The hotly discussed topic in the imperial court is naturally the matter of "sheep eating people". Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Western Xia and Liao have always been a thorn in the heart of the Great Song Dynasty.

Li Yuanhao, a member of the party, broke away from the Great Song Dynasty and founded the country as Great Xia, which the Song people called Western Xia. Since the establishment of Western Xia, there have been constant wars between the Song and Xia. In order to maintain the regime on one side, and in order to recover the country, the two sides have been stuck for nearly a hundred years, although the Song army has become more and more dominant, but because of the existence of the Liao State, the momentum of the three kingdoms has not been able to break.

Because of the existence of Western Xia, a large number of troops were stationed on the border of the Great Song Dynasty, which was a huge consumption of both human and financial resources, so a very important part of the Great Song Dynasty's foreign policy was aimed at the Western Xia.

The economy of Western Xia was dominated by animal husbandry and commerce, and foreign trade was greatly influenced by the Great Song Dynasty, and the two largest trades were green salt and livestock.

The green salt of Western Xia is very famous, its quality is pure, and the price is cheap, so it is deeply loved by the people of the Great Song Dynasty. At the time of the Song and Xia confrontations, the trade in green salt was restricted, so smugglers abounded, and even smuggling activities were carried out in the Great Song army.

There were large pastures in the north of the Hengshan Mountains and Hexi in the Western Xia, rich in high-quality horses and livestock, and the import of horses to the Great Song Dynasty was restricted, but the trading volume of cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules, camels, etc. was still expensive.

The Western Xia has innate advantages and unavoidable weaknesses, and the Great Song Dynasty has been thinking about how to restrict the development of the Western Xia, but there are too many discounts between policy and implementation, and many things are just thinking about it, or doing it on the surface, but in fact it has not had much effect.

The relationship between Song and Liao was more complicated, and before the alliance between Song and Liao, there were constant wars between Song and Liao, and it was not until after the alliance that the two countries had a rare peace for more than ten years. Of course, this only means that large-scale wars are no longer breaking out, in fact there are still small conflicts, and some threshing activities are still going on, but they have not risen to the national level.

The relationship between the two countries has come to this point, and everyone is quite satisfied on the surface, but in fact it is very unwilling for the Song Dynasty. Its biggest wish is to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and if it can't get this, it will be restless.

The sixteen states of Yanyun are the gateway of the Great Song Dynasty and the most important line of defense, without it, the gate of the Great Song Dynasty is always open to the north, especially Bianliang City, which is simply unsafe to defend, as an emperor, in fact, this is what I am most worried about.

But he couldn't beat it, and if he didn't come back, the court could only endure it with grievances. It can't bear it and can't do it, its military is deserted, and the Liao State has the advantage of cavalry, so it is not sure of victory in comparison.

The Great Song Dynasty was not sure of fighting, and the Liao State was even less sure of fighting.

After the alliance between the two countries, the nobles in power in Liao were inclined to Han culture, and learned from the Great Song Dynasty in everything, and their minds gradually became peaceful, so there was a kind of war-weary mood.

Coupled with the corruption and mediocrity of the imperial court and several domestic turmoil, its national strength has weakened to the lowest point in history, and in such a state, it is impossible to fight even if it wants to.

Both countries were unwilling to fight, and there was still a friendly posture on the surface, and it was impossible for the Song court to achieve its own goals.

Since it is impossible, it can only be passed, so no one raises the dispute between the two countries again.

But Gao Feng's heresy came out, and he gave everyone a stimulant, and he used a concept of "sheep eating people" to tell everyone that the enemy can be weakened and even defeated without war.

This is a completely new concept, this method is undoubtedly the most suitable and effective method at present, doing business can make the enemy finish, is there anything more ideal?

For a while, Zhao Ji and Cai Jing and several other important advisers began to discuss, and the result was naturally both optimistic and worried.

Optimism naturally thinks that this method can be tried, even if the goal is not achieved in the end, it will not lose money, and more importantly, after this move, even if it cannot weaken the enemy country, the enemy country will not act rashly, after all, this is an important way to make money for the enemy country, and no one gives up easily.

The worry is that the enemy country will not be fooled, or the northern grasslands are vast, and no matter how many sheep are raised, they will not be able to shake their roots.

Discussion and discussion, no one dares to make a decision to do this, but this will not work, and if it is not successful, it will always have to come to a conclusion.

In the end, everyone came up with a solution, and that was to try it out. The object of the trial is Liao.

The reason why Liao was chosen was because there had been a truce between the two countries for a long time, and there was frequent trade between them, and the matter of one more wool would not arouse suspicion. Moreover, the nobles of the Liao State are very good at camping, and if such a lucrative business suddenly emerges, they will naturally spare no effort to promote it. Coupled with the Great Song Dynasty's covetousness for the sixteen states of Yanyun, he was very happy to see his bad luck.

The Western Xia and the Great Song Dynasty are still at war, especially in the first two years, Tong Guan and the Seed Master Dao have just led the army to defeat the Western Xia in the Ancient Bone Dragon, and the army has approached the side of Hengshan. At this time, the trade between Song and Xia had stopped, and if there was a sudden occurrence of collecting wool, it would have been normal and would have aroused suspicion.

Once the pilot countries have been selected, the rest will be easier to do. The imperial court is responsible for sending merchants to contact the Liao people, and make every effort to buy wool, and then the wool will be handed over to Gao Feng, as for how Gao Feng does it, they don't even bother to take care of it, anyway, as long as they can collect money.

Of course, Gao Feng is happy to see this happen. He originally used these two things to divert the attention of the imperial court, and sure enough, this matter had started, and the imperial court ignored the matter of him sending a ship to sea, and this purpose had been achieved, so he was relieved.

Furthermore, both of these things are good things that outweigh the disadvantages for him. The issuance of currency not only allows him to make a lot of money, but also promotes large transactions in the county, which is a great benefit. The latter was even more powerful, he spun and made wool linings, which brought more than a little benefit, and it was a good thing that money could not buy.

The reply of the imperial court did not come down for a while, and Gao Feng was not idle, and he came up with a new measure to facilitate the people at this time, that is, to dig wells.

Naturally, his well is not an earthen well, but a well that uses a steel pipe to make a small hole in the ground and then inserts a plastic pipe into it to draw water. This type of well is called a pressurized well.

The principle is simple, it is to use atmospheric pressure to drain water up.

Its structure is also very simple, in addition to the water pipeline, only need to add a well.

The head of the well is made of iron, and the bottom is connected to the underground water pipe, and a piston is used in the middle, and the piston can discharge air and pressure water in the reciprocating motion.

The key point of this kind of well is that there is a closed water valve, which is equivalent to a one-way valve, when the piston moves upward, it opens, and the water is pressed out; When the piston moves downward, it closes and the water level remains stationary, so that the water can be pressed out by repeated operations.

Drilling this kind of well, there is no machinery of later generations, completely relying on manpower to ram the iron pipe into the ground, it still takes some work, however, it is not expensive, every household can have one, so it is very convenient to use life.