Chapter 313: The Fragrance of Gujing Sauce and Wine
Duan Xiaolin put down his burden and said happily, "I'm here, Sihan is at her mother's home in Yibin."
He began to admire Xiao Linzi's maturity, not informing him in advance, which was to separate state affairs from family affairs.
Duan Xiaolin told them that Dali was still fighting against the Kingdom of Yue for the jade mining area, and hoped that the New Song Kingdom could support them with a batch of weapons.
The State of Yue used grain to exchange for the Qingcheng Sect's gunpowder and then used it to create firearms with energy increased a hundred times. Their combat effectiveness increased rapidly, and even the new army of Dali had a hard time defeating them.
However, Zhao Yulin was a little embarrassed about giving weapons to the Dali Kingdom.
This is someone who has just fought a fight, and if you give your sword to your opponent, you will only make the fight more difficult for yourself.
He said that Dali had repeatedly stabbed the New Song in the back, and should look for its own reasons. Yue was weak, and even Dali could not stand it, so how could it live in peace with the New Song?
Zhao Yulin said to Duan Xiaolin: Prince Zhennan is familiar with the new Song Dynasty's philosophy of governing the country. He should go back and advocate reform and work hard to govern the country. All he needs to do is to take back the private soldiers of the Gao and Chai families in the court, and that will be a powerful force.
Duan Xiaolin wanted to take it back, but the various complicated forces intertwined together made it impossible for his father to do it.
He proposed to Mr. Li to resume the jade trade, but they in Dali had spent the money.
Mr. Li said that the price of their jade raw stones has increased by more than 30% compared with the previous price. How can they do business? Even the price of jade in sea trade is not that high.
The New Song Dynasty had no choice but to cut off the jade trade with the Dali Kingdom and wait for them to agree on the price before continuing the trade.
Zhao Yulin listened to Li Gong's high-sounding speech and felt that the old man was really good at fooling people. When the two countries negotiated the price, the agreement between Xin Song and Dai Viet would expire.
After seeing the guests off, Mr. Li asked with a smile if he would provide some support with weapons?
After all, they are still relatives.
He said that several important officials in the Dali court were self-righteous and always felt that they were quite powerful, so he let them compete with the Kingdom of Yue. It would be our greatest support if the New Song did not threaten their rear.
Feiyan handed him a letter from Zhao Sihan, saying that she would not return to Dali and would stay in Cuiping Mountain to work.
How can this be accomplished?
Zhao Sihan is the princess of the Zhennan King. If she doesn't go back, it's obvious that she has a conflict with Duan Xiaolin. Zhao Yulin went to ask Ding Gong for leave. He had to go back to Yibin and visit Renhuai to see the situation there.
Mr. Ding agreed immediately, but Cao wanted to keep him to discuss military affairs.
The two men came to Miao Gui's office, and Lao Cao said that Brother Miao was about to set off for the north, and he had to give him the bottom line.
Zhao Yulin felt that he had said everything that needed to be said. Was there anything else he wanted to explain?
Just do it.
Now that the Ministry of War has been established, the various departments are much more complete than before, and things can be done more smoothly.
He said: It is not difficult to take Luoyang, the most important thing is to defend it.
Therefore, when the enemy in Luoyang was defeated, Lai Chuanfang had to mobilize the enemy and then take over Shanzhou and completely open up the Xiaohan Road. In this way, the military power of Guanzhong could be deployed to Luoyang, and the logistics of Zhejiang and Sichuan could also provide support for Luoyang, so defending Luoyang would be a piece of cake.
Lao Cao happily said that the General Staff had the same opinion, but the farmland around Luoyang was barren, and after it was taken back, they would have to organize military farms to reclaim the wasteland and migrate the people there.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said that the only way to do this was to move the new recruits from all over the country to this area, train them and cultivate the land at the same time.
