…

After the envoys of various countries took their leave, Li Cun ordered that all the seizures here on Dingnan Road be loaded onto ships, and the other part of the ships went to Annan City (formerly Thang Long City) to load all the seizures that Li had stored on Annan Road.

Li Cun also ordered: The Yulin Army everywhere will hand over to the Annan Army and the Dingnan Army as soon as possible and prepare for a triumphant victory.

——The Dingnan Army was a new army formed by Li Zheng after he pacified the city, using the serfs and slaves of the city and one-third of the Annan army, mainly used to guard the Dingnan Road.

After explaining all the things that should be explained, Li Cun called Tian Zhuang and asked Tian Zhuang straightforwardly: "How long will this batch of treasure ships be available?" ”

Tian Zhuang replied truthfully: "The flat-bottomed treasure ship can be used for three to five years, and the imperial seat ship of the Metropolitan Governor can be used for at least ten years. ”

“？”

Seeing Li Cun's puzzled expression, Tian Zhuang took the initiative to reply: "The materials used by the Imperial Governor's ship are drying, and they will not be much worse than the materials that are dried in the shade. ”

Li Cun suddenly realized.

But it's normal to think about it, Li Cun's royal boat, how dare Tian Zhuang cut corners?

As for why those flat-bottomed treasure ships did not use dried wood, Li Cun could guess without asking, it must be because the cost of using drying technology to build these flat-bottomed treasure ships is higher or even much higher than using wood that is not dry enough or has slightly inferior dry quality to build flat-bottomed treasure ships.

Li Cun estimated that the wood used to build a royal ship for himself might be enough to build ten treasure ships.

Li Cunxin said: "Fortunately, the two treasure islands now have a large amount of shipbuilding wood, otherwise, I would definitely feel distressed if it was such a waste." ”

……

After being defeated by the Liao army, Tong Guanhe walked for a month before Cai You, who arrived in Xiongzhou, prepared to lead the army back.

But at this moment, Li Chuwen, the Han prime minister of Northern Liao, suddenly wrote a secret letter to his friend Zhao Liangsi, asking Zhao Liangsi to tell Tong Guan that Yeluchun was seriously ill and might die soon, and he was ready to lead his troops to dedicate Yanjing City to the Great Song Dynasty at that time.

When Zhao Liangsi was still called Ma Zhi, he was close friends with Li Chuwen, and the two saw that Yelu Yanxi was extremely mediocre, and they both felt that there was no hope for the Liao State, so the two once wanted to go south together to join the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Liangsi and Li Chuwen also made an alliance in the Yanjing Arctic Temple, and agreed to work together to promote the Song-Jin alliance to destroy the Liao State.

Now, Li Chuwen is deeply respected by Yeluchun, Yeluchun not only made Li Chuwen the prime minister of Northern Liao, but also gave Li Chuwen a sum of money to let Li Chuwen recruit an army.

- Ye Luchun also personally wrote a codex (i.e., a letter of appointment) to Li Chuwen, conferring the post of marshal of the Han and Ma infantry armies on Li Chuwen.

In addition, Li Chuwen's secret letter also told Tong Guan and others an important news, that is, there are really a large number of people in Yanjing who want to vote for the Zhao and Song dynasties.

It's just that the generals such as Yelu Dashi and Xiao Gan, who currently hold the power of the army, are resolutely the main battle faction, they hold heavy troops, murderous, and demand a decisive battle to the end, all with the belief that they will die, therefore, Yanjing's will and public opinion were kidnapped by them, which made no one go to the Great Song Dynasty.

Li Chuwen also gave a detailed account of the number and deployment of Liao's troops.

Li Chuwen pointed out in the secret letter that after the last defeat of the Song army, the Liao army itself also suffered heavy casualties, and there are only more than 30,000 horses left, of which 6,000 are Chang Sheng's troops stationed in Zhuozhou.

Li Chuwen reminded Tong Guan and others that the predecessor of the Changsheng Army was a resentful army composed of Han and Bohai refugees in Liaodong, and that in the case of the imminent demise of the Liao State, the Great Song Dynasty would definitely be able to recruit the Changsheng Army as long as it had the right strategy.

