Chapter 260: Disaster Arises Invisible United States

The reason why he would ask for the transfer of troops into Lin'an was because the information from the "Red Thunder" made Zhao and Ju judge that there might be an abnormal movement in the north.

It's the season of spring flowers, and seeing that it's about to enter early summer, Cui He, who is most afraid of the cold, has also become active, and Zhao Youju has come to take the sheep more and more. Zhao and Ju's sons and daughters are all learning to walk, and they will "giggle" and run around the garden with crazy laughter, Zhao and Ju are strictly forbidden to nurses to hold them, only Zhao and Ju themselves and the Queen Mother, Yang Miaozhen, Han Yu and Cui have the right to hold them.

Zhao and Ju didn't want their children to grow up in the hands of the women of the deep palace, but hoped that they could fall a few more times and be stronger.

"Don't, my beard!"

Cui He likes to hug children, and the two children are also happy to pluck his beard, and just now the little bell took advantage of his carelessness to tear a beard from his face, giggling very loudly. Choi had to let her go, and taking advantage of the opportunity of him covering his face and crying out in pain, the little bell ran quickly to his younger brother and showed off his beard in front of him.

Xiao Mengjun looked at the beard in his sister's hand very greedily, and then glanced at Cui He, as if he was calculating how to pluck one from Cui He's face. Cui He hurriedly stood up, not letting this naughty child reach his beard, and then turned to Zhao Youju: "Your Majesty, the princess pulled another beard from the old minister, and the minister heard that Cui from Goryeo gave dozens of thousand-year-old ginseng to His Majesty, and asked His Majesty to give the minister ten or eight, so that the minister can raise his beard." ”

"You old man, I only got eight out of ten, give you one, and take the rest to honor the queen mother and concubine." Zhao Youju said with some dissatisfaction: "Your beard has to be raised with thousand-year-old ginseng, and it is extremely precious to think about it. ”

Listening to Zhao and Ju muttering, Cui He squinted his eyes and smiled, the two of them have cooperated for more than two years, and sometimes, Cui He feels that he is not facing the son of Shengming, but rather a disobedient but filial son. Of course, he didn't dare to express this kind of thought: the Son of Heaven respects you, that is the cultivation of the Son of Heaven, and if he loses his manners, it is his own vanity.

"Cui Qing, I got the news that my younger brother of the emperor of the Jin Kingdom, as well as the Emperor Menghu Tuolei in the north, are now a bit of a hook-up."

After the joke was over, Zhao Heju's face straightened, and the nurse immediately came up to take Meng Jun and the little bell away. The two children were still a little reluctant, but they were carefully coaxed by the nurse, and they never cried. Zhao and Ju Mu sent the two out of the courtyard, and waved to them, Xiao Mengjun didn't understand a little, but Xiao Bell knew that this was his father saying goodbye to himself, so he also learned to wave his hand.

Cui He rubbed his chin vigorously and shook his head: "This is also what it should mean, then the lord of the Jin Kingdom can be regarded as patient." ”

With the current situation of Song and Jin, the national strength of the two countries has changed so much, and it is really surprising that Wanyan Shouxu can abide by the covenant for three years.

"I hesitated." Zhao Youju said slowly: "I'm wondering if it's time to recover the Central Plains. ”

This is indeed not the best time, in Zhao Heju's original plan, it should be another two years, that is, five years after he was in power, at this time, the soldiers are already fine, the equipment is also fully ready, he can go all out, directly break through Bianliang, and recover the Central Plains homeland. But judging from the information he has received so far, the lord of the Jin State has secretly mobilized a large army to the border, and he will not react again, for fear that he will be caught off guard.

"Your Majesty, why did the Guards take Xuzhou three years ago and not continue to march?" Choi asked.

"First, the opposition of the government and the opposition, second, the emptiness of the treasury, third, the shortage of manpower, and fourth, the desire not to create more military disasters and killings." Zhao Youju replied without hesitation.

"Now that our Great Song Dynasty newspaper industry is developed, as long as the pros and cons of the war are clarified through the newspaper, there will be no opposition from the government and the opposition; Now Liuqiu and Xuzhou, there are hundreds of thousands of talented people who have cultivated talents in the past three years, which is enough to control the Central Plains; There is no way in the Jin country, and many people have fled, and His Majesty hangs the people for the crime, how can he create more disasters and killings? Cui Yiyi said: "The only thing to worry about is the national treasury, although there was a surplus of 40 million yuan last year, it was only ......."

Zhao Youju nodded deeply, indeed, half of last year's surplus of 40 million guan has been included in the budget as rewards and compulsory education expenses. Moreover, the war together costs money and food, and I am afraid that it cannot be completed by one or two million or twenty million. In addition, after the war started, if it could be ended quickly, then the losses could be reduced, but if the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State resisted stubbornly and the war dragged on for a long time, it would also be a major damage to the commercial interests of the Great Song Dynasty.

Therefore, if you want to fight, you must fight quickly.

