Chapter 572 Looking for the Emperor Overseas
Although the New Song Dynasty stipulated that students could be hired after studying in the academy for three years and graduating, it completely left the selection of talents to the academy.
However, these officials who came from the old imperial court and had gone through countless imperial examinations still hoped that the imperial court would be the one to do the screening.
After all, the Ministry of Personnel is the government office that actually employs people.
Fan Zhong agreed immediately, believing that it was necessary for the Ministry of Personnel to conduct a comprehensive review of the students to be admitted, assess their basic qualities, and supervise the academies to produce high-quality talents.
Zhao Feiyan then made the decision and said that it would be done. The Ministry of Rites should also pay attention to the fact that the Department of Education should assess the words and deeds of the professors in the academy, and those who are immoral and incompetent should be removed from the professor team in a timely manner. In particular, those pedantic scholars who hold the bowl of our new Song Dynasty but do not agree with the new Song Republic and talk nonsense about restoration should be removed from the academy. We cannot let them harm themselves and poison our innocent students.
The gentlemen kept nodding their heads.
Some time ago, students from Chengdu’s four-door Fuxue and Caotang Academy were instigated by unscrupulous professors to take to the streets for demonstrations, causing serious social impact.
The Minister of Rites became a little nervous after hearing this, and kept saying that the Academic Affairs Department was cooperating with the Shunfeng Department to investigate and verify, and was determined to remove these bad apples from the professor team .
Hua Yue said angrily: People like this are holding the bowl of our New Song Dynasty and trying to throw stones at our pots. They must be severely punished.
Zhao Yulin knew Hua Yue's temper and was afraid that if he followed his will, he would arrest people and behead them, resulting in a bloody scene, so he quickly said: I still say the same thing: the New Song Dynasty advocates freedom of speech but does not allow rebellion. If there are professors in the academy who are obsessed with the imperial system, we can send them to the grassland empire with courtesy, or we can send them a ship to go overseas to find the emperor.
It is rumored that there is a group of Song Empire in the South China Sea, so let them go there to find the emperor and cheer for him.
The gentlemen laughed immediately.
This is Zhao Yulin's usual practice.
Minister of Rites Li Liang reported the situation: According to news from Southeast Asia and rumors from merchants in Guangnan, the false emperor Zhao Bing established the Lusong Kingdom on an island north of the Mayi Kingdom.
The official troops of the small Lin'an court fled to the sea all the way south. Although they did not encounter a major war, they still suffered many casualties due to plague and typhoons, and finally settled in the Song Dynasty.
The Ryukyu Kingdom has declared its independence from the Song Dynasty and has pledged its loyalty to the New Song Dynasty. Zhao Bing has even sent a letter to us to become a brother country, and asked us to send doctors and craftsmen to educate the local population and save lives. If there are really students and professors who want to go to the Song Dynasty, let them go.
Zhao Feiyan said: "We are now dealing with the hungry wolf in the north. Whether it is Ryukyu or Song, sooner or later our navy will carry the military flag and plant it all over the mountains and rivers."
Zhao Yulin liked Feiyan's imperial demeanor very much and started clapping.
Upon seeing this, the gentlemen immediately applauded the King of Feiyan.
Zhao Bing's life became much more difficult.
This guy brought a group of bandits and settled down in Song Dynasty, and then beat up the local natives. His men had already become hungry wolves, and the weapons in their hands were more than ten times more advanced. Naturally, they beat those local snakes into a mess and subdued them. He was like a maritime power in Nanyang.
However, Lu Song is just an archipelago that has not yet been civilized. The population of this small place is pitifully small. How can it withstand their consumption?
The ship was broken and could not be repaired, the swords and arrows were broken and had no replacements, and even the people were sick and could only wait to die due to the lack of medical care and medicine. He soon felt the helplessness of a small country with a small population.
