This will be a series of counter-plots. The south is against the Yeri brothers, and there is one in the north.

Led by the old species, Fan Zhongyan and Zheng Lang cooperated, almost a match made in heaven.

But the political philosophy is different, and it is destined to be divided everywhere.

Fan Zhong drowned a letter about horses. Since ancient times, cavalry may not be beneficial, Tang Dynasty Mo knife, I Dynasty split array knife, sharpening sabre axe, hook sickle gun can break it...... Horses along the border are millions of years old, and if they leave, they will be desperate, and if they do it, they will be trapped in China.

This piece has many backgrounds.

The northwest was lost, and the Song Dynasty lost important horse grazing places, and there has been a shortage of war horses. Most of the war horses were purchased from foreign countries, and the sources were very complicated, including those from Tibet, Uighurs, Khitans, Western Xia, and barbarians along the border.

After a long period of time, problems have arisen one after another. The horses were bought back and first raised, so some lots were freed up as pastoral overseers. The pastoral superintendent occupies a large area of land, and the officers and soldiers are responsible for raising it, wasting land and money. Management [***], improper breeding, resulting in a large number of dead horses. The location and climate are not right, and after a few years of shepherding in the Central Plains, even if the horse survives and its quality declines, it cannot be used as a war horse. The location of the pastoral supervisor is a place with abundant water and grass, and in the case of a lack of land in the Central Plains, most of them are invaded by the powerful. In the Song Dynasty, there were only two places suitable for raising horses, from Fulin to Shizhou and Lanzhou all the way to the side of the Fen River, where there were more good breeders, and then to Huanqing.

The excellent understanding of foreign horses is also inaccurate, and it is believed that the Liangzhou horse and the Tubo horse are the best, and the Khitan horse has a poor skeleton. The Khitan horse, which is also the Mongolian horse, is it really bad? The Tibetan horses are tall and explosive, and they are better than fighting in the cold areas of the plateau. However, Mongolian horses are hard-working and hard-working, and they are not comparable to Tibet.

In order to prevent the number of horses from decreasing, I had to buy them again. In fact, since the alliance of the Yuanyuan, there were few wars in the Song Dynasty, and buying horses had almost become a routine formula, just to appease the barbarians on the sides. For example, Shaanxi gives 40,000 taels of silver and 75,000 horses of silk every year. Not only in Shaanxi, but also in Hedong Volcano Army, Lizhou, Weizhou, Maozhou, Xuzhou, and Nanping Army. The price of the horses varies from 10 to 50 according to the grade.

Interestingly, the good horses of the Volcano Army are only ten to thirty, and the best of the Lizhou ponies can reach more than fifty, and the meaning of pacification is clearer.

But after these horses were bought, they were escorted along the way, and there were many deaths, so they were packed to merchants like the military rations in the northwest, and the horses needed more than 50 yuan for the horses, because the merchants "covered the whole house", which was lower than the death rate of the imperial court's own horses, and the service on the road was proper, and the quality of the horses transported back was also superior.

I can only say once again that the big pot of rice is indeed a bit harmful.

The transaction is carried out in a barter way, for example, a Chinese-funded Lizhou horse needs 350 catties of famous camellia (about 30 wen per catty), six taels of silver, six pieces of silk, six pieces of silk (about 50 wen each), and one piece of green cloth (more than 500 wen), and more waste will be formed when transporting materials for horses.

In order not to seriously reduce the number of horses, the Song Dynasty required nearly one million yuan a year, from 15,600 to 20,000 horses. This is the origin of this passage that Fan Zhongyan said in the fold.

The mortality rate of horses in the Song Dynasty can also be seen from another aspect.

A horse can live for at least more than 20 years, if it is good, it can also reproduce offspring, more than 20 years, with the number of Song Dynasty purchases plus breeding young horses, the abnormal mortality rate is not high, at least the number of Song Dynasty war horses can be close to 300,000.

It is indeed improper horse herding is also one of the drawbacks of the imperial court.

