Song Zhenzong read the letter carefully, but he felt confused, and couldn't help but ask Wang Jizhong curiously: "Aiqing, how did this imperial nephew of mine go to the Khitan, and how did he negotiate peace with the Empress Dowager of Liao?" ”

Wang Jizhong was slightly stunned when he heard this, and explained: "Your Majesty, what the Marquis of Lin'an said in the letter is relatively brief, as far as the criminal minister knows, it is because Mu Ling, the commander of the quick aid division, encountered the Khitan scouts on the way back to Lanzhou and was accidentally captured. At that time, in order to rescue his companions, Lin'an Hou would break into the Liao camp at night. As for the peace talks between the two families, isn't that a secret decree from you? ”

"My secret message to him?" Song Zhenzong scratched his head, he really couldn't think of such a thing. Although the armistice and peace talks have always been an option in his heart, he has not told others before, let alone appointed Zhao Liang as a secret envoy?

Is it because I've been under too much pressure lately and my mind is confused, so it's easy to forget? Song Zhenzong looked at the letter in his hand suspiciously, and then looked at Wang Jizhong who was standing opposite, and suddenly felt a little inexplicable.

Wang Jizhong is a smart person, and he can see at a glance that there is a problem in this, but from the perspective of the overall situation, he didn't dare to let Song Zhenzong get too entangled in Zhao Liang's matter, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, since Lin'an Hou has already made it clear to the Empress Dowager Xiao, and the other party is also willing to turn the war into a jade silk, how to decide, please make a holy judgment." ”

He paused, and then said: "Now the Song and Liao countries are fighting with all their might, and after repeated vicious battles, nearly 100,000 soldiers have been buried in the battlefield in just a few days. If this drags on any longer, I am afraid that the two sides will form a mortal enmity that will never be resolved, and the war will fall into an endless situation. ”

Song Zhenzong came back to his senses and nodded again and again: "What Aiqing said is very reasonable. I've been to the front lines twice in a row to oversee the battle, and I know what it's like to feel like purgatory on earth. Alas, no matter what, this battle should not be fought any further. Even if it's not for anything else, you should always think about the wives and children of those soldiers. ”

"Your Majesty is kind-hearted, which is the luck of my Great Song Limin." Wang Jizhong sighed: "I won't tell you, the criminal has also experienced the cruelty on the battlefield. Every time I look back, it's hard to sleep. Your Majesty, please judge the Holy Judge, the sooner the peace talks, the sooner the war will be spared the suffering of the people of the two countries. ”

Song Zhenzong thought for a moment and shook his head in distress: "I'm afraid it's not right now." Aiqing, you know, such a big decision, I can't be the master alone, and I have to wait until tomorrow to discuss it with the ministers. ”

Wang Jizhong sighed secretly in his heart, and he also knew the fate of His Majesty the Emperor, and knew that it was useless to force him at this time, so he could only patiently wait for the results of tomorrow's discussion between the monarchs and ministers, so he got up and said goodbye, and temporarily went to the secret place arranged for him by Song Zhenzong to rest.

In the turn of the day, the Liao army did not run to fight aggressively early in the morning as before, but stopped and closed its doors. Obviously, this is to show the sincerity and goodwill of the negotiations to the Great Song Dynasty.

Song Zhenzong knew this, and hurriedly held a pre-imperial meeting in the city of Lanzhou, and discussed with the important ministers and major generals of the court, and then Song Liao discussed peace.

As soon as he heard that the emperor proposed to negotiate peace with the Khitan army, several people spoke out against it on the spot, especially Kou Zhun and Yang Yanzhao.

