Chapter 236 The Son of Heaven Makes a Decision to Hold the Talisman

Zhao Youju didn't know that Meng Hui and Hu Shida had arrived in the capital, he had too many things to deal with, and he had to balance inside and outside the palace, and his energy was limited, so it was impossible for everyone to keep an eye on him. Although he is very interested in the famous general Meng Hui, but at this time he has no shortage of military talents in his bag for the time being, not to mention the Guards system, that is, the Zhao Kui and Zhao Fan brothers he inherited, although they are young, they are also independent generals.

"Do you think this army military academy is still proper?"

The object of Zhao Heju's questioning was Zhao Shanxiang, who was also Shi Miyuan's party, but after Shi Miyuan's fall, he was not idle like Shi Songzhi, but placed in Huaixi. He has always been diligent, and often has a book to the capital, on the border defense put forward his own opinions, after Zhen Dexiu was released, he helped Zhen Dexiu stabilize the situation between the two Huai, therefore, Zhao and Ju admired him very much. This time, Cui He recommended him to serve as the secretary of the military department, which is not entirely risk-free, and Shi Songzhi's matter has proved that the remnants of the Shi Party are not willing to withdraw from the center of power, and Zhao Shanxiang, as a general of the Shi Party, whether his loyalty is guaranteed has always been a question that some officials in the DPRK and China have been muttering about.

Zhao Shanxiang himself understood this, so he was very diligent after taking office, and he was the one who proposed to transfer Jingxiang officers to rectify in advance, and he also used his influence in the army to suppress a group of voices that expressed dissatisfaction with this. After he took office, in the implementation of military reform, Zhao Heju felt handy, and he no longer had the feeling of being constrained like Yue Ke at the beginning.

"The rest of this place is good, but it's far away from Lin'an City." Although Zhao Shanxiang pandered to Zhao Heju's policies because of his embarrassing background, it didn't mean that he didn't have his own opinions.

The place where they are located is not in Lin'an City, but in the south of Lin'an City, to pass the Kaihua Temple (now Liuhe Pagoda), and requisition part of the people's land, mainly in a valley facing the Qiantang River. After half a year of construction, it has now begun to take shape, with at least a one-zhang high masonry wall, a cement yard for exercise, and dormitories for officers and instructors to stay. This will be a new-style military academy, and Zhao Heju even personally served as the "moral education" instructor of this school despite the opposition of his ministers, specializing in teaching the doctrine of loyalty and patriotism. At the beginning, the ministers only regarded this army officer school as an ordinary martial arts, but when they knew the course to be taught by the Son of Heaven, they suddenly realized that since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the fear of military generals has always been a heart disease of the Great Song Dynasty Emperor Wenchen, and the Son of Heaven himself served as an instructor of the Army Military Academy, which was a very important measure for the Son of Heaven to grasp the military power.

On this issue, the position of Shi Dafu and Zhao Heju is surprisingly consistent.

"It's better to be far away, if you drill artillery, it's too close to Lin'an, I'm afraid it will disturb the people. Moreover, these officers were recruited from all over the country, and they were all independent and unfettered in the local area, and some bad habits were afraid that they would also be brought with them. Staying away from Lin'an is also to protect them from making unnecessary mistakes. Zhao and Ju said.

"Your Majesty." Zhao Shanxiang choked slightly, he was born with soldiers, and naturally knew that this was Zhao Heju's foresight, thought about it, and bowed down to the ground again: "The minister wants to thank Your Majesty for the grace of these generals!" ”

"Why are you doing this?" Zhao Youju pulled him up: "I know that you love soldiers, but I love soldiers more than you." ”

"The warriors of the Great Song Dynasty were humiliated, and those who joined the army had to tattoo the characters, but only the literati were light, and the warriors themselves were also humiliated. Yue Wumu generals, frozen to death without demolition, starvation and death, the people respect themselves like father and brother, if the warriors are like this, why worry about not trusting them? ”

Zhao Heju's words meant something else, Zhao Shanxiang was silent for a while, and then bowed down again: "The minister knows." ”

Nodding, Zhao Heju let out a long sigh, he looked at the Qiantang River in the distance, and saw a small boat from the south of the Yangtze River offshore, struggling and hovering in the water waves, and it took a lot of effort to reach the north of the river, and he couldn't help but move in his heart.

The terrain of Lin'an is narrow, has gathered more than 1 million people and nearly 2 million people, and now can not build high-rise buildings in later generations, so it has been very remote, to the west is the West Lake, to the east, to the south is the Qiantang River, so it can only develop to the north. However, if a bridge is built over the Qiantang River to connect the north and south, not only will the transportation be more convenient, but the city will also have a lot of room for expansion.

In addition, this is of great help to accumulate experience in the construction of steel bridges, and in the future, for the convenience of transportation, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River will always be built steel bridges.

