"Lord Zhongshu, the inefficiency of the Imperial City Division is a long-standing malpractice formed since the Renzong Dynasty, and even after His Royal Highness King Yun promoted the Imperial Division, it is difficult to eliminate the malaise for a while!" Xu Jiang replied.

The Liao people infiltrated Xingqing Mansion, making Lotte feel that his safety was threatened, and asked with great dissatisfaction: "The root cause why the Imperial City Division is not as good as the Great Liao General Affairs Bureau is that there is a lack of money?" Or is there a lack of people? Or is there something else missing? ”

"Lack of money!" General Xu replied very happily, and said carefully: "During the Taizu Dynasty, it was the best time for the intelligence of this dynasty, at that time, my Imperial City Division had not changed its name, and it was called Wude Division, and it was precisely because of the existence of Wude Division that the intelligence of many puppet dynasties in the south was clear, so that our Great Song Dynasty army could sweep away the Southern Tang Dynasty, Southern Han, and Later Shu, and create the foundation of my Great Song Dynasty." ”

"During the Taizong Dynasty, the two expeditions to Liao ended in fiasco, what did you do in the Imperial City Division?" Listening to Xu Jiang's voice with a bit of cowhide in his voice, Lotte asked with a bit of jokingness.

"The two tragic changes of the Yongxi Northern Expedition have nothing to do with my Imperial City Division!" Xu Jiang hurriedly defended, a little aggrieved, and then continued: "It is inevitable that there are small people in the Wude Division, who are in the local area for their own selfish interests, and have been repeatedly played by the local officials to the imperial court, known to Emperor Taizu, and Taizu has mercy on the people, so the work of the Imperial City Division is limited by Taizu to Biandu City, and is specifically responsible for reconnoitering foreign details in Biandu City, monitoring the speech of officials in this dynasty, and occasionally being responsible for public security in Biandu.

The defeat of Yongxi's Northern Expedition had nothing to do with our Imperial City Division, and those two defeats were not unrelated to the inability to keep up with intelligence work in addition to the improper use of troops. ”

Lotte then asked, "What do you mean by the lack of money in the Imperial City Division?" ”

Xu Jiang explained carefully: "It's not that the officials complain, it costs a lot of money to do intelligence work, especially some intelligence is to spend a lot of money to buy from the mouth of the officials of the enemy country, since the failure of the Yongxi Northern Expedition, Emperor Taizong began to attach importance to intelligence work, these things have nothing to do with our Imperial City Division, most of them are put on the side to recruit spies with heavy money, so that the Liao State repeatedly invaded our Great Song Dynasty to no avail, and even fell in the Yuanyuan, so that the two countries negotiated peace.

However, since the time of the Renzong Dynasty, due to redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses, the imperial court could not make ends meet, and Emperor Renzong cut a large amount of money for intelligence work, so that the intelligence was not well-informed, so that later my Great Song Dynasty and the Xia people in the northwest had the defeat of Sanchuan! ”

Lotte suddenly said: "Recently, I read that Bao Zhengjian was very dissatisfied with the results of the intelligence of this dynasty, and Zeng Shangshu and Emperor Renzong Yun: 'I can't go deeper, but I just go to the four fields and the secluded, Zhuo room, and spread the folk common words or hypocritical things', this official originally thought that it was about your Imperial City Division, but I didn't expect it to mean something else. ”

Xu Jiang said carefully: "My Great Song Dynasty's infiltration of the Liao State is not in-depth, and sometimes it is no wonder that my dynasty sent out the detailed work, the internal situation and environment of the Northern Dynasty are too complicated, and the three major regions of Youyun, Liaodong, and Saibei are very different, and it is really difficult to collect.

In the gap between the Liao Dynasty and the Central Plains, the big papers were recruited from the Han people on the Song-Liao border. In order to facilitate their activities in the Central Plains, they naturally have to use various identities as cover, among which the more commonly used identities are businessmen and monks.

