Zhao Huan did indeed feel responsible, but his disappointment in Zhao Chen was genuine.
"Your Majesty, I will certainly teach Chen Ge'er well from now on!"
"Your Majesty, I intend to have Shi Xun become Chen Ge'er's tutor. What do you think?"
"Shi Xun is the head of the Hanlin Academy in the Song Dynasty and an important official. With him personally instructing Chen Ge'er, I am completely at ease."
"Very well, then so be it. Your Majesty, please put your mind at ease."
Zhao Huan embraced Zhu Lian and said, "Rest here with me today."
The next day, the emperor got up very early.
There was still no morning court session today. It wasn't that there wasn't one, but rather that Zhao Huan deliberately postponed it.
Several major events suddenly erupted during the drought in Jiangling Prefecture, and Zhao Huan had to deal with them one by one.
If he attends the morning court session today, he will surely be overwhelmed by the discussions among the officials about Yue Fei.
This matter needs to be delayed; it's not too late to finish dealing with the enfeoffment beforehand.
Before dawn, Zhao Huan was already sitting in his study.
He held a candle in one hand, shining it back and forth on a map of the south.
His decision to grant fiefdoms at this time was not a helpless act, but rather a calculated one.
While the problem of the imperial clan must be resolved, from the emperor's perspective, it is not the most important issue.
From the perspective of the empire's highest strategic standpoint, whether it's the Yellow River floods or the drought in Jiangling Prefecture, the most fundamental problem for the Song Dynasty remains the food problem.
Although the south was undergoing large-scale development, and although grain was continuously being transported from Jiaozhou.
However, this still cannot meet domestic demand. Many people now have basic purchasing power and are even less willing to go hungry, so grain merchants' goods are often snapped up.
Zhao Huan believed that solving the problem of food and clothing was an arduous and protracted struggle, no less challenging than external expansion.
People desperately needed to be fed. In Jiangling Prefecture, people were starving to death, and the human tragedy of exchanging children for food was shocking.
There is still not enough grain in Jiaozhou.
Geographically speaking, the Mekong River, which originates from the Tanggula Mountains within China, flows south to the sea, passing through Zhenla and Champa, and finally reaches the sea at the southernmost tip of Champa.
This is the mother river of civilization, which nurtures the most fertile land in Champa at its southernmost tip, a region known for its high grain yield.
This is the Mekong Delta region that people often refer to in the 21st century.
During the Song Dynasty, it belonged to Champa.
The Champa people cultivated abundant Champa rice throughout the region, ensuring they had no shortage of food.
Moreover, because it is near the sea, it is very convenient to transport food; it is practically a piece of fertile land.
Jiaozhi has been destroyed for three years, and the situation in Jiaozhou has been initially stabilized. It's time to take action against Zhenla and Champa.
Once Champa and Zhenla become vassal states of the Song Dynasty, the flow of grain will be even more unimpeded!
The entire southwestern continent will become another granary for the Song Dynasty!
This was the situation the emperor saw. He believed that Xu Churen would not object, because Xu Churen was responsible for solving the problem of food and clothing for half of the Song Dynasty's population.
Once the strategist, the emperor, and the strategist, the prime minister, reach an unprecedented consensus on the direction, many things become more efficient.
Why did Zhao Huan adopt the enfeoffment system instead of directly sending troops to fight and then establishing a circuit to govern the region?
Fighting a war is easy, but maintaining good governance afterward is not.
Currently, establishing a vassal state here and fully delegating power is the fastest and most effective way to establish a foothold.
Like the giants of later generations, I don't do new businesses myself because the market development and management costs are too high. Giants have bloated structures and are inherently inefficient, so it's easy for them to ruin a new business.
The best approach is to establish a new subsidiary or make a strategic investment, and then acquire it once it reaches a certain scale.
If a strategically invested company doesn't want to be acquired, there are many ways to sabotage it, such as diverting resources, cutting off funding, or diverting resources from other competitors in the same industry. These are all very fatal.
Similarly, it was quite simple for the Song Dynasty to effectively control the marquisates.
The Marquisate must have grown up within the financial and economic system of the Great Song Dynasty, and it also received education from the Great Song Dynasty. Furthermore, the Marquisate was also home to the elite troops of the Great Song Dynasty.
Judging from these four strategic matrixes, it would be incredibly easy for the Song Dynasty to take action against any of the marquisates, leaving them with no room for resistance.
With that in mind, Zhao Huan planted two small flags in the territories of Zhenla and Champa.
He also saw the southern sea, where a large number of ports could be built in Zhenla and Champa in the future, and more ports would be needed for long-distance trade.
This is just a future plan; let's focus on securing this territory first.
P.S.: I'm going to organize the word count for each chapter now. Generally, each chapter will start at 3000 words, and won't be too long, otherwise I'm worried that it will be tiring for everyone to read.
I'm still asking for more monthly votes!
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