Chapter 2: Wearing a Royal Robe While Handling Market Profits

This county magistrate, newly transferred from the Qin-Feng Circuit in the northwest, had a dark, weathered face crisscrossed with deep lines; he looked less like a scholar and more like an old farmer.

Yet, as his sharp gaze swept over the crowd, the scene instantly became so quiet that a pin dropped could be heard.

Unlike the prefectural schools, in the current reign of Emperor Renzong, prefectural schools had a dedicated position of "Professor" to serve as the chief official, whereas the chief official of a county school was concurrently held by the local county magistrate.

The county magistrate held the authority to review their qualifications for promotion from the county school to the prefectural school!

Therefore, for these county school students, this final policy essay exam before the county examination was exceptionally important, directly determining whether they could leave a good impression on the newly transferred county magistrate.

Li Pan spoke; his voice was somewhat hoarse, like the rough sand and stones of the northwest blown by the wind.

"In the fifth year of Jingyou, Li Yuanhao usurped the title of Emperor, and our dynasty raised an army to attack Xia. Although peace has been made for now, the border troubles in the northwest remain; all students shall take 'Strategies for Defending Against Xia' as the topic and each express their own views."

As soon as Magistrate Li's words fell, gasps rose and fell throughout the examination hall.

Although the Song-Xia War also occurred during the reign of Emperor Renzong, for these scholars from the Shu region, the distance in both time and space was far too great.

From the outbreak of war in the second year of Baoyuan to the conclusion of the "Qingli Peace Accord" in the fourth year of Qingli, the Song-Xia War lasted more than five years, but a full twelve years have already passed since the "Qingli Peace Accord"!

Separated by Guanzhong and Hanzhong, the state of "Xia" was simply too strange for these Shu scholars, so strange that they didn't even have a vague impression of it, let alone write a flowing policy essay on the topic.

Whether in the Great Song or the Shu region, peace has prevailed for a long time, with few people discussing matters of war, so regarding the prediction of exam topics, there has never been an option called "Strategies for Defending Against Xia."

—In other words, this question is severely beyond the syllabus!

Lu Beigu glanced aside and saw that the two scholars who had just been supporting him were now pale as earth; one of them had even knocked over his inkstone, splashing ink onto the hem of his blue robe, staining it with a messy black blotch.

"Silence!"

With a stern shout from the School Director, the examination hall returned to silence, leaving only the rustling sound of turning paper.

At present, no matter how these scholars cursed in their hearts, they had to grit their teeth and write a policy essay to submit.

Lu Beigu lowered his eyes to grind the ink, the historical records concerning the Northern Song and Western Xia swirling in his mind like a revolving lantern.

The first Song-Xia War, the three major battles of Sanchuan Kou, Haoshui Chuan, and Dingchuan Zhai, all ended in defeat for the Northern Song; although the Western Xia has temporarily softened its stance and the two nations are currently in a period of peace, its wolf-like ambitions have never been extinguished.

Four more Song-Xia Wars will break out in succession, among which the Songshen Sect's five-pronged attack on Xia is the most famous; and because there is so much data on the Song-Xia War, the research results of the modern historical community can be described as filling the shelves.

Lu Beigu dipped his brush in the ink, pondered for a moment, and several different lines of thought immediately emerged.

However, compared to those old clichés, he wanted to write something that truly surpassed the knowledge of this era.

At this moment, lost in thought, his wrist hovered over the inkstone, pushing and pulling the ink stick on the stone; this action drew curious glances from the student beside him: ordinary people grind ink by drawing circles back and forth, who pushes and pulls like this?

Lu Beigu, however, seemed unaware; after formulating a draft in his mind, he picked up his brush.

These unnatural little details could be slowly integrated and corrected into his memory; what was important at the moment was actually paying attention to "avoiding taboo names" and avoiding some mistakes that modern people would subconsciously make; when writing a policy essay, one must not use terms like "Northern Song" or "Western Xia."

At this time, the other scholars in the examination hall also began to put pen to paper one after another.

Magistrate Li Pan paced among them, occasionally stopping to observe, but his brows were furrowing tighter and tighter.

The vast majority of scholars simply did not know where the geography of the Xia state was; the few who had some concept of the Xia state wrote policy essays that looked impassioned but were actually nonsense.

Take this one named He Cong, for example.

"Xia is a barbarian tribe in the western frontier; we should follow the example of Emperor Wu of Han and launch a massive army to plow their courtyard and sweep their dens."

—Typical empty talk from a prodigal son.

"Plowing the courtyard and sweeping the dens" sounds very domineering, and no one has ever practiced this strategy; back then, Emperor Xingzong of Liao personally led a hundred thousand troops across the Yellow River, marching four hundred li deep to attack Xia.

And the result? The Xia army skillfully adopted a scorched earth policy, cutting off the Liao army's supply lines; in the final battle, they suffered a massive collapse, and Emperor Xingzong of Liao barely escaped with his life.

