Yelu Hongtai suspected that he had misheard, but when he saw the imperial brother's serious face, he knew that the imperial brother was not talking casually, but had already thought it through.

"Brother Huang, do you have to move the capital?"

"Other than that, what else do you have to do to keep the Liao Kingdom?" Yelu Hongji asked lightly.

Yelu Hongtai didn't dare to speak, in fact, he and his ministers had already discussed peace talks with the Song Dynasty and made appropriate concessions, such as removing the emperor's title, accepting the Song Dynasty's canonization of the King of Liao, and so on.

So today, Yelu Hongtai came to the imperial brother to discuss the matter with the imperial brother, but the imperial brother proposed to move the capital, so that he did not dare to say more.

Yelu Hongji glanced at him and said: "Your method is nothing more than to sue for peace with the Song Dynasty, first, will the Song Dynasty accept the peace?" If I were Zhao Ji, if I surrendered, instead of suing for peace, and suing for peace was only a means to be used by evenly matched forces, would Liao still be qualified to sue for peace now? ”

After a pause, Yelu Hongji said again: "Take a step back, even if the peace is successful, then our emperor title can be kept?" There are only warriors who died in battle, and there are no cowards who kneel, and I decided to move the capital because I didn't want to kneel in front of the Great Song Dynasty. ”

Since Yelu Hongji said so decisively, Yelu Hongtai couldn't mention asking for peace with the Great Song Dynasty again, so he had to ask: "Where does the imperial brother plan to move the capital?" ”

Yelu Hongji pointed to a map spread out and said, "I plan to take two steps, the first step is to establish a foothold in the north of Jinshan, and then to the west of Lingshan, with Xiaye Lake as the center, and rebuild the Great Liao there. ”

The north of Jinshan is the westernmost part of the expansion of the Liao State, that is, the westernmost point of the Shangjing Road, which belongs to the territory of the Naiban Department, but the territory of the Naiban Department is very large, the northern foot of the Jinshan is not its main sphere of influence, there are only a dozen small tribes there, the Liao State can gain a foothold there, the key is the area of the broken leaves, including the former Sogdian Nine Kingdoms, there is the territory of the Black Khan, the Liao State wants to expand there, and a vicious war will inevitably break out.

"Has Your Majesty decided?"

Yelu Hongji nodded slowly, "I have thought about it for a long time and have made up my mind, although it will be a protracted war against the Black Khan, but we have a good relationship with the Xizhou Hui, and the Xizhou Huisu and the Black Khan have always been hostile, so I consider that I can join forces with the Xizhou Hui to jointly exterminate the Black Khan, once the Black Khan is destroyed and the Liao State moves into Broken Leaves, I can give up the land at the northern foot of Jinshan to the Xizhou Hui. ”

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid it will take several generations to realize this dream."

"It does take time, and I hope to use a hundred hours to establish a Western Liao State."

"But will the Song Dynasty drive us to extinction?" Yelu Hongtai asked in a low voice.

Yelu Hongji smiled faintly: "For the Central Plains Dynasty, the threat to the north is not a certain nomad, the Xiongnu are gone, Rouran is gone, Rouran is gone, Xianbei is gone, Xianbei is gone, Turkic is gone, Turkic is gone, Huihui is coming, and then we Khitan, and now Khitan is leaving, so who will it be?" I believe that the Song Dynasty prefers a fragmented Mobei grassland, and the Song army will not wipe us out, on the contrary, the Song Dynasty will hope that the Liao State after moving west will become a force to contain the three major tribes of the grassland. ”

"Your Majesty is going to send someone to talk to the Song Dynasty?"

Yelu Hongji nodded, "The messenger I sent is already on his way. ”

Three days later, Yelu Hongji promulgated the decree of moving the capital, bringing hundreds of thousands of Khitan and Xi people to Jinshan City, the westernmost part of Shangjing Road, which was an extremely distant place, thousands of miles away from Shangjing.

When the news came out, the government and the opposition were in an uproar, and there were many opponents, Yelu Hongji immediately issued a second will, Shangjing is still one of the capitals of the Great Liao, and if you don't want to move west, you can choose to stay, and the court will not be reluctant, but the move to the capital has been decided and cannot be opposed.

The opposition was ineffective, and the Liao State began to make various preparations to move the capital westward, and Yelu Hongji set the time, and officially moved the capital half a month later, arriving at Jinshan City before the snowfall.

.........

The Song army was not in a hurry to go to Beijing for the Northern Expedition, and was still preparing for the Northern Expedition, the grain and grass and military materials of the 600,000 army could be transported to Changle County of Raozhou through the Liao River, which was less than two hundred miles away from Shangjing, but there were two upstream of the Liao River, one river flowing to the northeast was still called the Liao River, and the other tributary to the west was called Huangshui, and Shangjing was called Linhuangfu.

