Zhao Jun is clearly making the next big move.

If they were able to control Jeju and Tsushima, then Song ships could go east directly to the Iwami region of Japan without having to take a long detour.

To the north, you can reach Jindo in Goryeo, which is later known as Jeollanam-do, and even Busan.

In this way, the copper, silver, and gold mines produced in Japan, as well as the mineral resources of Goryeo, can perfectly form a trade triangle.

Both Goryeo and Japan could exchange local minerals for copper coins, clothing, books, tea, spices, silk, porcelain, four treasures of the scholar's office, paintings and other items of the Great Song Dynasty.

Knowledge and culture are priceless, and it is very reasonable for the Great Song Dynasty to export their knowledge, language, and culture so generously to the outside world, and it is also a very reasonable thing for Goryeo and Japan to pay a little mineral resources.

Therefore, as long as the construction of the stronghold is completed first, and after the Great Song Dynasty defeats the Liao State in the future and becomes strong militarily, it is very likely that the Song-Rigao Free Trade Zone will be established on Tamna Island and Tsushima Island in the future.

At that time, the Great Song Dynasty will have access to countless minerals, Japan and Goryeo will receive the goods of the Song Dynasty, and they will also be able to learn new knowledge from the advanced civilization and change the backward situation.

For the three parties, it was simply Qin Shi Huang touching the wires - winning hemp.

Of course.

The premise is that both parties must admit that they have learned Han culture, and not think that they have passed it down from their ancestors.

Steal less and apply for the World Heritage Site, otherwise the strong ships and cannons of the Great Song Dynasty will not be soft.

However, it was clear that Song Cai and Su Jian could not think of such a deep thing, and they both thought that Zhao Jun just wanted to deepen the trade between the Great Song Dynasty and Japan.

They are all businessmen, so naturally they raise their hands in agreement.

What's more, although the Japanese government did not have deep exchanges with the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, as the successor of the Tang Dynasty, was also revered by the people because of their worship of the Tang Dynasty, so the Japanese people also admired the Song Dynasty very much and welcomed the Song people to Japan.

Then Zhao Jun learned about the current situation in Japan from Song Cai and Su Jian, as well as information about the local people's livelihood, economy, agriculture, and some powerful leaders who controlled the Iwami region.

At present, it is still in the stage of Song-Liao confrontation, and it is impossible for the Song State to go east to the sea with great fanfare. Otherwise, not only the Liao State might intervene, but the officials of Goryeo and Japan might also resist.

After all, from the time of Liao Shengzong, the Liao State also attached importance to the sea, and even formed a navy to strengthen its ties with Goryeo and Japan.

Goryeo and Japan also submitted to the Liao State.

Although Song is now the second in the East Asian circle, he is only the second, and there is a Liao deterrent above.

In addition, its desire for external expansion is not strong, and its main military strength must also be placed on confronting the Liao State and the Western Xia, which makes it difficult to form a military deterrent to neighboring countries like the Han and Tang Dynasties, and naturally there is no official fear of the Song State in Goryeo and Japan.

No way.

Big fist is the last word, no matter in any era and any region, it is an irrefutable truth!

And just when Zhao Jun had already begun to lay out foreign trade, the south promoted trade with Central Asia in Guangzhou, the east promoted Japan's Goryeo trade in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the west promoted the Silk Road trade in the Hehuang Corridor in Shaanxi, and the southwest promoted the ancient tea horse road trade in Sichuan.

The war in the Liao Kingdom in the north gradually began to heat up.

Beginning in August and September this year, Yelu Zongzhen of the Liao Xing Sect began to mobilize men and horses to gather in the Xijin Mansion in Nanjing, Liao State, to launch an armed deterrence against the Song State.

Not to be outdone, the Great Song Dynasty took Fan Zhongyan as the envoy of the Hebei Road and the alternate governor of the Political Yuan, and went to the Hebei Road to transfer troops and send generals to the Hebei Road as the deputy prime minister, and at the same time transferred the elite of the Northwest Army to the border pass to resist the possible southward invasion of the Liao State.

The confrontation between the two sides lasted three or four months at the end of the year, and the Liao side was a little unbearable.

