Chapter 1017: The monarch and his ministers are obsessed with peace talks, and the officials are suspicious
In order to allow Zhou Chen to lead the army with peace of mind, Zhao Zhen had to reward Zhou Chen again.
He was awarded the title of Taibao to Prince Zhou Chen, General of Hussars, General of the Liao Dynasty, and was granted the title of Duke of Liang.
When Zhou Chen received this imperial edict, he couldn't help but sneered a few times.
This official of our Song Dynasty did not learn much about the domineering ambition of the king. This suspicious character is very suitable for the emperor.
He was a Taiwei before, but now he has become the Prince's Taibao. The Prince's Taibao is of a very high rank, reaching the first rank, but in terms of actual power, he cannot compare with the commanders in front of the palace.
What was the purpose of taking away his position as the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Palace and giving him the position of Crown Prince and Taibao?
Needless to say, the empty-handed military officer and hussar general, the general of the Liao Dynasty, will this position be useless when the war is over?
As for Liang Guogong, his rank is several levels higher than that of a marquis. But the problem is that the hereditary Dukes will be lowered one level from one generation to the next. After three generations, if they no longer have the title, they will not even be able to retain the title of marquis. How can they compare with hereditary Dukes?
The title of Marquis of Zhongyong in vain?
Zhao Zhen's little thoughts were clearly visible in his heart, but Zhou Chen didn't show it. His main goal now is to complete the side mission first, and he will wait until the other tasks are completed.
When I studied history before, I knew that the emperors of the Song Dynasty were more weird and cowardly than the last, but that was history after all.
But now after experiencing it personally, he realized that the Song Dynasty was a dynasty that was glamorous on the outside but a mess on the inside. Not to mention compared to the Tang and Ming Dynasty, even compared to the short-lived Sui Dynasty, it was still worse than the short-lived Sui Dynasty.
Zhao Zhen, who will be honored as the 'Emperor Renzong' in the future, has really been brainwashed by the civil service group. Those civil servants slapped him in the face, but he could endure it and still responded with a smile.
.
But as for me, I helped him destroy Xixia, solved the threat on the Song-Xia border, and resisted the invasion of the Liao army. Now he has to face the angry Liao army again.
As a result, Zhao Zhen was lucky. The battle had not even started yet, and he had already started plotting against him.
He is really good at fighting internally, but he is a coward externally.
However, Zhou Chen has no time or energy to think about this now. All his energy is now focused on the Liao Kingdom.
In the previous attack on Xixia, he made a calculated plan without any intention, and planned it for a year. Finally, he was able to destroy Xixia in one fell swoop and capture the founding emperor of Xixia alive, which can also be said to be the emperor who destroyed the country.
The Xixia in this fictional world is not as powerful as the Xixia in the official history. It can defeat both the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom.
The predecessor of Xixia, the Dingnan Army, was wiped out once by Zhou Chen. Therefore, although Xixia was established, the emperor who established Xixia was not the same person as the founding emperor of Xixia in history, and his strength was far inferior, so he was defeated by Zhou Chen.
After more than a year of planning, the country was destroyed with less than 200,000 troops.
But the Liao Kingdom was different. The Liao Kingdom's military power was stronger than that of the Song Dynasty. Although the Song Dynasty had a large population and a vast territory, it almost never won a few battles against the Liao Kingdom.
Because the living habits of Song people and Liao people were different, it was extremely difficult to send spies to Liao.
Although Zhou Chen had already made a plan, the intelligence sent back to him by the spies sent to the Liao Kingdom was limited, and even fewer could touch the core resources of the Liao Kingdom.
Based on the collected information and his own analysis, he roughly came to a general result.
The most prosperous period of the Liao Kingdom should be the era of the previous emperor Liao Shengzong. At that time, the Liao Kingdom's military strength and standing army were three to four hundred thousand. If the whole country was to use its strength, it could reach seven to eight hundred thousand, nearly one million.
many.
However, as the current emperor Yelv Zongsheng succeeded to the throne, internal strife broke out within the Liao Kingdom, and the national power has gradually weakened, and it is no longer what it was twenty years ago.
The Liao Kingdom's standing army now has 300,000 people. Even if there is a national war, it can only have 500,000 to 600,000 people.
It's just that many of the Liao's armies were elite, especially their cavalry, which were even more invincible.
Zhou Chen could despise the Liao army strategically, but he would definitely pay attention to it tactically.
Now, as the general of the northern expedition against Liao, he has summoned more than 200,000 troops from all sides in the north. The number of troops is absolutely sufficient, but the elites are far inferior. They can fight against the Liao cavalry.
Cavalry is even rarer.
In short, this battle is not easy to fight.
If he could just repel the Liao army, Zhou Chen would be 100% sure, unless the Liao army went crazy and launched a desperate attack.
But if you want to take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun from the Liao Kingdom, or even attack the capital of the Liao Kingdom, the difficulty will increase exponentially.
"Father, this is what Uncle Jiu sent."
Zhou Bai, dressed in black armor, walked into the mansion and handed the letter in his hand to Zhou Chen.
Two years have passed, and Zhou Bai is no longer a member of the Guards, but a general of the cavalry battalion.
Of course, this was wartime, and he would usually study with Zhou Chen. Everyone in the army knew that he was Zhou Chen's son.