He said that the bold ones will die of overeating, while the timid ones will die of starvation. Once we capture Luoyang, we will immediately let the Ministry of Households organize immigration. All the people who are willing to return to their hometown in Luoyang and farm in Luoyang will be given travel expenses, seeds, and oxen, and will be exempted from three years of corvee labor and five years of taxes. There will always be people willing to settle there.
Lao Cao immediately perked up and said he would take some time to talk to Mr. Du from the Ministry of Revenue.
However, Zhao Yulin said that the matter needed to be kept secret. He heard that there were often epidemics in the Luoyang area, so he reminded Miao Gui to pay attention and asked the logistics department to make more gloves and masks. Anyone entering the epidemic area or the war zone should wear masks and gloves.
At present, he has no better way to prevent plague and disease. The simple and effective way is to wear gloves and masks.
Lao Cao said that another way is to make more alcohol. This thing is good. It can be eaten and can be used for disinfection.
Zhao Yulin was speechless and picked up the teacup to invite him to have tea.
The Mongolian army killed people wantonly in Luoyang, Kaifeng and other cities in the Central Plains, dumping corpses in the wilderness, causing infectious diseases to spread one after another. It is impossible not to get sick. Our Shenwei Army must think carefully before attacking Luoyang, otherwise, the team will lose its combat effectiveness before the battle even starts.
After Zhao Yulin and Lao Cao finished discussing military affairs, they took a boat south to Yibin the next day.
At this time, far away on the eastern coast, Goryeo on the peninsula was also urgently discussing military affairs.
As expected, the Grassland Empire marched eastward to attack the Kingdom of Goryeo. The army was said to have 200,000 troops, but in fact, including the grooms, it did not exceed 50,000.
However, the team was divided into two groups, east and west, and they rushed into Goryeo State in one fell swoop. The officials of the cities on the border fled in panic.
After the Mongolian army captured three cities in a row, they received battlefield supplies and their power was greatly boosted. Another 30,000 troops followed behind, and they were determined to win the battle and destroy the Goryeo Kingdom before returning with full strength.
The Kingdom of Goryeo had long been warned by the Goryeo prince Wang Dian, but their Emperor Gojong was not vigilant enough, thinking that he should not be beaten again because he had already surrendered to the grassland and became a vassal state of the empire.
But he didn't know that the Grassland Empire was now seriously short of blood, and had to draw 10,000 CC from him, and found an excuse that the beautiful girl they contributed was not gentle enough, and took action without waiting for Goryeo to defend itself.
At this time, the Kingdom of Goryeo ordered the entire country to fortify its defenses and clear the fields, quickly abandon the plains and move into the mountain cities, and flee from the peninsula to the islands on the coast. In short, the order was to prevent the Mongolian army from getting a single grain of food or capturing a single person.
When the Mongolian army attacked further forward, they discovered something was seriously wrong.
The terrain ahead was flat, and the cities that were easy to capture had their four gates open, and the doors of the houses inside were also wide open. There was everything available except food.
There were still some old, weak, sick and disabled people in the city who had not left, but these people were ready to die and actually led them into the woodshed where explosives were buried, and detonated the granary.
The Mongolian army was enraged and immediately massacred the city and implemented the Three Alls Policy.
After the three-light battle, there would be no one left to resist, but they could not find anyone to use. Not only that, the food they brought was running out, but they could not get any more supplies, so they had no choice but to attack the mountain cities one by one.
This would require a life-and-death battle with the Goryeo army who relied on the terrain.
Emperor Gaozong secretly sighed at the divine calculations of Zhao Yulin, the commander of the Shenwei Army of the New Song Dynasty.
The Mongolian army really came, and its mountain warfare and island warfare were really effective. They began to vigorously develop the "Special Army", that is, to disperse the troops into guerrillas and fight guerrilla warfare.
The Goryeo army used the sixteen-character strategy given to them by Zhao Yulin: "When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy is tired, we attack; when the enemy stays, we harass." to counterattack the Mongolian army, which immediately had a miraculous effect.
