Although Fan Zhongyan is also the prime minister, he has not been in the Constitutional Yuan very often recently.

Because he was in charge of some issues related to the restructuring of the army, he often had to communicate with the Ministry of War and the Privy Council to create a new structure for the entire army.

According to Zhao Jun's plan, the first thing is to eliminate the corrupt elements and the old and weak in the army, keep the number of standing forbidden troops at 400,000, and keep the local army responsible for maintaining the deterrence of ethnic minorities at 200,000.

In this way, there are 1,259,000 soldiers on the surface, but in fact there are only more than 800,000 soldiers in the Great Song Dynasty, and there are only 600,000 of them.

Then the upper and lower levels were reformed, and one capital was set up with 100 people, five capitals and one battalion, five battalions and one school, and three to five schools as one army. At all levels, there are permanent commanders, battalion commanders, captains, and generals.

The overall reform tended to be the military system of the Han Dynasty, and it was also the military reform of the Song Dynasty. As a result, the number of troops in an army ranges from 7,500 to 12,500, and the generals are responsible for maintaining daily training, the Privy Council is responsible for troop transfers, and the military department is responsible for promotions, rewards and punishments, and logistics.

When the war comes, a general of the group army will be temporarily set up, similar to a corps commander, to command three to five armies to fight. In addition, the establishment of an economic and strategic envoy at the general level of the group army can be understood as a marshal, who is responsible for the operational command of the entire theater.

If the Liao State comes to Hebei to start a war again, Fan Zhongyan continues to preside over the war, he will be equivalent to the marshal of the main battle, Zhang Kang will be equivalent to the commander of the group army below, and Di Qing will be equivalent to the commander of the first army.

In this way, if Fan Zhongyan had 200,000 troops under his command, it would be equivalent to commanding five or six group armies and twenty legions.

In this way, it is not only convenient to coordinate command, but also easier to fight. It can also allow the generals of the army to often train soldiers in the army, so that there will be no more situations where the soldiers do not know the generals and the soldiers.

But planning is planning, and it's not that simple to actually operate.

It may take a long time for the entire army system to be rebuilt, so Fan Zhongyan must always be in charge of the overall situation, and he has been constantly running back and forth between the military department, the Privy Council, and the Bianliang garrison barracks recently.

However, today he suddenly ran back to the Constitutional Yuan and said something big.

This made everyone's hearts tighten.

"Did the Liao people call again?"

Lu Yijian hurriedly asked.

During this period of military reform, the prime ministers were most worried about the Liao people.

After all, now is indeed the weakest time for the Great Song Dynasty.

If the firearms army can't stop the Liao, then with the ordinary Song army that is now undergoing restructuring and lacks a large number of middle and lower-level officers, then it will be a big trouble.

The only good news is that there are many cannons on Hebei Road, and most of them are piled up on the city wall, even if the Liao people fight over, they don't need to worry about the loss of Hebei.

"It's not."

Fan Zhongyan shook his head and said, "It's the Xixia people who called." ”

Zhao Jun patted the case and said: "Li Yuanhao is really brave, I didn't hurt him last time, but now I dare to make a mistake again." ”

"Not really."

Fan Zhongyan smiled: "He did not violate our borders. ”

Everyone rolled their eyes, and Yan Shu tactfully persuaded: "Xiwen, next time you have something, just tell the whole story, don't be surprised." ”

"Okay."

Fan Zhongyan immediately explained the situation.

At the end, he said: "I analyzed it, Western Xia should want to attack Qingtang to test our situation, if we can't send troops to help and defeat them, I'm afraid that the Liao State will also go south." ”

"Well, this is a question that can be thought of with your toes, and maybe even this Western Xia attack is instigated by the Liao State in the back, see the strength of our army."

Zhao Jun thought for a while, and then immediately said: "Now our latest news is only to learn that the Western Xia people are coming, but this is more than ten days ago, and no one knows what the situation in the northwest is like now, but in order to prevent accidents, we must immediately prepare measures." ”

"Be prepared to start a war with the Liao State and Western Xia at the same time."

Lu Yijian smiled bitterly, shook his head and said, "If you can, I really don't want to fight." ”

The Western Xia was menacing, although they arranged a lot of soldiers and horses on the Shaanxi Road, but the temporary defense was definitely too late, and they had to do a good job of command and dispatch immediately.

