[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them":3,"chapter-i-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them-i-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them-chapter-290":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I Transmigrated to the Northern Song with Them",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2319180,4535,"Chapter 290","i-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them-chapter-290",290,"\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sometimes, when Zhao Yu got carried away, he’d think, “I’ve already industrialized—why should I fear the nomads? Why not just take the Divine Mechanism Army and the Four Auxiliary Armies north and crush Liao, Jin, and Mongolia all at once?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But once he cooled down, Zhao Yu would shake his head with a bitter smile: “This isn’t that simple.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Zhao Yu has firearms developed by Li Lin and Ma Xiao Jiao that seem capable of dominating the world, in reality, the Song Dynasty’s current firearms are roughly equivalent to those of the Ming Dynasty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Historically, the Ming had a firearms advantage over the Mongols and the Jianzhou Jurchens, and Zhu Di launched multiple northern expeditions into the steppe, yet never eradicated the Mongols; in its later years, the Ming also failed to halt the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens, who ultimately seized the Ming throne.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason? Firearms are not omnipotent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, the Mongols.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Mongol tribes lived as nomads, with no fixed abode, their range spanning the Mongolian Plateau and southern Siberia. Though the Ming army had firearms (like the matchlocks and cannons of the Divine Mechanism Corps), once they penetrated the grasslands, tracking the Mongol main force became impossible—the Mongol cavalry’s mobility was extreme, allowing them to evade gunfire and strike back once Ming supply lines were exhausted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Firearms heavily depended on ammunition and logistics; the harsh steppe environment and overextended supply lines severely limited their sustained combat capability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This forced Zhu Di to define the core objective of his northern campaigns as “deterrence,” not “extermination.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The problem was, the Mongols weren’t a unified polity but split into tribes like the Tatars and Oirats; each Ming strike could only cripple one tribe, never eliminate it—once one fell, others swiftly filled the power vacuum, making long-term suppression impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, the Ming could only force Mongol submission through military pressure (such as bestowing titles and permitting tribute), never truly occupy the grasslands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, this was also because the grasslands were unsuitable for agriculture, making rule prohibitively costly—so the Ming didn’t even want to annex them; they merely wanted these nomads to stop raiding and disturbing their peaceful lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, though Ming firearms were advanced, early models suffered from slow rate of fire and vulnerability to weather (rain or snow causing misfires); against Mongol cavalry mass charges, their defensive effectiveness was limited. Meanwhile, the Mongols gradually acquired firearms through capture and trade, narrowing the technological gap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, the Jianzhou Jurchens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By Nurhaci’s time, the Jianzhou Jurchens had formed a unified polity (Later Jin), adopting the “Eight Banners” system, merging military and civilian life, and achieving formidable combat power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their territory (Northeastern forests and plains) featured complex terrain—ideal for cavalry mobility and mountain-based defense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ming firearms, especially heavy artillery, were difficult to deploy flexibly and struggled with siege warfare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, the Later Jin captured Ming firearms (like Yuan Chonghuan’s “Red Barbarian Cannons”) and recruited Han artisans to replicate them, gradually building their own firearms units (such as the “Heavy Cannon Corps”).\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By Hong Taiji’s reign, the Later Jin’s firearms technology had nearly matched the Ming’s, even surpassing it in siege warfare (e.g., the Battle of Song-Jin); the Ming’s firearms advantage vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, firearms are merely one tool of war, their effectiveness constrained by geography, logistics, enemy adaptability, national strength, and strategy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s not enough that the Song Dynasty now possesses some firearms to sweep away Liao, Jin, and Mongolia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Yu clearly understood: if the Song army suddenly used firearms against the Liao and Jin, they might initially drive them back, but to utterly annihilate Liao, Jin, and the scattered Mongol tribes across the steppe was merely fantasy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If one recklessly pushes forward, the agricultural civilization must inevitably engage in prolonged struggle against nomadic or hunter-gatherer civilizations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Worse, if the Song Dynasty appears too powerful, Liao and Jin might set aside their enmity and unite against Zhao Song.