"National Letters?" Liu Xiaoyuan was stunned when he heard this. Of course, the letter of state is used when the envoy is made, and the envoy is not a vassal state, otherwise it should be an edict. Therefore, it is not necessary to send a national letter to the Western Mongolian countries and Uszang. And the Southern Song Dynasty is obviously the one who can use the national certificate and has the need to contact.

Liu Xiaoyuan frowned and asked, "Does the Great Khan want his ministers to send envoys to Lin'an?" “

"It's Lin'an! Now that the three kingdoms of the Yuan, Ming and Tang dynasties have been all-encompassing, how can the Song State stay out? Xiaoyuan, I let you and Pu Shougeng go to the Southern Dynasty together, and make sure that the Song Kingdom is on the side of the Great Yuan! ”

"But the Song Kingdom has no soldiers and horses, and there are many feudal towns, how can they have the spare strength to march north?"

"Why do you need the Song Kingdom to march north," Kublai Khan said: "The Great War of the Three Kingdoms will inevitably stalemate, and it will not be able to divide the victory or defeat in an instant." He paused and said in a deep voice: "Grain and grass are already the key to victory or defeat!" I have secretly ordered Yanyun Dawanhu Mansion to search all over the grain stored in the north and transport it to the north, and drive the people into Yanjing City...... It is to use hundreds of thousands of mouths to exhaust Chen Dexing's grain and grass! But this thief has a firm grip on the sea, and can buy grain from the Southern Dynasty. ”

Among the four kingdoms of the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, only the Southern Song Dynasty now has relatively normal agricultural production. Moreover, after the armistice between the Southern Song Dynasty and Mongolia, the agricultural production of Lianghuai, Jinghu, and Sichuan, which had been reduced to war zones, was also restored under the strong supervision of various feudal towns. In addition, the population base of the Southern Song Dynasty is also large, 100 million is not available, and 70 or 80 million is stable. As a result, the Southern Song Dynasty also had a sizable grain market, far from being comparable to small countries like Japan and Goryeo, which had millions of people. It is the only country that has the spare capacity to export large quantities of food!

"Did the Great Khan want the Song State to prohibit grain from flowing into the Northlands? However, the largest grain exporter of the Song State was Lianghuai. There were several feudal towns of the Song Kingdom, which were controlled by zhì......"

"Didn't the Song Imperial Court hold a group exercise in Jiangnan?" Kublai Khan was superstitious about force, so he naturally did not believe that the Southern Song Dynasty court would honestly do nothing after the large-scale group training. "Now the two thieves of Tang and Ming are called me to contain them. If the Song court does not seize the opportunity to cut the domain, wait for the north to divide the victory and defeat. The feudal towns of the Song Kingdom may be about to go to the Ming Lord. ”

"The Great Khan is wise." Liu Xiaoyuan didn't dare to ask any more, lest Kublai Khan become suspicious. took the letter of state from An Tong's hand, and said, "That minister will go back to Jingzhao Mansion first to meet Pu Shougeng." Then enter Sichuan and go to Lin'an ......"

"Let's go to Jinghu," Kublai Khan interrupted, "Just disguise yourself, now the whole world is watching the battle of Yanyun, and before the victory or defeat is decided, the Song State Domain, which is still the grass on the wall, will not be too serious about blocking my envoys from going south." ”

Although there are now many Southern Song Dynasty feudal towns who have fornicated with the Eastern Tang Dynasty, it is unrealistic to expect them to openly side with the Eastern Tang Dynasty before the victory or defeat of the Northern War is decided. Therefore, as long as Liu Xiaoyuan and Pu Shougeng do not openly play the banner of Dayuan, they don't have to worry about Gao Gao and Xia Gui blocking them.

It seems that you can only honestly go south! Liu Xiaoyuan said quietly: "The minister will leave immediately. ”

"There's no need to rush that much. First accompany me to meet the four kings of the host. Kublai Khan laughed, "Let's see how I restore the former majesty of the Great Mongolia!" ”

……

The knights of the brigade were marching on the desolate land of Youyan at this time.

It's still autumn, and the land of Yanyun has just experienced a bumper harvest. However, the surroundings are still a depressed and dilapidated scene. The fields and ditches seem to be all abandoned, and occasionally a village is uninhabited. There are even some big towns. It has also been abandoned. The people in the town were either relocated to Yanjing, or in the face of the raging war, they chose to flee and retreat. Either hide in the Yan Mountain in the north, or simply flee to the territory of the Li family in Shandong.

It is less than 100 miles away from Yanjing, and Pingluan is only 300 miles away from Yanjing. At the speed of an all-horse march, it was possible to arrive in three days.

These knights numbered about two thousand horsemen. All of them were dressed in black and armor, and the horses under their crotches were very majestic. On the move. The queue did not seem to be chaotic, the people on the horse were all fierce, and there was no noise during the march, which seemed to be orderly. Some of them had carbines in their hands, and the heads of the guns were all glowing with silver, and from a distance they knew that they were fine products made of good steel.

Yang Axi was in this queue, and the two thousand cavalry were all under his jurisdiction. Zhenghei Qi is the elite of the Beiming Light Cavalry, and in the past year, almost no one has taken off their armor and has been fighting non-stop without unsaddles. It's not very capable of fighting, and they've all been trained, not to mention these wild Tartars who are already good at riding and shooting?

Oh, and not everyone in the Black Flag is a Tartar. Because according to the upgrade system designed by Chen Dexing for the Eight Banners, it is to be promoted to Han first, and then to be knighted. Anyone who has merit can rise step by step, and his identity has naturally changed from a banner man to a Han and a scholar.

