The chariot of Zhao Shu, the minister of Qincha and the king of Jian'an, traveled all the way, passing through Nanjing Yingtianfu and Caozhou. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

When passing through Ying Tianfu, he only walked over its border, and he did not alarm Ying Tian's Governor's Mansion. It's just that Caoju is the only way to Jeju, so the car must naturally pass through the city of Caoju.

Although the minister of the Qin mission is an official temporarily appointed by the emperor and has no rank, after all, he is a substitute saint hunter, and Zhao Shu is also a royal family, so out of etiquette, the governor of Caozhou has to come out to welcome this team.

Because Zhao Shu's riding skills were poor and he brought a lot of things, this team of men and horses walked for a day and a night before they walked outside Caozhou City.

Zhao Shu, who was already sleepy and tired, saw a row of people in Northern Song Dynasty official uniforms in front of him from a long distance, and there were officials and soldiers who followed him around.

Zhao Shu yawned, and counted carefully, there were not as many soldiers as these officials. This surprised Zhao Shu, if you encounter bandits outside the city, can this point of officers and soldiers protect you?

When Zhao Shu's men approached the group of bureaucrats, the leading official knelt down on the spot and said, "The lower official Cao Zhou Governor Hu Di and his subordinates from this state will knock on the minister!" ”

Do you want to knock when you see a minister? This made Zhao Shu a little surprised, but he didn't think too much, he really didn't want to say too much out of etiquette, so he immediately said to those officials: "You don't have to be so polite, get up quickly, this king... This official is just passing through Guizhou! ”

"Master Xie!!" The bureaucrats thanked in unison.

There is no need to be polite to say it, but in fact, the feeling of being kneeling and kowtowing by others is still needless to say, there is a feeling of fluttering. Zhao Shu now feels that he is too hypocritical, alas, he really can't mix with Cai Jing's gang, and those who are close to ink are black. Close to Zhu Zhechi. Cai Jing inexplicably lay down and shot again.

After Hu Di, the governor of Caozhou, stood up, walked to Zhao Shuma, and complimented Zhao Shu: "My lord, this journey is tiring, there is still some distance to Jeju, it is better to rest here in Xiaguan for a while and then go!" ”

Zhao Shu has this intention, Bianjing to Caozhou is only a few hundred miles, in the future in an hour or two to arrive, here you have to walk for a day, this makes Zhao Shu feel the pain of not having a train and plane.

Zhao Shu nodded, and Ling Feng on the side didn't bother to interject. Anyway, Zhao'an Liangshan is not in a hurry at this time, Liangshan Shuibo is there, are you afraid that they will put on their wings and fly?

At this moment, Zhao Shu only took Ling Feng, Mingyue and dozens of soldiers of the Golden Spear squad into the city. The rest of the people were led by Gao Yu, who had been sleeping in the car, to the camp that had been set up for them on the outskirts of the eastern part of the city to rest. After all, there are a lot of "armies" of nearly 1,000 people, and isn't it disturbing the people to enter the city in such a mighty way?

It's just that Gao Yu, who is the captain, is very aggrieved in his heart, saying that he didn't even see the face of the governor of Caozhou, and he was left aside coldly and not allowed to enter the city, how could he stand it.

However, he couldn't disobey Zhao Shu's order, so he had to swallow his anger, Zhao Shu is now the minister of the Qin Mission, and he goes out to do things on behalf of the emperor, as long as what he says is not out of line, it is the emperor's order, can he not listen to the emperor's order?

But he has a lot of resentment towards Zhao Shu in his heart, but now he is favored by Song Huizong and covered by Prime Minister Cai Jing, and there is really no way to take him, but he is a bad gentleman to take revenge. Ten years is not too late, sooner or later there will be an opportunity to clean him up Zhao Shu.

Following Hu Di to approach the pavilion in Caozhou and enter his bedroom, Zhao Shu's heart suddenly cooled a lot, which was too far worse than the conditions of the palace.

It's also helpless, but fortunately, it's still clean, and people can still live, and Zhao Shu doesn't ask so much anymore, so he will deal with it.

It is said that Hu Di is a character who is good at observing words and feelings, and saw the dissatisfaction on Zhao Shu's face, and immediately apologized: "Don't blame your lord, the boundary of Xiazhou is poor, and please include it." ”

Zhao Shu didn't want to say anything more, waved his hand, and said, "That's it." Alas, is it not only that the conditions of the embassy post in Xiazhou are poor, but even there are dozens of officers and soldiers? ”

Hearing Zhao Shu's words, Hu Di replied: "Oh, back to your words, a few days ago, Yangsan was in turmoil, and Lord Taiwei took the official document of the Privy Council and transferred all the forbidden troops from the states near Jeju, leaving only a few to defend the city. ”

"That's too little, isn't it?" Zhao Shu said boringly, he didn't complain about Hu Di, in fact, he was more dissatisfied with Gao Yu.

"The forbidden army is not here, isn't there still a box soldier? Why didn't there be a single officer or soldier at the city gate when he was about to enter the city? At this time, Ling Feng asked.

"This..."

