"You are going to use troops against Liao again, and you also want me to send troops to the West. This..." Xi Feng Chang stared at Sun Tu, unable to believe his ears.

Just as he was about to set off to return to Xixia, Sun Tu found him again and added such a request that made him even more frightened in addition to the many harsh conditions. It was only a few years since the Song Dynasty was about to use troops against Liao again. Hasn’t his court just started a chaos, so he was not afraid of being invincible and hurting himself?

Sun Tu looked at the other party with a calm expression: "Is there anything wrong with this? Since you, Xixia, are you willing to respect me, the Song Dynasty, aren't our enemies your enemies? It's not natural to send troops to help and attack the Liao Kingdom together?"

After Feng Chang was struggling for a while, he really couldn't say that Sun Tu's words were wrong. After all, as a vassal state, when the sect leader issued an order, he really couldn't refuse, otherwise he might turn around and beat you, and even the reasons were ready and justified. But even so, he advised: "But the Song Dynasty only had a lot of battles two years ago and regained the entire territory of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun that he had been thinking about. There is really no reason to use troops to Liao again. Moreover, there was such a rebellion in the city of Bianjing before. Shouldn't it be that you should choose to rest with the people and stabilize the current court?"

"The court has never been stabilized, but fought." Sun Tu immediately retorted: "Only by completely conquering Liao Kingdom can the people of the world know how different my Sun Tu is from those who only know how big a flirting before. As for the Liao incident, our Song Dynasty has always had a deep hatred with Liao Kingdom. Even if we have now recaptured the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, it does not mean that the original hatred will end here. On the contrary, the war two years ago has pushed the Song and Liao countries to an undying position of opposition. Now there is a major change in wars in his country. It is the weakest time. If you don't take action at this time, when will you wait?"

Sun Tu actually made up his mind the day before yesterday and said it when he put it in the court. Originally, Tong Mu and others were still worried about this resolution, but after he listed this series of reasons, the people in the court accepted the decision to make another Northern Expedition!

Yes, the Liao Kingdom is now suffering heavy casualties due to the civil war between Yelu Dashi and Yelu Yanxi, and the city is broken and its vitality is severely damaged. However, the Song Kingdom is thriving, and the northern Youzhou and other places have been preparing for war for two years. At this time, I dare not say that there are more troops, and there is still a chance of winning.

What's more important is that as Li Gang and Song Jiang and other officials were confiscated and destroyed the clan, the court suddenly released millions of dollars, which just made up for the final shortcomings of sending troops. So Sun Tu dared to propose the Northern Expedition again, vowing to take advantage of his illness to kill him and completely destroy the Liao Kingdom!

Even Tong Mu and other ministers of the Song Dynasty were persuaded by Sun Tu. It was natural that Feng Chang, a Western Xia envoy, could not object to Sun Tu's decision. After a long period of confusion, he finally nodded and responded: "I will also repay the court for this matter, but in the end, it will be up to Your Majesty to decide."

"It's the lord." Sun Tu suddenly reminded him, which made Xi Feng Chang feel awkward again, but he nodded: "Yes, it will be decided by my lord."

Sun Tu smiled, but then stared at the other party and said, "But there is one thing you must remember to pass the message. If you, Xixia, remain neutral in the battle between the Song and Liao, and try to make profits again, then I, the Song Dynasty, will use troops to you as soon as possible. I think you have also seen the power of the most commonly used bombs in the Song and Song Dynasties, but I don't know if your Iron Harrier and Bubazi elite soldiers can block such firearms with flesh and blood."

"I... I've recorded it." Xifeng Chang felt a chill when he thought of what he saw with his own eyes that day, and a large section of the city wall collapsed with a rumbling sound. If the Song army really used such weapons on the battlefield with his own army, I was afraid that the number of casualties of the Western Dynasties would increase by more than ten times more than before. In addition, the current shortage of resources in the Western Dynasties is really not far from the destruction of the country.

So even if Sun Tu's threat was so direct, he could only accept it and would do his best to convince his emperor, the king of the country, to cooperate with the Song people to fight against the military.

"That's good. As the saying goes, those who know the times are heroes. I just hope that your Dangxiang tribe has chosen a smart person to be your king, otherwise..." It was not until this time that Sun Tu stood up satisfied. Only when he arrived at the door did he suddenly say: "Because I want to use troops to the Liao Kingdom, I will be very busy in the next period of time. I will not send you when you set off. In addition, I would like to greet Master Jiesang on my behalf and told him that the people in the west are bound to be without the Buddhist teachings he promoted, so don't slack off."

