"The Jurchens went south again, and the Liao army was defeated in successive battles, and even forced Yelu Jun to drive the expedition in person!" After Zhao Yan learned the news from Xue Wolf's mouth, he was also shocked, the last time the Jurchens went south, they had killed the Huanglong Mansion of the Liao State for thousands of miles, and this time they went south again, and listening to Xue Wolf's meaning, it seems that the Jurchens killed people more ruthlessly than last time, otherwise Yelu Jun would not be so angry that he would have driven the expedition in person.

"Your Highness, the imperial court doesn't know where it learned about this, and then secretly transferred me to the capital, it seems that there is something important?" At this time, Xue Wolf spoke again, he only knew that this time the imperial court summoned him to Beijing about the Jurchens going south again, and it was unknown what the specific matter was.

"It's strange, how could the imperial court be interested in a group of savages?" Zhao Yan also said to himself very strangely when he heard this, although the Jurchens made a lot of trouble in the north of the Liao Kingdom, but after all, they were still too far away from the Great Song Dynasty, if he didn't know the power of the Jurchens in the future, I am afraid he would not have noticed such a small ethnic group on the border of the enemy country, but now the Great Song Dynasty court actually summoned Xue Wolf, the high-level of the Imperial City Division, back for the sake of the Jurchens, which is a bit intriguing.

Zhao Yan couldn't guess the thoughts of the imperial court for a while, and Xue Wolf was not good at this aspect, so in the end, Zhao Yan simply put this matter behind him for the time being, and began to ask about the situation of the Liao Kingdom in the past few years, and Xue Wolf also told Zhao Yan about the information he had collected without reservation.

A few years ago, because of Huang Wude's retirement from the Imperial City Division, Zhao Yan was a little passive in terms of intelligence, although he could also get some information through other channels, but these information were relatively small, and the timeliness was also poor, which made Zhao Yan's news relatively closed, and his understanding of the Liao State was not as detailed as before.

Through Xue Wolf's narration. Zhao Yan knew that the Liao State had also changed a lot in recent years, since he and Yang Huaiyu and others defeated the Liao army together and recaptured the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Liao State was also very angry, and at the beginning, the entire Liao State was also full of emotion. All the time, they wanted to reorganize the army and take back the sixteen states of Yanyun, but fortunately, Ye Lujun and other high-level officials of the Liao State were very sensible, knowing that the strength of the Liao State was not good now, and it was impossible to recapture Yanyun from the hands of the Great Song Dynasty.

In this case, the Liao State also began to recuperate like the Great Song Dynasty, and the country was generally relatively calm, but under this calm, there was still an undercurrent surging in the Liao court, first of all, Yelujun, the originally very wise emperor, was slowly changing. It may be that as he grew older, he became more and more fond of pleasure and no longer diligent in government affairs as before, much like his father Yeluhonki.

Yelu Jun was addicted to pleasure, and the power of the domestic government naturally fell into the hands of a group of ministers, and at the beginning, there were several old ministers in the court to contain each other, but what everyone didn't expect was that Yelu Yixin, who had been snubbed by Yelu Jun before, actually gained power again. slowly squeezed out other ministers, so that he actually gained the power of the court again. In the Liao State, where almost one person is above 10,000 people, his orders are sometimes more effective than Yelu Jun's holy decrees, but unfortunately Yelu Jun is not aware of this situation, but instead hands over more and more government to Yelu Yixin to deal with, which also makes Yelu Yixin's power expand day by day.

Yelu Yixin is autocratic, and he can still act in front of Yelu Jun at the beginning. But with Yelu Jun's growing mediocrity, Yelu Yixin also began to act recklessly, appointing people only to be close to them and not to pay attention to talents, and the Liao State was also full of complaints, and the national strength of the Liao State has not only increased in recent years. On the contrary, there is a tendency to decline, which is also the main reason why the Jurchens were able to stir up the Liao State several times, because the Liao State is no longer the Liao State of the year, and the national strength has declined at the same time, and the military strength has declined even more, especially after the death of Yeluren first, the army lacks excellent generals, which also makes the Liao army be defeated in the face of a small number of Jurchens.

In addition to the above changes, Zhao Yan also learned a surprise news from Xue Wolf's mouth, that is, a considerable part of the Han people in the Liao State began to change their attitude, when he and Zhao Ji went to the Liao State together, Zhao Yan had personally investigated the Han people living in the Liao State, but the result made him very disappointed, because the vast majority of the Han people in the Liao State not only did not like the Great Song Dynasty, but believed that the Liao State was the orthodoxy of the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Great Song Dynasty was just a traitor.

Of course, the above ideas are only those who are scholars among the Han people in Liao, but although the number of these scholars only accounts for a small part of the Han people in Liao, they are the elite of the Han people in Liao, and many people are active in the court of Liao, such as Zhang Xiaojie and his son are representatives.

