The tenth day of the first month of the third year of the Great Song Dynasty. There was no New Year's atmosphere in Lin'an, the wartime curfew had just been lifted, and large mass events were banned.

It was cold and windy outside, and there was a brazier inside, so it was a little colder. Zhao Jiaren worked in the house.

"Taiwei, the Mongols must let us give up Xuzhou and Xuchang." Song Gongming, the head of the delegation for the second round of negotiations, brought back the results of the negotiations with Mongolia.

After listening to the conditions of the Mongols, Zhao Jiaren asked expressionlessly: "How did you answer?" ”

"What is not lost on the battlefield will naturally not be lost at the negotiating table." Song Gongming's answer was sonorous and powerful. Of course, what he said was beautiful, but he couldn't help but murmur a little in his heart. The expression on the face of the Mongolian representative at that time was an uncompromising humanoid projection, and Song Gongming was personally more worried that the Mongols would really do it.

Zhao Jiaren sat Song Gongming down and asked, "Do you know why the Mongols are so unwilling to give up?" ”

"There's an iron ore over there." Song Gongming replied. The information collected by the Great Song Dynasty shows that '...... Mongolia has iron rule in Henan Jun and Xu Zhuzhou, and the benefits of the drum casting are instigated by 3,000 households, and 137,000 catties of iron are lost every year......

Junzhou is Yuzhou, Henan Province of New China. In the area from Yuzhou to Xuzhou, or to Zaozhuang in Shandong, there are many areas that produce coal and iron, and before the Song army seized here, Mongolia was engaged in iron smelting in this area, and it could produce more than one million catties of iron every year. There is a big gap between this output and the Great Song Dynasty, which has now begun to use two cubic meters of blast furnace, and one furnace is 12 tons, about 20,000 Song catties. This kind of blast furnace can produce 200 furnaces a year, which is 4 million catties of iron. There are more than 20 such furnaces in the Great Song Dynasty, and the annual iron output is about 100 million catties.

It's not that there are only two dozen furnaces that can't be built now, it's that the supply of iron ore and coal can't keep up. As for whether there is a surplus of so much iron, Zhao Jiaren is not worried at all. New China's 800 million tons of steel can be digested, how could the Great Song Dynasty not be able to digest 100 million catties of iron.

"Taiwei, the Mongols care so much about these iron ores, I don't think they will give up." Song Gongming expressed his opinion.

"But our army didn't occupy those mining areas, we only occupied the grain-producing areas in that area. If we are worried, we should be more worried. Zhao Jiaren said very easily.

Song Gongming could only smile bitterly at this. Most of the time, Taiwei Zhao is very reasonable, and when he is unreasonable, he is very, very arrogant. He didn't dare to say much, so he could only ask, "What should I talk about next?" ”

"You don't have to worry about negotiation for now, hurry up and prepare, the exam will start immediately." Zhao Jiaren said while looking at Song Gongming's expression.

Song Gongming wanted to show his calm side in front of Zhao Jiaren, but his facial muscles twitched for a moment, and he couldn't help grinning because he was really happy in his heart.

Eight days from now, on the eighteenth day of the first month of the third year of the Great Song Dynasty, the imperial examination was officially held. Because there is still a lot of land in the country, the number of posts in the imperial examination of the Great Song Dynasty is only half of the normal situation. This is a statement to the occupied areas. The end of the imperial examination does not mean that the official examination of the Great Song Dynasty is over. The beginning of the subject examination on February 18 is the exam that Song Gongming cares about and wants to take.

The purpose of this examination is to recruit administrative officers, which is a comprehensive reform of the official system by Zhao Taiwei, and the original petty officials will be gradually abolished. Officials across the country are unified. Whether it is the imperial examination or the subject examination, the final passers all become officials of the Great Song Dynasty.

Finally putting away his smile, Song Gongming said to Zhao Jiaren with his most sincere attitude: "Tai Lieutenant, I will definitely take the exam seriously!" ”

Formulating complex duties was a matter for Zhao Taiwei, and Song Gongming had no interest in it. He only knew that with what he had learned, the entrance examination was hopeless for life, and now Taiwei Zhao opened a door for people like him. And Song Gongming was trying to cross this single-plank bridge with the former army and ten thousand horses. As long as he does not continue to send to Mongolia, Song Gongming still has more than a month to review for the exam.

"Take the test. If you don't pass the test, you will cry and continue to take the test next year. Zhao Jiaren made a very tolerant joke about this member of the academy who performed well in the mission. And he accidentally revealed a problem about the system, at least in Zhao Jiaren's design, the system is the same as the college entrance examination, which is once a year.

Song Gongming went down to review, and Zhao Jiaren returned to the Privy Council. is similar to the previous Privy Council of the Great Song Dynasty, and now the princes in the Privy Council are not the generals who were killed in the first-line queue, and the commanders who have been trained with great difficulty are all fighting on the front line. So for the opinion of the Privy Council, Zhao Jiaren himself does not particularly care.

Li Tingzhi, the deputy privy envoy of the Privy Council, saw Zhao Jiaren coming, and immediately sent the latest battle plan. Zhao Jiaren took it and looked at it, and he was greatly disappointed in his heart. Li Tingzhi is a loyal minister, and Zhao Jiaren knows this very well, so he made him a privy deputy envoy. The guys from the Jinshi family don't need detailed data to list the plan, which is also an unspoken reason when Zhao Jiaren opposed the reform of Gongtian. If he said it openly, it would not be an enemy of the Gongtian reformers, but an enemy of the entire Jinshi.

