Having just robbed two Japanese merchant ships, the Haibo did not take advantage of the darkness of the night to turn around, but continued on its way to the Japanese archipelago, approaching the island of Kyushu the next morning. Then turn around and go north, through the Tsushima Strait, along the western side of the Korean Peninsula directly in the direction of the Liaodong Peninsula while probing and advancing, without hurrying. The more ships he saw, the more confident Hong Tao became, although there are still many deficiencies in his Haibo that need to be solved slowly, such as the anti-swing water tanks at the bow and stern have not yet been made, but compared to the current waters in Asia, it can already be the king and dominate.

"Brother Wen, what do you think of my ship? If I had ten of these big ships, which port in the Great Song Dynasty would still have merchant ships in and out? Without overseas trade, the treasury would be half empty, right? The treasury is empty, and I am afraid that the salaries of you officials will not be able to be paid, and there is still money to pay tribute to the Jin State? Now Hong Tao has found a very interesting thing to do, which is to catch the hungry and deflated bug-like Wen Langzhong out of the bilge every morning, and then warm him a pot of rice wine, put a plate of dried fish and dried meat, and watch him gobble it up while playing with him.

Hong Tao did not want to insult his personality, but wanted to use this way to inquire about the details of the Southern Song Dynasty, especially the situation in the north. It's not much use to ask Luo Youde about these things, he is just a small businessman who is just in his early stages, he doesn't have so many connections in the political circles, and he usually doesn't care much about these things. And Wen Nan is different, he himself is an official of the Southern Song Dynasty, or a Beijing official, and he must know more things than Luo Youde. However, this standard Southern Song Dynasty literati has a very bad temper, you talk to him well, he uses all kinds of obscure words to scold people, although Hong Tao can't understand most of the allusions, but he is 100% sure that he is scolding himself.

But this Wen Nan Wenlang is too square, once you provoke him and talk about his heart, he forgets about it, and he can't help but argue with you, and as soon as he argues, what Hong Tao wants to know will come out. Compared with Hong Tao, he is like a pure angel, a person with high character can never fight a person with no character, because he has persistence and ideals, but Hong Tao does not. If you have no desire, you are just right, Hong Tao is almost at this level, he has no persistence, no ideals, everything can be exchanged, it just depends on whether you can afford this price.

"Suigong? Hahahaha...... Fool's view! If the imperial court goes to war with the Jin State, the money and grain consumed every year will be dozens of times, hundreds of times the annual tribute, the lives will be miserable, and the people will not be able to make a living. Without a war, the tax can be increased tenfold or hundredfold, and the annual tribute is not enough to worry about. Wen Lang Zhongzheng was struggling with a piece of dried whale meat, and when he heard that Hong Tao was sarcastically paying tribute to Jin Guosui Sui, he immediately gave up the attack on the dried meat for a while, and began to wholeheartedly maintain the dignity of the court, and by the way, he also laughed at Hong Tao, and in order to prove that he was reasonable, he also gave Hong Tao a simple economic account.

"......" has to say that this Wen Langzhong is worthy of being a diplomat, and his eloquence is very good, and he has made Hong Tao bored.

Hong Tao didn't want to mess around with Wen Langzhong on this issue, he was originally very dissatisfied with the cowardice of the Song Dynasty, so why could a rich country be beaten down by a group of nomads? Even if you don't have horses, you should gather the strength of the whole country, and work hard with each other with people and money!

However, what Wen Langzhong said was another way of thinking, which should be the consensus of the ruling class of the Song Dynasty. They believe that the main task of a ruler is not to expand the territory, or even to lose part of the territory, but to enable the people under his rule to live a good life.

In any case, this view may arouse the opposition of the vast majority of young people, who have never experienced hardship, have not experienced war, and do not know what suffering and war are. Once the war starts, it is not as light as described in words, it is really going to kill people and ruin families. If the Southern Song Dynasty gathered the strength of the whole country, collected heavy taxes from the people of the whole country, spent all the treasury, beat the Jin people back, and regained the lost land. And then what? And then half of the population died, guarding the empty treasury, and everyone ate bran together?

Will the people praise this generation of emperors as great men? How to praise it? Say that he led the people to prosperity and strength? A country with no economic foundation and empty national strength, even if it defeats the Jin State, what will the Tangut people do if they come again? Another beating? And then, when the country is weaker and the treasury is empty, and the Mongols come again? Or the destruction of the country and the destruction of the family. After tossing several times, the people did not live a good life, and the result was still a virtue.

There is no solution, under the current productivity and geographical situation, Hong Tao feels that even if he makes himself the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, he can't play any flowers. Cavalry, large-scale cavalry regiments, for the Southern Song Dynasty infantry who lacked horses, were incomprehensible. This is just like when the German tank cluster swept across Europe, and the huge country of France was wiped out in an instant. They all criticize the French government that surrendered, what can they do if they don't surrender? Infantry against tank clusters? Is it heroic? It was indeed heroic, just as the Polish cavalry launched a decisive charge against the German tank cluster, and it did bring tears to people's eyes. But war is not a movie, sensationalism will achieve the goal, movie sensationalism depends on the actor, he can still get up when he dies, sensationalism in the war is real death, if there is your son among the cavalry who launched the suicidal charge, do you still think you should charge?

