Yunwang Mansion, study.

Tong Guan and Zhao Kai's secret conversation continues.

Tong Guan, an old traitor, not only didn't realize the reality that he was a traitor, but also fantasized that he could be loyal and good in the annals of history, and then get a good reputation, and finally buried himself in the soil.

So he saw that Zhao Kai, who he had fully supported, showed his true face as a "Li Shimin type", and immediately saw the hope of being a loyal and good person. After dispersing today, he found an excuse to find out the truth from Zhao Ji, and then took advantage of the night to confide in Zhao Kai.

And the heart he made to Zhao Kai is of great significance to Zhao Kai, who is new to the city and does not know the history of the Song Dynasty!

"The Lone King understands!" Zhao Kai nodded lightly, "What Taishi means is that if the Northern Expedition wants to win, it is not enough to rely on tens of thousands of Western troops alone, and the officials and people of Hebei must contribute money and efforts together!" ”

Isn't this the truth of the people's war! Zhao Kai immediately understood. Although it was not taught in the "Four Great Soldiers' Book", it was taught in the school, but I didn't expect it to work in the Song Dynasty.

"The king is wise!" Tong Guan said, "In fact, when we fought against the Western Thieves in Shaanxi, we also contributed together by the military and civilian officials and gentry, and did not rely only on the forbidden army. On the northwestern border, the forbidden army is only one of the armies, not the only one capable of fighting. In addition to the forbidden army, there are archers and soldiers along the border, and they are all soldiers who can fight, and their strength is not under the forbidden army. ”

"Archers and soldiers along the border ......" Zhao Kai muttered for a moment, and remembered again, "Their strength is not small!" ”

The so-called "archers" do not refer to archers who draw bows and shoot arrows, but a kind of militia in the northwest border area of the Song Dynasty. This kind of militia began to appear in large numbers in the various pacification envoys in the northwest after the rise of the party, and they are local armed forces under the jurisdiction of the pacification envoys. These militiamen were not paid for their salaries, but were given official land near the border for cultivation by the pacification envoys. In Shaanxi, where the land is more relaxed, an archer can get about 200-250 acres of land. The 250 acres of land were of course exempt from tax, and the archers themselves and a certain number of their families were exempt from forced labor. Although the land in the northwest is barren, the number of 200-250 acres is not small, and the benefits of family exemption are enough to attract strong men from all walks of life in the northwest to recruit archers, and the archers can rely on those lands, as well as the rewards and booty they often get from going to war with the army, and they can also have no worries about food and clothing.

In addition, because these archers along the border often fought at home, and their wives and children were behind their homes, they often behaved very tenacious, even surpassing the serious Northwest Forbidden Army (that is, the Western Army).

And the commanders and generals of all roads along the northwest also know that these archers can fight, so every time there is a big battle, a considerable number of archers will be directly incorporated into the main force, so that they can charge into battle like the regular Western army! In this way, the strength of the Northwest Forbidden Army has been magnified - the number of these border archers is quite a lot, and there are more than 100,000 border archers along the five border roads (not counting the Yongxing Military Road) in Shaanxi!

In addition to the archers along the border, the Northwest Forbidden Army also has a group of reliable helpers, the so-called Fan Bing. The Fan soldiers were the armies of the Western Fan (Tubo) or other tribes loyal to the Song Dynasty, and the Zhejia Army, which had led the prefecture for generations, was the most outstanding representative of them.

Tong Guan then said: "In addition to the archers and soldiers, the Fusi along the five roads along the border of Shaanxi and the prefectures and counties below are good at mobilizing the people to help the western army transfer military rations and build cities because they have been in wartime for a long time.

Therefore, when the Northwest Forbidden Army fought in Shaanxi, the left and right were assisted by archers and soldiers, and there were countless people behind them to transport and build castles, and they were by no means alone.