Li Tingzhi was a Jinshi, and the military plan he made was similar to the Gongtian reform that Jia Rudao came up with. The battle plan, which was originally an expository essay, was written as a lyrical essay. Reading between the lines is a desire to win. Of course, Li Tingzhi also reluctantly added the content written by the General Staff in this lyrical essay. The two things are forcibly put together, and they look nondescript.

Li Tingzhi stared at Zhao Jiaren's expression. Previously, Zhao Jiaren rejected several battle plans on the grounds that they were 'not executable'. In Li Tingzhi's opinion, this plan is super executable. But judging from his expression, Zhao Jiaren still didn't look very satisfied. Well, not very satisfied with Li Tingzhi's own beautification. In fact, he felt that Zhao Jiaren was very dissatisfied.

They are all readers, and as soon as they see Zhao Jiaren's style, Li Tingzhi knows that Zhao Jiaren is jumping to browse the battle plan, and Li Tingzhi feels that Zhao Taiwei is a little mean when he searches for things that dissatisfy him.

Zhao Jiaren jumped over when he encountered something he couldn't stand it, and read the whole battle plan relatively quickly. The implementation of the overall plan has improved compared to the previous one. The problem is that there is a big gap between what is desirable and what Zhao Jiaren wants. In the final analysis, there is little basic data and insufficient basic ideas.

It seems that it is useless to give them a new map, and Zhao Jiaren even thinks about whether he should consider whether he should think about something reminiscent of the terrain such as a contour line now. After the Privy Council's previous lyrical battle plan was rejected, they began to misuse data. If there were no road descriptions, these people would probably dare to move in a straight line at a uniform speed.

Putting down the battle plan, Zhao Jiaren sighed: "Deputy Envoy Li has worked hard. ”

"Captain, what's the plan?" Li Tingzhi asked bluntly.

Zhao Jiaren found that he really couldn't praise this revised plan with a clear conscience. But Zhao Jiaren knew that he also had a very negative plan, that is, to eliminate the officials of the Great Song Dynasty. Those who surrender are of course in the category of being eliminated, and those who have not surrendered are also in the category of elimination. This is also the reason why Zhao Jiaren did not take the initiative to educate Li Tingzhi and others.

Looking at Zhao Jiaren's expression, Li Tingzhi, who has been in the sea for a long time, asked bluntly: "Please also ask Mrs. Zhao to speak." ”

Zhao Jiaren pointed to the plan and said: "Deputy Envoy Li, you and I have both gone upriver along the river, do you think you can use a uniform speed algorithm to sail in the river?" "More than ten years ago, before Zhao Jiaren went upriver from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Ezhou, there was a foolish idea of moving at a uniform speed in his military plan, which proved to be completely wishful thinking.

After Li Tingzhi listened, he did not admit Zhao Jiaren's nitpicking. He replied: "Captain, last time you said that the river is rich and dry, and the four seasons are different. This is thousands of miles of waterway, where can it be done in such detail. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Jiaren almost couldn't help choking back. Among the Jinshi of Li Tingzhi's contemporaries, Jia Nidao could do it, and after the Battle of Ezhou, the Song Army went on a northern expedition, and Jia Nidao paid great attention to intelligence information in this regard. Not to mention the northern expedition by land, there are very detailed hydrological data on the sea route to the north. Zhao Jiaren's fleet went to the sea north of the Yangtze River to fight, and at the beginning of the day, it made full use of the information collected by Jia Yidao.

Seeing Li Tingzhi's attitude of not minding, Zhao Jiaren finally held back. He forgot who said it, but there was a passage that made a deep impression on him, or that people who work as psychiatrists actually feel that 'new ideas often triumph when old people who hold old ideas die'.

It is impossible and inefficient to let Li Tingzhi learn a complete set of knowledge in more than ten years. There is really no other way than to eliminate people like Li Tingzhi.

"You're right, write down the main points in this plan and you're done." Zhao Jiaren told Li Tingzhi that he completely gave up the plan to let the Privy Council take over the work of the General Staff.

Waiting for Li Tingzhi to go down, Zhao Jiaren sat at the desk. He was already prepared to let the staff units of the participating troops take on the task of formulating the battle plan, anyway, the enemy on the opposite side was not a modern army, and he could solve the problem by improvising. He is now beginning to consider the necessity of temporarily abandoning places such as Xuzhou, as demanded by Mongolia.

Zhao Jiaren had refused to accede to the Mongols' demands because he could not let the Mongols take what they wanted. Now he found it necessary to call back all the commanders who were fighting outside. Rely on these soldiers with actual combat experience to form a new military system. And when selecting talents, Zhao Jiaren didn't want to fight with the Mongols outside.

"When did I think that compromise could be peaceful!" Zhao Jiaren said to himself suddenly. How much cooking can be cooked in a big pot, and what can be done when the Mongols come. Maybe the Mongols are worried that Zhao Jiaren's side will take the opportunity to attack Mongolia.

At this moment, the person came in and asked, "Captain, Zhu Huan asks to see you." ”

Zhu Huancai and Li Tingzhi guarded Yangzhou together, and they can be regarded as meritorious personnel, and now they are temporarily placed in the Privy Council. Zhao Jiaren ordered: "Let him in." ”

It didn't take long for Zhu Huan to quickly step into the house. After saluting Zhao Jiaren, Zhu Huan hurriedly said: "Tai Wei, I don't know if the list of people recommended by us has seen it." ”

Zhao Jiaren did not answer immediately. He wants to eliminate people like Li Tingzhi in the future, and he only wants to eliminate people like Zhu Huan now.