After the two plagues, Zhao Bing's collection of Huoxiang Liqi Pills was completely used up, and Zhao Bing's relatives and officials continued to die. He sent a ship to Fuzhou for help, but encountered a typhoon at sea and was blown back to the island, where most of the people died.
Only then did he fully realize the immense power of nature and he could only helplessly resign himself to his fate.
However, this guy couldn't sit still and wrote several letters to Zhao Yulin, which were handed over to sea traders to be taken to Fuzhou and Ningbo. He even asked Zhao Yulin to support him and help him establish a foothold in Song Dynasty because he and Feiyan were sisters.
The guy was very anxious and sighed in despair as he looked at the endless sea.
He ordered people to burn bricks and make tiles to build a small palace, which was about the same size as the courtyard of a landlord in Jiangdong. He had already used up all the capable craftsmen around him and the laborers who could be conscripted from nearby.
It’s not like when he was building the city in Lin’an, he had everything he wanted and just one imperial edict would bring tens of thousands of laborers to work for him.
Moreover, the craftsmen's skills were too crude, and the things they made were too primitive, far less exquisite than those in the Lin'an Palace. If you want to get a set of Dehua fine porcelain, you have to exchange it with merchants from the sea trade. How can you get everything you want like in the Lin'an Palace?
Not only does this guy miss his hometown, even his subordinates want to return to the Central Plains.
This group of wanderers experienced several years of wandering life. Their enthusiasm for going out to sea was gradually replaced by the hardships along the way. Each island became more and more primitive, without the prosperity and modern atmosphere they expected.
Everyone was drinking homemade liquor and singing songs about homesickness.
Zhao Yulin had long since treated Zhao Bing as nothing, so he had no idea of that guy's troubles. When he returned home after finishing his official business, Chen Chen asked him to accompany him back to Yibin because she had to go back to give birth.
The two left Chengdu and headed south to Yibin the next day.
In the south, a court debate was taking place in the Dali Kingdom’s palace.
The Dali Kingdom had no choice but to establish good relations with the New Song Dynasty. It allowed the New Song Dynasty to open the Shunfengsi express delivery service to Thang Long Prefecture, and further opened up a post station road from Thang Long via Dali to Chengdu. The business became easier and easier, which made it convenient for Dali to earn money easily.
After the close relations between the two countries warmed up, they no longer worried that the New Song Dynasty would swallow Dali, and concentrated their energy on dealing with Pagan in the south. They won three battles in a row and defeated the Pagan army. They successfully took back the main jade mining area and recovered the important source of wealth that they had lost for three years.
The young emperor of Dali also learned from the practice of the New Song Dynasty. He mobilized people to cut through mountains to open roads, build bridges over rivers, and after dredging the waterway, established a fast channel from the jade mining area in the south through the hinterland of Dali to the town of Xinshi and into the New Song Dynasty. He exported domestic jade and various other products to Xinshi and into the large market of the New Song Dynasty. His business became more and more prosperous.
With money in hand, the young emperor's dream of enriching his country and strengthening the army was rekindled. He asked his Prince of Zhennan Duan Xiaolin to go on a diplomatic mission to the New Song Dynasty and find Zhao Yulin to purchase weapons to arm the Dali Imperial Guards.
After experiencing the powerful military strength of the new army, it was urgent to arm more troops to win battles.
However, Duan Xiaolin was unwilling to do so. He believed that Dali's financial resources had long been exhausted and that it needed to recuperate rather than recruit a large number of new soldiers to arm the army.
Dali still owed New Song a huge amount of loans. Duan Xiaolin was shy and unwilling to go to Chengdu to face the officials of New Song again.
The little emperor was in high spirits, but he immediately became unhappy. He reprimanded Duan Xiaolin, asking him to understand that he was busy for himself, and the throne would be his in the future, so why didn't he work for Dali's national destiny ?
Duan Xiaolin was helpless and packed his luggage to set off again.