Li Pan's expression grew even more gloomy until he walked over to the side of a boy whose clothes were soaked through and glanced at the opening lines.

"As for Xia, it reaches south to the Hehuang, north to the great desert, west to Guasha, and east to the Quye River."

"It possesses the richness of the Ordos Loop, holds the danger of Hengshan Mountain, has a hundred thousand armored soldiers, and sits and watches; it is called a great country of a thousand li."

Li Pan had only read two sentences before his expression brightened slightly; this boy had a correct understanding of the terrain, military strength, and area of the Xia state.

Of course, in Li Pan's view, this level was merely "not bad."

Next, if he could also write some arguments such as Fan Wenzheng's "gradual construction of cities," then Li Pan, who was well-versed in northwest border affairs, could give this boy a grade of "Yi-Xia."

But as Li Pan continued to read, his pupils suddenly contracted sharply!

The entire content of the policy essay began to turn in a direction he had never seen before!

"However, upon close inspection of the politics of the Xia barbarians, they are actually structured with commerce as the sinews and armor as the skin and flesh; they practice the reality of merchants while accumulating the might of cavalry and archery; this is what is called 'wearing a royal robe while handling market profits, holding weapons while calculating every penny.'"

"In the past, Guan Zhong governed Qi, using the art of 'Light and Heavy' to trap Hengshan; Fan Li plotted against Wu, using the strategy of 'Jiran' to weaken the enemy state."

"Now, the plot of the Xia barbarians also lies in monopolizing the Silk Road, leveraging the transport of camels and horses to strengthen military funds, and displaying the power of weapons to seek open trade."

"They established official markets in Yanzhou to exchange green salt for rice and millet; they set up mutual trade markets on the western border to exchange horses for iron tools."

"Merchant caravans come and go like weaving threads, while armored soldiers hide among them; like mosquitoes sucking blood, one does not feel the pain at first, but as the body weakens, the mosquitoes grow strong; by the time the poison takes effect, the vital organs are too damaged to be cured."

In Lu Beigu's view, the Western Xia was never a normal country; its essence was a tribal alliance that controlled trade routes through military force!

And for this special sample of the Western Xia, analyzing its geopolitical relations from an economic perspective was an approach that could be said to be a unique path in this era!

This novel yet practical argument, with just one glance, deeply captured Li Pan's attention!

After all, when Li Pan served on the front lines of the Qin-Feng Circuit, he had also pondered why the "gradual construction of cities" strategy currently implemented by the Great Song could only suppress the expansion of the Western Xia, but could not truly subdue the Western Xia, let alone completely resist its incursions.

At that time, his conclusion was that the "gradual construction of cities" strategy placed too great a burden on the Great Song's finances; the Great Song could not afford to continuously build fortresses and station soldiers. There was a logic to this: building cities was not just about drawing on a map and starting construction; it required selecting locations based on water sources, terrain, and other factors, and it was essential to ensure that the troops within the city could withstand the siege of tens of thousands of Xia soldiers.

In other words, because the Song army lacked cavalry and had too few troops capable of open-field warfare, it had to use quantity and fortifications to make up for quality; but conversely, the more fortresses and garrisons on the northwest front, the greater the pressure on the finances, so this strategy simply could not build fortresses all the way to the Helan Mountains, and thus the Song and Xia remained deadlocked.

And this boy's policy essay offered a completely new strategic conception entirely different from the "gradual construction of cities" strategy!

At this moment, Li Pan had adopted a solemn attitude, his eyes intently fixed on Lu Beigu as he continuously wielded his brush.

He was eager to see what kind of strategy for defending against Xia this unique policy essay could propose.

——————

① Hehuang refers to the collective term for the two valleys formed by the alluvial deposits of the Huangshui River and the Yellow River; at the time in the book, it was occupied by Gesi Luo, the pro-Song leader of the Qingtang Tubo, and was an important ally of the Northern Song in its confrontation with the Western Xia.

② Guasha refers to Guazhou and Shazhou; originally occupied by the Guiyi Army, at the time in the book the dominant local force was the Uighurs; although they submitted to the Western Xia, there were still rifts between the two sides.

③ "Using the art of Light and Heavy to trap Hengshan" refers to the Spring and Autumn period when Duke Huan of Qi wanted to take the State of Hengshan, but this state was skilled in forging weapons and difficult to attack; Guan Zhong adhered to his economic thought, the "art of Light and Heavy," raising the price of Hengshan's weapons to induce other states to compete for them, causing the people of Hengshan to largely abandon farming to engage in forging; subsequently, in autumn, he blockaded trade routes and raised grain prices, forcing the State of Hengshan to have no choice but to depend on Qi.

④ "Jiran's Strategy": The "Biographies of Merchants" in the *Records of the Grand Historian* records that Fan Li once studied under Jiran; Jiran taught Fan Li seven strategies including "valuing circulation," "advocating equality," and "discouraging stagnation"; Fan Li used them to make the State of Yue rich and powerful.

(End of chapter)