Of course, Tao Jiefu has a way! In "History of the Song Dynasty", this master is a resourceful demon, and the nickname of Zhi Duoxing should not be given to Wu, just press him.

When he joined the army in Guangzhou, he didn't know what tricks he used to catch Yang Yuan, a thief who had escaped from prison repeatedly, and made this thief willing to surrender. Later, when he knew Xinhui County, he was hit by Zhang Qixiang, who knew about Guangzhou, and entered the shogunate, and followed him all the way to the northwest to make contributions.

In the years when he was working in the shogunate, Tao Jiefu did not squint comfortably in the castle behind, but went deep into the front line many times, although there is no record of the battle, but he is very familiar with the terrain of the Hengshan and the Wuding River, and it can be said that he knows it well.

In addition, when Zhang Qi supervised the army in the northwest, he paid great attention to intelligence work. The Battle of Hengshan was able to win a great victory because he mastered the movements of the Empress Dowager Xiaoliang's army. And the intelligence collection work of the Zhangqi shogunate was also in charge of Tao Jiefu.

Therefore, Cai Jing found him to rob Wang Hou and Gao Yu of the credit, and he really found the right person!

"Xia Guan has two strategies!" Tao Jiefu said: "First, recruit Renduo to be loyal!" ”

"Who?" Cai Jing was shocked when he heard this, "What Zili said is the right wing of the Western Thief, Zhuo Luo's supervising army, the great patriarch of the Renduo clan, Renduo is loyal?" ”

"That's right! That's him! ”

The location of the Zhuo Luo Supervision Military Division in the right chamber is close to Lanzhou, and the station is Zhuo Luo City. It is the big stronghold of Western Xia at the entrance of the Hexi Corridor, and once it falls into the hands of the Song army, it is possible to split the Xingling region and the Hexi region of Western Xia in two!

And this is not the most deadly, the most fatal is the defection of the Rendo family. At the beginning of the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty, it was based on the big clans, with the big clans such as Weiming, Weimu, Xiangli, Yeli, Wuzang, Renduo, etc., and later the Liang family arose. However, due to the fierce internal political struggle in Western Xia, the major families have been repeatedly purged, and the Weimu, Yeli, Wuzang, and Liang clans have declined one after another, while the Renduo clan has not been hit because it is relatively far away from the political center of Xingzhou, and has now become the second largest family in the Western Xia Kingdom after the famous royal family, with a large number of clan soldiers.

The base of the Renduo family is in the northwest of Lanzhou, at the junction of Western Xia and the Great Song Dynasty and Tsongkha Tubo.

Once the Renduo family defected, the Great Song Dynasty could not only cut off the traffic between the east and west sides of Western Xia, but also get a large number of Renduo cavalry!

"Renduo Baozhong was single-handedly raised by Empress Dowager Xiaoliang," Tao Jiefu said with confidence, "The last right wing Zhuoluo supervisor and the head of the Renduo clan, Renduo Weiding, is not Baozhong's father, but Baozhong's uncle. Without the support of Empress Dowager Xiaoliang, Bao Zhong would not be able to be the prison army and the patriarch. There is a courtier in this dynasty! How could Qianshun, the lord of the Western Xia Kingdom, look down on the people in his mother's entrainment?

Moreover, Chu Qing, the son of Renduo Weiding, because he did not be the superintendent and patriarch, took more than 40 members of his family to the Xihe Jingluo Division in October of the first year of Yuanfu, and was also awarded the official position of Ganzhou regimental training envoy and inspection envoy in Zhuoluo area of the right wing. His return to the Song Dynasty not only allowed the Renduo family to have a pro-Song faction, but also gave us a way to contact Renduo to protect his loyalty. ”

"If Renduo is loyal to Shun, we will be able to cut off the Hexi Corridor?" Cai Jing asked.

"No," Tao Jiefu shook his head and said, "Although the strength of the Renduo clan is not weak, they can't resist the main force of the Western Thieves after all—once the Hexi Corridor is in danger of being cut off, the Western Thieves will definitely fight back with the troops of the whole country." And our troops on Xining Road are limited, which is not enough to break the main force of the Western Thieves in Hexi. ”

"Then what's the point of us recruiting Renduo to protect his loyalty?"

"You can mobilize the main force of the Western Thieves to go west!" Tao Jiefu said, "The deployment of the western thieves has always been real and false, in order to prevent us from seizing the Wuding River Valley, heavy troops have been deployed in Yinzhou, Shizhou, Xiazhou, Youzhou, Hongzhou and other places. Once the main force of the western thieves in the Wuding River Valley is transferred westward, we will be able to seize it in one fell swoop. As long as we take both sides of the Wuding River, we will be able to tuntian there, so that Xingzhou will be under our troops. ”

In fact, after the Song army took the Hengshan-Tiandu Mountain area, the passage to attack Xingling Erzhou had been opened. However, the long logistical line constrained the Song army's movements, making them unable to launch a decisive attack on Xingling Prefecture.

And to solve this problem, Tuntian is undoubtedly the only way. However, the land in northern Shaanxi is barren, ravines are crisscrossed, and water resources are scarce, so it is difficult to find suitable areas for tuntian. The Wuding River Basin is actually quite barren, but it can still be cultivated.