In the final analysis, the strength of the Liao State is based on the use of force, which can maintain the order of the country, in fact, it is mainly through many foreign wars to plunder a large number of coins, silver, and silk, plus the subject countries and subordinate departments with the ministry to pay tribute.

Their actual annual tax payment is actually very small, and the annual fiscal revenue may be only about one million. So much so that the annual tribute of hundreds of thousands of yuan in the Song State became the main economic source of the Liao State.

Spending the enemy's money, arming oneself, and then threatening the enemy and forcing the enemy to pay protection money to Liao again, is what Liao does.

In this case, the taxes of the Han people under the rule of the Liao State were not so important, resulting in the tax of the Han people in the Liao State was quite low. Later, during the period of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, the sixteen states of Yanyun were recovered, and the local Han people were afraid of the taxes of the Song Dynasty, so they resisted desperately, and rebellions and uprisings emerged one after another.

But in the same way, because the economy of the Liao State was completely dependent on the annual tribute of the Song State, the subject states, and the subordinate departments, once a war broke out, it forced those subject countries and subordinate departments to pay more tribute, which made the Jurchen tribes under the rule of the Liao State miserable, and finally launched an uprising and destroyed the Liao State.

Therefore, it can be seen from these things that the economy of the Liao State is actually very fragile, and it is okay when there is no war, and it can be maintained by relying on annual tribute and low taxes. As long as the war starts, it will inevitably lead to increased consumption of internal storage.

In this case, the Liao State had only two choices, one was to start a decisive battle with the Song army as soon as possible.

The second is to increase domestic taxes, and ask for grain and grass from the Han Chinese, Jurchen tribes, and Menggu tribes in the territory to offset military expenditures.

Can fight a war of attrition with the Song Dynasty, does Liao have that strength?

They weren't as rich as the Song Kingdom.

Therefore, Liaoxing Sect Yelu Zong is indeed a bit difficult to ride a tiger now, and I don't know whether to fight or retreat.

Let's fight.

The current border defense of the Song army is much stronger than that of the Tanyuan Alliance.

Don't fight.

Just went back in disgrace, not to mention the prestige of the Great Liao, what if the Song Dynasty saw that the Liao State was weak and cut off the tribute?

This is an important economic source for Liao.

It was December, and in the end, Liao Xingzong decided to test the water, what if he won?

The main reason is that he is really a little unable to consume it, and the little belongings he saved before are almost used up, and if he continues to spend another year and a half, the domestic economy of Liao State can collapse directly.

On December 9, the Liao army brazenly moved south, all the way south from Xiongzhou, and directly took Gaoyang, an important military town of the Song State. All the way from Ansu to the south, through Baozhou to take Baosai. The last way was a detour from Dingzhou to attack Wangdu.

These three places are the military important places of the Song State, and they are also the main hoarding areas of grain and grass, if they can conquer any place at will, it will be a great blow to the Song army, and it is conducive to the continued pressure of the Liao State.

But it's a pity that the ideal is very plump and the reality is very skinny. The three-way army of the Liao State naturally did not ignore the dense border, as many as hundreds of fortresses and military villages, as well as more than ten cities such as Rongcheng, Ansu, Suicheng, Guixin, Beiping, and Xiongxian.

If they wanted to reach the grain and grass logistics center of the Song army, they had to exert pressure on these places, at least to ensure that they would not cause difficulties in the logistics supply of the Liao State, so they would inevitably have to divide their forces to besiege the outer fortresses.

In history, the Liao State of the Yuan Alliance was also divided into three routes, attacking several important towns of the Song State, and taking Suicheng and Dingzhou, capturing the generals of the Song Army, which shocked the Liao State and frightened Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong to almost move the capital and flee south.

After that, the Liao State went directly to the lone army, and did not care about the rest of the Song army behind him, and went directly to the Daimyo's mansion and hit the city of Shanzhou, that is, outside the city of Puyang in later generations.

But in fact, there were still a large number of Song troops behind the Liao army at this time, and under normal circumstances, the Song army launched a siege and cut off the logistics supply line of the Liao State.

However, the Song army was too pulled, and tens of thousands of Song troops in Xin'an, Bazhou, Mozhou, Xiongzhou, Cangzhou, Qingzhou and other places were not attacked by the Liao State at all, but they could only retreat in the city and did not dare to come out at all, so that the Liao State Chang drove straight into the hinterland of the Song State.

