Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1473 A bold plan

"Brother, please stop. Your battle plan sounds familiar?" It sounds too familiar. First, blitz Poland, attack Britain, and tear up the non-aggression treaty with the northern neighbor. Shangluo is familiar with this.

"This plan sounds familiar?" Zhu Xianxun asked in surprise, "Have you heard of it before? That man must be crazy. He is not an immortal, how can he be so bold?"

"It's not wrong to say that I'm crazy."

This strategy was naturally fine if Zhu Xianxun said it, because he only needed to draw lines on the map, and the king's master, who was blessed by the immortal power, could naturally push it all the way. But if this strategy was implemented by someone other than them, it would obviously be somewhat problematic, at least the above things should not be executed at the same time. Either the decision maker had a problem, or the decision maker knew that if he didn't think so, he would die, so he just took a gamble.

"By the way, Shangluo." Zhu Xianxun compared the strength of both sides, "Can the Romans complete this battle plan alone? Because, since you are going to take on the position of the war commander of 'Imperato', then you have to do something."

"I will personally command this battle on the spot."

"I didn't know you could actually learn military command?"

"I just need to click on the difficult targets." The point he mentioned was a literal point, which would drop from the sky and overturn the ground.

"Although you can do this, if the Romans can't hold on, you probably won't be able to get out of this unscathed, and you will spend a lot of energy on Roman affairs. So."

Zhu Xianxun paused and said, "Although nothing will happen to us, if a war really breaks out, I'm afraid Rome will not be at peace. After all, they are not like us."

"Rome seems particularly weak. But the Roman army is obviously very powerful, so why does it look weak? The three in the east - the Senate, the Oracle and the Palace of the Muses are the main body of the Roman Empire, and only New Antioch and the current Rome exploded." Shangluo has actually been thinking about this problem.

But after all, he came here halfway, and he didn't pay attention to the situation in Rome from beginning to end. Compared with him, Zhu Xianxin should be more knowledgeable about the situation in Rome.

"If you ask that, I would like to ask you a question - there have been countless emperors throughout history. So, which two do you recommend? Who do you think are the real heroes?"

"First Emperor?"

"The First Emperor carried on the legacy of the Sixth Emperor, but he was not a true hero."

"Brother, we don't drink alcohol, and we don't have any green plums at this time. Should we make some tea?"

"Well, I'm just kidding. I don't have the guts to comment on all the emperors of all dynasties. I'll only talk about the two people I like: Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Taizu of Song. Emperor Taizong of Tang was a true hero, a true hero, and his heroic spirit was enough to shock the ancients and the present; but the other one, Emperor Taizu of Song, his skills were more subtle - do you have a feeling about Emperor Taizu of Song: that he rebelled at Chenqiao, put on the yellow robe, unified the country, and then gave up his military power with a cup of wine, as if it was particularly easy? Although I wouldn't say it was picked up, but you and Emperor Taizong of Tang can write 5 legendary stories about each of these things, and the Xuanwu Gate Incident alone can be remade over and over again 10 times. But with Emperor Taizu of Song and Zhao Da, do you feel that there is actually nothing to say?"

"Eh? It seems so? But why?"

"I'll just give you one example - why in every dynasty, the whole country was shaken when the army marched south. Prime Minister Cao led 100,000 troops south to fight the Battle of Red Cliffs, Fu Jian fought the Battle of Feishui, and so on. But when the Song Dynasty conquered the Southern Tang, there didn't seem to be much of a commotion. Why? Because there was no water pumping station at all. Zhao Kuangyin had people go to Caishiji to build a floating bridge across the Yangtze River, which directly scared the ruler and his ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty silly. In the end, the Song army swept away the Southern Tang Dynasty's decades of accumulation of deep trenches and high fortifications like a rotten tree, and the actual fighting lasted less than half a year."

"How did this happen?!"

"It's very simple, because Zhao Kuangyin is a military man, he knows how wars work in this world. After personally going to the Yangtze River to evaluate, he decided to use military engineering to solve this problem. He sent an entire engineering corps to survey the Yangtze River for several months, and finally chose the river surface of Caishiji. He sent people disguised as monks and asked to build a stone tower by the river. In fact, they secretly built a huge pile tower that could support the entire floating bridge, and then launched a beach landing war, raided the designated construction area, and then started construction on both the north and south banks at the same time, and built a floating bridge that was enough for the army to pass smoothly in a very short time. Then, it was time to clean up."

