Shangjing and other big cities were not affected by the southern expedition in the slightest, and even more lively than last year. The flow of people is huge, with more than 100,000 people entering and leaving Beijing every day, more than the population of a city in any other country in the world.

However, the villages of the Great Song Dynasty and some small cities were more affected. 400,000 troops went on the expedition, and 400,000 people accompanied them, and such a large-scale conquest was the first time for the Great Song Dynasty. Many families have children serving in the army, so they are naturally quite concerned. The families of the nearly 400,000 Baojia soldiers are much sadder, because they may not come back after this departure. Although the imperial court promised wealth and nobility, it is not impossible to seek wealth and wealth, and it may not be impossible to bury bones in other places, after all, this is to go to war.

In addition, because of the four million stone grain to be transferred to the front line, the price of grain in the Great Song Dynasty increased a lot again. Many of the artisans who worked in the workshops were affected by the continued high price of grain, and they went to the countryside to buy land and set up farms, and the income from farming actually exceeded that of migrant workers.

The landlords and wealthy families, who were originally opposed to the reform of the law and the measurement of land and production, made a fortune because of this, and the income from the sale of grain far exceeded the opening of a workshop. This situation made the government hall quite happy, because most of the ministers of the government hall were farmers. Only Zhao Ji and Wang Anshi were quite worried, fearing that the workshop they had worked so hard to set up would go out of business.

Zhao and Wang's worries were a bit overdone, and although a large number of people returned to agriculture, this not only did not lead to the closure of the workshop, but rather contributed to its growth. The problem of bubbles that could have been caused by the rapid development of industry and commerce has been alleviated, and many workshops have become stronger through mergers, and many large workshops have appeared. The traditional handicraft workshop is moving towards a large factory, and the large factory has talents, technology and capital, and takes the development mode of enterprise scale, which further improves the industry's ability to resist risks, reduces production costs, and improves production efficiency.

Importantly, with the establishment of the Chinese Empire, various countries were carrying out large-scale development actions, and the Great Song Dynasty had to build a large number of water conservancy projects, and the need for various tools was increasing. The price reduction of goods, as well as the mass production of goods, just complement each other.

Grain prices continued to rise, and for the people of the Great Song Dynasty, this expedition was for more food. And the emperor had already promised that if the expedition was won, the price of grain would not plummet, but the wages of craftsmen would increase several times. This means that while the increase in grain prices allows farmers to make money, through the victory of the war, the imperial court will give more benefits and subsidies to craftsmen, and improve the treatment of craftsmen in addition to wages.

The continuous rise in grain prices caused a large amount of grain from neighboring countries to flow into the Great Song Dynasty, because of the establishment of the Chinese Empire, the export of grain from various countries has been relaxed. The high price of grain has led to the development of the food processing industry, which to a certain extent has broken the practice that grain will not be traded over long distances, and the continuous increase in grain prices has made grain merchants try their best to overcome the problem of long-distance transportation. The government hall has also issued a policy that no taxes will be levied on all grain transactions.

However, the current Zhao Ji has no time to pay attention to these things, let alone go down to the people to understand the public opinion and see what the people think of this expedition. Because the expedition to India was already an established fact and was the only choice for the Great Song Dynasty now, Zhao Ji was more concerned about how to arrange the candidates for the military cabinet and formulate the management methods after the conquest of India.

400,000 troops went on the march, and 400,000 people accompanied them, and there were too many follow-up things to deal with on such a scale. None of the officials and soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty could be idle, as if they were competing for time with God. There is no way to do this, an emperor like Zhao Ji is supervising, and the Iron Arm Guard and Shadow Guard of the Supervision Department are all closely controlled, and the consequence of not doing things is to be dismissed and return to his hometown.

