Zhao Ting originally thought that he had led troops and commanded several large-scale battles over the years, and had also been in local politics for many years, and he was already very experienced in governing the country and dealing with external threats, but after studying with his father in the past few months, he found that he had serious shortcomings, especially after listening to his father's words just now, he felt that his knowledge and intelligence were insufficient.

Zhao Ziliang's words did open a new door for Zhao Ting, making his thinking broader and his view of problems more far-reaching.

Zhao Ziliang said again: "Tell me about your views and understanding of a country's military strength!" ”

Zhao Ting pondered for a moment and said: "A country's military strength is mainly backed by economic strength and armament forging technology, while the army itself is mainly based on the number of troops, establishment, combat effectiveness, and the generals' command and command ability!" ”

"How is the combat effectiveness of the army reflected?"

Zhao Ting said: "Individual combat skills and tactical execution, overall cooperative combat ability, weapons and equipment, and combat will!" ”

Zhao Ziliang asked: "How is the overall combat capability reflected?" ”

"As long as it is reflected in the overall coordination and combat capability, logistics and attack capability, troop matching, and commander's talent!"

"How to strengthen the army's will to fight?"

Zhao Ting said: "Strengthen study, training, and patriotic ideological education and so on!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was still very satisfied with this son's answer, and said: "There is one more thing you didn't say, military thought!" As a soldier, we can not always only eat the old books left by our ancestors, we can learn and learn from the military thinking and wisdom left by our ancestors, but our descendants must also create new military ideas according to the changes of the times! In terms of military technology and operational tactics, we must not rest on our laurels and be good at learning the enemy's good tactics. For example, the West's large-scale warship construction technology and naval training methods and combat methods are all worthy of our study, and after learning them, we should absorb them that suit us, improve and innovate them, and discard those that are not suitable for us! ”

"Well, we just talked about the domestic and foreign political factors of the decline of the dynasty. Now let's talk about economic factors, in fact, natural disasters are also included in economic factors, if natural disasters for many years cause a large area of grain production, cotton and linen production, which will cause the people to lack food and clothing, the output of the land is the main body of the economy now, once a large-scale natural disaster is encountered, it is a very fatal blow to the economy of my Datang. The state of the economy depends on creativity, productivity and business prosperity! In the current situation, our Datang is the largest economic system in the East, as long as there are no problems in our internal economy, then even if other surrounding countries with weaker economic strength than us have problems, it will not affect our economy! On the contrary, our economic prosperity or weakness affects other countries around us! ”

Generally speaking, a politically stable country, its economy will not be worse, but if the political situation is chaotic, the economy will inevitably weaken, if the internal conquest of each other, where do the people and businessmen dare to do business everywhere? The slowdown in trading and currency circulation is a direct manifestation of the recession! ”

"In fact, the most prosperous period of a dynasty's economy is not when politics is the clearest and officialdom is at its best, but when there is widespread corruption in officialdom. In order to speed up the accumulation of wealth, merchants, officials' families and heirs, nobles, and relatives of the emperor used all kinds of means to coerce and induce corrupt officials, so that officials colluded with them, and escorted their illegal acts through the government, and wealth was rapidly concentrated, and if the productivity and creativity were not improved, and the overall wealth did not increase or depreciate, then it was the people and the court who would be harmed. The court has no money, the officials can only be more greedy if they can't get their salaries, the army does not have enough salaries and military expenses, the soldiers will mutiny, and the people will lose their land due to the collusion of officials and businessmen, the large number of mergers of the rich and the aristocracy have caused countless peasants to lose their land, lose their sources of livelihood, eat the last meal and not the next meal, after a long time, it will inevitably lead to riots, and the chaos in the world will be formed, and the foundation of the court will begin to rot, and the speed of decay will be very fast! ”

