liao people rule Liao and Han people rule Han. A large number of middle-level officials in the Yanyun area are all Han people. As long as we export culture Okay, give them a lot of money and trick them into secretly sending their thieves to our Song Dynasty. Then do you think they are officials of the Liao Kingdom or our Song Dynasty?"

"Even more, you can come up with another policy and spend money to buy Liaotou. As long as we buy the heads of Liao people all the year round, Yanyun will never be able to calm down, and the Han people in Yanyun will never be able to fight against The Liao people are complicit."

"The so-called economic dependence actually means condoning smuggling, supporting compradors, and conducting large-scale trade with the Han people in Yanyun. Even if it is dumping, it doesn't matter whether they make money or not. The important thing is to let those powerful people in Yanyun gain from trade with us. The advantage is that the entire Yanyun economy will become dependent on us. If a big war breaks out, they themselves will collapse if our card is cut off."

"With these four strategies, the hearts of the Han people in Yanyun will definitely turn to the Song Dynasty. If they fight, they will naturally get twice the result with half the effort. As I said in my article, if I follow my strategy, within ten years, the Liao Kingdom will become increasingly exhausted. Song Yiqiang, in less than 20 years, Yanyun will be transformed! In less than 30 years, the Liao Kingdom will be overthrown."

　Poor coordination is not the entire reason for the poor combat effectiveness of the Song army, but in the early Song Dynasty it was at least one of the most important reasons in the Zhao Er era. In addition, there are several other reasons. These things can be explained clearly in one sentence. This is a paper of tens of thousands of words, and it will be mentioned again in the subsequent plot, which is quite complicated.

　　But in short, overall, the Song Dynasty imperial army is getting weaker with each generation. It is no exaggeration to say that the Song army in Zhao Da's hands is absolutely invincible in the world with the same number and no one can defeat it. But by the time of Renzong Dynasty, It is true that quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, and no one can beat it.

　　Again, the Song Dynasty was a 300-year-old dynasty, and the internal reform of the army never stopped. The Song Army in the early Song Dynasty may be two completely different armies from the Song Army in most people's minds.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)