Zhou Chen did not deliberately hide this matter. If Zhou Bai couldn't bear this pressure, it would have been in vain for him to train him for so many years.
Zhou Chen took the letter, opened it and read it. Soon, he frowned.
This is the intelligence sent back by Lei Jiu, saying that the Liao Kingdom sent an army of 150,000, with Xiao Hui as the chief general and Yelu Zongyuan as the deputy general. They came from Shangjing and went straight to the Song and Liao border.
Zhou Chen also had a certain understanding of the Liao Kingdom and knew who Xiao Hui was. He was a descendant of a famous general in the Liao Kingdom. He was over fifty years old this year. He was a very famous military general in the Liao Kingdom and was extremely good at cavalry combat.
He participated in many battles between Song and Liao, including the battle of the Chanyuan Alliance.
Yelu Zongyuan is the younger brother of Liao Emperor Yelu Zongsheng. Although he is young, he is also a fierce character who cannot be underestimated.
Of course, the most important thing is the 150,000 troops, half of which are cavalry. Once tens of thousands of elite cavalry enter the battlefield, their lethality is really terrible. If they charge, even the 200,000 troops may not be able to stop them.
Liveable.
He would not doubt Lei Jiu's information. Lei Jiu had been with him for nearly thirty years and would never betray him, so this information was absolutely credible.
But just like this, he frowned. An army of 150,000 was not terrible. He had experienced more wars, but the cavalry of 60,000 to 70,000 was really terrible. If the Liao cavalry was not destroyed, they would have no chance of winning.
Although he had a headache, Zhou Chen was still confident. If he didn't even have confidence, there would be no way to recover the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun.
"The cavalry is not invincible."
Zhou Chen had several ways to deal with cavalry in his mind, some were unusable, but some were usable.
Let’s not go too far, let’s just say that General Yue’s method of dealing with the Jin cavalry can be used in the future. However, this method can be used to deal with heavy cavalry, but not light cavalry.
The Liao Kingdom mainly relied on light cavalry, so just one method was not safe. It also needed to train heavy infantry, equipped with heavy weapons such as sabers...
With the war approaching, Zhou Chen could only use the shortest possible time to start training the army, looking for craftsmen, and forging weapons.
In fact, the population of the Song Dynasty far exceeded that of the Liao Kingdom several times, but the Song Dynasty emphasized culture over military affairs, resulting in a weak domestic military power.
The military strength of the Song Dynasty was not small, but the status of warriors in the Song Dynasty was not high. There were fewer wars in recent years. It was very difficult to get promoted through military exploits.
If things go on like this, many military attaches have no room for advancement, and naturally they cannot raise their ambition to fight. As time goes by, the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army becomes worse and worse.
Decades later, the Jin Kingdom invaded Bianjing, captured the second emperor alive, and destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty. It was simply a shame for the Central Plains Dynasty.
Throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, there are really few dynasties as weak as the Song Dynasty.
…………
Zhou Chen originally thought that the battle with the Liao army would be a difficult battle, but to his surprise, in the first collision between the two sides, the Song army led by him achieved an astonishing victory, killing thousands of people.
The Liao people captured thousands more alive and defeated the Liao army.
Zhou Chen was stunned by this battle. What about the Liao army that they promised to be invincible? Why did they end up like this in the first battle?
But he quickly realized that it was not that the Liao army was too weak, but that they were underestimated.
In the previous battles between Song and Liao, the Song army was no match at all and had almost no victories. The Liao army that invaded last time was destroyed. What they thought more about was not that they were incompetent in combat, but that they were defeated by the despicable Song people through conspiracies and tricks.
Therefore, in the first battle with an army of 150,000 men, he still underestimated the Song army and suffered such a defeat.
Although it is strange, this should be the most reasonable explanation.
After suffering this defeat, the Liao army was obviously much more cautious and began to use light cavalry to clear the way. Even though Zhou Chen was well prepared, he still suffered heavy losses in the face of the charge of the Liao army's cavalry.
The Liao army is the invading party. Zhou Chen cannot just defend. With the mobility of the Liao army, if they are not blocked, they can use their flexible mobility to bypass the Song army and invade the hinterland of the Song Dynasty. By then, the people of the Song Dynasty will
Suffering a bloodbath.
Therefore, Zhou Chen knew that the Liao army's cavalry was unstoppable, but for the sake of the innocent people of the Song Dynasty, he had to lead his army to stop the Liao army's offensive.
The Song army outnumbered the Liao army, and coupled with Zhou Chen's iron-blooded orders, no one on the battlefield retreated. No matter how strong the Liao army's cavalry was, they could not break through the Song army's defense line.
But as a result, the number of casualties suffered by the Song army far exceeded that of the Liao army.
Zhou Chen has been on the battlefield for a long time and is used to seeing life and death. He knows that in order to win, casualties are inevitable, so he can be ruthless.
His son Zhou Bai, on the other hand, has seen too many lives and deaths these days, and his spirit is a little dazed, and his character has not yet been tempered.
This time was different from the last expedition against Xixia. Under the command of Zhou Chen, that battle almost ended with a crushing victory. But this time, although they were able to withstand the Liao army every time, they even continued to repel them.
To be continued...