The snow hasn't completely melted yet, but the weather has started to get warmer.

There are a few tea trees in Bao Zheng's yard, and one morning in early February, Bao Zheng was dressed like a farmer and was carefully tending to his tea trees in anticipation of picking the best first tea leaves. Now if you put your nose closer and smell it, you will feel the fragrance of early spring tea.

Wang Yan had been waiting quietly beside him for about a quarter of an hour, and this time he came to Lao Bao to plan for some other public relations.

"Bao Fu, have you taxed these tea trees?" Wang Yan waited enough, so he coldly stimulated him with this question.

Bao Zheng suddenly had black lines on his face, but in view of his original blackness, the lines on his face were not obvious enough.

Looking at it like this, it's obviously not taxed. Maybe Lao Bao forgot that he was also a tea farmer, and the policy of the Great Song Dynasty was to tax each tea tree, without distinguishing which tea tree was profitable and which was not.

Bao Zheng lost interest at this time, wiped his hands with a handkerchief, and instructed the old butler: "Take these tea trees...... Dig it up and give it to the tea farmers. ”

"Don't, although these are new tea trees, you have taken care of them for many years." The old butler said.

"Take it." After Bao Zheng waved his hand, he pointed at Wang Yan and said, "Come in with the old man and listen to what you have to say." ”

After entering the study, Bao Zhengren opened a bowl of fragrant tea and came out, which smelled very comfortable. Then Lao Bao drank slowly as if he was enjoying it, listening to Da Yan's narration.

When he heard that the big goose was going to divert the Yellow River, Bao Zheng finally squirted out a mouthful of tea and looked at him in horror.

Wang Yan hurriedly said: "Ming Mansion don't be surprised, this matter is imperative." Only in this way can we ensure the security of our Great Song Dynasty maritime strategy, and the navy of our Daimyofu can be ...... No, in fact, Xia Guan refers to the fastest way out of the Bohai Sea for the Marine Police Force without interference. ”

Bao Zhengleng paused, thought about it for a while, and said: "The old man also heard that you have been traveling around in Bianjing recently, looking for a way, jumping up and down to form a water army. Well, no matter what that thing is called, the Marine Police or the Navy, as long as it does not violate the existing military system of the Great Song Dynasty and conforms to the rules of the Privy Council, it is none of the old man's business if you don't ask for additional money from the Third Division. You yourself are a privy councilor, and the old man believes that your consideration and suggestions for the military system of the Great Song Dynasty have been well thought out. ”

"Xie Bao Fu trusts." Wang Yan hurriedly smiled.

Bao Zheng said again: "Then tell me, why is the brain so big that you want to divert the Yellow River?" ”

At this point, Wang Yan unfolded the map that had been prepared and marked in advance, pointed to many places on the map, and explained it with words in his mouth.

Historically, the Yellow River has been diverted too many times and has been flooding all the time. As for whether the harm outweighs the benefit, or whether the benefit outweighs the harm, it is impossible to argue clearly in this era, because the variables are too large.

What is certain is that every time the Yellow River diverts and floods, it displaces some people, and at the same time, it also brings a lot of high-quality arable land to feed another group of people, and at the same time, it has been changing the water transportation system of the ancient dynasties.

After Wang Yan's idea was submitted to the Engineering Academy, under the auspices of Shen Kuo, who had the most experience in river channels, they came to the conclusion that as long as the political problem was solved, even if the yellow powder did not make enough progress, it could forcibly dig a canal and exit the Bohai Sea from the area north of Qizhou.

This area was the Jinan area in later generations. In the historical years, the Yellow River did pass through this area and out of the Bohai Sea, which was really like a tiger for the Great Song Dynasty and the Daimyo Mansion at the hub of the Yellow River.

If it is not interfered, the caliber of the Great Song Dynasty and the Yellow River out of the Bohai Sea during this period is not the southern region, but the Tianjin area (Jixian County) in the north.

It is a little farther to go this way, but the impact on the entire water transport process is not great, and what is fatal is strategic security. Now the Jixian area is the Song-Liao border, which is extremely sensitive. It is impossible for ships of a military nature to go, and merchant ships can but also face a complicated situation, and once something goes wrong, the Song army of Hejian Province will not be able to effectively intervene and protect it.

At present, the Industrial Party headed by Wang Yan believes that once the diversion of the Yellow River is artificially completed and the mouth of the sea from the Daimyofu to Jinan is opened, the strategic security situation of the Great Song Dynasty will be completely reversed. Because the "navy" of the daimyo government can intervene in the situation in the Bohai Sea in the shortest possible time.

In addition to military use, it can also greatly alleviate the transportation pressure of the Dengzhou section of the railway in the future, forming a lifeline trade route connecting the Daimyofu, Bianjing, and overseas through the dual channels of water and land.