Kou Zhun said: "Now that the Liao country is deep in mud and has become the end of a strong crossbow, our army can only have the opportunity to complete its work in one battle if it is determined to fight to the death." We are backed by a strong city defense, sufficient food and grass, high morale, as long as the moon is shining, we can successively recruit troops and horses from the south to come to reinforcements, it can be said that every day passes, the power of the Great Song Dynasty will be stronger. On the other hand, the Khitan, they crossed the Qianli Plain of Hebei and went on an expedition

, materials and manpower are not replenished in time, and for every dead or wounded, the strength will definitely be weakened by one point. Time is more favorable to us when we are in a situation where we have a long time, so why bother to bend the knee to peace talks and give the enemy a chance to return to the mountains? ”

Yang Yanzhao also agreed: "Your Majesty, what Kou Xiang said is reasonable." Observing the battle situation in the previous few days, the minister found that the behavior of the Liao army was unusual, and it was not at all that they wanted to engage in a step-by-step and layered battle, but more like a fierce blow to deter our side. With just such a performance, it is not difficult to judge the true intentions of the Khitan at this time. ”

"What intentions?" Song Zhenzong asked curiously.

"They know something is wrong, so they want to bluff us!" Yang Yanzhao said firmly: "Your Majesty, can you know that the Liao army has made three obvious mistakes, which people can see through at a glance?" ”

"Oh? What are the three errors? ”

Yang Yanzhao replied: "First, with their inferior forces, they chose to shock our superior forces head-on, and put on a decisive battle posture as soon as they came up, but the strategic goals were very vague, which is very suspicious; Second, when we couldn't hold out, the other side didn't even have the intention of trying to attack, so they took the initiative to collect their troops and return to the camp, indicating that they were not ready to attack the city at all; Third, the Liao army changed its familiar tactics and did not take advantage of the fact that the main force of our army was concentrated on the defense line of Lanzhou, and sent troops and horses to attack and harass the surrounding towns, so it can also be judged that they were actually very worried that we would counterattack in a big way, lest we would not have enough strength after dividing our troops. ”

He paused and said to everyone present: "Through the above three points, Yan Zhao thinks that the Liao State's previous desperate and bitter battle has only one purpose - to make us fear their terrible combat power, mistakenly believe that the Khitan is still very strong, and then dare not start a decisive battle with it. But in fact, the struggle between the two families of Song Liao has lasted for more than 20 years, and the moment of seeing is in sight! As long as we can hold them back in Lanzhou, and at the same time order the soldiers and horses in Yingzhou, Dingzhou and other places to block the enemy's grain, grass and back roads, within three months, we will definitely be able to make the Liao Emperor come and go! By that time, it is expected to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun! ”

Several generals who were familiar with Yang Yanzhao nodded their heads one after another, agreeing with his assertion. However, more courtiers looked at each other and did not express their opinions for a while.

Song Zhenzong glanced at the others and asked for help, "Do the other Aiqing have anything to say?" ”

Feng Zheng, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, coughed lightly twice and said, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that what Yang Yanzhao said is quite debatable. ”

"Oh, what does Feng Aiqing have a high opinion, even if you say it."

"Your Majesty, my lords, have you ever heard the phrase 'trapped beasts are still fighting'?" Feng Zheng asked for a while.

In the imperial history, Cheng Liu said to Ji Kou: "This allusion that Lord Feng said should be from "Zuo Chuan", I remember that it is a volume of "The Twelfth Year of Xuan Gong". It means that if the beast is trapped in a desperate situation, it will definitely resist desperately, and it will be even more terrifying than usual. ”

Feng Zheng smiled: "Lord Liu really learned to be rich and five cars, and the officials admired it." Your Majesty, that's exactly what Weichen meant. At present, it seems that the Liao army is indeed a labor expedition, and the supply of the battle line is too long, which is a taboo for soldiers. However, if the enemy makes a mistake, it may not wait for our army to win, I wonder if everyone thinks so? ”

"The enemy has made a big mistake, and our army still doesn't have to win?" The old general Gao Qiong said angrily: "What kind of nonsense are you talking about? ”

Feng Zheng was not dissatisfied, and said with a smile: "Gao Shuai, everything has a comparison, and it must not be generalized. Let's take a simple analogy between you and me, if Gao Shuai is injured, and he ties up another arm, with his bare hands, and Xia Guan holds a peerless sword in his hand, and the two of us start a life and death fight, I'm afraid Xia Guan will not be able to take your life, right? ”

Gao Qiong was slightly stunned when she heard this, and immediately muttered: "This analogy is not appropriate