In some cases, the Liao Dynasty also sent people into the Song Dynasty to spy on information by sending people as members of Goryeo or Uighur missions to the Song Dynasty. In addition, formal diplomatic activities, such as envoys to the Song Dynasty, were also one of the fronts for the Liao Dynasty to conduct intelligence activities. ”

Hearing this, Lotte finally understood why the Great Song Dynasty was on guard against the Liao, Goryeo, and Uighur missions to the Song Dynasty, and even tightened control over the Great Song Dynasty books, local chronicles, maps, and other things, which were important sources for the other party to collect and understand the Great Song Dynasty intelligence.

However, the members of the mission are spies, and they are open secrets in all countries, and even in future generations, and everyone knows each other.

I saw that Xu Jiang continued: "The Liao Dynasty who disguised himself as a merchant often collected intelligence in our Great Song Dynasty on the pretext of going to the Rongchang in our Great Song Dynasty to trade. By the way, in order to deal with the Liao people's meticulous work, our dynasty closed the Yongchang in Xiongzhou in the sixth year of Xianping.

Those Liao Dynasty practitioners who disguised themselves as monks often carried out activities in the territory of our Great Song Dynasty in the name of 'monks traveling all over the world', or went to Wutai Mountain to hide and collect information after becoming monks. In order to cope with the gap between the Liao people, our dynasty finally had to issue a decree that the temples in Zhulu in Hebei could not accept monks from the Liao Dynasty, and these Liao people must be guaranteed even if they became monks in Wutai Mountain.

In addition, the Liao State also bought the poems and political treatises of our Song Dynasty officials and scholars with a lot of money to obtain information. ”

I didn't expect that Liao's intelligence was stronger than that of the Song Dynasty, and Lotte also knew something. During the reign of Renzong Dynasty, Kong Daofu came into contact with the envoys of the Liao Dynasty who came to our Great Song Dynasty and found that the Liao people knew quite well about the official system of our Great Song Dynasty. When Nie Guanqing sent an envoy to the Liao Dynasty, the Liao Emperor even knew a lot about his work "Qi Chun Ji". When Su Zhe, one of the 'Three Sus', went to the Liao State, he found that the articles he wrote had been circulated to the Liao Dynasty.

Lotte asked: "After Xining changed the law, the financial income of the imperial court was much better than that of the Yingzong Dynasty, and the money was abundant, and the dynasty also won more and lost less when facing the Xia people in the northwest, what happened to the Imperial City Division over the years?" ”

"At the beginning of His Majesty's succession to the throne, the Imperial City Division was managed by Tong Guan Tong Shuai, and then supervised by Tan Shu and Tan Shuai, and it was only promoted by His Royal Highness King Yun in the sixth year of Zhenghe." Xu Jiang replied.

Then he continued: "Lord Zhongshu, you also know that His Royal Highness King Yun is His Majesty's favorite prince, and it is precisely because His Royal Highness King Yun promoted the Imperial City Division that the Imperial City Division has developed unprecedentedly, but limited to financial resources, it has only achieved the skeleton in the all-important military pass city, but it has not been able to be more detailed. ”

In this regard, Lotte is clear that he was originally summoned by Zhao Kai to the Imperial City Division in Caizhou, whether it is the Huaikang Army in Caizhou City or Hangzhou on Liangzhejiang Road, the branch of the Imperial City Division only has a rough skeleton mechanism, which is far from perfect.

Xu Jiang then said to Lotte: "When today's son likes poetry and songs, dance and writing, His Royal Highness King Yun is the same, in order to get His Majesty's favor, His Royal Highness King Yun is even more happy to do this, and the affairs of the Imperial City Division were later all handed over to Shi Gou, and Shi Gou saw that the cost was very high, so he also turned a blind eye!" ”

Lotte nodded, and then said the puzzlement in his heart: "Since the Imperial City Division is so unbearable, how can you know the situation in the Xia Kingdom?" ”

Xu Jiang replied: "In addition to the Imperial City Division, my Great Song Dynasty also has the Staff Pavilion, after Emperor Taizu ordered the Imperial City Division not to leave Biandu, this external intelligence work will all be handed over to the Staff Pavilion for disposal, the Imperial City Division is inside, and the staff Pavilion is outside, these years due to the great power of the Imperial City Division, and it is His Royal Highness King Yun who has been promoted, Lord Xu of the Staff Pavilion is naturally fully cooperating, it is this time that the Lord sent an envoy to the Xia Kingdom to marry the princess of the Xia Kingdom, and the Staff Pavilion is also doing his best to cooperate in the intelligence!" ”

It was only at this time that Le Tian suddenly realized that he had thought that the Imperial City Division's careful intelligence work on the affairs of Xia Guo had done a good job, and it turned out that he had benefited from the convenience of the Staff Pavilion.

