Needless to say, the importance of the Great Wall is needless to say, many people in later generations think that the Great Wall is useless, but they have not thought about it at all, if the Great Wall is useless, why Qin Shi Huang, who roughly unified the six countries, will levy the people of the whole country to build the Great Wall after becoming emperor, why Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who destroyed the Huns, will rebuild the Great Wall, and even Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian treats the construction of the Great Wall as a national policy.

People who have not experienced the era of cold weapons, I am afraid it is difficult to understand the role of the Great Wall on the nomads, the biggest weapon of the nomads is not the scimitar in their hands, but the war horses they stepped on, and the Great Wall is a favorable weapon to block the war horses from going south, with the Great Wall, only need to hold a few important city passes, so that the nomads in the north can not go south.

It is also the Great Song Dynasty that lost the defense line of the Great Wall, so it was called the weak Song Dynasty in history, even if the equipment of the Song army is actually very sophisticated, and the external record is not bad, but the Great Song Dynasty gives people the impression that it is weak and can be bullied, because after losing the Great Wall, the initiative on the battlefield was handed over to the nomads in the north.

However, after the city of Xingzhou was conquered this time, the Great Song Dynasty got a key battle on the Great Wall, Li Yuanhao led the main army of 20,000 party items to flee to the north, and almost all the areas south of the Great Wall were thrown to the Great Song Dynasty, which was also a good opportunity for the Great Song Dynasty to reorganize the Great Wall defense line, and now the Great Wall in the western section is in their own hands, as for the Great Wall defense line in the hands of the Liao State in the eastern section, sooner or later it will be taken back.

"I understand, cousin, what you mean is that our first step is to take down the western front of the Great Wall, and then completely eliminate the party members, and wait until the northwest and even the Western Regions are pacified, and then turn around and concentrate on dealing with Liao!" Zhao Zhen also praised again at this time, and he finally had a general idea of how to realize his wish.

"Your Majesty is right, the Liao State is our old enemy of the Great Song Dynasty, only by defeating them can we completely solve the threat outside the country, as for other Tubo, Dali and the like, there is nothing to be afraid of, so after destroying the party, Your Majesty should concentrate on preparing to deal with the Liao State, but this time is not too long!" Li Zhang also showed a solemn look at the end.

"Cousin, do you mean that you want to take advantage of the time when the Empress Dowager Xiao Yunjin of the Liao State was in power to send troops to recapture the sixteen states of Yanyun in one fell swoop?" Zhao Zhen also immediately guessed Li Zhang's thoughts, in fact, Li Zhang had mentioned these to him before.

"Yes, Xiao Yunjin is short-sighted and nepotistic, and he has killed a lot of Khitan nobles after he became in power, which has caused the Khitan to be detached from her, and Yelu Zongzhen is also growing up slowly, he will not always be willing to be a puppet, so I conclude that there will definitely be a civil strife in Liao in a few years, and Xiao Yunjin will definitely not end well." Li Zhang nodded and said.

"Then why don't we use troops again when there is civil strife in Liao, it may be easier then?" Zhao Zhen thought about it for a moment at this time, and then said the doubts in his heart.

"Yeluzong is really an extremely proud person, and he looks down on our Great Song Dynasty the most, if he succeeds in seizing power, even if he has not fully mastered the Liao State, if he sees our Great Song Dynasty sending troops, he will definitely resist with all his might, and there will definitely be no compromise, as the so-called skinny camel is bigger than a horse, if the Liao State resists with all its might, we will have to pay a huge price if we want to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun." Li Zhang said with great certainty at this time.

Yelu Zongzhen is not only proud, but also very resentful, from a historical point of view, he is a good man, but also extremely warlike, after the pro-government of the Great Song Dynasty and Western Xia have launched many wars, especially the Western Xia war, it is to create one of the biggest defeats in the history of Liao, but then he finally survived Li Yuanhao, so he sent troops again, this time the concubines left by Li Yuanhao were captured, and finally avenged the original revenge.

Zhao Zhen believed in Li Zhang's vision, and he had heard Li Zhang's analysis of Yeluzong's true character more than once, so at this time he also nodded, and then thought about it for a while before he said again: "If that's the case, then we have to hurry, Li Yuanhao must be destroyed, and then take back the sixteen states of Yanyun before Xiao Yunjin is seized power, these need to be completed in just a few years, and the time is really a little tight!" ”

"In fact, Li Yuanhao's escape is also a good thing, because then His Majesty can justifiably expand the army, such as the scale of the musket army should have been expanded a long time ago, and at the same time, you can also use the party to train troops, I believe that in less than two years, you can train an elite army, and then you can go out from the northwest and Hebei at the same time, and the Khitans will be caught off guard!" Li Zhang said a little excitedly at the end.

Of course, Li Zhang doesn't know the art of war, and he can't be sure whether he needs to send troops in two ways, but this is also a kind of idea of his, if he can really send troops from the northwest, he can also bypass the defense line built by the Liao State on the border of Hebei, after all, when he sent an envoy to the Liao State before, he also saw that the Liao State deployed heavy troops on the border of Hebei, and the city was also very strong, so it was not easy to send troops from Hebei.

