Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 47 Trials of Overlord Strategy (1)

Hejian is a majestic city in the north of the Song Dynasty, where the Yellow River flows into the sea, and there are countless tributaries. The city is among the rivers, so it is named Hejian.This place is connected to Youyan in the north, and the cavalry of the Liao people crossed the river, and it was a plain of Pingchuan.

When the Hebei army camp was stationed in Tunhejian, there were hundreds of thousands of imperial troops, Xiang troops and their families, so that food had to be transported from the Central Plains by the canal.Later, Daying in Hebei was moved to Daming Mansion. For decades, Song State continued to accumulate paddy fields on the border of Song and Liao, and planted mulberry jujube and other trees in the fields in order to prevent the Liao army from going south. From Xiong, Bazhou to the East China Sea, the paddy fields and forests stretched for hundreds of miles. The Hebei camp recruited tenant farmers to grow rice, wheat and other grains. , has been known as "Hebei's clothes and quilts in the world", and Hebei East Road is called "Silk and Silk State" by Khitan because of its large production of silk fabrics, and they covet its products and manpower.Some officials even said that Hebei's "beauty is as beautiful as Qilu", and suggested that Hebei's taxation should be increased to gradually match the Central Plains and southeastern counties.

At the time of the world, the Liao and Song Dynasties had been at peace for decades. The river was adjacent to the sea in the east, surrounded by rivers and canals, and the water transportation was extremely developed. In the second year of Taiping Xingguo, the imperial court set up business here, and Hejian became the main trading city of the Liao and Song Dynasties. First, commodities from the hinterland of the Central Plains were continuously transported to Hejian through the Yellow River and canals, especially silk fabrics, porcelain, and tea. The rare treasures of rhinoceros horn, ivory, and coral were also transported to Hejian in large quantities by sea boats, where they were unloaded and then diverted to the land for sale to the hinterland of the Liao Kingdom, and even further to the northern barbarian tribes.Shochu, wool fabrics, cattle and sheep leather, mink, fox and bear skin, ginseng, etc. produced in the Liao Kingdom were also collected by land to Hejian, where they boarded ships and were transported to the hinterland of the Song Dynasty, or to commercial centers all over the coast. Port cities, and even sold to the distant Southeast Asia.

Rao has been in peace for a long time, and Hejian is still the most important town on all roads in Hebei.Therefore, since the founding of the Song Dynasty, Hejian Mansion has also been carefully managed. The walls and fortresses have been constantly repaired, and 10 forbidden troops have been stationed all year round. In Hejian City, they have accumulated sufficient military supplies to support an army of [-]. In addition to horse fodder, grain and winter clothes, In addition to armored bows and arrows, there are dozens of iron barrel cannons newly cast by the imperial court, more than [-] firecrackers, and tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder are hoarded in Hejian, waiting for the archers and crossbowmen in the Hebei camp to gradually switch to firearms 'practice.Precisely because Hejian has sufficient reserves and the previous dynasty built a large army camp capable of accommodating [-] people, Tong Guan once announced that the camp would be moved from Daming Mansion to Hejian Mansion, and the army would be able to set off in ten days. No further preparation is required.

It's just that there are nearly [-] more soldiers suddenly, and there will be several times more family members pouring in one after another. The Hejian Mansion, which was already crowded with business travelers, suddenly looks a lot more crowded. Prices have skyrocketed everywhere, and even the grass market outside the city The price of food, vegetables and fruits on the Internet is even more expensive than that of Daming Mansion.For a time, both the local people and the military households in Daying, Hebei who had just migrated here complained, and the merchants with huge net worth made a fortune tacitly, while at the same time they went around anxiously to curry favor with the newly arrived gods.And Tong Guan, who is deployed in the Hebei camp, is also entangled in various entertainments. Apart from beating and subduing the generals and deputy generals in the Hebei camp from time to time, he has no time to pay attention to the person who lives in the camp. The little Taixue in the shogunate learned from Confucianism.

The imperial edict Zhao Xingde came to serve in the army of Hebei without any real dispatch, and Tong Guan did not make any specific arrangements for him.Zhao Xingde took advantage of this loophole, and with the secret support of Hebei gentry and Han Shizhong and other battalion commanders, he managed to run the free school of teaching soldiers in a very impressive way.

At first, in order to attract soldiers to enter the school, Yixue taught military children literacy and reading during the day, and intermittently arranged performances from the North and South opera troupes from noon to dusk. In order to cater to the state of the world, Zhao Xingde is still preaching and dispelling "confusion", and is compatible with various miscellaneous learnings, from literacy, reading and writing, self-cultivation and family management, military books and war strategies, to diet therapy and health preservation, and account book calculations. Thanks to his two lives, he has a lot of storage in his belly, so he can lecture for nearly two hours a day, so that most of the audience who come and go can understand and don't feel bored .

