When Xialibo left Wanyan tribe with his people, Zhao Yan and others went out to see him off. Most of the people in Wanyan tribe had a smile on their faces. In their opinion, every time the patriarch went out to trade, he could bring a lot of supplies to the tribe. It was precisely with the support of these supplies that they could survive the hot and cold winters again and again, allowing the tribe to continue.

Su Shi, Zhou Tong and others were also very happy, because as long as Xu Shan contacted the people of the Imperial City Department this time, the suspicion of Wanyan's tribe could be completely dispelled, and thus the other party began to negotiate alliances with the Song Dynasty. By then, the day they would be not far away for their return.

However, compared to other people, Zhao Yan looked at the gradually distant Xialibo, Xu Shan and others, but he felt a little irritated for no reason, as if he was in a big trouble. This made Zhao Yan very uneasy. He carefully sorted out everything from beginning to end, but in the end he did not find any omissions, and everything was developing in a good direction. This made him shake his head and temporarily put this irritability behind him.

Xie Libo only took away the young and strong tribes, which did not have much impact on the Wanyan tribe, which had tens of thousands of people. So after sending out Xie Libo, the people in the tribe continued to live their own lives. The men went out to hunt together, the women picked wild fruits and carried water to cook, the older children learned the ability to survive with their parents, and the younger children ran wildly in the tribe.

Su Shi, Zhou Tong and He Li also went out to hunt. Yelu Si and Gu Tou returned to their place to make clothes. Zhao Yan went to Gu Tianjie to chat with each other. Through these days' understanding, Zhao Yan found that Gu Tianjie was not only a nationalist, but also very knowledgeable. He definitely did not read a few books as he said. He also had his own unique views on some things. However, because he stayed in the closed environment of Wanyan's news for too long and did not know much about the external situation. Whenever Zhao Yan told him about the external situation, Gu Tianjie would quickly express his own opinions on it and analyzed it very thoroughly, which also made Zhao Yan quite respectful to Gu Tianjie.

"Mr. Gu, a country has existed for a long time. There will always be problems of one kind or another. For example, the Liao Kingdom has been on a downward trend over the years. Although our Song Dynasty is known to be rich in the world, there are also many questions. In summary, it is just three major problems: redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses. During the Renzong period, Fan Xianggong wanted to carry out reforms in the Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, it failed due to various reasons. Now the call for reforms in the Song Dynasty has revived. What do you think of this?" Zhao Yan suddenly thought of the upcoming Xining reform today and asked Gu Tianjie.

When he heard Zhao Yan ask about the dilemma faced by the Song Dynasty, Gu Tianjie smiled disdainfully and said, "Actually, in my opinion, the three redundant things in the Song Dynasty are not a problem at all, and it is even the advantage of the Song Dynasty. However, the Song Dynasty did not know how to use this advantage, so it turned this advantage into a disadvantage."

"Oh? Mr.'s statement is very novel. Please tell me in detail!" Zhao Yan was also very surprised when he heard this. Whether in his previous life or later life, it was the first time that others said that the three redundant things in the Song Dynasty were advantages rather than disadvantages.

Gu Tianjie was a sharp-looking person in his early years. Later, after suffering a great loss, he gradually learned to be cautious in his words and actions. However, now he feels that he has not had a long time to live. In addition, Zhao Yan not only has a special identity, but also is willing to listen to his strange views, so Gu Tianjie is also very willing to discuss issues with Zhao Yan.

Gu Tianjie pondered for a moment, organized the language and finally spoke: "The so-called redundant soldiers, redundant officials and redundant fees, among which redundant fees are only problems derived from the first two redundant, so the three redundant only has two redundant. To put it bluntly, it is actually a country's overpowering military and officials, which makes the finances unable to be maintained, which has caused various problems."

"Mr. Gu's analysis is good. This is indeed the essential reason for the three redundant!" Zhao Yan also exclaimed when he heard this. Later generations have made many analyses on the three redundant issues in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the conclusions drawn are almost no different from what Gu Tianjie said now.

Seeing Zhao Yan agreeing with his own point of view, Gu Tianjie also smiled with relief and said: "If you want to solve the problem of redundant soldiers and redundant officials, ordinary people may use two aspects: one is to reduce the number of soldiers and officials, and the other is to increase fiscal revenue. However, no matter which aspect it is started, it is not an easy task."

When he said this, Gu Tianjie paused for a moment and then said: "For example, reducing the number of soldiers and officials, among which soldiers are easy to deal with. The Song Dynasty emphasizes culture over military forces. As long as the reduced soldiers can be settled, there is no need to worry about the soldiers causing trouble. However, officials are completely different. The officials are the officials who manage the country, and the officials who carry out reforms, and the relationship between officials is mixed. If someone dares to cut officials, it is an enemy of all officials, so this matter is almost impossible to complete."

