Imperial Palace, Chongzheng Palace.

With the release of a group of old party ministers who can't speak, listening to political questions has become quite a fun thing again...... At least today's official Zhao Ji looked quite happy, sitting on the throne, the smile on his face couldn't be hidden.

The reason that made Zhao Ji happy was that Cai Jing had just taken a recital of "Shangshu begging and abolishing Empress Yuanyou". It makes a lot of sense!

What Cai Jing means is that this Empress Yuanyou was abolished by the first emperor, and whether it should be abolished or not, it is always a fact that it is abolished! Moreover, the procedure after the abolition of the first emperor was no problem, and it was also supported by the prime minister at the time.

Of course, the Empress Dowager Xiang disagreed, but the Empress Dowager Xiang did not listen to the government at that time, so she had no right to stop the abolition. After the abolition of Empress Meng, the procedure for establishing Empress Liu was not flawed at all, and it was also supported by Zhang Dian. Although Empress Dowager Xiang didn't like Empress Liu, she didn't abolish Empress Liu when Empress Dowager Xiang herself listened to the government. This shows that in the eyes of Empress Dowager Xiang, Empress Liu's status is also legitimate.

Then since Empress Liu is a completely legitimate empress, then the reinstatement of Empress Meng is not legitimate—how can an emperor have two surviving empresses? This is not a posthumous seal, but a lively queen. Isn't this a husband having two wives? And he also got a second wife after the death of one husband...... This is obviously against human ethics! It's incest! How can such a thing be? If it is not corrected, then can the people of the world follow suit? Will you have to be monogamous in the future?

Cai Jing said that neither the Three Platforms and the Five Constants nor the laws of the Great Song Dynasty would allow monogamy and the dead to marry the living.

As for whether Empress Meng was framed - the reason for abolishing Empress Meng was the "Fushui Incident" - that was not enough to justify the restoration of Empress Meng. After all, there are many reasons for the separation of couples in the world caused by misunderstandings, is it because of misunderstanding that divorced couples can get back together unconditionally, and then have polygamy? What if this divorced woman remarries? Do you want polyandry?

“…… The minister thought that His Majesty might as well treat the Meng family favorably, provide for it preferentially, make him happy and rich, and enjoy the glory for the rest of his life. At the same time, he took back the name of the queen and invited her back to Yaohua Palace. ”

Cai Jing shook his head and tail, speaking triumphantly, completely ignoring the several almost burning gazes in the main hall that shot at him.

It is very difficult to cook Cai Jing with his eyes, of course, it is Han Zhongyan and Fan Chunli, the bigwigs of the old party. Although they had long known that Empress Meng would not be able to keep it, they still had a little illusion. I hope that there will not be any important ministers of sufficient weight to initiate this matter, so that it can be delayed for a while. Maybe it's going to turn around with a drag!

After all, the current old party is not without a little way - the knights of the Jiehe, the house slave warriors, and the government military system that is being tried in Jingzhao Mansion are all presided over by the old party!

If these three projects are completed, Li Gefei and Shi Guozhong, two officials of the old party, will definitely be able to enter the DPRK and be of great use. Li Gefei's qualifications are deep enough, and his daughter Li Qingzhao is a confidant of the official family, so she will definitely be able to recommend the second government when the time comes......

At that time, even if the crisis of the old party passes, even if Empress Meng is deposed, it will not hurt people's popularity too much.

But this illusion was shattered today by Cai Jing, a traitor!

"What Cai Qing said is deeply in line with my intentions!"

Zhao Ji knew that abolishing Empress Meng was stepping on the sore feet of the old party, so he didn't wait for Zai Zhi to express his position one by one, he first expressed his position, and then set his sights on Zeng Bu, the second prime minister.

"Your Majesty Shengming!" Zeng Bu immediately got up and spoke, "The minister also thinks that Empress Yuanyou should be invited to live in Yaohua Palace. ”

His words were more polite than Cai Jing's, and he didn't directly mention the abolition, but the meaning was the same.

As the leader of the New Party, Zeng Bu's statement was like waving a flag, and Xu Jiang, Li Qingchen, Wen Yi, An Tao, Jiang Zhiqi, Zhao Tingzhi and others expressed their support for the abolition of Empress Meng.

In the entire hall, only Han Zhongyan and Fan Chunli, the two old party leaders, did not express their position - if they did not express their position, they just acquiesced! Although they hate it so much, as a reasonable gentleman, there is really no way to refute Cai Jing's views.

After all, in "Wenqu Xingxun", the truth has been made very clear!

It seems that the gentlemen in the court really need to set up a newspaper like "Wenqu Xingxun Bao" to wave the flag for themselves......

Zhao Ji didn't go to see the two leaders of the old party, but said: "Then the Hanlin scholar will draft an edict and ask the Meng family to go out of the palace to live." After Meng left the palace, he was treated preferentially. ”

After saying his decision, Zhao Ji, who was a little weak-hearted, did not wait for the Hanlin Bachelor to receive the order, so he directly picked up the piece handed over by An Tao, the secretary of the Privy Council, and gently unfolded it and put it on the desk.

