Qionglin Palace, Jinming Pond, blue waves.

A huge painting boat like a building boat slowly walked on the water, and you could faintly hear the faint sound of silk and bamboo coming from the painting boat. After nightfall, Jinming Pond becomes extraordinarily quiet, and the golden autumn evening breeze is gentle, which makes people feel extraordinarily comfortable.

Wu Haogu's face turned pale, as if he had just been frightened.

He didn't want to enjoy the beautiful dancing of the harem and the night view of Jinmingchi outside the window, he just stared directly at the official Zhao Ji who was sitting opposite him and tasting wine.

"Your Majesty, the minister can't fight!"

Zhao Ji smiled, "Gao Yu won't either, don't you still play well?" Besides, don't you still want to recover Yanyun for me? How can there be no war? How can you recover Yanyun if you can't fight? Let's go to the West Thief to practice first. ”

Wu Haogu is really in trouble this time, and he has caused the traitorous ministers to be harmed! After he returned to Kaifeng Mansion today, he took Bai Feifei to Qionglin Palace to have fun with Zhao Ji as usual. And Zhao Ji also treated him as usual, and invited him to visit Jinming Pond at night, and let the dancing girls in the palace perform dances.

This favor is really no one.

But after three rounds of drinking, Zhao Ji talked to Wu Haogu about the things before the Northwest Army. Actually, it's a problem with the house! Gao Yu's reward is too high, as high as 3,000 sets of three-bedroom buildings, and the value is afraid to be tens of millions......

Wu Haogu naturally has a way, 3,000 houses is a lot, but it has not reached the point where it can't be taken out. He has seen the prosperity of the Great Heavenly Empire in the later generations!

And his method is to expand the city of Kaifeng! In the west wall of Kaifeng Mansion, it was expanded to the west, pushed to the west of Qionglin Palace, and expanded a "Kaifeng New District". The urban area expanded in this way, not to mention 3,000 houses, is ten or twenty times more than that.

Moreover, Wu Haogu also proposed a plan to demolish the original inner city wall of Kaifeng Mansion and build a new inner city in the southwest corner of Kaifeng Mansion - the demolition of the inner city wall will have a "ring line", which can greatly ease the traffic in the inner city area of Kaifeng Prefecture. In addition, many houses can be built on both sides of the "ring road", which is the most valuable shop!

Of course, Wu Haogu's plan to expand the city of Kaifeng still has another unknown purpose.

He wanted to build a new fortress-like inner city for Zhao Ji. The walls were made of red bricks, stones, rammed earth and marble from the boundary river, and must be impregnable. The core of the inner city will be the Qionglin Palace, and there will also be a commercial area, a residential area for hundreds of officials, an elite residential area and barracks, a Biyong Xue Palace (New Taixue), Taifu Temple, a military supervision and other important government offices.

When the expansion of Kaifeng Mansion and the completion of the new inner city project, Zhao Ji will not have to live in the old palace, but can move to Qionglin Palace for a long time!

As for the problem of food supply for the population that may increase after the expansion of Kaifeng Prefecture, Wuhaogu also has a ready-made solution, that is, to increase the scale of grain transportation from the north to the south. From the current 1.5 million stone of wheat a year, to 2 million stone of flour a year - for this purpose he also plans to encourage the development of the flour processing industry in Jiehe Commercial Market.

Later, the wheat in Liaodong that was transported to Jiehe could be processed into flour and then transported south.

But contrary to Wu Haogu's expectations, Zhao Ji actually proposed to let Wu Haogu be the Marquis of Yu, the two straight capitals, and go to the northwest front to command the palace in front of the royal horse and the dragon warrior to fight......

……

"But the minister is in Jiehe Business City, and there is still a big mess of things in Jiehe City......"

Wu Haogu cried and made excuses for himself - he really didn't want to go to the northwest! In his opinion, it was much more difficult to defeat Western Xia than to recover Yanyun. Because the recovery of Yanyun was 20 years later, by that time, the official rank of the Wuhao Gu Lianjie envoy would be there! There is no doubt that he can replace Tong Guan as Xuanshuai.

Moreover, he can also infiltrate and operate the Yanyun region through Jiehe Shang City, and he can also establish a force subordinate to Jiehe Shang City. Therefore, the difficulty of Xuanfu Yanyun is actually not very great.

As long as he can grasp full power, send troops in the name of aiding Liao when Northern Liao falls, and force the Jin soldiers to retreat under Yanjing City, he can appease Yanyun Haoqiang and the remnants of Khitan. The sixteen states of Yanyun were included in the territory of the Great Song Dynasty.

And now he is going to the northwest to lead the troops, but he is the Marquis of Yu, and what he can manage is 8,000 soldiers and horses - he is not worried about the matter of command, he is much more advantageous than Gao Yu, because he has already collected a lot of military talents in Jiehe Shang City. It's possible to form a staff group!

In addition, generals such as Tong Guan, Wang Yu, Yang Keshi, and Yang Kebi also have certain abilities. So commanding a force of several thousand people is not a problem.

But the situation in the Western Army is too complicated now! The internal situation is intricately intertwined, and there are still two ways in the upper echelons to compete for merit, and it is even more involved in the party struggle between the new party and the old party in the DPRK and China. It's not an exaggeration to say it's a mud pit!

"Da Lang," Zhao Ji didn't know how big the pit on the front line of the Western Army was, and said to Wu Haogu with a smile, "This matter was brought up by Cai Jing, and I didn't think it was appropriate at first." But when I think about it, I think this is an opportunity to make meritorious contributions. ”

It turned out that Cai Jing wanted to harm me! The hatred in Wu Haogu's heart! No wonder Cai Jing will be called the head of the six thieves in later generations, and he is really a villain......

