Chapter 400: Heaven Shock
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, the sky was about to get dark. Taira no Kiyomori, who had worked hard all day to arrange the rear troops in the imperial camp, and other knights of the Red Heart Team returned to the camp in groups of three or five through the snow.
After hesitating for a moment, or perhaps thinking of Jin Baozhong's old age, and today as a close minister of the emperor, he took the initiative to go to the Dangxiang auxiliary soldiers to inquire about their well-being and try to coordinate various matters. At the same time, he did not forget to encourage these people to fight loyally for the officials. The leaders of the Dangxiang auxiliary soldiers, whether they had military positions or not, all regarded Jin Baozhong as their leader and were respectful to him like children. After that, Taira no Kiyomori decided to visit his wounded compatriots again.
But since he was going to visit, and there were so many wounded soldiers, if he wanted to show kindness like Ren Sheren, he couldn't go empty-handed. At that time, he was serving in the army with the emperor, and all his wealth was in the public residence in Tokyo, so he didn't have much money on him.
However, although Taira no Kiyomori was young, he had gained some knowledge and understanding from following the Emperor Zhao. How could he be stumped? So he simply took the Persian emerald that he had received from Xiangling that day and discussed with his colleagues. He put the stone in the hands of a wealthy officer and easily asked his colleagues to collect a lot of money and silk.
Having the hard currency in hand was not enough, Taira no Kiyomori went to Liu Yan and Jin Baozhong to explain the whole story. Liu Yan was honest and serious, and he had no intention of not agreeing. Jin Baozhong also knew that Taira no Kiyomori was a foreign hostage who could be used by the emperor, so how could he not give him face and directly helped to issue the logistics documents.
Therefore, Taira no Kiyomori took the documents and went to the logistics camp to find his acquaintances, bought a lot of medicinal herbs, dried meat, and winter clothes at a reasonable price, and spent a lot of money to ask a few civilians to help take them in a cart. Only then did he go to see the injured Japanese samurai.
Let's talk about what these remaining injured warriors experienced in Japan, and what they experienced in the Song Dynasty? They had been treated with grace, power and respect since they landed, and their slightly self-righteous mentality was beaten to the Western Liao in the battle a few days ago. Now they have long thrown away those strange thoughts and are only in awe.
In this situation, when Taira no Kiyomori came to visit them, they could only be grateful.
As for Minamoto no Tameyoshi, whose arm was hit by a bone, although he had always been jealous of Taira no Kiyomori's father, there was no fundamental conflict between the two families at this time, and they still had to maintain their usual friendship. What's more, they were in a foreign land at this time, so he was completely unguarded against Taira no Kiyomori. He grabbed the other party with one hand and started a private conversation with him in front of the couch in his tent.
From how many soldiers the Song Dynasty had, to what the regulations of the Jin Dynasty were, to the diplomatic relations with surrounding countries, many questions accumulated along the way were all thrown out... Yuan Weiyi had asked others these questions before, but his Chinese was very reluctant and the information he got was very perfunctory. This time he finally got a real opportunity to communicate.
After a conversation, Yuan Weiyi learned that of the 400 military prefectures of the Song Dynasty, 300 were still in its hands at this time. The actual number of combat troops in this campaign was 300,000, with countless auxiliary troops and protective forces, and an annual income of tens of millions of strings of cash. Naturally, he was shocked.
And when he learned that the Jin Kingdom was also a vast country, and that its powerful Jurchen armored cavalry had 200,000 men, and that another 100,000 new troops were still being formed, he could not help but sigh with emotion.
Finally, the two of them couldn't help but talk about the current war.
"If what you said is true, then the Jin Dynasty is also capable of fighting. Doesn't that mean we can still fight this war?" Minamoto no Tameyoshi crossed his arms, sat on the couch, and asked seriously in Japanese under the lamp.
"There will definitely be some fighting." Taira no Kiyomori, who was standing in front of the couch, did not deny it. "When two great powers fight each other, the gains and losses of dozens of states and counties are nothing... On the east side of Hedong is Taiyuan Prefecture, on the east side of Hebei Road is Daming Prefecture, and on the west side of Hebei Road there is Zhending Prefecture. These three cities must be taken before we can touch Yanjing City. And the cities don't count. No matter where it is, there will always be a big battle, hundreds of thousands against hundreds of thousands, at least hundreds of thousands against hundreds of thousands, and all of them must be heavily armored warriors."
Yuan Weiyi hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice and asked seriously, "Can the Song Dynasty really win?"
"We will definitely win." Taira no Kiyomori said without hesitation.
"Why are you so sure?" Yuan Weiyi couldn't help asking. "Is it because the Song Dynasty's government is good at fighting? Or is it because the Song Dynasty's soldiers are stronger and their generals are braver?"
"All of them, especially since the emperor himself is a recognized world-famous general, far superior to the commander-in-chief of the Jin Kingdom, Prince Wushu." Taira no longer hesitated. "There are even rumors that the emperor is a Taoist master of military tactics, but it is more than that. He is a divine ruler who is both civil and military, and knows everything."
Yuan Weiyi became more and more curious.
However, Taira no Kiyomori was young after all, and he could not hold back for a moment, so he wanted to show off: "Prince Yi, let me ask you, do you know how many concubines our emperor has now?"
Minamoto Tameyoshi certainly didn't know, but he knew what Taira no Kiyomori meant anyway, so when the other party held up two fingers, he instinctively lowered his guess and blurted out, "Only twenty?"
"Only two." Taira no Kiyomori sneered. "One noble concubine and one virtuous concubine. After the death of the previous queen, there was no queen... Moreover, this is definitely not a pretense, because the several princesses and princes born in the ten years after the emperor ascended the throne were all born to these two..."
Yuan Weiyi was shocked for a moment.
"That's not all." Taira no Kiyomori sneered even more when he saw this. "The emperor's palace was originally half the size of Heian-kyo, but after the war with the Jin people, the palace was either given to meritorious officials as residences, or given to samurai to study military tactics, or dedicated to the empress dowager. Even the imperial garden where the emperor lived was planted with mulberry trees and fish ponds... The most noble person in the world has been working so hard for almost ten years... Lord Yi, how can such an emperor not win?"
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