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Chapter 806 Difficulties

The little emperor thought that peace talks were beneficial to his side and were of great benefit, but he did not say anything about it. Zheng Huchen knew the rules and naturally would not ask too much. But he knew that the little emperor had worked hard to lay this foundation and would never give up with a few words from the Tartars. He must have had a plan for it. All he had to do was obey the instructions and do his part.

"Has the matter in the northwest been turned on?" Zhao Bing asked suddenly after a smirk.

"Your Majesty, when the war in Jiangnan is in place, the main force of the Affairs Bureau is placed here, and it has only gradually recovered after the war. My subordinates have only received news one after another recently. I wanted to report it in detail later, but Your Majesty expected it." Zheng Huchen smiled.

"I didn't expect it, but guessed it." Zhao Bing shook his hand, "I think that the old woman in the south must be anxious for peace talks. She thought that only the northwest affairs were settled. During her reign, she not only lost Jiangnan, but also cut off the supply to the northwest. The two sides had already had a quarrel. She wanted to leave a way out for herself."

"Will your Majesty think Zhenjin will support the Nanbi Peace Agreement?" Zheng Huchen nodded and asked.

"It is also difficult for me to judge, but he should support what Zhenjin does on weekdays. He has learned Confucianism since he was a child and is not wary. Moreover, in order to inherit the Khan position, Zhenjin has paid a considerable price. He should now focus on rectifying his internal affairs. In addition, if he can extort money and food through peacekeeping, he should be happy to do it." Zhao Bing thought for a while and analyzed.

"Your Majesty thinks that Nan... the old ladies will merge with real gold. Wouldn't that be unfavorable to our court? We should try to stop it!" Zheng Huchen said.

"Well, the alliance between the two of them is indeed not good for our dynasty, but I think even if they are united, they are still in harmony with each other. They are only forced by the situation, but they will join forces temporarily. But..." Zhao Bing nodded. He knew that the real gold represents the Confucian and Legal forces in the Central Plains, while the Nanbi represents the conservative forces in Mongolia. The policies implemented by both sides go against each other, and it is impossible to pee. However, in order to settle the kings of the sects, Zhen Jin will naturally compromise with the conservative factions. And he is their biggest enemy at present, so it is possible to unanimously attack himself first.

"What are your concerns?" Zheng Huchen hurriedly asked when he saw the little emperor's face suddenly appearing sad.

"First show me the information you learned about the Northwest!" Zhao Bing didn't say anything, but just urged him to take out the information.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zheng Huchen hurriedly submitted the documents that were collected.

"Yes!" Zhao Bing took it and waved his hand to let him take it himself first, but Zheng Huchen dared not leave, but sat aside to prepare for the question.

Zhao Bing looked through the text and looked at it word by word to find the answer to the problem from the words. He also learned about the battle for the Khan throne in the northwest. After Kublai Khan's death, under the opposition of the King of the Foreign Sect in the Northwest, the real gold was unable to successfully inherit the Khan throne. However, after the kings of the Kublai Khan rank arrived in Helin, the situation began to reverse. After all, they would not sit idly by and watch the Foreign Sect be eyeing the Khan throne, and they were all real power throne kings with heavy troops. The power of the Foreign Sect retreated, but they still asked to convene a Hulitaire Conference to elect the Khan from their brothers.

After forcing the outsiders to retreat, Kublai Khan quickly fell into civil strife again. After all, the Khan position was too tempting, and the foreign sect forces took advantage of the opportunity to intervene again, provoking them to fight each other again. At the time of stalemate, they remembered that their father was still left aside and not buried, so Zhenjin suggested burying his father first and then solving the matter between the brothers.

It seems that reading a lot is also beneficial. Zhen Jin thought that the foreign sects were conservative forces and he was at a disadvantage in the fight for throne, so he used his identity as a prince to summon important officials from all over the country to attend the funeral, thus attracting his confidants to supreme the capital. Among them, Zuo Xiang Antong, Boyan and others who supported the Han system arrived one after another, and the situation changed again.

Antong was a native of the Zhala Yier tribe of Mongolia, the third generation grandson of Muhuali. Zubolu, his father was Batulu; his mother Hongjila was the sister of Empress Chabi. He was a descendant of the minister and had a relative of the Jiaofang with Kublai Khan. At the beginning of the Zhongtong, he served as the chief of the third Cyxue who inherited the third Cyxue from the Muhuali family, and was only thirteen years old. Because he often discussed state affairs with his elders, his mother praised him in front of Kublai Khan when she came to the palace to see the queen. Although he was young and had talent to assist the country, Kublai Khan was very happy when he answered the right answer. In the second year of Zhiyuan, he issued an edict to Antong, who was only seventeen years old, and Shi Tianze, who was at the time, served as the right prime minister since the second year of Zhongtong.

