Xu Wunan's fierce words made Zhao Bing stunned. According to the rules, the Secretary-General should take a fair attitude towards the memorials of all parties, and should not mix personal likes and dislikes into it, so as not to become more erect. However, his performance today was a little furious and lost his usual calmness and stability. The others in the hall were also secretly shocked when they heard this and signaled that he had lost his composure.

"I have made any mistakes, please punish me!" Xu Wunan immediately realized that this was not a debate among colleagues, and immediately said politely.

"Let me talk!" Zhao Bing frowned slightly and asked him to continue.

"Your Majesty, our dynasty built the Great Water Wall to block the Khitan's southward journey. Although it was considered at the time and ensured a hundred years of peace in the northern border, it was really...inappropriate!" Xu Wunan pondered for a moment, but he still couldn't suppress the anger in his heart, but he also suppressed his emotions and said.

"First, building the Great Water Wall, building square fields, and changing rivers lasted for 30 years. Although this move blocked the Khitan's route of invasion of the south, it also made our northern expedition to Yanyun a bubble, leaving endless disasters!"

"Secondly, geographically, this move is also a natural deficiency. At that time, the Yellow River entered the sea from Cangzhou, and once it was diverted, the Great Wall of Water lost its water source, resulting in a significant reduction in defense. It can only be used as a defensive means in a short period of time, rather than a long-term solution."

"Third, the subsequent 'Sanyi Return to the River' project was even more failure. It forced the Yellow River to diversion into the sea. Not only did it fail to achieve the expected goal, but it was ruined by this move. It also led to the Yellow River's capture of the Huai River and the sea, causing our dynasty to eventually lose the northern defense line and let the Jurchens drive directly to Bianliang."

"Now, the mountains and rivers are still the same after a hundred years, and the ever-changing world is no longer the past, and it is no longer possible to restore the old appearance. At this time, he reiterated the restoration of the Great Wall to resist the Mongol Yuan, intending to destroy Your Majesty's plan to expedite the Northern Expedition, so that our dynasty will never get rid of the threat of the Mongol Yuan, which really makes his subordinates angry!"

"..." Zhao Bing heard this and knew that what he said was true, but he was much more restrained and did not scold his ancestors for eight generations.

He knew that the original intention of this defense line was to cut off the pace of the Liao army's southward advance. As Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty said at that time, it not only hindered the pace of the Liao Kingdom's southward advance, but also cut off his own route to the north. As for the Northern Expedition, I will talk about it in the next life. In addition, this project uses water as a soldier, which leads to relying too much on the natural environment, especially the extremely serious dependence on the Yellow River.

The Yellow River at this time is different from the Yellow River we see now. The Yellow River channel at that time was more northward. Speaking of this, you may understand that if the Yellow River is diverted, then this line of defense that has been built over decades is likely to reduce its defense due to the loss of water sources. It happened that the Yellow River was diverted frequently during that period.

Therefore, the Hebei water defense line can only be a temporary means for the Song Dynasty to defend against the Liao Dynasty's attack. If you really want to eliminate the military threat of the Liao Kingdom forever, you can only truly protect yourself by constantly expeditioning the northern expedition, regaining Yanyun, and relying on the stable Yanshan Mountains, Hengshan, and Taihang Mountain Guancen Mountains.

However, since the moment the Great Wall on the Water was built, the Song army had forever lost the possibility of independently recovering Yan Yun. Relying on this temporary project also shows how incompetent the Song Dynasty court was. Therefore, in the era of a cowardly monarch like Renzong, it was not difficult to understand how stupid a project such as Ma Sanyi returning to the river was.

According to historical records, Renzong was a gentle and kind emperor, and Zhao Bing believed that this proved his cowardice indirectly, which made the Song and Liao relations, which were originally alleviated in the Chanyuan Alliance, full of variables, making the Liao Kingdom feel that the Song Dynasty could bully again, and then constantly asked the Song Dynasty to change the territorial boundaries. Renzong, who was cowardly by nature, was naturally afraid, and how to prevent the Liao army from coming to Bianliang became his most concerned thing.

As early as the Zhenzong Dynasty, officials suggested that the Yellow River channel was too north. If one day it would be different to enter Liao Kingdom, then the Liao Kingdom might have followed the Yellow River and fought to Bianliang. Emperor Renzong, who had enjoyed the welfare of using water as a soldier and building the Great Water Wall, naturally believed in this matter. Therefore, he began to "reinforce and maintain" the Great Water Wall - Sanyi Return to the River!

Wen Yanbo, the then prime minister, suggested that a small river called Liuta River share the flow of the Yellow River, with the intention of maintaining the estuary of the Yellow River in the north, avoiding re-flooding, and avoiding flowing into the Liao Kingdom. However, Liuta River is a small river with a flow of only one-fifth of the Yellow River, which is not enough to accommodate the entire Yellow River. Therefore, there were innate shortcomings and huge hidden dangers at the beginning of construction.

