By May, Yelu Zongzhen finally couldn't stand it any longer and chose to negotiate peace with Song.
It's not that he didn't want to fight, but reality gave him a hard blow.
Of the thirty-four tribes of the Liao Kingdom, only a few were willing to help. Even in the northwest region, Hou Naiman rebelled, killed the Liao messenger, and proclaimed himself king.
And according to rumors from behind, some tribes are also ready to take action, such as the Wugu tribe, the Big and Small Huangshi Wei tribe, which have been rebelling for many years.
These tribes were originally conquered by several generations of wise kings, including Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji, Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang, Liao Shengzong Yelu Longxu, etc., and they were slowly pacified by continuous attacks.
The pacification can only prove their surrender, but it does not mean that they have integrated into the Liao Kingdom and completely become a part of the Liao people.
They surrendered to the Liao State because of its abundant military force, and naturally they would become dissatisfied because of the decline of the Liao State, especially after seeing the disastrous defeat of the Liao State's southern expedition to the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, Zhao Jun's prediction was correct. If Yelu Zong really recruited soldiers and horses from all tribes, there would be only one outcome - all tribes would launch rebellions one after another.
At this time, if the Song State intervenes again, such as transporting money, food, weapons and equipment to the Jurchen, Bohai, and Xi tribes in the northeast through the Bohai Bay, inviting them to attack the Liao State together, and giving the Liao State a fatal blow, I am afraid that the country will perish.
Therefore, after Yelu Zongzhen's careful consideration, he finally decided to accept Zhang Jian's persuasion and agree to various requests made by the Song Dynasty.
But they also have their own conditions.
First, you can exchange war horses and mineral deposits with the Song Dynasty for money and food, but you hope it will still be nominally a year's coin to save the true face of Yelu Zong. And it will be the same every year in the future, exchanging items of equivalent value for nominal coins.
Second, since the Song State hopes that the two countries will be treated equally, it should not require that only the Liao State be open to the sale of contraband. The Song State should also do the same, otherwise it would be unfair.
Third, it requires that the land on the south bank of Laishui River was not ceded by the Liao State, but donated by the Liao State.
Fan Zhongyan received Zhang Jian's letter and was overjoyed when he saw that the Liao Kingdom agreed. He hurriedly sent someone to send the letter to Bianliang.
At this time, Kaifeng was still in a rather solemn atmosphere.
This has been going on for two or three months.
Ever since their aide-sama spoke so impassionedly that he would fight the enemy to the death, the enthusiasm of the people in the city had gradually receded.
After all, the first thing for war mobilization is to continue to collect food and grass and then send it to the front line.
In this war atmosphere, where troops and horses have not yet used food and grass, the price of food in Bianliang is rising day by day, making the people miserable.
This cannot be changed through any tough measures. There must be corresponding production capacity supply.
Otherwise, how can you bring down the price of food if there is no food?
Therefore, the people of Bianliang were also complaining. In addition, they had to continue to spend money to import sulfur from Japan, which drained the national treasury of money, and the officials began to be unhappy.
In addition, we must go all out to make grenades and artillery. In the case of copper shortage, copper cannons are safer than iron cannons. Zhao Jun believes that we can build copper cannons first, accumulate experience, and then start manufacturing iron cannons.
But a bronze cannon costs about two thousand kilograms of copper.
Based on the fact that a piece of money weighs four to five kilograms, it would require about four to five hundred guan. Adding labor, shells, etc., the total cost must be more than 500 guan.
In the Ming Dynasty, the cost of the same two thousand kilogram iron cannon was only two hundred taels of silver.
This is bound to be a burden on the finances.
However, Zhao Jun thinks that saving 300,000 Guansui coins to build 600 damn bronze cannons is not much better than giving Liao a yearly coins every year?
Therefore, we firmly support the increasingly high military spending.
It's just that this kind of persistence may not last long.
Again.
Now the people can barely appease the people's grievances by relying on Zhao Jun's own prestige and the constant publicity in newspapers.