"My goodness, has no one done this before?"

"No one had done that before. He was the first. Why? Because Zhao Kuangyin knew that many problems in the world could be solved through technology. In fact, neither wearing the yellow robe nor releasing the military power over a cup of wine were sure wins. For example, when he wore the yellow robe, he did not have a dominant position in the army, so a coup would have been quite risky. For another example, releasing the military power over a cup of wine would have made the dynasty look very ugly. But Zhao Kuangyin used technology to do these things without causing any conflict."

"How did he do that?"

"Again, I said - he knew the rules by which this world operated. He knew the rules of military politics, knew where the bottom line of military men was, and he also knew what military men wanted and feared. So once he donned the yellow robe, and once he gave up military power over a cup of wine, it could be said to be an almost bloodless coup. He solved the huge problems that plagued every court at a very small cost, and even took a very cost-effective approach to going south to destroy the Southern Tang. He was particular about cost-effectiveness. Probably because Song was Shang." "But." Shang Luo thought for a moment, "But this obviously looks good, but..."

"But you want to ask why, although the Song Dynasty was very cost-effective when it was founded, it seemed to have some big problems later, right? Then let me ask you again - do you think the Tang army is more capable of fighting in foreign wars or the Song army is more capable of fighting."

"Tang Army? Oh no. Could it be Song Army?"

"If you look at the historical data, the Song army actually had a much higher chance of winning than the Tang army. There is a sudden difference between the battle lines and the battle reports, but it is mainly because of the difference between the Tang and Song dynasties, the Northern Ming, and our Southern Ming." Zhu Xianxun mentioned this sensitive word, "If there is still history in the future, it would be more appropriate to call this dynasty the Southern Ming, because the capital of the Northern Ming was Shuntian most of the time, and the capital of the Southern Ming was Yingtian."

"Are we closer to the Tang Dynasty?"

"Not necessarily. In fact, the Northern Ming Dynasty is also very similar to the Tang Dynasty - the main difference between the Tang and Song dynasties. This is also the point I want to tell you now: Zhao Kuangyin himself solved the major problems that plagued all dynasties in Chinese history with a wonderful method and at the lowest cost. But!"

Zhu Xianxi changed the subject: "All this has a price. As a military man, Zhao Kuangyin did start from the perspective of a military man himself, and cleverly eliminated the accumulated malpractices of military politics that had existed for hundreds of years since the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. However, if there were no military feudal lords to consolidate the border, the defense pressure would be directly on the central government. So you can see that the Tang army could lose countless times at the border, because no matter how many times they lost, they were in military control areas far away from the core areas. But the Song Dynasty could not lose even once, because every defeat was resisted by its own core areas. Every defeat would cause the core areas to retreat. As a result, step by step, they reached a point where they could no longer retreat. However, this should not be blamed on Zhao Kuangyin.

"Zhao Kuangyin lived too short. There was nothing wrong with what he did. He still took a cost-effective approach when solving this problem: he was the world's largest warlord and the commander of the Song army's logistics, engineering and strategic planning. He alone could have solved the border problems after eliminating the feudal lords. He concentrated the army in the capital, intending to solve these problems himself. Unfortunately, he died sooner or later."

If Emperor Taizu of Song had lived longer, allowing him to unify the country in a cost-effective manner and then solve other problems in a cost-effective manner, the history of the Song Dynasty would probably have been very different.

Zhu Xianxi said in a deep voice: "If Emperor Taizu of Song had lived longer, there would probably not have been the Gaoliang River donkey cart incident. However, there are no ifs in history. As descendants, especially me as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, we can see some things that seem very similar to me."

Not far from the window is the Xiaoling Mausoleum. Only the emperor himself can say these words, and Shangluo is not suitable to comment on the affairs of the Zhu family.