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remember, even now, the hatred between Liao and Jin hasn’t fully solidified; historically, after Jin destroyed Liao, enslaved Liao men, seized Liao women, and desecrated Liao ancestral tombs, many Liao people still surrendered to Jin and became Jurchens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the scattered Mongol tribes across the steppe, still ununified, are Zhao Yu’s greatest threat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Zhao Yu recklessly pushes forward, the best he can hope for is to become the second Zhu Di—nominally sweeping the steppe multiple times, yet utterly unable to incorporate the vast grasslands into Song territory, instead exhausting the state’s strength in endless stalemates and ending up with nothing but a hollow reputation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The resilience, mobility, and adaptability of steppe tribes are like the wind—invisible yet everywhere; no matter how fierce the blows, they always find cracks to survive and regenerate. If they cannot be utterly conquered, they will remain free to roam the boundless steppe, gathering and dispersing like wolf packs, forever impossible to eradicate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Yu understood well: war is not merely a clash of weapons and force, but a contest of wisdom, patience, and strategy; true victory lies not in temporary battlefield triumphs, but in building a stable, far-reaching strategic framework.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Long ago, Zhao Yu began pondering how to leverage his firearms advantage, learn from history, and combine diplomacy, economics, culture, and other means to avoid repeating past mistakes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Yu told himself: “Relying solely on military conquest is costly and unsustainable. The truly wise do not measure success by how many weapons they possess, but by how wisely they use them to achieve maximum victory at minimum cost.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, technological superiority is easily neutralized by enemy mobility and imitation—so the later one reveals one’s hand, the less one is feared, the more unexpected the effect, and the greater the chance of ultimate victory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crucially, Zhao Yu had previously ignited popular resentment to resolve the Song Dynasty’s severe wealth disparity by enforcing the “Equal Taxation of Scholar-Gentry” and “Land Tax Consolidation”—honestly, this inflicted considerable damage on the Song state, requiring time to recuperate and slowly restore national strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And most crucially, what is politics?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In essence, politics is public sentiment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In politics, to defeat your enemy is simple: make your friends many, your enemy’s friends few, then strike decisively to eliminate the enemy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remember: failing to strike a snake is one-third guilt; striking but failing to kill it is seven-tenths guilt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, in this war between Liao and Jin, Zhao Yu will let them fight first; only when Liao is truly on the brink and hatred between Liao and Jin has reached the point where some Liao people demand mutual annihilation with the Jurchens will Zhao Yu step forward to claim the fruits of victory—no time lost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, during the Liao-Jin war, Zhao Yu fully implemented his prior reforms, especially in Jinghu and Sichuan, where scholar-gentry landowners had not been crushed; he also exempted regions devastated by Song Jiang’s and Fang La’s rebellions from taxes, allowing them to recover.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In addition, Zhao Yu launched massive infrastructure projects—for instance, he ordered the renovation of the Grand Canal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The earlier Sui-Tang Grand Canal centered on Luoyang, with a circuitous route requiring transport from the south to Yan to detour through Luoyang—lengthening distance and raising costs, failing to meet urgent frontline supply needs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once war broke out against Liao or Jin, vast quantities of supplies would be needed to sustain rule and feed armies; renovating the canal would enable direct transport of southern goods to Yan, reducing transit time and losses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Parts of the Sui-Tang Grand Canal had fallen into disuse due to war and siltation, and its winding route (e.g., Hangzhou → Luoyang → Yanjing) meant the Song Dynasty needed a more direct north-south corridor if it moved against the north.\u003C\u002Fp>",1274,"2026-06-20T15:06:50.687Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","e2b8dcc3c724350c3e1a156d6d41a8a70acc04f3228099cc9e5a386ededd7377","i-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them-chapter-291","i-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them-chapter-289",348,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-transmigrated-to-the-northern-song-with-them-cover.jpg"]