In July of the first year of Baoyuan of the Song Dynasty, in the Helan Mountains, there was a vast wilderness amid the strong west wind.
The sky is clear, the earth is vast, and cattle and sheep appear on the wind-swept meadows.
Groups of horses were arranged in neat formations, many party chiefs gathered, and the party soldiers on horseback could not see the end at a glance.
On the stage, Li Yuanhao looked down, raised the scimitar in his hand, and spoke impassionedly about proclaiming himself emperor.
The people in the audience looked grave, and there was no trace of joy for Li Yuanhao on their faces.
Because except for him, almost all the party chiefs and marshals supported him one after another, like a group of brainless fools, showing their fanatical following.
But who could have known that Xixia's economy was now entirely supported by the Song Dynasty. Once Song and Xia turned against each other and cut off mutual trade, Daxia's economic situation would plummet in an instant, leading to very serious consequences.
Therefore, as the only understanding person among the crowd, Shan Yu Weiliang hoped to prevent Li Yuanhao from proclaiming himself emperor.
But obviously it's difficult.
Li Yuanhao was very happy to see that the soldiers below him were ready. He immediately promised that after proclaiming himself emperor, he would reward many chiefs and commanders, and he would go south to invade the Song Dynasty, steal grain, money, and women from them, and reward the three armies.
Under such a promise, the many heroes below became even more enthusiastic, cheering and cheering for their future emperor, which also made Shan Yuweiliang's heart sink to the bottom.
Seeing the situation in front of him, he finally couldn't help it. He knelt on one knee in front of Li Yuanhao on the stage and persuaded him earnestly: "Your Majesty, no. If your Majesty proclaims himself emperor, becomes enemies with Song Dynasty, and cuts off mutual trade, Daxia will definitely be in trouble. We can't do this. ah."
In fact, smart people should know that they cannot persuade him now. If he goes up now, he will slap Li Yuanhao in the face. Even if you want to persuade, you should do it afterward.
However, Shan Yu Weiliang had no choice, because trying to persuade him afterwards would be almost impossible to succeed.
Li Yuanhao has already wanted to proclaim himself emperor in front of so many people. Even if he persuades everyone to succeed, the other party will think that one day he summoned everyone to proclaim himself emperor, and the next day he stopped proclaiming himself emperor. Such a back-and-forth would be detrimental to his prestige. challenge.
Therefore, exhortation afterwards will never succeed, and will only allow Li Yuanhao to rush to the throne and continue the matter of proclaiming emperor. When Song and Xia turn against each other, Xixia will be the ones injured.
If you go on stage now and state your interests, at least in front of everyone, there is still room for redemption.
It was just that Shan Yu Weiliang still underestimated Li Yuanhao's determination to become emperor. Faced with his persuasion, Li Yuanhao said angrily: "If they don't come to trade with each other, then we will force them to trade with each other. We will go south to kill and rob with weapons." . The Song Dynasty is cowardly, but we Xia people are brave, why should we be afraid of them?"
"Your Majesty."
"Okay, I've made my decision, no need to say anything more."
Li Yuanhao walked down the stage and left.
Shan Yuweiliang looked sad, turned his head and looked at the many heroes below who looked at him with contempt, and could only leave the stage bitterly.
Helan Mountain is just outside the city to the west of Xingqing Mansion. Li Yuanhao held an alliance meeting. Party chiefs all brought their troops. There were tents everywhere on the vast grassland. After the alliance meeting, there was singing, dancing and banquets.
Shan Yu Weiliang had a sad face at the banquet, and left the venue halfway through and went back to his tent. His younger brother Shan Yu Weixu saw that his brother was depressed, so he came to accompany him.
The two brothers chatted for a while, and Shan Yu Weiliang told his brother all his worries. Although Shan Yu Weixu knew that what his brother said was right, there was nothing he could do, so he could only comfort him a few words and called him for others. Some friends of the powerful chiefs organized a small banquet in private.
It was natural to complain at such a small banquet, but it didn't take long for the complaints to reach Li Yuanhao's ears.
Two days later, Li Yuanhao called Shan Yu Weixu and told him to expose Shan Yu Weiliang's rebellion, otherwise the Shan Yu clan would be destroyed.
At this juncture, Li Yuanhao still did not dare to kill Shan Yu Weiliang directly. Because Shan Yu Weiliang was his uncle, and he was also an important minister in the early Xixia period. He served as the supervisor of the left wing of Xixia army and once assisted his father.
It can be said that Shanyu Weiliang's status and prestige are still very high. If he is killed for no reason, it will not only alienate the Xixia tribes, but also possibly cause Shanyu tribes to rebel and cause internal turmoil.
Therefore, it is the best way to let Shan Yu Weixu falsely accuse Shan Yu Weiliang of treason, so that Li Yuanhao can justifiably eliminate Shan Yu Weiliang and solve this worry.
But apparently after a short struggle, Shan Yu Weixu still chose the latter between the tribe and his brother, and quietly sent someone to tell Shan Yu Weiliang the news.