As for the more than 30,000 horses of the Liao State, after defeating the Song army, most of them were arranged by Yeluchun to Juyong Pass and the north to defend against the invasion of the Jin people, and they are now very empty, except for the Changsheng army stationed in Zhuozhou, there are probably only one or two thousand men and horses led by Xiao Helu, the Niulan Supervisor.

Li Chuwen's secret letter solved all the doubts of Tong Guan and the others, and let Tong Guan and the others know that they did not find the wrong time to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, they just lacked some luck.

Moreover, Li Chuwen's secret letter can fully correspond to the news brought back by Ma Kuo.

Whether it was Tong Guan, Cai You, or even Zhao Liangsi and other people in the Xuanfu Division, they were all unwilling to go back so disgracedly.

You know, if they really go back in such a disgraced way, then they will not only lose power, but they may also be nailed to the pillar of shame forever.

The key is that Liao Guo only has his last breath left, and it is a pity not to seize this opportunity.

Therefore, the Northern Expeditionary Army, led by Tong Guan and Cai You, did not withdraw, but continued to stay in Xiongzhou to observe the situation in Yanjing.

Tong Guan and the others had great hopes for Li Chuwen and their Yan people who were committed to the Zhao and Song dynasties.

Isn't Li Chuwen going to have an army of his own right away?

Isn't Jerechun about to die?

The Northern Liao were now facing not only great pressure from their Great Song Dynasty, but also from the Jin people, and Yelu Yanxi, who was in Jiashan, also claimed to personally lead a large army to attack Yanjing.

In such a difficult situation, it is impossible for Northern Liao to hold on.

Tong Guan and the others who came to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun all thought that they must calm down, and the matter of recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun would definitely take a turn for the better!

Tong Guan, they made the right bet.

Not long after, in the face of the Zhao Song Dynasty's millions of soldiers on the southern border of Liao, the Jin State had assembled a large army in Fengshengzhou in the west and Bei'an Prefecture in the north, Yelu Yanxi sent people everywhere to shout that he would personally lead 50,000 elite cavalry to attack Yanjing, and Yelu Chun, the emperor of Northern Liao, who was not in good health, died after being emperor for less than three months.

Before his death, Yeluchun issued an edict: Yeluding, the fifth son of Yelu Yanxi, succeeded to the throne by King Yeluding of Qin; Han official Li Chuwen and other ministers assisted; Concubine Xiao Pu temporarily presided over the military affairs of Northern Liao.

While all the people in the palace were busy handling Ye Luchun's death, Li Chuwen quietly left the palace.

Li Chuwen was going to close the gate of Yanjing City, and blocked Yelu Dashi, Xiao Gan and other generals who advocated fighting to the death with the Zhao and Song Dynasty outside Yanjing City.

Yanjing City is definitely one of the strongest cities in the world.

As long as Li Chuwen can close the city gate, the Liao army, which is not good at attacking the city, will definitely not be able to enter.

At that time, Li Chuwen sent someone to inform Tong Guan to lead the army over, and Li Chuwen's Yanjing City was considered a success.

However, Li Chuwen reacted quickly, but there were still people who reacted faster than Li Chuwen.

Xiao Puxiannu had already sent someone to send a message to Xiao Gan when Yeluchun appeared to return to the light, asking Xiao Gan to immediately bring troops into the city.

When Li Chuwen arrived at Yingchun Gate, he learned that not long ago, Xiao Gan had personally led 3,000 elite cavalry into the city.

Li Chuwen knew that the big thing was not good, so he hurriedly turned around and ran back.

But by the time Li Chuwen ran back to the palace, Xiao Puxian had already "ascended the throne" with the support of Xiao Gan and others to become the Empress Dowager Xiao.

Xiao Puxian issued an order to change the era name to "Dexing".

As we all know, Xiao Puxian is Ye Luchun's concubine, so the name "Dexing" can't help but make people think about it.

As soon as Xiao Puxian's daughter "ascended the throne" to govern on the front foot, she asked Xiao Gan to take back the note written by Ye Luchun to Li Chuwen in Li Chuwen's hand, that is, Ye Luchun's edict appointing Li Chuwen as the marshal of the Fanhan Ma Bu Army.

