In his spare time, Li Xingzhou would go to the royal palace academy from time to time. As long as he went, the children would gather around him and let him tell stories.

Ji Xiaming, the eldest son of Ji Chun, was already self-reliant. In addition, he learned a lot in the school, could read and write, and learned martial arts from his father since childhood, so Li Xingzhou simply let him enter the new army and serve as his personal guard to take him by his side.

Ji Xiaming is his own person and can be trusted. When Ji Chunsheng died for him, he made up his mind to raise several children Ji Xiaming, Ji Xiali and Ji Xiayu as their own children, and the royal palace has always provided them with food, clothing and supplies.

In the twelfth lunar month, heavy snow fell, and some business in the royal palace stopped because the river was frozen. This period would not freeze in later generations, but at this time it was in the Little Ice Age, and the river would freeze in winter.

Li Xingzhou wanted to go to the river to watch the snow, Shiyu and Ajiao wanted to take care of the children, Qiu'er and Yue'er were afraid of the cold, and were baking the fire and playing mahjong with Puchaling, Qi Fang.

Puchaling's Chinese proficiency is higher than that of Yelu Yali.

So Li Xingzhou took Yelu Yali with him. Yelu Yali wanted to ride a horse by himself, but he was not allowed to "hold you warmer."

Yelu Yali understood and nodded happily.

Only Mei Xue was dissatisfied with digging soil with her front hooves, and it was under pressure that her age should not bear...

But it can't speak, so it has no say.

Li Xingzhou sent people to the army to call Di Zhi, Yan Shen, Shen Lin, Wei Yubai and others, and also went to the inn to invite Yang Wenguang, Zhe Weizhong, Wei Chaoren and others who stayed in the capital.

He took Yelu Yali, Ji Xiayu and four personal soldiers to wait outside the city.

Li Xingzhou travels very low-key. He is now a famous person. If he is so arrogant, he might be stopped by the people.

For Su Shi, "the left is yellow, the right is blue, the brocade hat and sable fur, and the thousand riders are rolled flat on the hill." It is already a big scene, after all, they are scholars.

But for Li Xingzhou, what kind of Qianqin Ji Jue Hiraoka is already a small scene?                                                                                                                   

Sometimes afterwards he would think, how did he command it at the beginning?

Yelu Yali sat in his arms and was generous and open?                                                                                                                        �

After waiting for a while, people came over one after another? They also brought a lot of people? They greeted him one after another.

"It's rare to come to the capital to see the frozen river." Li Xingzhou exhaled his breath and said to everyone, and then rode his horse in front? Everyone followed.

After a while, a team of riders of dozens of people were formed, and the sound of horse hooves ran out of the city, making it difficult to attract attention even if you don’t want to attract attention.

Yelu Yali was also very excited. She rarely ran outside the city because she was not familiar with the place? She liked to ride on horseback on the grassland, but after she arrived at the palace? She hadn't felt this way for a long time.

Only He Qian came back to ride a horse with her, but they were all riding in the back mountain of the palace? Not open enough, not wide enough.

Li Xingzhou saw her excitement? He handed the reins to her: "Don't throw me down."

"No? My riding skills are the best on the grassland!" she said happily.

Li Xingzhou hugged her waist tightly?                                                          

From a distance, the river was completely frozen. In the gray fog, there was no sight on the other side. There were people coming and going on the ice, and some were even driving ox carts.

Yelu Yali's face turned red with excitement and wanted to go to the ice to run, but she was afraid that Meixue would accidentally hurt it, so she carefully slowed down.

"Do you like horses?"

"Well, but I haven't run like this for a long time."

"I will give you a good horse during the Chinese New Year this year. Do you like Dayuan horses or Tatar horses?" Li Xingzhou asked.

"Tatar horse." Yelu Yali said without hesitation: "Tatar horse is just right. I am too small, and Dayuan horse is too tall and inflexible."

"That's right." Li Xingzhou nodded. Yelu Yali needed his help when climbing onto Meixue's back. Meixue is the Dayuan horse with a relatively pure bloodline, also known as the Sweat-blooded BMW. Emperor Wu of Han went thousands of miles to destroy the Dayuan Kingdom for the sake of this kind of horse breed and obtained a batch of BMWs.