Shan Yu Weiliang was very surprised when he learned about this. He never expected that Li Yuanhao was so insane that even his uncle, a loyal minister who had assisted his father for many years, would be executed.
Forced into desperation, he could only take his wife, children and family, totaling 23 people, to secretly escape from Xingqing Mansion and flee towards the Song Dynasty.
At this moment, the newly appointed magistrate of Yanzhou, Yanzhou, Guo Quan frowned while holding the letter in his hand. Shan Yuweiliang took his family with him after escaping. Wei Xian rode a fast horse to the border between Song and Xia, handed over the letter, and hoped that the Song army would come to respond.
But Guo Quan suspected that there was fraud, so he asked Li Wei, the governor of Heyang, to discuss it. These two were pure cobblers. Historically, it was these two who sent Shan Yu Weiliang back, causing Shan Yu Weiliang to be Killed, the two people were also held accountable, and were raped all the way to the end.
But now there is a new change. Fan Zhongyan, the transfer envoy of Shaanxi Road, is in Linzhou next door. He has issued a death order before. If anything happens, he must be reported to him. After discussing it, the two decided not to make their own decisions, so they quickly went to Linzhou overnight. Ma sent the news to Luojiao County, Linzhou Government Office.
Luojiao is the Fu County in later generations, less than 100 kilometers away from Yanzhou. The knight galloped for a day and a night, passing through Fushi, Ganquan, Diaoyin and other fortresses and cities along the way, changing horses without changing people. On the second day, Fan Zhongyan Got the message.
After reading this information and the analysis of Guo Quan and Li Wei, Lao Fan hesitated a little, then immediately organized his troops and set off for Yanzhou in person.
In fact, from a God's perspective, Guo Quan and Li Wei were very stupid, causing the Song Dynasty to lose an important strategic figure who defected from the enemy. But from their perspective, it is human nature to suspect fraud.
Even Fan Zhongyan was a little hesitant because Zhao Jun had not told him about this incident. In other words, this incident happened unexpectedly to Fan Zhongyan. Whether it was true or not, he had to judge by himself.
But what is better than Guo Quan and Li Wei is that Lao Fan is not stupid enough to make an arbitrary decision immediately, but will wait and see what the situation is. And although Zhao Jun never told him about this, he did not mention any time during the Song-Xia war that high-level moles from Xixia pretended to surrender to cause sabotage.
This also means that except for Li Shibin who was deceived by falsely surrendering, even if Shanyu Weiliang falsely surrendered and was accepted by them, there should not be any serious consequences.
So with this idea in mind, Fan Zhongyan decided to observe the situation first before making a decision.
Soon a large group of soldiers gathered and quickly headed north to Yanzhou.
Three days later, when Fan Zhongyan arrived in Yanzhou with his army, Guo Quan and Li Wei had captured Shan Yu Weiliang's family alive, not in Yanzhou, but in Long'an Village north of Yanzhou.
Shan Yuweiliang was lucky enough not to be mad at these two sleeping dragons and phoenix chicks. He had just taken out the wolf's den, and now he was in the tiger's den again.
Fortunately, Fan Zhongyan arrived in time.
Historically, Pang Ji asked Di Qing to build Long'an Village in the early years of the Qingli Dynasty. However, Fan Zhongyan came to the northwest in advance. At that time, he overlooked the terrain of Long'an Mountain and thought that a village wall could be built here to form a camp, so he asked Wang De to build a wall.
Compared with Di Qing, Wang De is still very experienced as a veteran. With his careful construction, Long'an Village is now as solid as a city.
The city wall stretches for one mile from the foot of the mountain, with a large number of fortresses, watchtowers and camps crisscrossing the rear. Taking advantage of Long'an Mountain's commanding position, and the clear water (Yanhe) flowing at the foot of the mountain, it occupies a favorable terrain, making it a solid barrier to resist the Xixia attack.
In the tent at the rear of Long'an Village, Fan Zhongyan personally met Shan Yu Weiliang. When he saw Shan Yu Weiliang, he believed him.
Because the other party defected with all his family members, including his wife and children, if the Song Army accepted him, his family members would definitely be placed in the rear. If it is a false surrender, once something happens, the whole family will suffer.
Unless Shan Yu Weiliang is a ruthless person who would kill his whole family in order to fake surrender, otherwise, the credibility is still very high.
So when Shan Yu Weiliang was kidnapped and sent in by Wu Hua Da, Fan Zhongyan immediately stood up, glared at Guo Quan and said: "General Shan Yu can abandon darkness and turn to light. He is a person who understands the general situation. The Song Dynasty should have the tolerance to accept you." How can it be so stateless? It’s really unreasonable!”
With that said, he walked over to untie Shan Yu Weiliang himself.
Guo Quan and Li Wei were still a little dissatisfied and opened their mouths to say something, but seeing Fan Zhongyan's serious face, they finally swallowed their words.
Fan Xianggong was fully authorized to govern the northwest and had the power to appoint and remove all officials. If he was really displeased and directly reported to the court to have them removed from office, there would really be no reason to argue.
