At this time, Zhang Ying, who was different from Kou Zhun, also set off secretly from Youzhou, and quietly came to Lanzhou City, which was unpredictable for them with gifts, and they never expected that Lanzhou City would encounter such a situation? With the current strength of the Great Song Dynasty, it is very easy to hold Lanzhou, but what I didn't expect is that the fact that Lanzhou can be so fast is not how powerful the Liao army is, which can also show how scheming he Yelu Longxu is.

Yelu Longxu is the most powerful person in Da Liao, and he is also the most terrifying hero today. Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty is only a small thing compared to him, Yelu Longxu never believes in any courtiers, he has a set of reliable intelligence networks, that is, the black wind, the black wings are just the scenery released on the bright side, just so that the world can see it clearly, but what he is most afraid of is that Yelu Longxu has some things, only he knows, this emperor is more intelligent and capable than Tang Dynasty and Song Zu, and the discussion of scheming and obtaining information Black Wind is his real terrible, and it is also a very terrible person in his heart.

In the autumn of the first year of Jingde in the Northern Song Dynasty (1004 AD), Xiao Xuan, the Empress Dowager of Chengtian, and Yelu Longxu, the Liao Shengzong, personally led an army of 300,000 to attack the Song Dynasty in the name of recovering Waqiao Pass (now Jiunanguan, Xiongxian County, Hebei), and threatened to recover the lost territory and seize the entire territory of Hebei in the Song Dynasty. The Song court saw that the Khitan iron cavalry was menacing, and the whole country was in an uproar, and some people who were greedy for life and afraid of death hurriedly suggested that Song Zhenzong flee south to Jinling or move west to Chengdu to avoid the Liao army. Since the personal conquest of Song Taizong, the largest battle between the Liao and Song dynasties began, and the trend of history has quietly changed with the personal conquest of Song Zhenzong. The Liao and Song dynasties were originally prepared to fight each other for life and death, but in the end they ended in the signing of a peace treaty, and this change of war and peace actually reflected the huge difference in the strategic logic between the Song and Liao countries.

Empress Dowager Xiao and Liao Shengzong swore that they would complete the battle and raised 300,000 Liao troops for this purpose. Among them, the most elite is the Liao Shengzong directly subordinate Janissary - Leather Room, this Praetorian Guard evolved from the former Yelu family's direct henchmen, equipped with the best equipment and horses of the Liao State, with a total strength of about 30,000 people, the main work is to be responsible for the Liaodu Palace Guard, and when the war broke out, it was with the Liao Emperor to meet the enemy. Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty repeatedly failed in the Northern Expedition, but they were unable to defeat this elite cavalry, and the Song army was very jealous of the Liao forbidden army, and they called it "the minions of the Liao Emperor". In order to achieve this strategic goal, Empress Dowager Xiao and Liao Shengzong also mobilized vassals at all levels of Liao, so that they could lead their own troops to participate in the war.

The first to respond to the call were the Khitan tribes, most of whom were large and small nobles who were divided into local domains, the former was responsible for the garrison of their own territory, and the latter lived in a traditional nomadic form, and they all had the right to form tribal armies, with a different number of troops according to their rank. These tribal armies were under the orders of their nobles, and in the territory of their masters, they engaged in herding, warfare, and hunting activities, and in wartime they joined the army with the lords. The next to arrive were the Xi people, the Bohai people from the bitter cold land of the northeast, and the party members from the western border region, although they did not have any good equipment, but they were brave and good at fighting by nature. According to the Liao system, these remote tribes were nominally subject troops under the Liao emperor, and they could enjoy a certain degree of internal autonomy, but they had to obey the royal orders and fulfill their vassal obligations in times of war. After the above-mentioned men and horses rushed to the Liao capital of Nanjing, Xijin Mansion (present-day Beijing), they united with the long-awaited Pi Room Forbidden Army and Youyun Han troops totaling 300,000 to attack the Song Dynasty together.

Seeing that the Liao army was menacing, the Privy Council of the Northern Song Dynasty had no time to react, and the Song army on the front line was also frightened by the huge momentum of the Liao army. Previously, Song Taizong had two northern expeditions, and the Song army fought dozens of battles with the Liao Iron Cavalry, and only won a few small battles. In the face of the brave and warlike Liao army, the Song soldiers guarding the front line can be said to have no confidence, not to mention that this time the Liao army is still pouring the strength of the country. The Song army had no choice but to hold out, and at the same time urgently recruited garrisons from Weilu, Baozhou, and Hedong to attack Yanyun in the north, hoping to disperse the Liao army. However, the Liao Shengzong had already taken precautions, and the Song army, which planned to "encircle Wei and save Zhao", was quickly repelled by the Liao defenders in various parts of Yanyun, and the Liao army, which was mainly cavalry, quickly advanced to the city of Yingzhou. After a short rest, the Liao army began to hurry up to build siege equipment.

