Chapter 332 Banquet

Ma Kuo came and went in a hurry, considering state affairs as his only concern, which really shocked Zhao Jiu.

However, he did not stop the other party from turning back, because feelings were feelings, and as an official, he always had to do things... If he had really indulged in emotions, when faced with the anger of the three major cases, he, Emperor Zhao, would not have stopped at using a knife to cut Zhao Ji's congratulatory letter into pieces, and how could he have come out to inspect the army and meet Ma Kuo?

Even further, five or six years of experience in government has indeed enabled this ordinary engineering student to hone some things.

For example, Zhao Jiu actually hated Li Guang and Ma Shen, but his reason kept telling him that Li Guang was qualified for the position of Chief Censor, as he was supposed to play the role of a fault-finder. Even if Ma Shen had his own prejudices, he was one step ahead of them as he hid his criticism within his own job... From the perspective of an official in the Ministry of Justice, this person was undoubtedly qualified.

What's more, this person had indeed made contributions in maintaining stability in Hubei before.

In addition, there is the issue of the two new ministers, Lu Benzhong and Ren Baozhong. To be honest, Zhao Jiu knows the flaws of these two people. One is incompetent, which fully fits the identity of the eldest son of a family with three generations of officials; the other is immoral, which fully fits the setting of the leader of a military clan of a minority ethnic group in a remote small country.

If these two people were placed in Zhao Jiu five years ago, he would definitely not be able to tell which of them was incompetent and which was immoral. If they were placed in Zhao Guanjia three years ago, he would probably not give these two people a chance to get close to him from the beginning.

However, the official at the moment understands in his heart that being immoral and incompetent does not mean being useless.

At a time when nobles and royal families were facing universal suppression, Lü Benzhong's identity naturally had a certain political influence. Coupled with the Lü family's special status in original studies and their relatively good reputation, there was certainly no problem in setting him up and keeping him around as a hanger-on.

Similarly, Ren Baozhong, the bald old man, not to mention his rich military and political experience, his identity as a elder of the Hengshan Dangxiang clan is enough to give him a chance to survive in the center of power.

Of course, everything must be measured... To take a recent example, the dead Yang Zheng was also very useful, but he was still beheaded; Liu Guangshi was also very useful, but he was drained of blood like a chicken... Everything must have a degree and a line, and the same is true for people.

Back to the present, although Ma Kuo left, he left behind an unmistakable message. This man who probably knew the Jurchens best and had the most say in the Northern Expedition put forward a clear concept - that is, if the offensive and defensive positions change, it will take 300,000 troops to defeat the Jurchens in the two rivers.

Zhao Jiu certainly recognized this serious reminder, or warning. However, what Emperor Zhao recognized was the general principle, that after the offensive and defensive positions changed, the Song army, which could barely maintain the confrontation at the Yellow River, was insufficient in combat power and must be significantly improved, otherwise it would be very likely to fail.

The most direct manifestation of this obvious increase in combat power is the increase from 200,000 to 300,000.

In fact, it can certainly be quantity, but it can also be quality, it can also be the right time and place, or even a breakthrough in weapons technology.

From another perspective, Zhao Jiu had already begun to make similar preparations. For example, with the improvement of financial situation year by year and the failure of Qu Duan's Imperial Camp Cavalry to recruit enough soldiers, at the end of last year and the beginning of last year, he had tacitly allowed Yue Fei's troops to slightly expand their forces after pacifying Jingxiang. The establishment of the Imperial Camp Vanguard last year had already exceeded the original framework of 35,000 and reached the 40,000 mark.

As for the troops of Han Shizhong, Wu Jie, Qu Duan, and Wang De, they were allowed to retain the more than 10,000 elite Tangut surrendered soldiers they had acquired after the expedition to Western Xia. In fact, each unit had made moves to exceed the original limit, and the overall organization of the imperial camp army actually exceeded the 200,000 mark after the war with Western Xia.

In a word, no matter what, there is a consensus that the combat effectiveness of the field corps must be qualitatively improved.

After Ma Kuo left, Zhao Jiu, who got the answer he wanted on this trip, also left Heyin, but still did not return to the capital. Instead, under the extremely tense gaze inside the capital, he continued to patrol along the river through Tokyo City, Yuanwu, Yangwu, Suanzao, Zaocheng, Shaoxing... It can only be said that this Emperor Zhao seemed to be really concentrating on patrolling the river defense and inspecting the troops.

Moreover, compared with his previous caution in inspecting Zhang Rongjun, and compared with the previous few years of stopping at high-ranking military officers and serious staff shortages and corruption, this time, when inspecting Li Qiong's troops, Zhao Jiu obviously adopted a more severe and direct approach.

A large number of middle and low-level officers were directly convicted and expelled for their bad habits of forcing soldiers to work as slaves and encroaching on soldiers' land. A force of just over 10,000 people had hundreds of people dealt with in five places, and more than 30 of them were beheaded.

This made countless officers including Li Qiong panic for a time, thinking that the emperor was targeting them. Fortunately, Emperor Zhao had gained all the prestige he deserved over the past five or six years, and no one dared to defect as they had done in the past.

After inspecting Li Qiong's troops, Emperor Zhao did not return to the capital as suggested by those in Tokyo. Instead, he crossed Shaoxing directly in the increasingly cold winter and continued to head eastward, entering the Henan section of Kaide Prefecture.

From here on, we actually stepped into the defense zone of the front army of Yue Fei's imperial camp.

Yue Fei had just returned not long ago and was far away in Qizhou. Zhao Jiu did not notify him specifically, but in fact he came here with a cautious attitude. He also wanted to see with his own eyes how good the recognized outstanding military discipline of Yue Fei's troops was, and how powerful the so-called legendary Yue Family Army was... You must know that this was the first time Zhao Jiu came to inspect the front army of the Imperial Camp, or the Yue Family Army.

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