The Song Dynasty actually encountered this situation, in such a year when there were no modern communication conditions, it took a day or two to contact each other for hundreds of miles, and the cavalry of the other side had already run away. The initiative in war is always in the hands of the cavalry, and people can fight whenever they want, leave when they want, fight whenever they want, and fight wherever they want.

As the saying goes, there is only a thousand days to be a thief, and there is no thousand days to prevent thieves. Passive defense is very financially expensive, and the young and strong people have gone to the front line to defend, not to mention where so many cities came from, whether to build a Great Wall, just this lack of labor and logistics supply, it will have to cost the life of a government. Who planted the land at home? How can food and weapons be sent to the front line without stopping? The infantry can only survive on lines of communication and towns, and you can't let the infantry prepare for a field battle with cavalry troops on a front of thousands of miles, right?

You have set up a formation, and you have figured out a way to deal with the cavalry, and if they don't beat you, they go around and hit your rear, what can you do? Historically, the Mongol cavalry did exactly that, you have a fortified city, right? Yes, you guard, I'll go around and hit your perimeter, sweep all your perimeter, and see how long you can defend. A year? Two years? There are no supplies, and sooner or later you will have to abandon the city and kill you.

Therefore, in this era, infantry and cavalry are always the passive side of the fight. Someone said that there are also examples in history of infantry defeating cavalry! Yes, but that requires a lot of conditions. For example, the terrain, tactics, weather, and information collection on both sides can only be encountered by chance and cannot be copied. At the level of grand strategy, the infantry can never deal with the cavalry fighting in large groups, and it cannot afford to consume it. Whether you want to fight quickly or enter a war of attrition, the initiative is not on the side of the infantry, you have to follow the wishes of the cavalry.

In this case, it is not easy to reach a peaceful situation with the other party. As for the annual tribute, it is only 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 horses of silk, Wen Nan is right, this thing does not hurt the Southern Song Dynasty, and through the trade surplus between the two sides, it will soon be able to earn it back, which is equivalent to giving nothing to the other party. In exchange for this, the people of the whole country have a stable life, no one has to lose their children, the domestic culture and economy can be greatly developed, and the people's sense of happiness is much stronger.

This is a question of the mode of thinking, as the manager of a country, do you plan to exchange the suffering of the people for your own merits, or do you plan to use the damage of your reputation to exchange the happiness of the people's lives? Both options are correct, Hong Tao himself prefers the latter, because his character is not that kind of careerist, let alone a hero, he prefers to live a peaceful and stable life.

"And how long do you think this kind of life can last? In case the other party recovers and has the ability to attack the Great Song Dynasty again, what if you don't want to give as much money as you want? Wasn't the money given for nothing then? Although Hong Tao can understand the original intention of the Southern Song Dynasty government's approach, they are not traversers, and there are always historical limitations. It is also impossible for them to think that the Kingdom of Jin, which was once the main enemy, will soon disappear and usher in another, more vicious enemy, and at that time you will not want to give money to anyone.

"There are strong soldiers stationed in Hanshui and Huaishui in this dynasty, and they are not afraid of anyone! Since the Liao State can negotiate peace, the Jin State can negotiate peace, and other countries can also negotiate peace, the barbarians can also be influenced. Wen Nan's words are too literati, they are fools who talk on paper, too idealistic.

"Nonsense, you can influence me! You haven't answered my question just now, if I start from Guangzhou with ten of these big ships, go all the way north, and burn all the port cities of Quanzhou, Wenzhou, Mingzhou, and Lin'an, do you think you can stop me with your Great Song Dynasty warships? I don't want money, I just think it's fun, I like to kill people for fun. You also saw that not only am I going to kill, but I am also teaching my descendants to kill, these people are the same as me, how are you going to influence me? Hong Tao began to raise the bar, he wanted this Wen Nan to understand his thoughts, if he could really understand himself, maybe he would really put him back, let him also remind the Southern Song Dynasty court, even if he shouted a few times, maybe it would have some effect.

"You...... You're unreasonable! Wen Nan really couldn't answer, he had seen the power of a ship like the Haibo, not only the time when it sank the ship, but that time he was a witness and couldn't see the complete combat situation. In the past ten days, every time Hong Tao wanted to attack a lone ship on the sea, he would bring him to the stern, so that he could clearly see how this ship and the people on this ship fought, and he could see that his heart was cool and cool.

As a diplomat who specializes in receiving foreign missions, he himself often travels on sea ships, so he can't say that he knows anything about naval warfare, but at least he is not a stranger. And he had come to the conclusion in his heart that the Hypo was indeed much more powerful than any ship he had ever seen. It is an all-round suppression, if you really want to fight, you really have to have ten such big ships come together, and the sailors of any port can't stop it, once these ships have the upper hand, it's really not nonsense to destroy a city. And all the prosperity of the Southern Song Dynasty is in these big cities along the coast, once it is attacked, it will be a disaster, and if you don't need others to fight, you will have to collapse.