In addition, all Tartars who enter the flag must believe in Tiandaoism, and change their names and surnames according to the rules of Tiandaoism. It is to change the Chinese name, change the Chinese surname, and learn the Chinese language. This is all a rule in the church, and there is no room for bargaining. If you don't want to change, you can only go to hell! And Yang Axi's Yang surname is a Han surname, so naturally there is no need to change it, the name has been changed slightly, and the "A" has been removed, and it is called Yang Xi. However, people who know him are still used to calling him "Yang Axi", because Yang Axi is also the name of the Han people, but it is a little dirty, so no one cares.

Shen Yexing, who was the first to land in the Battle of Tanggu, is now also wearing black clothes and black armor, and is acting with Yang Axi as a righteous instructor of the Zhenghei Banner and a member of the military Taoist. The system of righteous instructors concurrently serving as military Taoists is unique to the Eight Banners Army. is different from the Shijue Army, which was originally a Han Chinese, the soldiers in the Eight Banners Army, even if they have the status of Han and Shijue, are a bit vain, and their faces are Han Chinese, and they are still Tatars.

Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen indoctrination, and the means of indoctrination is not to promote Han nationalism - this has no effect on the Han people who have just been returned, and it is not good that some of them will develop the national consciousness of the Jurchen or some other ethnic group.

Therefore, Chen Dexing chose to continue to use religion to confuse the hearts of the Tartars, anyway, all kinds of Tartars outside the fortress themselves are superstitious about ghosts and gods, and the shamans who dance the great gods can confuse many people, not to mention the miracles of the Heavenly Taoism?

As a result, the officers who were sent to the Eight Banners Army to serve as righteous instructors all underwent a few months of training as Tiandao Daoist Taoists, and became special depositors of "political commissars" and "priests". And their prestige in the Eight Banners Army is naturally extremely high - for the people of the wilderness, the righteous way of the world is incomprehensible, and whoever wants to talk to them about the truth of Confucius and Mencius, it will not take long for the audience to snore. But the oracle is very bright!

And most of the upper-class characters in the Heavenly Daoist Sect are reckless characters. If they want to come up with some philosophical teachings right away, the kind of brain-tricking stuff, that's not going to work. The philosophy of Tiandao Sect is basically the stuff of Chen Dexing's set of Scientology, so it is difficult to attract Jiangnan scholars.

But these people can't help the lower levels. Since ancient times, religion has been a philosophical thought for the upper class intellectuals, and a superstition for the lower classes. Confucianism can be said to be broad and profound in terms of philosophical thought, but in terms of superstition, it cannot handle Buddhism, Tianfangjiao, and Christianity, and naturally it is not as good as Tiandaoism, which has absorbed the experience of Mingjiao.

Moreover, the Heavenly Daoist Sect is still a monotheistic religion! All monotheistic religions have a characteristic, because they believe in one god and are single-minded, and believers are brainwashed and can easily reject paganism from the heart. Therefore, in history, in the struggle between polytheism and monotheism, it was basically polytheistic retreat.

And being bewitched by monotheistic superstition, and having the Northern Ming military merit aristocratic system bonus, and the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners who are also equipped with quite high-quality steel weapons, there is really nothing to say.

The two thousand Black Flag Knights drove out of Pingluan, and they were like bamboos along the way. The Mongols, or the small forces of the Mongol Han army and the Semu army, were simply crushed at the first touch. Where are these elite Black Flag opponents? As for the large number of enemies, there is no shadow.

It was as if the Mongols had given up the field battle and were ready to retreat to defend Yanjing. It would be normal for such a situation to occur to the Song army, but the opponent was the Mongols, who were famous for their field battles. But it's really a bit abnormal!

At this time, the sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and two black-clothed knights galloped over, and only then did they hold the reins in front of Yang Axi and Shen Yexing, and reported loudly on horseback: "Co-leader, instructor, twenty-five miles to the west, I found a newly built walled city, with a circumference of about 2,000 steps, which has been completely abandoned and empty inside. ”

"What? A walled city with a circumference of 2,000 steps abandoned? Shen Yexing was stunned for a moment, "How is it possible?" ”

Yang Axi was overjoyed, and laughed: "It seems that the Mongols are afraid of the prestige of our Beiming and want to abandon Yanjing and leave!" ”

"Abandon Yanjing?" Shen Yexing thought about it, it was true! It is common sense for soldiers not to defend a lonely city, and no matter how strong a lonely Yanjing is, it cannot be defended. There must be a series of surrounding branches and forts as a cover, support each other, and form a system to defend it. If it is only a lonely city, the enemy will dig a long trench to enclose the city, and he will starve to death.

Therefore, after the Northern Ming army landed in Tanggu, the Mongols in Yanjing prevented the Northern Ming Dynasty from attacking, and drove the people to build eighteen branch cities around Yanjing City, which firmly guarded and covered Yanjing City.

And this walled city, which is about fifty miles away from Yanjing, should be one of these eighteen branch cities. Such an important stronghold was abandoned by itself before it was attacked by the enemy, which only shows one point - Yanjing City itself will also be abandoned!

Yang Axi said excitedly to Shen Yexing: "It's better to let the brothers work harder, and after walking these 25 miles before tonight, they will spend the night in that fortress." Tomorrow, I will go to Yanjing City to explore the truth and truth. ”

Shen Yexing also clapped his hands immediately, "Okay! Let's go to Yanjing tomorrow to see, if the Mongols are really gone, this credit will be ours! (To be continued......)