The reason is simple.

The Song Dynasty failed to attack Youzhou twice, there are many reasons, but there is one, the reason for the terrain, after leaving Yanshan, most of the terrain in Youzhou is flat, which is conducive to the rapid use of troops by the cavalry of the Liao State. However, it is different behind the mountains, except for the flat places near the Sanggan River and Yunzhou, most of which are mountainous terrain. This is also the reason why after Yelu Xiu's victory at Qigou Pass, it took Yelu Xianzhen nearly three months to expel the Song Dynasty's Western Route Army from Lu. Such terrain was conducive to the Song army's battle.

There are many treacherous terrain behind the mountain, if the Song Dynasty has enough troops, sufficient finances, and proper use of people, then after getting the mountain, as long as it builds a fort like Hebei in dozens of sinister places in time, then it will not be easy for the Liao army to recover the mountain again.

The Song Dynasty used a conspiracy and trickery, pretending to transfer all the cavalry trained in the northwest to Hebei and Hedong, which was transferred, but not all of them, so Yang Qiong mobilized 10,000 iron cavalry to participate in the battle, so that Han Dewei's entire army was annihilated. Coupled with the new recruits trained by the Song Dynasty now, the Song Dynasty has a mix of new and old in the northwest, and if it includes the soldiers of the forbidden township, the number of troops exceeds 50,000. Not only that, the soldiers of the Zhe family, the soldiers of the Wang family, and the spontaneous Fan troops in the Shengzhou area who supported the Song Dynasty, how many soldiers and horses could be used by the Western Northern Song Dynasty, even Song Jiu was not clear.

In the first battle of Zihe, the Liao State also knew that the troops moved by the Song Dynasty in the first half of the year were good, but they were mainly in Hedong, which made Li Jilong suspicious and asked the imperial court. There are also the garrisons before the Song Dynasty, Pan Meijiu was in Hedong, and he also trained a brave township soldier, how powerful it is, just look at Zhang Qixian's battle.

In other words, if the two are combined. The strength of the army is no less than that of the battle of the Gaoliang River.

Besides, Song Jiu's decentralization for no reason is not right. When the two governments of the Song Dynasty were in need of employment, Song Jiu was a good hand whether it was placed in the east or west of the country, why did he go down to Taiyuan and take on the duties of a military general?

If the Song Dynasty wanted to seek the mountain, it would make sense.

As if to verify everyone's guesses, the Song Dynasty screened out the prisoners of war in the first battle of Zihexia one by one, as long as it was the Qiangbo of the various departments of Jiashan, it was not a Khitan. Whether it is a Fan or a Han Chinese. Whether it was an ordinary soldier or a chieftain of various tribes, they all gathered together and reprimanded them one by one.

The imperial court treats you well, and even prohibits the whole country from trading with Liao. However, the Jiashan trade route has never been interrupted. Bring you a great deal of wealth. Why attack the Song Dynasty and attack Fuzhou?

Thousands of prisoners of war drooped their heads in shame.

Yang Qiong, Yin Xian, and Zhe Yuqing scolded him. I actually did one thing, no matter who it was, and released it all.

The significance of this release is not trivial, and all the ministries of Jiashan have sent people to Fuzhou to apologize to the Zhejia family and the imperial court.

This is the real combination of grace and power.

It is conceivable that once the northwest attacks again, how many Jiashan tribes will support the Song army?

For a time, the southwest of Liao was full of soldiers.

But there were also many people in the Song Dynasty who opposed it.

In fact, the Song Dynasty wanted to get Youzhou the most, and as for the back of the mountain, there were not many people who were interested, not only the Song Dynasty, but also the Tang Dynasty. The reason is very simple, once you get Youzhou, there is Yanshan and Taihang to block it, which is easy to defend.

As for the back of the mountain, there are still dangerous places such as Yanmen Pass and Shiling Pass in the east of the river, and there are many mountains, which hinders the offensive speed of the nomads.

However, if there are all kinds of advantages after occupying the mountain, once most of the people here are mainly farming, there will be no conflict in civilization. As long as a few good officials are sent, after a few years, the people will be converted. If the financial permission is granted, gunpowder and some advanced machinery and equipment can be used to rebuild the ancient Great Wall behind the mountain. Without the mountain, Youzhou will become a lonely place, and it will be very difficult for the Liao State to defend again.

