The main responsibility of the Imperial City Division is to guard, first of all, all the doors of the Imperial Palace are guarded by the Imperial City Division; Tokens and door numbers to enter and exit the palace are also issued and managed by the Imperial City Division.

In the imperial palace, there were generally five cordons extending outward from the emperor's side; It is distributed by the intersection of the Imperial City Division and the classes in front of the palace.

The innermost one, which is the closest to the emperor, is the guard of the Imperial City Division (called the personal servant officer), and the Imperial City Division is not an army; But there are many talented and brave men in it, and some officers are also used to lead them.

This setting is to let the Imperial City Division and the Imperial Front Division restrain each other and prevent changes.

While defending the Imperial City, the Imperial City Division also undertook the security duties of some government agencies.

For example, the Wensi Academy was responsible for the manufacture of utensils in the court, many of which were gold and silver; Therefore, there have always been four relatives of the Imperial City Division under guardianship.

In addition to the above arrangements, the Imperial City Division also has three guards, namely: Xun Guard, Yi Guard, and Personal Guard.

The people who serve in the three guards are all the children of the officials' families, and most of the tasks they undertake belong to ceremonial tasks; However, due to the proximity to the emperor's side, the selection is still very strict.

For example, the guards who stood on both sides of the palace during the court were required to be the children of the harem concubines or the main observer envoys and officials above the bachelor's degree in Hanlin.

There is also an official title of "with imperial equipment", wearing a personal guard with an imperial sword; This is a real guard with a sword in front of the king.

There are not many people with such official positions, sometimes only three or four; There were military attachés and eunuchs, who were generally very close to the emperor and brave people; Sometimes it is also used as a grace title for military ministers.

During the Song Dynasty, imperial power was far less concentrated than in the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor and his close ministers acted with a lot of scruples; The Song Dynasty also had an ancestral system, and it was easy not to kill ministers.

Therefore, the Imperial City Division is only responsible for reconnaissance, and generally does not care about specific cases; In this way, the relevant judicial organs cannot be infringed upon.

The prisoners arrested by the Imperial City Division generally have to be transferred to Kaifeng Prefecture for processing, and they have no jurisdiction to judge and prison.

In this way, the possibility of perverting the law is much smaller, so although the responsibilities of the Imperial City Division are similar to those of Jinyiwei; But it is not so well-known in history, and the harm caused is much less!

After Wang Jien and Lan Caihe participated in Zhao Guangyi's usurpation of the throne, they were installed in the Imperial City Division as the chief and deputy governor; And it's also a guard with a knife.

The head of the Imperial City does not seem to be an official rank, but Song Taizong gave these two the treatment of privy envoys; For the second grade, the level is not low!

Wang Jien has been acting as a guard by Song Taizong's side, and the deputy head Lan Caihe is the actual commander of the Imperial City Division.

Lan Cai and his subordinates have four leaders, namely Jiang Qing, Shen Yang, Han Fei, and Yang Guang.

Jiang Qing, Shen Yang, Han Fei, and Yang Guang are the top masters of the Imperial City Division, and they are also famous in the Jianghu martial arts world; The four of them are absolutely loyal to the manager, Lan Caihe.

Lan Caihe once told Zhao Guangyi that there are four masters in the Imperial City Division: Jiang Qing, Shenyang, Han Fei, and Yang Guang.

Autumn with a golden body, with light steps quietly came to Bianjing City; Song Taizong walked by the Weiyang Lake in the dormitory with a heavy heart, and Wang Jien, Lan Caihe, and more than a dozen guards of the Imperial City Division did not dare to approach it, and stared at the emperor from a distance to protect him.

Weiyang Lake in the dormitory is like an endless calm blue sea, and the strong sunlight shines on the lake like a microwave on the surface of the sea.

On the big tree on the shore of the lake, he knew that he was desperately arguing, and Song Taizong listened to the noisy; I can't help but think of the poems of the Tang Dynasty poet Meng Haoran:

A mound often wants to lie down,

The three paths are bitter and unpaid.

The northern soil is not my wish,

Donglin is pregnant with my teacher.

The gold burns out,

Ambitions are declining year by year.

The cool breeze of the day and the night comes,

Smell cicadas but be sad.