“…… Tuntian can use Xinfu soldiers," Tao Jiefu then suggested, "Xinfu soldiers do not bring their families, except for their own rations, the rest of what they get can be handed over, and it is a big deal to make up some money to encourage farming." Moreover, they can be allowed to practice martial arts while farming, and when the time comes to send troops to attack Xingzhou, these government soldiers can at least act as transport soldiers. ”

"Good! Good! That's a great plan! ”

Cai Jing stroked his palms and smiled: "Zili is really resourceful...... After the Shangyuan Festival, the old man will recommend you to the official family to know Yanzhou, if you succeed in recruiting Renduo to protect your loyalty, you will be allowed to lead the affairs of Yanyan, Huanqing, Jingyuan, and Hedong! ”

……

"Da Lang, what do you think of Wang Hou?"

"It can be of great use! But ......"

"If you have something to say, just say it."

"But it's not easy for him to establish a great deal in the northwest."

"Why?"

"Because the minister felt that on the one hand, he had no foundation in the Western Army, and he was not a general of the Western Army after all; On the one hand, there is not much backstage in the DPRK and China. When I get to the northwest, I'm afraid that there will be many constraints, and it will be difficult to let go of it. ”

In the first year of the Yasukuni Dynasty, on the morning of the seventh day of the first lunar month, in the second stage of the imperial martial arts, when the imperial knight performance was in progress, Zhao Ji talked about Wang Hou with Wu Haogu, who was standing beside him, - Wang Hou himself commanded the cavalry drill with Gao Yu at this time. said that it was "together", but in fact, Wang Hou was directing alone, and Gao Yu was pretending to be on the side.

And Wang Hou must have the ability, although he has not been in contact with these imperial knights for a long time, but with his many years of leading troops in the northwest, and being good at using the ability of cavalry, he can still command them well to conduct queues and actual combat exercises. However, Wu Haogu did not say too many "good things" about Wang Hou in front of Zhao Ji because of this.

Because he knew that Wang Hou was not a figure who could level the major mountains of the Western Army at all, and each general of the Western Army had its own system, what kind of generals, Yao generals, Liu generals, Zhejia generals, and so on. And Wang Houyi, a native of Jiangxi, is not a person in the Western military system at all. Even if he has been in the Western Army for half his life, he is still a piece of sand mixed in.

If he was a civil official from a jinshi, it would be better, but if he was an important minister like Zhang Ji and Lu Huiqing, with the support of the new party faction behind him, the generals of the Western Army would not dare to be disobedient.

But Wang Hou is a military attaché, and his party color is not prominent, and he has inherited the bad temper of his father Wang Shao, who is not likely to flatter, and he doesn't seem to get along very happily with his colleagues.

"Da Lang," Zhao Ji asked Wu Haogu while watching with relish as the knights on the martial arts arena lined up in a horizontal formation and charged with horses in hand, "Since you think it is difficult for Wang Hou to establish great achievements, why did you let Wu Er go to the Xining army?" ”

Wu Haogu smiled: "It is difficult to build a great achievement, but the two states of Hehe and Huang can still be restored...... When the time comes, Erlang will be able to change to a Beijing official. As for Wang Hou, as long as Qingtang is not recovered, those generals of the Western Army will still obey his command. ”

"It's good to be able to restore the river and the two states." Zhao Ji nodded and said with a smile, "When the time comes, we will recall Wang Hou, Wu Er, and my imperial elite." ”

"Your Majesty."

Zhao Ji is of course very holy now, and he also knows the emptiness of the Northwest Treasury, and understands that it is impossible to support a long-term war with Western Xia. So he just wanted to take the land of Qingtang Horse Grazing in order to form more cavalry.

……

"What does Your Highness think of the knights of the Song people?"

It was He Zhengdan of the Great Liao State who asked this question to repay Xiao Bao'en, and the object of his questioning was the envoy of Western Xia, Wei Mingchage.

Xiao Baoen once sent an envoy to Western Xia, and he also knew Brother Cha, the younger brother of the lord of Western Xia, and he also heard that this brother of Qianshun was very talented in leading troops, so he asked this question.

"General." Brother Cha frowned and said, "The skills of these Han knights on horses are not bad, but the war horses under their crotches are still a little worse, about four feet five inches tall at the shoulders, right?" ”

The Song Dynasty still lacked war horses! Even with the help of Jiehe Shang City, the knights who settled in Beicang Prefecture could only use four feet and five inches of horses as war horses, that is, a little more than 140 centimeters high at the shoulders.

Brother Cha glanced at Xiao Baoen and said lightly: "Your envoy should recognize that those knights are Khitan horses, right?" ”

The Khitan horse is about the Mongolian horse of later generations, with a large head and short neck, a strong body, a wide chest and a long mane. There are still differences in appearance with the Hebei horse and the Hequ horse, which were more common in the Song Dynasty.

Of course, ordinary people can't see it, but Chage also grew up on horseback, so he still has this vision.

Moreover, he also knew that the Jiehe Commercial Market, which was co-founded by Song Liao, had now become a source of horses for the Song Kingdom. Every year, I don't know how many Khitan horses flow into the territory of the Great Song Dynasty through there......

"It's just a few horses," Xiao Baoen smiled casually, "and it's just one person and one ride...... It's not easy for the Song people to do this, but that's it. ”

The imperial knights are still grass-created, and there are not many horses on the Zhuangzi of each family, and it is not easy to come up with 1,000 "war horses" and 2,000 secondary horses in this meeting.

But such a configuration really went to the northwest, and it was not enough to meet an iron harrier of Tsushima for a day.

And Xiao Baoen also understood the meaning of Brother Cha leading the topic to the Jiehe Commercial Market - Brother Cha wanted to remind Liao Guo not to sell too many horses in the Jiehe Commercial Market! lest the cavalry of the Song Dynasty develop and grow.

But this thing is really not easy to do, because the interests involved in the Jiehe Commercial Market are too many and too wide, and it is not that it can be banned......