However, at this time, in the second year of Shaosheng, a shocking event that occurred in Dali, a close neighbor in the south of the Great Song Kingdom, finally returned to Bianliang City, causing a great controversy in the court of the Great Song Dynasty.

The power struggle between the lord of Dali and the Gao clan, who has always controlled the government, has finally been decided.

In the first year of Shaosheng, Gao Shengtai, the minister of Dali, accepted the Zen concession of Duan Zhengming, the head of Dali, and ascended the throne that year, changing the name of the country to "Great China".

This God gave the Great Song Kingdom, an excellent excuse to recapture the Dali Kingdom, the hometown of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and a God-given opportunity.

To be right and rebellious, the name is justified.

Therefore, Zhao Xu immediately decided to temporarily shelve the plan to attack Lanzhou City, first send troops from Bianliang City, and take Dali Kingdom in one go.

As soon as the official decision was announced, there were those who favored it and those who opposed it.

However, what Zhao Xu did not expect was that the favorites were in the minority, while the opponents accounted for the majority of the ministers of the DPRK and China.

Some people even kept saying that this was the rule that Taizu Zhao Kuangyin personally set back then.

With the Dadu River as the boundary, the descendants of the Zhao family in later generations are not allowed to cross this limit.

However, it is clear that the person who said this did not have a long mind.

Zhao Xu is a descendant of Taizong Zhao Guangyi, how could he give up this God-given opportunity so rashly because of Taizu's will?

"Could it be that you are all watching the subject country of the Great Song Dynasty being occupied by traitors and rebels?" Zhao Xu's words made the opponents shut up.

There is no way to pick up this topic at all, and no one dares to take it.

The traitors stole the throne and did not have the ability to levy, so Zhao Xu himself would not easily send troops, but now that he has the ability, if anyone is blocking this southern expedition, then they will really become traitors in Zhao Xu's heart.

Rebellious ministers and thieves, everyone will be punished.

However, the selection of candidates for the expedition has once again become a big problem.

Dali is different from the northwest, since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, no one has paid attention to it, so whether it is a civil minister or a military general, there are too few people who are familiar with the situation of Dali. Perhaps, if the former horse master Wang Shu is still alive, he is probably the only Wenchen who still knows some about Dali.

Dali is located on the plateau, the terrain is complex, the mountains and forests are dense, the weather, the poisonous miasma, and so on will be the obstacles to the march of the Great Song army, almost not inferior to the Great Yue Kingdom.

In the end, Zeng Zhao found the most suitable candidate for Zhao Xu.

Cai Xuan, on the surface, this candidate is not suitable, he has never shown the ability to lead the army, if he rashly makes him the commander, the loss of troops and generals is a small problem, and the destruction of the army is the most worrying thing. However, if Cai Xuan really had to be the commander of the Southern Expedition to Dali, would that Luo Guozi really sit idly by?

Zhao Xu is very clear about the relationship between the two, if there is no Cai Dao, Cai Xuan may still stay in his hometown in Xianyou County, leisurely and leisurely as a rich man, therefore, although there is a big age gap between the two people, Cai Xuan's brother can be said to be raised by Cai Dao.

Moreover, Cai Xuan also has an advantageous condition that no one else has, he is now the transfer envoy of Kuizhou Road, the governor of Kuizhou.

In the later generations, Sichuan was divided into four in the Great Song Dynasty, namely Chengdu Fu Road, Lizhou Road, Zizhou Road and Kuizhou Road. Sichuan's political and economic questioning and cultural loyalty have always been Chengdu Mansion on Chengdu Road. But if you talk about the area, Kuizhou Road is a well-deserved first.

The reason why Cai Dao secretly operated Cai Xuan to take office here is that he took a fancy to the vast area of the entire Kuizhou Road, and it is a land of mountains, forests and hills, which is used to grow cotton, which does not occupy arable land and is convenient for transportation.

Cotton is light and is the most suitable cash crop for the development of Kuizhou.

Since Zhao Xu came to power, Cai Xuan did not take office for long, and began to vigorously promote the cultivation of grass cotton.

Sure enough, it only took a year, and the people of the entire Kuizhou Road were very grateful to this new transfer envoy, the so-called Qing official, to a certain extent, in fact, he knew that he had no ability to lead the people under his rule to common prosperity, so he had to take inaction to rule, not greedy, not occupied, not inactive, that is, a clean official.

And those who can often bring large profits and income throughout the road can really be regarded as good officials.