"An Qing, you said that the treasury of the Sixth Road in the northwest is empty, there is a shortage of food in the army, the supply is very tight, and the situation is grim...... Is it still viable? ”

The supply of Shaanxi Sixth Road, since the beginning of the rebellion of Li Yuanhao in the Renzong Dynasty, has been a big problem. Although the Southeast Sixth Road can ship more than 6 million stone rice grains to the Central Plains a year, Kaifeng Mansion and other large cities in the Central Plains have to eat a considerable part, and the rest is ashore from Luoyang Baibo, and then transported thousands of miles, and the consumption on the road is extremely large.

In the years after Emperor Zhezong came to power, Shaanxi Liulu fought a great war year after year, and although it was victorious, it also depleted the reserves accumulated over the years. When Yuan Fu used troops to Qingtang in the second year, even Zhang Dan's brother Zhang Qi opposed it on the grounds that the treasury was empty and the military food was scarce.

It can be seen how tight the supply of Shaanxi Sixth Road is!

"Your Majesty, because the situation in the northwest is stable at present, there is no major problem for the time being." An Tao said, "But from the perspective of prevention and prevention, we should still speed up the stockpiling of supplies and military supplies in the northwest." ”

"How many quartermasters do you need to stockpile?" Zhao Ji asked.

"The more grain and grass, the better," An Tao replied, "Western thieves are often invaded by the whole country, so the Sixth Road of Shaanxi must dispatch hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians to resist, and if 100 catties of rice grain are consumed in one month, at least more than 400,000 stone rice grain will be needed in one month...... This is still for people to eat, and if you count the horse feed, the consumption of 500,000 stones is a bit tight. If the attack lasts for two months, it is necessary to prepare at least one million stones of rice and grain before it can be supported. ”

"That's how much a million stones?"

When Zhao Ji heard the number of millions of stones, the good mood of just abolishing Empress Meng suddenly disappeared.

"Your Majesty," Jiang Zhiqi, a member of the Privy Council, echoed An Tao, "even if there are millions of stones, it is not enough." If you want to use the army to use the spirit of the army, you need 10 million stone reserves! ”

Now the initiative in the northwest battlefield is actually completely controlled by the Song army, and it is impossible for Western Xia to cross hundreds of miles of Gobi to send troops. In the past, when Empress Dowager Xiaoliang used troops in Hengshan, she needed to reserve materials in advance in the stronghold of the Western Xia army on the front line of Hengshan, so as to support hundreds of thousands of people to fight for a period of time.

If the Western Xia army dragged a logistics line of hundreds of miles, then the troops they could put into the front line were probably only tens of thousands, which was not enough to shake the defense line of the Song army.

Of course, if the Great Song Dynasty wanted to destroy Western Xia, it was necessary to send hundreds of thousands of troops to attack Xingqing Mansion and Lingzhou City. If you don't conquer the capital of other people, how could Western Xia perish by itself?

And there is no shortcut to attacking fortified cities like Xingqing Mansion and Lingzhou, and the hard fighting of several months or even the siege of more than a year is a real hard fight.

Therefore, the storage of 10 million stones of grain is probably really a prerequisite for opening the war of annihilation in the northwest!

At this time, the Song Dynasty had more than one billion acres of land, and it was not that 10 million stones could not be scrapped, but there was no way to transport these grains to Shaanxi. And the barren appearance of Shaanxi, of course, can't make up so much food. To be able to accumulate one or two million is already very remarkable.

In other words, if the Great Song Dynasty wanted to destroy Western Xia, it would have to store at least eight million stone of grain in the grain depot on the northwest edge!

"Can taking the route of transporting grain from the north to the south solve the problem of grain from the northwest?" Zhao Ji frowned.

"Your Majesty," replied An Tao, the Privy Councillor, "the only way to transport grain from the north to the south is to send rice and grain to Baibo in Luoyang, and there are at least more than 1,000 to 2,000 miles from the west of Luoyang to the edge, and there is no canal for water transportation, so it is very difficult to transport it." If there is a stone of grain and grass shipped from Baibo, it is not easy to have 15-20 catties to reach the front line of the border.

If Your Majesty really intends to inherit the remnants of the previous emperor and the giant thieves in the northwest, then you should start sending grain and grass to the west from now on, hoarding reserves, and not slacking off a little. ”

The efficiency of water transportation is incomparable with land transportation, even if it is an inland river boat, a ship of 500 materials can be loaded with 400 stone of rice grain, and it can be replaced by at least more than 100 horse-drawn carriages. And the consumption of more than a hundred carriages is not at all comparable to that of a 500-material ship.

If it is transported thousands of miles on the water, the food eaten by the sailors is negligible. If you take the land route and use horse-drawn carriages to carry it, use the relay transportation method to set up a transit station every 200 miles, and in the best case, the delivery rate of 2000 miles is less than 20% - that is, 80% of the grain and grass are consumed by the wagons and grooms transporting grain.

According to this delivery rate, 8 million stone of military rations should be stored on the northwest front, and at least 50 million stone of military rations should be transported to Baibo...... This figure is equivalent to the total number of shipments of the Six Routes Shipping Division for eight years!

In other words, as long as the combat effectiveness of the Song army did not have an overwhelming advantage over the Western Xia army, it was almost impossible to achieve the goal of destroying the Western Xia by relying on numbers and national strength!

Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty spent decades fighting a tug-of-war with Western Xia in the northwest, and in the end it was completely normal that it was not able to destroy Western Xia. It's a miracle to be able to destroy it! Historically, Genghis Khan was so bullish that he conquered Western Xia six times and finally destroyed people. How could the Northern Song army destroy Western Xia with a short-term all-out attack?