Sighing, Lotte instructed Xu Jiang: "You can find a way to organize a group of reliable and capable people who are specifically responsible for collecting information on the Jurchens, as for the money, if the Imperial City Division can't come up with so much money, take it from this official!" ”

"My lord, why is that?" General Xu was puzzled, "There is a great Liao between the Jurchens and my Great Song Dynasty, and the lower officials think that it is more realistic to inquire about the information of the Great Liao than to inquire about the information of the Jurchens......

Lotte asked rhetorically: "Do you think that under the attack of the Jurchens, Da Liao can last a few years?" ”

General Xu asked, "What do you mean that Da Liao will die?" My Great Song wants to face the Jurchens directly? ”

Nodding, Lotte asked rhetorically: "A force that can destroy the Great Liao Capital, isn't it worthy of my Great Song Dynasty's attention?" Since the past dynasties, the nomads have always liked to invade and plunder the property of our Central Plains, and the Jurchens are an uncivilized people outside the country, how can they pay attention to benevolence, righteousness and morality with my Great Song Dynasty? ”

Xu Jiang replied: "What the lord said is very true, and after returning to the Great Song Dynasty, I will start to do it according to the instructions of the adult!" ”

……

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"The Song envoy who married the princess of the Xia people lived in the post house, in addition to the guards and soldiers, there were also masters in the Imperial City Division of the Great Song Dynasty, and the miscellaneous servants in the post house were all cleared out, all of which were served by the people brought by the Song envoy, and the meat, vegetables, fruits and vegetables bought every day were all subject to this strict inspection, and the water source for drinking was also checked from time to time, and the small ones could not find a chance to start for a moment!"

In a house in Xingqing Mansion, a young man said to an old man with his back to him.

Regarding the words of the young man behind him, the old man was noncommittal, and just smiled and said: "The Great Song Imperial City Division failed to investigate the information, and the guard work is not bad!" ”

"Since the post house is heavily guarded, you don't have to think of a way here anymore!" Then the old man said again, stretched out his fingers and twisted his beard, and after a while, he continued: "If you want to become the son-in-law of the Xia people, this Song people will inevitably go to the hunting ground to hunt, and then you will go to the wedding ceremony of the Xia princess, this is your chance, but only these two chances are greater, if this Song people return to the Song realm, we can't do anything, so Xiao Da, your task is very important and very difficult!" ”

"My subordinates will do their best!" The young man who was Lord Xiao Da said.

Nodding his head, the Liao man whose name was Xiao Da asked with some puzzlement: "The little one has something unclear, this Song envoy does not support the Southern Dynasty to join forces with Jin to attack my Great Song Dynasty, but it is Tong Guan, Wang Hao and others from the Southern Dynasty who are the culprits who advocate the Song and Jurchen joint forces to attack my Great Liao, why don't you send me to kill those two, but kill this Lotte?" ”

The old man said: "If Song and Xia are at peace, my Da Liao will be in danger, and the exact information has come from the north, and the mission sent by the Song Emperor has reached the territory of the Jurchens, and is discussing with the Jurchens about jointly attacking my Da Liao, so I can only let this Song envoy die in the Xia Kingdom, so that there is no possibility of peace between Song and Xia, and the attention of the Song people will be on the Xia people, so that Song Xia will start the war again, and my Da Liao will put all his strength on dealing with the Jurchens." ”

Speaking of this, the old man turned to look at Xiao Da behind him, "So, the safety of Da Liao is all tied to you alone." ”

The young man hurriedly said: "For the sake of Da Liao, the little one has already put life and death out of the way!" ”

"Xiao Da, I know that you are not afraid of death, but death can only show your loyalty, and completing the task is your ultimate goal and the greatest contribution to Daliao." The old man stared at Xiao Da and said, then his face became distorted, and he said hatefully: "It's really hateful for the Song people to rebel, after my Great Liao has destroyed the Jurchens, I will go south and destroy these southerners together with the Xia people!" ”

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