Zhao Zhen also showed an excited look when he heard this, and now Li Zhang has shown him the way, first destroy the party, and then attack the Liao State, without seeking a battle to destroy the Liao State This strong enemy, but the Great Wall defense line must be taken back, and then with this line of defense, the Great Song Dynasty will also grasp the initiative, plus the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty is much stronger than the Liao State, it is completely possible to drag the Liao State down little by little.

Zhao Zhen also took out a pen and paper at this time, and then recorded this strategy in detail, although this plan is still very rough, but it can be supplemented little by little, and in the end he will always come up with a detailed and feasible plan, not to mention that he only needs to grasp a general direction, and the remaining details will naturally be supplemented by the ministers.

"Your Majesty, Lu Xiang has something to ask to see!" At this moment, I suddenly saw an attendant rushing in to report.

"It's just in time, I also want to hear Lu Xiang's opinion!" When Zhao Zhen heard that Lu Yijian was coming, he was immediately overjoyed, and then asked people to invite Lu Yijian in.

After a while, I saw Lu Yijian walking in with a piece of music in his hand, but before he could speak, Zhao Zhen beckoned to him excitedly: "Lu Xiang, come here, this is a general strategy that I discussed with my cousin, can you come and see if there is anything to add?" ”

Zhao Zhen was so excited that he didn't even change his name for Li Zhang, and Lu Yijian was also a little surprised at this time, but he still stepped forward according to his words, and then took over the strategy that Zhao Zhen had just recorded, but just after looking at the previous point, the look on his face became serious, and he even glanced at Li Zhang next to him a few times, and then took a serious look at it.

I saw that after reading this strategy for the external expansion of the Great Song Dynasty, Lu Yijian also took a deep breath, and then said solemnly: "Your Majesty has this grand talent, and the minister is also very impressed, especially the offensive against the party in the early stage, and the minister also agrees very much, but the matter of sending troops to the Liao State still needs to be considered more!" ”

"Is Lu Xiang worried about sending troops to the Liao State, if he fails to achieve the goal of recovering Yanyun, will he be counterattacked by the Liao State in the future?" Li Zhang also immediately stood up and asked when he heard Lu Yijian's words.

He didn't think it was strange for Lu Yijian's reaction, in fact, since the alliance of the Yuanyuan, the whole Song State has suffered from a kind of "Liaophobia", coupled with the annual gift of Liao coins to ask for peace, which has made the backbone of the Song State even more lost, even a military general like Cao Wei rarely thinks about recovering Yanyun, let alone a civil servant like Lu Yijian.

"Yes, the Liao army is strong, when Emperor Taizu wanted to recover Yanyun, but the result you also know that the Liao State once again raised troops to the south when the first emperor, at that time my Great Song Dynasty was almost facing the danger of destroying the country, and some people even proposed to move the capital to the south, thanks to the later Lanyuan Alliance, which made my Great Song Dynasty enjoy decades of peace, if we rashly send troops, we will not keep the covenant first, if it is not good to send troops again, I am afraid that it will provoke the anger of the Liao State, and then there will be no peace on the border of my Great Song Dynasty." Lu Yijian generously admitted that as the prime minister, he really didn't dare to let Zhao Zhen have the idea of sending troops to Liao.

"But Lu Xiang, have you ever thought that if you have not been able to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, my Great Song Dynasty has been in a passive state, Yelu Longxu signed the alliance with the first emperor, but now he and the first emperor are gone, who can guarantee that the successor Liao Emperor will still abide by the covenant, even if they abide by the covenant, what if we are asked to increase the annual coins in the future?"

When he said this, he saw Li Zhang take a breath and continue: "And in order to prevent the Liao Kingdom from going south, our Great Song Dynasty also needs to raise a huge forbidden army, and now the forbidden army has reached an astonishing more than 700,000, and there are more than 400,000 box troops, and the imperial court needs to raise more than 1 million soldiers every year, and the military salary alone is already an extremely heavy expense. ”

Li Zhang's words are also to the point, Lu Yijian also showed a contemplative look after hearing it, as the prime minister, he actually knows better than anyone else the internal ills of the Great Song Dynasty, but especially the redundant soldiers have almost become the first of the ills of the Great Song Dynasty, and what is even more helpless is that after raising so many soldiers, the military is still weak, but the imperial court does not dare to reduce the army, and sometimes even expands the army, which further increases the burden on the imperial court.

"Lu Xiang, the former Tang Dynasty can expand its territory beyond the Great Wall, my Great Song Dynasty can't even defend the Great Wall defense line now, even if the Khitan doesn't go south now, there will be more barbaric and murderous nomads than the Khitan in the future, what will my Great Song Dynasty do to resist them then?" Li Zhang said heartbroken again at this time, sometimes knowing too much is also a pain.

Hearing Li Zhang's words, Lu Yijian still had a hesitant expression on his face, but Zhao Zhen, who had not spoken at this time, couldn't help but say: "Lu Xiang, I don't want to be just an ordinary gentleman, please help me!" ”