Chapter 266 Eyes are red
Yelu Zhongyuan did not return to Beijing. In the eyes of the Liao Emperor, it was just a show of pretense to show off to the nobles who had lost their troops.
I don’t think there is any problem.
Everyone has different interests, looks at problems from different angles, and reaches different results.
In Zhao Xing's view, the Liao Emperor's behavior was a bit stupid, but from the Liao Emperor's perspective, the more Yelu Chongyuan was unwilling to return to Beijing, the more it showed that the nobles who had lost soldiers and horses had a negative attitude toward Yelu. Zhongyuan was very dissatisfied.
Otherwise, Yelu Chongyuan would not have resolutely wanted to send troops to the Song Dynasty to take revenge on the Song Dynasty in order to give them an explanation.
"The Prime Minister thinks, will Liao be in chaos?" Zhao Xing asked.
Hearing this, Han Zhang shook his head and said: "It's up to people to plan things, and it's up to God to succeed. If Yelu Zhongyuan succeeds, the Liao Kingdom will be in chaos. But if he fails, the Liao Kingdom will only be in chaos for a while, not How long will it last?"
The official didn't care whether it was a big or small chaos in the Liao Kingdom, and said: "The Grand Prime Minister had previously proposed to build a Great Wall on the northern border to connect the border towns as a barrier. After careful consideration, I decided this. It's just that the Liao Kingdom will not sit back and watch the Song Dynasty build the Great Wall. If the Liao Dynasty is in civil strife, it will be a good opportunity.
Yelü Chongyuan has obtained the secret recipe of perfume. If he wants to do it, he should do it in the near future. This matter should be settled early!”
"What your Majesty said is absolutely true, but it's freezing in the north now. Even if we want to prepare, we have to wait until spring next year." Han Zhang said.
The south is mountainous, but collecting stones from the south and transporting them to the north requires too much manpower and material resources.
There are still many mountains in the north, and stone mining can only be done from the north.
It’s just that it’s freezing in the north, so it’s not convenient to mine at this time.
The beginning of spring is followed by spring plowing. There must not be a lot of warnings for the people, they can only wait until the spring plowing is over.
"I am worried that Yelu Zhongyuan cannot wait until that time. If the construction of the Great Wall is not completed and the civil strife in Liao subsides, the Liao Kingdom will definitely send troops." The official frowned.
"Father, I don't think I need to worry."
Zhao Xing smiled and said: "If Yelu Chongyuan really succeeds, the civil strife in Liao will not be quelled so quickly. And the ambition of the Xixia king No small matter, they are now reorganizing their internal affairs and preparing to launch troops against the Tibetan tribes on the plateau. When the time comes, the Liao Kingdom will not sit idly by.
With Xixia in check, even if the civil strife in Liao is quelled, they may not send troops against the Song Dynasty. br>
This is a rare opportunity, so I can only take a gamble. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work out. At worst, the accumulated stones will be used to raise the border city. ”
"What His Highness said is exactly what I wanted to say. If you miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to find opportunities in the future." Han Zhang said.
The official muttered: "In that case, let's take a gamble. The Grand Prime Minister will formulate detailed regulations first, and then start preparations after the spring plowing next year."
"Yes!" Han Zhang responded. .
…………
Because it was certain that the Liao Kingdom would not raise troops to invade the border, the officials directly issued an order to summon the British public division to return to the court.
In mid-December, less than half a month before the New Year, the British Duke led his army back to Bianjing.
Zhao Xing personally led officials from the Ministry of Rites and went out ten miles to greet him.
Although it is said that it was the Liao cavalry that was annihilated and cannot be publicized to the outside world, the higher-ups know what is going on.
This time, nearly ten thousand Liao cavalry were wiped out, and their own losses were not large. It was already a rare victory.
The prince personally welcomed him and gave the soldiers a great honor.
Zhao Xing personally read out the imperial edict and awarded rewards to the meritorious generals.
The rewards were not many. As the general, the British princess was only rewarded with an imperial village and some gold, silver and cloth.
Based on their merits, some of the other generals received some gold and silver rewards when they were promoted to a higher level, and some simply received only gold and silver rewards.
After reading the imperial edict, the army returned to the camp in the western suburbs, while the British generals followed Zhao Xing into the palace.
Today the official family held a banquet to entertain the meritorious soldiers.
For ordinary soldiers, this is a moderate victory, and they can get some rewards.
Moreover, this expedition lasted for more than two months. During this period, they were able to get full pay, and the family could barely live a good year. They were happy, but not very happy.
Ordinary soldiers of the Imperial Army of the Song Dynasty are divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. Different levels have different salaries.
For example, the upper-class imperial army has a salary of one thousand yuan per month, which is one tael of silver. In addition, there is food, which is converted into money, which is about two taels of silver per month.
The total amount of medium money and food is about 1,500 yuan.
The inferior ones only have about a thousand cash.
It looks like a lot, but due to the economic prosperity of the Song Dynasty, there was some inflation.
And with this small salary for soldiers, they still need to support a large family.
A good man should not be a soldier, this sentence was vividly displayed in the Song Dynasty.
Although the Song Dynasty adopted a recruitment system, the sources of soldiers were very complex.