Looking at Hu Di's hesitation, Ling Feng was very unhappy, and said, "Master Hu, if you have something to say, please speak directly!" ”

Hu Di hesitated to make Zhao Shu feel that there must be something wrong here, Zhao Shu didn't make a sound, and looked at Hu Di quietly.

Under Ling Feng's questioning and Zhao Shu's gaze, Hu Di also knew that this question could not be avoided, and his heart was crossed, and he replied directly: "If you go back to the general, in this state, the box soldiers are already in name only!" ”

Hu Di's words startled Zhao Shu and Ling Feng, and they said in unison: "Exist in name only!?" ”

Hu Di nodded and continued: "Due to the long-term war in the Central Plains, the soldiers are negligent in their combat preparations. In peacetime, at most, he served in conscription, and he had never practiced military affairs. Therefore, the box soldiers are no longer soldiers. ”

Zhao Shu and Ling Feng gasped. The soldiers are no longer soldiers. The Song Dynasty adopted the conscription system, which was very different from the Tang Dynasty, and the conscription was a lifelong soldier from the day he joined the army, so the Song Dynasty forbidden army was all professional soldiers. The army is divided into four types: the forbidden army, the box army, the militia and the vassal army. The forbidden army is a regular army belonging to the imperial court, that is, a standing army, which is used to defend the Beijing division and stabilize the frontier, which is equivalent to the active army, so in the Northern Song Dynasty, the war was mostly in the north, and the sum of the forbidden army in the south was not as good as any way in the north. The Xiang Army, on the other hand, was the local army of the Northern Song Dynasty, a force under the control of the local state government and the central government to defend local tranquility, and this kind of army is similar to a reserve force today. The feudal army was armed by ethnic minorities, and the ethnic minorities guarded the frontier for the Great Song Dynasty, so their army was called the feudal army. The militia said no more. (The Emperor's Imperial Guards is a different story)

According to Hu Di's words, in the current Caozhou, only the forbidden army is soldiers, and there are no other soldiers and horses. Moreover, Zhao Shu speculated that this situation is definitely not only in Caozhou, because there is no war in the Jiangnan region of the Central Plains, so the local government has long stopped training soldiers in order to save expenses. The military system of the Northern Song Dynasty has been decadent to this point.

But what Zhao Shu had to admire was that even so, it was really a miracle that the Great Song Dynasty could survive in an embattled realm.

It is self-evident how important a good conscription system is to a country. During World War II, to be honest, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, and the active troops of the Soviet Union alone could not compete with the steel armor of the German army, in other words, the German army was defeated by the Soviet Union's continuous reserve army. As a result, the size of the Soviet army increased dramatically from a few million before the war to more than 10 million.

Those who know the military system of the Song Dynasty know that the Song Dynasty learned the lessons of the Tang Dynasty's feudal division. The so-called government military system is that each state and all localities set up military offices, and every household has the responsibility to undertake military service. Anyone who has watched "Mulan" should have the impression that this was the case when the imperial court recruited Mulan's father as a soldier, and the government military system is probably similar to this. The conscription system is that the imperial court recruits troops from all over the country, and the power of these armies is returned to the imperial court, and the local generals can only train the troops under their command without the right to mobilize.

However, although this conscription system got rid of the nightmare brought about by the division of feudal towns, it also had its disadvantages. The military system of the Western Xia Dynasty was similar to that of the Song Dynasty, and at the end of the Western Xia, when the Mongol army invaded, the Western Xia army was aging very seriously at this time, and there were even tragedies of seventy or eighty-year-old people taking up arms and going to the battlefield.

"General Ling! Could it be that this is also the case with Zhulu in Shaanxi? After pondering for a while, Zhao Shu opened his mouth and asked Ling Feng. After all, Ling Feng served on Shaanxi Road before entering the palace to serve as the Marquis of Yu, the former pro-army of the Imperial Army.

Ling Feng shook his head and said, "No, there have been wars between the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, and tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Western Army have been stained with blood every year. If it was only by recruiting the forbidden army, the Northwest Roads would have been finished long ago. At least before the last general entered the palace, the states and counties of Shaanxi were still diligent in training the soldiers! In order to fill in the box soldiers when the Western Army suffered heavy losses and was not enough! ”

After listening to Zhao Shu, he was silent, it seems that in the history that later generations are familiar with, the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty is not accidental, and it is not an accident like Guo Yaoshi surrendering to the enemy and Song Qinzong fearing the enemy. It was the inevitability of the corruption of the Great Song Dynasty bureaucracy and the decline of the military system. So much so that Zhao Shu is now thinking, what if he recruits Liangshan? Can it stop the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty?

It seems that Da Song really needs to change the law, but this thought only flashed in Zhao Shu's mind. He won't be stupid enough to do anything to change the law, and be the leader of the change. You must know that the outstanding figures who changed the law in ancient times, Shang Ying, Wang Anshi, and Zhang Juzheng. The last two were better, and the first one was executed by Ling Chi; the second is because the Great Song Dynasty respected scholars and doctors, and was not executed and exiled after failing to change the law; The third one, when you're alive, you're fine, but when you're dead, you're unlucky.