Song Taizong was in a bit of a sad mood, he had been in a flickering light and dark resentment since he took the throne; the defeat in the Battle of the Gaoliang River, the suicide of the emperor's nephew Zhao Dezhao; There are more and more criticisms of him.

Although Lan Cai and the special agents of the Imperial City Division sent out to kill all those who were uncommon to the emperor in the market, he alone could not stop the people from talking about it in secret.

In particular, the imperial nephew Zhao Dezhao committed suicide, and it was rumored that Zhao Guangyi wanted to kill all the people of Taizu.

Zhao Guangyi was nonsensical pacing by the Weiming Lake in reverie, and suddenly saw Wang Jien step forward to report: "Qi Qi Sheng, Prime Minister Lu has something important to see!" ”

Prime Minister Lu is Lu Duoxun, who is a native of Hanoi (now Qinyang City) in Huaizhou, Henan; At the end of the Five Dynasties, Zhou Xiande was raised in the early years of the year (954 AD).

In the winter of the first year of Song Taizu's Kaibao (968 AD), he served as a bachelor of Hanlin; At the beginning of the Taiping Xingguo of the Song Dynasty (976 AD), he worshiped the Chinese scholar Shilang and Ping Zhangshi; Later, he served as the secretary of the military department.

Lu Duoxun is well-versed in history, intelligent and strong, and quick in writing.

History books say that he was a man who was good at figuring out the emperor's mind and was also a talented person, so he was once favored.

Song Taizu is good at reading, and every book is taken from the history museum; Lu Duoxun would ask the scribe for the bibliography of the book and read it first, and when Taizu asked about the book, he would answer it fluently; Taizu has respect for Lu Duoxun.

Under the poke and plucking of the great grandfather, Lu Duoxun became an important minister of the court in the early Song Dynasty, and he was a politician, military strategist, historian, and poet.

This time, Prime Minister Lu reported a happy event to Emperor Taizong - Lu Chengyu, the prefect of Chengdu, escorted 2,000 war horses to Bianjing.

Song Taizong heard Lu Duoxun say that Liang Chengyu, the prefect of Chengdu, escorted 2,000 war horses to the capital, and his mood full of haze suddenly brightened.

A few months ago, he had issued an edict to the Qingshichuan Horse Warden in the southwest corner, saying that the imperial court planned to march north and needed 1,000 war horses; asked Qingshichuan to send 1,000 war horses, who would have thought that Liang Chengyu, the prefect of Chengdu, would personally send 2,000 war horses.

Emperor Taizong was happy when he learned that 2,000 war horses had arrived in the capital, and Lu Chengyu and Wen Tongxiao dared to be young and promising officials was his second joy.

After listening to Lu Duoxun's introduction, Song Taizong praised Lu Chengyu and Wen Tongxiao, saying that such a promising feudal official is really rare.

Song Taizong was very happy and said that he would personally go to Taifu Temple to meet Lu Chengyu; Look at the 2,000 horses they sent.

Lu Chengyu is also a flea on the dog ball, and the purpose of his rush to Tokyo to send the horse is to find Liu Min; But it bumped into Song Taizong.

Song Taizong saw Lu Chengyu, Wen Tongxiao, Ma Xiao, Yun Ye, Lei Ke, and Yu Bo in Taifu Temple, all of them were elegant and heroic, and they were magnificent; I also saw 2,000 war horses with bright hair and fat and strong bodies.

Immediately promoted Lu Chengyu to be the pacification and disposal envoy, and Wen Tongxiao to be the deputy envoy to pacify and dispose of; Ma Xiao, Lei Ke, Yun Ye, Yu Bo, Gongzijian, Yang Heyi and others were all promoted, saying that they would be sent to Yanmen Pass in Daizhou to assist Yang Ye and the Liao people in the war.

The reason why Song Taizong had such an idea was not to avenge the defeat of the Gaoliang River.

Yang Ye was a brave general who was surrendered by Song Taizong during his conquest of the Northern Han Dynasty, and was known as Yang Invincible.

After Yang Ye surrendered to the Great Song Dynasty, Song Taizong attached great importance to him and appointed him as the Daizhou Assassin to lead the Song army to defend Yanmen Pass.

Yang Ye was grateful to Song Taizong's acquaintance for making good use of it, and sent a report to Tang that the Liao army had been on the border; He planned to fight to the death with the Liao army, but the Yanmen Pass war horses were very scarce and hoped for the support of the imperial court.

