Li Yuanhao misjudged the military strength of the Song Dynasty and believed that the Song Dynasty did not have the ability to annex the Western Xia and Liao Kingdoms. That is why, despite the country's strong national strength, it did not take the initiative to attack the Western Xia and Liao Kingdoms.
But in fact, it was not that the Song Dynasty did not have the ability to annex Western Xia and Liao, but simply that Zhao Jun thought it was not the right time to annex them.
Firstly, the Song Dynasty was in a period of rising national strength. Once a war broke out, development in all aspects would stagnate.
Secondly, the Song Dynasty will only become stronger and stronger.
The Song Dynasty with 200 points of combat power against the Liao Kingdom with 80 points of combat power and the Western Xia with 50 points of combat power is completely different from the Song Dynasty with 1,000 points of combat power against the Western Xia with 100 points of combat power and 60 points of combat power.
The former can be destroyed, but it will also suffer a lot of losses itself.
As for the latter, it's like an adult bullying a two or three-year-old child, beating the child without any chance of fighting back.
Especially now that the Song Dynasty is developing breech-loading artillery and breech-loading rifles, once they are successfully developed, the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army will be further improved.
Therefore, the smartest thing for the Song Dynasty to do would be to wait until its strength increased and then easily eliminate these countries.
Instead of rushing into battle when they saw they could win, they ended up like Emperor Wu of Han, who defeated the Xiongnu but nearly destroyed his own economy and earned a bad reputation for warmongering.
Although Emperor Wu of Han had no choice at that time and had no choice but to do so, the Song Dynasty now had a choice and there was no need to force the troops.
Therefore, the best strategy for the Song Dynasty right now is to develop quietly and wait for opportunities.
But no matter what, although Li Yuanhao misjudged the military strength of the Song Dynasty, he was indeed right about one thing.
That is, the Song Dynasty would not take the initiative to attack the Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia, and had to rely on them to develop the economy.
So Li Yuanhao thought.
Since the Song Dynasty has no intention of taking the initiative to attack, it is very likely that it will choose to support the Western Xia and Liao Kingdoms when they attack the Song Dynasty's allies Qingtang and Goryeo.
Instead of directly attacking the heartland of Western Xia and Liao, he chose to use the strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao" to launch a full-scale war with Liao and Xia.
Moreover, even if the Song Dynasty did so, their attack on Qingtang and Goryeo would not be the main force anyway.
With such an arrangement, their main force would surely attack Song State while they were on guard at the border or waiting for Song State to come to their aid. At that time, even if Song State did not come to their aid, they would have enough troops to defend.
Even at that time, they could accuse the Song Dynasty of violating the alliance and provoking war without authorization, thereby gaining the upper hand in public opinion and righteousness.
After all, both the Western Xia and the Liao Kingdom had legitimate reasons to send troops. Qingtang and the Western Xia were sworn enemies, and it was impossible for the Western Xia to give up its offensive against Qingtang just because Qingtang formed an alliance with the Song Dynasty.
As for the Liao Kingdom.
As a vassal state that paid tribute to the Liao Dynasty, Goryeo had clung to the Song Dynasty in recent years and began to show increasing disrespect for the Liao Dynasty. Not only did it build a Great Wall on the border, but it also paid less tribute, which was also an excuse for starting a war.
So in general, no matter whether the Song Dynasty sends troops to attack or to provide assistance, they have a backup plan and can also occupy the righteous position, which is a matter of killing two birds with one stone.
Yelu Zongzhen thought this strategy was quite good.
His thoughts were a little deeper, because in his opinion, the Song Dynasty's specific strength was a little hard to grasp, especially since they had so many artillery and soldiers on the border. If he tried to force his way in, he would definitely hit a wall.
The best way is to do as Li Yuanhao did, fully mobilize the army of the Song Dynasty, use both real and fake tactics, and avoid the main force of the enemy to launch a surprise attack.
Even if the enemy was not allowed to aid Goryeo, the Song Dynasty had to be attracted to its own territory. In this way, the enemy would be attacking while it would be defending, and it would naturally have the advantage of terrain.
The Song Dynasty’s artillery is powerful, but the many artillery pieces he deployed in Yanyun are not to be trifled with.
"Um."
Taking this into consideration, Yelu Zongzhen nodded in agreement and said, "King Xia's strategy is indeed very brilliant. It will tire the Song army out, or at the very least, allow them to attack our homeland. We have artillery and fortifications, so defending against them should be no problem."
Seeing Yelu Zongzhen's agreement, Li Yuanhao breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Now that we have decided on a strategy, let's talk about the specific time to send troops. I think the sooner the better, in case the Song Dynasty's train reaches Hebei..."
"Um."
Yelu Zongzhen nodded again to show his agreement.
He had received news that the Song State had built a railway of nearly 100 miles in just one month. If the speed continued, it would take only one year to build a railway from Damingfu to Zhuozhou.
This posed a huge threat to the Liao Kingdom. Once the railway was successfully built, if the Liao and Song dynasties went to war, the Song army would have a huge first-mover advantage.
In fact, this is already slow.
For example, when the United States was building the Pacific Railroad, there was a 1,100-kilometer section that was completed by 14,000 Chinese workers in four years.
This means that these 14,000 Chinese workers had to repair an average of 23 kilometers per month.
It may not seem like much, but these 1,100 kilometers are not a flat plain area, but the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
The first 40 miles alone were through mountains and hills, and 50 bridges and more than 10 tunnels had to be built, which shows how difficult the construction was.
When it came to the later plain areas, the construction speed was much faster, not only reaching 5,060 kilometers per month, but even at one point setting a world record of laying tracks in 12 hours, or about 16.41 kilometers.
Forty years after the Pacific Railway was built, the Qing Dynasty began to build the Beijing-Hankou Railway. The Hebei and Henan sections were completed in less than two years. Due to lack of funds and the large number of mountainous areas in Wuhan, it took another five years to open the entire line to traffic.
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