In the officialdom, due to the strong support of Zhao Zhen and the Constitutional Yuan, and the Constitutional Yuan supporting a large number of idle officials to come to power and gathering a group of interest groups, the officials were prevented from causing trouble.
But if things go on like this, no matter how much people love the country, they will probably fall into a dilemma and even resent the imperial court when faced with the rising demand for food, rice, oil and salt.
Therefore, in a sense, the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom were actually holding back, it was just a matter of seeing who couldn't hold back first.
But one good thing is that they have been preparing for the Song-Xia War and the possible Song-Liao War for nearly three years, and they can still hold on.
Although the price rise is serious, it is at most the highest point in history caused by the war between Qingli and Xixia.
On the other hand, the Liao Kingdom was in danger of destroying the country, so Zhao Jun kept boosting morale and asking everyone to persevere.
Inside the Chongzheng Hall.
Zhao Jun is telling everyone a story.
"According to our detailed investigation, the Liao Kingdom must be the final loser. Now many Liao tribes in the Bohai Sea, the Jurchen Tribe of the Five Kingdoms, and the Nvzhi Tribe in the East China Sea have expressed goodwill to us, saying that as long as we fund them , they will never follow the Liao Kingdom southward."
"This fully illustrates the two sayings that good things can help you a lot, but bad things can help you a lot; friends can make you many, and enemies can make you few."
"Then why is Liao still hanging there?"
"I think there are two reasons. First, they still can't let go of their former status as the leader of East Asia, and they don't want us to be on an equal footing with them. This will seriously affect their majesty of the Liao, which claims to be the dynasty of heaven and the kingdom of all nations."
"The second is that they are reluctant to part with the hundreds of thousands of coins they get in vain every year. In addition, on the birthdays of the Emperor and the Queen Mother of Liao, we all have to give gifts. Those are all wasted money."
"There is a story in our later generations. The story says that there was a beggar on the overpass. A gentleman passed by every day and saw that the beggar was pitiful, so he gave the beggar one yuan. On this day, the gentleman was in a hurry and forgot to give the beggar money when he passed by. He left Afterwards, the beggar spat on his back."
"For some time, my husband was on a business trip and was not in this city. When he returned to this city, he passed the overpass again and saw a beggar. He walked up and gave the beggar one yuan. The beggar said, you should give me thirty yuan." The husband asked , why? The beggar said, you haven’t been here for a month, so you should give me thirty yuan.”
"After some time, the husband passed by the overpass and did not give the beggar any money. The beggar stopped him and asked why you didn't give me the money. The husband said that I was married and had children, and the money was given to my wife. The beggar said angrily: You actually Give your wife the money you gave me.”
“What can we see through this story?”
Zhao Jun looked around at everyone.
Zhao Zhen in the Chongzheng Hall was the first to raise his hand and speak: "Does this refer to the common saying that a favor is promoted and a favor is fought against?"
"good."
Zhao Jun nodded and said: "For the Liao Kingdom, he is like a poor beggar. If you give him the coins for a long time, he will think that the coins should be his. But he forgot that this was the stupidity of the Emperor of Song. The benefits brought to them, once the emperor stops being stupid and becomes smart and stops giving them money, they will think that we have annexed the money that belongs to them, and instead they will resent us."
"Grandson."
Zhao Zhen glanced at Zhao Jun resentfully. Although he seemed to praise himself for being smart, he seemed to scold his father for being stupid, making him not sure whether he should be happy or angry.
"Oh, I'm just used to being in front of my own people. I will definitely be cautious about my words and actions in front of outsiders. Don't worry, brother."
Zhao Jun waved his hands and said: "Who in the Song Dynasty doesn't know that today's elder brother is wise. Although the late emperor is a little weaker, the one who gave birth to such a wise and powerful brother will be comparable to the Han Wu and Tang Sect in the future, and may even be more powerful than them. , doesn’t that prove that the late emperor was weak, but his genes are still good?”
"All right."
