"Send an envoy to negotiate peace?"

Zhao Ji didn't react for a while, in his mind, the puppet capital of Western Xia had been broken, the puppet emperor Li Qianshun had been given the head, and the elite of the Western thieves had almost been wiped out.

At this time, it is time to go all out and break through Xiliang Mansion, Xuanhua Mansion, Suzhou, Guazhou, and Shazhou one after another, and open up the Hexi Corridor.

You must know that the Western Army and the Liangshan Army of Xingqing Mansion alone have robbed more than 80 million yuan of goods, if the Xiliang Mansion and Xuanhua Mansion are defeated, how much should it be?

In Zhao Ji's opinion, these cities may not have as much money as Xingqing Mansion, but they are definitely indispensable.

After all, this is the Hexi Corridor, the throat of the Western Regions, and the tax money for business travel along the way alone is a huge amount.

Moreover, since the Western Army captured Shuofang, the road from Xingqing Mansion to Xiliangfu was blocked, so all the taxes for more than a year were left on the front line of Xiliangfu.

If this is all down, at least it will not be less than the 80 million in Xingqing Mansion, and even more.

Now the imperial court is short of money, with this money, even if half of it is intercepted by the Western army, the remaining half can slightly alleviate the economic crisis of the imperial court.

Even Zhao Ji speculated privately that the reason why the Western Army passed the buck to each other was that no one wanted to come to King Qin to suppress the thieves, that is, he was reluctant to accept the massive wealth in the Hexi Corridor.

The reason why Xiliang Mansion has been delayed must have been deliberate.

Now Cai Jing actually said that he wanted to negotiate peace, is there a mistake?

The western thieves have been in trouble for nearly a hundred years, and now they have finally been destroyed by the Great Song Dynasty with all their might, and it is the time of harvest, Cai Jing actually wants to negotiate peace?

Cai Jing saw through Zhao Ji's thoughts, and hurriedly explained patiently, in short, the meaning is one: the Hexi Corridor, the roads in the Qilian Mountains are difficult to travel, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Western Army can't beat Xiliangfu not because they have other thoughts, but they really can't beat it.

Now the situation on the side of the imperial court is extremely critical, not only is there no soldier available at the end of the day; And with the tiger skin of the strong and weak branches of the Dumen Forbidden Army being punctured, the prestige of the imperial court center was weakened to the extreme.

In addition to the righteousness of the monarch and the minister, there is no place to live.

At this time, the last resort is to transfer the Western Army into Beijing and turn the Western Army into the Imperial Army, so as to rebuild the central authority and quickly eliminate the bandits.

At this time, the Liao State was already weak, and the country was not far away, if the imperial court could recover Yanyun in the future, it could greatly improve its prestige, restore morale, unite people's hearts, and compete with the Liangshan rebels for the world.

It's really not good, you can also make secret peace with the Jurchens after recovering Yanyun and join forces to deal with the Liangshan army.

It's just that everything needs to have soldiers in hand, and without soldiers in hand, all plans are empty talk.

As for Zhang Shuye's proposal to open martial arts in Bianliang, recruit heroes from all over the world, form a Gongwei forbidden army, and train a new army to fight with the Liangshan army, Cai Jing is very unsightly.

The reason is also simple, how can this new army be trained by training?

Zhang Shuye said simply, what the Liangshan Army trained the military ministers already knew, in fact, it was not only him, Cai Jing had also sent people to the outside of the Shuibo Four Cities Military Camp many times to explore the secrets of the Liangshan Army's strength.

It is nothing more than strengthening discipline and obedience, daily training, generous salaries and incentives, and then there is the improvement of the status of the soldiers, giving them honor, clear rewards and punishments, and so on.

But generous pay and high-intensity training means that it costs a lot of money; Improving the status of soldiers and giving them honor is the fundamental national policy of changing the Great Song Dynasty's use of literature to control military forces.

