Chapter 714 Like a Tiger
Zhao Yulin smiled and cursed: Nonsense, it's not that mysterious. He stood up and shouted back, we should go back to Chengdu.
He helped Feiyan onto the horse's back and slowly went down the mountain holding the reins.
Zhao Feiyan was delighted and pointed to the scenery near and far, saying, "Look, my brother!" This one looks like a tiger, and the mountain scenery over there looks like a phoenix dancing in the sky.
During dinner, Ma Ling'er asked him to go to the room to chat. All the beauties said that their sister was enjoying privileges. The woman snorted and said that it was necessary. If she was bossy once in a while, did the sisters have any objection?
Several women looked at her and Cao Ying beside her meaningfully and said with a smile: We have a lot of opinions.
Zhao Yulin ignored their teasing and returned to his study to read memorials. After finishing his official duties, he went to Ma Ling'er's room, only to see the young woman wearing a thin silk embroidered pajamas and showing off her figure in front of the mirror.
He came forward and hugged her and said, "What are you looking at? It's still early, there's no shadow. It's cold at night, so I'm not afraid that the baby in my belly will catch a cold."
The young girl happily leaned in his arms and touched her belly, and said excitedly that it was Sister Ma Ling who was pregnant and it had nothing to do with her.
Zhao Yulin tightened his hands a little and said, "Really? Then let's fight him for another 300 rounds."
The girl immediately smiled and said no, no, I can't do that.
He carefully carried the girl to the bed like a princess, and they talked about their first meeting in Hanzhong. At that time, he saw E Zi as a little girl.
The little girl happily recalled the past and talked non-stop. Unconsciously, fatigue came over her, and she curled up in his arms and closed her eyes.
At Kaijing on Liaoyang Road, Miao Guizheng, Zhou Ping, Feng Guiqi, Liu Zheng and Wang Dian were discussing the plan to march into the Japanese island. Miao Gui said confidently: The Third Young Master has been planning for ten years, and we have been preparing carefully for half a year. It is time to act.
Zhou Ping informed everyone: the three new large ships designed by the Third Young Master himself have arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River and are heading north as planned. There are 8,000 marines stationed on these three ships alone. The huge cannons on the ships can hit targets ten miles away, and the brothers can fight as soon as they go ashore.
Everyone was excited when they heard this.
He continued: This time, the Third Young Master wants us to go all out and give him all our possessions to wipe out the Japanese pirates. The brothers didn't know how much hatred the Third Young Master had for the Japanese pirates, and they were all determined to go into battle to avenge him.
This time the navy came with 1,500 large ships.
Miao Gui said fiercely that Liaoyang Road would requisition another 500 ships to transport military supplies.
Wang Dian said with difficulty: Goryeo had gone through wars, and there are not many warships left, and they are small. He will go back and collect them, and gather all the large ships with a capacity of more than 3,000 stones.
Liu Zheng said confidently, "That's enough. With so many large ships traveling through the strait, there will be absolutely no problem with transportation. We can also feed the enemy."
Miao Gui nodded and said: That’s right, we have to eat at the hands of the enemy.
The Third Young Master has ordered that this time the Eastern Expedition to Japan must eliminate all the brave and aggressive Japanese pirates at once, scare them, subdue them, and make them unable to cross the sea to fight.
From now on, our officials who go to the island will have to educate the Japanese to become obedient citizens of the New Song.
Wang Dian was delighted, and assured Vice King Miao that he would start preparations as soon as he returned and there would be no mistakes.
Liu Zheng took out the battle plan, informed the time nodes of the sea crossing operation and the transportation and allocation of military supplies, and then everyone dispersed.
Fujiwara was a little confused about the island country of Japan .
Ever since the Wulong Society assassinated the King of Goryeo in Jiankang Prefecture, the New Song and Goryeo Kingdoms have been hunting down Japanese spies. Many of the spies buried on the mainland and the peninsula have been dug out and beheaded for public display. The rest have learned from ostriches, burying their heads deep in the sand and not daring to move.
It is very difficult for this guy to obtain information.
This was a sign that a great war was coming, and it was a bad feeling. The enemy knew what he was doing, and he was very dangerous because he didn't know the enemy's whereabouts.
The Wulong Society still had a very keen sense of smell. They adopted the most primitive big data model, digging out intelligence from the sailors and shopkeepers on the merchant ships passing by, and still smelled danger.
Fujita looked at the intelligence analysis in his hand and found that recently all the large ships of Goryeo were requisitioned to transport grain.
This was the first suspicious signal.
In the past, when Goryeo received relief grain from the New Song, it was delivered by the New Song’s military ships. Why did it suddenly change to Goryeo transporting it itself?
There are two possibilities: one is that the New Song Dynasty was unwilling to bear the transportation costs and asked Goryeo to transport the food by itself. The other is that the New Song Dynasty's military ships had other important uses and had no empty space to transport food. Even Goryeo's large ships were requisitioned to participate in the transportation of some important materials?
So, what kind of important materials require so many ships, and they are mobilized secretly?
The answer is clear, definitely for military use.
The second piece of information was even more bizarre. The New Song Kingdom had closed its shipping route and was training its navy on the island chain of Kyushu, near the Ryukyu Islands. Ships heading to the New Song Kingdom were intercepted from afar and were not allowed to pass. There were also no cargo ships returning from the Ryukyu direction.
This is equivalent to cutting off the information transmission between the island country of Japan and the new Song Dynasty.