"Nine times out of ten, if the world is unsatisfactory, if it is another two years, my Great Song Dynasty will be able to strike a thunderous blow, break the Jin Kingdom in one fell swoop, and restore the old land." Cui He sighed, and then said: "But the treasury is not what the minister is most worried about, and the minister's worry is not in the Jin Kingdom but in Menghu." ”

Zhao Youju nodded, and Cui Heju thought of it with him again.

"If you want to win, it won't happen overnight." Zhao Youju frowned.

Although this is something that Zhao Yoju and Cui He don't want to see, however, things are inevitably going in this direction. Just when Zhao Youju and Cui He were worried about this matter, Wanyan Heda was at the west gate of Bianliang and watched a team of envoys go out of the city.

The monarchs and ministers of the Jin State understood that the Song people must have deployed a lot of spies in Bianliang City, so the envoys sent by the Song Dynasty were nominally sent to the Western Xia, but in fact turned north halfway, crossed the Yellow River, passed through the defense area of the monk Wanyan Chen, and then entered the area under the strict control through the tacit agreement reached with Yan Shi before, and then turned to Liaoyang.

The envoy set out on March 16 of the third year of Yanhuang, and experienced many twists and turns along the way, including encountering interceptions by bandits and stragglers, until May 10, which took nearly two months to reach Liaoyang.

When he received the news of the arrival of the envoy of the Jin State, Tuo Lei was very happy, and immediately summoned Polu, Li Quan, and others to meet with the envoy of the Jin State immediately.

"No, Your Majesty is not in a hurry to do so."

Under the tent of Tuolei, the age of the ministers is generally young, Li is nearly forty a year, which is already considered a big one, like Polu, Shi Tianze, etc., all of whom are about thirty years old. But it was not them who spoke first, but the youngest Li Rui. Hearing that he couldn't wait to come out and oppose meeting with the envoys of the Jin State, both Tuo Lei and Polu were a little surprised.

"Your Majesty, the purpose of the envoys of the Jin State is not to be known." Li Rui sneered with disdain on his face: "The monarchs and ministers of the Jin Kingdom originally made friends with the Song State when they saw the former emperor's soldiers, and tried in vain to join the Song Dynasty to resist me, but now when they see that the Song State is powerful, they will make friends with my Dayuan, but they just want to repeat the old trick and use the power of my Dayuan to fight against the Song State for him." ”

"The Song country is powerful, my Great Yuan and Jin Kingdom, I am afraid that neither country can support it alone." Tuo Lei has a very clear understanding of the balance of power of the three kingdoms, and he said behind his back: "Now that the Jin Kingdom has taken the initiative to repair it, why not push the boat along the water?" ”

"Your Majesty, the Jin State and the Song State have an alliance, and now that the alliance is broken, the Song State will definitely take the opportunity to cut down Jin, and the Song and Jin wars together, the Jin State will come to my Dayuan for help, will my Dayuan save it or not?" Li Ruijin admonished: "To save is to sacrifice for the Jin country with the warriors of my Great Yuan, and if you don't save it, you will let the Jin country be annexed by the Song Dynasty, and the time for the death of the lips and teeth is not far away." ”

"I don't understand this, it's a matter of time before the Song Kingdom invades gold, instead of waiting for the Song Kingdom to find the right time to take the initiative, why don't we take the initiative to attack now?" One of the people in the hall retorted.

"I am the elite of Dayuan, it is better to be cold than hot, at this time, I will go south to fight with Song, it will not be long before the heat is unbearable, and there will be a disease in the army, so what can I do?" Li Rui retorted: "What's more, the Song State is sitting on the danger of the river, and with the power of the Song State's water division, how can my Great Yuan cross the river to attack it?" Confronting the Song State across the river, what is the benefit of Yu Guo? ”

This is indeed a problem, after more than two years of rest, Meng Yuan's strength has recovered a lot, especially here, because Li Quan is dedicated to gathering wealth in the fields, so he is very sufficient in terms of food and salary, and in the past two years, he has recruited the rest of the small tribes on the grassland, but he has also gained a lot. However, no matter how much the strength was restored, it did not return to the level of the Temujin era, and most of the Mengyuan soldiers were afraid of heat and did not practice water warfare, so it was indeed not a good idea to go south at this time.

Therefore, after Li Rui said this, the hall fell silent.

"And what do you say you should do?" After a long time, Tuo Lei asked again.