This policy is also consistent with Zhao Kuangyi's Yongxi Northern Expedition policy, but it is more stable, Hebei defense, Hedong and Northwest joint attack, not far from each other, easy to cooperate, and do not seek to occupy the mountain and let the people return to their hearts, which Song Jiu is still very sober, so let Song Jiu go to the front line, and after the occupation, with Song Jiu's ability, he will definitely be able to govern it in a few years. Therefore, it is safer and less risky than the Northern Expedition of Yongxi.

However, the two defeats of the Northern Expedition cast a shadow on everyone's hearts.

Including Zhao Pu, after hearing about it, they all came to the capital in the dust.

Even if Zhao Pu took the initiative to show goodwill to Song Jiu before leaving the capital, Song Jiu still had a bad impression of Zhao Pu.

In this, Song Jiu had some misunderstandings.

Zhao Pu has all kinds of bad things, he has too much power, and he suppresses political opponents ruthlessly, but he cannot doubt his loyalty to the Song Dynasty. It's just that no matter what his means, he is still a staunch conservative at heart, and every time he wants to make the Song dynasty strong with the most stable policy.

Including the first south and then the north of the Zhao Kuangyin Dynasty.

It may implement the Chai Rong policy and take down Yanyun when the sleeping king of the Liao State is incompetent, but it may not be able to take it, then the Central Plains will be torn apart, and even the story of the five dynasties will continue to be staged. Now, no matter what, the Song Dynasty can basically be regarded as the first to unify the Central Plains.

He also punished the rebellion of the five generations, released the military power with Zhao Kuangyin's cup of wine, and took away the real power in the hands of the envoys step by step. He also implemented the system of controlling the middle of the imperial system, allowing Zhao Kuangyin to command remotely and further centralize power.

He also punished the rebellion of the Huangchao Uprising and implemented the policy of Qi Min. Although because of his own greed, this Qi Min policy was mostly a slogan and was only partially implemented, but compared with Liu Bei's people-oriented and Li Shimin's boat and water theory, this Qi Min policy is more specific, and it laid the foundation for internal governance after the Song Dynasty.

When it came to Zhao Kuangyi Dynasty and the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan, Zhao Pu did not object, and even before Qigou Pass, he did not oppose too much. It wasn't until after Qigou Pass that Zhao Pu's thoughts became clear, that is, what Song Jiu said about the policy of peace, but it has a nice name, guarding the inside and outside. So let Li Jizhuo go back again to raze and raze.

If you can't beat it, you won't fight, Yan Yun and we don't want it, and we will manage the territory we won. Besides, the territory of the Song Dynasty was not big enough? Isn't the product abundant enough? Why use the blood and sweat of the people of the Central Plains to open the way?

If there is no Song Jiu in this statement, it has quite a position.

That's the case, but if there is no northwest, there will be a rise of heroes in the northwest, and it will invade like Li Jiqian, should the Song Dynasty prepare for the border of Shaanxi?

What about war horses?

Can Li Jisheng be loyal to the Song Dynasty?

Youzhou does not take it back. Can the Song Dynasty be safe?

Guarding the inner and outer voids, curing the inner benevolence, or the cruelty, and being weak externally, can it not give the enemy greater ambition?

No matter what Song Jiu said, this kind of conservative Zhao Pu has not changed.

He found Zhao Kuangyi and said, "Your Majesty, does the imperial court want to open the edge behind the mountain?" ”

Zhao Kuangyi smiled.

Zhao Pu still believed it, and Zhao Pu did so many things for him, so much so that the third brother didn't let him go.

So he led Zhao Pu to Xifu. Draw that wind gauge. Hand it to Zhao Pu.

Then he said: "Zhao Qing, you repeatedly respect Song Jiu before you go forward, Song Jiu will not let you down, he is also a very careful minister." It can be seen from the fact that he attacked Cochin in Quang Nam before. ”

Zhao Pu looked at it. Most of the day said: "But you still have to be careful. ”

"It doesn't matter. The most clever thing about this plan is that it does not require continuity and can be implemented in batches depending on the situation. It can also be interrupted at any time for a period of time. ”

"That's good." Zhao Pu went back to Luoyang again.

