Fenghou

Chapter 120

The reason why Chen Qing realized that the court would definitely form a navy was because he saw the passiveness of the court without a navy. Because without a navy, the court would not only lose Jingnan Road, but also lose Jingbei Road.

Chen Qing saw this in advance, but he believed that the court would realize it sooner or later.

The civil servants of the imperial court may not think of it for a while, but it does not mean that everyone cannot think of it.

This morning, Emperor Zhao Gou received three letters from the Privy Council at the same time. One letter was from Liu Ziyu, the prefect of Zhenjiang, which strongly demanded that the court build a large number of ships. To solve the imbalance of the imperial court's income and expenditure, he pointed out in the report that even Chen Qing, who is far away in the northwest, knows to conduct overseas trade for profit, but the imperial court, which controls most of the coastal ports, has not moved for a long time, which makes people really puzzled.

The second is to build ships and build a navy. If a strong navy is not built, the entire Yangtze River will be dominated by the Western Army.

Liu Ziyu was deeply touched. The large ships of more than [-] shi docked at the Yangtze River Wharf in Zhenjiang were almost all merchant ships of the Western Army, which was so shocking.

The second letter was written by Han Shizhong. Although he is at home, he has always paid attention to the current situation. He can see through it better than anyone else. They are inherently weak on horseback, and their combat effectiveness on land is far from that of the Jin soldiers and the Western army. opponent.

In fact, they defeated the Jin soldiers several times by relying on their superiority in water warfare, but since the imperial court recaptured a large area of ​​land south of the Huaihe River, they gradually gave up the defense of the Yangtze River and the navy. The boats are gone, and now there are only a bunch of Baishi sentry boats left on the Yangtze River.

Of course, Han Shizhong also understood the difficulties of the imperial court, financial difficulties, and lack of money to build new ships, but even if new ships could not be built, old ships could be refurbished and used.

However, Han Shizhong found that almost all the sealed old warships were gone, and they were secretly sold, saying that they were sold to merchants, but what the merchants wanted the warships made Han Shizhong have to doubt that all the old warships were sold by Chen Qing. Bought it in the name of a merchant and sent it to Sichuan Road for refurbishment, so the Western Army has a large number of warships.

Now is not the time to pursue responsibility, Han Shizhong just once again called on the court to attach importance to the navy and build a powerful navy as soon as possible.

The third letter was the most important, and it was Zhang Jun's letter. He first told the emperor the unfortunate news that Tang Huai, the general guarding Xiangyang, rebelled and surrendered directly to the Western Army. The [-] Western Army had taken over Xiangyang City. General Zhang Xian led a part of the army to escape the Han River, but the simple pontoon bridge they built was immediately destroyed by the Western Army Navy.

In his letter, Zhang Jun denounced the imperial court for not having a navy. He led an army of [-] to Xiangyang for the first time, but he could not cross the Han River. As for him watching the Western Army enter Xiangyang City helplessly, there was nothing he could do.

Emperor Zhao Gou was extremely shocked by Zhang Jun's letter. He was not shocked that Zhang Jun could not pass the Han River. In fact, Zhang Jun's [-] troops could not pass the Han River. In fact, he hoped that Zhao Gou was stunned and decided to launch a military strike. , Take back Jiangling City.

But when his decree was issued, he regretted it a little. Once the imperial army and the Western army turned against each other, it would not only be as simple as Jiangling's gains and losses. Chen Qing would probably proclaim himself emperor, and then he would no longer be taboo to seize the imperial court's large area. Land, Jinghu North Road, Jiangnan West Road, Huaixi Road, Huainan Road, etc.

Now what shocked and frightened him finally happened, and Xiangyang City fell into Chen Qing's hands.

For a whole hour, Zhao Gou's brain was thinking about one thing, Chen Qing occupied Xiangyang, would he use the opportunity to sweep the entire Jingbei Road under the pretext of starting a war?

At this time, Zhao Gou's silence was interrupted by the eunuch's report, "Your Majesty, Xu Xiangguo asks to see you!"

Zhao Gou nodded, "Acclaim him an audience!"

Not long after, Xu Xiantu quickly walked into the imperial study, bowed and said, "See Your Majesty!"