Because the cavalry-based Liao army was rarely equipped with siege machinery weapons that matched its rapid mobility, and even if there were, they were all small equipment, and the hand-pulled stone throwers mastered by the craftsmen of the Liao army had technical limitations and could not form effective firepower, which made it difficult for the Liao army to quickly break through the Song army's city. On the contrary, the Song army, which had battlements as cover, had a clear advantage in the city defense war by virtue of the advanced performance of its own weapons, and relying on the natural convenience of defending the city, the Song army relied on counter-shooting to successfully repel the first attack of the Liao army. That night, the Liao army finally found the dead end of the Song army's shooting, and Liao Shengzong ordered the soldiers to build a mound overnight, and under his personal drumming and cheering, the morale of the Liao army was greatly boosted. The next day, the Liao army also put reserves into the battlefield to cover the main force with sufficient manpower for the siege. The brave Xi infantry used iron-inlaid shields in front of them and above their heads, frantically rushed up the mound, and took advantage of the brief opportunity of the Song army being suppressed by trebuchets to successfully erect the cloud ladder to the head of Yingzhou City. Seeing this, Song Jun hurriedly smashed it with stones and rolling wood, and poured all the hot oil and gold juice that had been boiled in advance. Because of the previous intensive deployment, the Xi troops were directly swept down by the smashed rolling logs, and before they stood up, they were drenched in boiling oil, and the Song army shot rockets down, and the mound instantly became a sea of fire, and the Liao soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and the Liao Shengzong had to end the second round of attacks in a hurry. In fact, the Liao army besieged Yingzhou City for more than ten days after that, all because the Song army was stubborn and could not break the city.

After heavy casualties, Empress Dowager Xiao and Liao Shengzong took into account the feelings of their vassals and could not continue the war of attrition, so they chose to bypass Yingzhou and continue to march south. On November 25, the Liao army engaged the Deqing army of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Song army stationed there did not expect that the invincible Liao army would abandon Yingzhou and take a detour at the risk of being cut off supplies. This time, the Song army, which was hurriedly arrayed, did not retreat, but faced a strong enemy in the field, with the Song army's spearmen in the first row and a large number of bow and crossbow troops deployed in the rear. The Liao army used all the cavalry as the main force to fight, tens of thousands of Liao army elite cavalry from three directions to flank the Song army, the frontal light cavalry harassed the front row of spearmen with cavalry tactics, they continued to shoot a dense rain of arrows, and many of the rear row of Song troops without helmet and shoulder protection were shot to death, but the Song army's counterattack could not cause damage to these "light cavalry" wearing armor. The battle lasted until noon, the morale of the Song army was gradually exhausted, the formation began to loosen, the Liao army on the left and right flanks seized the fighters, the leather room army and the lord's private armor soldiers attacked with all their might, and quickly attacked the Song army front that lacked the protection of heavy armor equipment, after the spear of the Liao cavalry was broken, he pulled out the long knife at his waist and slashed the Song army, the Song army suffered a crazy slaughter, and only a small number of troops broke through successfully.

Later, the Liao army annihilated the Tongli army stationed near Lanzhou, completely swept away the flank danger, and the road from Liao to Lanzhou was opened. Once the city of Lanzhou was broken, the Liao army's iron cavalry could reach the city of Bianjing within a few days and destroy the Great Song Dynasty. The morale of the Liao army was high, and the Khitan nobles who participated in the war even began to think about how to force the Song Dynasty to cede the entire territory north of the Yellow River as a reward for their expedition. When the Liao army attacked Lanzhou, Xiao Tzulin, as the commander, inspected the military situation on the front line, but was unexpectedly discovered by the Song army, and the three-bow bed crossbow in the city was fired, and the commander of the Liao army died under the heavy arrows. At this time, Song Zhenzong happened to rush to the front line of Lanzhou under the escort of the forbidden army, killing the enemy commander and the emperor's personal expedition, such a huge encouraging effect made the morale of the Song army bottom out, and the Liao army, which had been unable to attack for a long time and suffered heavy casualties, began to waver, and the game between the two countries instantly shifted from the battlefield to the negotiating table. doll

Before the negotiation, the first thing the two sides should do is to find out the chips and bottom line between each other, who knows the bottom line and thinking logic of the other party first, who can become the winner in the negotiation field. Although the morale of the Song army was high due to the emperor's personal conquest, neither the commander of the Song army nor the emperor himself had any hope of victory in the war, and Song Zhenzong even resisted the war. Song Zhenzong, who had a pessimistic attitude, confessed to the envoy before he set off that as long as the Liao State agreed that the Great Song Dynasty would not cede the country, it would not be a problem to pay tribute. As everyone knows, Empress Dowager Xiao and Liao Shengzong are also not confident in victory, and even full of worries. For Liao Shengzong, if he can capture all the land north of the Yellow River this time, then he can become a great emperor alongside Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji and Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang. However, this also required him to divide a large number of meritorious officials, such as the commander Xiao Tzu Lin who died in battle, and his eldest son must ask for a new private domain.