When, you are a scholar, and Gao is a fighter, you can't talk about the same day. ”

"Compared with the Khitan tiger wolf, our Song army is also like a scholar." Feng Zheng smiled unhurriedly: "According to the Privy Council archives, in the past ten years, the Song and Liao armies have fought forty-two battles, and the victory rate of our army is only one percent; Looking at the two fierce battles a few days ago, the generals fought desperately against the enemy, and the final casualties and battle losses were also as high as three to one, which made people stunned. If such a strong enemy is forced into a desperate beast, how many soldiers and horses do we need to die before we can be sure of victory? Or is it like facing a senior general, even if you fight for your life, you can't win? ”

"Well, Lord Feng has a point." Jiang Xi, a scholar of the Guanwen Temple, agreed: "The Khitan people are barbaric and ignorant, and they have been proud of their courage and ruthlessness since they were young. ”

Cao Antai, the secretary of the ministry, said: "In addition, this battle of Song and Liao is very different from the past. The most critical point is that the Emperor of Liao and the Empress Dowager Xiao are both in the army. It is conceivable that in order to protect their monarch, how could the soldiers of the Liao army obediently obey? I think on the contrary, the more difficult and dangerous the situation, the more dangerous the Liao emperor, the more they regard death as home. In dealing with such an enemy, we should not take it lightly. ”

The eight-thousand-year-old little prince was dissatisfied: "Hmph, according to what you say, is it wrong for us to have the advantage?" If we leave the enemy in a disadvantageous position and do not fight, do we focus on the enemy who has the upper hand? How unreasonable! ”

"Your Highness doesn't need to be in a hurry, the lower official still has something to say," Feng Zheng said: "What is the purpose of the Liao State's large-scale invasion this time?" In fact, it is very clear in their inscription that they want to seize the land of Guannan and prevent our army from going on a northern expedition. And what is Your Majesty personally for? Of course, it is a-for-tat confrontation to prevent the enemy from succeeding in his goals. This is the grand strategy that the imperial court should focus on. ”

He turned to Song Zhenzong and said: "Your Majesty, since the two sides have the opportunity to call off the army and truce, then just let the Liao army retreat to the mainland, swear not to invade the Guannan states again, and then open the mutual market according to the conditions, and give rewards every year, isn't it equivalent to achieving a strategy?" This is also in line with Kou Yuan's original idea of 'ending war with war'. Why bother to get Longwangshu and take a huge risk to pursue unrealistic results? ”

Song Zhenzong nodded, turned to Gao Qiong, Yang Yanzhao and other generals, and asked: "Ladies and gentlemen, if you really want to fight a decisive battle, what percentage of chance do you have of winning, can you surround and annihilate the nearly 200,000 tiger and wolf army?" ”

The generals looked at each other when they heard this, and they didn't know how to reply for a while. Yang Yanzhao pondered for a moment, and replied stubbornly: "Well, sixty percent sure." ”

"Only sixty percent?" Song Zhenzong frowned slightly, and muttered, "So, how many troops do you need?" Or how many more people do you need to lose? Lakh? Two hundred thousand? ”

This question was even more difficult to answer, and even Yang Yanzhao felt speechless. Kou Zhun said helplessly for them: "Your Majesty, the affairs of the battlefield are often unpredictable, even if Sun Wu is resurrected, I am afraid it will be difficult to give an accurate answer." However, from a conservative point of view, in order to completely destroy the invading enemy, it is necessary to be prepared to have at least another 200,000 soldiers sacrifice their lives to go to the country. ”

Song Zhenzong gasped when he heard this: "Do you really want to die so much?" And it may not be a sure way to win? No, no, absolutely not! ”

He waved his hand in a panic, and continued: "Those soldiers are also the people of the Great Song Dynasty, you are not distressed, but I am still distressed." When the enemy comes to attack, we rise up to resist, but there is no way, and if we die, we will die; But now that we have the opportunity to sit down and talk, there is no need to sacrifice in vain! Regarding this point, none of you have seen it thoroughly in Lin'anhou! ”