This shows that Fan Zhongyan has shifted his attention to people's livelihood and restored domestic vitality.

However, the addition of a sentence that cavalry may not be beneficial since ancient times is quite a bit of an overtone.

In the book, Song Qi echoed and said: The courtiers and the captives will attack each other, and they must not go deep and chase after them, beat them away, and stop at the border, but do not wait for the horse, but take a step...... There are few horses, and people are not accustomed to riding, and every time a thief comes to do it, the court often takes the enemy's strengths, and it is ten battles and ten defeats, and it is rare to win.

It seems to make sense, the policy of the Song Dynasty is to eliminate the defense, the enemy comes, beat them away, chase them until the border, and do not require much speed. Moreover, there are few horses, people rarely ride horses, and their riding skills are not perfect, and cavalry against cavalry is to abandon their own strengths and use their own shortcomings to fight the enemy's strengths, and the battle will be defeated.

This is all the product of Wenchen's ignorance of military affairs.

book, caused a controversy.

At this time, Fan Zhongyan and his party in the northwest had many political and military achievements, and their prestige rose to a higher level, and many civil servants echoed him.

But I can't say why, is it possible to cancel the cavalry establishment that has just been established on the Fourth Road in Shaanxi? So the imperial court sent these controversies to the northwest with a newspaper and let the generals and ministers of the northwest discuss it.

Zheng Lang was anxious.

The reason for the delay is because of the Khitan, and the next two years will mainly provoke the Khitan to start a war with the Tanguts. In the long run, the Western Xia must be wiped out in the end, otherwise there will be Western Xia in the west, Khitan in the north, and the Song Dynasty will not be strong for 10,000 years.

If you want to pacify Western Xia, how can you do without cavalry?

Immediately on the book, the cavalry could not be invincible. There are examples of infantry breaking cavalry, but the proportion is very small. Under normal circumstances, the cavalry always has the advantage, and the Tang Dynasty has Mo sword soldiers, why should it have such a large cavalry? Was infantry used to pacify the Turks?

Even if the court is decadent and does not want to forge ahead. Don't say anything that doesn't open the edge, that's to cover up the ugliness. If it is possible, Western Xia really doesn't want to exterminate it, and the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun don't want to take it back? So Taizong and Zhenzong have broken heads?

This is the case, and the retention of cavalry also plays a role. The battle of Haoshuichuan is not far from Zhenrongzhai, why can't reinforcements arrive in time? The speed is not as good as that! The reason why Shimenchuan won two great victories was precisely because he had a strong cavalry in his hands. The most effective time to annihilate the enemy is not when the battle or gunpowder explodes, but when the enemy is routed and pursued, if there is no cavalry, all infantry, the cavalry can retreat calmly, will not be defeated. On the contrary, it can be retracted and wait for the opportunity to fight again. One drum of vigor, two drums of exhaustion, and three drums of decline, not a victory, but a very likely victory and then defeat.

The imperial court could not pursue the enemy's territory, which was the result of passive defense.

It is necessary to defend passively, and it is also necessary to have a strong cavalry in the country in case of contingencies. Song Dacai, don't forget, the Song Dynasty can't attack the enemy in its territory and spread the war to the enemy's core, but the enemy can spread the war to the core of the Song Dynasty, and the first battle of Lanzhou has only passed for thirty years! Don't you know about it.

Zheng Lang still hasn't said a word, if he hadn't come to Weizhou, in a few months, Yuan Hao would have to ride a horse to Chang'an City for a walk.

Song Jun is not good at riding, but he can't train in riding? The combat effectiveness of the army is not only the individual force, but also the commanding art, morale, discipline and other factors of the generals. Even if the riding skills are slightly inferior, they can be compensated for with other aspects.

Although Fan Zhongyan's intention of focusing on people's livelihood is good, he has a broad word, and in several wars, Fan Zhongyan did not personally command, only knew how to defend the road, but did not know how to attack the road. You don't understand military affairs, and you can't mislead the country with big words. You don't understand, don't talk nonsense, harm the country!

