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Regarding Wang Hao's establishment of the Jingfu Room and then the exclusive Jingfu Fang, Li Xijing, a member of the military department, raised questions, and he said to Wang Hao: "The duty that should be served is not the pre-expectation of the prime minister. Shangshu and Privy Council both have military rooms, which are enough to govern Xinjiang affairs, what is the care? ”

Wang Hao was very unhappy when he heard this, and held a grudge against Li Xijing in his heart, and Li Xijing started his cold bench career because of these words.

Cai Jing was also very dissatisfied with Wang Hao's establishment of the Jingfu Room, although he had already paid tribute to the official, but he still paid close attention to the affairs of the imperial court - when Cai Jing heard that in order to recover Yanjing, the imperial court would levy a free husband fee per capita for the whole country, he couldn't help but weep.

Wang Hao and Cai Jingjing were selected by Zhao Ji to be prime ministers because they were good at managing money, but their financial management concepts and paths were very different - Cai Jing mainly used various means to get money from the rich and businessmen, with many tricks and ingenious methods. Wang Huang collected money from all members of society regardless of category, and his methods were simple and crude.

One day, Cai Jing entered the palace and said to Zhao Ji: "The old minister heard that now the three provinces have set up a Jingfu house, and everyone has to pay free money to it, is this true?" ”

Zhao Ji asked, "Is there anything wrong with this?" ”

Cai Jing said with tears in his eyes: "Isn't this taking money from the people's rice bowls? This is not the right way, and it is also detrimental to the image of His Majesty. Your Majesty Shengren, Ze and the four seas, but when the minister of the court, this move is not for the sake of His Majesty, nor for the sake of the Great Song Dynasty! ”

Zhao Ji was silent after hearing this.

In fact, Zhao Ji also faintly heard that some local officials forced the people to pay money in order to complete the task targets issued by the Jingfu Fang, and in order to obtain political achievements, which made the people's resentment boil.

This made Zhao Ji understand that the collection of free money is indeed a policy that harms the people.

However, the wood has already been completed, the raw rice has been cooked, and it is too late to correct it.

Zhao Ji could only tell Cai Jing about the difficulties of the imperial court, and encouraged Cai Jing again.

At this point, it was useless for Cai Jing to say anything, he could only wait and see how things developed.

As for Cai still asking for soldiers, it is designated that there is no such thing, and there are soldiers and Cai still cannot be given them.

In the end, despite Tong Guan's strong opposition, with the overwhelming support of Wang Hao, Cai You, Liang Shicheng and others, Zhao Ji still allowed Cai to expand his army on his own according to the actual situation.

In this way, only the next strategic goal of the Jinwu Army remains.

In this regard, the Northern Song court was divided into two factions.

One faction is led by Tong Guan, who advocates fulfilling the alliance with the Jin State, temporarily stopping the attack, waiting for further communication with the Jin State, waiting for the Northern Expeditionary Army to go north, and Yanyun to recover together.

The other faction was led by Gao Yu, Cai You and others, who advocated that the fighter plane was fleeting, and if it was not seized immediately, it would be too late to regret it, and that they should immediately go to Yunzhou, and then take the entire territory of Yundi, and then attack Yanjing with the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Tong Guan.

The two factions are at loggerheads.

Zhao Ji was also a little undecided for a while.

Later, Wang Hao went to Zhao Ji alone and said: "Official, if the champion Hou can get the whole territory of Yundi, as long as he is given some time, he will be self-sufficient, and he does not need the imperial court to take a lot of trouble to transport grain and materials to him from Shu or the southeast, not only that, maybe he will be able to support Yandi in the future, but more importantly, if the champion Hou and Tong Taishi attack Yanjing, Yandi will be easily recovered." And if you don't let the champion Hou continue to attack, on the unobstructed Yanbei Plain, the champion Hou is difficult to defend, not to mention, they still need the imperial court to support them all the time, it is too hard for the people to lose money, and if this goes on for a long time, the ministers are afraid of endless troubles. ”

As soon as Wang Hao said this, Zhao Ji, who had been tossed and scared by Fang La, immediately felt a pang in his heart!

Although Zhao Ji has such and such problems, he is not a stupid person, so he understands that Wang Hao's words are not alarmist.

Zhao Ji hesitated a little and said: "But if we let Champion Hou continue to attack, where can we get troops for him?" With the little courage he recruited in Yanyun, can he succeed? ”

Of course, Tong Guan can't say that he didn't let Cai still continue to attack because he was worried that Cai would still become stronger and bigger, and he could only resolutely oppose Cai still continuing to fight on the grounds that Cai still had insufficient troops to regain Yundi and barely attack.

In fact, Tong Guan didn't expect that Cai would really dare to start a war against the Liao State with 50,000 or 60,000 horses.

In Tong Guan's mind, no matter how much the Liao Kingdom declined, it would not be so vulnerable, and it was impossible for anyone to dare to provoke the dignified Liao with this point.