If you don’t have enough horses, you will have disadvantages. Mei Xue is tall and gallops like a flying one, with a strong impact. She can weigh about one ton alone. This weight is amazing to charge forward, and it is really devastating.

But its weakness is that its endurance is not as strong as that of short Mongolian horses, and its ability to adapt to harsh environments is not as good as that of Mongolian horses, and it is pampered and difficult to take care of.

For example, in winter combat in northern grasslands or northeastern snow forests, there is no need to fight Meixue, and it is likely that he will be frozen to death directly, while Mongolian horses will not.

Soon, everyone in the rear followed, talking and laughing at the river.

"It's such a magnificent scenery. It's the first time I've seen it in my life." Yang Wenguang sighed that he naturally couldn't see it near Taiyuan.

"The power of heaven is usually thunderous, and the river that can be blocked by the tower ship." Wei Chaoren sighed at the power of nature.

Li Xingzhou smiled and said, "This is the weather that is not good. If the river does not freeze, I don't have to fight like this."

Only a few veterans present heard some meaning, and the rest were puzzled. There was a word in the historical world of later generations called the Northern Song Dynasty dilemma. One of the big reasons for the Northern Song Dynasty dilemma was the freezing of the Yellow River.

Li Xingzhou turned around and asked Ji Xiaming, Di Zhi and other young people: "Do you know why I have tried my best to attack the north in recent years? Liao and Jin, even if the ministers in the court say that they are powerful, they will still insist on their own."

When talking about Liao Kingdom, Yelu Yali in his arms trembled clearly, and Li Xingzhou wrapped her tighter, which was all in the past.

Xia Jiming took the lead and said: "Your Highness has great ambitions and looks at the world. Of course, it is to expand territory, be famous in history, and to benefit future generations!" His eyes were full of admiration, and it was about to burst out.

Lee Sing-cheol laughed: "You think too complicated, you don't have that much enthusiasm, it's just for self-protection."

"Ah... but I've reached the capital of the Jin Kingdom..."

"That's at most, it's considered excessive self-protection." Li Xingzhou interrupted him, "Think about what the prospect country looks like in five or six years. There are no sixteen states in Yanyun in the north, and there is no danger to defend. Go south and flatten until the city of Kaiyuan.

Kaiyuan is good in everything, with a wide range of people, and roads from all sides gather here, so Kaiyuan is very prosperous, but the river will freeze in winter."

Li Xingzhou sighed. This is what the Northern Song Dynasty’s problem is about, and the Northern Song Dynasty also perishes.

When Kou Zhun dragged Zhenzong to the imperial army to fight in person, he had already won a great victory on the front line, but he still had to sign "The Alliance of Chanyuan". Isn't this a confusing act?

In fact, it is not confusing at all, because winter is coming! Once it is dragged to winter, the Yellow River freezes, and the Khitan cavalry can bypass the northern border without any natural dangers and go directly south to cross the river, and reach the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.

There is an advantage in fighting a regiment ahead, but the home has been demolished. How can you not be afraid? You can only find ways to retreat as soon as possible.

"Based on the river, it is considered dangerous to defend, but you can look at the river surface. When winter comes, you can run horses at will. If the northern army marches forward straight in without any obstacles, you can go to the city of Kaiyuan.

......

If you have no danger to defend, you can only hoard large troops. At that time, hundreds of thousands of imperial guards in our country of Jing were all in Kaiyuan, and raising troops could drag down the country... "

The Northern Song Dynasty maintained hundreds of thousands of troops stationed near the capital for many years, because there was no danger to guard. The only natural danger of the Yellow River would freeze and could only rely on people to pile up.

Not to mention the border areas that require hundreds of thousands of troops, even if the Northern Song Dynasty is rich, it can be dragged to death by military spending.

"So I couldn't feel at ease day and night...

I always think about going north. If I want to solve this problem, there are only two ways: either move the capital or let the north and northwest have dangers to defend.

