Zhang Yue watched the Liao envoy team from the top of Zhending City and slowly entered the city gate.
As far as he knew, Liao Lord Yelu Hongji had moved Nabo to the Datong line. At the same time, Khitan soldiers and horses had begun to cut down the Yusai built along the Song Dynasty on a large scale.
The so-called Yusai refers to the elm forests planted along the northeastern part of the river and along Hebei in the Song Dynasty, which were used to block the Liao cavalry from going south.
In the northern part of Dingzhou alone, hundreds of millions of trees were planted, reaching a depth of fifty or sixty miles. In the Song Dynasty, the densely populated Yusai and Tangbo in the north served as the first line of defense against the Khitan.
But now the Liao Kingdom has begun to cut down Yusai, which has aroused concern throughout the Song Dynasty.
Zhang Yue knew that Yusai was related to Tong Guan. In history, in order to regain Youyan, Tong Guan cut down all the Yusai that he had cultivated for many years. Finally, when the Jin soldiers' cavalry went south, it was unimpeded.
At that time, many officials believed that the reason why the Jin soldiers went all the way south was because there was no barrier.
The leader of the Liao Dynasty, Yelu Hongji, began to cut down Yusai, which can be regarded as a sign that the Liao Kingdom may launch a large-scale attack, or it may be that he is generally putting on a scary posture to strive for greater benefits in negotiations.
At this time, the situation at the border fortress attracted the attention of the officials. The officials transferred Han Jiang to the Taiyuan Prefecture and asked Zhang Yue whether the Liao Kingdom had any intention of invading the south.
After Zhang Yue learned that the Liao army had begun to cut down Yusai along the Hedong and Hebei lines, Han Jiang knew that the officials in Taiyuan Prefecture were worried about his arbitrary claims.
Han Jiang knew that Taiyuan Mansion was dividing his authority.
At the banquet that day, Zhang Yue entertained Yelupo.
Yelvpo stood up and greeted Zhang Yue and said, "My Lord has long admired the reputation of Deputy Zhang Yue."
Xiao Xi, the deputy envoy on the side, said: "My lord has always loved Confucianism and has always wished to be born in China!"
The Song people below Zhang Yue all laughed after hearing this, and the banquet was enjoyable at first. The Liao envoy was not so aggressive, and indeed showed due respect to Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue nodded without comment.
Then Yelvpo said: "Not only are we, the Khitan people, familiar with the Three-Character Sutra, the poems to encourage students to learn, and the poems of prodigies, but our Lord has also ordered that everyone in the royal family of Liao Kingdom and his descendants must recite it!"
Speaking of this, Yelvpo took advantage of the wine and thought: "The emperor values heroes, and articles teach you. Everything is inferior, but reading is good. Young people must study hard, and articles can help them stand up. The nobles in the dynasty are all noble.
Is a scholar. "
Yelupo was quite pleased with himself when he heard this, but everyone in the Song Dynasty officials were surprised.
The Song Dynasty imposed strict control on the export of texts to the Liao Kingdom. Except for the Nine Classics, no texts were allowed to be spread to the Liao Kingdom. In particular, the poems and articles of some ministers of the Song Dynasty were not allowed to be read by the Khitan people.
But who knew that Lord Yelu Hongji of the Liao Dynasty was so powerful that he actually knew Zhang Yue's articles handed down from ancient times, and even ordered everyone in the Khitan royal family and descendants to learn from them.
This deeply amazed the officials of the Song Dynasty, as if their core secrets were being spied upon by the Khitans.
As for Zhang Yue, he felt that it was okay. His articles and poems were not important. They would only know if the Khitan people knew about it. This would be conducive to the cultural export of the Song Dynasty.
However, neither the Song Dynasty officials nor the Liao officials present thought so.
Xiao Xi smiled and said: "I like Deputy Zhang Shu's poem 'Yu was addicted to learning when he was young. His family was poor and he had no way to read the books, so he borrowed them from the library's home and wrote them down by hand, counting the days to return them...' "
After Xiao Xi finished speaking, he looked quite pleased with himself, as if I had peeked into the secrets of your Song Dynasty.
