Chapter 1061: Knocking Awakening

Su You said: "Before Pangu, the sky was the earth, and the earth was the sky. The time of the Yellow Emperor was not long after Pangu's time, so although the heaven and the earth were divided, the pure air on the earth still existed, so there were many mythical beasts and exotic herbs."

"Where is An now?"

"When I was a child, I also believed in the theory of gods and made an experiment. I distilled the water to extract the clearest and pure water for raising fish."

"As a result, we discovered a problem. The fish became thinner and thinner as they were raised. They became sick a lot and soon all of them died."

"On the other hand, goldfish raised in ordinary water sources are lively and strong, and can lay eggs and reproduce every year."

"So I know that cultivating immortals is actually the same as raising fish and requires an environment."

"Therefore, the ancient gods could be born in the marketplace and travel around the world; the medieval gods could establish a country, convert the people, and become kings and emperors; while the modern gods mostly seclude themselves in the mountains and forests, and occasionally appear in the world."

"The reason is very simple. Because the environment has changed, they may not be able to adapt to the secular world for a long time."

"Similarly, when we go over there, shouldn't it be the same?"

"So in today's world, unless you reincarnate yourself, cut off all ties with the world, abandon your home and country, escape into the mountains, find a place where the spiritual energy still exists, practice hard for many years, and cut down the marrow of the I Ching, or Linqiong Taoist priests can hope to become Hongdu.

Guests are expected.”

Zhao Xu thought for a while: "What Mingrun said is true. From now on, you will go to the palace every three days to explain knowledge to me."

Su You cupped his hands and said, "I obey your order."

Three days later, Su You came, bringing some experimental equipment and a scroll.

When the scroll was opened, it turned out to be a life-size seated portrait of Empress Dowager Cao.

The pictures are highly realistic and are hyper-realistic works created by Prince Consort Zhang Dunli by combining traditional painting techniques with new perspective principles and sketching methods.

The Empress Dowager Cao in the picture is lifelike, even the wrinkles and shadows at the corners of her eyes and finger joints are clear and distinct, comparable to the photos of later generations.

Zhao Xu burst into tears as soon as he saw the silk painting: "Grandma Tai Huang... I miss you so much..."

Su You quickly supported it: "Your Majesty, this is a masterpiece by the consort of the Princess of Wei. Although it is a realistic depiction, it is still a painting after all."

"In order to comfort Your Majesty's filial piety, I and the Consort began preparations after the Empress Dowager's visit."

"Actually, there are still some background details that need to be perfected, but I couldn't bear His Majesty's affection for him, so Zhang Huima worked for three days in a row. After everything was basically in order, he took it out to have a look with His Majesty."

Zhao Xu was agitated, and seemed a little reluctant to believe that the painting was fake, until his trembling fingers touched the silk of the painting, and tears finally flowed down uncontrollably.

Su You bowed and said: "Your Majesty, please show me your condolences. If your Majesty mourns too much because of this, it will be a sin for you."

"When the Empress Dowager was dying, she told me to assist your majesty to realize your ideals. Your majesty, in fact, in the eyes of the elders, the greatest comfort is probably that the descendants will become useful and glorious, right?"

"The Empress Dowager once blocked His Majesty's intention to conquer the West, but I think that even the kindest people would not want to be neighbors with thieves."

"The Empress Dowager was worried that the country was not ready, so she buried her intentions deep in her heart and stepped forward to stop His Majesty."

"According to the military aircraft department's deduction, Your Majesty, the opportunity to attack the West...is indeed as expected by the Empress Dowager."

The important military and state affairs dragged Zhao Xu back from his deep emotions: "Now the reports from various border armies have shown that the Song Dynasty already has enough soldiers and strong soldiers and horses, and even needs to disband the army?"

"If we don't have enough troops, why do we need to reduce our troops?"

Damn, this is a big pot that has been buried since the time of Taizu. I have been carrying it until I can no longer carry it, and I started to think about throwing it away. Does this mean that there are enough soldiers and strong horses?

Su You cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I think the figures reported by various sources should not be credulous. The reason for asking them to report them is not to calculate the actual strength of our Song Dynasty, but... to examine how many shortfalls they have eaten.

.”

Zhao Xu was surprised and said: "How do you say that?"

Su You said: "It's actually very simple. The strength of each army is not just reflected in the number of soldiers reported by each place."

"According to my statistics, an army uses grain, grass, beans, leather, oil and salt, military tents and cloth, swords, guns and arrows...these are all innumerable, but they all have certain numbers."

"Most of these things can be sold, but there are some things, such as swords, guns and armor, that you can't just hand out."