If it weren't for the good luck of the Song State, he shot and killed the general of the Liao State through the eight-bull crossbow, and the lone army of the Liao State went deep, and the grain and grass were a little unable to keep up, the Empress Dowager Xiao was worried about the enemy on her back and took the initiative to propose peace talks, with Zhao Heng's ability to escape from his father, I am afraid that no matter how much Kou Zhun persuades, he would be able to run to Fujian.

And the current situation is much more severe for the Liao State than the Lanyuan Alliance.

After coming to the Yuanyuan Alliance, Zhao Heng frantically built a large number of fortresses and cities on the border, and sent more than 100,000 troops, so that the Hebei garrison reached more than 200,000.

Second, the weapons and equipment of the Song Kingdom have been iterated, although they are still mainly cold weapons, but a large number of hot weapons have been added to defend the city.

Third, now Liao Xingzong is facing the elite border army in the northwest that has just experienced the Song-Xia War, and the main general is also the strategic Fan Zhongyan, but it is not the group of wine bags and rice bags that were frightened by Zhao Guangyi after the Battle of the Gaoliang River.

The Northwest Army had just won the battle and had been rewarded by the imperial court, and its morale was booming. Fan Zhongyan promised that if the Liao State was defeated in this battle, the three armies would be rewarded, which would make the morale of the soldiers even higher.

In this case, not to mention Liao Xingzong, the Liao State at the peak of his father, Liao Shengzong, went south, and it is estimated that he will have to weigh whether he can break the turtle shell of the Song army.

But obviously, Yelu Zongzhen had no choice but to bite the bullet.

On December 10, on the majestic and tall city of Xiongzhou, Zhang Kang was looking to the west, and on the distant horizon, the mighty Liao army was surging towards the south like a tide.

At this time, Zhang Kang is now the pacification envoy of Hebei East Road, he is too dazzling in the Song-Xia War, plus he was the governor of the Ansu Army in the first year of Jingyou, and he also once went to Zhao Zhen to analyze the situation in Liao and be familiar with the situation in Liao. Lao Fan was naturally unwilling to let go of this baby bump, so he transferred him to Hebei.

At present, the Shaanxi Road is mainly governed by Pang Ji, Wang Yaochen, Wang Yan, Liu Ping, Wen Yanbo and others, Fan Zhongyan took Wang Deyong and mobilized about 50,000 elite troops from the northwest border to Hebei and carried out careful defense.

The original Hebei army was mainly deployed in Hejian Province, Dingzhou, Shenzhou, Cangzhou and other places, while the elite of the northwest border army was placed in Xiongzhou, Ansu, Baozhou, Baoding and other borders.

The reason for this is simple.

The combat effectiveness of the Hebei army is certainly not as strong as that of the army in the northwest, and if they are placed on the front line, if the Liao State breaks through a city, it is very likely to cause the army to lose morale and collapse directly.

The Northwest Army is behind, and maybe it will be led by the Hebei Army to collapse, and the situation will be completely over.

Therefore, the Northwest Army is withstanding the pressure in the front, if the Liao State attacks on a large scale, the Northwest Army only needs to complete the defensive task, and Fan Zhongyan can also calmly mobilize reinforcements to support and cooperate with the Northwest Army to launch a defensive counterattack against the Liao State.

As for Liao, if it bypasses the Northwest Army, it is not afraid.

Compared with the Hebei Army, the Northwest Army dared to fight in the field, and the Liao State bypassed them to attack the hinterland, and the logistics supply line was bound to be severely hit by the Northwest Army.

Therefore, Lao Fan is worthy of being well versed in turtle shell bunker tactics and defensive counterattack tactics, and this arrangement can be called perfect.

At this moment, Zhang Kang saw the Liao army outside the city, pointed to Di Qing and others outside and said: "Fan Xiang is right, this must be the Liao State wants to bypass us and take the hinterland of our rear. ”

Zhi Jimin was young and vigorous, and shouted loudly: "Shuai Si, let's go to war, just let the Liao army pass by our city so swaggeringly, the last general can't afford to lose this person!" ”

"What's the war?"