Everyone in the Song Dynasty officials was angry.
Han Zhen said: "We will treat your envoy with sincerity and courtesy..."
Han Zhen's angry words were stopped by Zhang Yue. But Zhang Yue said: "Unexpectedly, the mere articles and poems have spread to the Liao Dynasty. It is really an honor for me to have Wei Mo's name known to your lord."
Yelvpo also smiled and said: "My lord not only heard about Vice President Zhang's reputation, he also said that Vice President Zhang's articles and martial arts skills were excellent. If he were in the Liao Kingdom, he would be appointed as the Privy Envoy of the South Courtyard to preside over the affairs of the South." !”
Zhang Yue wanted to laugh a little after hearing this. He was not Xiao Feng, so why should he be the Privy Councilor of the South Courtyard?
Historically, Xiao Feng held the position of King of the Southern Academy, although he had power in the Liao Kingdom, but it was not a position where one person was inferior to ten thousand people. The real position in the Liao Kingdom was that of the Northern and Southern Privy Council envoys.
For example, Yelu Yixin, a powerful minister of the Liao Kingdom, once served as the secret envoy of the Southern Privy Council.
Zhang Yue didn't know whether the Lord of Liao had said such a thing, but Yelupo also said this, but he was uneasy and kind-hearted!
The Lord of the Liao Dynasty recruited Zhang Yue as the Privy Envoy of the Southern Privy Council, and commanded the Yanyun Han people under the jurisdiction of the Southern Privy Council to attack the Song Dynasty. What would be the consequences if such words were spread...
But Zhang Yue said: "If we, the Chinese officials, do not do this, why should we be officials of the barbarians?"
As soon as Zhang Yue said this, everyone on the Liao envoy's side looked at him angrily.
The Liao people hated the Song Dynasty people the most for not being able to defeat them, but for making fun of themselves as barbarians. In recent years, the Liao people have made great efforts to learn the culture of the Han Dynasty.
Yelupo stood up angrily and said: "The Song Dynasty has been in peace for too long these years. I don't know my identity. How dare I call Daliao a barbarian?"
Zhang Yue said: "Why not? Lin Ya, please sit down and listen to me."
Yelupo sat down again and listened to what Zhang Yue had to say.
Zhang Yue said: "I heard that when your lord once listened to a Han Confucian lecture, when he said the sentence "Beichen abodes and the stars are over it", your lord once asked: "I heard that there is China under the North Pole. How can this place be different?" evil?'"
"When it comes to "the barbarians and the Di have kings", the Han Confucian scholars dare not elaborate on it. Your Lord also said, "In the previous world, the roosters and harpies had no etiquette and law, so they were called barbarians. I am cultivating cultural relics, and my politeness is no different from that of China. Why do you think so?'"
As soon as Zhang Yue said this, everyone in the Liao envoys was shocked.
Zhang Yue actually knew everything about the conversation between Yelu Hongji and Han Confucian officials? This shows that not only the Khitans knew the ministers of the Song Dynasty in detail, but the Song Dynasty also had detailed operations in the Liao Kingdom. They even knew the conversations between the emperor and the ministers clearly, and maybe they also knew the character of Yelu Hongji well.
All the envoys looked at Yelvpo, and Xiao Xi thought that if the Song Dynasty had such intentions, it would not be easy to deal with them.
Zhang Yue did have a certain understanding of Yelu Hongji, the Lord of Liao.
After Tong Guan caught a Liao spy, he found out from the other party that the Liao country often had the habit of buying information from the Song Dynasty from monks and households.
Tong Guan then used these Liao agents who came to the Song Dynasty to spy on intelligence to collect intelligence from the Liao State.
Anyway, these people buy and sell information for money, and they will sell information to whoever pays more. The people of the Liao Kingdom never dreamed that those who collected intelligence for them would actually become the spies of the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, under Tong Guan's operation, information about the Liao Kingdom was continuously known to Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue didn't know if Ma Zhi would be among the people Tong Guan bribed, but he didn't mind such a thing. As long as the information is useful, no matter how trivial it is, Zhang Yue is willing to give money.