And these words were obviously meant for Shan Yu Weiliang, firstly to appease Shan Yu Weiliang, and secondly to express Song Dynasty's sincerity.
Shan Yu Weiliang's expression softened a lot and he said, "I have long heard that Fan Xianggong is a sensible person. When I saw him today, it turned out to be true. I admire him."
He spoke Chinese, and most of the Dangxiang nobles spoke Chinese, even in today's Liao Kingdom. Although Khitan is still one of the official languages, Chinese has long been popular among the upper classes of the Liao Kingdom, and those nobles can even compose poems. Wen is more Han than Han.
Fan Zhongyan untied the rope for him, then took Shan Yuweiliang's hand to sit on the banquet together, and said with a smile: "The general came to vote, it's his heart. I, the Song Dynasty, accepts all rivers, how can I be disrespectful to the general?" The people below were confused for a moment, I hope the general will not blame them."
This statement made Shan Yu Weiliang feel much better, and he also smiled and said: "Hu people outside Hua admire the customs of the Central Plains. I have always advised your Majesty that China has many soldiers, Guanzhong is rich, Huanqing is surrounded, and Yan Yan controls all the dangerous places on the border. If These cities and towns are fully prepared for attack and defense. I have no use for my bow and horse skills, and I have nothing to sell for my cattle and sheep. I will be trapped for a year or two. It is better to stay in peace with the vassals and enjoy the rich bequests every year, which is the blessing of the country. ,such a pity"
He sighed as he spoke.
Fan Zhongyan said: "Yuan Hao is arrogant, disrespectful to the people, and disrespectful of his superiors. He will be punished by heaven. The general is open-minded and able to turn from darkness to light. It is God's blessing for the party members. If Yuan Hao is defeated, the general will still need to work hard and shoulder the responsibility for revival. It is the responsibility of the great cause of the party.”
This is another hint to Shan Yu Weiliang that if Li Yuanhao really proclaims himself emperor, the Song Dynasty will definitely send troops in the future, and he will support Shan Yu Weiliang.
In fact, in a sense, from the standpoint of a party member, Shan Yu Weiliang is a traitor.
But as the saying goes, if a country is small but does not feel humble, if it is small but does not fear the strong, if it is rude and insults its big neighbors, if it is greedy and ignorant, it will perish.
If it weren't for the disparity in power, who would want to be a traitor?
So after hearing Fan Zhongyan's words, Shan Yuweiliang was grateful and sighed: "It is a great blessing for the Song Dynasty and a great fortune for the Xia Dynasty that Fan Gong can guard the northwest."
"The Xia Kingdom is lucky to have a general who understands the general situation."
Fan Zhongyan immediately ordered the wine to be served, glasses were exchanged, and the atmosphere gradually became warm.
At the banquet, I met Weiliang and told him the reasons for his defection. He also told Fan Zhongyan and Li Yuanhao's preparations to proclaim himself emperor, and also explained all the military arrangements of Xixia.
Although it's useless.
Because Li Yuanhao is not a fool, he will definitely change the defense situation and adjust his tactics afterwards.
But Shan Yuweiliang's defection will undoubtedly cause turmoil within Xixia.
Therefore, in Fan Zhongyan's view, the strategic significance of being able to get Shan Yu Weiliang's defection is far greater than the tactical significance.
Once Li Yuanhao's attack is frustrated or even defeated, there will definitely be different voices within Xixia, resulting in a lot of Xixia troops and generals defecting to the Song Dynasty.
At that time, not only will Li Yuanhao's strength be severely weakened, but he may also counterattack and invade Xixia through these defecting leading parties.
If this is true, this will bring a huge strategic victory to the Song Dynasty.
With Fan Zhongyan's guarantee, even if Shan Yuweiliang was officially accepted, the soldiers and officials below naturally became more active, toasting and talking, and the atmosphere of the banquet became much more harmonious.
In the afternoon, when Fan Zhongyan comforted Shan Yuweiliang and planned to send him to settle in the rear and listen to his analysis of the situation in Xixia, Di Qing suddenly came in from outside and reported to him: "Report, there is smoke coming from the direction of Ansegu. .”
"It must be Yuan Hao here!"
Fan Zhongyan calmly shouted: "Command the three armies to line up to meet the enemy!"
"Ohh Ohh ohh!"
Suddenly the whole camp was busy, and the sound of trumpets resounded throughout the world. Groups of soldiers emerged from behind the crenellations of the rammed-earth village wall, unsheathing their bows and swords.
Everywhere was the sound of the clanking of armored leaves, anxious and angry urgings, uniform shouts, short and urgent orders and sharp whistles, making the entire wall of the village a mess.
Almost half an hour later, on the wide road along the Qingshui River in the north, the sound of roaring horse hooves approached outside Long'an Village. Countless black shadows appeared in the billowing smoke.
The military flag covered the sky and the sun, as if there was no end in sight!
Li Yuanhao.
Leading the army into the border, the attack is coming!
(End of chapter)
