There is only one Beiluo River left, and Cai Dao plans to recommend his brother Cai Xuan.

The reason why Cai Dao chose Cai Xuan was because he knew too little about the history of the Song Dynasty, and those famous civil servants and military generals at the end of the Song Dynasty were either not born or are younger than Cai Dao now.

To be honest, Cai Dao doesn't know much about the thoughts and personality of his clan brother. However, after the first few contacts, Cai Dao initially saw several characteristics of Cai Xuan.

First, he is thick-skinned, Cai Dao is so small, Cai Xuan can actually open his mouth and close his mouth, can he be thin-skinned? Cai Dao believes that this merit is the basic quality that an official should possess.

The second is that although Cai Xuan is a little greedy for money, he never oppresses people with power, which can be regarded as a good way to take it.

The third is that he has a good background, his father Cai Xiang's fame is too great, and he himself has a wide range of friends and knows a lot of people.

Presumably, after going out of the mountain, there are many people around you who come up with ideas.

Therefore, Cai Dao came this time, whether it was for the temple, but also to test Cai Xuan's specific thoughts.

If he really just wanted to be an idle cloud and wild crane, Cai Dao would not have to force this clan brother who treated him well to go out of the mountain.

What's more, after careful analysis, Cai Dao believed that just this year, in order to avenge the revenge of the Wulu War, the lord of Western Xia would definitely send troops to invade the northwest roads of the Song Kingdom. And this is, and it is a good opportunity to make a contribution. Even if Cai Xuan did not serve on the front line at that time, if he could reduce Guanzhong's demand for food from the outside world as much as possible, it would be a great achievement.

After the Five-Way War, the soldiers of the Yan Road were handsome, and they were like bamboos along the way, and successively obtained the three states of Yin, Xia and You.

It's a pity that in the end, Gao Zunyu delayed the fighter plane for his own selfishness, which caused the food transportation of the army to be poor, and the army collapsed halfway. The three states that have just been obtained have also been gained and lost.

After Cai Dao entered Beijing, Song Shenzong listened to his advice and sent Chong Ge to serve in Xihe Road.

And Shen Kuo, the author of the famous Great Song Dynasty encyclopedia "Mengxi Writings" in later generations. At this moment, he was serving in Yanzhou, that is, Yan'an in later generations, and he was sent to Yanzhou as early as the third year of Yuanfeng, and was appointed as the governor of Yanzhou, and concurrently served as the pacification envoy of Yanyan Road.

At the beginning of Yuanfeng's fifth year, that is, in February this year, after several years of accumulation of merits, Shen Kuo was finally promoted to a bachelor of Longtu Pavilion.

If, this Lord Shen Kuo and Shen were brought down in Yanzhou so peacefully, and he didn't use swords and soldiers like a kind of soldier, he, a master of Longtu Pavilion, would be able to return to Bianliang in a few years and enter the center to become a privy envoy or a privy deputy envoy.

However, this famous wife Guan Yan regarded herself as Zhuge Liang's second.

I don't know if Shen Kuo's brain was beaten by his family's Hedong Lion, that string was wrong, and he was obviously living a stable life, but he had to make a demon moth.

No, not long after Cai Dao's assassination, he played Song Shenzong and put forward his strategic plan - to build a city wall in Hengshan, overlooking Pingxia, and build Yongle City.

The Great Song Dynasty had just experienced the disastrous victory of the Five Roads Expedition, and the ministers in the court were all understanding people, so they naturally knew that the current situation of the Great Song Dynasty was not suitable for a big fight.

In particular, those conservative ministers led by Sima Guang naturally resolutely opposed Shen Kuo's opinion, and Prime Minister Wang Si and Second Prime Minister Cai Qu actually remained silent at the same time this time. The two of them neither opposed nor approved, which made Song Shenzong and the other ministers suspicious.

Although the ministers of the Fa-changing faction were divided into several factions, they all remained silent after seeing the attitudes of Wang Si and Cai Qu after a few thoughts. Such a scene made Song Shenzong very embarrassed.

Therefore, despite the opposition of the ministers, Song Shenzong immediately sent Xu Xi and his chamberlain Li Shunju to the northwest to investigate whether the construction of the city was feasible.

Song Shenzong was originally an enterprising monarch, even after last year's disastrous victory, he still wanted to eliminate the scabies disease of Western Xia in his lifetime, and did not want to leave his descendants behind.

After Cai Dao learned the news, he was very uneasy.

He didn't know who Xu Xi and Li Shunju were, and naturally he didn't know what their abilities were. However, he knew Shen Kuo.

Cai Dao vaguely remembered the encyclopedic knowledge about Shen Kuo in Du Niang that he had read. Shen Kuo, the highest is to be a bachelor of Longtu Pavilion, and he did not serve as a prime minister and privy envoy.