Gradually, the time for singing opera and listening to music in the free school became shorter and shorter. Not only did the number of soldiers who came to the school not decrease, but some aspiring students expected Mr. Zhao to teach more things they had never known.As more and more people came here because of their fame or curiosity, the dilapidated temples originally allocated by the government gradually became insufficient. Zhao Xingde simply formulated a teaching program and recruited several teachers. In addition, several venues were rented, and soldiers who were advanced were organized to teach those who were later.In this chaotic Hejian mansion, the righteous school founded by Zhao Xingde has become a rare sight. It is a good story in several neighboring states, and Zhao Xingde was also added the word "Mr." after his surname by many simple soldiers and civilians.

On this day, the invited theater troupe had just finished singing "Farewell My Concubine", and everyone was sighing, thinking that they were not worthy of being the overlord of Western Chu. His uncle Xiang Liang blamed him, saying that books are enough to memorize names and names. Swords are the enemy of one man, but they are not enough to learn, and they are the enemy of thousands of people. So Xiang Liang did not teach him reading and swordsmanship, but changed his teaching. His art of war eventually became a peerless general. It is a pity that he was defeated by Liu Bang, and the overlord was defeated by Liu Bang.

Then, he started with the analysis of the battle situation of the Chu-Han War, and explained in detail why the overlord of Western Chu, who was victorious in all battles, was defeated in Gaixia in the end. There is no special originality, but to the ears of soldiers who can hardly read a basket, it is almost as clear as the reincarnation of Zhuge Junshi, and some soldiers who are interested secretly remember it in their hearts.

"Under Liu Bang's command, the three generals Han Xin, Ying Bu, and Peng Yue can control the field alone, but no one in the overlord's tent can match it. Even if the arrows 'shot' from a strong bow and hard crossbow, they will lose all their strength in the back, and even the silk cannot be 'shot' through, the defeat of Chu Overlord Gai is also due to exhaustion of power." Zhao Xingde and the crowd The soldiers sighed together, then changed the subject:

"Later, Han Xin, who set up an ambush on all sides, was captured by Liu Bang. Liu Bang asked Han Xin: "How many soldiers can I bring?" Han Xin said: "Your Majesty can lead 10 soldiers." Liu Bang asked again:' Then how much can you bring?" Han Xin said: "The more ministers the better." Liu Bang smiled and said: "Then why were you captured by me?" Han Xin said: "Your Majesty can't lead troops, but he is good at leading generals. reason for staying.I think it is interesting to borrow the words of his monarch and ministers to refer to the reasons for the overlord's defeat. "

After this speech, Zhao Xingde couldn't help feeling a little thirsty, and after he finished speaking, there were other teachers teaching words, Zhao Xingde was about to retreat into the back hall, but he saw Han Shizhong coming out of the hall excitedly, whispering Said: "Then the caravan going to the mutual market in Liao is ready to stop, and it will leave in three days." Zhao Xingde is now considered a gentleman in the river of peaches and plums, and Han Shizhong is not good at openly shouting "scholar, scholar" to him , although he was not as respectful as ordinary soldiers when he spoke, he was also a little more solemn.

"Oh." Zhao Xingde's eyes flashed.In the few months since he came to Hejian, he has seen with his own eyes that families with a little wealth in the north, wearing furs and woolen clothes, drinking wine and eating meat, all come from the Liao Kingdom.Because of local officials' concealment and corruption of the city's tax revenue, the scale of the city was much larger than what the Bianjing court knew, and the transactions involved materials and money often counting in the hundreds of thousands.With frequent and huge amounts of mutual market trade, a border town like Hejian is even more closely connected economically with the Nanjing Road of Liao Kingdom than the Central Plains.This is the case in the market that has been heavily taxed and strictly restricted by the government, so what about the more profitable private goods trading in the Liao and Song Dynasties?Thinking of this, Zhao Xingde couldn't help feeling a little eager to try.

Although he was mentally prepared, the scale of the caravan far exceeded Zhao Xingde's expectation. From Hejian Mansion to the north, mule and horse teams agreed in advance continued to join the caravan.In order to replace the hills and block the paddy fields and forests of the Liao people's cavalry, Da Songyi has been blazed by these mule and horse merchants for countless ways to pass through the brigade.

"It's just that if the Liao people go south, they only need to follow these commercial routes. Not only do they move quickly, but they also avoid most of the military outposts along the way. Of course, these routes are used to sell private goods to earn enough money. Once the North and the South go to war, these routes They are all serious problems for Hebei Junzhou."

Zhao Xingde pointed with his horsewhip at the roads that had been hardened by deep and shallow horseshoes and ruts.Han Shizhong rarely ridiculed him for his unfounded worries, and only sighed in a muffled voice: "Even if there is a big disaster, you and I just have to live in front of our eyes."

The caravan itself had more than a hundred bodyguards brought by the merchants, and more than a hundred volunteer guards from the prefectures and counties were hired. Han Shizhong took fifty riders and scattered far away to detect horse thieves. There were no dangers along the way, so follow Chang The guide of this trade route had just left the territory of the Song Dynasty in two or three days and came to the territory of the Liao Kingdom. Marching westward, I met several groups of sentry cavalry from the Liao army. Thanks to the leader of the caravan, these cavalry did not stay behind and let the caravan go. The big horse doesn't care.