It was not until a while after Sun Tu left that Xi Feng Chang let out a long breath of turbid air and felt the pressure on his body suddenly disappear. This time he met Sun Tu again, he felt that this old friend of the past was becoming more and more unfamiliar, and the pressure on him was getting greater and greater. This made him sigh again. He really shouldn't be the messenger of Song. After returning to Xingqing Mansion, he didn't know how to explain to his father and His Majesty.

Because he was worried that Sun Tu would suddenly make more harsh demands, Xi Fengchang did not dare to stay in Tokyo for a long time. The next morning, he submitted a letter to the court and set off immediately after obtaining permission.

When he left, Sun Tu really told him what he said, and did not come forward to see him off. He only sent officials from the Honglu Temple to send them out of Tokyo on behalf of the court. At this moment, Sun Tu was involved in the strategy of dispatching troops and formulating a comprehensive Northern Expedition.

Because the chaos had just been calmed down in the court, and the Liao Kingdom is not as good as before and has great strength, Sun Tu finally accepted the persuasion of Tong Mu and others. He did not rashly go north to lead troops, but instead handed over the military power of the war to the hands of generals such as Zong Shidao and Dong Ping.

Although Sun Tu was a little less accustomed to this, he had to accept and try to get used to it. Because his current identity is very different from before. In a sense, he is the real master of this country, and he is better than an emperor than an emperor. In this way, Sun Tu could not always rush to the front line of the battlefield like before, staying in the capital and guarding the whole country was what he should do the most.

Of course, no longer going to the front line easily does not mean that Sun Tu is completely irrelevant to war. On the contrary, with the change of identity, when the war begins again, his responsibilities become heavier and his affairs become more busy. Because he has to consider the overall situation and provide the soldiers on the front line with a more reliable and sufficient rear. Whether it is the supply of soldiers' food and grass or the supplement of other logistics, everything is on the shoulders of Sun Tu, the person in power.

In the past, when Sun Tu led his troops to rush on the front line, he would not consider how trivial and complicated these logistics matters were. Today, when he really took over, he realized that it was really complicated and difficult.

After all, this is a major battle to conquer a country. The resources needed to be used are huge numbers, and the power of the Song Dynasty needs to be mobilized to meet them. The various details and overall arrangements are much more difficult than ordinary placing troops or leading troops to fight.

Even though the Song Dynasty had been preparing for this war for two years, it still needed to withdraw enough money, grain and other goods from the local area. If Cai Jing and others were to do these things, they would naturally not feel that it was too difficult, because they would not care about the lives and death of the people at all. It doesn’t matter if the food in the local official warehouse was emptied. If it was not enough, then the tax would be increased.

But Sun Tu couldn't do this. Wasn't he using troops to the north to make the people of the Song Dynasty live a better life? How could he lose his roots and ends? So even if he mobilized grain and grass from various places, he had to leave some of the food that he thought was urgently used for the official warehouse, and then he then drew money and grain according to the rich and poor in various places to go north.

But even so, coupled with the money and food that had been confiscated from the criminals early in the morning, they still could not fill the gold-swalking beast composed of dozens of troops. For this reason, the national treasury was almost emptied by Sun Tu.

"It is said that the Song Dynasty is rich, better than the Han and Tang dynasties, and far away from the Ming and Qing dynasties, but why can't I see it at all?" Sun Tu murmured again after looking at the documents sent by the Ministry of Revenue Transportation Envoy in his hand.

Tong Mu, beside him, didn't hear him clearly, but still understood the confusion in his heart, and smiled bitterly: "The country's wealth does not mean that the court has money too. What's more, two years ago, after several wars, all the money and food saved by the court for many years had been spent. It was only two years, and of course it was impossible to be completely filled."

Sun Tu nodded to express his understanding, but at the same time he had a headache. According to his understanding, others can make money by winning battles, but why did they lose money when they get to his own place? For example, after the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun were captured, they had to ask the court for money and food almost every year for two or three years, in order to raise horses and soldiers. When it was time to really send troops, the whole country needed to pay for food and money... Perhaps this was one of the important reasons why the Song Dynasty did not dare to start a war lightly in the past few decades. In addition to being afraid of not being able to win, it was really too expensive.

Fortunately, Tong Mu's next sentence gave him some confidence: "It is because of the prosperity of business and the recent reduction in taxes, so there is really a lot of money and food. This is the real wealth of the country."

Sun Tu laughed at the sound of his ear: "Yes, isn't this exactly what you and I want to see? Only when the people are rich can the whole country be strong. But now, because time has not yet reached the next step, and now I urgently need wealth from this area, so I plan to..."

"Taiwei, don't go back to the original actions of those people and do things to blackmail the people and plunder the people's wealth." Tong Mu reminded him anxiously.
Chapter completed!