In ancient and modern times, no emperor in China and abroad wanted to see the fiefdom of the nobility expand, and the feudal lords who were too powerful could easily threaten the imperial power and even subvert the royal family. Based on this, Liao Shengzong was actually very reluctant to cede land to the Song Dynasty. Prior to this, he had noticed that many Khitan lords in his country had become small emperors in their territories because they ruled too many household Qi people, especially those noble lords who had fiefs in Yanyun, and they were deeply affected by Han hedonism, and their corruption was serious, and their martial virtues were already inferior to those of Taizong. You must know that the Shatuo nobles who competed with the Khitans for the world back then lost the world for similar reasons, and the Liao Shengzong rejected the ending that the Khitan Empire would be corrupted by hedonism.

In this way, the two sides began to negotiate with different intentions, but in the mutual temptation, they were shocked to find that their attitudes towards the land issue were highly consistent, so the only difference was the amount of tribute that the Song Dynasty should give to the Liao State every year. For Da Song, the problems that can be solved with money are all small problems. At first, the Song Dynasty only wanted to take out copper coins of low value as New Year's coins, and at the same time promised to set up a field, open the border market, and do business with the Khitan nobles of the Liao State, but at that time, the Khitan people's perception of the value of money had already evolved to the silver standard stage, and the Liao State was not interested in the copper coins that could be issued in large quantities under the official monopoly economy, and they strongly demanded that the Song Dynasty pay tribute to real money, silver or other valuable objects.

After some fierce debate, the Song envoy finally reluctantly agreed to pay 200,000 taels of silver per year, but Liao Shengzong felt that the harvest was too small and asked for a price increase, and the Song envoy immediately reported the reply of the Liao State to Song Zhenzong, who gave instructions, saying that less than 1 million taels could be used. However, before the envoy with the instructions set off, he was stopped by Kou Zhun, the prime minister of the main battle faction, and he told the envoy that if the annual currency of the negotiation exceeded 300,000 taels, he would definitely behead the whole delegation after returning to Beijing. Fortunately, in the end, the Khitans were extremely satisfied with the conditions of 200,000 taels of silver and 100,000 horses of silk cloth per year, and the mission completed its mission safely. This is the famous "Abyss Alliance" in history.

After the signing of the covenant, Liao Shengzong withdrew his troops as promised, and then formulated the policy of "division of the feudal and Han systems" in one country and two governance, and the fiefdom of the Khitan lords in the Nanjing area of the Liao State began to shrink significantly, and finally the land south of Nanjing of the Liao State (Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures) no longer had a single aristocratic fief, and the Han officials from the imperial examination were appointed to manage these lands that restored the county system, which seemed to have become a "special zone" that distinguished the Liao tradition. Although the Khitans lost their fiefdom of Nanjing, they also effectively delayed the decline of martial virtues, and even if they were defeated by the Jurchen barbarians, there would never be cowards who surrendered easily.

As for the Song court, the reaction to the "Yuanyuan Alliance" is intriguing. When the envoy returned with the peace treaty, he humbly informed the courtiers and the emperor with three fingers that Song Zhenzong mistakenly thought that he needed to hand over three million coins every year, thinking that it was too much, and he was distressed for a while, and he figured it out after being silent for a long time, saying that Aiqing was tired of driving this time, and it was really not easy to get this big thing done. However, when the envoy reported that it only cost 300,000 coins per year, Song Zhenzong swept away the gloom on his face, and was even extremely happy, and rewarded the envoy on the spot in excitement. Although later generations regard the "Lanyuan Alliance" as a great shame in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, for the party Song Zhenzong, the "Lanyuan Alliance" is a very remarkable diplomatic victory, and it can maintain the country's society for decades without ceding land, which is enough to comfort the ancestors and heroes.

This is also the origin of the alliance of the Yuanyuan, of course, these words are only clearly understood by him Yelu Longxu himself, maybe it can be regarded as clear, now all the rights of the nobles within Yelu Longxu are controlled by Yelu Longxu, so it is much easier for him to control the world in Lanzhou, and those aristocratic forces are also because they offended Yelu Longxu and were paralyzed by him, so he was all eliminated by him, he knew that these are the roots of the country, so he established so many departments to eliminate so many people who went against his will in one go!

At this moment, Zhang Ying came to Shanzhou with gifts, the purpose was to meet with the Liao army this time, so that he could make Yelu Longxu agree to his own conditions, he knew very well that Yelu Longxu was not beneficial, he could not agree to himself, and the current commander of Shanzhou was his Yelu Xiuge, in fact, he Yelu Longxu, and as for Yeluwen Liu Yuan, he was sitting in the important town of Taiyuan, and it was also because Taiyuan was next to Zhending Mansion and close to these places that there were so many things later.

Zhang Ying knew that this trip was not so easy, this time Lanzhou must be ironclad and indispensable, in his opinion, Yelu Longxu was unfathomable, from his personality to his calculations, he didn't know what to think in his heart? But the only thing is for the good, for the interests of their Liao country, this Yelulong is called a really terrible place, and it is also a really terrible person, a real good show, and it has just begun to be the prologue?