In Tong Guan's original plan, after Cai still arrived in Hedong, he could only wait there for an opportunity, and wait for him to attract the main force of the Liao State to Yandi, and then launch an attack on Yundi.

You must know that when Cai was still leaving Beijing, Zhao Ji and Tong Guan both said this to Cai Ying, so that Cai still waited for the opportunity to move.

Which Cheng thought, Cai was still stunned, as soon as he arrived in Yundi, before the grain and grass materials were transported to the front line, he decisively launched an attack on the Liao State.

The key is that Cai still captured Ying, Shuo, and Wei in one fell swoop, completing the first phase of the strategic goal.

In this way, Tong Guan and Da Song Jia were roasted on the fire!

Wang Hao also knew that Cai was still short of troops.

After hesitating for a moment, Wang Hao said tentatively: "Otherwise, let's change the original battle plan and recover the cloud land first?" ”

No, Zhao Ji shook his head decisively and said, "No." ”

is still the same thing, in Zhao Ji's heart, Yundi is just the icing on the cake, not necessarily needed, Zhao Ji is bound to get only the throat of Yandi, the throat of the North China Plain, which is the most suitable frontier for the Great Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhao Ji will never be shaken by the change in the situation.

Wang Hao thought for a while and said, "Then you can only give the choice to the champion Hou and let him depend on the situation." ”

Zhao Ji's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said in his heart: "This is good!" If Cai can still recover the cloud land for me with 50,000 or 60,000 horses, it will be good. If Cai is still unable to recover Yundi because of the lack of numbers, it is not bad to maintain the status quo and wait for further opportunities. If Cai still can't hold Yunnan and retreats to Hedong, although it is a pity, it is not unacceptable. If the Jurchens are held accountable...... I can also put all the blame on Cai ......"

The more he thought about it, the more Zhao Ji felt that this was a good idea, so Zhao Ji didn't discuss it with others, so he wrote the four words "act cheaply" in his own hand, and then sent someone to send it to Cai Ying.

……

It wasn't until the end of February that Cai finally sent all the things he wanted to transport to Yundi to Yingzhou.

As for the grain, grass and materials transported by the Zhao and Song courts, Cai still couldn't wait, so he could only leave Chen Yu and Hu Shi to continue to transport grain and materials to Yundi.

Soon, Cai still led the Jinwu Central Army, the Jinwu Right Army, and the Jinwu Rear Army to Ulzhou.

Cai still did not go to Yingzhou, the core of Yunnan, but came to Ulzhou first, because Cai was still the most uneasy about Ulzhou from the bottom of his heart.

Both Yingzhou and Shuozhou have experienced public trials, land and grain distribution, and grievance education, and have a very good public base in Yingzhou and Shuozhou.

This is not difficult to see from the fact that the people of Yingzhou and Shuozhou responded positively to the call and actively followed Qiu Yi, Guo Yong and others to farm and resume production.

If this is not obvious enough, more than 10,000 people in each of the two places enthusiastically joined the Jinwu Army as recruits of the Jinwu Army, which is enough to show the success of Cai and his gang in Yingzhou and Shuozhou.

Only took the initiative to surrender to Ulzhou, to be precise, the people in Ulzhou City, on the surface, they were polite to the people sent by Cai Ying, but behind the scenes, they were constantly in tandem, which did not reassure Cai Ying.

Not only Cai is still not at ease, but the civil officials under Cai are also worried, and even, Bao Kang and others, who are more murderous, see that the people in Ulzhou City are so ignorant of how to raise their attitudes, and they all persuade Cai to still hold a public trial in Ulzhou City and kill those who are "extremely evil".

It may be possible to defeat a nation with a sword or a bow, but it is not possible to conquer the soul of a nation, especially if the other party is a powerful nation with a glorious history.

So, you can't conquer the world by killing unless you can kill them all.

One might say, "Kill them all."

Those who say this may not understand that slaughter can deter for a while, but it cannot deter a lifetime, let alone forever.

Like the Great Mongolia, which slaughtered a quarter of the world, it did not completely conquer even a single nation, and disintegrated in only fifty-three years, after only two generations of emperors.

Moreover, when the Great Mongol State existed, there were constant internal wars, and the rebellion almost never stopped, and Temujin and Möngke fought and fought peacefully until their deaths, and hardly rested.

In contrast, the British Empire's combination of appeasement was much better, it existed much longer, was much more internally stable, its territory was much larger, and many of the countries and peoples it conquered remembered as "gentlemen", such as India.

Of course, there are many places in the Great Mongolia that are inferior to the British Empire, not only because the Great Mongolia relies on killing to deter other ethnic groups, but also because there are many objective factors, such as the complex terrain within its borders, backward transportation, many ethnic groups, different levels of social development, and different languages and cultural traditions, so it is impossible for it to achieve complete unification, and from the time it was born, it cannot avoid the fate of disintegration and collapse.

All in all, Cai still doesn't think that he can conquer the world by killing alone.

Therefore, killing was never Cai Zhen's only option.

Therefore, as soon as he left Taiyuan, Cai still came to Ulzhou......

……