The 2,000 war horses sent by Lu Chengyu can be described as a relief in the snow, and Song Taizong immediately agreed to Yang Ye to fight a decisive battle with the Liao army at Yanmen Pass; instructed Lu Chengyu and his entourage to saddle horses and send 2,000 horses to Yanmen Pass to support Yang Ye.

Lu Chengyu and his entourage could not disobey the holy order, and after a short rest in the capital; Immediately drive 2,000 horses to Yanmen Pass.

After the defeat of Song Taizong's crusade against Liao, he had to retreat and recuperate; The Liao State was unwilling to give up this God-given opportunity, and Yeluxian of Liao Jingzong drove 100,000 troops south to attack Yanmen Pass.

The predecessor of the Liao State was the nomadic Khitan tribe in the northern grasslands, and five generations later, in the second year of Liang Zhenming (916 AD, when Zhao Kuangyin was not yet born), Yelu Abaoji, who unified the Khitan tribes, became emperor; Establish the imperial state name Khitan.

Twenty years later, the Central Plains was the Later Tang Dynasty; In the third year of the Qing Dynasty (937 AD), the warlord Shi Jingjiao rebelled and borrowed troops from the Khitan State to eliminate the Later Tang Dynasty and establish the Later Jin regime; and ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitan.

At this point, the territory of the Khitan Empire stretched from Lake Baikal in the north, the desert of Central Asia in the west, the Sea of Japan in the east, and the Great Wall in the south to cut into the Central Plains.

Another ten years later (947 AD), Shi Jingjiao's successor, Shi Chonggui, turned against the Khitan; Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang sent troops to Kaifeng to destroy the Jin, and in the same year, Yelu Deguang changed the name of the country to "Da Liao".

After the establishment of the Zhao Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin personally led a large army to the north in the second year of Kaibao (969 AD) and besieged the city of Taiyuan in the Northern Han Dynasty; However, because the Liao State sent troops to help the Han and Song divisions, they returned in vain.

The strength of the Liao State could affect the survival of the neighboring Later Jin and Northern Han Dynasty.

When the brothers Taizu of the Song Dynasty and Taizong of the Song Dynasty successively pacified the secession regimes of Nanping, Houshu, Southern Han, Southern Tang, and Northern Han, they were destined to have a direct showdown with Daliao.

For the Song Dynasty, it was the long-cherished wish of Taizu and Taizong to recover the homeland of Yanyun that was ceded out during the Later Jin Dynasty.

Song Taizu tried to set up a sealed pile warehouse, and the reserve of strategic materials declared: "Shi Jin is profitable, cut Youyan County to bribe the Khitan, so that the people of one side are trapped in the outside world, I am very sympathetic, and I want to save three or five million in the Siku, when the envoy is sent to the other country, if the land and the people are willing to return to me, then this gold and silk will be ordered to be redeemed." If not, I will scatter the stagnant wealth, recruit warriors, and try to capture them, so as to win the battle. ”

Song Taizu's original intention was to save money to redeem the sixteen states of Yanyun, because the people of the sixteen states of Yanyun were all subjects of the Han family in the Central Plains; If it can't be redeemed with money, then use the money you have saved to recruit warriors to take it back by force.

Song Taizong also planned to "recover the swallow thistle at a different time, when it is in the Gubeikou according to its key points, but three or five places, the garrison set up a fort, and the south is herded."

As for the Liao State, its power was so strong that it could conquer the grassland tribes, send troops to destroy the Jin Dynasty, destroy the Bohai Kingdom, and force Goryeo Nagong to become a vassal. Moreover, there were also territorial disputes between the Liao and Song dynasties.

In the Later Zhou Dynasty, Chai Rong of Zhou Shizong had recovered the three prefectures of Yingzhou, Mozhou, and Ningzhou in the sixteen states of Yanyun, and the three passes of Waqiao Pass, Yijin Pass, and Sikou Pass, and this territorial heritage was inherited by Zhao and Song.

This is the so-called "land of Kannan". The Liao State has always used the pretext of retaking the land of Guannan as an excuse to frequently send troops to invade the south.

Therefore, before the "alliance of the Yuanyuan" was reached, the Song Dynasty wanted to go north and the Liao State to go south, and the two sides had been fighting each other.

This is almost the reason why the two East Asian powers, Song and Liao, are enemies of each other......