Then, if the construction of Yongle City is successful this time, Shen Kuo, as the initiator, will definitely be the first merit, and being a prime minister may not be qualified, but being a privy envoy is not a problem at all. Then, he will not only be a famous scientist in later life.

There must be something big wrong in the middle, and the Yongle City construction plan will definitely not succeed in the end. This is Cai Dao's judgment based on Shen Kuo's relevant information.

Due to the limitations of the system, Cai Dao was unable to know the final outcome of the war between Song and Xia in the fifth year of Yuanfeng.

However, even Cai Dao, a layman in the art of war, can see that in the fifth year of Yuanfeng, the strategic deployment of the Great Song Dynasty must strictly guard against the existing territory, rather than taking the initiative to attack.

Since Li Yuanhao established the Western Xia Kingdom, the march and battle have been following Li Yuanhao's tactics - concentrating superior forces and attacking any Song army that was alone all the way.

In the Renzong Dynasty, when the Song army encountered Li Yuanhao's army, they could not achieve victory, and even died in the end. It is because the emperor of the Western Xia Kingdom always gathers two or three hundred thousand troops around him, so that the Western Xia Kingdom has formed a local advantage in terms of military strength.

In addition, the Song generals were mediocre and arrogant, and Wenchen was blindly commanding in the rear, which led to the three battles of the Renzong Dynasty and the Western Xia Kingdom—the Battle of Sanchuankou, the Battle of Haoshuichuan, and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai—all ended in a crushing defeat for the Song army.

Since then, whenever the Western Xia Kingdom invaded the Song State, the marshals of its troops were like this.

Collect almost all the forces that can be mobilized in the whole country and concentrate on attacking any road in the northwest of the Great Song Dynasty.

After the Great Song Dynasty went through the five-way expedition, the three roads of Yanyan Road, Huanqing Road, and Jingyuan Road, although the soldiers who had lost before had been replenished with sufficient soldiers. But these are new recruits! Morale and experience are insufficient, how to resist the Western Xia soldiers who are all soldiers.

This time, the three roads of Yanyan Road, Huanqing Road, and Jingyuan Road felt extremely difficult to defend alone, and if the Western Xia Kingdom attacked in a big way, they could only cooperate in defense to be able to deal with this military retaliation.

Not to mention, at this moment, Shen Kuo actually dared to take the initiative to provoke the heavy troops of the Western Xia Kingdom, who gave him this courage.

To build a large city on the border, the Great Song State not only had to send heavy troops to guard against the sneak attack of the Western Xia Kingdom, but also had to recruit a large number of civilians to serve in the conscription.

You must know that in the north, this time is the busy season for farming, and it is the busiest time of the year for farmers, and so many people are recruited to build Yongle City at once.

Who will receive eternal happiness?

Moreover, the larger the scale of the castle, the longer it will take to build. At that time, these people will not be able to return to their hometowns, and it will inevitably delay the harvest of grain in Guanzhong and the sowing of autumn and winter wheat.

As a result, this year and the coming year, the burden on the people in the Guanzhong area will become heavier and heavier. In the event of any more natural and man-made disasters, how will those people survive?

Perhaps, at that time, Cai Dao can also follow Zheng Xia's example and draw a few pictures of homeless people to satirize the wise and martial Song Shenzong.

What's more, this time, there is no perfect back-handed man like Wang Anshi by Song Shenzong's side, so how should the official family deal with it at that time?

Hengshan, that is the lifeline of the Western Xia Kingdom, even if the people in the court of the Western Xia Kingdom are all wine bags and rice bags, they also know its importance. Could it be that Song Shenzong and Shen Kuo were counting on the fact that the Western Xia people would do nothing and watch the Song State build Yongle City?

Didn't Shen Kuo and Song Shenzong seriously think about where the heavy soldiers who guarded Yongle City and built the city came from?

Song Shenzong was really willing to send all these old soldiers in Bianliang City there to die!

Moreover, in Guanzhong, where strategic materials are already scarce, the soldiers should eat food! Even if the people who built the city did not pay them, they would have to eat food.

Where does the food come from?

Guanzhong is not as far east of Bianliang, but there is no canal to transport grain. If there is no waterway, the grain transported to Guanzhong, even if there is no corruption among them, will definitely be consumed by the mules and horses transporting the grain.

His grandfather, Wang Anshi, had finally saved this bit of family wealth for Song Shenzong, but he was about to be defeated by Song Shenzong, a monarch who was in the dark and bright.

By the way, there are also warnings that have been systematically organized before, has Song Shenzong forgotten it at this moment?

Shen Kuo's obvious non-argument about the military plane is no longer a secret in the capital, and the secret agents of Western Xia must have known about it a long time ago.

