After traveling through time, I became Han Zhang’s grandson?

Chapter 320 Chain Reaction

The Western Xia was completely wiped out in the long river of history by the Song Dynasty with a devastating force, and the subsequent impact was so severe that no one could have imagined.

Politically, the New Deal faction, which had suffered heavy losses a year ago due to the "expansionary" reforms, was once again stunned.

Taking advantage of the momentum of the conquest of Xia and the Western Expedition, they sounded the clarion call for a counterattack, expanded their ranks once again, and suppressed the conservatives.

This was actually what Emperor Shenzong was happy to see. He did not want either the new policy faction or the conservative faction to become too powerful to be controlled.

During the reign of his father, Emperor Yingzong, the New Deal faction completely dominated the court.

However, thanks to Han's idea of ​​not killing all the enemies, in the first year of Xining in the reign of Emperor Shenzong, the conservatives rose again and overwhelmed the new policy faction.

The two sides fought back and forth and enjoyed fighting for two years. Emperor Shenzong acted as a lubricant between the two factions, reconciling the two sides and balancing the court.

Economically, after the fall of Western Xia, the newly acquired land began to circulate among the people, which led many refugees and ambitious businessmen to enter the Liangzhou area and cultivate and reclaim the barren land.

Thanks to the influx of merchants, the commercial economy in the Liangzhou area began to recover.

The border markets that were closed due to war in the early years also became transit points and began to make up for the damage suffered by Liangzhou during the Western Xia period.

Most importantly, with the nationalization of the Ningxia Salt Lake (Qingbai Salt) in the former Western Xia territory, the salt industry in the Song Dynasty ushered in a complete blowout.

Under the guidance of Han, Wang Jiefu actually planned the "Song Dynasty Salt Industry Development Plan".

It was proposed to use Qingbai salt to stabilize domestic salt prices, completely reduce the expensive salt prices, and complete the biggest project in people's livelihood.

The ancients believed that "food is the most important thing for the people". Due to the scarcity of seasonings and the body's needs, people relied on salt far more than other things.

Therefore, "salt" runs through a part of Chinese or world history and has become the fuse of many wars.

Now that we can obtain the blue and white salt from Western Xia, we have an industry that can provide support, which will have a huge impact on the people's livelihood of the Song Dynasty.

As long as the basic needs of the people are guaranteed, the country will enter a period of rapid and stable development, which will be conducive to the implementation of various policies.

At the same time, Wang Jiefu expressed the idea of ​​using the salt industry to control the economies of various countries, which surprised Emperor Shenzong and made Han very satisfied.

After all, the Western Xia had used this tactic to attack and control the salt industry of the Song Dynasty.

Now that the Qingbai Salt Lake is in hand, if the Song Dynasty does not take this opportunity to deal with the neighboring countries, it would be a shame to the hard life it has lived through over the years.

Therefore, in the foreign trade of Qingbai salt, the Song Dynasty expressed its own needs.

The Liao and Tibetan tribes were asked to exchange horses, furs and other things that the Song Dynasty lacked for blue and white salt.

For the countries in the Indochina Peninsula, such as Dali and Jiaozhi in the southwest, they were required to exchange basic supplies such as tea and crop seeds.

Among them, Han specifically told Wang Jiefu that in addition to promoting Champa rice in the southern part of the country, he could use blue and white salt to harvest grain for storage in the countries of the Indochina Peninsula.

It just so happened that the imperial court passed the plan of "reopening some granaries in Hanjia Granary" this year. Now the country has enough grain to be self-sufficient, but once a natural disaster or man-made disaster occurs, it will be completely insufficient.

Therefore, harvesting the grain reserves of various countries is just the right way to prepare in advance to deal with various problems in the future.

This proposal made Emperor Shenzong and Wang Jiefu very happy. After all, it was not too easy to get the grain that other countries had worked so hard to grow for free.

Culturally, as the Song Dynasty defeated the Western Xia and recovered the Liangzhou area that had been lost for more than a hundred years, the Central Plains culture once again broke out of the Hexi Corridor and headed towards the distant Western Regions.

After being out of touch with the Central Plains dynasty for over a hundred years, the Western Regions were finally once again baptized by the Central Plains culture.

In particular, the vigorous development of Song Ci has made many countries realize the difference between Tang poetry and the pre-Tang period.

The upper classes in various countries began to learn the tunes of Song Dynasty poetry and compose the cultural context of their own country.