"Compared to reducing soldiers and officials, increasing fiscal revenue should be considered relatively simple, but this is only relatively speaking. Although the Song Dynasty is known to be richest in the world, a large part of the finances of the Song Dynasty were obtained through franchise operations, such as salt, iron, wine and other goods, which were all specialized in the government, and most of the profits were taken away by the government. It is precisely through these income that the Song Dynasty can support the huge army and officials."

"However, the Song Dynasty's approach was to compete with the people for profit, which made most of the wealth of the Song Dynasty flow into the treasury every year. In this way, it would be even more difficult to increase the treasury income of the Song Dynasty. Unless the method of Sang Hongyang was used to forcefully seize the small amount of wealth flowing into the people, this could increase the income of the court in a short period of time, but the consequences were very serious, even if the people were living in poverty and the country was in turmoil, which led to the disaster of destroying the country!" When Gu Tianjie said this, his face became very serious.

When Zhao Yan heard this, he couldn't help but feel silent. Although the Xining reform a few years later was mainly aimed at "financial management" and "restoring the army", and it did have some results at the beginning, the essence of this reform was actually like Gu Tianjie said, and it was a change of direction to concentrate the wealth of the people into the hands of the country. In this way, the country was rich and the people were poor, which also made ordinary people very reluctant to the new law. In addition, the improper employment of people and other reasons, which ultimately led to the failure of the reform.

Zhao Yan was silent for a moment, and finally suddenly raised his head and asked Gu Tianjie: "I wonder if there is any way to solve the problem of Sanhuang. Why is Sanhuang an advantage rather than a disadvantage for the Song Dynasty?"

"Hehe, maybe in the eyes of others, there are only two methods to solve the problem of Sanrong, but as long as you jump out and look at this problem, you can find the third method." Gu Tianjie smiled proudly again at this time.

"Oh, what's the solution?" Zhao Yan asked anxiously when he heard this. Because of his arrival, some changes have occurred in the Song Dynasty, but the problem of Sanrong still plagues the future development of the Song Dynasty.

"In fact, this method may not be worth mentioning. In my opinion, the biggest problem of the Song Dynasty is not the three redundant, but the military problem. To be precise, the population growth of the Song Dynasty has exceeded the national affordability. Therefore, for the Song Dynasty, if we want to quickly solve domestic problems, the best way is to expand outward. After the territory expands, redundant soldiers and redundant officials will no longer be a problem, but will become an advantage. Unfortunately, the Song Dynasty has only a huge army, but it has been defeated repeatedly during foreign wars. This is the biggest problem of the Song Dynasty!" Gu Tianjie said with a firm look on his face.

Zhao Yan couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, thinking that Gu Tianjie is worthy of being a scholar who grew up in the Liao Kingdom. Although he learned the art of Confucius and Mencius since childhood, he was still influenced by some Khitans. He is afraid that those orthodox scholars of the Song Dynasty would never think of it in their entire lives if they advocated the use of foreign wars to divert domestic conflicts.

However, Zhao Yan quickly shook his head and said, "Although this idea is good, the Song Dynasty has been weak in military affairs for a long time. Whether it is against Liao or Xia, they have lost more than the battlefield. I am afraid that it is more difficult than the first two methods to change this situation?"

"Your Majesty, you are wrong. It is not very difficult to change the military weakness of the Song Dynasty. The key is whether your Song Dynasty royal family has the courage to do it?" Gu Tianjie shook his head and said.

"How do you say this?" Zhao Yan was a little confused when she heard this.

"The prince may not know that the soldiers of the Song Dynasty are actually not inferior to those of the Khitans and the Xixia people. When fighting against foreign countries, small-scale wars often win, but whenever a large-scale war occurs, the Song Dynasty is losing sight of one thing. Even if its own military strength is several times that of the enemy, it is finally defeated by a few enemies. Do you know what the reason is?" Gu Tianjie said with a smile. When he was in the Liao Kingdom, he had a detailed investigation of all parties in the Song Dynasty because he was in love with the Song Dynasty, especially in the military aspect, which was the top priority.

"The quality of soldiers is not bad. Small-scale wars can win, but large wars are defeated. The only reason is that there is something wrong with the command of the army." Zhao Yan also showed a sudden realization when he said this. He finally knew what the reason was. When the Song Dynasty fought on a large scale, because of his distrust of military generals, he often sent civil servants to be commanders. It would be better for civil servants who understand military affairs to let their generals play their own freely, but there is no need to think about cooperation. Civil servants who do not understand military affairs may command randomly. Not only will they not have any effect, but they will also give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it. In this case, it is a damn thing to be able to win a battle.

Seeing the expression on Zhao Yan's face, Gu Tianjie continued to smile: "It seems that the prince has understood that if you want the Song Dynasty to change its weakness on the battlefield, you must delegate power to the generals and prevent civil servants from interfering in the military. This may arouse the opposition of many civil servants, but as long as the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is willing to do it, it is not impossible. I just don't know if your Song Dynasty royal family has the courage to hand over the army to the generals?" (To be continued...)

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Chapter completed!