Once this happens, the military ministers are bound to take advantage of the situation to rise, and our scholars and doctors are digging their own graves, and the martial arts are the country, and the disaster of the five generations of feudal towns is not far away!

Not to mention that the Metropolitan Gate Forbidden Army has already become a huge cancer rotten to the bones, how many people live on this bloodsucking?

Drinking the blood of soldiers and eating empty salaries is only the most rudimentary.

Other methods such as drifting, false accounts, rewards, robes, salt vegetables, ministers' money, sitting money, labor money, and river workers are too numerous to mention.

Even some troops were transferred and still sat on various expenses in the metropolitan gate control army, and after they were abolished, they still had their expenses on the account books, and the expenses remained the same.

This is greasy, how many people have made a profit on this, how many big people have been involved, how many royal relatives and relatives have their hands on it, others don't know, how can Cai Jing not know?

To put it simply, just because the Metropolitan Gate Forbidden Army spends more than 30 million yuan of military expenses and more than 2 million stone grains every year, but it ends up raising such a group of wastes, you know how terrible the huge interest group of the Metropolitan Gate Forbidden Army is.

In this context, how could it be possible for Zhang Shuye to train a strong army near Bianjing?

Therefore, the only feasible way at present is to transfer the Western Army to garrison the Beijing Division!

As for the fact that the Western Army is so difficult to control that it has completely evolved into a warlord, there is no need to worry about not being able to control these problems.

Because the Western Army does not have a unified leader, it can be divided and co-opted to be a check and balance.

Anyway, it is easier to deal with the Western Army than against the Liangshan Army.

And the lesser of two evils, is there any other way now?

Cai Jing also came prepared this time, as soon as he finished speaking, his henchmen jumped out to help and said: "The disease of scabies in the West Thief can no longer be a disaster for China, but Liang Shanjun is a big trouble!" ”

"Since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the implementation of the policy of strong cadres and weak branches, now the center of the imperial court has no troops available, and the western army should be transferred to Beijing as soon as possible!"

"Now that the four are difficult to control, the imperial court has no soldiers available, and they will sit back and watch them attack the state and seize the county, and the world will be rotten!"

"The official, you can't hesitate any longer, which is more important, the official family has seen thousands of miles, and must have made a decision!"

Cai Jing and his family came out to help, Zhao Ji was not surprised, but when Tong Guan and Liang Shicheng's faction also stood up to express their approval, Zhao Ji knew that it seemed inevitable to negotiate peace with the Western Thief.

After pondering for a while, even if Zhao Ji was extremely unwilling in his heart, he still had to agree.

However, it is inevitable that there is some wonder in my heart: "On weekdays, these two factions have to fight for everything, why are they so unanimous today?" ”

How did he know that in fact, as early as when Tong Guan divided the Western Army, Cai Jing's faction secretly contacted and supported the Seed Master Dao and the Seed Master, if not, how could the Seed Master Dao dare to give Tong Guan advice often?

And the Western Army is coming, and Cai Jing also has the means to win over other generals.

It is because Cai Jing is naturally not afraid that after the Western Army comes, Tong Guan's forces will dominate in the court.

And Liang Shicheng and they are naturally willing to lead troops to garrison Bianjing.

This can also be regarded as a brief unity between the two factions in the face of a common enemy (Liangshan Army).

At this time, Zhao Ji was still extremely depressed in his heart, thinking that after the peace negotiation, at least 80 million yuan of wealth would be lost, and Zhao Ji's heart was like a drop of blood.

But no matter how sad it is, things have to go on. The state is like this, Zhao Ji has to cheer up and prepare to discuss the terms of peace with the ministers.

In short, now that the help of the Western Thieves has been lost, and the Great Song Dynasty is in full swing, the conditions for this peace negotiation must not be cheap for the Western Thieves......

Just as I was thinking about it, I heard a rush of footsteps outside the hall, but it was Gao Yu's son Gao Muen who walked in, and when he saw Zhao Ji, he immediately said with joy: "The official family is overjoyed......