In order to fight against the Khitan, the officials specially allocated two million yuan to the Xuanfu Division in Hebei and Hedong.
This is much more practical and generous than when Han Jiang was appointed as the Xuanfu envoy and only gave ultimatums. The official action was much more practical and generous. So on the one hand, Zhang Yue used official money to buy tea tea from the Daming Prefecture Exchange and speculated on the price of tea tea, and at the same time, he spent money to buy fine craftsmanship.
And because Zhang Yue talked about the conversation between Yelu Hongji and the minister so carefully that Yelu Po was shocked, Xiao Xi suddenly lost his confidence in front of Zhang Yue.
At this time, Zhang Yue said: "You see that your lord understands the righteousness so well and considers himself a barbarian, and regards China as the superior dynasty. Why don't you, the ministers, have this realization?"
Yelvpo did not dare to fight back, but asked: "May I ask what my lord and his close ministers said? How did Deputy Zhang learn about it through spying? Looking at the emperor's words and deeds, is there any unkindness or injustice in this matter?"
Zhang Yue said: "I can't answer you on this matter, but I think how you got Zhang's poems and articles is how I got them."
Yelupo sneered and took a sip of the wine.
Song Dynasty officials were overjoyed to see Zhang Yue calm down his arrogance with a few words.
For example, you Khitan people learned about the news about our Song Dynasty, but in turn, we, the Song Dynasty, had been prepared for it and even learned about your more confidential news. So in the subsequent negotiations, will the Khitans take it as a further consideration? In the subsequent negotiations between the two countries, the Khitans will become passive as a result.
Yelvpo, Xiao Xi and the Khitan envoy team were silent. Apparently they didn't know what went wrong and let the Song Dynasty learn about the secrets of the Liao Kingdom. Seeing this, Zhang Yue decided to take advantage of the victory and pursue it. He said: "Actually, Zhang's poems and articles are just gossip. But the real thing about China lies in the two words benevolence and righteousness."
"If you only scratch the surface of what you have learned, you will know that small etiquette has no great righteousness, that you stick to trivial matters but do not have great virtues, that you care about trivial matters but neglect integrity, and that you are afraid of power but not virtuous. In the future, the strong will be bandits and bandits, and the weak will be humble. This is not enough. That’s right!”
As soon as Zhang Yue said this, Yelu Po and others were so angry that they were filled with anger, but they were speechless.
The officials of the Song Dynasty were also happy. For many years, the Khitan had been suppressing the Song Dynasty. When the envoys met, no Song Dynasty official dared to rebuke the Liao envoys like this.
But some people are worried that Zhang Yue is too confident. If the talks between the two sides really break down, then after returning, Yelu Po and Xiao Xi will send a message to the Lord of Liao Yelu Hongji, wouldn't the two sides start fighting?
Yelvpo actually couldn't figure out Zhang Yue's approach.
Yelvpo said: "Since Deputy Zhang said this, we have nothing to talk about. Today the two countries have lost diplomatic relations. You can see clearly that the responsibility does not lie with our country, Liao, but with Deputy Zhang. Wait." When our Liao cavalry goes south in the future, I hope that the swords of your Song army will be as tough as your tongue!"
After saying this, Yelupo stood up.
The envoys of the Liao Kingdom below secretly said, "Happy, happy, this move is the trump card of the Liao people. As long as there is no negotiation, it will definitely be you Song Dynasty people who are in panic, not the Liao people."
Deputy envoy Xiao Xi looked up to the sky and smiled: "I don't know whether it was the Emperor of the Liao Kingdom who chopped off our heads when the swords and soldiers came together, or the Emperor of the Song Dynasty who chopped off your heads!"
After the second envoy finished speaking, he saw that Zhang Yue still looked calm, and he suddenly couldn't hold it.
Shouldn't the people of the Song Dynasty kneel down and beg for peace at this time?
Thinking of this, Yelu Poye's confidence was only seven points less than before.
