Ji Yi must know what to do, of course he is inciting party strife!

If Zhang Dian wants to be liberated, he can't let the court be peaceful. If Zeng Bu, An Tao, Li Qingchen, and Zhao Tingzhi of the New Party don't fight with Han Zhongyan and Fan Chunli, they won't be able to criticize and fight against the party together?

Zhang Dian is not a good person, and when he was on stage, he also suppressed the New Party bigwigs who had different political views from his own. Of course, the people of the new party are not as ruthless as the old party, and they are just kicked out to be Zhizhou if they don't like it.

But this grudge is not small, so Zhang Dian is not protected by those people now, and it is very dangerous.

Only when the old and new parties are bitten together will the big figures of the new party come to protect Zhangdun - lest Zhangdun be criticized more and more and more stinky, and finally affect themselves.

And the Military Science Division, which is about to be abolished, is undoubtedly the best place to set fires.

Because the matter of the Military Science Department is not over yet!

On the twentieth day of the first month, Chongzheng Palace.

The matter of Dutingyi's "demolition" has just come to an end - it's just a paragraph, and when Lu Jia asks for the stage, he will have to take over the fight! The matter of the royal horse straight before the establishment of the palace is on the table again.

When we discussed this a few years ago, we just set a general direction, but now it's time to come up with detailed rules.

The detailed rules were drawn up by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Officials...... Make no mistake, this matter is not under the Privy Council. Before the reform of Yuanfeng, the power of the Privy Council was very large, and it could manage the military attaché and military registration. But now the military attache belongs to the Ministry of Officials, and the military registration belongs to the Ministry of War. The power of the Privy Council has been greatly weakened!

However, when it comes to major military policies, knowing the Privy Council and knowing the Privy Council still have a great deal of say.

On the twentieth day of the first month, Zeng Bu, An Tao, Zhang Qi and others all spoke in unison against the expansion of the scale of the imperial horse in front of the palace.

Because in their opinion, the biggest role of the palace palace is to "suck blood" from the western army, absorb a group of young officers who can fight into the palace palace, and transform them into palace knights who own the manor.

Although this move can establish an elite cavalry directly under the official family in the short term, it will cause a decline in the combat effectiveness of the Western Army.

If the Western Army was defeated by the old party because of this, then the Great Song Dynasty Northern Expedition Yanyun would have no reliable force in the future.

Even if there were thousands or even 10,000 elite light and heavy cavalry, it would be impossible to rely on them to sweep Yan Yun.

"Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that the number of people in front of the palace should not exceed 500, because there is too much land needed to place a knight of the Imperial Horse, 1,500 acres are needed, and 500 people need 750,000 acres! As the population continues to grow today, relative land is becoming increasingly scarce, and taking out 750,000 mu is already the limit. ”

The reason given by Tsengbu is that there is no land! A knight wants 1,500 acres of land, 500 is 750,000 acres, 1,000 is 1.5 million acres, and if 3,000 knights are to be placed, the area will be as high as 4.5 million acres...... It's amazing!

An Tao, the Privy Councillor, also put forward a suggestion: "In the past, when the Han and Tang dynasties expanded their cavalry, they put horse politics first. Only by doing a good job in horse administration can there be enough war horses available. It has never been heard of raising knights and strengthening cavalry, if it is to raise knights and occupy the land of Ma Zheng, it is really a waste of money. ”

Zeng Qi also said: "Nowadays, the land of the herdsmen is still insufficient, less than 10 million mu, less than one-third of the heyday, and the horses they graze are only tens of thousands, which is difficult to supply military supplies. Without horses to ride, where did the elite cavalry come from? Therefore, if Your Majesty wants to build a large cavalry, he still needs to spend effort to do a good job in horse administration, and there is no shortcut to follow. ”

Han Zhongyan stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the herdsmen once raised more than 153,000 horses in the second year of Xining, which is far better than today. ”

"How can there be so little now?" Zhao Ji asked.

"It's all due to the Horse Protection Law." Han Zhongyan replied.

"There is nothing wrong with the Horse Protection Law," Zeng Bu immediately retorted, "Although there are few official horses now, the number of horses among the people has increased greatly, and it is all the work of the Horse Protection Law and the Household Horse Law." ”

"Since the people can raise horses, it shouldn't be a problem for the Cangzhou Knights' House to raise their own war horses, right?" Han Zhongyan said, "Although the herd supervisors now raise tens of thousands of horses, how many first-class war horses are produced in a year? It's not much more than what you can buy from the Jiehe Trading Market, and the cost is very staggering. ”

Han Zhongyan probably means that it is better to buy horses than to raise horses, right?

In fact, the criticism of the herd supervision of horses did not start with Wang Anshi, and many officials wanted to reduce horse breeding to save money. Xiang Minzhong, the grandfather of the Empress Dowager Xiang, once suggested that Song Zhenzong reduce horse breeding, not only selling old horses over 13 years old, but also wanting to sell some strong horses.

An Tao said: "Your Majesty, there are not many horses raised by the herdsmen, and the output of war horses is too small, because there is no way to use people, if you can select capable officials to raise horses, you will definitely get twice the result with half the effort." ”

He still believes in the official camp as always, so he does not agree with Wang Anshi's "Horse Protection Law", and still advocates running horse politics well.

Zhao Ji asked: "Then who is the capable official who can raise horses?" ”

Who knows?

An Tao couldn't answer. Now most of the officials of the Great Song Dynasty can't even ride horses well, and they still want to raise horses well? And An Tao himself doesn't know how to raise horses, he is a citizen of Kaifeng Mansion, and he has never raised any animals except people.

"Your Majesty can issue an edict to ask for talent." Zhang Qi still had more ideas and relieved An Tao of the siege.