However, from the emperor to the emperor and the monarch and ministers, driven by fear and cowardice, in order to maintain the water defense line that has been built for thirty years, this crazy project was officially launched. In fact, the water Great Wall defense line in Hebei was built on the upstream and downstream of the Yellow River, and the Yellow River diverted directly cut off the water source of the Hebei Water Great Wall. This project cannot maintain the water Great Wall!

Finally, after experiencing the collapse of Caocun and Neihuangkou, the Yellow River finally captured the Huai River and entered the sea. The result was that "the Song Dynasty's crossing of the merchants and Hu flowed northward and entered the Liuta River, but it was impossible to withstand it. It was the next day, and the army was drowned and the floating grass was unsuccessful." This caused heavy losses to the important military centers in Hebei. Not only did they fail to achieve the expected effect of blocking the enemy's southward, but they destroyed the "Great Wall" itself.

Who will pay the responsibility for this result? As the emperor, as the emperor, has always been a "sage, wise, and magical martial arts", naturally could not do such stupid things. Mistakes are the sins of his ministers.

Wen Yanbo, the proposal and executor of the "Sanyi Huihe" project, is definitely the best person to take the blame, but he served in the four dynasties of Renzong, Yingzong, Shenzong and Zhezong. He served as generals and prime ministers for fifty years. He was famous among the four barbarians and was respected as a virtuous prime minister. He was posthumously named Zhonglie and Gonglie, which can be said to be a famous person in history and has been remembered for generations. According to the world, his behavior is flawless and he cannot bear responsibility for such trivial matters.

So the result was that no one was responsible. But Zhao Bing understood that Renzong was the culprit. Because of his cowardice, Song Renzong had already reached the point where he had all kinds of soldiers. Even when facing the Liao Kingdom, which was not good at water warfare, the king of a country would be frightened by the stupid words of "surfing the Yellow River and rushing directly to Kaifeng".

In addition, the emperors who have been suffering from Northern phobia after Emperor Taizong were not only lacking strategic vision, but their ancestors' failures also made them lose the spirit of enterprising Yanyun. Therefore, fundamentally speaking, since the moment the Great Wall on the Water, the Song Dynasty has always locked itself in a circle of passive self-conservation, and delusionally relied on temporary defense projects for passive defense. However, conservatism can never protect itself. In the end, this "Great Wall of Water" defense strategy and even the failure of "connecting Jin to destroy Liao" were all destined results.

Zhao Bing thought about it. Although the control was within a certain range when discussing the Northern Expedition, many people knew about the relevant personnel of the province and the ministry. During this period, news of his disagreement between him and others was also circulating in various circles. They also had arguments in private, some supported direct attack on the Dragon Court of the Mongolian Yuan, some supported steady progress and slow pursuit. After arguing, there was no result. They also submitted memorials to express their views and positions to the emperor.

Therefore, there were a lot of similar memorials received during this period. Wang Yue, the doctor of the Ministry of Rites, rebuilding the "Great Water Wall". Zhao Bing thought that it should be out of supporting the view of the slowdown of the people, so as to stop the counterattack of the Mongol Yuan and win the time to consolidate the Central Plains. But what is confusing is that this doctor is a fool or ignorant, and actually stir up the cold rice from two hundred years ago.

Not to mention that the Great Wall of Water had already proved to be a failed decision, and the Yellow River had been diverted many times more than a hundred years later. Under this influence, the terrain changed, the rivers were silted, and the basic conditions for rebuilding the Great Wall of Water were gone. In this way, Wang Yue's suggestions were purely nonsense and had no common sense unless they had other purposes.

Zhao Bing tapped the desk twice, took a pen from the desk under the nervous eyes, dipped it in the bright red cinnabar, wrote the red comments on this memorial, and then got up and left the duty room amid the salutes of everyone.

"It's extremely absurd..." His Majesty had just left, and Chen Shishi hurriedly took the memorial, but saw four words criticized on it, which were Xu Wunan's angry words.

"What does Your Majesty mean?" Several people looked at each other and were a little confused. In the past, there were some ridiculous suggestions from the ministers, but His Majesty was often very polite about this. He either criticized the word "read" to show encouragement; or put it on the shelf and ate it; at most, he would not argue, and retreat the same way, hinting that those who submitted their memorials should not talk nonsense. But this is the first time that the fierce words today.

"Since Your Majesty has already written a letter, I will handle it according to the rules!" Chen Shishi thought for a moment and roughly understood His Majesty's meaning, but he did not say it clearly, nor could he say it. The person who wanted to see the meaning did not need to say much to know the taste...

Soon, the memorial that his Majesty gave a bad comment appeared in the hall discussion. After circulating it, all the officials smiled bitterly and fell into deep thought. Then the court held several meetings, and the debate was still fierce, but the wind had turned. The court officials who supported the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun accounted for the majority, and the voices that had stopped at the old land were overwhelming.

By mid-July, the Northern Expedition was still unfinished, but news of His Majesty's Northern Expedition came out. Soon the rumors became reality. The court issued a notice that the emperor would still have the Northern Expedition to be held at the end of the month, and the Empress Dowager would still be left to the capital to supervise the country, and the Chief Auxiliary Lu Xiufu traveled with him.
Chapter completed!