"Your Majesty, the commander of the Northwest should make a decision as soon as possible!"

Do you have a suitable candidate?

"I believe that we should send Commander Zhong to oversee the situation."

"General Zhong is getting old, and the Northwest is bitterly cold. How can I bear to let him go?"

"Your Majesty, the situation in the Northwest is complicated, and Yelü Dashi is also making trouble. Only Commander Zhong can take on this great responsibility."

Zhao Huan had considered this question before. After a moment of silence, he said, "Let me think about it."

Xu Churen continued, "Regarding the matter of enfeoffment in the southwest, the former nobles of Jiaozhou have already made contact with the King of Wei and the King of Yue. I am worried that this will affect the stability of the situation in the southwest. Therefore, I request Your Majesty to order the relocation of all the former nobles of Jiaozhou to the capital, Dongjing."

Hou Shijie, the commander-in-chief of the Southwest Imperial City Guard, had secretly sent the news back to the capital the day before yesterday. The emperor knew about this matter before his ministers.

To others, this was indeed a big deal.

The situation in the southwest had just stabilized, and the rulers of the vassal states had just arrived when they got involved in the conflict. This immediately complicated the situation in the southwest and was detrimental to its stability.

"Is there any other way?"

Xu Churen said, "Moving to the capital is the safest option. The situation in Jiaozhou has been stabilized, and the old nobles are no longer of much use. Moving them this morning is to prevent them from becoming a threat."

Xu Churen was still a conservative at heart, adhering to the Song Dynasty's conservative ideology, which was to avoid conflicts as much as possible.

But in reality, conflicts are unavoidable.

It's just that it's been hidden.

Zhao Huan felt that there was no need to avoid the conflicts in the southwest.

Instead, we should escalate the situation, ideally with Cambodia and Champa joining in, creating chaos so that the war would be more legitimate.

"Lord Xu need not worry about the southwest. The imperial court allocates a large amount of grain to the soldiers in the southwest every year. It's not a free gift."

"Your Majesty, due to the Yellow River floods and the drought in Jiangling Prefecture last year and this year, the total amount of grain has returned to the level of the first year of the Jingkang era. We do not have enough grain to support any more wars."

Zhao Huan could understand Xu Churen's concerns. The most important thing now was to seek stability and smoothly weather the impact of the Yellow River flood and the drought in Jiangling Prefecture.

Grain supplies have now halted the advance of the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Huan disagreed, arguing that the southwest was different, and attacking the southwest was a completely different concept from attacking the northwest.

Taking that place means a continuous supply of food, all year round.

In contrast, the Northwest, despite its important strategic location, is not particularly rich in grain production.

Although the Hetao Plain is fertile, it has a long winter.

"Minister Xu, don't worry about the situation in the southwest for now. Just urge Zhang Jun to transport some more grain. The southwest won't be in any chaos."

"yes."

“Tell Yelü Dashi that I will give him the grain he wants.”

"Your Majesty, no! Yelü Dashi has grown strong. If we give him more, he will become another Xia Kingdom."

"Just reply to him and say that I gave it to him."

Seeing the faint smile on the emperor's face, Xu Churen immediately knew that the emperor was just saying it.

"Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, and a ruler's word is law. If we do not give it to you when the time comes, we will be ridiculed."

"Are the people of the Great Song Dynasty more important, or is my face more important?"

Zhao Huan still cared about his reputation, but to deceive Yelü Dashi would be a loss of face for the emperor; his pride was far too strong.

Zhao Huan decided to grant Yelü Dashi all his requests, but not to actually fulfill them. He would delay for six months, and after that, once the food problem was alleviated, he would use the excuse of missing his brother-in-law to bring Yelü Dashi to the capital.

If he doesn't come, it's disobeying the imperial decree. If he disobeys the imperial decree, what's the point of keeping him around?

For the past six years, it was thanks to Yelü Dashi that the Jin state was kept firmly in check.

The Song Dynasty now has a strong and well-equipped army. The latest generation of firearms will begin full-scale production by the end of this year, and next year the Yan-Yun War Zone and the Northwest War Zone will each deploy a firearms battalion of 10,000 men.

Moreover, after destroying the Xia dynasty, Zhao Huan acquired many fine horses in the northwest. If Wanyan Sheng were to wage war next year, Zhao Huan would be fully confident in confronting the Jin army head-on.

It doesn't matter whether he is Wanyan Zongwang or Wanyan Jinwuzhu.

When a problem can be solved by force, Zhao Huan has never liked to reason with people.

Might makes right!

Xu Churen was speechless for a moment when the emperor asked him his question.

The people are the most important, and the ruler is the least important; naturally, the people are the most important.

Zhao Huan suddenly said, "Go and have some tea with Master Zhong. He's getting old and is ill."

Xu Churen immediately understood: "Yes, Your Majesty, rest assured!"

The most troublesome issue right now is still the Northwest.

The aftereffects of annexing the Xia Kingdom cannot be recovered from overnight. Such problems are normal, but we still need to find a way to solve them.

Currently, the only solution to this problem is to cultivate a teacher-student relationship.

Zhao Huan was somewhat worried. After all, Zhong Shidao was already in his seventies. He could still serve as an official in the court, but he probably wouldn't be able to stay on the frontier for long.

Zong Ze is getting old; what he needs now is a marshal in his prime!

After leaving Yanfu Palace, Xu Churen went to the Military Governor's Mansion to have tea with Zhong Shidao and expressed his worries.

The next day, Zhong Shidao went to Zhao Huan to request permission to go to the Northwest.

Zhao Huan firmly rejected his request, but Zhong Shidao insisted on his own request, and in the end the emperor had no choice but to issue a transfer order.

The marshal personally went to the Northwest to take charge, but Zhang Jun was still in charge of the Southwest.

He had just paid his respects to King Zhao Zisong of Yue and King Zhao Shuxiang of Wei yesterday, and each of them had mobilized 10,000 troops to escort Zhao Zisong and Zhao Shuxiang to their respective fiefdoms today.

The so-called fiefdom refers to a piece of land designated as part of the territory influenced by Champa and Zhenla.

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