Unlike Ye Luchun, who advocated voting for the Zhao Song Dynasty, Xiao Puxian, who only worshiped the strong and heroes in her life, looked down on the treacherous and weak Zhao Song Dynasty.

Let's put it this way, if you have to let Xiao Puxian make a choice between Song and Jin, Xiao Pu Xiannu will choose the Jin State that will destroy the Liao State, and she will not choose the Zhao and Song Dynasty.

This is actually the idea of many Liao people.

Of course, as a very ambitious woman, surrendering to the Jin State is not the choice of Xiao Puxiannu, Xiao Puxian is dreaming that she can turn the tide and use the Northern Liao with only a corner of the land left to defeat the Song-Jin alliance, and even regain the lost territory, if it can go more smoothly, she will choose to destroy the Zhao and Song Dynasty that she is extremely disgusted with.

It may be the relationship between the hated house and the Wu.

- Because of her hatred of the Zhao and Song dynasties, Xiao Puxiannu even hated the Han people in Yanjing City, and she even wanted to order to kill all the Han people in Yanjing City.

That's right.

The reason why Xiao Puxian wanted to get back Ye Luchun's edict appointing Li Chuwen as the marshal of the Fanhan Ma Bu Army was only because Xiao Puxian did not trust the Han and hated the Han people, not because Xiao Puxian found out that Li Chuwen had a problem.

As a result, in the process of asking for a confession, Xiao Gan went to Guo Yaoshi's house by the way, and then learned by accident from a small servant in Guo Yaoshi's house that Li Chuwen had asked his son Li Zheng to organize an army of 3,000 people, and they were ready to kidnap Xiao Puxian's daughter and surrender to the Zhao Song Dynasty.

Xiao Gan hurriedly went to the palace and told Xiao Pu about the matter.

Xiao Puxian's daughter pretended to have something to discuss with Li Chuwen, deceived Li Chuwen into the palace, and ordered the guards to catch Li Chuwen and give him death.

And Li Zheng and others who were ready to sacrifice Yanjing City to the Zhao Song Dynasty were found out one by one by Xiao Puxian's daughter Shun Teng, and all of them were executed.

The Zhao and Song dynasties lost another opportunity to recover Yanjing.

If the Song army was not timid, but directly drove millions of troops to the incomparably empty Yanjing City, with Li Chuwen's father and son working together, Yanjing City might be defeated in the first battle.

However, Tong Guan and others were not only afraid of Zhao Ji's three strategies for patrolling the border, but also had no confidence in the combat effectiveness of the Song army, which had many problems and had just suffered a big defeat.

Therefore, Tong Guan and the others did not have the courage to go directly to the army, they could only hope that Li Chuwen and his son could bring good news.

But Tong Guan waited and waited, but what they finally waited for was: Li Chuwen was given to death by Xiao Puxian, and Li Zheng was given a thunderbolt on a sunny day by Xiao Puxian.

While regretting it, Tong Guan reported to Zhao Ji about Li Chuwen's father and son.

After Zhao Ji read the secret letter sent back by Tong Guan, he was also very sorry, and began to regret that he didn't let Tong Guan take the initiative to attack.

To this day, Zhao Ji can be regarded as seeing that it seems a bit unrealistic to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun without fighting.

Not only to thank Li Chuwen and Li Zheng for the loyalty of his father and son, but also to buy bones for his daughter, Zhao Ji posthumously named Li Chuwen as the king of Guangyang County, and Li Zheng as the envoy of the Baoning Military Festival, in recognition of Li Chuwen, Li Zheng and his son's efforts to recover Yanjing from the Great Song Dynasty.

Soon, Yintai Division received a recital from Zhan Du, who was the prefect of Zhongshan at the time.

Zhan Du said in the recital that since Yeluchun's death, a large number of Yandi people crossed the border to the Great Song Dynasty.

These Yan people who fled to the Great Song Dynasty said that now the Liao State has no owner, only relying on Xiao Puxian and a woman to support it, and the Jin State is about to send troops to attack Yanjing, and now the people in Yanjing City are panicking, and many people are willing to recover Yanjing as soon as possible.

Zhan Du felt that now was the best opportunity to send troops north again to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Zhao Ji was tempted again.