Shangjing, the government hall compound, the conference hall. Zhao Ji rubbed his temples with his fingers, and said with a tired face: "Couldn't Lu Huiqing be the first assistant of the cabinet?" How is Xue Xiang? ”

The Great Song Dynasty seriously lacked famous generals who commanded a large number of troops to fight, resulting in the formation of a military cabinet this time to find a good general. Zhao Ji is a little nostalgic for the Renzong Dynasty, the Renzong Dynasty produced many civil and military figures, the Tang and Song dynasties, and the Song Dynasty accounted for six, and these six were all active in the Renzong Dynasty. And Di Qing is a famous general through the ages.

The country is in danger and the country is in trouble. Now the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty is thriving, but it is very unstable. The remnants of Renzong's dynasty are still there, and Zhao Ji still has a good appearance like Sima Guang and Wang Anshi. Zaizhi's reserves are also very strong, with two brothers, Su Shi and Su Zhe, two brothers Cai Jing and Cai Bian, and famous ministers like Fan Chunren and Han Zhongyan. There are also Zhang Dan, Lu Huiqing, Xu Jiang and others.

However, there is a serious shortage of good generals. This has a lot to do with the original military system of the Great Song Dynasty, which was actually a commander, and there were only 500 people in a command. When it was time to fight, they were temporarily put together and arranged for Wenchen to command the troops.

Although Zhao Ji later changed the military system and promoted and trained many generals, the time was too short, and most of the generals did not command a large corps to fight. Now there are three heavyweight generals, Wang Shao, Kumamoto and Guo Kui. However, these three people have already made arrangements, and Zhang Dian and Guo Kui are indispensable in the political affairs hall, and Wang Shao and Kumamoto are indispensable in Huangtou's return to Fuqing and Tang Tubo.

Xiao Yiyuan is only proficient in naval warfare, Li Chang is a scholar, and this large-scale war that determines the fortunes of the country cannot be completely handed over to them. Zhao Ji wanted to promote Lu Huiqing, but Lu Huiqing had no military merits, he was young, and in terms of talent, he would not lose to Zhang Xuan. However, in the battle to pacify the southwest, Zhang Dian made countless meritorious contributions and made outstanding achievements.

"Holy Lord, Xue Xiang is proficient in finance and can be the second assistant of the cabinet. Lu Huiqing is currently the governor of Chengdu Prefecture, and Chengdu Mansion Road is to be expanded, and talents like Lu Huiqing are indispensable. The first assistant of the military cabinet was served by Yan Da, who had been fighting in the Western Army for half his life and had countless military achievements, so he could take on this great task. Sima Guang recommended.

In fact, there are still a lot of talents in the Great Song Dynasty, and the reserve ministers are: Zhou Shilong, Li Ji, Liu Fengshi, Xu Jiang, Cai Qulu, Dafang, An Tao, Zheng Yong, Wang Yansuo, Liu Zhi, Cai Ting, Fu Yaoyu. Even if these ministers will not be able to dominate in the future, they will definitely enter the political hall. There are also many military generals in reserve, but they are all very young, including: Zong Ze Seed Jianzhong Seed Pu Zhe Ke Shi Hou Meng Wang Hou Wang Shun Chen Li Qingchen. Among them, the four people of Zongze Chongjianzhong, Hou Meng, Wang Shunchen are very good, they are all nineteen years old, but they have the courage of ten thousand people, and they bravely won the three armies at a young age. The important thing is that they are not only fierce generals, but also handsome talents.

And Yan Da, recommended by Sima Guang, although he is also a good general, but he is not handsome, and in Zhao Ji's heart, he is at the same level as Liu Yanqing, Zhang Cun, Wang Wenzhen, Jing Sizhong, Lin Xi, Fan Bailu, Zhang Cheng, Han Cunbao, Qin Gui, Kou Weiqu, Zhen Zhen, Zhen and other generals. The top ten generals selected by Zhao Ji himself are only good generals, not handsome, let alone famous generals like Di Qing.