It's just that it is still very difficult to complete this initiative by relying on the flow of craftsmen, and it is still necessary to mobilize skilled craftsmen from all over the country to work together.

"A bridge flies north and south, and the moat becomes a thoroughfare......"

At present, for the Great Song Dynasty, because of the development of shipping, where there are waterways, transportation is no longer a problem, but land transportation is far inferior to waterway transportation. In order to promote the further development of the Great Song Dynasty, it is essential to establish a more convenient transportation system. Especially in the land of Sichuan and Shu, the difficulty of the Shu road is difficult to go to the blue sky, by blowing up the way of the reef such as the rippling pile, the way to enter the Shu waterway is only one of the methods, the best is to build a plank road, of course, this is probably not a short thing, but now you should accumulate experience for this.

On this tour with Zhao Shanxiang, Zhao and Ju did not make a big splash, so only Li Ye knew that he was with the two, and felt a little uncomfortable, from the position, Zhao Shanxiang was his top boss, but the righteous boy only obeyed Zhao and Ju, and almost ignored others, and Li Ye was used to getting along with Zhao and Ju without outsiders.

"Li Hanfan." When he was thinking nonsense, Zhao Heju greeted him.

"The minister is here."

"How many generals are there now?"

"The commander, marching Sima, defense, and regimental training are sixty-two in total." Li Ye blurted out.

When the two of them asked the right question, Zhao Shanxiang was also secretly observing Li Ye, compared with Zhao Shanxiang, who was over half a hundred years old, Li Ye was very young, and his demeanor was a little restrained. Zhao Shanxiang has been the secretary of the military department for nearly half a year, and he has dealt with Li Ye many times in the middle, and he feels that this young officer is sleek and ruthless, and his exploits in Taizhuang and the bad deeds of killing prisoners twice are clear to Zhao Shanxiang.

"They're all under forty, aren't they?" Zhao Youju asked again.

Therefore, Zhao Heju set an age limit, as long as those under the age of 40 do not need to enter Beijing if they are over 40 years old, and they clearly told them that if they do not enter Beijing for training if they do not have special merits, they will have a gap with the trainees in the future.

In fact, Zhao Youju was discussing with Zhao Shanxiang and Xue Ji, and the future promotion of those who were over 35 years old would be affected. In Zhao and Ju's plan, the Great Song Dynasty would have an elite army of 100,000 people, a local garrison force of 200,000 people, and a reserve force of about 300,000 people, so that the financial burden of the state was not very heavy, and if there was a war, an army of 300,000 could be mobilized at any time without affecting the overall situation. With a force of this scale, compared to the current strength of the Great Song Dynasty, it will be reduced by about 200,000 people, plus the military system is declension, Zhao Heju does not need so many officers at all.

However, the new military system has not yet been fully formulated, and Zhao and Ju are waiting for Ao Sayang's new invention - the musket. During the victory in Taizhuang, Ao Sayang had already produced samples of muskets that could be used in actual combat, but judging from the description in the letters he sent, Zhao Youju was still not satisfied with this primitive musket with an effective range of only about 50 meters, and in his opinion, the improvement of the gunpowder formula and other advances in other aspects such as rifling technology could make the musket have a greater killing range. However, making muskets is different from making cannons, he can't personally command from the side, he can only point out possible problems through letters, plus Ao Sayang's own exploration, judging from Ao Sayang's last letter, he is very close to success.

After the appearance of muskets, the military system must also be changed accordingly, and with musketeers and tactics and tactics that adapt to them, they can be more proactive on the frontier. Zhao and Ju estimated that it would take about half a year for the musket to be finalized and enough guns and ammunition to be produced, and it would take another half a year to train a unit that could skillfully use the musket to fight, and it would take another half a year or even a year for this unit to form combat effectiveness.

"All of them are under forty, and twenty-eight of them are under the age of thirty-five." Li Ye blurted out again.

When Zhao and Ju were in Yuzhang Villa, they emphasized more than once that if they want to achieve their careers, details determine success or failure. Li Ye has a strong sense of dedication, and he is not as complacent as Li Yilao, so he attaches great importance to details.

"I'll see the list." Zhao and Ju stretched out their hands.

Li Ye looked back, then beckoned, and a young Guards soldier ran over with excitement on his face, first saluting Zhao Heju, then Li Ye, and finally Zhao Shanxiang. Zhao Shanxiang smiled, and secretly sighed in his heart, it can be seen from this soldier that the guards are the most loyal to Zhao and Ju personally, followed by the generals in the guards in the forbidden area, and they are not so respectful to the chief officer of the military department of the DPRK.