But the situation in Hebei is completely different. Hebei has been peaceful for a long time, and even the local garrison has been decayed, let alone others? When the Northwest Forbidden Army arrived in Hebei, not only did it lose its archers and soldiers, but it was also difficult to mobilize the people who were responsible for transporting and building fortresses, so it could be said that it was a lone army! Relying on 70,000 or 80,000 years of continuous warfare, the lonely army, which has long been exhausted, wants to defeat the Khitan, which has become a poor man, of course, it is very difficult...... Now the king is about to go to Hebei to lead the troops, but he must learn the lessons of the old ministers, and he can't fight alone! ”

After listening to Tong Guan's words, Zhao Kai was already frowning a little, "Taishi, I'm afraid it's not easy to be alone in Hebei, right?" ”

Tong Guan smiled bitterly and said, "The old minister has nothing to do, but the king always has some way." ”

"Please advise the Grand Master."

"If you don't dare to advise, just say some lessons!" Tong Guan looked at Zhao Kai and said, "The Great Song Dynasty ancestor system does not kill scholars...... Therefore, civil officials are difficult to govern, and civil officials with a background (jinshi) are even more difficult to govern. After the king arrived in Hebei, if possible, he used more military resources to govern the place. If this military capital is not effective, the king can still engage in military law, and if the civil capital is wrong, what can the king do with them? These people can't fight or kill, they can only coax well, how can they fight? ”

Zhao Kai nodded lightly, but somehow he thought of Qin Hui in his heart. Qin Hui is a literary resource! It seems that you can't just find a reason to get rid of ...... I have to get ironclad evidence that he betrayed the country!

"This king has been taught," Zhao Kai made up his mind and asked again, "I don't know if the Taishi has any other good words to say?" ”

"There are no good words in Jinyu," Tong Guan sighed, "but some lessons from defeat...... The Western Army was unreliable, and the victorious army was not of great use. If the king wants to achieve great things in Hebei, he can't count on them, but he has to train new soldiers!

And if the king wants to train a truly useful recruit, he needs to keep two things in mind. First, the more soldiers recruited, the better! The second is that the smaller the better!

The soldiers of the country, simple and daring to fight, honest and reliable, far better than those soldiers of the Western Army.

And the young general, the newborn calf, is full of vitality, eager to win, brave and daring to fight, compared to the old man and other old generals, I don't know how much stronger. Of course, Lao Chen knew that there were still two or three veterans available in Hebei...... Yang Weizhong is counted as one, and Liu Yan of the Red Heart Team is also counted as one. ”

Tong Guan is really digging out his heart!

The "three don'ts" he proposed to Zhao Kai now are really good words.

These three don'ts, one is not to be a civil servant - not to be a scholar, but to use as few civilian officials as possible. The second is not to be a veteran, Tong Guan himself is a veteran, of course, he knows that most of the veterans are old foxes, and there are a lot of calculations, and they can't do things at all. The third is not to want veterans, most of the veterans are soldiers, and they are not good at training for war, and they are all good at stealing and playing tricks.

Zhao Kai pondered for a while, and found that the troops at hand seemed to be mainly veterans, but most of the generals were still relatively young, and only He Guan was old. In addition, there are not many civil servants who are difficult to serve, and at the moment there are only two people, Qin Hui and Chen Ji.

"What the master said, the lonely family remembered it!" Zhao Kai said with a smile, "Although Taishi is a veteran and unusable, Taishi, you are a lonely one...... Lonely will play to the official family tomorrow, how about asking the Taishi to go to Hebei together? ”

"By no means, the old minister can't leave the official house now." Tong Guan came to Zhao Kai today, of course, to find a way back for himself, but now is not the time for him to leave.

Tong Guan said: "Although the old minister is old, after all, he has been a soldier for twenty or thirty years, and he still knows how to hold on to Kaifeng Mansion!" ”

"Then here in Kaifeng Mansion, there is Master Lao." Zhao Kai thought for a while, and then said, "Master Lao persuaded my father to stick to it as much as possible, and never abandon the throne and run away!" ”

"The old minister knows the measure," Tong Guan paused, "The king had better set off as soon as possible...... Today's Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo is already a place of right and wrong. ”

"Lone Zheng wants to leave as soon as possible!" Zhao Kai said, "When Gu went to Mu Huogang and chose a horse, and then took the property hidden inside, he immediately left." ”

Tong Guan thought for a while, "The money will definitely be sent tomorrow or the day after tomorrow...... As for the horses and the soldiers who raised horses, the old minister could go for the king, and the old minister happened to go to Mu Huogang to drive all the horses there into the city. ”