The failure last time made Zhao Ji very unwilling, obviously only a little bit, he could complete the majestic feat of recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun that the previous emperors of the Zhao and Song dynasties could not complete, and become the first emperor of the ages.

But it was just a little bit closer, so that Zhao Ji missed the huge achievement of recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Now, the situation in Yanjing is even worse, and there are really many people in Yanjing who want the Zhao Song Dynasty to recover Yanjing and give them a stable living environment.

The key is that after such a long period of investigation, the Zhao Song Dynasty has basically determined that Yanjing is really in these situations now.

Zhao Ji felt that if he didn't recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, it would be too much.

But at the same time, Zhao Ji really couldn't believe the combat effectiveness of the Song Army, which disappointed him again and again - Zhao Ji was really afraid that the Song Army would give him another "surprise".

All in all, Zhao Ji now wants to take this opportunity to recover Yanjing, and then use Yanjing as the basis to recover all the sixteen states of Yanyun and the three states of Pingluanying, but he is also worried that he will lose rice if he can't steal chickens.

After thinking about it, Zhao Ji sent someone to find Wang Hao over to see what Wang Huang, the prime minister, had to say?

At this time, Wang Hao was burning incense and worshiping the Buddha in the Daxiong Treasure Hall of Xiangguo Temple, blessing the smooth recovery of the sixteen states of Yanyun, so that he could sit firmly in the position of prime minister.

Xiangguoji Temple is a royal temple located in a prosperous place in Bianliang City, Tokyo, with a grand scale, majestic temple, nearly 1,000 monks, and is the largest temple in contemporary times.

Xiangguoji Temple is open to the public on the first, fifteenth and eighth days of each month.

At that time, Xiangguo Temple became a big market, people from all directions, burning incense and worshiping Buddha, setting up stalls to do business, hanging out and watching juggling, all kinds of things, everything, extremely lively.

Today is not an open day.

But it doesn't matter, if Wang Huang, the prime minister, wants to come in, who dares to stop him?

That's the benefit of power.

After burning incense, Wang Hao wandered around Xiangguo Temple.

Unconsciously, Wang Hao came to the corridor of the main hall.

There are some celebrity mobs hanging here.

Wang Hao came to a poem with a familiar car:

All things are born in heaven and earth, and prosperity and decay are all grand. The four seasons are endless, and the world's articles are intended first.

This was left by Cai Jing.

Cai Jing's handwriting is excellent, the penmanship is charming, and the characters are heroic.

Cai Jing's poems are also very intentional.

But none of this is what Wang Hao cares about.

What Wang Hao cares about is that Cai Jing's payment - Sikong Kaifu Yi and the three divisions of the Taiyi Palace, the left servant of Shangshu, the Taiwei Taishi, led the three provinces of Lu Guogong Cai Jing.

——The longer the payment, the older the seniority, the higher the position, the greater the credit.

The person Wang Hao admires the most in his life is Cai Jing, and the person he fears the most is also Cai Jing, and in the same way, the person he wants to defeat the most is Cai Jing.

But if he follows the rules, Wang Hao feels that he may not be able to see Cai Jing's taillights for the rest of his life.

Fortunately, Wang Hao encountered the heaven-sent opportunity to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Song Shenzong left a will: to recover the king of the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Wang Hao felt that this prince was prepared for himself.

Don't you see, is Yanjing already dying?

Wang Hao felt that as long as there was an opportunity, he would definitely be able to persuade Zhao Ji, who also wanted to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

At this moment, the next person came and said that Zhao Ji was in a hurry to see him.

Wang Hao didn't dare to slack off, and hurried to the palace to meet Zhao Ji.

When Wang Hao heard Zhao Ji say that Zhao Ji wanted to send troops north to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, he immediately expressed his approval, and then helped Zhao Jizai carefully analyze the situation, and said conclusively that the Great Song Dynasty would definitely be able to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun in one fell swoop.

Zhao Ji felt that Wang Hao's analysis was very reasonable, so he made up his mind to send troops to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun again.

However, now there is a question, that is, who will be in charge?

But before Zhao Ji and Wang Hao could discuss a suitable candidate, Cai Yi, the governor of Yangzhou, suddenly reported urgently: Li Cun is back!

……

(End of chapter)