Chapter 356: Beginning

At the grand court meeting on the first day of June, the court discussed about three major issues. One was the arrangement for expanding the army; another was the plan to launch a second round of war in Hezhong Prefecture, the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and Bohai Sea regardless of the hot summer; the third was the establishment of six departments to supervise the discussions of the six ministries...Finally, the court also vaguely released the rumor that the emperor would tour the south.

Among these, the first thing is still not optimistic.

Military generals from all over the country still felt the same as last time, they all thought that it was their own troops that should expand their forces. Local civil officials also said that they should not send any more troops. The senior officials in the court still insisted on opposing the further strengthening of the three towns in Guanxi, namely Han Shizhong, Li Yanxian, and Wu Jie... If any more were added, the military power of Guanxi would be enough to overthrow the world.

But this would be contrary to the military plan that the court had been discussing - even if Zhao Jiu believed that Yue Fei was more reliable, everyone, including Yue Fei himself, would say that if Hedong was taken, Hebei would be conquered, and if Hebei was taken, Hebei would not be able to protect itself.

The geographical conditions in northern China are there. In later generations, Shanxi Province really had a geographical advantage over Hebei Province and was able to take whatever it wanted. No one could go against the laws of nature.

In this regard, Zhao Jiu even considered for a time whether to let Yue Fei move his garrison westward. However, the problem was that most of Yue Fei's imperial camp's vanguard troops were exiles from Hebei. It was not impossible to let them fight in Hedong, but who would take on the combat mission in the Hebei direction?

The most important thing is, where should the Hedong and Shanluo troops under Li Yanxian be placed? Should these people abandon Li Yanxian and obey Yue Fei?

Li Yanxian is not the same as Zhang Jun, and his subordinates are not the same as the subordinates of the Right Army of the Imperial Camp.

Under the current circumstances, forcibly breaking the territorial attributes of the army group may have a far greater impact on the army's combat effectiveness than a major purge.

Of course, what Zhao Jiu didn't know was that in history, even when Yue Fei himself led the Northern Expedition, he first gathered the Shaanxi-Luoyi Army and then tried to move towards the Taihang Mountains. Dong Xian, Niu Gao and other generals under Li Yanxian who were active in the Shaanxi-Luoyi area were the "outsiders" under Yue Fei who enjoyed a special status at that time.

But the problem is, at that time and space, among these officers and soldiers from Shaanxi, Luo and Hedong, not only was there no Li Yanxian, but even leaders like the Zhai brothers had died for their country early. Moreover, because of the evil deeds done by Qu Duan and the Battle of Fuping, the Western Army had nothing to do with it... So, in that situation, the heroes and righteous men who still insisted on resisting the Jin army seemed to have nowhere to go unless they surrendered to Yue Fei, who had established a base in Hubei.

This is the situation. The geographical characteristics of the north cannot be shaken by human power, and the group of generals in the army that was naturally formed based on the region and the military and political situation after Jingkang is basically unshakable:

The Imperial Camp Vanguard was an army composed of the Hebei exiled military group and the Tokyo Garrison. It had the strongest desire for the Northern Expedition, and Yue Fei, the commander-in-chief of the Vanguard, was the leader of the Hebei exiled military officers and the successor of the Tokyo Garrison.

Li Qiong, who did not become a Jiedushi, was the second-in-command of this group. He was also an exiled military officer from Hebei and one of the legitimate successors of Zong Ze. His rise to power was the result of a tacit understanding between the imperial court and Yue Fei. However, his army was not directly divided from the Tokyo Liaison Office or Yue Fei, but from the Hebei Eight Character Army under Wang Yan, who had a grudge against Yue Fei… This army itself could not belong to Yue Fei, otherwise there would be a big chaos.

In fact, there were many explanations on the surface about the fact that Wang Yan was cleansed up in the local area and then transferred to the central government, but some people privately said that it was the result of the court and Emperor Zhao making a choice between this person and Yue Fei.

Li Yanxian was the leader of the Shanluo Hedong Volunteer Army, and the uncle and nephew of the Zhai family were semi-independent members of this group. But it is worth mentioning that the basic army that Li Yanxian used to recapture Shanzhou that day was the remnant of the Western Army after its earlier defeat.

The brothers Wu Jie and Wu Lin were the most orthodox successors of the remnants of the Western Army, and the Imperial Camp Rear Army was also a force reorganized from the traditional structure of the Western Army.

Qu Duan and the Imperial Camp Cavalry were newly established troops, but due to the problem of manpower, they were closely connected with the Western Army.

Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, Wang De and the Imperial Camp Left Army, Right Army and Central Army led by them... although they all had characteristics of the Western Army, they had another prominent commonality, that is, they were the troops that followed Emperor Zhao in exile and escape from the very beginning.

Not to mention Han and Zhang, Wang De and his subordinates were basically Liu Guangshi's old subordinates, and these three together just formed the foundation of the imperial camp at the beginning.

Things in this world are so troublesome. There are military factions, the personal reputation of generals, the regional characteristics of the army's composition, and the interest groups formed in the current garrison areas...all aspects, right and wrong, you always have to make some choices and make some decisions, and then make some people happy and some people angry.

It’s just that this time things are particularly troublesome.

The issue of military expansion is still pending... Of course, this is also related to the fact that there is no urgency for this matter. After all, up to this point, the first round of military expansion plans at the beginning of last year have not been fully implemented. Even if a new plan is to be implemented, it must at least wait until the end of this round of war.

As for the rotation battles, there is nothing much to say.

Firstly, Emperor Zhao had never delegated the decision-making power for military operations to the lower levels, and naturally lacked a voice in the court. Secondly, ever since the bizarre yet legitimate Song-Jin trade had unfolded in various bizarre ways, the financial leeway of the Song Dynasty had actually far exceeded the imagination of court officials, including Emperor Zhao.

This is a financial category that no one had thought of before, but in fact it is extremely consistent with economic laws and the amount is huge.

In fact, looking back at the past year or so of Jiancai's great undertakings, and counting the profits, we will find that the Song-Jin luxury goods trade, the Sino-Japanese precious metals trade, the Guangyue per foot of cloth and a bucket of rice trade, the Dali mineral trade, the Western Region Silk Road trade... Compared with the benefits brought by these trade agreements, the things that Emperor Zhao and his court officials racked their brains to come up with, which appeared to be financial innovations but were actually fishing in troubled waters, are not good enough at all!

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!