"So I inspected the comings and goings of the Privy Council and discovered a problem. The demand for ordnance by the military in various places is far less than the demand for other supplies."

"The reason is very simple. There is a serious shortage of military strength in various places. Local officials have greatly reduced the number of military equipment. The grain, grass, salt and cloth they received were sold and pocketed by them. A lot of the military pay issued by the court also went into their pockets.

"

"As for those that cannot be sold and dare not sell, the demand is naturally not much. Not only is it not much, but it is not even enough for normal consumption."

"Your Majesty, the situation of the Fourth Army has been very clear during the Xining period. The total number of the Four Armies is less than the number of the Three Armies, and most of them are superficial troops."

"Your Majesty then made a painful decision. While ordering Xianggong Jiefu to appoint generals, update weapons, protect armor and other new measures, he also ordered King Diyong Zhongzheng to organize and train the new army."

"The capital is still like this, and its path can be imagined."

"When Da Su defeated the invaders in Xuzhou, why did he use local powerful forces? It is obvious that the garrison was completely unreliable."

"Fortunately, the situation of the Western Army of the Song Dynasty is better than that of Xiongzhou, Hebei Province, but there are also problems here, that is, in order to compete with the Western Xia and Liao Kingdoms, the border troops are engaging in smuggling trade to supplement the lack of logistics."

"In this way, the imperial salary is insufficient, and the generals raise their own funds. This is a debt of gratitude to those below, while the resentment is attributed to the superiors. The soldiers complain about the court but are grateful to the generals. Isn't this how An Lushan Shi Siming and his like caused great trouble?

"

When talking about the Song Dynasty, the first thing that everyone thinks of is using culture to control military force, and often ignores the problems of the warriors themselves.

In the Song Dynasty, the status of military ministers was lower than that of civil servants, which can be reflected in their uniforms, which were only in three colors: scarlet, green, and cyan.

However, his salary is higher than that of civil servants at the same level.

For example, the regular salary of a Jiedushi envoy, which is almost the same as a civil official transfer envoy, is 400 guan. It is almost equivalent to the 300 guan of a Jiedu envoy in Changpingcang. Even the Tuanlian envoy at the prefecture level has a salary of 100 guan.

Fifty strings.

In the Song Dynasty, the civil servants who could get this salary had to be qualified as a bachelor or above, which was many times less than the number of military ministers.

Moreover, such Jiedu envoys who observe the envoy training may no longer be stationed at all, lying in the capital doing nothing and earning a salary.

Even in "Water Margin", the leader of Qingfeng Village like Xiao Li Guanghuarong, who was almost at the level of a township militia captain in later generations, could get a salary of six or seven guan, which was the level of a county magistrate in the civil service.

In addition, military ministers also had many rewards, including a lot of extra money, materials, salary, and field rice, and there were two more rewards than civil servants.

One is the suburban reward, which is the kind of reward after the Jinmyeongchi Grand Parade.

There is also an even more significant and important income - wartime rewards.

For example, when Li Xian fought against Qingtang, he gave the sergeants three times the reward.

Even so, when the Song Dynasty's army was fighting, it often happened that they could not move out of their homes without taking money. Even if they took money, they would often scatter home and find their own mothers when they moved.

With such a large expenditure and such a heavy salary, the Song Dynasty produced not famous generals and elite soldiers, but country squires, lords, and gangster leaders who drank the blood of soldiers; they were refugees from concentration camps, who worked for officers as transportation, express delivery, and opened shops to sell.

Goods, a wage earner selling wine in Guanpu Winery.

Therefore, it is obviously unfair to blame all the problems of the Song Dynasty on the civilian officials.

For example, in Nong Zhigao's rebellion, thousands of Mantong were able to fight all the way from the Guangxi Jiaozhi border to the outskirts of Guangzhou, spanning six states, and their military strength expanded to nearly 30,000. In the end, how many real soldiers did Di Qing use to deal with them?

In addition to those used as supplements, the two thousand Western Army's fallen cavalry that Di Qing brought over from the Western Army actually played a core role.

Remember that Fanluo is a number, not cavalry but horses. Judging from Su You's ratio of cavalrymen to horses at that time, it would be considered good to have 800 cavalry under Di Dianshi at that time.

But with just a few real soldiers, Nong Zhigao, who was running rampant in six states, was beaten until he called him daddy.

So the question arises, is the six-state garrison that was previously vulnerable to a single attack a real garrison, or is it a team of farmers that only exists on paper in peacetime and was put together temporarily during wartime?

So again, under the avalanche, no snowflake is innocent.
Chapter completed!