For three consecutive years, the cotton harvest has provided a huge wealth income for the entire Kuizhou Road, from the local officials to the Li people. This kind of situation makes the surrounding three roads extremely hot.

There is no need for Cai Dao and Cai Xuan to deliberately promote it.

In addition to leaving enough land for growing grain, the landlords of Chengdu Fu Road, Lizhou Road and Zizhou Road have spontaneously started to grow grass and cotton since the beginning of the second year.

After careful consideration, Zhao Xu finally agreed to this personnel appointment, and the holy decree was quickly passed into Cai Xuan's hands.

Of course, Cai Xuan was happy to be able to accept this task, but he knew that he didn't have the ability to lead the army at all, so he wrote to ask Cai Dao's opinion.

Speaking of which, the two are not far apart.

It didn't take long for Cai Dao to send someone.

Two middle-aged generals, three young generals, the first two are Xie Feibao and Shi Ernai, and the last three are indeed the elites that Cai Dao pryed from the Western Army - Liu Changzuo's two grandsons Liu Daojing and Liu Daoyang, and one is a kind of Pu's general, super marksman Wang Sunchen.

In time and space without Cai Dao, this Wang Sunchen was originally the governor of Lanzhou, but because of Cai Dao, Lanzhou was lost early. Once, because Chong Pu did not get the opportunity to participate in the battle of Thang Long City, the young general's ability was not shown in front of others. Later, Cai Dao and Chong Pu took a boat to conquer the cities along the Red River, and he witnessed the ability of this marksman.

Needless to say, Cai Dao also found that this young general's arm strength was amazing. Half of an archer shoots a fixed number of arrows every day, and once it is exceeded, it is sure to pull up the muscles. However, Wang Sunchen insisted on pulling the hard bow in front of him for an hour without stopping, which made Cai Dao feel surprised.

Xie Feibao and Shi Ernai were born as bandits, so they were naturally very suitable for mountain warfare, while Li Sunsin and the Liu brothers were both sharpshooters, and they were also very suitable to participate in this battle.

Shi Ernai also handed Cai Xuan a letter, in which he said that the conquest of Dali was rebellious, and it could neither be delayed nor rushed. Like the southern expedition to the Great Yue Kingdom, there is still no need to send a forbidden army from Bianliang City. Cai Xuan can completely recruit troops on Kuizhou Road, Zizhou Road and Lizhou Road, because Kuizhou Road itself is also a place with many mountains and forests, and there are many barbarians nearby.

Don't be afraid to spend money, in order to take down the entire Dali country. You can ask Zhao Xu for instructions, in the past two years, you will not pay the money and food of the four roads to the imperial court, and you will first settle down to recruit and train troops in Kuizhou, and after waiting for a year, you can immediately march to it.

Cai Dao didn't know that the usurping Gao Shengtai would die of illness in the second year of the usurpation, but at that time, it was indeed the best time.

Moreover, Cai Dao also said in the letter that Dali is in a dangerous terrain and does not need to be completely occupied, but only needs to occupy a few key places. For example, the two lakes in Yunnan, Dianchi Lake and Kunming Lake.

The Shu soldiers are fragile, but only relatively. After hundreds of years of subtle transformation, the soldiers of Dali have become unbearable.

After getting Cai Dao's suggestion, Cai Xuan immediately wrote to Zhao Xu for instructions, and when he heard that there was no need to continue to draw forbidden troops from Bianliang City, Zhao Xu was naturally very happy. Two years less money and grain from Yizhou's four roads, in exchange for conquering a country, no matter how you look at it, it is very worthwhile.

After receiving the holy decree again, Cai Xuan immediately let go and let the five generals go to various places to recruit troops. Shi Ernai went to Zizhou Road, while Xie Feibao went to Lizhou Road, and the remaining three young generals went to Chengdu Fu Road. As for Kuizhou Road, Cai Xuan's current prestige alone is enough.

The recruitment of troops went very smoothly, and Shi Ernai and Xie Feibao even recruited some local bandits with decent reputations in the two roads. This made some civil officials, who originally looked down on the two Qiu Ba, gradually change their attitude towards them. The Lizhou Road transfer envoy even wrote to Cai Xuan, imploring him to leave Xie Feibao on Lizhou Road for a period of time.

The Lizhou Road transfer envoy did this because he wanted to rely on Xie Feibao's ability to completely exterminate the mountain bandits that had been plaguing the entire Lizhou Road for him.