Chapter 702 Xiao Chuo’s worries

(The work tasks have been adjusted again. I have to serve people's bowls and obey others. There is nothing I can do! I have never been exposed to the new job before. My eyesight goes dark and I don't understand anything. I am so busy day by day that my mind is full of pulp.

Fuzzy. Now I can’t even guarantee that I will update a chapter every day. If there is no update at 8 o’clock every morning, then it means there is no update. Everyone should scold me. But I will still work hard to ensure the update.)

The summer of the fifth year of the Tian-Song Dynasty was hotter than in previous years, but compared to the current confrontation between Song and Liao, it was nothing.

Since the two sides broke out in Suixian County in the third year of the Tiansong Dynasty, with a total of 100,000 soldiers participating, both sides have been extremely peaceful for the past two years.

The battle in Suixian County is destined to be recorded in history.

This battle was an absolute victory for the Song Dynasty army against the Liao army after Tokyo was captured. Both sides had tens of thousands of people participating in the battle, and gunpowder weapons appeared on the battlefield on a large scale.

Dozens of artillery were fired at the same time and began to sweep away the charging Liao cavalry from several miles away. Then, within a range of nearly a hundred steps, they fired with dense divine arm bows to cover the area, allowing the Liao cavalry to rush through the range of the artillery.

Being attacked.

The Liao cavalry used throwing gunpowder weapons to attack the dense infantry formation of the Song Army.

The infantry phalanx was originally the Song army's magic weapon against the Liao cavalry attack, but under the attack of gunpowder weapons, it suffered heavy losses for a while.

Although this battle ended with the Song Dynasty winning, the Song army also paid a heavy price.

And this battle also represents that the face of war has been changing step by step since then.

Two years of peace have not brought any benefit to the people of this world, especially the people in the north.

Because the Liao Kingdom and its vassal states are working hard to accumulate power that they think can destroy the world, they want to use the power of Mount Tai to sweep across the Song Kingdom and never give the Song Kingdom any chance to breathe.

Heavier taxes and heavier corvees were imposed on the people in the north, not to mention the people in the territory of the Puppet Jin, Puppet Zhao, and Puppet Qi, and even the Liao Kingdom itself was complaining endlessly.

If it had not been for the political reform presided over by Xiao Chuo, Empress Dowager Chengtian, in recent years, which has achieved certain results and thus alleviated the internal conflicts in the Liao Kingdom, I am afraid that the Liao Kingdom would have been in chaos long ago.

The political reform of the Liao Kingdom resulted in a high degree of concentration of power in the hands of the Zhongjing court. Strictly speaking, it was concentrated in the hands of Xiao Chuo, the Empress Dowager of Chengtian.

Xiao Chuo's purpose was to have a final decisive battle with the Song Dynasty in a short period of time.

Endure the temporary pain in exchange for long-term peace and stability.

This was the strategy Xiao Chuo used to persuade the powerful officials of the Liao Kingdom.

Yelu Zhen, Yelu Longxu and other senior officials of the Liao State who were well aware of the situation in the Song Dynasty also recognized Xiao Chuo's national policy. The imperial party and the rear party reached a rare agreement on this matter.

No one wants to have another hundreds of years of confrontation with the New Song Dynasty entrenched in Jiangning.

And now it seems that Jiangning Xinsong is a young tiger that is growing vigorously. If he cannot be killed when he is still young, it is really uncertain who will win and who will lose in the future.

The Battle of Suixian was a wake-up call for the elites of the Liao Kingdom.

Lu Ben'an is not a waste. In that battle, except for Chen Tiansong of the Puppet Qi State who had a wrong idea and escaped, there were not many problems with Lu Ben'an's command and layout elsewhere.

Later, the review also made it clear that even if Chen Tiansong did not run away, the Liao Kingdom had no hope of winning this battle, and it would only cause more damage to the Song Kingdom.

The more I feel that Jiangning Xinning has revealed its ferocious minions, the more urgent it becomes to launch another southern expedition.

In border areas such as Hebei Road, Gyeonggi Road, and Jingdong Road, people have already felt that the cloud of war has weighed heavily on their heads.

It was in this August that a shocking news about the Western Army shocked the whole of Beijing.

The Western Army under the command of Xiao Ding, King of Great Xia, announced that it would return to the banner of the Great Song Dynasty, and Xiao Ding resigned from the throne.

The Song Dynasty re-established the Anxi Protectorate.

Xiao Ding was appointed as the Protector of the Anxi Protectorate and was given the title of Grand Master.

Different from the Anxi Protectorate in the Tang Dynasty, the Anxi Protectorate where Xiao Ding was appointed as the Protector also included Qingtang under the jurisdiction of the Protectorate.

