There is no need to mention the importance of the Great Wall. Many people in later generations thought that the Great Wall was useless, but they never thought at all. If the Great Wall was useless, why did Qin Shihuang, who was a talented and generously unified the six kingdoms, recruited the people from all over the country to build the Great Wall after he became emperor, and why did Emperor Wu of Han who destroyed the Huns rebuild the Great Wall? Even Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian treated the construction of the Great Wall as a national policy.

People who have not experienced the age of cold weapons may find it difficult to understand the role of the Great Wall on nomadic peoples. The biggest weapon of the nomadic people is not the scimitar in their hands, but the war horses they cross. The Great Wall is a favorable weapon to block the war horses from moving south. With the Great Wall, you only need to defend a few important city passes, so that the nomadic peoples in the north can not move south.

It was also because of the Song Dynasty that it lost the Great Wall defense line, so it was called the weak Song Dynasty in history. Even though the Song army was actually very well equipped and had good foreign achievements, the Song Dynasty gave people the impression that it was weak and bullied. After losing the Great Wall, the initiative on the battlefield was handed over to the nomadic peoples in the north. They fought and left as long as they wanted. The Song Dynasty had to passively bear it.

However, after conquering Xingzhou City this time, the Song Dynasty got a key battle on the Great Wall. Li Yuanhao led a 20,000 main army of Dangxiang to flee to the north, and almost all the areas south of the Great Wall were thrown to the Song Dynasty. This was also a good opportunity for the Song Dynasty to reorganize the Great Wall's defense line. Now, the Great Wall in the western section is in his own hands. As for the Great Wall defense line in the eastern section, it will be brought back sooner or later.

"I understand, cousin, what you mean is that our first step is to take down the western line of the Great Wall, and then completely eliminate the Dangxiang people. After pacifying the northwest and even the Western Regions, we will turn around and concentrate on dealing with the Liao Kingdom!" Zhao Zhen also exclaimed again at this time. He finally had a general idea about how to realize his wish.

"Your Majesty is right. The Liao Kingdom is our old enemy of the Song Dynasty. Only by defeating them can we completely resolve the threats from abroad. As for other Tubos, Dali and others, it is not scary at all. Therefore, after destroying Dangxiang, Your Majesty should concentrate on preparing to deal with the Liao Kingdom, but this time should not be too long!" Li Zhang also showed a solemn expression at the end of his speech.

"Cousin, do you mean to take advantage of the period when the Empress Dowager Xiao Nojin of Liao was in power and send troops to retake the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in one fell swoop?" Zhao Zhen immediately guessed Li Zhang's thoughts. In fact, Li Zhang had mentioned these to him before.

"Yes, Xiao Nojin is short-sighted and nepotist. After he came to power, he had killed many Khitan nobles, which led to the fact that the Khitans were already disinterested in her. Moreover, Yelu Zongzhen was growing up slowly, and he would not always be a puppet. So I concluded that there would definitely be an internal strife in the Liao Kingdom within a few years, and Xiao Nojin would definitely not have a good ending at that time." Li Zhang nodded and said.

"Then why don't we use troops when civil strife in Liao Kingdom? It might be easier then?" Zhao Zhen thought about it at this time before he spoke out his doubts.

"Yalu Sect is really an extremely proud person, and he looks down on our Song Dynasty the most. If he is allowed to seize power successfully, even if he has not fully grasped the Liao Kingdom, if he sees our Song Dynasty sending troops, he will definitely resist with all his strength and will never compromise. As the saying goes, a thin camel is bigger than a horse. If the Liao Kingdom resists with all his strength, we will have to pay a huge price to take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun." Li Zhang said with great affirmation at this time.

Yelu Zong was not only proud, but also very revenge. From a historical perspective, he was a very fond person and was also extremely warlike. After taking power, he launched many wars against the Song and Western Xia, especially against the Western Xia, which created one of the greatest defeats in the history of the Liao Kingdom. But later he finally survived Li Yuanhao and sent troops again, capturing all the concubines left by Li Yuanhao this time, and finally avenged the revenge of one arrow.

Zhao Zhen believed in Li Zhang's vision, and he had heard Li Zhang analyze the true character of Yelu Zong more than once, so he nodded at this time, and then thought about it before saying again: "If this is the case, then we have to hurry up. Li Yuanhao must be destroyed, and then take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun before Xiao Nojin was seized. These all need to be completed in just a few years. Time is really urgent!"

"In fact, there is a good thing for Li Yuanhao to escape, because His Majesty can expand his army legitimately next. For example, the scale of the musket army should have been expanded long ago, and at the same time, he can also use the Dangxiang people to train troops. I believe that within two years, a team of elite soldiers can be trained. At that time, he can go out from the northwest and Hebei to catch the Khitans off guard!" Li Zhang said excitedly at the end.

Of course, Li Zhang did not understand the art of military affairs, and he could not be sure whether two troops were needed to send troops at that time, but this was also his idea. If he could really send troops from the northwest, he could also bypass the defense line built by the Liao Kingdom on the Hebei border. After all, when he was on a mission to the Liao Kingdom, he also saw that the Liao Kingdom had arranged heavy troops on the Hebei border and the city was very strong, so it was not easy to fight to send troops from Hebei.