The current situation is that the Great Song army is in a weak period, if the border army does not respond in time, let the Western Xia capture Lanzhou and other places, and besiege Qingtang, then something will happen to this ally.

So Da Song must be saved.

This is also to prevent the Western Xia from revealing the truth and the truth, and then unite with the Liao State to move south.

Peace has only been less than four years, and the war is about to start again, which is another big problem for the domestic economy and governance of the Great Song Dynasty, which has just improved a little.

"There's no way, if people want to fight, they will fight, since they dare to tear up the contract, they have to bear the price of tearing up the contract."

Zhao Jun pondered for a moment and said, "Old Fan, let's mobilize for war immediately." In the afternoon, we will go to the official's house, you first take the reorganized army to Hebei, and prepare to fight the Liao State. On the Western Xia side, continue to let Pang Ji go. ”

"What do you think?"

Fan Zhongyan asked.

"The combat effectiveness of the Western Xia side is not as good as that of the Liao State, and the imperial court will definitely transfer the main force to Hebei, so the Western Xia will focus on defense."

Zhao Jun said: "When you repel the Liao State, you will go back and clean up the Western Xia, and this time you must destroy the Western Xia." ”

"Fight the war of annihilation?"

"Otherwise, this guy has jumped on top of us."

Zhao Jun's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness.

In fact, he didn't want to go to war now.

Because the Great Song Dynasty has developed rapidly in recent years.

Especially after the introduction of crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and peanuts, productivity has grown explosively.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, through the introduction of Champa rice, even though the grain distribution was uneven, the productivity of Champa rice was too great, and it was not a problem to feed one or two hundred million people.

Sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and peanuts are the icing on the cake, unless the Great Song Dynasty lifted the Dingkou tax and spread the Ding into the mu, resulting in a large-scale population growth, otherwise, these crops are unlikely to become the staple food of the people.

However, the introduction of these things will still greatly increase the grain output of farmers, even if it cannot be used as staple food, it can also enrich the table, and even use it as livestock food to feed chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, etc.

Peanuts can also be used for oil.

Therefore, the overall social development and people's living standards have definitely improved, solved the food and clothing of a large number of people, and enabled the people to hold their jobs and not go hungry.

The rest is the overall affluence, which changed the affluence of the Great Song Dynasty from a pyramid structure to a diamond-shaped structure.

This direction is really not easy to achieve in later generations.

What about the Great Song Dynasty in ancient times?

If it goes well, the Great Song Dynasty will be able to become the Emperor of Moldy in later generations, and even stronger than the Emperor of Mold.

As long as the Great Song Dynasty is given more than ten years of time, it will continue to absorb raw materials from all over the world in foreign trade, process them into commodities for sale, accumulate original capital, and build domestic improvement in all aspects.

At that time, everyone in the Great Song army had guns in their hands, every army had artillery, steam engines and trains were built, roads were built, and infrastructure continued to emerge.

Li Yuanhao and Yelu Zongzhen saw the muskets and artillery of the Great Song Dynasty, as well as the Makqin machine gun, and had to call Zhao Zhen their father.

It's a pity that people don't give them time to develop.

However, even so, Zhao Jun is confident that he will dispose of the Western Xia and the Liao State, and the Liao State will be difficult to pacify, but at present, the steel production of the Great Song Dynasty has skyrocketed, and it should not be a big problem to destroy the Western Xia.

He looked around and said: "Immediately send a message to the Hebei side, now steel is mainly used to make muskets and artillery, as well as civilian kitchen knives, hoes and other items to increase productivity, these are all rested, let them immediately turn their heads to make armor, broadswords and spears." ”

"Don't you make firearms?"

Wang Zeng asked.

"Firearms are limited by raw materials, once gunpowder is missing, firearms are a stick, so at present, it is still mainly the transition to cold weapons and heated weapons, and the entire army is reformed into hot weapons, and it takes at least more than ten years to accumulate gunpowder."

Zhao Jun pointed out the problem and said: "Steel refrigeration weapons and armor can already make us a big step ahead of Western Xia and Liao, except for the firearms battalion, the rest of the troops will use steel weapons first, and this year we will fight a defensive counterattack first." My request is very simple, the Western Xia must be destroyed next year. ”

"Hmm."