You know, when the Ryukyu Islands surrendered to the New Song Dynasty, the New Song Dynasty took back all the Ryukyu Islands they had previously occupied. Kyushu existed in name only, with only Kitakyushu near the big island remaining.
Right now, the New Song’s naval exercises are across the hundreds of miles of sea route between Northern Kyushu. If the New Song concentrates its attack forces here, it would only take a few minutes to reach the island.
Fujiwara had been trained by the Oolong Society and believed that nothing was accidental.
This guy thought that the small countries around the New Song Dynasty would be incorporated into the New Song Dynasty one by one and become its vassal states, and those that were not incorporated would become New Song Dynasty's vassal states. However, New Song Dynasty refused to accept his island country of Japan as a vassal state.
Why did the New Song Kingdom do this? Did it really want to punish him as a war criminal?
Fujiwara couldn't help but shudder when he thought of this. He always thought that the island of Japan was 108,000 miles away from the New Song Kingdom, so he was fearless. His hands were actually shaking.
This fellow told the Wulong Society in a deep voice to hurry up and find out. He would go to the emperor for a talk and immediately mobilize soldiers across the country to strengthen coastal defense.
The lords from all over the island of Japan soon gathered at Fujiwara's shogun's mansion.
This fellow read out the emperor's edict in a serious manner, ordering all lords to hand over their servants and strictly follow the emperor's edict to recruit all males over the age of thirteen to form a garrison and station them at the docks and the seaside to guard against invasion by the New Song Kingdom.
These lords were suddenly confused.
What is this called?
It has always been the soldiers from the island country of Japan who rushed to the Korean Peninsula to invade, burn, kill and loot. It was their people who disguised themselves as pirates to rob the Celestial Song Dynasty. Why do we have to guard against the attack of the army of the new Song Dynasty today?
Fujiwara looked at the local lords with a stern expression, and told them not to be careless, to act according to the instructions of the Shogun's Mansion, and to quickly gather the troops. At present, the empire lacks soldiers who have fought in battles, and each family must transfer all their servants and private soldiers to guard the harbor first.
This guy said meaningfully: Once the New Song army really sets foot on our land, there will be no emperor, generals or lords. The New Song Kingdom emphasizes equality for all, there are no slaves or untouchables to exploit, and they will also nationalize the land and give it to the poor.
Without land, you can never become a lord again.
This sentence had a very good mobilizing effect. When these leaders, both big and small, heard this key issue, they immediately became very alert . After bowing and saying goodbye, they rode on their ponies to their own territories and started working in a hurry.
In Chengdu, Zhao Yulin has returned and is organizing a meeting of officials in Jinguan City.
The Minister of Transport, Cao Ying, left behind a letter of resignation and resigned. The court needed to promote an official who was familiar with transport affairs to take over as Minister.
Hua Yue said with some displeasure: "Minister Cao left without giving the court time to select someone. The Transportation Department is related to the empire's purse, and it is not possible to appoint just anyone."
Zhao Yulin said that Cao Ying had been working in the transportation department for many years, and it was time to replace him. This girl was the daughter of the head of the Cao family. She had been dealing with military generals for a long time and was used to doing things as soon as she said. So we should just follow her and put aside government affairs and take a break for two years.
It’s okay, we’ll just choose someone to take over.
Seeing how Zhao Yulin was so tolerant and nonchalant, and knowing that Cao Ying was the apple of Cao Youwen's eye, everyone nodded in agreement.
He said: The Western Regions Special Envoy Wu Gong is on his way back, why don't we transfer the First Deputy Envoy of the Ministry of Personnel Zhao Guangfu to temporarily take over as the Transport Envoy. How about Wu Gong continue to serve as the Minister of Personnel after he returns?
Zhao Yulin nominated Zhao Guangfu, the eldest son of Zhao Yanna. Cao Ying thought that he was cautious and good at calculation, and was suitable for the post of transport envoy. Zhao Yulin also wanted to leave a good impression of being approachable and non-retaliatory to the officials in the court, so he decided to promote this person to the post of transport envoy.
Everyone was delighted, thinking that it was rare that Zhao Yulin appointed people based on their merits, did not vent his anger on Zhao Yanna because of his past, and promoted his son to an official position.
Only Hua Yue was complaining about all the faults Zhao Yan had done in the past, and that the court's promotion of his son was a good thing for the Zhao family.
Zhao Yulin laughed when he heard this and told him to be close to virtuous people and stay away from villains. If they are virtuous, we will employ them, and if they are corrupt officials, we will punish them. He asked Hua Yue to give this man a pre-appointment admonition and urge him to be an honest official.
Then Zhao Yulin brought up the topic of moving the capital.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was immediately confused.
The imperial capital is doing well in Chengdu, why move it?
He said: Now we have recovered the northern desert, Anxi and the old Han and Tang territories in the Western Regions. From a geographical point of view, Chengdu is indeed safe under the protection of the empire's many barriers. However, the roads are difficult and it is far away from the west and north. He proposed to move the capital to Chang'an to show the empire's determination to conquer the west and north.
The gentlemen began to discuss the matter among themselves.
Behind Zhao Yulin, the maid had already drawn open the curtain on the wall, revealing a huge topographic map of the New Song Empire.
He pointed to Chengdu and Chang'an and analyzed their locational advantages, telling everyone that as the empire's economic conditions gradually improved, wealthy people who could afford it would move to the warm and humid south.
In that case, the population in the north and west of the empire would decrease and the center of gravity would be unbalanced.
The land of the empire needs to be inhabited and guarded by people. If everyone moves away from the cold and barren land, who will guard it?