Li Rui unhurriedly took out a newspaper and presented it to Tuo Lei: "This is the newspaper that the minister has recently seen, Your Majesty, please take a look at this." ”

Following what Li Rui pointed out, Tuo Lei looked at the article, he read it for a while, and felt that he didn't understand it, so he asked a close minister who knew Chinese characters to read it to him. It turned out to be a piece of news from the Three Gorges, saying that after the weather became warmer, through the efforts of the residents of the Three Gorges, the reefs that affected shipping were finally blasted, and since then more than 20,000 oversized ships have been able to pass through the Three Gorges safely. There is nothing strange about this news, Tuo Lei didn't like Li Rui's pretentious appearance, so he snorted: "Li Qing, what's wrong with this news?" ”

"It's getting warmer, it's getting colder." Li Rui said confidently: "Your Majesty is not afraid to leave the envoy of the Jin Kingdom in dry, and see him again in a while, but don't give him too much time to talk, so that he can't take advantage of his tongue." Hang him two or three times, he must be anxious, and at that time His Majesty will put forward another condition, thinking that in addition to returning the remains of the first emperor, the Jin Kingdom will have to produce some blood. His Majesty wants to delay this matter until after September, after September the weather turns cooler, in November and February, the Yellow River is frozen, and the Song people's sailors will not be able to enter the river. Captured Xuzhou, then clear the way to the south, to the ministers want to come, the Song people to defend the city or can, but the field battle will not be my Dayuan elite cavalry opponent, although the artillery is sharp, but one to move inconveniently, the other to supply difficult, will not be my Dayuan opponent. Since then, my Great Yuan has been plundered year after year, which has made the Song State tired, so I just don't have to capture the strong city, what can the Song State do to me? ”

"Good!"

Hearing him say this, Tuo Lei slapped his hands and praised it.

It was also a general idea in Tulei's heart, that he was going to form an alliance with the Jin State, but not now, and that he needed to return Temujin's head after the Jin State returned it. In addition, Da Yuan could not be allowed to fight for the Jin State, in order to avoid the danger of the Yellow River, the Jin State must open the marching route to the Great Yuan at that time.

Tuo Lei clearly realized that it was impossible to destroy the Song Dynasty in a war, but if he could seize the industrial city of Xuzhou from the Song State, he could not only rob the wealth of the city, but more importantly, he could take away the craftsmen that Dayuan needed most, especially the craftsmen who smelted iron, from this city.

"If you have a blacksmith in Xuzhou, Li Qing, can you make a cannon for me that is no less than that of the Song Kingdom?" Thinking of this, he asked Li Rui.

"I can't." Li Rui replied honestly.

In the past six months, in addition to giving advice on how to make money for Tuolei, the most important thing for Li Rui is to lead Mengyuan's craftsmen to cast cannons. Li Rui can draw the appearance of the cannon, and Meng Yuan's craftsmen can also imitate the cannon based on this painting, but this cannon always explodes, and it has killed dozens of Meng Yuan's valuable craftsmen. For this reason, it was very painful to drag the mine, but he could not hold Li Rui responsible, because when he asked Li Rui to make a cannon, Li Rui said in advance, and he asked for the steel used to cast the cannon to be good, and the equipment used was good, so it could be safer.

Therefore, Li Rui's answer was quite disappointing to Tuo Lei, he raised his eyebrows and was about to ask again, Li Rui said again: "Although it can't make the same artillery as the Song people, it won't explode, but the range is definitely not as far as the Song people, and there are only solid bullets." ”

"You can use it to siege the city!" Tuo Lei was overjoyed to hear this.

He looked at the rest of the ministers, and first named Polu's name: "What does the Taishi think, do you think what Li Rui said is reasonable?" ”

"Of course." Polu said without hesitation: "We have just started to sell wool to the Song people again, and we want to exchange all kinds of wealth from them, and then use this wealth to attract the tribes on the grassland, how can we give up halfway now?" ”

Last time, Tuo Lei asked Li Rui how to accumulate wealth, and Li Rui pushed it on Polu's head, and Polu's advice to Tuo Lei was very simple, that is, to trade with the Song people. Although the border trade between the two countries is now cut off, but fortunately there is a Goryeo in the middle, Polu used the captured Goryeo merchants as intermediaries, and the Song merchants on the line, in the past few months, all kinds of luxury goods and tea, wine, spices and other daily necessities of the Song State have been continuously transported, in exchange for the wool and leather goods accumulated by Menghu for two years, and the wild ginseng, Dongzhu, deer antler velvet and so on obtained in Liaodong and Goryeo. With these luxuries, Tuo Lei succeeded in stabilizing the various ministries under his tent, and began to promote the Han system, teaching Song Chinese characters in the provinces that had migrated from the steppe, and preparing to begin the first imperial examination of the Great Yuan in September.

If the war were to start now, then this trade route would only be cut off, which is a very annoying thing for the tow mine.

In addition, with a large number of luxury goods of the Song people in his hands, it was natural for Tuo Lei to extend his hand to the grassland tribes that did not belong to him, and through these riches, he had already recruited several more grassland tribes. Therefore, for Tuo Lei, this trade route is the same as Li Quan's Liaoyang Tuntian, which is constantly delivering nutritious fresh meat to him, and he must not give up.

Hearing Polu's words, Tuo Lei nodded again, and then asked the rest of the ministers, and found that everyone's opinion was unprecedentedly unanimous, that is, to form an alliance with the Jin State, but not now, it was the best time to wait for the weather to turn cool after September.

"Then wait for the autumn, when the grass is yellow, the horses are fat, and the weather is cool, it is the best time for us to fight the Song people!" He finally decided.