"The national dynasty has always used literature to control the military, and when Gaozong was in the middle of the rise, the four famous generals were very difficult to control, and Gaozong still managed to remove his military power. The Guards are ...... I have to remind the officials. Zhao Shanxiang thought secretly in his heart, but his thoughts changed: "Cui He is also aware of military affairs, and Ge Hong is the same, the two of them are the chief ministers, and they are the heads of the civil ministers, and they are both deaf and dumb about this matter, if I come out like this, will it make the official family disgusted?" ”

With this scruple, he didn't say it.

The guard handed the list to Zhao Youju, who scanned it and saw Meng Hui's name.

"How old is Meng Heng?"

"Thirty-two."

This age makes Zhao Youju very satisfied, thirty-two years old, just in the prime of life, his military talent has been proven in the history he has traveled through.

But Zhao Youju didn't say anything, just nodded, and then handed the list back to the guard, and asked with a smile: "Who is your surname, and how old is this year?" ”

"The minister's surname is Zheng, his name is Guanqun, the word Zixi, and he was born in the first phase of the primary school and the seventh phase of Yixue! Twenty-one years old! ”

"Zheng Guanqun?" Zhao Youju had an impression of this name, he thought about it, and then smiled: "Aren't you in the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, I remember that your name was in the battle report at the beginning, and Zhao Manqing also praised you for being decisive, generous, and able to do things, and having the demeanor of an ancient good general, why did you return to the Guards?" ”

"After the war in Huating, the minister found that he was still the most suitable minister in the army, so he reported to the guards!" Zheng Guanqun said straightforwardly, hearing that the Son of Heaven not only knew his name, but also remembered his own affairs, his heart was rolling, and he only felt extremely excited.

Zhao Youju glanced at Li Ye, Li Ye scratched his head and laughed. Zheng Guanqun was twenty-one years old, counting the time, he should have been only eleven years old when he first arrived in Liuqiu, and ten years passed in a flash. He has already retired from the army, and when he returned to the army, it must have been Li Ye who helped, but this must first be done if he himself meets the conditions.

"I remember...... One of you has a man named Li Rui in this issue, where is he now? Zhao Youju remembered the blood letter and asked again.

"A Rui is now in Xuzhou and is serving in the Qin Consulate General." Zheng Guanqun said.

"Follow Li Hanfan well, don't learn from his little slippery heads." Zhao Heju patted Zheng Guanqun on the shoulder, and then motioned for him to step back, and Zheng Guanqun bowed again and retreated.

"Your Majesty is right, this kid will definitely be difficult to manage in the future." Li Ye complained and said, "Where is the little slippery head?" ”

"If you don't have a little slippery head, where does your wife come from?" Zhao Heju was somewhat dissatisfied with Li Ye's move of "snatching relatives", and took it out and beat him again: "By the way, your kid is almost a year old, when will you let your lady bring it into the palace, so that the fourth lady and Ayu can also take a look at what the most dishonest Li Hanfan kid in the original issue looks like." ”

"I don't dare." Li Ye scratched his head: "Your Majesty, the courtier's dog is even more naughty than the minister's then, and there are many rules in the palace, so I'm afraid he ......"

", when did I want you to talk about this kind of rule!"

Zhao Shanxiang was very embarrassed, Zhao Youju actually scolded in front of him, his eyes swept over Li Ye's face, Li Ye not only did not show an embarrassed look, but laughed very happily.

"These people were all taught by the Son of Heaven when he was young, such as today's Zi Yuyu, the foundation is stable, their future is limitless, and they are naturally loyal and have no second intentions. Looking at the way the Son of Heaven treats them, they are also like brothers and nephews, and they are also Zhuang and Zhen, not ordinary courtiers. Zhao Shanxiang thought to himself.

"Li Hanfan, I will hand over the matter of this military academy to you, and I will come to give a lecture once a week in person, and the time will be set for Tuesday afternoon." Zhao and Ju said again.

"Yes!" Li Ye stood up straight and replied loudly.

After leaving the army school, on the way back, Zhao Shanxiang was invited to the car by Zhao and Ju, and the two talked for a long time about the military system. When he arrived at the palace gate, Zhao Heju saw Wei Weng coming to greet him with a green face, and his heart jumped.

It's troublesome again, but this time I don't know where it came from.

Note 1: The total number of troops in the Southern Song Dynasty at this time is based on Lu Zuqian's "Detailed Explanation of the System of the Past Dynasties", volume 11, "The Military System": "Today, when the division is not enough, raising soldiers is tantamount to the heyday." The soldiers of Jingkou, Moling, and Ezhu reached 200,000, the guards of Xingdu reached 14 or 50,000, and the guards of Zhuzhouxiang, the forbidden soldiers and their camel grain were more than 200,000, and the soldiers of Shu were also several hundred and twenty thousand, but the soldiers of this world also raised 800,000 soldiers. Ni Si also said: "Today, according to the military status of the world, the guards of the capital, the garrison along the stream, and the division of states and counties, there is no need to worry about 700,000 or 800,000. ”