Although it was just a name change, it was the Western Army that showed its attitude to the world.

In this great struggle between Song and Liao, the Western Army stood on the side of Song.

For a long time, the Liao State had adopted a policy of co-optation and big stick towards the Western Army. Even if the Western Army could not be allowed to fall to itself, it would never be allowed to fall to the Song State.

The Western Army has always shown considerable enthusiasm for independence.

Regarding this, the Liao Kingdom was happy to see this happen.

Now, without warning, the Western Army suddenly fell to the Song Dynasty, which had to be shocking.

This means that the northwest direction of Daliao will face a great threat from the Western Army.

When Yeluzhen stepped into the water house where Empress Dowager Chengtian rested, Xiao Chuo did not deal with political affairs, but sat there leisurely embroidering flowers.

There is no heat in the house at all. The huge water wheel outside lifts water from the pond and sprinkles it on the roof. The cool water flows down the roof, taking the heat away with it.

This was the first time Yeluzhen saw Xiao Chuo working as a female celebrity, which made him a little frightened.

From the moment he met Xiao Chuo, Xiao Chuo gave him the impression of an extremely strong character.

Even in front of Ye Lujun, Xiao Chuo never showed any weakness.

When talking about the governance of the country with Yelujun, she was very clear-cut and showed no signs of stage fright. The key was her many insights, which put even Yelujun, Yeluzhen and Lin Ping at that time to shame.

At that time, Xiao Chuo was just a teenage girl.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Chuo was already in his early thirties.

And he will be fifty at the turn of the new year.

"Sit!" Xiao Chuo smiled and handed the embroidered bandage in his hand to Yeluzhen: "The emperor will be sixteen in two months, and I am going to embroider a purse for him as a gift."

Yeluzhen took the embroidery cloth with a smile, looked at the lifelike white horse galloping on it, and said: "I really didn't know that Queen Mother, you are also good at embroidery. This is comparable to the embroidery ladies in the palace."

It’s much better.”

Xiao Chuo laughed: "When we were young, female celebrities were a required course for us. It doesn't matter if we don't know poetry and songs, but if we don't know female celebrities, we will really be disliked by others."

"The Queen Mother is a divine person, no matter what she does, she is always the best!" Yeluzhen did not feel that he was flattering. In his heart, Emperor Chengtian and Queen Mother Xiao Chuo were really such a person.

In governing the country, he is not inferior to Yelu Jun.

Although the burden on the people of the Liao Kingdom is extremely heavy now, which is not much better than in the Yelujun era, this is because Daliao is exhausting all its efforts to prepare for the southern expedition. If not for this matter, the current Daliao would inevitably be

The richest era in history.

And in terms of poetry, lyrics, and poetry, he is not inferior to those scholars in Daliao.

"I originally embroidered a green cow's purse to give it to Xiao Se, but I didn't expect that I couldn't give it away!" He took out another purse from a bamboo bag next to him and threw it to Yeluzhen: "What really made me

Two months of hard work have been wasted, I’m so angry.”

Xiao Se, Xiao Bo's daughter, was determined to be Yelv Xian's queen two years ago, and she will marry Yelv Xian only after she turns sixteen.

Yelvxian will turn sixteen in two months. Zhongjing was already preparing for the emperor's wedding. No one expected that at this time, it was revealed that Xiao Se had another lover, and that the two were having an affair.

She was also caught in the act by the emperor who went to see her.

The young and arrogant emperor was so furious that he led his men to personally hunt down the god-man who had fascinated Xiao Se.

In broad daylight, this divine man was beheaded by the emperor on the streets of Zhongjing.

The emperor vented his anger, but the matter was completely exposed, and the Liao court could not cover it up even if it wanted to.

It’s not just Emperor Yelvxian who is embarrassed!

The Empress Dowager Chengtian was furious, and the dead god-man was expelled from the three barbarian tribes, and Xiao Se was given death, and all his tribesmen were demoted to herd slaves.

Many people believe that this incident was the work of Empress Dowager Chengtian from beginning to end, because she did not want the emperor to get married.

Because once the emperor gets married, she will return to power and lose the power in her hands.

Xiao Chuo never defended this matter.

But Yelu Zhen learned more from Yelu Longxu.

What happened between Xiao Se and that person is still true.

Xiao Se was chosen by the imperial party because he was easy to control.

Xiao Se's father, Xiao Bo, has died in the war, and his family's influence is not great. When Xiao Se rises to power, his family is not afraid.

But Yelu Longxu also believed that it was Empress Dowager Chengtian who was clever and arranged all this cleverly after finding out about this matter, leaving people speechless.

As a result, the emperor's wedding date must have been postponed indefinitely, and if something like this happened, the imperial party also lost the right to choose a queen for the emperor, because they were blind before.