After listening to Da Yan's explanation for nearly two hours, Bao Zheng didn't speak for a long time. To be honest, the little devil's goals and ideals are very ambitious, it's not all nonsense, and it really shocked Bao Zheng.

After a while, Bao Zheng twisted his beard and said: "The old man also said that it is not very good, it should be feasible purely from the level of the three divisions." The only problem is politics, the river is the lifeline for the people of this era, and the Yellow River basin involves a very large group of inherent interests, so you privately divert the Yellow River, in addition to affecting a group of people in my territory, it is more like challenging the core interests of Liao. There is a high probability that this will lead to a full-scale war between the great powers. ”

Wang Yan said: "At this point, the lower officials have already weighed it, and this has to be divided into several steps." The first step is to completely freeze the policies of Qizhou and Dezhou for the passage of the canal from the level of the three divisions, and there must be no land annexation and transfer before the implementation of the canal strategy, otherwise the cost of the canal will be too great and stillborn. The second step is to complete the excavation and dredging of the canal in a low-key situation without water diversion in two to three years. The third and second steps will be carried out at the same time, in addition to freezing the planning of the rivers and canals in the north written by Lu Gong of the Ministry of Industry, and gradually solving the problems of the people living in the Yellow River valley in the north in terms of civil administration and people's livelihood in advance, and gradually completing the transfer of their industries, household registration, and jobs in batches. If the above three steps can be taken well, within about three to four years, the Great Song Dynasty has accumulated the confidence not to be afraid of the Liao State. It is no longer subject to whether the Liao State is happy or not, as long as we want, we can directly blow up the fork of the Yellow River at the boundary of the Daimyo Mansion and let the Yellow River be diverted. ”

Speaking of which, Xia Guan has also calculated that the estuary of the Yellow River in Jixian County will not bring much benefit to the people's livelihood of Liao, because they basically have no sea trade, and even if they do, they will not use it. Because in the same way, he will not put the lifeline in a place where the Song army can intervene quickly. In this case, we blew up the fork of the Daimyo's Mansion and diverted the Yellow River, which did not harm the interests of the Liao State, and he would at most be in a selfish and jealous state of mind, and wanted to block my Great Song Dynasty. ”

At this point, the officials can be sure that this is not their core interest, and since it is not, there is room for compromise. At most, it was only a military confrontation, and whether it caused a war depended on the size of the Song State at that time. If the volume is large, it is not easy to provoke, and it is not for the core interests, of course the Liao State will not fight, because Yelu Hongji is only young but not a fool. Wang Yan concluded.

Bao Zheng suddenly asked, "What if he really makes a mistake?" ”

Wang Yan pointed to the map and said: "Don't be afraid if you really make a mistake, in three to four years, my Great Song Dynasty's steel-mixed offensive on the border defense will reach a certain scale, and there will be a certain number of heavy artillery deployments across the river, it is certain that he is a muddy crime, and he will not be able to fight in the short term." However, at that time, the delivery capacity of our Great Song Dynasty had undergone a qualitative change, and our navy could directly supply from the Daimyofu and Dengzhou, and at that time, the Nanjing Road of the Liaoguo State, the Zhongjing Road and the Liaoyang Mansion were all within the radiation range of the Great Song Marine Corps. ”

At this point, Wang Yan said word by word: "The conclusion is that of course the Great Song Dynasty will pay the price, even if the decisive time is not ripe, but as long as the Liao State dares to start a war, I will dare to follow the card, and use this fuse to make the sixteen states reclassified into my Great Song Dynasty." ”

Lao Bao couldn't help but listen with his mouth half-open.

But this is the entire Bohai strategic plan of Dayan. Controlling the Bohai Sea is tantamount to monopolizing the entire East Asian maritime trade in this era, and it can definitely push the proportion of the gross domestic product of the Great Song Dynasty to more than sixty percent of the earth, and at the same time it is also an auxiliary strategy to recover Yanyun.

Bao Zheng was speechless after thinking for a moment, feeling that he was really old, and waved his hand in a low voice: "The third division is not responsible for the estimation of the overseas strategy of the Great Song Dynasty, but the old man trusts the judgment of you, a famous strategist, in this regard." In principle, the three divisions can support the support of the civil administration and land policies that you have requested, the measures to kill the land and household registration in the state of Qizhou, and the policy of unlocking the daimyo from the northern river basin. But the rest of the problems involve the Ministry of Industry under the Zhongshu Gate, and it is difficult to unify the political policies of the Great Song Dynasty, so you have to solve them yourself, and the old man can't help. ”

"Okay, do things one by one, and if you can get the approval of the Ming government, the lower officials have already felt honored and trusted, so they will leave."

The words are not sweet, and Lao Bao has been delayed for a long time, and the land and household registration policies designed in this strategy have in principle been initially supported by the three divisions, so Da Yanguo left......