However, Zheng Lang also admitted that Ma Zheng of the imperial court had many mistakes.

The four roads on the edge of the imperial court can herd horses, but the number of horses is limited, so the number of cavalry should be limited, such as the Jingyuan Road is flat, the most vulnerable to enemy attacks, need to keep 15,000 officials to ride, 10,000 to ride 10,000 horses. Huanqing Road Guanfan rode 4,000 each, Yanyun Road Guanfan rode 5,000 each, Qinfeng Road is located in the hinterland, Fan Qiang is not evil to the imperial court now, and 3,000 Guanfan horses are enough. Then there are 49,000 cavalry troops on the four roads, and 20,000 cavalry on the edge, and the edge is not worried about the pasture, and they can echo each other. The plains are shallow, but the front can be but, and the cavalry is the tenth of the infantry. Mountains, forests, rivers, and rivers, dangerous access and obstacles, the infantry should be the tenth of the royal cavalry. Riding mixed Chen, the plan of the Han and Tang Dynasties, it is said that it is a long time, it can be attacked and defended, and it is the only way to survive the country.

As for the remaining sick and disabled horses in Lao Bei, a group of good horses were left outside the pastoral superintendent, and the rest could do whatever they wanted. It is better to leave them to the common people to cultivate, or to travel to pull goods, which is what they are really used for.

This is the controversy. Both people's livelihood have been concerned, and the controversy is this accumulation defense!

Write it and send it to the imperial court on a fast horse.

After several years of fighting, the country could not open the lid of the pot, and the people were also resentful, coupled with the pressure of the imperial court, most of the courtiers, including Zhao Zhen, all had the intention of seeking peace.

Regardless of right or wrong, a war between the Khitan and Western Xia must be provoked within these two years. But this group of scholars couldn't do anything, and the 25,000 cavalry that they had trained with great difficulty was canceled.

Only then did he look at Wang Ning and said, "Continue to report." ”

It's the other side of the counter-plot.

Honest people are easy to be bullied, but they are also popular. Wang Yong and Wang Ning walked in the territory of Western Xia in a low-key manner, they were originally from the territory of Western Xia, and they were very careful, and no one doubted it.

The two got the news and came back to report it. Let Zheng Lang forbid it, and don't come back if there is no major event, so as not to arouse suspicion.

This year we started to do an important thing.

Let Wang Yong intentionally or unintentionally persuade some merchants in Western Xia to take him to the territory of Bai Dadan to do business.

The Bai Dadan Department is also called the Wanggu Department, the Uighurs of the Tang Dynasty Huichang were broken by the Huangs, and one went south, living in the Yinshan area. It was separated from the Shatuo Department led by Li Keyong, and later surrendered to the Khitan. Because of the obvious difference in appearance and customs from the northern Tatars, the Liaojin called them Bai Dadan, and the Mongols and other northern Tatar races were called Black Tatars.

Its territory is dominated by the Bai Dadan race, as well as the Khitans, a small number of Han people, as well as some Dangxiang people and Tuyuhun people. The Tibetans can be seen in Fuzhou, but it is rare in the territory of the Baidandan department.

The Western Xia to the Khitan was from Xingqing Province to the east, from Hue to the south across the Yellow River, from the Nanhe Loop Desert Gobi Desert to the Khitan Dongshengzhou. It is not where Bai Dadan's main body is. Some of the party members in Bai Dadan's ministry lived very hard with Tuyuhun, and some tribes were not on the trade route, so they sold their war horses to the Western Xia, who sold them to the Khitan, and even brought the good horses back to China.

Zheng Lang hit this idea.

The difficulty is a bit high, after all, there are some taboos about contacting party members in Khitan. However, the merchants have always pursued profits, and after hearing Wang Yong's bewitchment, some businessmen agreed to make the trip.