Zhao Zhen also showed an excited expression when he heard this. Now Li Zhang has pointed out the way for him to destroy Dangxiang first, and then attack Liao. He did not seek a battle to destroy the powerful enemy of Liao, but he had to regain the Great Wall defense line. With this line of defense, the Song Dynasty would have the initiative. In addition, the Song Dynasty's national strength was far stronger than the Liao Dynasty, so he could completely drag the Liao Dynasty down a little bit.

Zhao Zhen also took out paper and pen at this time, and then recorded the strategy in detail. Although the plan seemed very rough, it could be supplemented little by little. Finally, he would always come up with a detailed and feasible plan, not to mention that he only needed to grasp one general direction, and the remaining details would naturally be supplemented by ministers.

"Report to Your Majesty, I have something to do to ask for my opinion!" At this moment, suddenly, an eunuch rushed in to report the report.

"I'm here just in time. I want to hear Lu Xiang's opinion!" Zhao Zhen was overjoyed when he heard Lu Yijian coming, and then asked someone to invite Lu Yijian in.

After a while, Lu Yijian walked in with a memorial in his hand. However, before he could speak, Zhao Zhen waved to him excitedly and said, "Lu Xiang, come here quickly. This is a rough strategy I discussed with my cousin. Come and see what are the additions?"

Zhao Zhen was so excited that he didn't even change his name to Li Zhang. Lu Yijian was also a little surprised at this time, but he still walked forward as he said, and then took over the strategy that Zhao Zhen had just recorded. However, just after looking at the point in front, the expression on his face became serious. He even looked at Li Zhang next to him for a few glances, and then he looked at it seriously.

After reading this strategy of the Song Dynasty's external expansion, Lu Yijian took a deep breath, and then said solemnly: "Your Majesty is very proud of this great strategy, especially the early offensive against Dangxiang, I also agree with it. But I still need to consider more about the issue of sending troops from the Liao Kingdom!"

"Lu Xiang is worried about sending troops to Liao. If he fails to achieve the goal of regaining Yan Yun, will he be counterattacked by Liao in the future?" Li Zhang immediately stood up and asked when he heard Lu Yijian's words.

He didn't find it strange to Lu Yijian's reaction. In fact, since the Chanyuan Alliance, all the Song State have suffered from a "phobia of Liao". In addition, they gave Liao State annual monies to seek peace every year, which made the backbone of Song State lose. Even military generals like Cao Wei rarely want to recover Yan Yun, let alone civil officials like Lu Yijian.

"Yes, the Liao Kingdom has strong military strength. When Emperor Taizu was the Emperor, he wanted to recover Yan Yun, but you also know that when the Emperor was the First Emperor, the Liao Kingdom raised an army again to the south. At that time, our Song Dynasty was almost in danger of destroying the country, and some even proposed to move the capital to the south. Thanks to the later Chanyuan Alliance, this allowed our Song Dynasty to enjoy the peace for decades. If we send troops rashly, we will not keep the alliance first. If we do not make a good move, it will probably make the Liao Kingdom furious. By then, there will be no peace on the border of our Song Dynasty." Lu Yijian admitted generously that as the prime minister, he did not dare to let Zhao Zhen have the idea of ​​sending troops to the Liao Kingdom.

"But Lu Xiang, have you ever thought that if we cannot take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, our Song Dynasty will always be in a passive state. Yelu Longxu signed the Chanyuan Alliance with the First Emperor, but now he and the First Emperor are gone. Who can guarantee that the successor Liao emperor will still abide by the alliance? Even if they abide by the alliance, what should we do if we ask us to increase the annual monies in the future?"

When he said this, Li Zhang took a breath and continued: "And in order to prevent the Liao Kingdom from going south, our Song Dynasty also needed to raise a huge imperial guard. The imperial guards have reached an astonishing 700,000, and there are more than 400,000 troops. The imperial guards need to raise more than one million soldiers every year. Military pay alone is an extremely heavy expense. If this continues to be delayed, sooner or later one will drag down the imperial court's finances!"

Li Zhang's words hit the nail on the head. Lu Yijian also showed a meditative look after hearing this. As the prime minister, he actually knew the internal shortcomings of the Song Dynasty more than anyone else, but in particular, redundant soldiers almost became the leader of the problems of the Song Dynasty. What makes people feel even more helpless is that they have raised so many soldiers, but they are still in a military weakness. The court still dares to lay off troops, and sometimes even needs to expand their troops, which further increases the burden on the court.

"Lu Xiang, the former Tang Dynasty could expand its territory beyond the Great Wall. Now our Song Dynasty cannot even defend the Great Wall defense line. Even if the Khitan does not go south now, there will be more barbaric and more brutal nomadic peoples than the Khitan in the future. What will I use to resist them at that time?" Li Zhang said heartbroken again at this time. Sometimes it is also a pain to know too much.

Hearing Li Zhang’s words, Lu Yijian still had a hesitant expression on his face, but Zhao Zhen, who had not spoken at this time, couldn’t help but say: “Lu Xiang, I don’t want to be just an ordinary king of guarding the achievements. Please help me!”
Chapter completed!