The Mongolian army's food supply was cut off, or small units were destroyed, and many of the Darughachi sent to the villages below were killed. This ruined the Mongolian army's plan to conquer Goryeo and secure the throne.
The Goryeo army obtained the key parts of a thousand Shenbi crossbows from the Shenwei Army, and with the guidance of the masters, they quickly made the Shenbi crossbows and equipped the guerrillas. These "Biechao soldiers" held Shenbi crossbows in their hands, with hand grenades tied around their waists. They appeared and disappeared at will, forcing the Mongolian army to retreat into the city and dare not come out.
The King of Goryeo fully adopted Zhao Yulin's suggestions. He trained guerrillas intensively on the islands and manufactured a large number of firearms to support the defended cities. He actually delayed the Mongolian army, and the two sides were in a stalemate.
Two days later, Zhao Yulin returned to Yibin and met his sister Zhao Sihan and Duan Xiaolin.
Xiao Linzi said he didn't want to go back to Dali either.
The Dali Kingdom suffered a great loss of national strength after the Duan Xingzhi Rebellion last year. Although his father took back the throne, the court was still in disarray. Various forces continued to preserve their strength on their own and never thought of resisting foreign enemies together.
Zhao Yulin said, how can this be possible?
If Dali wants to become strong, it is far from enough to rely solely on Duan Xiaolin to come to Xin Song to seek support.
He said that although the New Song Dynasty was powerful, the Mongol Empire in the northern desert was even more powerful. However, no matter how powerful a country is, if it does not reform and innovate and keep pace with the times, it will collapse sooner or later.
He pointed out that the Dali Kingdom had another key problem, which was the dispersion of military power. The princes and prime ministers even maintained their own private armies, which dispersed Dali's military strength and weakened the power of the court, causing it to be controlled by the princes.
In this way, the imperial court's policies could not be implemented smoothly, and each government set up its own treasury, dispersing the country's wealth. When difficulties arose, there was no money to help out.
He asked Duan Xiaolin to watch and believe that the New Song Dynasty would soon solve the problem of wealthy and powerful people controlling the country's wealth, and his family would take the lead in handing over the shares of Wugufeng Distillery to the country.
Duan Xiaolin listened and his eyes widened in surprise.
Zhao Sihan also looked at his brother in disbelief.
He said that it was useless to have more money because it would be lost one day. It would be better to give all the wealth to the country and make it stronger.
Zhao Yulin said that the Dali Kingdom must learn from its mistakes and implement reforms, otherwise even the gods could not save it.
The next day, Zhao Yulin continued to go south to Renhuai, and learned that Shunzhidi went south to Guiyang to supervise the construction of the city. He thought to himself, this woman is risking her life, why is she so anxious?
Madam Shun was getting weaker and weaker. She told him tremblingly that Zhidi didn't want to fall behind. All the wives of her brothers were talented in both literature and martial arts, and were better than fairies. Zhidi also wanted to do something big.
Madam Zhen said that Zhidi wanted to build the road all the way to Guangnan West Road and connect it to the sea route so that we in Guizhou can also engage in sea trade.
Zhao Yulin was silent.
Last year, because of the war with Dali, he did not think of using Guizhou's military force. He was worried that Dali would spread the war here and the newly established Guizhou Road would not be able to withstand it.
When the Central Council discussed the transfer of money for poverty alleviation, he was not in a position to say that it would be transferred to Renhuai and Guizhou.
He was worried about Guizhou's finances and asked about the current financial situation.
Can Renhuai hold on?
Madam Zhen told him: It's okay, Master Chen from Gujing Distillery has given great support.
Zhao Yulin said goodbye to his two wives and went out to have a drink with Chen Zhongshun.
In order to make good sauce wine, the old winemaker moved in with his concubine. When he saw Zhao Yulin coming, he smiled and took out his youngest son Chen Xiaoshu and asked him to call him brother-in-law.