The sentences in Song Dynasty Ci are of different lengths, which are convenient for singing. Therefore, they are set to music, so they are also called quzi ci, Yuefu, music chapter, long and short sentences, shiyu, and qinqu.

Therefore, neighboring countries also saw progress in lyrics and music. Relying on the cultural system of the Song Dynasty, they expanded their own folk art culture.

They sent envoys and caravans to frequently enter the territory of the Song Dynasty to carry out exchanges in the three major areas of politics, culture, and economy.

For a moment, there was a faint sense of the atmosphere and demeanor of all nations coming to pay tribute, which also gave the court and the common people unprecedented self-confidence.

The soul-building of the Song Dynasty is completed!

. . . . . .

Finally, in the military field, because the Song Dynasty's heavenly army eliminated the Western Xia with tough measures and crushing achievements, the surrounding small countries all trembled and submitted, expressing their willingness to coexist peacefully with the Song Dynasty.

As expected, if you rely on mountains, the mountains will fall; if you rely on people, people will move away. The most important thing is to be strong yourself.

This can be seen from the fact that various countries are shamelessly trying to do business and communicate with the Song Dynasty.

In the past, the Song Dynasty was considered a soft persimmon that could be bullied at will. Now, the Song Dynasty sits back and watches world events, standing still like a mountain and having strong confidence.

The chess pieces that were once played with by others are finally able to jump off the chessboard and possess the abilities of the chess player.

This made the surrounding countries understand one thing: the rise of the Song Dynasty was a success!

The Song army's westward expedition was unremarkable, or extremely simple.

With the letters of surrender and orders from Li Bingchang and Li Moling, many small cities opened their gates and surrendered, willing to accept the reorganization of the Song army.

Large cities like Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou, and Shazhou were also consumed first by Tubo vassal troops such as Dong Chen.

Then the Song army took out the latest firearms from the Armory as if they were cheating. There was a burst of "boom" sounds, and a gap appeared in the city wall.

With just one charge, the Song army entered the city and began to chop down the city.

This made the Tubo vassal army, who saw this kind of siege warfare method for the first time, exclaim "the heavenly soldiers have descended to earth"!

As for who looked the most unhappy, it was certainly not the remaining Xixia military forces that were beaten unilaterally, but Dong Zhan who had always stood firmly on the side of the Song Dynasty.

In his eyes, the current military strength of the Song Dynasty is such that, except for being unable to engage in a head-on confrontation with the Liao cavalry, the rest of the military forces can completely defeat the Liao army.

According to him, this is only the second stage of the military reform of the Song Dynasty, and Han will promote the third stage next.

This made Dong Zhen feel uneasy, after all, the story of his ancestor being beaten was still circulating among the Tibetan tribes.

If Tubo rises in the future, the Song Dynasty will definitely not sit idly by. In this case, the two sides will become opponents.

Thinking about the cities of various tribes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the rockets roaring in front of him, Dong Zhan felt a chill on his spine and shivered.

Wang Shao, who was riding on a tall horse, also noticed Dong Zhan's expression and couldn't help laughing in his heart.

"My Lord really loves to play tricks on people. After this Western Expedition alone, the Tibetan tribes no longer dare to become enemies of the Song Dynasty."

"Maybe it will be like the pre-Tang Dynasty, raising a bunch of grandchildren who do the dirty work..."

Wang Shao looked at Dong Zhan with deep malice in his eyes.

Noticing someone looking at him, Dong Zhan turned around and Wang Shao immediately looked at him with a harmless smile.

"Jiedushi Dong, why are you looking at me like that?"

Wang Shao's smiling words made Dong Zhan smile awkwardly.

"I just feel that the Song army's might is comparable to the heavenly soldiers and generals in myths and legends!"

Wang Shao seemed very satisfied with Dong Zhen's flattery.

"Haha, this is also thanks to the Marquis's military reforms, but it's still a little short of what it was."

"After all, compared to the Liao army's cavalry, the Song army can't be called invincible."

Wow, this is so Versailles, 'not invincible'?

If the Song Dynasty was willing to spend money to mass-produce firearms, the Liao cavalry would probably be like fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of others.

This kind of firepower cannot be stopped by flesh and blood!

Dong Zhan gave a wry smile in return, quickly turned his head away, his face instantly darkening.

"It seems that we must be extremely cautious when dealing with the Song Dynasty in the future."

Looking at Dong Zhen's somewhat tense back, Wang Shao's lips curled up with a hint of coldness...