Wars between countries cannot be initiated casually. At least they must gain a foothold in the righteousness. This is not only the consensus of officials, but also the standard in the hearts of the people. Those who have the right to defeat the unjust.

The Song Dynasty had Taoism, which was a consensus in everyone's mind. Under the leadership of Zhao Zhen, the Song Dynasty captured Yanyun in the north, swallowed Dangxiang in the west, and then destroyed the Khitan. This was the Taoism.

If we use troops to Tubo at present, although Jiao Siluo betrayed the Song Dynasty first, there will be no inevitable conflict between Tubo and the Song Dynasty. Over the years, whether it is the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty or the Liao Dynasty, Tubo has not "taken into trouble".

Tubo is a plateau and rarely interacts with the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty took the initiative to attack Qingtang in the west. Qingtang was a "allied relationship" with the Song Dynasty before, and it was now embarrassing.

But sending troops to Tubo does not necessarily require occupying the righteousness. This is the territory expansion of the Song Dynasty. In essence, it is an aggression war. What is the righteousness of the aggression war?

I am stronger than you, you may pose a threat to me, so I will attack you will be righteous!

This is the feudal era, an era where the strong are respected. As long as the country's strength is strong enough, war is just. As for the name, it can be "fucked".

At least Zhao Zhen knew that the Holy Roman Empire in the West had begun to expedition the east, and the conflicts between the two sides made rapid progress under the orders of merchants from the Song Dynasty.

The exquisite goods of the Song Dynasty became necessities in the West, and while the prices were relatively lower, demand surged!

But the Song Dynasty was the fuse between the Holy Roman Empire and the Seljuk Empire, and Zhao Zhen successfully turned the two sides into enemies without using any means.

The price of goods sold by merchants from the Song Dynasty to Seljuk was cheaper than that of the Holy Roman Empire, especially the expensive goods were even much cheaper.

The reason is also very simple, because the Seljuk Empire collected high taxes from merchants in the Song Dynasty, and the only way for merchants in the Song Dynasty was to transfer the taxes to the Holy Roman Empire.

Tax transfer is extremely normal, but it was used by the Seljuks as a means of making money, and Tugluk saw the benefits of taxation.

As a must-pass on land transportation on the Silk Road, the Seljuk Empire could almost control the price of goods in the Song Dynasty. They did not need to do anything else, they just needed to continuously increase taxes.

At the beginning, the Holy Roman Empire was still acceptable, but as Seljuk became more and more powerful, the price of goods continued to rise, so the Holy Roman Empire began to complain.

What's more, some people began to attack the merchants of the Song Dynasty. At this time, merchants of the Song Dynasty were hiding and telling the Romans clearly the prices of their goods. So when they learned the truth, the Romans were angry.

They never thought that they would become the "tool" for Seljuks to make money and were always concealed by the honest merchants of the Song Empire.

The most important thing for businessmen in the Song Dynasty to do business overseas is the word "sincerity". Honesty management is necessary, otherwise no one will do business with you again the next year.

So a vigorous crusade began again, which began with the attempted capture of control of Jerusalem by the Holy Roman Empire.

War always requires an excuse. The Song Dynasty found an excuse for the war against Tubo, and the Holy Roman Empire also found a bad excuse to launch an excuse to Seljuk into the palace.

This Eastern Expedition was launched by Henry III, with feudal lords and knights in Western Europe fighting against the eastern Mediterranean countries in the name of regaining the land occupied by Arabs.

Although it did not happen in history, although it was not the same person who launched a war, or even the reasons for the Eastern Expedition were different, the excuses were exactly the same.

Zhao Zhen did not intend to participate. Even if Henry III gave attractive conditions, Zhao Zhen still did not agree to send troops. The East and the West attacked the Seljuks at the same time, which would be a battle to destroy the country.

But Zhao Zhen knew that the Crusade was, in a sense, a religious war, not a war between countries.

Zhao Zhen always regarded the Seljuk Empire as a buffer zone between the East and the West, and the distant distance prevented wars from occurring between the Song Dynasty and the Holy Roman Empire.

If the two countries divide the Seljuk Empire and even divide the original land of the Abbas dynasty, then the East and West will be considered a real junction.

Conflicts of thought, religion, etc. will make the conflict between the two sides more obvious.

Zhao Zhen never thought of using troops to attack the Seljuk Empire. Even if he acquired a large amount of territory, it would be harmful to the Song Dynasty.

The resources needed by the Song Dynasty could be obtained through trade, not war, and as for wealth... the richest dynasty in the world was not jealous of distant wealth.

In Zhao Zhen's eyes, the huge territory will only increase management costs and defense costs. The number of soldiers guarding the border in the Song Dynasty has reached 400,000.

But if Tubo is taken down, the defense cost will be greatly reduced. The Song Dynasty only needs to send some elite troops to guard Tubo, and there is no need to defend against Tubo at all.

By then, relying on the Himalayas, the defense cost of the Song Dynasty in the west would be almost negligible.

This is a perfect closed loop. Zhao Zhen was not interested in the land of India, but just carried out colonial rule. The colonization of the Song Dynasty in India was different from that of later generations.

The Indians were almost autonomous, and officials of the Song Dynasty were only responsible for two things, one was to collect taxes and grains, and the other was to ensure that they could collect taxes and grains in Tianzhu.........

This is equivalent to the Indians spending money and food to buy peace. Compared with extermination of the clan, this is a very cost-effective transaction. Therefore, when officials without any power to tie chickens arrived in India and began to collect grain, the Indians did not dare to resist at all.

Of course there is no need to resist. They have a lot of food and more cattle, and they are paid directly to the Song Dynasty every year, rather than sold.

On the contrary, merchants of the Song Dynasty could bring goods to India, sell them to obtain benefits, and pay commercial taxes to the Song Dynasty.

It is very common for Henry III and Zhao Zhen to have letter exchanges. The two sides are considered a pen pal relationship, especially when Zhao Zhen shared his views on religion.

Henry III admired Zhao Zhen very much, and the fundamental reason was that Zhao Zhen believed that "religion should serve politics."

This sentence was almost regarded as a classic by Henry III, and he himself practiced it. Just last March, he led his troops to the Vatican and abolished the three opposing popes, Gregory VI, Benedick IX, and Sylvester III.

In addition, the German Claremont II was elected as the new pope. In the same year, Claremont II crowned Henry III, ending the situation of opposing pope.
Chapter completed!