Zhao Gou sighed and said, "Xu Aiqing, now my head hurts!"

"Your Majesty is worried about Xiangzhou?"

Zhao Gou nodded helplessly, "I regret that Zhang Jun's army should not have gone to attack Jiangling. Chen Qing found an excuse to capture Xiangzhou and lose Xiangzhou. Where will his next goal be? Fangzhou, Suizhou , Fuzhou, Yingzhou, Jingmen Army, Guanghua Army and Hanyang Mansion?"

What Zhao Gou was talking about was Jingbei Road, and Xu Xiantu knew in his heart that once the Western Army captured Xiangzhou, Fangzhou, Guanghua Army and Jingmen Army would also be lost at the same time. These three places have been separated by Xiangzhou, leaving only Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou, and Hanyangfu are three prefectures and one prefecture. Even if the Western Army does not directly occupy them, they will definitely be controlled. Officials in the four places will definitely be at odds with the imperial court.

Although he knew it in his heart, Xu Xiantu couldn't tell the truth frankly. He wanted to stabilize the emperor and not let the emperor go from one extreme to another. Sometimes white lies were needed.

"Your Majesty, what I want to report has something to do with what His Majesty is worried about. I originally wanted to say that Wang Gui, the envoy of Xiangyang, has arrived in Lin'an."

Zhao Gou was taken aback, this was a bit unexpected, he thought Wang Gui would surrender to Chen Qing directly.

"What does he mean?"

"Your Majesty, he came to Beijing to report on his duties. This shows that he did not collude with Chen Qing. It was his subordinate Tang Huai who colluded with Chen Qing. As soon as he left, Tang Huai immediately surrendered to the Western Army and sacrificed Xiangyang."

Zhao Gou sighed, "Thousands of things come together, just ignore him, let him take a post in the Privy Council first, and then consider him after I have dealt with the troublesome things."

"Actually, I just want to tell Your Majesty that the situation is not that bad. Although Zhang Jun's army is overwhelming Jiangling, he is still relatively calm and did not seize the opportunity to seize Jingbei Road. Xiangzhou was not captured by Chen Qing, but by the guard Tang Huaixian. Xiangyang City, at this point, we are considering whether we can get Xiangyang City back through negotiations."

"Xu Aiqing thinks that Xiangyang City can still come back?" Zhao Goudu was noncommittal about this kind of negotiation proposal, how could he spit out the fat he swallowed?

"Your Majesty, the nature of sending troops to occupy and accepting the dedication of the city is still different. We can try to talk about it. If we really don't want to come back, we can at least keep Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou and Hanyang from being occupied by the Western Army. Wei Chen feels that as long as he is willing to negotiate, the situation on Jinghu North Road will be stabilized."

Zhao Gou walked to the window with his hands behind his back. After a long time, he sighed and said with grief: "This time, I was harmed by Mr. Qin. I really shouldn't have listened to his advice and wanted to take back the Jiangling Mansion. In the end, I couldn't steal it. Thanks to a lot of rice, Jingnan South Road is completely lost, and now it has become a negotiation on the ownership of Jingbei North Road, Qin Hui misunderstood me!"

Zhao Gou immediately issued an order: "Pass down my will, hold a military and political meeting in Ziwei Hall the day after tomorrow to discuss the establishment of a naval army, and notify Taifu Han to attend together!"

……

Wu Jie’s residence is just a dilapidated yard with an area of ​​only one mu. This is a rented house. In Lin’an, where every inch of land is expensive, the monthly rent for such a yard is ten yuan, and the rent is paid by his brother Wu Lin. .

Wu Jie was not an official in the capital, and the government house that was not enough for him was not his turn. He was dismissed when he returned to Lin'an, but he was only pardoned.

With Hu Yun's support, a coffin shed was set up in the yard, and the Wu family invited several monks to chant scriptures for salvation.

Hu Yun and Zheng Tongquan came to mourn Wu Jie together, and discussed with Wu's family about transporting the body back to his hometown. Zheng Tongquan was very generous and agreed that he would be responsible for the whole process and all expenses would be borne by him.

The two came to the courtyard of the Wu family, and there were still a dozen steps away from the courtyard gate, when they heard a fierce quarrel coming from the courtyard.