Everyone felt that there was no problem, so they nodded their heads.

At that moment, Zhao Jun and the others began to discuss the specific plan, and they had to go to Zhao Zhen in the afternoon to confirm it.

In this way, if the subordinates raise problems and solve the problems, Zhao Zhen, the boss, will be much easier, and he only needs to give orders and let Fan Zhongyan lead the troops to Hebei.

However, at three o'clock in the afternoon, that is, at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, they had not eaten yet, and when they continued to talk about the strategy of fighting a foreign war, Zhang Kang, the deputy privy councillor of the Privy Council outside the door, hurriedly ran in and said: "Report! ”

He still retains the habits of the army.

Fan Zhongyan glanced at the door and said, "What's wrong?" ”

"Six hundred miles is urgent, and Western Xia has been repulsed."

Zhang Kang walked in and said.

Li Yuanhao attacked Lanzhou on 30 August and was repelled by Wang Shiyun with a small steel cannon.

Then on September 2, they attacked again, and Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu took the firearms battalion musket team to protect Wang Shiyun's small steel cannon, and defeated the rear army of the Western Xia army, resulting in the complete collapse and defeat of the Western Xia.

Under normal circumstances, Lanzhou to Kaifeng is more than 1,100 kilometers, and if 800 miles is expedited, that is, 400 kilometers per day, it will take about two or three days to arrive.

It's just that the situation in Guwei Village is not directly sent from Guwei Village to Bianliang, but it is necessary to report the situation from Guwei Village to Qinfeng Road first.

Handed over layer by layer, it had already been several days in the hands of Qin Fenglu's envoy, and he had to immediately send someone to find out the situation, and once he came and went, it was naturally delayed for a few more days.

So after the news was conclusive, Qin Fenglu wanted to dispatch troops on the other hand, and immediately wrote a report and sent it to Bianliang, which caused Bianliang to learn the news twelve days later.

However, there was a gap of two days between the start of the fight and the defeat, and it was basically a matter of the front and rear feet, which was related to the speed of reporting from Guwei Village, so Qin Fenglu had just reported the news of the start of the fight, and Gu Weizhai immediately came to defeat it, and he had no choice but to send a new official document.

"What's going on?"

Hearing Zhang Kang say that he had repelled Xixia, everyone was immediately curious.

The Western Xia attacked Lanzhou, and they didn't deploy any troops and horses on the Lanzhou border, how did they defeat the Western Xia so smoothly?

Zhang Kang said with a smile: "It was when Sun Guangyi, the governor of the Guwei Zhai Department, went to lead the troops to rescue Lanzhou, and happened to meet two firearms battalions that went to Huining to garrison, so they pulled over together to participate in the battle, but I didn't expect it to have a miraculous effect." ”

As he spoke, he told how the firearms battalion covered the small steel artillery squad, and the Song army smashed the rear defense of the Western Xia army through the small steel cannons, resulting in a large-scale rout of the Western Xia army.

After listening, everyone laughed, and Lu Yijian laughed and said: "Yuan Hao is really vulnerable, tens of thousands of troops were actually defeated by thousands of people. ”

"Han Long often said that Sun Quan is Sun 100,000, Zhang Liao is Zhang 800, it seems that Yuan Hao is no different from Sun Quan, we also have our own 800."

"This battle is really to promote the prestige of my Great Song Dynasty, after the war, I am afraid that the Liao State and Western Xia will never dare to invade again."

"Then do we still send troops now?"

Everyone was overjoyed, who would have thought that they would be able to defeat Western Xia with a force of several thousand people and almost no big losses, so that Li Yuanhao would return with a feather?

If this spreads, it will not only boost the morale of the domestic military and public opinion, but I am afraid that the surrounding countries will once again look up to the strength of the Great Song Dynasty.

Even the restoration to the heyday of the Han and Tang dynasties is still unknown.

However, Zhao Jun pondered for a moment and said: "Don't be too happy, this battle is full of accidents, and you still have to have precautions for Western Xia and Liao. ”

"Oh? Isn't this a big win for firearms? ”

Wang Zeng wondered.

"It's not a big win, the chance factor is a little bigger, or you should clear your head."

Zhao Jun said.

