The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 190 The Extreme Distance of the Sudden Attack

The undercover spy's expression was a bit broken. He looked really nervous, and his breath was even short. It wasn't just fatigue, but more importantly, panic. "Real...real thieves...can't catch the old emperor. After staying by the Yangtze River for a few days...they...they headed north..."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of several people around him tightened.

Only Yue Wenxuan remained calm. He gently patted the spy's shoulder and said, "Take a deep breath, regulate your breathing, and then speak slowly. If you get stuck, you will die."

Seeing that the True Lord was so calm, the spy felt relieved. Yes, we have the True Lord and the divine generals here, so there is no need to panic.

He took two deep breaths and started again...

This time, there are more details.

At the beginning of the third year of Jianyan (1129 AD), Wanyan Zongbing was promoted to the position of Marshal's Right Inspector of the Army.

Wanyan Zonghan and Zongfu sent Talai, Zongbi, Balisu and Mawu to march south in different directions, while Song Gaozong Zhao Gou fled south from Yangzhou.

Wanyan Zongbi (also known as Wushu of Jin) invaded the Song Dynasty from the west of Huainan and advanced on Guide Prefecture. He was about to capture it, but the Song garrison surrendered. Zongbi conquered every prefecture and county he passed through, or forced them to surrender without a fight. He continued his campaign to the north bank of the Yangtze River, where he captured Hezhou (present-day Hexian County, Anhui Province), a key Song city north of the Yangtze River.

But no matter how many victories he achieved, he would be considered a failure if he did not capture Zhao Gou.

The Jin Dynasty had no choice but to hold its nose and end the Fourth Song-Jin War.

At this point, Zhang Dashu popped his head out from the side and said, "Why didn't the Jin army continue their pursuit? It's clear that all the counties and cities they passed through surrendered without a fight. So they could have just continued their pursuit southwards. They could have just found a place to cross the river. Anyway, the old emperor is too cowardly to send anyone to stop the Jin army from crossing the river."

Zhang Yong quickly covered his mouth and dragged him out: "Don't interrupt."

Yue Wenxuan turned around and didn't blame Zhang Dashu for talking nonsense. Instead, he patiently explained, "Since Dashu asked, I'll tell you all about it. Second Lady, Qian Zhuoqun, come over and listen... And the staff members nearby, that little fatty, come over and listen."

When everyone saw Zhenjun putting on an expression as if he was going to teach a class, they quickly gathered around him and listened attentively.

Yue Wenxuan took out a branch and drew a simple picture of a rooster on the ground. He pointed to the rooster's head and said, "Everyone, look here. This is Acheng, Heilongjiang, the capital of the Jin Dynasty..."

Everyone nodded, they could still understand this.

Yue Wenxuan tapped the chicken's neck with the branch again and said, "This used to be Yanjing, the capital of the Song Dynasty. Now it is the Jin Kingdom's important military town in Hebei, and a bridgehead for attacking the Song Dynasty."

He used a branch to draw a straight line between the two points and said, "These two locations are approximately two thousand miles apart. Back then, the Jin Kingdom went to great lengths to capture Yanjing, because Yanjing was already as far as the Jin capital could reach. After taking Yanjing, the Jin Kingdom was unable to expand further for a long time. They had to manage Yanjing, station troops and supplies here, and build it into a military stronghold. Then, using Yanjing as a starting point, they could continue their invasion southward."

Then, he used a branch to point to the north bank of the Yangtze River and said, "This is Yangzhou."

He then used another thread to connect Yangzhou and Yanjing, saying, "These two locations are approximately another two thousand miles apart." Madam Gong Er understood, "True Lord, I understand what you mean. The Jin Kingdom's sudden attack tactics only reach a maximum range of two thousand miles. If they want to cross the Yangtze River, they must effectively manage the territory they already occupy and establish a new bridgehead."

"Exactly!"

Yue Wenxuan said, "However, I called everyone here to attend the class not just to talk about this."

He paused, then continued, "What I want to talk about is the question of how large a territory a large empire should have."

Everyone: "???"

Everyone was a little confused. What did the True Lord mean by this?
Yue Wenxuan said, "The emperor sits in the capital, his hands extended in all directions, controlling his own territory. Wherever his arms reach, the country is stable; wherever his arms cannot reach, warlords will seize power and the barbarians will rebel... Therefore, a country cannot expand indefinitely. The ideal state is for the entire territory to be within the reach of the center."

Zhang Dashu said stupidly, "So that's a ten-foot radius?"

Everyone rolled their eyes at him.

The most educated person in the group was Qian Zhuoqun. After a moment's thought, he immediately understood: "Master, I understand what you mean. You mean transportation and information?"

"Right!" Yue Wenxuan nodded encouragingly. "The convenience of transportation determines the maximum combat range of a country's army, while the speed of information dissemination determines the maximum expansion of a country's culture. Culture is the soul, determining the spiritual unity and national identity of the people, while the military is the skeleton; only with the skeleton can the soul be protected."

"Why is it that our Chinese nation is always divided and united? After finally achieving great unity, it collapses into a pile of small states a few years later? It's because transportation and information haven't kept pace with the country's development. The sluggish speed of information dissemination has led to people in remote areas having no sense of national identity. The backward transportation system has prevented the army from commanding every inch of land."

"As a result, many places have formed their own separatist forces. When the separatism reaches a certain scale, the country will collapse."

"I'm telling you this for no other reason," Yue Wenxuan said. "I simply want to tell you that blind expansion will inevitably lead to a dead end. The Jin Dynasty's current actions are simply courting its own demise. Furthermore, if you dig deeper, the emergence of foreign states like the Liao and Jin dynasties was precisely due to the Song Dynasty's underdeveloped transportation and information systems. They were originally ethnic minorities within our Chinese territory. If our culture and transportation were strong enough, we Han people would have assimilated and absorbed them long ago. Just like the Miao people in Huguang, many have now gone from being savage barbarians to being accustomed to them... That's because Huguang is close to the central government, allowing us to disseminate information and include them. The Northeast, on the other hand, is too far away, and our culture can't reach that far, leading to the rebellions of the Khitans and Jurchens."

Everyone was confused and really didn't understand why the True Lord said this.

Yue Wenxuan picked up a piece of paper from the table next to him. It was a piece of bamboo paper, made by Zheng Yuanwai's papermaker...

Yue Wenxuan flicked the paper gently. "Look, the emergence of this new type of paper will make paper cheaper. It will increase the speed of cultural dissemination, and perhaps even help to assimilate a few more ethnic minorities into the Han culture, ultimately leading to the expansion of the country's effective territory."

Everyone: "!"

At this moment, Qian Zhuoqun finally understood something.

But people like Zhang Dashu were still confused: "Why would cheap paper make foreigners sinicized?"

(End of this chapter)