Chapter 267 Han Zhang's Analysis
"Announcement?"
The emperor was stunned when he heard this and asked, "Is one of your concubines pregnant again?"
"No."
Zhao Xing was speechless after hearing this, and said, "Father, I have obtained 12,000 stallions from the Liao Kingdom this time, and they are all adult horses!"
"What did you say?" The official stood up suddenly upon hearing this and said, "Didn't the Northern Horse Farm report that there were only more than 2,000 horses?"
"That's only a part of it. The rest are raised in the horse farm that I had built." Zhao Xing said with a smile.
"Really?" The official still found it hard to believe, and his voice trembled a little.
Twelve thousand stallions do not mean half are male and half are female, but only male horses.
Almost all war horses used in the army are stallions, because stallions have better physical strength and are stronger.
However, male horses have hot tempers and are difficult to control when in heat, so they are castrated.
The Song Dynasty is short of horses. There are still some single mares, but what is lacking is good stallions for breeding.
Twelve thousand war horses, if used well, can produce tens of thousands of foals in a year.
If the breeding is good, in a dozen years or so, the Song Dynasty will be self-sufficient.
"How dare I deceive my father!" Zhao Xing said with a smile.
The official took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, sat down, and said, "Tell me how you did it."
Zhao Xing did not hide anything and told the whole story.
"You mean, Yelu Chongyuan wanted the secret recipe of perfume in order to murder the Liao emperor?" The official was shocked when he heard this.
"This is just my guess. Father, do you still remember that Prince Yan intended to poison me last time? I have found some clues, and Yelu Chongyuan's shadow is behind this matter." Zhao Xing said.
"Now that you mention it, it is indeed possible. If that is the case, why would Yelu Chongyuan take on the task of harassing the border of our Song Dynasty?" the emperor frowned.
"I didn't understand it at first. Later, when he proposed to speed up the transaction, I realized that he was trying to cover up the transaction," said Zhao Xing.
The emperor was silent for a while after hearing this, and then said, "Eunuch Liu, have someone call the eldest minister over."
"Yes!" Eunuch Liu responded and walked out.
"What is this, Father?" Zhao Xing looked at his father in confusion.
"Things may not be as simple as you think." The emperor looked at his son and said, "If Yelu Chongyuan wanted your perfume secret recipe in order to murder the Liao emperor, he should be more cautious.
Didn’t Yelu Chongyuan know that as soon as he left Shangjing, the Liao Emperor would send people to closely monitor him?
His taking on this job may seem like a cover for the deal, but it also increases the risk of exposure.”
Zhao Xing fell silent after hearing this. He had also thought about this before.
However, we cannot figure out Yelu Chongyuan’s motive. We can only conclude that he was eager to get the secret recipe, so he chose to take the risk.
But if you think about it carefully, this speculation still has a big loophole.
If one is not careful in this kind of thing, everything will be lost. Does Yelu Chongyuan need to be so anxious in his current situation?
"Father, have you guessed Yelu Chongyuan's purpose?" Zhao Xing asked.
"I couldn't think of it at the moment, and one person's plan was too short, so I asked someone to find the eldest minister to help analyze it."
The emperor looked at Zhao Xing and said, "Fuer, you must remember that when you encounter something, don't just figure it out on your own. The wise use their minds, the foolish use their hands, and the capable use their people. You are the crown prince, and now you are just dealing with some things, and I will cover you. But in the future, when you become an emperor, you will be busy and you will have to learn how to use people."
"Thank you for your teachings, father. I understand!" Zhao Xing bowed.
Zhao Xing actually knew that he should set up a think tank.
However, he lacked trust in the old foxes in the court. People like Sheng Changbai and Qi Heng lacked experience and were unable to take on important tasks for the time being.
"Oh, right." Zhao Xing said, "The person I sent to oversee the repair of the border cities has returned. I asked him about the cost of building the cities and connecting the border cities. He roughly estimated that it might cost tens of millions of taels of silver."
"He is calculating the cost of hiring the people, right? I asked someone to do the math. With cement, if we recruit the people, only about 10 million taels will be enough," said the official.
To build the Great Wall, there was almost no cost for stone, cement burning, and sand and gravel mining.
It's nothing more than providing some utensils and food and drink for the people.
In the absence of cement, glutinous rice juice is needed as an adhesive, which is very expensive.
"It only costs 10 million taels a few times, which is also an astronomical figure. Can the national treasury afford it?" Zhao Xing asked.
"Haven't you saved a lot of money? As far as I know, the money you have saved over the years is almost 10 million taels, right?" The emperor looked at Zhao Xing with a smile.
"Uh..." Zhao Xing was speechless. He was still trying to fleece me.
"The world will be yours in the future. I really don't know what you need so much money for." Seeing Zhao Xing's bitter face, the official shook his head and said, "There is still some money in the Fengzhuang Treasury. If you pay a little more, it will be enough."
"Father, how much money did Emperor Taizu deposit in the Fengzhuang Treasury back then?" Zhao Xing asked curiously.
