At the end of February, Di Qing led his army back to Beijing one after another, stationed around Kaifeng Prefecture. It was distributed along the railway line within two or three hundred miles.

The destruction of Dangxiang was a great achievement. For a time, the capital was very lively. The people rushed to Yujie and saw Di Qing and others return to the court. Wen Yanbo led all civil and military officials to welcome the city. The emperor held a banquet at Xuande Gate to entertain the soldiers who had returned from the meritorious service.

For three consecutive days, various celebrations were held, and the normal court meetings were stopped. At this time, the students who had passed the exam and the scholars who had failed the exam were all in Beijing. After seeing the lively scene, they gathered together and drank, wrote some poems and essays, praising this extraordinary martial arts.

Three days later, Du Zhongxiao had a morning court. As soon as he sat down at the Privy Council, a small yellow gate came and issued an order to enter the palace to discuss matters immediately.

When he arrived at Chongzheng Hall, he performed the ceremony and Du Zhongxiao sat down. Looking at the seats around him, in addition to the deputy Privy Councilors, there were Prime Minister Wen Yanbo and Han Qi, King Yaochen and Zhang Fangping, Hanlin scholar Ouyang Xiu, Hu Su and Wang Gui. The head of the Privy Council was sitting with Di Qing who had returned to Beijing.

After giving tea soup, Zhao Zhen said: "Dangxiang was destroyed, Xingling, Hexi, Hengshan re-entered the territory, which is actually a blessing for the court. Recently, the Hedong Road Master Pang Ji came to report that Khitan Yelu Hongji was approaching Datong Prefecture. Yehong Chongyuan and others were frightened and were anxious to find a way out. They suggested that the court send troops to take advantage of the Khitan civil strife to occupy some land, thinking of the future."

Han Qi held the scepter: "When I left Hequ Road, I ordered Yang Wenguang to use his intentions to Dezhou north of Datong Prefecture. Zhao Zi, Liu Ji and Jia Kui and others to use his intentions to Shuozhou in the south. Just wait for the imperial court to give orders, and you can take all the two places. After taking Shuozhou, you can take in Yelu Chongyuan and others for the future plan."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "Donalds from both prefectures think when will they take Dezhou and Shuozhou be appropriate?"

Du Zhongxiao held the scepter: "This matter can be contacted by Xiao Ge, the important minister under Chongyuan. If he persuaded him to surrender, it would be more beneficial. If there is a clarification, or if Yelu Hongji starts to attack Datong Prefecture, it is most appropriate to send troops. At the same time, he ordered Pang Ji from Hedong Road to gather heavy troops in Daizhou to prepare for the Khitan to resist when the Khitan advances."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said to Wen Yanbo: "What do the Prime Minister think?"

Wen Yanbo said: "What Du Taiwei said is. If fighting in Shuozhou is easy to get out of the sheath, the Khitan must deal with it. If you do not station heavy troops in Datong Prefecture, you dare not intend to do other places. For the court, this is beneficial."

Zhao Zhen said: "What if the Khitans raised the troops from all over the country to attack Shuozhou?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Dangxiang has been destroyed, Zhao Zi, Liu Ji and Jia Kui's troops can all be put into Shuozhou defense. 150,000 people are enough to defend Daizhou. The two Khitan emperors have joined forces for five years. Hong Ji defeated Chongyuan and was about to rest and recuperate. When can he persist? Furthermore, there is Hedong Road to support him in the south. Even if Hong Ji leads all his troops south, it will be difficult to threaten Shuozhou at all."

Han Qi said: "The 200,000 soldiers on Hequ Road have experienced many major wars, which are not comparable to other soldiers. Only taking Shuozhou and Dezhou will not have a major threat to the Khitan and will not cause national wars. I think it can be defended."

Han Qi had already made arrangements before returning to Beijing, and there was no major controversy. After a few words, he stopped talking and asked the Privy Council to draw up a plan after returning. How to send troops, how to defend, how to cooperate with Hedong Road, and so on.

After talking about the Khitan affairs, Zhao Zhen looked at everyone and said, "Five years ago, Taiwei Du went north to rescue Tanglong Town, expanding thousands of miles of land and having Hequ Road, and restoring the Western Regions, which is unprecedented. Last year, more than 300,000 troops were launched to destroy Dangxiang, and the West and the Western Regions were integrated into one, reappearing the Han and Tang dynasties. In these wars, the soldiers and horses of Hequ Road were invincible, which was very consistent with the court's wishes. Over the years, the court has always wanted to follow the Hequ Road military system and train the imperial guards again, but the result was a bit unsatisfactory. Now Du Zhongxiao is the Privy Councilor. I intend to reorganize the imperial guards. What do you think?"

Everyone didn't say anything, and looked at Du Zhongxiao together.

Du Zhongxiao held the scepter and said, "Your Majesty will blame me for this matter, and I will be heartbroken! This is a major national event. It must cooperate with all ministers, and there is no barrier between inside and outside to hope to achieve success. In three years, something will be achieved."

After Du Zhongxiao finished speaking, Zhao Zhen turned his head and looked at Wen Yanbo.

Wen Yanbo said: "This is a national event, and the Secretary of the Central Committee should support it. But if there are any affairs, the Privy Council can just write the Secretary of the Central Committee."

Zhao Zhen nodded: "Since the founding of the country, the Northern Han Dynasty has been pacified, and the Northern Lu fought against the Northern Lu, and most of them have no victory. It was not until the soldiers on Hequ Road defeated the Khitan and then the Dangxiang that they would not make any difference. From today on, the Privy Council has formulated a strategy and reformed the military system, which will last for three years, and hope that they will be successful by then."