Later, because Kublai Khan relied on Ahma, who was good at "financial management", the struggle between Antong and Ahma failed and was transferred from the prime minister. After he arrived in the northwest, he sent troops to attack Ogedei's descendant Wang Hehu, but the kings were dissatisfied with the unfair distribution of the supplies and raising them. In the 13th year of Zhiyuan, Ogedei Ziliji, who was guarding the border from Namuhan, launched a rebellion, kidnapped Namuhan and Antong, and sent Antong to Haidu to detain. Haidu adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards the internal struggle of the Tolei family, treated Antong quite favorably, and granted him an official position. It was not until the 20th year of Zhiyuan that he returned.

In the 21st year, An Tong returned to the court and served as the right prime minister. After he was still close to Confucian scholars, he requested to appoint old ministers Xu Shilong and Li Chang, and was reprimanded for using Lu Shirong. However, due to his background and two experiences as prime ministers, he enjoyed a high prestige in the Yuan court and the outer sect, and was in charge of the personal army of the guards. He was of great weight. At the same time, he also knew that Empress Nanbi did not like the Han system, so he stood on the side of the real gold.

Needless to say, his ancestors followed Temujin to fight. They were appreciated by Kublai Khan only by chance and kept them as a servant. His ability was never comparable to that of him when he planned state affairs. Kublai Khan recognized his abilities more and more, so he ordered the sister of the right prime minister of the Secretariat, An Tong, to be his wife, and said: "Being Boyan's wife will not make your surname lose its color."

After that, Boyan led his troops to pacify Jiangnan. Soon after, he rebelled against Prince Xiliji and others of Beiping, Namuhan, and attacked Helin from Alimari. He was ordered to lead his troops northward and defeated the rebels in the Ourhan River. He then assisted the Zhenjin Fu Army and was ordered to guard the northwest. Because Boyan was good at fighting, he was able to outsmart people, reward and punishment were fair, and he was very strict in the army, and he had prestige among the northwest troops. He had a deep relationship with Zhenjin, and He Antong was in-laws, so he became his right-hand man.

Zhenjin was helped by the two generals, and under their plan, the wavering King Tuohuan of Zhennan was first stabilized, and promised to pardon the crime of losing Jiangnan and pull him to the side of Zhenjin. He also persuaded Bengela to support Zhenjin by agreeing to increase the supply of Anxi military rations first. Finally, on the condition that Yeshen Timur's family inherited the king of Yunnan, he obtained the approval of Hugechi and his group.

They ignored Na Muhan, who had always been dissatisfied with him, and no matter how he jumped, he could not make trouble. And those kings of the outer sect could not make trouble even with both soft and hard work. With such obvious political blows, the powerful Na Muhan could not be disgusted, because his vested interests had been damaged, and the small actions behind him would of course be undercurrents. Now everything has been deprived and he has to fight for power with his family. There is no need to mention the resentment in his heart, and of course he is also deliberately confronting him.

In such a political environment, Na Muhan, who was still fighting with a trap, had a rebellion, and finally took the risk by showing up in public. Instead of not living in this way, it would be better to fight to the death. After the funeral, after the failure of his leadership to attack the Zhenjin Camp, he led his subordinate Qiexue and his confidants to flee to the Liaodong fiefdom, rebeled from the Yuan court, proclaimed himself king, and embarked on the road of confrontation.

In this way, Zhen Jin's path to ascending the Khan throne was swept away, and he was elected by the kings as a new generation of Mongolian Khan at the Hulitai Conference. But the price he paid was not small. Now the Song court took advantage of their civil strife to regain Jiangnan and force the Bei'an King Namuhan to rebel against the rebels in the northeast and northwest directions. After this power struggle, Zhen Jin's condition further aggravated and could no longer ride a horse. He had to stay until the spring warmed up before embarking on the road to return to the south...

"Did Zhen Jin and the kings just left Helin?" After reading it, Zhao Bing looked up and asked Zheng Huchen.

"Report to Your Majesty, according to the practice of the Khan of the Tartars summoning the kings, the Khan should leave first and then the kings will leave one after another!" Zheng Huchen replied.

"Well, the real gold left Helin in early February, so the other kings were on the way." Zhao Bing took the map casually and expanded it on the long table.

"Your Majesty, I want to start on the way back from the real gold." Zheng Huchen quickly asked with paperweight to help His Majesty press his eyes.

"The biggest threat to us now is not real gold, and there will be some battles after he goes back. What do you think is the biggest threat to us right now!" Zhao Bing shook his head and said.