At the beginning of May, I entered Jiashan, and Jiashan later had a nice name, Daqingshan. It is within the scope of Bai Dadan, far away from Khitan Dongshengzhou, where there are many Dangxiang tribes and Tuyuhun tribes. Under Wang Yong's intentional bewitchment, the group saw Qu Lie, the envoy of the Khitan Mountain Mountain. This festival cannot be taken seriously, and it is the same as the Song Dynasty's pacification of the Tibetan border, and it is an honorary position to make some ethnic minorities on the border submit. Qu Lie is an authentic party member.

Seeing the fellow countryman, his eyes were full of tears, and Qu Lie warmly entertained this group of people, and also made a deal.

The others didn't move, waiting for news from the other side. On the other side, Zheng Lang entrusted Fuzhou to arrange a merchant named Lu Ling to enter the Khitan.

It is also very normal that the Song Dynasty and the Khitan Yuxiong, Ba, Ansu Army and Guangxin Army set up four major fields for merchants from the two countries to trade, and set up temporary fields in Dingzhou Military Walled City, Flying Fox Tanya, Volcano Army and other places. But it can not meet the commercial needs of the two countries, illegal exchanges between the people are very frequent, the Song Dynasty has issued a ban, the Khitan has also issued a ban, especially horses, once the horse is sold to the Song Dynasty without permission, the seller is beheaded, and the whole family is far away, still can not be banned.

Lu Ling was one of them, Zhi Jimin deliberately found him, and after discussing for a long time, Lu Ling agreed. His team was very large, a total of more than a dozen people, Zhengda Guangming entered the Khitan, and even took the initiative to bribe the southwest of the Khitan with a lot of money to recruit the capital eunuch Luo Hannu and the detailed and stable Lu.

Wang Yong returned to Dongshengzhou and quietly met with Lu Ling. Wang Ning sneaked back to Fuzhou, rushed to Weizhou, reported the situation to Zheng Lang, and waited for Zheng Lang's next arrangement.

"You go back immediately, enter Jiashan again with Wang Yong, advocate Yuan Hao's wisdom and courage in front of Qu Lie, cherish talents, and then wait for my next notice."

"Whoa."

This is Zheng Lang's anti-intermediary plan.

If there is a battle after the autumn and then defeats Western Xia, Yuan Hao will not be as unscrupulous as in history. So some arrangement must be done.

Fu Bi brought back accurate news, so that Lu Ling seemed to enter Jiashan unintentionally, collided with the party members, and then went to Luo Han Nu to ask Luo Han Nu to get justice for him. Receiving a lot of benefits from the Luohan slaves, coupled with the fact that the Khitan did not regard the Jiashan Party and the Tuyuhun people as the same thing, they would put heavy pressure on them.

Wang Yong could take the opportunity to carry out some instigation on the side of Jiashan, so that Qu Lie cried and shouted and begged Yuanhao to take him in.

This tribe has a very low status in the Jiashan area, the environment is harsh, and there are conflicts from time to time, so they fight bravely. In addition, Yuan Hao's own surname is unruly, and when he heard that the Khitan and the Song Dynasty negotiated peace, he was resentful in his heart, and he would take in Qu Lie again. Instigating the rebellion of the remaining tribes of the party such as the Nerd Clan, then history will repeat itself.

There is no accurate plan, you can only act on the opportunity and go down step by step. It is possible that the businessman whom he has never met will play an important role.

After looking at the map blankly for a while, Zheng Lang thought of Fan Zhongyan's twists and turns again, and was very depressed.

He has never been angry with Fan Zhongyan and Zheng Lang, this is a person who has absolutely no selfish intentions, but his ideological and military views are different from his own. However, how many people in the whole country will agree with their own ideas?

I suddenly thought of Sun Yat-sen's early understanding of the unity of knowledge and action.

Wang Shouren's unity of knowledge and action has many shortcomings, which Zheng Lang also clearly understands. Of course, Sun Yat-sen more clearly realized the shortcomings of Wang Shouren's unity of knowledge and action, so he said that he knew but did not do it, which means that he did not know. Wang Shouren's idea is to do it, which is too ridiculous. He also said that knowledge is difficult and easy to do, and knowledge is so vast that how can a person know it after spending his whole life. If you realize it, someone will be able to do it. For example, ships, not necessarily everyone can build ships, but someone can build them, and ships will appear.