After listening to Zhang Kang's narration, he will find the crux of the problem by jumping over the framework of the big victory and looking at the problem.

In fact, the whole process is not that the musket team is strong, even if the musket team shoots in three stages, the formation of a firepower network cannot allow them to deal with 10,000 cavalry with 1,000 people.

The problem was that they were not dealing with a cavalry that was not afraid of death, but an ordinary army that was afraid of death.

It's everyone who is afraid.

The comrades-in-arms around him kept falling weirdly, no matter how fierce they were not afraid of death, they should be afraid.

Therefore, Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu first blocked the enemy's siege.

Then Wang Shiyun launched a death-type artillery bombardment, and defeated the Western Xia army under the continuous fire of blowing up a small steel cannon and scrapping six.

Therefore, the whole process is actually full of accidents, if Li Yuanhao paid a little attention to the rear, or if the encirclement and suppression troops of Western Xia were not afraid of death, I am afraid that Lanzhou City at this time would have changed hands long ago.

So Zhao Jun didn't think that they could sit back and relax, they should be cautious or be careful.

"Then how should we counter this behavior of Western Xia?"

Fan Zhongyan asked.

"In this way, Lao Fan will not go to Hebei first, let Zhang Kang go."

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "First of all, take precautions against the Liao State, the Western Xia side, for the time being, hold the troops and see the reaction of the Western Xia side." If they don't apologize, we will reorganize our troops next year and use this incident as an excuse to destroy Western Xia. If they apologize."

"How?"

"Then slash them hard, make them hand over the New Year's coins, and don't promise to continue to destroy them next year."

"Let Xixia pay the New Year's coins? This is unheard of. ”

The crowd looked at each other.

In the past, the Great Song Dynasty gave other people's New Year's coins, even if there were foreign envoys who paid tribute to something, the Great Song Dynasty had to give more generous gifts in return.

Now it's the other way around.

"The rules will have to be changed in the future."

Zhao Jun narrowed his eyes and said: "That is, the army is still in the restructuring period, and it will need to be trained well after the restructuring is completed, otherwise I will want to destroy Western Xia this year." ”

It is still inconvenient to use force now, after all, the internal reform and rectification have not yet ended, and rashly sending troops will only disrupt the original plan.

And the main thing is.

Once the Western Xia is fully attacked, then the Liao State will also end.

Now the Great Song Dynasty has not yet been able to annex the Liao State, and the two sides are at war in an all-out manner, and there is a high probability that the Great Song Dynasty may destroy the Western Xia, but it will fall into a long-term war with the Liao State.

Fighting the war for a few years, even if it only lasts for a year or two, is a bad thing for the people's livelihood in China, which has already improved.

Therefore, the overall policy is still development-oriented.

Accumulate grain, build high walls, and slowly become kings.

In a few years, Da Song will be stronger.

And now that the Western Xia has been defeated, let's see the reaction of the Western Xia's side.

If the other party does nothing, it will be simple, and next year, when the army reform is completed, and the training, command, and combat effectiveness of the upper and lower levels have been greatly improved, they will be destroyed under the pretext of attacking Western Xia this year and tearing up the contract.

Even if the Western Xia did not attack the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, the Great Song only had to say that they had signed a treaty with Qingtang and had this excuse.

Anyway, the contract was meant to be violated.

When the time comes, the Western Xia will be destroyed, and the only opponent will be the Liao State, and the two sides will fall into a protracted war.

And if the Western Xia side was busy apologizing and hoped that the Great Song would forgive, then the Great Song Dynasty would not be unable to accept their apology when giving priority to the development of the country.

But the apology must also show sincerity, and it is not too much to give a war reparation.

Let the Western Xia pay a few years, use these funds for military expenses, continue to strengthen the strength of the army, and wait for a few years when the Great Song Dynasty is strong enough to completely eliminate the Western Xia and Liao, and then completely start the campaign to destroy Xia and Liao.

In this way, the first is not to harm the people's livelihood, and the second is to grasp it more. Last but not least, the Great Song Dynasty needed time to cultivate talents internally in order to digest Liaoxia's territory in the future.

Once the Western Xia and Liao States were destroyed, it would be equivalent to having nearly 10 million square kilometers of land from the original 3 million square kilometers of land.

It's been years since I digested it.

(End of chapter)