Time flies, time passes, and two years have passed in a blink of an eye.

In the past two years, although Liu Yong has been busy, he is also very nourishing. Why do you say moisturizing? Because he finally got a taste of life as an ancient prime minister. I realized what it is like to be under one person and above ten thousand.

And the only thing Liu Yong did in the past two years was to open up sources and reduce expenditure, which really brought benefits to the Great Song Dynasty, although it did not fill the treasury of the Great Song Dynasty, but at least there was no deficit, and there was a small part of the surplus.

Naturally, Emperor Lizong also praised Liu Yong's work. During this period, the only difficulty for the imperial court was the financial problem, which was difficult to turn over due to the emptiness that had fallen in previous years.

As for the soldiers on the frontier, in fact, there was no at all, in response to Liu Yong's speculation, in the past two years, the Jin State did not send a single soldier to the Great Song Dynasty, but occasionally sent envoys to come, intending to repair the hatred between the two countries.

Of course, the Great Song Dynasty regarded the Jin Kingdom as a feud, and the relationship was naturally not easy to repair. In fact, during this period, Liu Yong also tried to change the thinking of the courtiers of the Great Song Dynasty, so that they knew that they should not be rash in governing the country. Act in your own best interest. In fact, this is the same as doing business.

However, his efforts were in vain. Eventually, he gave up.

He also persuaded Emperor Zong to reduce the defense of the border passes, but because of the distrust of the entire imperial court towards the Jin State, he was unable to make the trip in the end. Otherwise, the empty treasury will be filled anew.

The biggest gain for Liu Yong in the past two years is that he knows how to manage the government and govern the country. Through the position of prime minister, he also saw that the Great Song Dynasty did not include some advantages and disadvantages in the operation of state administration in ancient times.

For example, why the Great Song Dynasty was strong in national strength but weak in military strength. This is the problem of the concept of governing the country in the Great Song Dynasty. Their philosophy of governing the country is to emphasize civility over military force. This is also related to the era in which the founding emperor of the Great Song Dynasty lived. It was the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the military power of the feudal towns was too heavy, which led to the division of one side and was not subject to the central control, and finally led to the destruction of the glorious Tang Dynasty.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty had no choice but to emphasize literature over military force. However, what the rulers did not expect was that the security problems of the Song Dynasty were much more serious than those of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was basically an internal security issue, while the Song Dynasty was a threat from the outside. And they are all very tough nomads.

Liu Yong deeply felt that no matter how rich a country is, if it does not have a strong army, it will be in vain. The end result can only be a humiliating life.

The Song Dynasty can be said to be the most cowardly and humiliating dynasty in the entire history of China.

When Liu Yong was lamenting the history of the Song Dynasty, he was also thinking about a question, what would happen if he established a dynasty by himself?

In this turbulent age, anything is possible. Let's talk about the Han Dynasty thousands of years ago, Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, was just a cloth cloth, even if he was a pavilion chief, he was only at the level of a township chief. However, he finally rose up at the end of the chaotic Qin Dynasty, and finally defeated Xiang Yu to dominate China.

and Zhu Yuanzhang a hundred years later, his status is far from Liu Bang. He was a real peasant, living under the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty, his family was starved to death, and in the process of struggling with fate and food and clothing, he was forced to be helpless, and finally went to the road of rebellion, and achieved the Ming Dynasty that lasted for more than 270 years.

In the past two years, Liu Yong has been thinking about these two big figures in history. Why did they go from being poor to accomplishing great things? It is said that the times create heroes, but it also depends on their ideology and their character. Not to mention anything else, they are all similar, that is, dare to think and dare to do, dare to think about what others dare not think. According to the average pauper, if you let him go to the revolt for the emperor's throne, then he will be so frightened that his legs will weaken. Not to mention putting it into practice.

When Liu Yong thought of these two people, he thought of himself, couldn't he be like Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang? Of course he could, and his foundation was much better than these two. He has the riches of the country, and he has an elite army of 15,000 in Goosehead Mountain. The main thing is that he has a modern human mind. He knew the trend of history, and he knew the strength of Mongolia even more.

But the problem is that he is now in a situation where he has no purpose. In other words, even if he has all the conditions to compete for the country. But what can he do now? Subverting the Great Song Dynasty? Obviously, this is unpopular. To attack the Kingdom of Jin and Mongolia? In the end, it is still the enemy of the Great Song Dynasty, which is obviously not a feasible strategy.

Liu Yong thought about it, so he gave up such an idea, and finally took the protection of his family as the highest task.

In the past two years, he also thought that since he had become the prime minister, he would try to change the governing strategy of the Great Song Dynasty. The border could be cut off, but the Great Song Dynasty could not give up the idea of building a strong army.

According to his plan, in the next two years, we must find a way to fill the treasury, and the next step is to start building the army, especially the cavalry. Of course, he also had a bold idea, which was to build an artillery force. It's going to be an invincible team.

Although gunpowder had already begun to be used in warfare during the Song Dynasty, it was still at a low stage, and Liu Yongneng helped them to apply the invention of gunpowder to warfare.

If the Song Dynasty had such an artillery force, it would not be an opponent even if Mongolia and Jin were united.

He thought that as long as he had a strong army, he would first unite with the Jin State to destroy Mongolia, and then counterattack the Jin State, destroy the Western Xia, unify Tibet, and finally realize the feat of the Great Song Dynasty to truly unify China.

Envisioning this kind of thing made Liu Yong excited for several days. But the dream is full, the reality is cruel. Let's just talk about increasing fiscal revenue, which is not an easy task. The current Great Song Dynasty has begun to show signs of decay. Not to mention the withering of all industries, all walks of life are also going downhill.

Moreover, natural disasters of all sizes have continued in the past two years, which also indicates the fall of a dynasty.

Liu Yong's first idea did not come to fruition smoothly. Although he relieved the financial pressure of the imperial court in these two years and had a slight surplus, he still did not fundamentally change the financial problems of the Great Song Dynasty. During this period, when there is a war, the financial pressure will increase sharply.

At this time, the desire to build a strong army, as well as artillery, could not be realized.

In fact, Liu Yong also knew that this period was the best time for Mongolia to develop strong, and in fact, it was also a good time for the declining Song Dynasty to re-emerge.

He thought, should he be the prime minister of Zuo for a year?