PFC Chapter 135 Wanyan Ping's Strategic Vision
Chapter 135 Wanyan Ping's Strategic Vision
With the opening of the Anyang Prefecture Commercial New City, a large number of merchants came to trade, bringing various goods. When they left, they would take Anyang's specialty Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) and fine rice back with them. As a result, Erguotou became a specialty of Anyang Prefecture. Although Anyang Prefecture did not produce liquor, it did not affect their promotion and sales.
With the sale of a large amount of supplies, Li Zhenzhong had to return to the modern world again. After handing over his gold reserves to Cao Hua to sell, he bought a large amount of Erguotou liquor and food supplies and brought them back.
Seeing the large daily business income, Li Zhen was so happy that he couldn't sleep. He even had his gold reserves piled up in his room, where he slept at night. Although the gold bricks looked flat, Li Zhen felt sore all over after sleeping on them for just one night.
Upon waking, Li Zhen rubbed his aching shoulders and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "Looks like this is the trouble of the rich."
Today, Li's army has formed a complete combat system, which includes not only a standing army, but also the elite Dragon and Tiger Battalion, a reconnaissance battalion equipped with modern drones, a transport battalion with a large number of modern vehicles, and a militia that almost all civilians participate in.
Li Zhen felt proud when he thought about these things. His goal was to bring all the people under his jurisdiction into this massive fighting system. Since childhood, he had studied the deeds of great figures of later generations, and now he was striving towards the goal that the great figures had said: "100,000 people, 100,000 soldiers." Although the entire Anyang Prefecture did not yet have 100,000 people, he believed that one day it would exceed that number.
Under the command of Wanyan Ping, the Jin army, numbering 130,000, crossed the Yellow River and marched south along the Grand Canal and Weishan Lake, driving back the Song army led by Han Shizhong to Sizhou. Han Shizhong's troops suffered heavy losses in this defensive battle, and the ever-victorious general Yue Fei was seriously wounded and had to return to Chuzhou for rest and recuperation.
Li Zhen learned through his intelligence network that the Jin army had mobilized over 20,000 naval troops alone. Li Zhen had always believed the Jin people were not good at swimming. However, he was surprised to learn that not only was their inland navy extremely powerful, but their naval forces were also far ahead of their time, sometimes even surpassing the Song Dynasty's Fuzhou navy.
At this time, Haizhou, Xuzhou, Yingzhou, Tangzhou and Dengzhou had all fallen into the hands of the Jin people. Wanyan Ping also earned the reputation of a war god in the Jin Kingdom through this battle. Emperor Wanyan Liang of the Jin Kingdom was very fond of his son and heard that Wanyan Liang had already announced that he would make Wanyan Ping the crown prince of the Jin Kingdom.
Wanyan Cong said to Wanyan Ping in Kaifeng: "Young Prince, why don't we attack Chuzhou and Sizhou? I only need 50,000 men to take these two fortified cities."
Wanyan Ping swirled the Erguotou in his glass, thoroughly enjoying its aroma: "Why attack Chuzhou? That's Zhao Heng's last territory. If we take Chuzhou and Sizhou, will Zhao Gou continue to provide us with money and provisions?"
At this point, Wanyan Ping downed the Erguotou in his cup in one gulp: "These Song people like to fight amongst themselves, so let them fight as much as they want. Although we have conquered such a large territory, we have not yet been able to properly govern and manage these places. Things are different now than before. The land we have conquered this time is the territory of our Jin Kingdom. We not only have to manage it well, but we also have to think about how to turn these Song people into citizens of the Jin Kingdom."
Wanyan Ping glanced at the bottle of Erguotou again and muttered, "We have absolutely no experience in how to manage local areas. I've decided to visit an old friend in Anyang Prefecture in a few days to see if I can recruit him."
Inside the Wende Hall in Lin'an City, Qin Hui excitedly reported on the Jin army's battle situation: "Your Majesty, good news! The Jin army has already reached Sizhou. I heard that Han Shizhong's commander, Yue Fei, has also been wounded. Given time, Chuzhou will surely be conquered by the Jin army as well."
This news brought both joy and sorrow to Zhao Gou. He was overjoyed that his elder brother Zhao Heng was about to lose his last stronghold, but worried that the Jurchens had occupied a large amount of land during their southward invasion. Although he had an agreement with them, he wondered if the Jurchens would keep their promise and withdraw from the original border after dealing with Zhao Heng.
In truth, Zhao Gou himself knew that the Jurchens were never trustworthy, and their smooth southward advance was largely due to his permission to let them pass. However, he was now unsure whether he had let the Jurchens in, and it seemed he needed to find a way to restrain them.
Zhao Gou said to Qin Hui in a deep voice, "Go and secretly contact those Mongol envoys. Although it is inconvenient for me to meet with them, you go in my place and express the goodwill of our Great Song Dynasty to them."
Qin Hui was somewhat bewildered: Aren't we currently on good terms with the Jurchens? How can we possibly make contact with the Jurchens, their arch-enemy, at this time?
"Your Majesty, we are currently allied with the Jin Kingdom. If we were to meet with the Mongol envoy at this time, it might be detrimental to us if word got out."
Zhao Gou was furious: "I'm letting you see them secretly, not openly. Don't let anyone else know."
Seeing that Zhao Gou was angry, Qin Hui did not dare to ask any more questions, but simply nodded and left.
When Qin Hui arrived at his office, he summoned a servant and said, "Quickly deliver this letter to Kaifeng Prefecture. It must be delivered to the young prince in person."
The attendant was originally someone the Jurchens had placed by Qin Hui's side. Without asking why, he directly sent the letter to the north through his own channels.
This letter was written by Qin Hui in his carriage after leaving the palace. In it, he explained in detail Zhao Gou's instruction to contact the Mongol envoys and also clearly outlined the Song Dynasty's latest military deployments. In Qin Hui's mind, he had long considered himself a Jurchen, believing that the powerful Jurchen army would one day destroy the Song Dynasty, and he would then become a great hero of the Jurchens.
As Zhao Gou requested, Qin Hui arrived at the post station where the Mongol envoys were staying that very evening, and met the two envoys in a secluded room.
To his surprise, one of them was a Han Chinese. However, he wasn't too surprised, since he was secretly a Jurchen himself.
The scholar named Wan Hanzhong spoke up: "This junior from Hanzhong greets Prime Minister Qin. This is the Mongol envoy, Naza. We have been in Lin'an for almost a month now, and we are fortunate to finally meet you today, sir."
As he spoke, Wan Hanzhong quietly pushed a gift list over: "This is a small gift for my first meeting with Prime Minister Qin. I hope you will not find it offensive."
After glancing at the gift list out of the corner of his eye, Qin Hui said while sipping his tea, "Actually, I consulted His Majesty before coming to see you this time. Do you know how much effort I put in to get His Majesty to agree to see you?"
Wan Hanzhong said with a smile, "Thank you for your hard work, sir. In addition to the items on the gift list, I will also pay a special visit to your residence in a few days."
The man standing nearby watched all this with a cold eye. He loathed the insatiable Qin Hui. If this were in Mongolia, he would have cut off Qin Hui's head and made it into a urine container.