"How would I know?" The emperor shook his head and said, "After I took power, there were only more than 10 million taels left in the Fengzhuang Treasury. A lot of it has been spent over the years, and now there are more than 7 million taels. These are the hard work of Emperor Taizu. If possible, I don't want to use them."
In fact, Emperor Taizong did not use much of the money in the Fengzhuang Treasury. Although Emperor Taizong failed in the Northern Expedition, the Song Dynasty was not seriously malnourished at that time, and the annual taxes were not small, so it was still able to support itself.
Most of the money from the Fengzhuang Treasury was used by the late emperor.
But as a son should not speak of his father's faults, he could not tell Zhao Xing about these things.
"Just use it. Emperor Taizu established the Fengzhuang Storehouse in order to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. As long as it is put to practical use, Emperor Taizu will be very pleased when he knows about it." Zhao Xing said nonchalantly.
"You are right, but it is not easy to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun."
The official shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about this. If what you said before is true, we can take advantage of the civil unrest in Liao to build a Great Wall in the north. Then the pressure on the defense of the north can be reduced a lot."
When Zhao Xing heard his father's opening words, he thought his father would say that this was an opportunity to try to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
Who knew that my father had no such idea at all.
Even though there was civil unrest in Liao, this was not the time to send troops to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
But timing is timing, and whether or not you have the idea is another matter.
No wonder the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Liao Dynasty. Even with such a good opportunity, the Song Dynasty failed to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
Perhaps after Emperor Taizong, subsequent emperors had lost the idea of taking back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
"Your Majesty, the Grand Master has arrived."
Just then, a eunuch came in to report.
"Let him in." said the official.
The eunuch who reported the news bowed and left. After a while, Han Zhang walked in.
"Your Majesty, your Highness the Crown Prince!" Han Zhang bowed and saluted.
"No need to be polite." The emperor waved his hand and asked someone to let Han Zhang sit down. Then he told him the purpose of calling him here, looked at Zhao Xing and said, "Tell the great minister the details of what happened."
"Yes!" Zhao Xing responded and recounted what had happened.
After listening to this, Han Zhang pondered for a while, asked a few more questions, and fell into deep thought.
Neither the emperor nor Zhao Xing disturbed them.
After about a cup of tea, Han Zhang came back to his senses and said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, I guess Yelu Chongyuan took this job and left Shangjing because he wanted the Liao emperor to focus on him."
"As long as Yelu Chongyuan is in Shangjing, the Liao emperor will not only send people to monitor his every move, but also be cautious. But once he leaves Shangjing, although the Liao emperor's eyes are still on him, his defenses around him will be much looser."
"This is also the reason why Yelu Chongyuan has stayed in Xijing and has not left. I guess that Yelu Chongyuan will leave Xijing only after he has successfully poisoned the Liao emperor."
Zhao Xing was stunned when he heard this, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that this possibility was really high.
First of all, Yelu Chongyuan had arranged for someone to assassinate the Liao emperor before.
While he was in Shangjing, the Liao Emperor would not only monitor him, but also guard against some of his tactics.
It is difficult to poison someone, even though his method of poisoning is somewhat novel.
But if Yelu Chongyuan was not in Shangjing, the Liao emperor would be much more relaxed.
"But if he leaves Shangjing, even if the poison is successful, it will be difficult for him to control the situation in Shangjing in the first place." Zhao Xing asked the question in his heart.
“Your Highness is right, but even if Yelu Chongyuan stays in Shangjing, he still won’t be able to control him, and he will instead put himself in danger.
Shangjing was under the control of the Liao Emperor. He stayed in Shangjing before because he was confident that the Liao Emperor would not dare to touch him.
After all, the Liao emperor killed Yelu Chongyuan. Yelu Chongyuan's sons and those who supported Yelu Chongyuan were worried about being liquidated by the Liao emperor. In order to protect themselves, they would rise up in arms even if they knew the chances were slim. By then, the Liao Kingdom would inevitably be in civil strife.
But if the Liao emperor died and his heir was young, the ministers who supported him to ascend the throne would not let him go, because even if they let him go, he would still raise an army.
Yelu Chongyuan knew this clearly, so he did not dare to return to Shangjing.
As long as the Liao emperor dies, people will be tempted, and he will have the strongest power and the greatest chance of seizing the throne." Han Zhang explained.
"Every word you said is full of gems. I admire you very much!" Zhao Xing exclaimed.
Although what Han Zhang said was just speculation, it was reasonable.
There were some things that were originally inexplicable, but now they can be explained.
The reason why Yelu Chongyuan took on the task of harassing the border of the Song Dynasty was because it was the best excuse for him to leave Shangjing.
He delayed returning to the capital on the pretext of avenging his men. It was not that he really wanted to avenge his men, but that he was unwilling to go back.
From this perspective, the Song Dynasty's dispatch of troops to encircle and suppress those cavalrymen actually helped him a lot.
But the Liao emperor was also a little stupid. Couldn’t he see that Yelu Chongyuan was making excuses not to return to the capital?
In fact, it was not that the Liao emperor was stupid, but that he overlooked a key point.
(End of this chapter)