Zhao Ting was born at the end of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, experienced the Tianbao Rebellion, and can be said to have a deep understanding of this, he humbly asked: "Please also ask my father to teach me, what kind of decisions should I make to maintain the prosperity of the dynasty during this period, but will not damage the foundation?" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "When the economic development reaches a bottleneck period, there will inevitably be problems in the governance of officials, and a prosperous economy will definitely breed, which is a natural law." It is no longer useful to spend the main mind on economic development, and what we need to do in the economy is to protect the existing achievements, maintain steady development, and solve the fundamental problems in the management of officials, and anti-corruption and rectification have become the only choice! The anti-corruption and rectification campaign must not be carried out too drastically, let alone too radically, and there must be rules in action. The father has the power of life and death in the court, but the father did not order the killing of a person in the process of anti-corruption and rectification this time, and did not issue an order to sentence a person, even Lu Qi, Guan Bo, Yu Xin and others were only demoted, and the murderers were all Dali Temple and the Criminal Department, all of which were the laws of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the attitude of anti-corruption and rectification must be resolute, and it must not be too radical or too intense, but it must also maintain a high-pressure posture for a long time, so that those who are lucky will not dare to take a step beyond the thunder pool! As long as no one reports it, the relevant yamen will not investigate casually, which can make those problematic officials and generals take chances and not take risks, and at the same time, it is also a chance for those people to turn themselves in and reform themselves! ”

Zhao Ting was shocked or shocked in his heart, and said sincerely: "Father is far-sighted and far-sighted!" ”

"Besides, the influence of military factors on the decline of the dynasty, the decline of the dynasty is by no means only a single factor that played a major role, but the result of the combined influence of many factors. The period when the army's combat effectiveness was strongest was by no means the strongest period of the dynasty, the most powerful period of the dynasty, whether it was the government or the army, there had been a large-scale problem, and the army's combat effectiveness had declined because of the generals and officers in the army. Once military discipline is lax and daily drills are abandoned, the will of the leading generals and officers will be corrupted, which will lead to their greed for life and fear of death, and the big men above are greedy for life and afraid of death, what will happen to the soldiers? Will the soldiers still be afraid of death? The combat effectiveness will inevitably decline, the will to fight will also decline, and some people will even start to resell military funds, ordnance equipment, and weapons! ”

"Freezing three feet, not a day's cold! Even in the period when the army's combat effectiveness is at its strongest, it is impossible to avoid the existence of problems of one kind or another, and as long as there are problems, we must be able to discover them in time and find ways to solve them. No matter at any time, the military discipline of the army can not be relaxed, this is the fundamental guarantee for maintaining the combat effectiveness of the army and being able to mobilize the army in a timely manner, even if there is a big problem in the governance of the officialdom, no matter how hard the high-level of the dynasty fights, even if there is a situation of division in the locality, even if you are ousted from the throne, as long as you can control the army steadily, everything is not a problem, and some people are in vain even if they make trouble! So, at no time can there be problems with the army! ”

Zhao Ting nodded and arched his hand: "The teachings of my father are remembered by my son!" ”

Two days later, Gao Shang recommended Zhao Ting, the king of Xianyang, to serve as the servant of the door and the secretary of the ministry, Zhao Ziliang replied, agreed to the noble recommendation, and ordered Zhao Ting to be appointed as the secretary of the ministry, but did not let him ascend to the sky one step, and did not let him be the prime minister, the prime minister's sign is to add the title of Pingzhangshi under the door of the same book, Zhao Ting does not have this title, so he is not the prime minister.

Now the shrewd ministers can see that Zhao Ting, the king of Xianyang, as the son of the regent Zhao Ziliang, is only afraid that he will be on the throne, and the official department Shangshu can be said to be the heaviest yamen among the six departments of the imperial court, which is in charge of the appointment and dismissal of officials in the world, and Zhao Ting is the boss of this yamen.

Zhao Ting was originally sent, he was the special envoy of the Qin Mission, and the bosses of the three divisions and yamen were under his jurisdiction, and in the words of later generations, he was the head of the public procuratorate and the secretary of the political and legal committee. Now that he is in charge of the organization department again, this is a terrible thing, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that the regent is deliberately cultivating him, and he wants to help him to the rhythm of the throne.

For a while, there was a sudden rush of traffic in front of Zhao Ting's mansion, one wave of officials had just left, another wave of officials had come, and many local officials had also come to visit him when they got the news.

Now that Zhao Ziliang is still in power, Zhao Ting knows that he can't cultivate cronies on a large scale, although his father has already given him the truth, but he still has to avoid suspicion, he can't be caught, what he can do is to promote some talented and capable loyal officials within his own authority, and at the same time vigorously make friends with the ministers of the court, handle the relationship with the ministers of the court, and gain their favor and trust, especially a few prime ministers.

Many ministers in the imperial court guessed Zhao Ziliang's intentions, and expressed their goodwill to Zhao Ting vaguely, Zhao Ting neither refused nor accepted, he couldn't do the things of forming a party, which would leave some people with a handle, and it was easy to be caught.