Outsiders don't know the content of the conversation between the two monarchs and ministers, Zhao Pu's health is getting worse and worse, worse than Pan Mei, and he will not leak the news in order to return to Zhongshu and suppress Song Jiu's ascendancy. Besides, Song Jiu is no longer in the two mansions, why bother suppressing it?

So Zhao Pu didn't say a word.

But it seems that it was Zhao Pu's opinion that played a role.

After the Spring Festival, the imperial court issued several edicts in a row, and the first edict was to exempt the people of the two Zhejiang provinces from the interest money owed to the former Wu Yueguo, with interest, you don't need to pay it back, live well.

The second edict is to relax the taxes of some of the states and counties that suffered last year, including some of the locust-plagued states and counties for half a year, and last year's disaster was not serious, as long as the disaster was not serious, there will be a surplus in the national economy, so from time to time to relax the two taxes of some states and counties that are not living well, so that the people can further rest and recuperate.

It is benevolent government.

However, it also means that the imperial court has no intention of operating the mountain queen, otherwise the imperial court will have to prepare a large amount of money.

The third edict widely selected students to come to Beijing for the imperial examination, and there were more than 17,300 people. You must know that the Song Dynasty raised his son to enter Beijing Province for the test, and all the travel expenses were reimbursed by the imperial court, and this expense alone amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars!

The scholars who read are happy, which is a symbol of Wenzhi, and it doesn't seem to look like there is a Northern Expedition.

The fourth edict expanded the deed shares of the banking supervisor, which was originally called the shop and the gold shop, but its scale was too large, and the name was too unconventional, so it was renamed the banking supervisor.

Due to the huge profits, the current share expansion diluted the old deed shares, added some new deed shares, and used the copper coins minted last year and the copper coins raised to issue 1,500 jiaozi again. For this kind of silk money, Song Jiu is careful, and Zhao Pu is not at ease, so the circulation has not been large. This is only the third time Jiaozi has been issued. Because it is lightweight, it is mostly used for commercial transactions, and there is less private circulation. However, after this issuance, some Jiaozi finally began to circulate to the private sector. The intention is just as simple, to make business more prosperous. It is also a policy of internal governance.

Although Yin Xian served as the so-called governor of Shengzhou, he actually presided over military training in the northwest and pacified various ethnic groups, but he rarely even went to the boundary of Shengzhou in the original Tang Dynasty. Song Jiu presided over the border defense and civil affairs in Hedong, which was also a normal border defense and civil affairs, and like Hebei, he began to build some important forts, but this was very normal, and it was even said that it had nothing to do with the Northern Expedition, but to accumulate defense!

But that's not enough.

Song Jiu sent Wang Huaji as an envoy to the Khitan to negotiate peace.

It's a peace negotiation.

Let's not fight around, I can't please you Liao, but you Liaoguo didn't win the Song Dynasty. Or take the original early Song Dynasty boundary as the main one, Hebei to the north of Yizhou, Hedong to the north of the Guanzhai as the boundary, the two countries since then reconciled?

Partial Guan Zhai has become the so-called idle field, although Yizhou is temporarily occupied by the Liao State, but it is also idle field. It stands to reason that such a request is not excessive.

Moreover, Wang Huaji went as a prince in the imperial history, and he was also an important official in the court of the Song Dynasty, giving face to the Liao State.

Even Wang Huaji brought a lot of sincerity.

In order to show the sincerity of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty will return Han Dewei and many Liao generals captured in the northwest to the Liao State, with only one condition, let Xiao Yanyan release Yuping and Xiaosu back. Yuping is good with Xiaosu, and she is a very good royal teacher in Liao, but she is not as important as Han Dewei. In this exchange condition, Liao took a big advantage, and sent dozens of large and small people to the southwest of Liao to recruit heavy generals.

It's just that such an exchange will cause dissatisfaction among many ministers, although this can be regarded as a disguised reward from the imperial court for Song Jiu's hard work. Hence the secret covenant.

However, Pan Li'er still learned from some sources that she wrote to Song Jiu and said that Yanzi was finally able to return south! (To be continued......)