Zhao Ji's self-feeling was good, and he continued to say to Wu Haogu: "Now that the Northwest victory is imminent, we will definitely be able to capture the states on the banks of the Wuding River!" As long as you can boost the morale of the two elites, you will definitely be able to make great achievements. When the time comes, it's time to add Yao County to you...... 27-year-old Haruka! Are you afraid that there will be no captain to do it in the future? If Yanyun can be recovered, he can also be crowned king. ”

The "Tai Lieutenant" that Zhao Ji said is not the water injection Tai Lieutenant who is screaming at the people below, but the head of the martial arts rank of the second grade!

It's the captain again, and it's the king again, it seems that he is still sincere, and he is a little embarrassed to say that Wu Haogu.

But he also knew that Cai Jing must have a back move! Most of the targets are Jiehe Business City and Jiehe City Bosi!

This is my own roots!

Thinking of this, Wu Haogu frowned, and said with a solemn face: "Your Majesty, the minister knows your hard work, but Jiehe Shang City and Jiehe City are the foundation of the minister...... If it is poached, there will be no way for the minister to do things for His Majesty. ”

Zhao Ji smiled and nodded: "The Battle of the Northwest can't be fought for too long...... The Jiehe Merchant City is yours, and I won't let anyone else touch it. As for the city, you can recommend someone to do it temporarily. Whoever it is, I'm right. You can rest assured, right? ”

Can you rest assured? The opponent is Cai Jing!

Can you say that you are not at ease? Zhao Ji is an official! The officials all patted their chests, and if they didn't worry about it, they would be embarrassed......

Wu Haogu sighed in his heart, stood up, and bowed to Zhao Ji: "The minister is willing to go to the northwest to conquer the city for His Majesty!"

But the minister has a small request! ”

"Let's talk," Zhao Ji smiled, "Da Lang wants to be very deep, just open his mouth." He pointed to Mei Ji who was dancing, "It's the dancing girl who has taken a fancy to me, and I will send you too." ”

Wu Hao Gu said: "The minister doesn't want His Majesty's dancing concubine, the minister wants to recruit hundreds of utilities by himself to make up for the lack of two direct troops." ”

The so-called "utility" is actually divided into two types: "utility" and "brave utility". The former is actually the private soldiers of the generals, and most of them are filled by the sons of the clan or the strong men among the customers. Many Western army generals have raised a large number of utility soldiers, who are used to charge into battle or give advice.

The brave utility is the national soldier, but he does not need to enter the camp, and he will only concentrate during the quarterly review, but it is more of a temporary recruitment of the brave effect, and it will be disbanded after the war. In fact, it is a kind of mercenary outside the regular army. Because the power of recruitment and dismissal is delegated to the hands of the generals or civilian officials who lead the troops, there is a little bit of the meaning of soldiers as generals, so the combat effectiveness is also stronger than that of ordinary forbidden armies.

"Good! You are allowed to raise your own utility...... A few hundred is too little, but one or two thousand is fine. Zhao Ji nodded with a smile and picked up the wine glass, "I wish Qing a victory!" ”

……

"Did you promise the official?"

"Promised!"

In the afternoon of the next day, Wu Haogu, who had left Qionglin Palace, went to Su Dongpo's Prime Minister's Mansion and told the Ersu brothers about his being Yin by Cai Jingyin.

Su Zhe frowned, "How can you agree?" You don't know how to fight, so what if something goes wrong? ”

Wu Haogu glanced at Su Zhe, who didn't trust him much, and smiled bitterly: "The younger generation has his own way to deal with the war." ”

When he came out of Qionglin Palace, he sent Zhou Yunqing to immediately go north to the Jiehe River, and asked Murong to forget his worries and go south. When it comes to war, Old Man Murong is an expert, at least a tactical expert!

"Do you really have a solution?" Su Dongpo looked at his students - if he wanted to write an article or something, he could help, fight, hehe, Su Dongpo wouldn't either.

"Yes!"

Su Dongpo said with a smile: "Then don't worry about Cai Jing, there is a promising teacher to watch, he can't make it bad." ”

Su Zhe shook his head and said: "Cai Jing may not be intentionally bad, but the military affairs of this dynasty have always had the disadvantage of being hindered in many ways. The larger the scale of the use of troops, the more serious this problem becomes. When Zhang Dian was in power, he could also fully support Zhang Kai, so that the Northwest Military Order was unified, and Zhang Kai was also able to play. But now that Cai Jing is in power and the two marshals in the northwest are competing for merit, it is unlikely that he wants to win a big victory. ”

Su Zhe is always very pessimistic about military affairs, in his opinion, the system of the Song Dynasty is so that it is not suitable for the use of soldiers at all.

He sighed again and said, "But Da Lang, you are not without a chance, I am afraid that it will be difficult for Zhong Fu on the West Road to make great achievements now, but Tao Jiefu on the East Road can still make contributions for the time being." Da Lang only needs to accept it when he sees it, and he can still fish for a Yao County in the northwest and come back. ”

Su Zhe is an old bureaucrat who has been in power for many years, and he is very clear about the number of roads in the officialdom. Now that the Xining army on the Northwest West Road has eaten enough, they didn't want to fight anymore, and they were disturbed by Zhong Fu, and their sharpness has been lost, and everyone wants to preserve their merits. Although the Jingyuan army has not yet made meritorious contributions, how can it be possible to break through the right wing army of Western Xia by relying on the soldiers and horses along the Jingyuan road?

On the contrary, when the armies of Yanyan, Hedong, and Huanqing on the eastern front saw the great victory on the western front, they were all eager to try and make meritorious contributions, and most of them could make a good start...... If you can accept it if you see it, it will also make this Songxia battle have a good result.