A lot of time-traveling novels have created famous generals at every turn. However, at this time, Zhao Ji realized the importance of talents. And talents can't be cultivated overnight, and neither can the people promoted by Zhao Ji himself. Those famous generals who have left their names in history are even more rare in a century. Thousands of troops are easy to obtain, but one general is hard to find. Zhao Ji finally understood the meaning of this sentence.

After discussing it for a long time, most of the talents recommended by the various members of the political hall were rejected by Zhao Ji. In such a campaign, Zhao Ji needs to be led by a famous man in the future in order to ensure the victory of this campaign to the greatest extent. A war in which the fortunes of the country are waged must not be hasty.

Zhao Ji knocked on the conference table, thinking about the candidate. Wen Yanbo is a very good candidate, but he is too old, and he is still a gentleman's party, and the southern expedition to India may have to use the means of the Mongols' westward expedition in history, which is very bloody, and it is impossible for a gentleman like Wen Yanbo to agree to fight like that.

The conference hall of the political affairs hall was quiet for a long time, and finally Zhao Ji made up his mind and said: "The first assistant of the cabinet will be Zhang Ji, Xue Xiang Zhou Tong will be the second assistant, Xiao Yiyuan, Li Changfang, and the ten people of Wang Cunyanda, Zhai En, Zhao Ting's king, Peng Nian, will be the cabinet group assistants. The other four universities should each form a staff group of ten people, accompany the army to plan, and let Ansari form a translation staff group, with Pu Yuanyi as the general. That's it. ”

Considering all aspects of the problem, Zhao Ji made up his mind to let Zhang Ji, a civil minister, lead the army. After all, Zhao Ji knew that later generations would compare Zhang Ji's military ability with Genghis Khan, and describe it as deep and strategic, and as a soldier like a god. Under such a high evaluation, even if the current Zhang Qi has not fought a battle or led a soldier, Zhao Ji still has to use him.

Xue Xiang has financial talents, and it is just right to handle the logistics problems in the war. Zhou Tong is the stepfather and master of the famous Yue Fei, Yue Fei is so good, how can Zhou Tong be bad? The other groups and auxiliaries are all civil and military, and they are divided half.

The military cabinet not only commands the army to fight, but also provides grain and grass and manages the occupied areas, which can be said to be a military and political grasp.

"Shengshang, Zhang Qi is now the governor of Jinzhou, he has never led soldiers, and he has not had particularly great political achievements." Sima Guang admonished.

Being so strict about promotion is the fundamental reason for Renzong's abundance of talents. The more stringent the promotion, the more talent can be obtained. If this is usually the case, it will become a trend, which will only allow the people who drill the camp to find loopholes and climb up, thus blocking the promotion of real talents.

In history, Wang Anshi promoted many newcomers in order to change the law, precisely because there were too many exceptions, and it was a one-time exception. This undermines the strict promotion system. Although Wang Anshi is also very helpless, if Sima Guang supports him, he will need newcomers there. After the failure of the reform, the old system was destroyed, and the new system had not yet been established, and a large number of people who drilled camps entered the imperial court, which made the Great Song Dynasty rapidly corrupt, resulting in the Northern Song Dynasty being destroyed by the Jin State.

"Don't talk about qualifications, let's talk about ability, isn't Zhang Qi's ability insufficient? It can be seen how capable Zhang Qi is. In just half a year, Golden State has opened up the situation. not only consolidated the control of Jinzhou, but also relied on the strength of Jinzhou, and vigorously advanced to Australia without asking the imperial court for a penny. There are many people with qualifications in the cabinet, and Zhang Kai can supplement it if he has any shortcomings. The Great Song Dynasty not only lacked food, but also had few famous generals. Famous generals will be played, and after the conquest of India, there will be talents. Zhao explained.

Subsequently, the political affairs hall made an analysis of Zhao Ji's candidates, made a basic plan for the tasks and strategies of the military cabinet, and ensured that the military cabinet must be under the control of the political affairs hall and must absolutely obey the orders of the political affairs hall.

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