Wang Lun's doubts are destined to remain unanswered, but in any case, Zhao Gou's attitude has been determined.
The Southern Song Dynasty would never hand over Sui coins based on just one negotiation.
In Zhao Gou's view, giving him coins without doing anything was a serious insult to Zhao Gou's personality and the national character of the Southern Song Dynasty. It was a complete contempt, and Zhao Gou would never agree.
Wang Lun had no choice but to go to Xin Qiji to explain the matter clearly. He told Xin Qiji that the attitude of the Song Dynasty was that there was no need to talk about this matter. The Ming Dynasty had betrayed its trust and it was best to examine itself.
Don't even think about yearly coins or anything like that.
After hearing this, Xin Qiji laughed repeatedly, then nodded repeatedly, saying "Okay, okay, okay", and then quickly led the team to leave.
In order to show sincerity, the Southern Song Dynasty decided to send people to escort Xin Qiji out of the Southern Song Dynasty, allowing him to leave the Southern Song Dynasty safely and avoid any unpredictable events.
But this time Wang Lun did not escort him. The escort became Zhou Linzhi, who was one level lower. This seemed to be a subtle way of expressing dissatisfaction from the Southern Song Dynasty. Of course, nothing happened on the way north.
When Xin Qiji arrived at the border between Chuzhou and Haizhou, he said something in his heart to Zhou Linzhi, who was escorting him all the way north.
“It is not a wise decision not to negotiate to lower the price when you can, but to kneel down and beg for mercy when things are irreversible and lose the right to bargain.
Once a country reaches the final step and must decide a winner, the loser will have no room for negotiation. The winner must accept all conditions. Is this what the Southern Dynasties want to see? ? "
Xin Qiji sincerely admonished Zhou Linzhi and admonished the Southern Song Dynasty.
Zhou Linzhi was not a hard-nosed person to begin with, and his external stance was in favor of peace, but Xin Qiji's words were a bit contemptuous, and even he couldn't help it, so he felt angry and his face turned cold.
"What Chief Xin means is that the Northern Dynasty has decided to use troops against the Song Dynasty? And the Northern Dynasty also believes that the Song Dynasty will inevitably be defeated? Does the Northern Dynasty look down on the Song Dynasty too much if it thinks this way?"
"What else can be said about things that everyone knows? Privy Zhou, Privy Zhou knows the situation of the Southern Dynasty's army better than I do. There is nothing we can do against the golden thieves, let alone the Ming Dynasty that destroyed the Jin Kingdom? "
Xin Qiji shook his head: "If the Southern Dynasty agreed to this, we could still discuss the price, make some concessions, and come to a conclusion that everyone is satisfied with, but the Southern Dynasty refused so simply and neatly, leaving no room for ourselves. .
Moreover, I am also very surprised. Why did the sages of the Southern Dynasties not have such backbone when they faced the Jin Kingdom? Faced with the requests of the Jin Kingdom, the Southern Dynasty agreed to them all, even killing Yue Fei, who had great military exploits. "
Zhou Linzhi's heart trembled, and he quickly took a deep breath to calm down his bad mood.
"Why should Commander-in-Chief Xin be so aggressive? He also said such inappropriate things. As the saying goes, clay men are also angry. If they really angered the Song Dynasty, things would never calm down so easily. The Northern Dynasty had just been founded and its foundation was unstable. Could it be that Are you so eager for war?"
"I'm not being aggressive, I'm trying to persuade you. Why do you do it forcefully if you know it's forbidden? The two countries have just signed a peace treaty, and now they are going to war. It's really not what I want."
Xin Qiji shook his head.
"Isn't this the aggressive behavior of the Northern Dynasty?"
Zhou Linzhi said angrily: "Please ask Mr. Xin to report to His Majesty the Emperor of the Northern Dynasty when he returns to the court. Regarding the matter of annual coins, the Song Dynasty will never agree! The Northern Dynasty had better seriously review its behavior, otherwise, where will the two countries go? But it’s really hard to say!”
After saying that, Zhou Linzhi led the team and left.
Xin Qiji looked at Zhou Linzhi's leaving figure and shook his head.
"They are not hard when they should be hard, and they are not soft when they should be soft. These people are really hopeless."
After saying that, Xin Qiji turned around and left, never looking at them again.
After Xin Qiji entered Haizhou, he sent people to go north quickly to convey the news of the Southern Song Dynasty's rejection of Sui coins to Zhongdu, so that Su Yonglin could know as soon as possible and make a response plan.