"The edict can be issued," Zhao Ji frowned and asked, "But how do I know if the self-recommended officials are good at raising horses?" ”

Zhao Ji can ride horses and horses, but he doesn't know how to raise horses.

"The younger brother of the Queen Mother, after the Zhangde Army stayed, he was the supervisor of the herdsmen, and he was rewarded with several blessings." Fan Chunli got up and said, "It's better to let him know the herdsmen and supervisors, and at the same time be responsible for selecting officials who are good at raising horses." ”

Zhangde Jun was the senior official of Xiang Zonghui after staying, and this brother of the Empress Dowager Xiang was considered to be "a small talent", but there was no big talent, because he was not admitted to the Jinshi! How can there be great talents?

But there is a little bit of a small talent, the horse is well raised, and he can catch thieves, and he caught a "drama thief" when he was a magistrate in Caizhou - it is estimated that it is at the level of Song Jiang! Catch him and catch them all. In addition, he governed the local area well, once engaged in work-for-relief, and took advantage of a famine to renovate the official residence in Caizhou.

Zhao Ji knew about Xiang Zonghui's affairs, nodded and said, "You can let Xiang Zong go back to manage the herdsmen." ”

The second prime minister, Zeng Bu, frowned when he heard this, the group of pastoral supervisors was one of the five eunuchs of the nine temples, second only to the three provinces and six ministries and the Privy Council, which was originally controlled by the officials of the new party, but now it is in the hands of Xiang Zonghui of the old party.

"Your Majesty, can the number of people in front of the palace be limited to 500?" Zeng Bu asked.

Zhao Ji glanced at Han Zhongyan, and Han Zhongyan said: "You can know that Shi Guozhong of Cangzhou and Wu Haogu, the two members of Goudangjiehe City, bought land in Beicang Prefecture, and how much land they bought, how many knights in front of the palace will be placed." ”

Zeng Bu asked: "Han Xianggong, what is the land price for Cangzhou land purchase?" ”

Han Zhongyan said: "How about not more than one and a half per mu? ”

The land price of one and a half per mu is definitely not cheap in Cangzhou, but to buy 750,000-1.5 million mu at a time, it will inevitably increase the land price, so this price is not high.

Zhao Ji nodded, "Just handle it at this price, and first allocate 1 million yuan to the Cangzhou Prefecture Ya." ”

After speaking, he looked at Zeng Bu.

Zeng Bu knew that Zhao Ji was still a little inclined to the old party, so he had to reply: "The minister has no objection. ”

Because of the loss of the herdsmen and the lack of a clear limit on the number of knights in front of the palace, Zeng Bu returned to the Prime Minister's Mansion sullenly, sat in his study for a while, and was about to deal with the official documents to take home, when Zeng Wei's voice came from outside the door.

"Daddy, Ji Yizhi is here."

"Who?"

"Zhang Xianggong's grandson-in-law Ji Yizhi."

"I don't see ......" Zeng Bu didn't have a good impression of Ji Yi.

"Daddy, let's see each other." Zeng Xuan pushed the door and walked in, and saluted his father, "He said that he could go to Cangzhou for his father to do errands, and not let Wu Haogu buy enough land to house the knights in front of the palace." ”

Zeng Wei didn't know the result of today's discussion in the court, but he still knew that because of the bushido issue in front of the palace, there were many disputes between the old and new parties.

"Really?" Zeng Bu thought for a moment, "Call him in." ”

……

When Ji Yi visited the mansion of the second prime minister Zeng Bu, Wu Haogu was also led to Han Zhongyan's mansion by his brother Wu Haowen.

Han Zhongyan was in a rare good mood, and when he saw that the Wu Haogu brothers had arrived, he enthusiastically asked them to eat together.

At the dinner table, Han Zhongyan informed Wu Haogu of the news that the household department would soon allocate 1 million yuan to purchase land to house the knights in front of the palace.

"1 million?" Wu Haowen was taken aback by his father-in-law's words, "The imperial court is also generous this time, right?" ”

"It's a bit too much to spend," Han Zhongyan said with a smile, "but it's worth it to buy warriors from the Western Army." ”

It turned out that Han Zhongyan's plan was to use money and land to poach the elites of the Western Army - this time and space, due to the entry of Empress Dowager Xiaoliang into the court, the relationship between Song and Xia was unprecedentedly relaxed. The value of the existence of the Western Army has been greatly reduced.

So...... According to the ancestral family law of the Great Song Dynasty, it is time to self-destruct the Great Wall!

However, the Northern Song Dynasty court was still relatively kind, and would not unload the mill and kill the donkey, but would only turn the "donkey" into a rich second generation.

So the knights in front of the palace or something, Han Zhongyan didn't care at all, he just wanted to poach the thousands of people who could fight the most in the Western Army...... Even if it costs tens of millions!

Wu Haowen didn't understand, he frowned and said: "But without the elite of the Western Army, how will the official family sweep Yanyun in the future?" ”

"It's enough to have a few thousand and ten thousand elite horsemen," Wu Haogu said to his younger brother, "and there is no need for a hundred and twenty thousand Western troops." ”

In history, didn't Yelu Dashi and Xiao Gan beat the 150,000 army commanded by Tong Guan with thousands of people? This shows that the role of an army of 150,000 is not much stronger than that of an elite cavalry of several thousand and 10,000.

Besides, Wu Haogu never thought about the Northern Expedition to Yanyun - how could he go on the Northern Expedition? It should be the armed doctor group of the Great Song Dynasty to help the Confucian students of the Liao State defend the famous religion! Therefore, there is no need to dispatch 150,000 troops of the Northern Expedition.