And then deduce the composition of the knowledge branch, people are divided into three kinds, prophets, inventions, after knowing, imitation and implementation, unconsciously, for the best to succeed. This argument is very similar to Confucius's transcendental theory, because it attaches importance to the elite and ignores the common people and the basic masses. Although it is said that the three boils are righteous, it is to save the people and govern the people, and the elite is the savior, rather than letting all the Ming boils participate. As a result, the Xinhai Revolution was defeated, and the fruits of the revolution were taken away by the feudal warlords.

Taizu does not mention right or wrong, one succeeds and the other fails, which can be compared with their ideas. But turn yourself into a savior, and failure begins!

What kind of thought will lead to what kind of action.

The ideas and practices of Fan Zhongyan and other gentlemen are so similar.

Zheng Lang sighed and said in a low voice: "How many elites in the court think they are saviors? ”

"Official, what did you say?" Jiang Xing'er asked puzzled.

Summer is coming, the clothes are thin, and now Jiang Xing'er is a wife and mother, less nerdy when she was a teenager, and more lazy and amorous.

Zheng Lang didn't answer, but asked, "Xing'er, is it better to Hangzhou or Weizhou?" ”

"Hangzhou?"

"Why?"

"There is a lot of fighting on Jingyuan Road, and many people die every time. Officials are also adventurous......"

"Xing'er, it's almost time, we will leave Jingyuan Road soon." Zheng Lang replied.

"Oh, when?" Apricot asked happily.

But Zheng Lang didn't like it, and he once divided the famous ministers of the Zhao Zhen Dynasty into several types in general.

Don't worry about soy sauce, the first type is a minister who is talented, but lacks virtue, the first is Lu Yijian, followed by Xia Zhu, Pang Ji and Han Qi. The second is that De Ying is infinitely close to perfection, but it is too broad and unrealistic, and the representative is Fan Zhongyan, as well as Fu Bi, Cai Xiang, etc. The third is talented, but there is a lack of morality, and the ability of officials is also lacking, but the ministers who are famous for their talents are Ouyang Xiu, Xiao Song, etc. The fourth is that there is no great talent, but it is cautious, and there are no major mistakes, although De Ying is not perfect, it can be said that it is reasonable, which means that Bao Zheng, as well as Da Song and others. The fifth type is a small number of ministers whose morality is extremely poor and whose officials are also extremely poor, not many, such as Yang Kai. There is also a kind of person who is close to perfection regardless of virtue or talent, and even less, such as Wang Zeng.

However, since the dispute between the gentleman and the villain began, the last kind of minister gradually disappeared. Perhaps, either assimilated by both categories of people, or unable to survive! For example, Zhang Fangping, he thinks too highly of his military talents, but his person is infinitely close to Wang Zeng.

When the two parties went to war, Zhang Fangping was not used to it on both sides, and the people on both sides did not tolerate him, so he could only become a soy sauce fighter.

In the upcoming big scene, it may not be easy to stay in the court.

Just as he was in a leisurely trance, suddenly an earth-shattering explosion was heard outside.

Zheng Lang jumped up all of a sudden.

It was the sound of a large explosion of gunpowder, and I made out the bearing. There is a lot of gunpowder in Weizhou City, which is reserved for guarding the city, in a deserted place in the southeast corner of Weizhou City, it is usually strictly guarded, and it is strictly forbidden for any fire to enter. There are a number of other important cities, important villages, and heavy forts on Jingyuan Road. But the most is used to dig the Sanbai Canal, not in Jingyuan Road.

But the voice came from the northwest of the city.

It is not the sound of the explosion of the firecracker workshop, there is no firecracker workshop in Weizhou City, even if there is a muffled sound when the explosion is due to the inaccurate gunpowder formula.

Why is there an explosion in the northwest?

Just as he was about to leave, another loud bang was heard.