Chapter 135: The Problem

Two days later, Zhao Ta went to the post road of Western Xia with the caravan, and the road was bustling, with frequent exchanges of carriages and horses, which gave people the illusion of returning to the Guannai. Due to the influence of the Song-Xia War, the Western Regions countries such as Gaochang, Qiuzi, Da Shiguo, Xiao Shiguo, Ganzhou, and Shazhou lost their traditional markets in the Central Plains and had to turn to the Liao State to find new trade markets there, but they had to travel through the Xia realm to reach them. In addition, due to the Liao canonization of Xia as the king, since Li Jiqian, the successive Western Xia kings have married the princess of the Liao Dynasty, often maintain a close relationship, and the envoys of the two sides have frequent exchanges on this post road, so this post road connecting Xia and Liao has become the 'Mo Nan Trade Road', bringing a temporary prosperity.

On the same day, the caravan stayed overnight at Hengshui Station, to the east is the post road to Liao, to the south to the Song Dynasty's Fuzhou, and from Yeli's Military Supervision Mansion is only one day's journey. The post house of the Xia Kingdom is not much different from that of the Song Dynasty, and if you want to go in and live, you have to ask for the 'coupons' issued by the government. But how can ordinary caravans have that thing, so a large number of private inns, inns, restaurants, and restaurants have appeared around the post house to serve merchants from all over the world.

The caravan lived in a restaurant that is considered to be a large scale in this place, Zhao Ta was also liberated, he didn't have to sleep in the chase shop at night, lived in a small courtyard, took the first hot bath these days, ate vegetables, and lay on the mattress of silk wool, no need to ask him to get such good care, of course, because this is the industry of the Northwest caravan, and the shopkeeper is naturally the intelligence officer of Huang Jingchen's family.

The main dishes of the 'Siyi Hotel' are Song-style dishes, and the decoration is of course also in the style of the Great Song Dynasty, which attracts those business travelers and envoys from various countries who want to experience the 'exotic customs', and provides convenience for them to obtain news from the Western Xia, Liao and Western Regions. This has also become an important intelligence transfer point for them in Western Xia, the management of the hotel is not only the intelligence officer of the Imperial City Division, but also the intelligence officer of the 'Dark Arrow', they belong to two systems, they do not belong to each other, and they do not know their respective identities, but the caravan is their common main intelligence transmission channel, and they all belong to a big boss.

In the past, the intelligence officers of the Imperial City Division system were led by Junko and Fengxi, and Shunzi was mainly responsible for intelligence work in the capital, targeting intelligence work in the palace and in the central and northern parts of the court; Fengxi's main focus was still on Xiangyi and in charge of intelligence work in the south. Now that Zhao Ta has arrived at the border pass, in order to facilitate his work, he has drawn out the Northwest Intelligence Station, nominally re-attributed to the leadership of Huang Jingchen, but it is Zhao Xin who is actually responsible, so Zhao Ta does not want him to know about the existence of another system when some things are not clear-

When it came to his own territory, naturally there was no need to think about the tension like a few days ago, Zhao Xin asked the shopkeeper to find a doctor to re-diagnose the prince, grabbed the medicine, and then boiled it with his own hands, served the prince, and handed over the information collected by the shopkeeper in recent days to the prince, from which he learned that the Xuanfu envoy sent by the Western Xia government had crossed the Yellow River and arrived at Wajingyi, according to their current speed, it would take six days, but if they rode a fast horse, it would be a three-day journey. The Shizhou Military Supervisor and Youzhou Military Supervisor had gathered 20,000 soldiers and horses to stand by at Mingtangchuan, and Quyehe Military Supervisor Weng Li also withdrew his troops from Xinqin and retreated to Liangu, making a posture that if the negotiations failed, he would be ready to settle the matter by force, putting pressure on Yeli.

Zhao Ta understood the current situation clearly, now the situation is becoming more and more urgent, and he must also make contingency preparations, he wrote down two orders, one was sent back to Yincheng in the form of a flying pigeon, and the other was handed over to the old horse head to let him pass through the traffic station to Li Jun. After dealing with these things, Zhao Ta still had trouble sleeping, and he still had a lot of problems to consider.

In dealing with foreign aggression, there have always been two means of resolving the problem: political and force. At that time, Qin Shi Huang built a straight road for more than 1,000 miles, so that the general Meng Tian broke the Xiongnu, chased away the Xiongnu, recovered the land of Henan, built the Great Wall, 300,000 Qin troops were mighty in the north of the desert, and the Hu people did not dare to go south and herd horses, what a momentum! Emperor Wen of Sui also sent the generals Gao Xi, Yang Su, and Changshengsheng to break the Turks, capture the Turkic Khan, marry the princess Yu Turki, split it into two parts, the east and the west, win over one of them, play the other, divide and rule, and control the Turks in the end of the Sui world. …,

Although these two dynasties ended in two lifetimes, they left a huge legacy to their later generations, the Han and Tang dynasties. Therefore, after several relatively large wars, the Han and Tang dynasties basically solved the Xiongnu and Turkic problems, partly submitted to the Central Plains Dynasty, and partly migrated to Central Asia and Central Europe. However, in the Song Dynasty, the situation changed dramatically, which created a big problem for the rulers of the Song Dynasty.