Zhao Zhen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Although he should be happy because he was about to become an emperor in Zhao Jun's mouth, he felt something was wrong when he heard it, which really made him unhappy.
"Then what if they keep insisting on the Sui coins?"
Lu Yijian asked.
Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "Then beat them to let them go. Now the Liao Kingdom is already unstable internally, and clues have emerged. If Yelu Zong is really stupid enough to want to subjugate the country, then let's fight him! As long as we are the one who wins in the end, With the power of the Liao destroyed, even if the domestic turmoil is extremely chaotic, it can barely hold on, and in the end it will just be reborn from the ruins."
"A lot of people will die that way."
Wang Zeng sighed.
"Who wants so many people to die? But again, I don't want Song and Liao to go into full-scale war and put our people in dire straits. But if the Liao Kingdom forces us, we can only take action and have to take action. .”
Zhao Jun also sighed and looked out the window.
Everyone's face was solemn.
No one really wants war.
Although there was a fight, they all believed that Song Guo had a very high chance of winning, at least 70%.
The problem is that even so, it is a fight between two tigers, one will die and the other will be injured.
If the Liao Kingdom was destroyed, the Song Dynasty would not feel better either.
So everyone in this room, including Zhao Jun, hopes for peace.
But the great man once said, "We love peace, but if we seek peace through struggle, we will survive in peace, and if we seek peace through compromise, we will perish in peace!"
This is a wise saying. Zhao Jun has kept it in mind and dare not forget it!
"Dong dong dong!"
At this moment, there were three clear sounds outside the door.
This is Wang Shouzhong's knock on the door.
Zhao Zhen said quickly: "Come in!"
He knew that Wang Shouzhong always followed the rules, and if he could knock on the door while he was talking to everyone in the Constitutional Yuan, it must be something important.
Wang Shouzhong came in, bowed to everyone first, and then said: "The official family, I hope Duke Wen will send you an urgent letter six hundred miles away."
"oh?"
Zhao Zhen said hurriedly: "Send it up."
Wang Shouzhong handed Zazi over. Zhao Zhen glanced at it after taking it, with a look of joy on his face: "The Liao people agreed."
"What? They agreed?"
"This, this, this!"
"That's great, they actually agreed."
Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Song Shou, Cai Qi, Sheng Du, Yan Shu and others all looked in disbelief.
Although they were all smart and wise men of the Song Dynasty, being able to achieve such a victory was simply something they could not even dream of.
After all, the Liao Kingdom has been a mountain weighing on their heads for a long time.
One day they found that the mountain was so short that it was eye level with them, which naturally made them feel incredible.
Only Zhao Jun looked wise and smiling.
In fact, although he looked calm on the outside, he was also quite panicked in his heart.
Although I am sure that the Liao Kingdom will most likely agree, what if there are no smart people in the Liao Kingdom and they are all warriors with brains and muscles, and they would rather collapse at home than lose both sides?
So now seeing that the Liao Kingdom finally made the wisest decision, Zhao Jun was secretly relieved and sighed in his heart that there were still wise men in the Liao Kingdom.
"only."
After Zhao Zhen read the letter, he pondered for a while and said hesitantly: "They still have a few conditions."
"What conditions?"
Zhao Jun asked.
Zhao Zhen explained several requests made by the Liao Kingdom, and finally asked: "Dasun, can you agree?"
Everyone looked at Zhao Jun. After all, everyone knew that Zhao Jun was the one who made the decision.
"able!"
Zhao Jun nodded seriously.
"Great, what a great victory!"
"This peace negotiation will probably go down in history."
"In my lifetime, it is really sad to see that the Liao Kingdom will be in decline."
Several old men in their sixties or seventies were in tears.
They actually experienced the humiliation of the Chanyuan Alliance when they were young, and they also knew how bossy the Liao people were.
Now, such a great diplomatic victory has been achieved, which brought tears to everyone's eyes.
However, Zhao Jun unexpectedly said in a deep voice: "Don't be too happy yet. We can agree to these conditions, but there is a problem with the first one."
"Dasun, be content."