Zhao Yulin accompanied Chen Chen back to Yibin and stayed there for three days. When they were about to rush to Jiangdong, Duan Xiaolin and his sister Zhao Sihan arrived. The two families went to the Beggar Chicken restaurant by the Jinsha River to drink.
Duan Xiaolin knew that he had a lot of things to do, so he didn't dare to waste time with fancy words and asked him for weapons directly.
He laughed when he saw Xiao Linzi so panicked and anxious, and said cheerfully, "He is still our King of Zhennan, why can't he be stable?"
Zhao Sihan told him: What King of Zhennan? He just runs errands for his father. Third brother, stop teasing Xiao Linzi. The tax collection in Dali is not even as much as that in Guangnan West Road of New Song Dynasty. How can Xiao Linzi not be anxious?
Zhao Yulin saw Duan Xiaolin frowning and looking embarrassed, so he smiled and said, "It's just weapons, why rush? You should go to the Ministry of Rites to discuss it. Xin Song can give them equipment for 20,000 or 40,000 people."
This year, the replacement equipment for the Shenwei Army has been shipped back from Guanzhong. He wrote a note here and the Prince of Zhennan will go to the King of Feiyan to make the decision.
Zhao Sihan was afraid that if her brother agreed, something unexpected would happen during the discussion in the New Song Dynasty court, and he would immediately say that his third brother had handed over power. Should Feiyan also be in charge of this matter?
Chen Chen immediately said: This is a military and national affair. Brother Yulin is only the commander of the Shenwei Army. How can he make the decision on his own? We have already been planning according to the regulations.
However, Brother Yulin wrote a note saying that he thought it was feasible, and the Ministry of War and the King of Feiyan should give it serious consideration.
Seeing that both of them had doubts and worries on their faces, Chen Chen quickly added another sentence.
Zhao Yulin did not waste any time. He asked the waiter to bring pen, ink and paper to write a letter and gave it to Duan Xiaolin. Duan Xiaolin immediately said goodbye and took Zhao Sihan to board the ship to Chengdu.
Chen Chen leaned on his shoulder, watched the Dali official ship sail away and muttered: Sihan has suffered a lot in wind and rain over the years.
Zhao Yulin helped the woman up and walked back, muttering to himself that everyone has his or her own path.
At dawn the next day, he carefully covered Chen Chen with a thin blanket, tiptoed out, and quickly boarded the official ship heading east.
Zuo Liangchen said: It's cold, young master, you should sleep a little longer.
He stood at the stern and looked at Cuiping Mountain in the distance until the surroundings were filled with morning mist before he went into the cabin and lay down.
In Pingyang Prefecture of Hedong Road on the east bank of the Yellow River, the commander of the Shenwei Army, Lai Chuanfang, was convening his generals to discuss matters.
During this period, the frequent military reports showed that the grassland empire's western expeditionary force was heading west, with a total of more than 100,000 troops. The grassland Khan personally led the expedition, and even Mengge went.
Lai Chuanfang was very excited and his hands were itching to do something.
The current military situation was consistent with his third young master's judgment. All the generals were discussing that this was a great opportunity and that they should seize the opportunity to march north to capture Bingzhou and even march into Datong Prefecture.
But there were also some cautious ones. Liu Qiangguang and Gu Shan believed that the current focus of the Ministry of War's defense was on the Yulin-Linzhou line, and the reserve troops were all there. It would be okay for the army to capture Bingzhou, but it would be a bit difficult to attack Datong.
Zhang Zhi, the cavalry commander, thought it was not just a struggle, but a great struggle. Because the expansion strengthened the defense line from Bingzhou to Datong Prefecture, and Hubili also strengthened the defense of the eastern fortress. What should we do when we are surrounded by powerful enemies?
While the brothers were still discussing, the guards outside came in hurriedly to report: Lord Cao and General Meng have arrived.
The generals immediately went out of the camp to greet them.
Cao Youwen walked into the central army tent, took a sip of tea and said that it was his misjudgment that delayed the good opportunity for the army to attack.