First of all, the opponent is different. In terms of the current definition of a country, the Xiongnu and Turks are not countries in the real sense, they are just a nomadic people, who have no fixed place to live and depend on the sky for food. These two nomadic peoples are truly cosmopolitan and operate in Europe, Asia and Africa. Their aggressions against the Han and Tang dynasties were often aggressive. The aim is to take food and other means of subsistence by force. In general, they are not interested in the means of production. When the desert is smooth and the cattle and sheep are fat, they will not pose any threat to the Central Plains, and when natural disasters such as drought make their lives untenable, grabbing food in the Central Plains is the only choice for them to survive. The agricultural population has a fixed residence and scattered land, which is convenient for plundering, and if they encounter resistance, they often fight if they can beat it, and run away if they can't.

On the other hand, before the founding of the Song Dynasty, Liao was already a major power in northern China, and as early as the establishment of the Later Liang, Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji had already broken away from the Tang Dynasty. Shi Jingjiao cut the "Youyan Sixteen Prefectures" and the Khitan, at that time, Yelu Abaoji had died, and his son Yelu Deguang had taken over the position of the Khitan lord. At that time, the Central Plains was still in the era of warlord secession at the end of the Tang Dynasty, with frequent regime changes and wars, the longest regime in the Central Plains was only 17 years, the shortest was only 7 years, and 50 years actually changed five dynasties and more than a dozen emperors. The Liao State took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to turn its hands into clouds and turn its hands into rain. Sow discord, and then reap the benefits of the fisherman.

By the time of the Later Zhou Dynasty, the Liao State had become the main enemy of the Central Plains Dynasty, the Later Zhou Shizong had a northern expedition, but the "Youyan Sixteen Prefectures" still failed to recover, when the Song Dynasty was founded, the Liao had been formally established for fifty years, they were already an empire in the true sense, and they were no longer real nomads, but a semi-agricultural civilization country that was Confucianized. In addition to the Tibetan tribes, Dali and Western Xia around the Song Dynasty also had this nature, and it is undoubtedly self-evident what land means to an agricultural country.

Therefore, whether it is the war between Song Liao and Song Xia, the war between the two countries is no longer a battle for food, but a battle for survival resources and living space. Once it comes to this aspect of the struggle, it is a matter of fighting for every inch of land, and whoever owns the land has the right to subsistence. Therefore, the Song-Liao War and the war between the Song-Xia War were inevitably cruel, protracted, and indistinguishable from the winner, and it was not the outcome of a battle that could determine the fate of the war.

Secondly, the motivation to launch the battlefield is different. The impetus for the Song to unify the north was due to the mission of the Confucian tradition and the honor of the imperial dynasty, and the impetus for the southward expansion of the northern nation-states was the result of the pressure of the living environment and the pursuit of wealth. This kind of motivation is strong and weak, you can see at a glance. The survival instinct, the will to fight, the sense of community, and the spirit of dedication of a nation that grew up in a harsh environment far surpass those nation-states living in a privileged environment, which has long been proven by the history of ancient and modern China and foreign countries.

Since the Han Dynasty, the natural environment in the north has deteriorated, and land desertification has become increasingly serious. The once prosperous Loulan, Gaochang and Dunhuang were gradually buried by the desert. Entering the period of five dynasties and ten kingdoms, the earth entered a period of dry and cold climate. Desertification in northern China was becoming more and more severe, especially during the Song Dynasty, which even cut off the famous overland Silk Road. All this has exacerbated the existential crisis of all ethnic groups living in northern China, especially nomadic peoples. Migration and lifestyle changes are almost the only options they have in the face of crisis. Similarly, due to China's unique geographical environment, the south has become the estuary of the great rivers, and the vast alluvial plains formed in the lower reaches of the rivers are fertile and the best areas for agriculture. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, China's southern region has become an economically developed region, replacing the traditional Central Plains region as China's economic and cultural center of gravity. …,

As a result, the desertification of the land has greatly reduced the living space of the vast number of nomadic people living in the northern region, and their grazing options are also degrading. Migration has become an inevitable choice, in fact, since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the northern ethnic groups of China began to move south wave after wave, to a certain extent, many ethnic groups in the north from nomadic life to agricultural civilization, may also be unavoidable.

After these days of conquest, Zhao Ta now has the bottom in his heart, and he can be said to be invincible in the world in this era with the weapon he 'invented', but it does not mean that if he wins the war, he can exchange for peace, like Genghis Khan, slaughtering the city at every turn, women as slaves, men including boys are all executed, and the entire country and nation will be extinct. However, this kind of high-pressure and barbaric policy has also aroused strong resistance from all nationalities and countries, and the intensity of resistance has in turn led to more brutal repression, and there will never be a day of armistice.

But when it comes to governing the country, Zhao Ta knows that this is a short version of himself, and he lacks experience in governing the country, and he can't learn it in a day or two. Recruiting and rebelling is not like in the novel, as long as you show some 'Wang Ba's qi' to untie it with your own hands, open a warehouse and release grain, and give favors, you can make people happy and convinced, so that everyone will vote. He also discussed with his staff on the road about the problems that might arise in the future, and they all preferred to adopt more mature methods and strategies that are available now...

#c