Going north is to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. Now that we have done it, there are still Liaodong and Liaoxi, so there is no need to worry at all." Li Xingzhou breathed a sigh of relief when he said this. He has been really worried every night in the past few years, for fear that he would accidentally follow the footsteps of the Northern Song Dynasty.

When the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, the Jin cavalry drove straight into the city of Kaifeng.

"Your Highness is so far-sighted." Shen Lin spoke.

"I'm not that far-sighted. I believe that Lord Wei, Lord Yang, and Lord Zhe can think of this." Li Xingzhou looked at them, and the few people didn't say anything, which was accusation.

"Many times, when I think about it and do it, there is an insurmountable gap. There are too many involvement in moving the capital. Don't say that you don't have it, I dare not say it casually. It has been more than a hundred years since I took back the land of Yanyun, and it has not been successful before.

So others often say that I think deeply and have a great wisdom, but I don’t agree with it, but I just know how to do things more than most people.” Li Xingzhou sighed.

Yelu Yali in his arms listened quietly, and the people behind him nodded silently.

"What Your Highness said makes sense, but I just think about it. Everyone can do it. How to do it is the problem." Wei Chaoren responded.

“So the more land, the better, especially on the border.

There must be a choice. If there is no danger to defend and no profitable land, you may have to have a false reputation when you take over it. You also need to guard a large number of troops, which will waste national strength and make the gains less than the loss." Li Xingzhou said.

"Your Highness."

"There will definitely be some expansion in the future. The reason must be explained to you first."

In fact, any major power must avoid the "passive trap". Don't spend a lot of troops and national strength in the difficult-to-hold four battles, otherwise you will not go far.

In fact, the simple and once-for-all method is to move the capital, such as moving to Luoyang or Chang'an. Zhao Kuangyin also saw the problem in his later years and wanted to move the capital to Luoyang, using the benefits of mountains and rivers to reduce the number of imperial guards, and at the same time facilitate the attack on the north.

But on the way, he was dissuaded by many ministers, and his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, but he was forced to give up and died unknown after returning to Beijing.

It is very likely that his younger brother took action, and Zhao Kuangyin's move to the interests of many people.

However, these people also killed the Northern Song Dynasty to protect their own interests. Later, the Jin soldiers went south. If the capital was Luoyang, which had natural dangers everywhere, it would not be so miserable.

"Come on, let's talk about it. What do you think we should want in the future and what should we not want?" said Li Xingzhou.

As soon as the topic was opened, everyone immediately started to discuss it. They were all soldiers and were most interested in these topics.

"In the northwest of Hetao, according to the old ministers, the northwest is a big problem. The Tatars and Dangxiang people have always been incompatible with China.

The water and grass in Hetao are fertile, and the cattle and sheep are very fat. The most important thing is that Hetao can rely on the river as a natural danger. It can attack the hinterland of Xia Kingdom to the west and go directly to the desert grassland to the north. If you station troops there, you can set the northwest." Zhe Weizhong said first.

"But it is not worth it to go north after crossing Hetao. Those places are either desert or grassland. There is no danger to guard on the grassland, and it is not as fertile as the south, so the Hetao Plain is not worth it."

"I think it's good. If there is a grassland in the north, wouldn't there be endless Tatar horses? I don't have to buy them with Tatars in the future." Yan Shen spoke.

Everyone smiled, and Yang Wenguang said: "The idea is good, but it is not worth it to guard the grassland for the sake of Tatar horses. I don't know how many people need to guard it. It is enough to have the Liaodong Horse Farm and the Hetao Horse Factory."

"From this point, you all think that the Hetao land is a must-fight place. If you were asked to lead your troops, how would you fight?" Li Zhou asked again.

Everyone was even more excited now.

"If I go north of Sanchuankou, go along the Shili Well, Niuxin Pavilion to the north..."

"No, Yongle City is strong and not that easy to fight..."

"I think it's better to take the water route. I accidentally hit Wutchihai City, the northernmost part, and go south to Dingzhou and Huaizhou..." "What you said is not good, the Chaoshun Army's headquarters is on the river north of Dingzhou."

“……”
To be continued...