However, in recent years, with the increase of the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty, especially the defeat of the Liao army a few years ago and the recapture of the sixteen states of Yanyun, the strength of the Great Song Dynasty has surpassed that of the Liao State. But they can still gather a lot of core information about Liao.

Knowing the above situation, Zhao Yan also sighed a little, it seems that disliking the poor and loving the rich is really the common nature of human beings, "the poor in the downtown no one asks the rich in the deep mountains have distant relatives" is the truth that cannot be broken in the world, the Great Song Dynasty was weak and bullied before, and even the Han people of Liao who were born from the same root disdained to be with the Great Song Dynasty, and now the Great Song Dynasty is strong, these people are running up and hugging their thick legs, which is somewhat similar to China in later generations, the face is earned by yourself, as long as you are strong, then no one dares to look down on you.

Zhao Yan and Xue Wolf chatted until midnight, until the third watch drum sounded, he thought that Xue Wolf and his wife had come from afar and had not rested, which made him very ashamed, and hurriedly asked people to prepare a room for them, fortunately, Xue Wolf and his wife had already had dinner when they came, otherwise it would be too rude to come to Zhao Yan and not even have a meal.

Early the next morning, Xue Wolf received a notice from the palace ordering him to enter the palace immediately, and Zhao Yan was also very interested in this matter, so after Xue Wolf entered the palace, he immediately ordered someone to go to Su Song to find out about the situation.

Zhao Yan has a lot of influence in the court, the highest position is the prime minister Chen Shengzhi, but Chen Shengzi is a cunning old fox, although he is grateful to Zhao Yan for helping him regain his own power, but he will not get too close to Zhao Yan, the two are completely an exchange of interests, in addition, Chen Shengzhi's age is not young, and he is about to retire from the phase, and Su Song has been designated as Chen Shengzhi's successor, and there is nothing in the court that can't hide anything from him, so Zhao Yan first thought of asking him.

The people sent out to inquire about the news soon returned, and brought a piece of news that made Zhao Yan unable to sit still anymore, and the people led by the Empress Dowager Gao were actually discussing aiding the Jurchens and using the power of the Jurchens to consume the national strength of the Liao State!

When Zhao Yan first heard the news, he thought he had heard it wrong at first, but it wasn't until he confirmed it again and again, and the person who inquired about the news also promised that there would be no mistake, which made Zhao Yan believe in the accuracy of the news, which made Zhao Yan have a very ridiculous feeling, at the beginning, he did not hesitate to kill the impeachment of Libo and others to prevent the rise of the Jurchens, and also cut off the possibility of forming an alliance with the Jurchens, but now the Great Song Dynasty court has put this matter on the agenda again, doesn't this mean that all his previous efforts were in vain?

Thinking of the above, Zhao Yan couldn't sit still anymore, and immediately wanted to enter the palace to stop this matter, but he thought that he had promised that the Empress Dowager Gao would never come forward to interfere in the government again, and now if he came forward, I am afraid it will only make the Empress Dowager Gao more suspicious, thinking of these, Zhao Yan stood up and sat down several times, and finally he thought of a person, and stood up and strode out of the palace at the moment, and came to the small courtyard where Huang Wude lived not far away.

Huang Wude was basking in the sun at this time, and when he saw Zhao Yan coming to him with an anxious face, he immediately asked, "What is the important matter for Your Highness to find the old slave?" ”

"Alas, this matter is very important, and I can't come forward, so I can only discuss it with Lao Huang!" Zhao Yan said that he told the court about the preparation of the Jurchens to assist the Jurchens, and Huang Wude was the insider back then, so Zhao Yan hoped that he could have good suggestions.

I saw that after Huang Wude listened to Zhao Yan's narration, the expression on his face was very calm, and he frowned and thought for a moment before he spoke: "Your Highness, you are a fan of the authorities, in fact, it is not surprising that the imperial court made a decision to assist the Jurchens, because there were not many people who knew that His Highness killed the Jurchen leader at the beginning, and later the two Majesties Yingzong and Shenzong thought that the spread of this matter would affect your reputation, so they issued a gag order to those who knew about it, So the Queen Mother, Sima Xianggong and others don't know that you have had a conflict with the Jurchens, but what makes me strange is that even if the imperial court heard about the Jurchens' successive defeats of the Liao army, it is impossible for them to suddenly want to help them, there must be some opportunities that we don't know! ”

Hearing Huang Wude's analysis, Zhao Yan finally calmed down, thought about it seriously at the moment, and found that he was indeed like Huang Wude's analysis, Empress Dowager Gao could not make a decision to aid the Jurchens for no reason, after all, like this kind of military affairs, it is impossible to make a decision just by relying on the Jurchens to defeat the Liao army, there must have been something that he didn't know about during this period, but unfortunately the person he sent to inquire about the news did not ask clearly, or there was something in it that Su Song was inconvenient for people to pass on from generation to generation, Looks like I'll have to make a trip to find out myself! (To be continued......)