The first thousand and 120 chapters of the court

"This is my house. Your father died in my house. How can I rent out the house? You are still setting up a coffin in my yard for the funeral. Have you got my consent? No! Move out for me immediately, Move them all away!"

The man's tone was very angry. It should be the landlord, who rushed over after hearing the news.

"My father passed away. It wasn't an accident. What's the matter? You don't allow funerals to be held in the yard. We can put them outside, but we can only move them when it's dark. This is the rule."

Wu Jie's two sons, Wu Xiaoping and Wu Xiaofan, were trying to argue, but they couldn't convince the landlord, and the landlord became even more angry.

The landlord said viciously: "I want you to compensate, you can either buy the house or lose money."

"How much is your house worth? I bought it!" Zheng Tongquan was rich and powerful, and took over the storm as soon as he entered the door.

When the Wu brothers saw Hu Yun coming, they hurried forward to salute. Hu Yun introduced Zheng Tongquan to them, and told them that Zheng Tongquan had an ice boat to take their father's body back home for burial.

The two brothers were immediately overjoyed. If they hadn't had to, they certainly hoped that their father would be buried in peace. They had no choice but to cremate his father's body. They were very grateful and hurried forward to salute.

The landlord was more anxious than them, and rushed forward and said: "But you said it yourself, everyone heard it, you want to buy this yard."

Zheng Tongquan bowed to the two brothers, and then said coldly to the landlord: "That's right! I said it, please quote a price!"

"This is a one-acre house with a good location. It's worth at least [-] yuan!"

"nonsense!"

Wu Xiaoping couldn't help scolding angrily: "The price of [-] per mu is the price only for a house with more than five acres. Your yard only has one mu of land, and the location is not good. At most, it is a thousand guan. What shame do you have to ask for [-] guan?" ?”

The landlord sneered and said, "I have the final say on how much to sell, so what does it have to do with you?"

At this moment, Hu Yun put his palms together and asked the monk, "May I ask which monastery the master came from?"

"We are monks from Ciyun Temple."

"Can you transfer your spirit to perform deeds in your temple?"

"Amitabha, of course, but there is no ice in our temple."

"We'll prepare the ice, you just need to protect the spirit along the way."

Hu Yun has experience. He participated in many funerals, many of which were held in temples. Since the landlord disliked them, he moved to the temple to hold his coffins.

Turning back to Zheng Tongquan, he said, "There's no need to buy his house, let's arrange it and send it to Ciyun Temple."

The landlord was furious, and stepped forward to grab Hu Yun's lapel, "What kind of bird are you, trying to ruin my good business!"

Without waiting for him to approach, the guard behind Hu Yun stepped forward, grabbed his wrist, and pushed back. The landlord couldn't stand still, "Push!"pedal!pedal!pedal! 'Take a dozen steps back and sit down on the ground.

"You wait, I'm going to report to the police!"

Seeing that there were two strong men behind Hu Yun, a head taller than him, with extremely strong physique, and he was like a chicken in front of them, he felt timid, yelled a few words, and left resentfully.

Wu Jie's wife and two sons came forward to thank Hu Yun for his help. They were not afraid of the landlord, but the landlord's nonsense would startle the soul, and that was what they were worried about.

Hu Yun laughed and said, "Pack up your things! We invite monks from Ciyun Temple to protect the spirit and go to the temple. In fact, it is better to go to the temple. After seven days, we will leave for Jingzhao, and then transfer to Pingliang County from Jingzhao."

The Wu family discussed it and agreed to move to the monastery. An hour later, several ox carts transported Wu Jie’s coffin and spiritual tablets, etc., and a dozen monks guarded both sides of the ox cart, chanting scriptures and walking. Wu Jie's wife was also sitting on the ox cart with the items packed up at home.

Along the way, people kept setting up incense cases for road sacrifices. Although the court was ungrateful, in the hearts of most people, Wu Jie was the siege of defending the country. These achievements are engraved in the hearts of the people.

At noon of the next day, the "Beijing News" published the news of "The Fall of the Stars" on the front page. For a while, there was a wave of thousands of stones in Lin'an, and there was an endless stream of people going to Ciyun Temple to pay their respects, which made the emperor Zhao Gou feel uncomfortable. Yes, a thousand coins was specially approved for the funeral of the Wu family.