Zhao Zhen knew that this was referring to the fact that the nominal annual tribute was an insult to the national system, so he advised: "It's good that they are willing to exchange for something."
"No, I still have to mention two points. First, the Chanyuan Alliance used to accept it, but now it doesn't work, so it will be given as a gift!"
Zhao Jun said: "Second, even if it is a gift, it is not easy to get this reputation. You have to spend money to buy it. Then give us 350,000 guan for something originally worth 300,000 guan. Fifty thousand guan will buy it in the name of , let’s take a small loss, but it’s not too much.”
"Can they agree?"
Lu Yijian advised: "Hanlong, just accept it as you see fit. Don't cause any more trouble in the hard-won peace talks."
"Yeah, that's it."
Yan Shu also advised.
"What are you really afraid of? Since they have agreed to peace talks, it means that the matter has been finalized and cannot be changed."
Zhao Jun smiled and said: "Besides, doesn't this indirectly mean that the Liao Kingdom can no longer withstand it? They won't care about this little thing. At most, they will publicize it as "Na" or "Na" after returning to China. "We don't respond. At home, we just say that the annual currency is cancelled. No matter what Yelu Zongzhen says in the Liao Kingdom, we only want benefits!"
In fact, this is still a question of national character. A single word difference makes a world of difference.
"Xian" is a word for offering. Historically, when the Liao Dynasty increased the number of coins during the Chongxi period, the Liao Dynasty requested "Xian". It was Fu Bi's strong request that changed the word "Xian" to "gift".
"Na" is a neutral word, meaning to pay and contribute, but also to hand over and pay. The Chanyuan Alliance could barely treat them as equals, so it was accepted at the time.
But no matter what, although it is a neutral word, the meaning of the word is not particularly obvious, and it is still suspected of being a condescension.
Giving away is different.
Giving equally, even a bit of charity.
Therefore, in order not to lose face, the Liao Kingdom claimed that the land on the south bank of Laishui that Fan Zhongyan had conquered was not considered a cession, but a gift.
Obviously, Zhao Jun was a little dissatisfied with Liao's insistence on saving face even after losing.
But it’s okay to save face.
Take money to buy.
They themselves would keep silent about it anyway.
In this way, the Liao Kingdom gained face and the Song Kingdom gained dignity. It was like Qin Shihuang playing clones - a win-win situation.
"Well, maybe that's true."
Yan Shu suddenly felt puzzled and said: "But why did the Liao Kingdom insist on letting go of forbidden objects? In the past, we didn't allow books to flow into the Liao Kingdom. Aren't they afraid of being invaded by culture?"
Now they also know what cultural invasion is.
Zhao Jun smiled and said, "I know better than you. Is this what makes me smart?"
"Why?"
Everyone was puzzled.
Zhao Jun said: "It's very simple. There are many Han people in the Liao Kingdom, and they claim to be the supreme state of the Celestial Dynasty, which is the orthodoxy of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, they also admire Confucian culture and welcome Confucian classics. As for copper, saltpeter, sulfur and other forbidden substances , do you think they need it?"
"firearm!"
Everyone looked at each other and spoke in unison, suddenly understanding.
The Liao Kingdom obviously had Xiang Zhuang's sword dance with Peigong in mind, and was eyeing the Song Dynasty's firearms.
If you know you can't beat it, you have to do research.
And research requires raw materials.
Although the Northeast is rich in natural resources, there are very few saltpeter and sulfur mines, and even if they do exist, they are mostly buried underground.
The Central Plains region is different. In ancient China, saltpeter mines were produced in the northwest region. There is a saying that "saltpeter came out of Longdao and sulfur came out of Hanzhong."
But that was recorded in "Fan Zi Ji Ran" during the Spring and Autumn Period. More than a thousand years away from the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the sulfur minerals in Hanzhong gradually dried up, and a large amount of them needed to be imported from Japan.
The output of saltpeter has not decreased, because there are many producing areas. In addition to northwest Gansu, Sichuan, Shandong and Shanxi are all famous saltpeter producing areas in ancient times, and the storage capacity is still very large.