It can be roughly divided into three sources. One is to be exiled to the army by tattooing, that is, if someone breaks the law and the crime is not serious enough to die, they will have the word "exile from the army" tattooed on their face.
The second is to distribute and exile the army. At first glance, it sounds the same as to assassinate and exile the army, but it is actually different.
Assassination is committed by criminals who have been tried, but those who are sentenced are rogues.
These people will be sent to join the army if they are idle and disrupt public order.
The last source is also the main source of soldiers, and that is the refugees.
A total of more than 400 uprisings broke out in the two Song dynasties. This is recorded in historical books, and there must be some omissions.
The two Song dynasties only lasted for more than 300 years, with an average of more than one uprising breaking out every year.
After these uprisings are put down, everyone cannot be killed, and resettlement will become troublesome.
So the young rebels and the homeless people who were homeless because of the rebellion were recruited into the army.
As a result, only some old, weak, women and children are left, and they cannot rebel.
This part occupies the bulk.
But such soldiers hardly have any land at home and can only rely on their salaries to support themselves. It was barely manageable at first.
But as more and more teams entered, the pressure on the court became increasing.
So the imperial court thought of a way. Soldiers usually received half pay, and they could only receive full pay when they were guarding the border or fighting.
The military strength of the Song Dynasty was getting weaker and weaker. Although it was due to the corruption of the upper class, it was not unrelated to this.
If a soldier cannot even support his family, who will fight to the death on the battlefield?
What is it about serving the country? How can soldiers who cannot read or write have this consciousness?
The idea of ordinary soldiers is very simple. They are soldiers just to eat the royal food.
Who cares who the emperor is and who owns the world if he can’t fill his stomach with the emperor’s food.
The number of deserters in the army has been increasing in recent years.
Fortunately, they won the battle this time and were somewhat rewarded.
However, when the soldiers returned to the military camp and learned about the reward, they were in an uproar.
This time the meritorious soldiers were actually rewarded with fields.
Depending on the number of enemies killed and the merit, you can get three to five acres of land.
Of course, only those with enough merit will be able to do so.
Of the 50,000 soldiers and horses brought by the British Duke this time, only less than 5,000 were rewarded with fields.
The rest only received a small reward of money.
Even so, the other soldiers were jealous.
No matter how good an acre of land is, it is worth several taels, and a better one can be worth more than a dozen taels or even dozens of taels.
The Han people always have a different kind of emotion towards their fields. If there is nothing they can do about it, most people who have fields will not sell it for takeout.
Those landlords and gentry sell their land in parcels, not in pieces of one or two acres or several acres.
Even if they have money, it is difficult for them to buy land.
As soon as the news came out, the soldiers who had not received the land reward were very upset.
I hated myself for not killing two more enemies. Maybe they would be rewarded with fields.
Not to mention them, the rest of the soldiers in the western suburbs camp had red eyes after hearing the news.
If troops are sent to the battlefield at this time, these soldiers will probably rush to get there, and they will be brave and fearless even if they go to the battlefield.
Don’t think it’s outrageous. For Kuhaha, what he fears is not death, but poverty.
There are some deserters every year, and many of them are caught and executed in public, for the purpose of shock.
Even so, there are still many deserters every year.
Why do some people risk their lives to escape?
It’s not just because you can’t support your family as a soldier, some people would rather risk their lives to escape and find another way out.
Although most soldiers do not have the courage to escape, they are still dawdling in the army. Who will fight for their lives on the battlefield?
After all, if they die on the battlefield, the court will not provide much pension, and it will be difficult for the whole family to survive.
But now that one is rewarded with land for meritorious service, who cares about his own miserable life?
After the pensions for soldiers who died in battle came out, many soldiers even clamored to fight.
For soldiers killed in battle, their families will be compensated with ten acres of fertile land as a pension!
And these ten acres of land will be tax-free for ten years!
Is ten acres of land a lot?
It’s really not much, the annual harvest is just over a thousand kilograms of grain.
Meat is scarce, and it is normal for an adult man to eat several kilograms of grain a day.
After all, it is only enough to feed an adult man.
But how can ordinary people have enough to eat every day these days?
Ten acres of land are enough for a family of three to five people to survive on a frugal diet.
Ten years later, the children will have grown up and will be able to think of other ways to make money to support the family.
Ten acres of land is not much, but it gives them no worries.
…………
Because the officials were in a good mood, they drank a few more drinks during the dinner.
The banquet was over, and I was a little tipsy, so I went back to the palace to take a nap.
At this time, Eunuch Liu reported the situation in the western suburbs camp to the officials.
After hearing this, the officials were also speechless.
It was Zhao Xing who proposed to reward meritorious soldiers with fields this time.
Although the progress of counting the acres of fields is not particularly ideal, many hidden fields have been identified.
These fields will naturally belong to the imperial court.
There were no rewards before because there was no land at all.
Otherwise, young people would not be recruited into the army because they could not resettle the refugees.
The Song Dynasty had been at peace for so many years, but it maintained an army of more than one million, which overwhelmed the court. Didn't the officials want to disarm?
It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t.
Behind each soldier represents a family. After being laid off, these soldiers’ families will have no land. How will the family survive?
If the army were to be reduced by 200,000 people, the number of family members behind them would be at least one million.
How much trouble would it cause if so many people lost their source of livelihood?
(End of this chapter)