……

In the Ziwei Hall, hundreds of officials of the fifth rank and above gathered in one hall to participate in special military and political discussions. This is different from the routine court meeting. Usually, special military and political discussions are held only after major events have occurred, and the resolutions passed in the meeting , there is no need for further deliberation by the Political Affairs Hall, but must be implemented immediately.

All the ministers participating in the meeting were notified of the contents of the discussion two days ago to discuss whether to re-organize the water army.

This kind of special discussion encourages ministers to speak, severely criticizes, and personal attacks are also normal. As long as they are not attacking the emperor, the speaker is basically innocent, and this is also a rare opportunity to perform in front of the emperor. Hopeful.

Before the emperor came, the ministers were all talking in low voices, and Liu Qiren, the military supervisor, said to Zhu Shengfei worriedly: "Mr. Zhu, why did the officials think of forming a naval army? Is it because we have a lot of money?"

Zhu Shengfei was in charge of finance. He snorted and said, "When was the financial surplus? The military salary has not been paid for two months. The officials asked me to raise money as soon as possible, 200 million yuan! Where do I go to raise money?"

"Since this is the case, why do the officials want to form a naval army? Building a military ship is an invincible hole! Hundreds of thousands of pennies are simply drizzle, at least a few million pennies, and it will take a long time. Mr. Zhu, it is very unfortunate In reality, the humble official is ready to oppose, please support Mr. Zhu."

Liu Qiren's objection was of course related to his immediate interests. The imperial court's finances were already very tight, and investing money in shipbuilding would definitely reduce the expenditure of the Military Weapons Supervision. Tens of thousands of craftsmen in the Military Weapons Supervision were waiting for him. Take money to eat!

On the other hand, Han Shizhong was also talking to Xu Xiantu about the water army and the establishment of the water army. Han Shizhong was the most active promoter. The Yue Family Army is slightly inferior, but it is also an elite army second only to the Yue Family Army in the Great Song Dynasty.

But in front of Chen Qing's elite cavalry, he couldn't even last an hour, which made him see a huge gap. Regardless of training, equipment, morale, strategy and experience, his army was far inferior to the opponent's.

Similarly, his army was no match for Wanyan Wushu's Iron Buddha cavalry, even his army, not to mention the other Song army, the Song army was completely at the bottom.

The only way is to develop strengths and avoid weaknesses, and vigorously develop the navy. Southerners are good at water, and southerners are good at boats. The southern river network is densely covered. Only by vigorously developing the navy can we fight against the Western Army and the Jurchen Army.

"Actually, I also know that the development of the navy consumes money, but you can't give up your own advantages just because of the money. I think it is possible to reduce part of the army and use the saved military salary to build warships. Does Xu Xianggong think it is feasible? "

Xu Xiantu sighed and said, "It's not impossible to disarm the army. The emperor has long wanted to disarm a certain army, but it's not easy!"

Han Shizhong lowered his voice and asked, "Xu Xianggong refers to Zhang Jun's army?"

Xu Xiantu smiled, neither admitting nor denying it.

At this time, the guard shouted at the side door, "Your Majesty is here!"

The ministers stopped talking at once, and each took their positions, only to see the emperor Zhao Gou walking quickly surrounded by eunuchs and court ladies.

He sat down on his dragon couch, and all the officials saluted together, "See Your Majesty!"

Zhao Gou waved his hand, "Everyone is welcome!"

When everyone stood up, Zhao Gou said slowly: "Today, you are called to discuss military and state affairs. I think everyone knows that it is to discuss the establishment of a navy. More than ten years ago, we originally had a navy, but we have always It failed to play a role, and gradually became abandoned. Chen Qing's peek at Jinghu South Road and Jinghu North Road made me suddenly realize that without a strong navy, we could not stop Chen Qing's eastward expansion, so rebuilding the water The military has become urgent, today is just a discussion, please speak freely, whether you agree or disagree, I just want to listen to the truth, and I don’t want to listen to those meaningless clichés, let’s ask Taifu Han to speak first!"

Zhao Gou asked Han Shizhong to make a statement first.