In addition, although the Liao Kingdom had trade and commerce, it was completely incomparable to the Song Dynasty in terms of scale and influence.
At least the Liao Kingdom had established a reluctant tribute system with Japan at most. Japan had paid tribute to the Liao Kingdom, but only once in a while. The two sides had almost no economic or military exchanges.
Therefore, this led to the fact that the Liao Kingdom did not possess the two raw materials of gunpowder, saltpeter and sulfur, and naturally there was no way to conduct research on gunpowder.
It would be different if contraband was opened.
The Liao State was able to purchase large quantities of sulfur and saltpeter for experiments, thereby conducting research on firearms.
Hearing Zhao Jun's analysis, Wang Zeng frowned and said, "Then we can't agree to this request. If the Liao Kingdom develops gunpowder, wouldn't our advantage be wiped out?"
"No, sell to them! Not only sell, but sell hard. The more you sell, the more you make!"
Zhao Jun said with a smile.
Everyone was shocked.
Lu Yijian said sadly: "You fool, Hanlong, how could you sell such a thing to Liao?"
“I know it’s a strategic resource, but have you ever heard of first-mover advantage?”
Zhao Jun asked.
"never heard of that."
Everyone shook their heads.
“First-mover advantage refers to the lasting competitive advantage brought by leading technologies and products!”
Zhao Jun analyzed: "Gunpowder has been invented since the Tang Dynasty, but why have I only come up with pure granular black powder today? This is a technical reason, unless Zeng Gongliang and I are the only ones in the Firearms Department who know the secret recipe. Otherwise, the Liao Kingdom would not have been able to overcome such a large technical barrier and complete the gunpowder upgrade in just a few years."
"Well"
Zhao Zhen thought it made sense, nodded and said, "Then do we have to strictly control Zeng Gongliang and that stall owner?"
"That's not the case. The two of them are now living in the Firearms Department, surrounded by troops and tightly defended. Besides a few of us, no one knows that they know the secret recipe of gunpowder. I have given them a death order and are not allowed to spread it. Even letting people know that they knew the secret recipe for gunpowder was subject to a hush-hush order.”
Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The Firearms Department should be safe and sound. Even if the Liao people sneak in and capture a few craftsmen, they can't get them out, because each of these craftsmen knows different processes, even if they have gathered all the processes." The craftsmen don’t even know the sequence and proportions, so what can they use to study them?”
"That's good."
Everyone was relieved, as long as the Liao people couldn't get the gunpowder formula.
But the next second, everyone became concerned again.
Because Zhao Jun said: "Sell the raw materials first, and wait until they can't produce them. In a few years, we will sell the complete firearm formula to the Liao Kingdom."
"Even the firearm formula was sold to the Liao Kingdom?"
Everyone looked at each other.
Zhao Jun explained: "We still have the first-mover advantage. In a few years, we will be able to find a way to carry out a small-scale industrial revolution first, explore better steel, and manufacture better artillery, guns and ammunition. By then, the gunpowder will be sold to In the Liao Kingdom, they are still at a disadvantage with firearms, and it will be difficult to catch up with us!"
The biggest advantage of the Song Dynasty is that Zhao Jun knows the future development, so unless there is a prophet in the Liao Kingdom, the Song Dynasty will always be slower in research and development. Then why couldn't the Song Dynasty sell its backward technology to the Liao Kingdom? Not only can you make a lot of money, but you can also sell various materials.
For example, saltpeter and sulfur were imported from Japan and resold to the Liao Kingdom. When firearms develop better in the future, not to mention the raw materials and gunpowder will be sold to each other, it will be the same situation as the first-mover countries and the late-mover disadvantaged countries in later generations.
By then, the Liao Kingdom will be tightly controlled, and it will be nothing more than a raw material exporter at best. When the Song Dynasty becomes stronger and stronger, it will be easy to destroy and annex the Liao Kingdom with its crushing level of technological advantages.
(End of chapter)