"I think the Northern Song Dynasty and the Northern Ming Dynasty are very similar. Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty took away the military power, became the emperor and the Grand Marshal, and concentrated all the troops in the world in the capital for his own command. As a result, when he died, his descendants could not keep up with his pace, which led to a major collapse of military power. Emperor Taizu of our dynasty took away the power of the prime minister, became the emperor and the prime minister himself. As a result, when Emperor Taizu died, his descendants could not keep up with his pace. During the reign of Emperor Jianwen, the system of the king of the frontier guarding the border left by Emperor Taizu was abolished. However, the king of the frontier was wiped out by Jianwen, which forced the Northern Ming Dynasty to move the capital to the center of military defense."

“So that’s how it is”

"So, my answer to these two questions is this - who is more powerful, Emperor Taizu of Tang or Emperor Taizu of Song? I think Emperor Taizu of Song is more powerful, because those who are good at fighting do not have great achievements. Emperor Taizu of Song obviously has a higher cost-effectiveness in solving problems than Emperor Taizong of Tang. In one generation, he "painlessly" completed the work of several generations. He is simply a master of healing the country. Later generations cannot see his heroic spirit because he does not need to rely on heroism, but on careful calculation to solve problems. This is called those who are good at fighting do not have great achievements;

"Similarly, if you want to ask which one is stronger, the Tang or Song army, the Tang army is stronger. Because although the Tang army has wins and losses on the border, if the war spreads to the core area of ​​another country, it will win regardless of the outcome. The Song army fights in its own core area, no matter how many times it has won before or how good its record is, it will lose everything in one big defeat. This is also the case with the final outcome of the Northern Ming Dynasty. Once the frontier is gone, the inner will probably be much more fragile than people imagine."

"I think I understand what you mean, brother. Are you saying that although Rome doesn't seem to have any major problems, the problems are actually deep down? My goodness, what you just said is not in the textbook, right?"

"Yes, Zizhi Tongjian is a recommended book. If you want to learn what I just said, you can learn it in extracurricular reading. It's just a little too much. I learned it when I was a child, so I can easily talk about the gains and losses of the past dynasties, and I can use it to analyze the problems of Rome - the biggest problem of Rome is that they have now lost their protection. You are very smart."

He looked at Shangluo and said, "You probably haven't read Zizhi Tongjian. After all, that book is quite boring. I only read it briefly under the guidance of Master Wen. But I only know it, not understand it. I said you are smart because you found the root of the problem: when you saw that Rome's external barrier was disabled, it immediately appeared vulnerable. This is a big picture view of the entire chessboard. It's just that you haven't completely figured out the academic matters, so you haven't expressed what you have thought of."

"Then I know what to do. Do we also need to build a barrier in Rome this time?"

"You must do this. Barriers are extremely important. This is a question of fault tolerance. The recovery speed of the core area after being damaged is much slower than that of barriers. Only barriers can sustain long-term battles, which is why our dynasty has built many barriers and huge sea monsters like Lan Fang to defend the sea borders. As a result, the court does not need to directly contact the disturbances of the outside world, so it can directly reduce the mobilization rate in the capital to a point that is almost 'demilitarized'. The number of our troops is extremely small compared to the national strength, and we can also use limited financial expenditures to make the entire army elite. This is because the borders are supported by barriers, so the royal army only needs to be the spearhead."

"Then I will make Rome our vassal~~"

"Hehe~~" Zhu Xianxin smiled, "My words were not in vain. You see, after laying out the facts, we have reached a consensus. Since Rome is beyond salvation, we should use Rome's framework to build it into a barrier for the Heavenly Court, and use it to control the vast areas that the Heavenly Court does not want to touch. As for the decline of Rome itself, this is also the path they chose themselves. As long as we squeeze out the core areas left in Rome step by step, we can support a qualified defense line outside. Then first of all, this defense line must have its own army, and there must be a lot of them. In order to carry out the blitzkrieg against Poland and other battles, you also need people, right?"

"I'm ready." Shangluo nodded. "The war will begin today. I hope I can fight with the same cost-effectiveness as Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty. And speaking of which, the floating bridge tactics have given me a lot of inspiration. Indeed, many historical problems in this world can actually be solved through technical means."

(End of this chapter)