"Your Majesty... From the perspective of my subordinates, the old places of Sichuan and Dali are the ones that pose the greatest threat to us!" Zheng Huchen looked at the map and pondered for a moment.

"Well, you're right." Zhao Bing nodded and said, "Compared with the two places, I think the old land of Dali poses the greatest threat to us. When the Tartars were unable to break through the defense line between the two Huaihe Rivers, they first took Dali to encircle our dynasty, thus forming a siege. Now that we are regaining Jiangnan, we still pose a threat to our west wing, and the Western Front Corps faces great pressure."

"After we pacified the Jiangnan, the various foreign tribes of Dali rebelled one after another. Your Majesty was worried that after Yesen Timur returned to Yunnan, he quickly suppressed the various foreign tribes, and still posed a threat to our dynasty." Zheng Huchen replied.

"Yes, so we must not let him return to Yunnan!" Zhao Bing slapped the table several times.

"I am going to do this and kill him!" Zheng Huchen said politely...

…………

Zhao Bing discussed with Zheng Huchen until late at night, and before dawn, Zheng Huchen quietly left and returned to the capital. He took a break for a while and then dawned. After practicing with the guards, he returned to the study to process the official documents after breakfast. The top one was still sent by the Ministry of War. After looking through it, he didn't know how to write it. It was not easy to solve this matter. After recovering Jiangnan, in order to deal with the lengthened front line and guarding various places, Zhao Bing ordered a large-scale expansion of the army, and the imperial guards alone quickly expanded to 300,000 people. The rapid growth of the troops inevitably brought many corresponding problems.

The first thing to bear is the lack of weapons. According to statistics from the Ministry of War, although the army expanded to 500,000, there are now 250,000 muskets in the entire army, with less than 60,000 in stock. There are more than a thousand artillery pieces of various types, but they cannot meet the needs, especially the navy. At the same time, in the war to pacify Jiangnan, the weapons loss was also very serious. The logistics department reported that there were nearly 10,000 muskets that needed to be repaired. Although the military weapon supervisor has moved to the capital and restored some of its production capacity, it is still not enough to make up for the shortage.

The recruits are currently undergoing basic training, and the contradictions are not yet prominent. If the armed training is about to be conducted, it will lead to the dilemma of no gun available for recruits. After being added to the organization, it will seriously affect the combat effectiveness, so it is urgently needed. The only solution now is to expand the production scale, which also involves the expansion of supporting workshops such as gunpowder, iron smelting, bullets, and artillery shells, but it cannot be solved in a short period of time.

The second major problem brought about by rapid expansion is the reduction of the quality of the troops. The reason is that the expansion has brought about a shortage of officers. The soldiers who have experienced, especially those who have passed the training camp of the new army, have been promoted, resulting in the serious weakening of the sergeant power as the backbone of the combat force, which has led to the decline of the combat capability of the troops. On the other hand, after the expansion, the new soldiers are still in training, but the lack of troops is serious and it is difficult to undertake combat tasks.

The third major problem is the tight funding. Even if each soldier needs 100 guan a year, it will require at least 50 million guan a year. This does not count as rebuilding the camp, creating new warships, preparing weapons, and being equipped. At present, aftermath also requires a large amount of funds, pensions for deaths, resettlement of disabled people, rewards for meritorious service, and retired soldiers who have served for seven years will also pay retirement funds.

Now that the imperial court returns to Jiangnan, the increase in officials, the construction of cities and the appeasement of the people requires a lot of funds. Now, we can still deal with the past by fighting the local tyrants and the capture of wars. However, this year we have to raise food without increasing taxes and raise funds to deal with wars that may break out at any time, and how to make up for financial deficits and fill the big holes in military spending, which really makes Zhao Bing worry. From the above three major issues, it is not difficult to see that restoring the Central Plains is not a simple thing like a rushing one's arms and a hundred responses. To balance national interests with the interests of the people, there must be extremely complex joints that need to be opened.

Zhao Bing knew that since he had already sat on the throne of the emperor, he could not avoid all kinds of difficulties and could not escape the responsibility of being a ruler. He wanted to fight a bloody path and change the current national policy. This was not a small difficulty, but it was definitely not what everyone thought that the emperor "expressed the imperial edict". What the emperor said was the law, but it was not that true.

Of course, there was no elected legislative body like parliament in ancient China, but the Song people had established a relatively complete "legislative democracy" mechanism. Legislation was not issued by the emperor, nor was it a literati and a literati and official behind closed doors, but had to go through full debates by "people" and choose the good ones to follow. The Song people believed that they would set up the bureau first, and then let everyone make suggestions, and the deletion was required to wait for everyone to discuss. Although there were no legislators at that time, if a legislation received a lot of criticism, it could prompt the court to revise the law...
Chapter completed!
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