The 600,000 army is marching northward, and the current Song army is no longer the Song army of 30 years ago, with 300,000 war horses from Kunzhou, as well as more than one million war horses from Hexi and Western Xia and Liao.

Although there were only 150,000 professional cavalry in the 600,000-strong army, each soldier had a war horse to carry on his behalf, so that the army's march was no longer difficult, and the speed was relatively fast, and the team flowed like a river on the official road.

The carriage that Zhao Ji rode in was very wide, pulled by dozens of horses, and the carriage was a number of moving houses, with a bedroom, a study and a small meeting room, about three zhang long, as wide as one zhang, and there were eight pairs of wheels below, all of which were made of stainless steel wheels and axles, as well as rubber tires, and walked very smoothly, basically not feeling the bumps.

In the small chamber, the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji, the King of Chu Fan Ning, the left and right Xiangguo Fubi and Wen Yanbo, and the privy envoy Han Qi and other five people were discussing the battle against Shangjing.

Fan Ning said: "After the civil strife in Shangjing, in terms of troops, there are only 70,000 cavalry in Shangjing, but the information obtained by Weichen shows that Shangjing has a population of 300,000, including 100,000 young and strong men, if all are mobilized, the strength of the Liao State can reach 170,000 in an instant, and there are at least 300,000 leather armor and a million spears and knives in the warehouse in Shangjing, the combat effectiveness of these 100,000 soldiers may be a little weaker, but if they are in order to survive, they will also fight hard, from these aspects, it is not easy to capture Shangjing, and there will be a vicious battle." ”

Zhao Ji pondered for a moment and asked, "Liaoyang City also had more than 100,000 troops at that time, didn't Your Highness also take it without casualty or a single soldier?" Why doesn't Shangjing use the same means? ”

Fan Ning sighed: "The battle of Liaoyang City was too tragic, and nearly 200,000 people died in the end, Weichen can bear this notoriety, but Your Majesty is personally on the expedition, it is better to leave a name of benevolence and righteousness." ”

Fanning's subtext is that if Zhao Ji uses the method of attacking Liaodong City, then the reputation of the tyrant will not escape.

Zhao Ji was silent for a while, the monarchs of the Song Dynasty have attached more importance to the reputation of benevolence and righteousness, if a war results in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries among ordinary people, this reputation is indeed not good.

Fu Bi said with a smile: "Maybe it's not so exaggerated, under the high-pressure situation of the Song army, the Liao State will soon succumb and surrender." ”

Fanning shook his head, "As far as I know, Yelu Hongji is not such a person. ”

At this moment, there was a guard outside who reported, "Your Majesty, the envoy of the Liao State is asking to see you, it is Han Fu, the third governor of the Liao State." ”

Zhao Ji was slightly stunned, and then he said to Han Qi: "Han Aiqing, go and meet it!" See what the Liao envoy wants to talk about? ”

Han Qi saluted and hurried away.

Seeing Fan Ning smiling, Zhao Ji asked, "Fan Aiqing knows that the envoy of the Liao State is coming?" ”

Fanning nodded, "I can only say that I guessed that they were coming, it was nothing more than a peace and surrender, surrender is not big, but there will definitely be peace, or it is like the Huns or the Turks, nomads!" If Liao did this, Weichen would not be surprised at all. ”

"Does Fan Aiqing think it is necessary for us to accept the peace?"

Fan Ning thought for a while and smiled: "If it is a surrender-type peace, maybe it can be considered, otherwise, it makes more sense for Your Majesty to attack Shangjing." ”

"May I ask His Royal Highness the King of Chu, what is the surrender-style peace?" Wen Yanbo asked curiously.

"It is to cover up the fact of surrender in the name of peace."

Zhao Ji was also a little interested, and asked, "Then how can it be considered surrender?" ”

"Your Majesty, one of the prerequisites for surrender is to remove the emperor's title, Yelu Hongji accepts His Majesty's canonization, whether it is the King of Liao, or the Duke of Liao, these can be discussed, but Yelu Hongji must hold the descendants of his closest relatives hostage to Bianliang; The second is tribute, once the Liao State surrenders, if it still maintains the status of a kingdom, then it is a subject state of the Great Song Dynasty, as a subject country, it must pay tribute to His Majesty every year for land, grains and population. ”

"Then Aiqing thinks Yelu Hongji will surrender?"

Fanning shook his head, "The ministers of the Liao Kingdom will, but Yelu Hongji will never." ”

At this time, Han Qi hurriedly returned, and he waited for the carriage to report: "Your Majesty, the Liao State intends to move its capital, and I have come to implore Your Majesty to allow the Liao State to move west." ”

Everyone was surprised that the Liao State was actually going to move the capital, and sure enough, Fan Ning said that the Khitans wanted to run away.

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