Speaking of this, Zhao Zhen said to Du Zhongxiao: "Today, ministers are all in Chongzheng Hall. How to change the military system? The Taiwei can briefly explain the previous statement, and the ministers have a clear idea. Only when the changes are made later will there be fewer obstacles."

Du Zhongxiao thought for a while and said, "There are two types of military soldiers in the world, one is the imperial guards and the other is the Xiang army. The other rural soldiers, archers, etc., will only serve as servants in the future and will be under the jurisdiction of the local chief officials. They will no longer be in the Three Yas and the Privy Council. The Xiang army is used to maintain local public security. Except for extraordinary times, it will no longer be used for external combat. What should the Xiang army be? When the Privy Council discusses with the Zhongshu, we will discuss it in detail later. What we are talking about today is all about the imperial guards."

Speaking of this, Du Zhongxiao quietly looked at the tablet in front of him. The tablet was used to record things. Although it was not often used, he would still write a few sentences on the important matters when facing the king. The key to the reform of the military system, Du Zhongxiao also recorded the key points on the tablet, for fear of forgetting.

"No matter how the previous military system is, it is necessary to make a major change. I think military affairs can be divided into the following aspects. Military orders, military politics, mobilization, logistics, intelligence, military law, rewards and military affairs are not included in these seven items. The Imperial Military Affairs is divided into the Privy Council and the Three Organs, and they will follow these seven items, each performing its duties. Each has its own duties and cannot surpass it."

This was the first time Du Zhongxiao truly explained his understanding of military affairs. Several ministers thought about it carefully but didn't say anything.

Zhao Zhen said: "Since it is divided into seven items, which belong to the Privy Council and the Three Yas, I don't know how to divide it?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Military orders belong to the Privy Council and the commanders outside the country, and military and political orders belong to the Three Yamen. Correspondingly, affairs related to military orders, such as logistics, intelligence, rewards, and merits, belong to the Privy Council. Matters equivalent to military and political affairs, such as mobilization and military law belong to the Three Yamen."

Although the affairs under the Privy Council are divided into houses and cases, although there are not as clear as Du Zhongxiao’s affairs, there are all major directions. However, each house is used for each case, not officials. The three yamen are different. Except for the publication and salary, the rest of the matter is abolished. According to this direction, the Privy Council changes greatly, while the three yamen changes even more.

Ouyang Xiu said: "We don't know the military affairs. The military orders, military affairs, even logistics, intelligence, and military laws mentioned by the Taiwei can probably imagine it. I just don't know what mobilization and reward merits mean?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Returning to Neihan, mobilization is the recruitment of troops, and in wartime civil resources turn to cooperate with war. Now, the recruitment of imperial guards is the envoy who holds troops and goes to various places to select the wing troops. Or if the people who are willing to be soldiers are directly recruited into the imperial guards. This is not the case in the future, but the three yamen will allocate localities to recruit soldiers according to the missing posts in the army, and send recruitment envoys to recruit soldiers. There are specific requirements for recruiting soldiers, and it is no longer just a simple soldier. After recruiting soldiers, they will train for three months first and then divide them into various armies. In wartime, if the materials needed in the army come from the people, they will also talk about them. As for the so-called rewards, it is no longer like before, only rewards are given based on the first-level military merits in the wartime, but to discuss military merits. How to treat military merits and attract soldiers is the affairs of the supervisor. In these two ways, mobilization is to transform civilian forces into combat power, and reward meritorious people will be treated preferentially among the people."

Everyone nodded, not understanding. After hearing Du Zhongxiao said, it seemed that he knew what was going on. But he couldn't explain clearly how to do it and why he did it. This is normal. Both of these dynasties have existed in previous dynasties, but it was not so detailed.

After all, Du Zhongxiao proposed these two items to make war no longer a matter of the army, but a matter of the whole society, and initially had the concept of total war. It is not only about replenishing soldiers in daily life, but also about mobilization. It is not only about urgent replenishing soldiers, but also about civilian forces turning into war forces, from economy to commerce, serving war.

It is a great regret that the Song Dynasty had the highest national strength in the world, but it could not be effectively transformed into military power. In history, many defeats in the civil war were not exerted, and the civil war strength was wasted because of defeat. The mobilization system was to use the civil power.

The purpose of rewarding merits is not to directly spend too much money on military merits during wartime, but to use reward merits to allow military merits to penetrate into the people, thereby improving the status of the army and the status of soldiers.

These two items are the infiltration of the army into the local area. They were not paid attention to before, but they had a profound impact on military strength.

After listening to Du Zhongxiao's speech, several ministers nodded one after another. Although they didn't know what Du Zhongxiao was talking about, they thought it was amazing.

Du Zhongxiao said: "The most important thing is the Privy Council's military orders, and the three yamen are in charge of military affairs. The division of labor between the two cannot be done in form, but must be truly divided and the army is managed. In this way, the Privy Council and the Three yamen will have to undergo major changes, and a large number of generals and officials will be added, which is no longer the same as before."

Zhao Zhen said to Zhang Fangping: "It will inevitably cost more money to replenish generals and officials. Can the court support it?"

Zhang Fangping said: "As of now, if you don't make up for it, you can still support it."

Zhao Zhen said: "According to the Hequ Road military reform, not only the Privy Council and the Third Organs will need to add many officials, but also the generals in the army will increase. In this way, there will be no small amount of extra money and food every year, and the Secretary of the Central Committee should make an estimate early."
Chapter completed!