Song Gexing

Chapter 299 The ancestor’s wish came true
The Song-Liao War ended after only half a month. Yelu Alian had no choice but to abandon Xijin Prefecture and a large area of ​​land to the west of Datong, and the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were basically recovered.

This battle started in a hurry and ended quickly, but in this battle, a general star of the Song Army was rising, and this was Zhe Keshi, the grandnephew of Zhe Jizu.

This is the son of Zhe Jimin's second son Zhe Kexing. Zhe Kexiong should be the most outstanding general of the Zhe family. He is both wise and brave. He went to the battlefield at the age of 16 and is now 27 years old.

In this battle, he led [-] cavalrymen and penetrated directly into the belly of the Liao army. He launched an attack at the most appropriate time and almost killed the center of the Liao army.

Moreover, this battle was a cavalry battle with the Pishi Army of the Liao Army. The Song Army coach Guo Kui, who was watching the battle from a distance, almost broke out in a cold sweat.

After the victory, Guo Kui personally helped him off his horse and praised: "What a true general! He is worthy of being the grandson of Lieutenant Zhe."

The Lieutenant Zhe he was talking about was not Zhe Jizu, but Zhe Keshi's biological grandfather Zhe Jimin. When Zhe Jimin fought against Xixia, he was powerful in the northwest, and Guo Kui had fought under him.

Guo Kui, who was originally the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, was captured by Zhao Fang this time and came to Xijin Mansion to take charge, and all military and political power was handed over to him.

Zhao Fang would not waste this famous general from the Northern Song Dynasty. This famous general who was as famous as Di Qing in history is now the pinnacle of the Song army. Di Qing has long since retired and gone home to raise his grandson.

Guo Kui is younger than Di Qing, and the difference between him and Di Qing is that Di Qing only fought against Xixia in the northwest, but he fought against both Xixia and Liao.

When Pang Ji was guarding Hebei, he even gave him full authority over the most important military locations. Guo Kui was only in his 20s at that time.

Later generations only remembered him because of Di Qing's tragedy, and forgot about him. Guo Kui, who was later, actually had no inferior military ability to him.

Of course, Di Qing became the privy envoy, which Guo Kui could not match, but this was not because of his lack of military exploits, but because of fate.

Historically, he was Fan Zhongyan's favorite general, and Lao Fan treated him like his own son. He was also implicated in the failure of Qingli's New Deal, and was demoted several times, and had many ups and downs in his official career.

This is also the reason why Zhao Fang gave him the navy that he valued most back then. Zhao Fang did not disappoint. This time he defeated the Liao Kingdom again and fulfilled the long-cherished wish of Taizu Taizong.

Half a month later, Zhao Fang awarded Yelu Jun the title of Prince of Zhao, breaking the rule that kings of the opposite sex could only be county kings.

Yelu Hong was originally canonized as the county king, and built a royal palace for them in Bianjing. He also brought Yelu Jun's sister into the palace and directly canonized him as one of the nine concubines.

In May of the 17th year of Xining, the Seventh and Eighth Fleets of the Song Dynasty Navy went south to Southeast Asia and established a naval base in the Malay Archipelago. Later, Singapore became a naval base.

This was the beginning of Zhao Fang's grand plan. He did not want to conquer Europe, nor did he want to rule the world. What he wanted was to close the door to Nanyang and turn the entire East Asia into the back garden of the Song Dynasty.

And it's not about conquering the entire East Asia by force, that's unrealistic. It's about cultural erosion, and it takes several generations to assimilate them steadily.

After a fierce debate in the court, the defeat of the Liao Kingdom made the Song Dynasty very angry. Many people had the ambition to annex the Eight Wastelands, and he had to cool down everyone.

Zhang Dun was one of them. This guy was an ambitious person to fight against Japan and destroy Goryeo. Now the power of the Song Dynasty made him forget all about it.

However, Zhao Fang firmly disagreed with the annexation of Southeast Asia, even if he sent troops to the Western Regions. Instead, he targeted the Jurchens and sent people to make them surrender.

As for the south, he believed that after taking northern Vietnam, it would be enough to take at most the north of central Myanmar. All he wanted was a port leading to the Indian Ocean.

It's not that her ambitions are not big enough, but that he remembers the lessons of history very clearly, but it's just that it hasn't happened yet, so he can't use this as an example.That was the territory of the Mongol Empire. From Genghis Khan to Mongol Khan, it occupied most of Asia and one-third of Europe in 50 years.

But so what, since Kublai Khan proclaimed himself emperor, the Yuan Dynasty has actually lost control of the four major khanates.

In just a few decades, the Mongolians in the four major khanates were assimilated by others. If Kublai Khan hadn't left people in the Central Plains still, there would have been no Mongolians.

This is because the pace was too big and it was too much. It took the Romans 400 years to complete their great empire, and it took the Mongols 50 years.

You are powerful, but you cannot rule them, but you are swallowed up by them.

The Roman Empire also collapsed, but if you look at Europe, everyone uses the name of Rome to claim to be orthodox. Until the outbreak of World War I, Europeans still regarded themselves as descendants of Rome as orthodox.

The reason why Spain's Habsburg dynasty is recognized by European countries is that they claim to be descendants of the Roman Empire.

The Germans also came to help establish the Holy Roman Empire. Even Tsarist Russia claimed to be the successor of Eastern Rome.

On the other hand, no one wants to admit that they are the successors of the Mongol Empire. Even if the Russian royal family is obviously of mixed Mongolian descent, they do not admit that they are the successors of the Mongol Empire.

It was precisely because Zhao Fang knew this that he decided not to continue to expand. It would be enough to defend the inherent territory of China's Han and Tang Dynasties, plus some strategic locations in Tubo and West Asia.

As for whether to expand in the future, it depends on the talents of his children and grandchildren. It is safest to wait for the digestion to be completed before expanding.

Two years later, the Jurchen Wanyan tribe surrendered to the Song Dynasty, marking that all tribes that gave birth to Jurchens became a part of the Song Dynasty.

For this reason, Zhao Fang issued an order for the Jurchen ministries to send a number of young men and women to the Central Plains for education, and at the same time sent scholars to the newly built Heishui Province to establish schools.

Five years later, war broke out in the Japanese country and the warrior class rose. The leader of the Japanese country asked the Song Dynasty for help. Zhao Fang followed suit and ordered Jeju and Goryeo provinces to send troops.

After the Japanese were pacified in World War I, the Song army garrisoned the Japanese at the request of the Japanese leader, and sent ministers to supervise the Japanese. They began the process of evacuating the Japanese leader and absorbing the He clan aristocrats into a comprehensive sinicization process.

Zhao Fang ordered that all Japanese nobles who wanted to join the Song Dynasty must change their surnames to Han surnames, and Han surnames were fully implemented in the Japanese country.

The people of the Japanese country in this era did not have surnames. The emperor of the Song Dynasty was willing to give them surnames. They were happy before it was too late, and it went smoothly with almost no objection.

It's just that Zhao Fang added a stipulation, which made some people a little confused, but they were relieved soon.

That's what Zhao Fang said. After a surname is given, each family should establish a family tree, and record it starting from the generation where the surname was given, and there is no need to record the previous ones.

This is a trick to make them forget their ancestors. If you only start from this generation, then you are a Song Dynasty person.

He was tolerant of the nobles changing their surnames to Chinese, and did not impose this. To put it bluntly, the nobles were powerful, and when they could not be killed and exterminated, the best way was to win over them.

(End of this chapter)