Zhang Kang glanced at him: "There are more than 100,000 troops in the Liao Kingdom, and we have brought 50,000 people from the northwest, and they are all scattered all over the place, do you want us to go to fight tens of thousands of Liao troops outside the city?" What's more, how do you know that this is not a trick of the Liao army to lure us out of the city? ”

"Amount"

Zhi Jimin stopped talking, Zhang Kang made a name for himself in the northwest, his prestige was very high, and he took him all the way, where did he dare to talk back to Zhang Kang?

After Zhang Kang finished teaching Ji Min, he looked at Di Qing with appreciation and said, "Han Chen, what do you think?" ”

Compared with Zhi Jimin, who is impulsive and fights with blood, Zhang Kang actually prefers Di Qing, because Di Qing is not only brave in battle, but also good at thinking and strategic, not only as simple as a general, he is likely to be a handsome talent.

So Zhang Kang admires him very much.

Di Qing said in a deep voice: "As Shuai Si said, the Liao State is going south this time, one may be to take the hinterland directly, and the other is to lure us out of the city. ”

"Oh?"

Zhang Kang said: "The reason for it. ”

"The reason is very simple, if the Liao army directly takes the hinterland and there is Fan Xianggong in the rear, their offensive cannot be so smooth, and it will inevitably be blocked by Xianggong, at this time we should wait for the opportunity to move to destroy the logistics of the Liao army, so that their rear will not be able to live in peace."

Di Qing analyzed: "If the Liao army deliberately swaggers south and lures us out of the city to attack, then we should guard the city and prevent them from succeeding, and wait for the arrival of Xianggong reinforcements, and the Liao army can only retreat." ”

"Good!"

Zhang Kang was overjoyed, nodded again and again, and said, "Very well-said." ”

Then he looked into the distance with a deep gaze, and said lightly: "Although our army is small, the prime minister has high hopes for us, so we must not make mistakes. One wrong step, one wrong step, in the face of the powerful Liao State, should it be stable or stable! ”

Xiongzhou, as an important town on the Song-Liao border, was wide and tall, but there were only 8,000 defenders in the city.

It's not that the Song army can't send more people, but it's that once there are more people, it's not easy to supply.

Once the Liao army besieges Xiongzhou, the grain and grass cannot come in, and there are too many people in the garrison to eat and chew, and it is estimated that it will not be long before Xiongzhou will become a dead city.

So simply send fewer people and hoard more grain and grass.

With Xiongzhou's current grain and grass reserves, even if the Liao State is surrounded for a year, it will not be able to die.

But it is precisely because there are few people that the cost of trial and error is very high. If the Liao army is ambushed, even if there are grenades, their 8,000 people may pay an extremely heavy price.

So now Zhang Kang, all they have to do is wait!

Patience is a good hunter!

Some friends said that the reform measures in the previous chapter also said that they were conservative, but it should be noted that this is a conservative measure taken by our army during the Republic of China, not a conservative measure in the Song Dynasty. The protagonist also thinks that these measures are radical in the Song Dynasty, but if you dig deeper, you will know that our army took such measures in Jiangxi, where the clan power was strong, and the protagonist currently only wants to promote it in the north of the Song Dynasty, where the clan power is almost none, and the difficulty may even be much lower than that of our army at that time.

In addition, the friend compared the concubine giving birth to a child and the current mistress, not to mention that the current mistress law also has the right to inherit, just that the mistress is not legal now, but the concubine was legal in ancient times, and the two cannot be compared at all.

What I want to tell you is that I write books in accordance with logic, and the content and measures in them are often historical and relatively smooth measures, and they will not be made up.

There is also the radical method adopted by our army, which I also wrote in the book, not necessarily the Jiangxi clan power during the Republic of China period is stronger than the northern clan power that was smashed in the Song Dynasty? This is unrealistic, I also did research and research on the situation of the clan forces in the north at that time, and the thinking of the Republic of China period was already so advanced, and I could accept such a reform, right? It doesn't make sense, so I don't accept this book friend's accusation at all!

But everyone has their own opinions, and I can't unify everyone's thoughts, I'm just explaining why I wrote this way, so that everyone can understand the reason, it's not that I accuse this book friend of having any problems, he also has his own ideas, everyone knows why I wrote this way.

(End of chapter)