At this time, if you hurriedly propose to choose another concubine for the emperor, it will definitely be the Queen Mother, which is something the imperial party does not want to see.

So they also fell silent.

"The Xiao family's daughter is so stupid that she has brought shame to the royal family!" Yeluzhen said: "Instead of punishing her three clans, the Queen Mother has given her great grace."

"Xiao Bo died for the country after all." Xiao Chuo shook his head: "We can't let the soldiers feel cold. King Zhennan, let's let this matter go for now, and wait until the situation cools down before choosing a virtuous person for the emperor.

Be a virtuous woman!"

"The Empress Dowager is very worried. The rush to choose a concubine for the emperor now will only remind the world of this scandal." Yelu Zhen nodded and said: "Moreover, the Empress Dowager, Xiao Ding's change of flag in the northwest is of great importance, and this is a top priority right now."

"Although my eldest brother took the banner of the Song Dynasty and declared the independence of the Western Army, I know that he still regarded himself as a minister of the Song Dynasty in his heart. After the second brother rose in Jiangning, his intention became even stronger!" In front of Yeluzhen, Xiao Chuo

She has never been shy about talking about her life experience, and she has always spoken openly and openly. This kind of frankness made Yeluzhen appreciate it, but she also felt more at ease.

"However, the composition of the Western Army is complex, with many forces intertwined. Although the Song Dynasty occupies a dominant position in the Western Army, they are not the majority. The tribal armies are the main force. Although Tie Yaozi and Bubazi have outstanding combat capabilities,

But if the tribes rebelled, it would be difficult to defeat the four hands with two fists. But this time, what made the Western Army suddenly unified their thinking? You know, before, these tribal leaders all returned one by one.

Thinking of becoming a country of their own, they can bestow the title of prime minister!"

"Half a year ago, Tuoba Yangwei and Xiao Jing visited Jiangning. They stayed in Jiangning for a month." Yeluzhen took a deep breath and said: "They must have seen something that made them there.

They were so afraid that in this battle between Song and Liao, the Song people would have the upper hand."

"That's right!" Xiao Chuo nodded and said: "The leaders of the tribes headed by Tuoba Yangwei have always been afraid of power but not immoral. The only people they admire are people with harder fists than them. Tuoba Yangwei can be convinced.

You think the Song people will win, King Zhennan, what do you think?"

"It can only be gunpowder weapons!" Yeluzhen said with certainty: "The Southern Navy is indeed stronger than ours, but neither the Huaihe River nor the Yangtze River can be an obstacle to our full-scale attack in Daliao. Expanding our power is the Dangxiang clan.

The wise man in the middle, his knowledge is not inferior to that of his ministers. The only thing that can make him make a decision is this. The Song people are ahead of us now, that is, gunpowder weapons!"

"Gunpowder weapons!" Xiao Chuo narrowed his eyes, "When I was very young, my second brother described to me the power of gunpowder weapons. Later, the second brother indeed made gunpowder that could easily kill people.

.But at that time, he must have thought that one day I would stand opposite him, so he never hid these things from me."

"So we in Daliao now also have gunpowder weapons."

"But what I know is only superficial knowledge after all!" Xiao Chuo shook his head and said: "In the past ten years, we have been thrown away by them. The emergence of bronze artillery can reach a range of more than four miles. Under the explosion of explosive shells,

Even a fast horse cannot escape death. We have made ceramic grenades, but they have iron hand cannons that are even better. But just with these, how can Tuoba think that we will definitely lose?"

"He must have seen something more powerful than these." Yeluzhen said.

"King Zhennan, I believe you can better understand now why I am afraid of my second brother and why I am eager to fight to the death with the Song Dynasty?" Xiao Chuo said: "When I was young, I thought what my second brother told me

, they are all stories. But when I grew up, I suddenly found that the stories told by my second brother were becoming reality one by one. Although more than ten years had passed in the meantime. But if what the second brother said was

If those are not stories but truth, then if we continue to delay like this, I'm afraid the Song Dynasty people will be able to defeat us easily."

"What exactly did Xiao Fuzheng tell you?"

"I thought it was a myth!" Xiao Chuo shook his head and said, "Now that I tell you, you will never believe it. In fact, I don't really believe it either, but even if I discount my second brother's story,

, I am also frightened, so King Zhennan, I want to quickly defeat the Song Kingdom and capture my second brother."

"As long as Xiao Fuzheng is willing, I think he can also serve as Fuzheng when we come to Daliao. I will not hesitate and give my full support!" Yeluzhen said with a smile.

Xiao Chuo laughed loudly: "King Zhennan is very interested in fighting. I know it. Let's wait until we defeat them and capture my second brother back to Zhongjing!"
Chapter completed!