Looking at the news that Hua Xuanqi's subordinates spent a hundred dollars to buy, the more Cai Dao looked at it, the more frightened he became, he knew that something was wrong!

On the day he got the news, Cai Dao went to visit the old man Sun Jue.

Sun Jue is still the secretary and supervisor, and he naturally knows more about the content of the song and Song Shenzong's attitude than Cai Dao.

At that time, he was also on the side of the conservatives and resolutely opposed Song Shenzong's decision.

However, when Cai Dao told his concerns all the time, Sun Jue couldn't sit still.

He immediately took the case and scolded Shen Kuo for misleading the country.

has been an official for so many years, although he has been a local official, Sun Jueke knows these ministers in the court better than Cai Dao.

That internal official Li Shunju is just fine, he has been an errand boy in the palace for decades, and he has always had a good reputation. He is also conscientious and conscientious in undertaking any errand, and he is also a rare literati among the internal officials, he has extensive knowledge, is well-read, and can write good words.

However, Xu Xi is different.

This person is obviously a lucky villain.

Xu Xi, the word Dezhan, Hongzhou Fenning people. Since childhood, he has great ambitions and extraordinary bearing. Study hard, but don't learn anything about the imperial examination. When he was at home, he read a lot of books, and when he grew up, he traveled all over the Great Song Dynasty.

From the book, he strives to know the historical events of ancient and modern times; As he traveled from place to place, he consulted the old and the young, trying to know the local customs and diseases.

The history books say that he was 'exceptionally appointed for his superior knowledge.' ’

In fact, when Wang Anshi changed the law, Xu Xi offered advice, and after Lu Huiqing saw it, he asked him to review it with the body of cloth, and later, Lu Huiqing dedicated his policy book to Song Shenzong. As a result, Xu Xi was exceptionally promoted by Song Shenzong.

Later, Lu Huiqing and Deng Pavilion competed, and it was Xu Xi who secretly sent the news to Lu Huiqing, allowing the traitor to escape.

It is precisely because of these reasons that the relationship between Xu Xi and Lu Huiqing is extremely close.

If it weren't for Cai Dao, Lu Huiqing and Deng Guan would have been demoted to Lingnan at the same time. Xu Xi's trip may be strongly supported by the New Party of Korea and China.

The relationship between the two of them is unknown to others, but Cai does understand it clearly. It is precisely for this reason that Cai Qu went against the ideas of the official family for the first time when Song Shenzong needed the support of the ministers this time, and his attitude was so ambiguous that he refused to express his position from beginning to end.

After discussion, Sun Jue originally wanted to take charge of this matter by himself, and he would summon like-minded officials to impeach Shen Kuo and persuade Song Shenzong to extinguish his plan to build Yongle City.

This time, Cai Dao did not listen to Sun Jue's advice, he first verbally promised Sun Jue to stabilize the old man.

Then, when he returned to the nursery, he immediately wrote a notebook.

In fact, from the very beginning, he insisted on giving Song Shenzong his own twist.

The reason why I went to Sun Jue was just to ask all the ministers of the DPRK and China about their attitudes towards this matter and their movements, and by the way, I would find some helpers to wave the flag and shout with me.

Since all the ministers, including the Prime Minister of the Three Decrees, Wang Si, have disobeyed Song Shenzong's will, Cai Xuan's heart is even more stable.

Song Shenzong did this because he wanted to preemptively remove the threat that the Western Xia people might send troops this year.

Then, Cai Dao came up with a better idea for him.

With Zhuyu in front, presumably Shen Kuo's dog's tail grass will not be able to enter the eyes of Song Shenzong.

After a few days of thinking and deliberation, Cai Dao finally finished writing a piece of more than 10,000 words.

Early in the morning of March 16, Cai Dao asked Gonggong Hu to bring the fold into the palace and hand it over to Shi Deyi.

Of course, Cai Dao told him the content of this recital, and it was told to him by the fake master Tuomeng.

After seeing this recital, Song Shenzong naturally did not fully trust the contents.

In the midst of the twists and turns, Cai Dao first highly praised Shen Kuo's previous achievements.

But then came a divine twist.

His master said that Shen Kuo is also suitable to be the chief official of a place, writing poems and books is his specialty, but marching and fighting is his biggest weakness, at most it is just a royal scripture of the Three Kingdoms period.

And Xu Xi is even more so, he is just Ma Jian at most.

If Song Shenzong must insist on using him, he can first send him to a state and county that is not very important on the front line as the chief official. In this way, he can not only observe his ability, but also not ruin the reputation of the official family once something happens.

Cai Dao is still a child, and Song Shenzong has the intention to ignore it, but with the experience of Gao Zunyu, a waste, he now has doubts about his own vision of people.