The first thousand and 120 chapters of the second court meeting

Han Shizhong bowed and said: "Your Majesty, I specially prepared some small things, and they are on the square outside the hall. Your Majesty, please take a look!"

Zhao Gou immediately became interested, and said happily, "I really want to take a look."

The guards surrounded the emperor Zhao Gou and walked out of the hall, followed by hundreds of ministers. When he reached the steps, Han Shizhong clapped his hands heavily, only to hear the horse scream loudly, and a tall and strong guard galloped out on the horse. Holding a short spear in hand, the cavalry is tall and mighty, imposing.

Han Shizhong explained: "Your Majesty, his weapons are all made of wood, please don't worry!"

Zhao Gou was puzzled and asked, "What does Han Aiqing mean?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the horse the bodyguard is riding is an old horse retired from the Western Army. It was sold to the people. It took a lot of effort for me to buy a few horses. The armor and weapons he wears are the standard cavalry soldiers of the Western Army. A, this bodyguard is also similar in stature to an ordinary cavalry soldier of the Western Army, but this person was selected from more than 100 bodyguards for his humble position."

Xu Xiantu nodded, and said loudly: "Taifu Han means that what we see now is the image of an ordinary cavalryman of the Western Army. Is that what he means?"

"That's exactly what it means!"

Zhao Gou also nodded, "And then?"

Han Shizhong clapped his hands again, only to see a cavalry rushing in from the opposite side. Only then did everyone realize that this cavalry was much smaller than the cavalry just now. The horse was short and the soldier was not tall. At the same time, the short cavalry looked really horrible.

"Your Majesty, this is our cavalry. I didn't choose it specially. It's just a very ordinary cavalry. Most of the cavalry are like him. The horses are short and the soldiers are not strong enough. Moreover, all the cavalry of the Western Army are skilled in bow and horse. Controlling horses and shooting arrows while galloping are exactly the same as the Jurchen cavalry, but only generals can do it. In actual combat, one cavalry of the Western Army can defeat two of our cavalry. I have seen it with my own eyes. There is no lie .”

There was a low voice of discussion among the ministers. Zhao Gou's face was really ugly. In order to fight against the Jurchen cavalry, they also trained 400 cavalry in the past few years, paying a huge price for national strength. Acres of land to plant pasture, and the salary of the cavalry is twice that of the infantry, as well as the equipment of the cavalry, nearly [-] million yuan is spent on the cavalry every year.

But in the end, it was found that the cavalry they trained was still far inferior to the cavalry of the Western Army.

"Your Majesty, we also spent a lot of food, land, manpower and money to raise horses. The cost of a war horse is much higher than that of the Western Army, but the effect is very poor. What is the reason? This is actually They planted tangerines from Huainan to Huaibei. The south of the Yangtze River is not suitable for raising horses. There are no conditions for raising horses. The output is very small and there is no room for selection. However, Xijun and Jinbing have vast pastures, and they can raise millions. horses, and then select tens of thousands of strong and tall horses as war horses.

So no matter how hard we try, we can't compete with the cavalry of the Western Army and the Jurchen cavalry. Every time we are defeated in one battle, this is the reason. "

Zhao Gou returned to the hall and sat down, and all the ministers came back one after another. Everyone felt heavy in their hearts. Han Shizhong gave them a vivid one, and the contrast was too strong.

Qin Hui asked: "Taifu Han, can you be sure that everything you said is true? You didn't choose it specially?"

"Reporting to Mr. Qin, the humble official never made a special choice, and I would like to guarantee it with my wealth and life!"

Qin Hui immediately said to Zhao Gou: "Your Majesty, we spend 400 million yuan and 150 million mu of land every year to raise [-] cavalry. If what Han Taifu said is true, I suggest that the cavalry be abolished."

Qin Hui was suffering from a lack of finances during this period. He wanted to disarm the army when he tore down the east wall to make up for the west. The burden of the 50 troops was too heavy for him to breathe. Now Han Shizhong pointed out that the cavalry they trained was meaningless , Qin Hui immediately seized this opportunity and demanded that the cavalry be abolished.

The abolition of the cavalry is a major event, which means that their nearly ten years of hard work have been wasted. Zhao Gou was also undecided. He looked at Xu Xiantu, "What is the opinion of the Privy Council?"