At this moment, Su Yonglin was studying a strange article in the Zhongdu Palace - The Book of Daohe Xingsheng.
This strange article was written by Zuo Lang Li Chui, who wrote during the Zhenzong period of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is the article "The Source of All Evil" that caused the collapse of the Yellow River in Su Yonglin's impression.
This article was completed during the reign of Zhenzong, but was not adopted. It was later stored in the Kaifeng Imperial Palace. When the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, it was kidnapped and stored in the palace of the Jin Kingdom. After Su Yonglin defeated the Zhongdu and destroyed the Jin Dynasty, he also got this wonderful article. .
But Su Yonglin didn't know it at the time. Until recently, in order to study and determine the Yellow River diversion plan in detail, Su Yonglin accidentally obtained it when he asked palace officials to search for relevant books from the Jin Dynasty's treasury.
After getting this wonderful article, Su Yonglin read it carefully once, then read it a second time and a third time, and finally determined that this article was not the source of all evil. On the contrary, what this article contained was Li Chui himself. It is the crystallization of wisdom that has been put in place in order to change the situation of frequent diversions and flooding of the Yellow River.
What happened in Sanyi's return to the river in the Northern Song Dynasty was not caused by Li Chui's book guiding the shape of the river. Li Chui's opinions were shelved without being adopted at all. The subsequent series of cerebral palsy operations were all done by the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty themselves. It has nothing to do with Li Chui.
At that time, with or without Li Chui and Daohe Xingshengshu, the Yellow River was facing a major overhaul. Li Chui only provided an opinion that was not adopted. It was a bit aggrieved to bear the reputation of being the source of all evil.
Moreover, after Su Yonglin carefully read this article, he found that the Yellow River regulation plan proposed by Li Chui was really clear and clear, with detailed arguments and results from on-site inspections, as well as specific action plans.
It’s just that the amount of work is really huge.
In short, Li Chui believes that the current breach of the Yellow River is mainly due to the silt deposits on the river bed that are too high and the downstream river channels cannot flow out to the sea. So since one river channel is not happy, it is better to dig six river channels for the Yellow River to go out to the sea at the same time.
On the one hand, this can reduce the pressure of the Yellow River's old channel out to sea and divert sediment. On the other hand, it can also build extensive agricultural water conservancy facilities by planning the drainage basins of six rivers to irrigate farmland in the Central Plains. By the way, it can also geographically strengthen the eastern Hebei province. Military defense.
It can be said that Li Chui's opinion was not to change the course of the Yellow River, but to prevent the Yellow River from changing its course frequently. To this end, six diversions should be repaired to reduce the flow pressure of the main Yellow River and prevent the Yellow River from changing its course again to the greatest extent.
Zhenzong Zhao Heng attached great importance to this proposal, which had a theoretical basis and action suggestions. He summoned all ministers to discuss it and finally came to the conclusion that it was rejected.
Zhao Heng and the ministers all believed that "the detailed description is quite comprehensive, and the book is accompanied by pictures. Although it involves banditry, it can be rewarded for extensive communication."
However, [because it was necessary to build 700 miles of embankments, 217,000 laborers, and the work lasted forty days, and to occupy people's fields, it was quite troublesome and expensive], and they were also worried that even if the plan was fully implemented, the six rivers would not be needed How much are the daily maintenance costs?
To put it another step back, even if the court allocates all the money, wouldn't it be over if the plan is realized but fails to achieve the expected results?
This plan was so huge that it would affect the whole body. It was related to the safety of the Yellow River and the survival of the country. Zhao Heng and other ministers did not dare to make a big gamble on this issue. And Li Chui himself was not a high official, and the court did not support him. political power, so the plan was denied.
As for the later magical operation of the Song Dynasty's monarchs and ministers returning to the river in three easy steps, only the top decision-makers of the Song Dynasty could participate, and it had nothing to do with Li Chui, a small figure in the officialdom.
After Su Yonglin read the article and the drawings in detail, he called Shi Zheng, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Tian Guizi, the general person in charge of the Yellow River Regulation Plan, and showed the article and the drawings to them.
The two of them gathered together to watch it, and after reading it, they sighed repeatedly.
"I never thought that someone had proposed such a grand plan to regulate the Yellow River more than a hundred years ago."
"His courage, thoughtfulness, and detailed planning are unparalleled by others. If the Yellow River had been regulated in this way, the current situation might really be different."
Both Tian Guizi and Shi Zheng agreed with this plan and felt a great sense of injustice for it.
