However, Tong Guan was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately expressed his agreement and sent two envoys, Zhang Bao and Zhao Zhong, to Yanjing to persuade Emperor Tianxi to surrender. When Emperor Tianzuo heard this, he couldn't believe his ears, more than a hundred years of the Yuanyuan Alliance, as a fraternal country, the Great Song Dynasty actually united with outsiders to attack the Liao State, and also wanted to surrender to the Great Song Dynasty, so he was angry and directly beheaded the two envoys. At this point, the non-aggression pact concluded by the Song and Liao states for a hundred years was broken, and thus they could only meet each other on the battlefield.

In May, Tong Guan ordered the famous general in the northwest to lead the troops to approach, and the Liao State also began to panic at this time, but Tong Guan was still not ready to send troops to the Liao State, although the Song army approached but did not cross the border between the two countries, or hoped to force the Tianzuo Emperor to surrender, so he sent an envoy to Yanjing to persuade the Liao State, this time it was Ma Kuo who had sent several envoys to the Jin State, in view of the fact that the previous envoys had just been killed, but Ma Kuo, who was a professional diplomat, still resolutely chose to go to Yanjing.

Tong Guan also learned from the people who fled south of Yanjing due to the war that Yanjing was currently panicked and unarmed, so he urged the seed master road to cross the border to attack the Liao country, and the seed master road had no choice but to cross the river in Langoudian, but the army just started to cross the river, it was attacked by the Liao country Yelu Dashi, and the general Yang Keshi suffered serious losses, and then the Liao State sent envoys to accuse the Song army of breaking the contract, and the seed master Tao asked Tong Guan for instructions on what to do because he knew that he was at a loss, Tong Guan did not give instructions because he panicked at this time, and the Liao army was angry and killed to the south. At the same time, the Liao State was also attacking the Song Army of the Western Route Army due to the breaking of the Song Army, and the Western Route Army stationed in the West Village also suffered defeat. These two defeats allowed the Liao army to fully understand the reality of the Song army, although it seemed to be a 150,000 army, in fact, the combat effectiveness was not good at all, and the Liao army's more than 10,000 cavalry could easily defeat it.

Because Ma Kuo was still in Yanjing at this time to negotiate with the Liao people, after learning the news that the Song army was defeated, he relied on his eloquence to get out of danger, on the way that the Liao sent Wang Jieru to send it back, he saw the people of Yanjing fleeing south with their families along the way, Wang Jieru was angry and said to Ma Kuo: The Liao and Song Dynasty have been peaceful for hundreds of years due to the covenant, and the white-haired old man has not seen the war. But I don't know that nearly two hundred years have passed since the Khitan obtained the sixteen states of Yanyun, don't the people of Yanjing have no feelings for the Liao State? These words touched Ma Kuo very much.

In fact, with the conditions at that time, the Song army had 150,000 victorious divisions that had just returned from the south to exterminate the Fangla uprising, and the morale was booming, if Tong Guan ordered to go all out to capture Yanjing, then the more than 10,000 soldiers of the Liao State at that time would definitely not be able to hold Yanjing, and Tong Guan first failed in diplomacy, urged the Dao Jin soldiers to persecute, and sent envoys to persuade him to surrender, and repeatedly hesitated, and finally was seen through the hesitation by the Liao State, and the Liao people thought that the Song army did not keep the covenant, coupled with the momentum of the declining army to win, but the Song army on the attacking side was defeated and retreated. It's really a general's incompetence that kills the three armies.

On June 12, due to the lack of money and food in the imperial court, the Song army who went north was ordered to return to the court. The first battle of the Song army to recover Yanjing came to an end in an atmosphere of. In September, because Guo Yaoshi, the general of Zhuozhou of Liao, who was a Han Chinese, and Gao Feng, the general of Yizhou, led their troops to surrender to the Great Song Dynasty, the imperial court obtained the above two states without a single soldier, and sent troops north to take the opportunity to recover Yanjing. This time, 500,000 troops were mobilized, and the army was stationed on the Lugou River south of Yanjing, and Xiao Gan, the commander of the Liao army, camped ten miles away from Yanjing to confront the Song army. This time, the commander of the Song army, Liu Yanqing, had no intention of fighting, although after Guo Yaoshi's hard work, but due to the commander's commotion, the Song army was defeated and at the same time a large number of war preparations and military materials stored on the border since Song Shenzong were exhausted, and the entire 500,000 army was killed by more than 10,000 Liao troops and was defeated again.

The news of the Song army's defeat again reached the Jin army camp, the Jin people couldn't believe that this was the truth, so on the sixth day of December, the Jin people entered Juyong Pass, set up the military formation, and the frightened Empress Dowager Xiao in Yanjing City fled overnight, and the next day the ministers of the Liao State collectively walked out of the Danfeng Gate to surrender to the Jin army, and finally after many rounds of diplomatic negotiations, the Great Song Dynasty gave the Jin State 200,000 taels of silver and 300,000 horses of silk every year, plus 1 million taels of silver to redeem Yanjing, but this is only an empty city, The Jin people gathered 30,000 wealthy families (more than 150 family businesses) in Yanjing City and took them away. On April 14 of the following year, Ma Kuo and the commander Yao Pingzhong and others led their troops and horses into Yanjing together, followed by Li Siben's 50,000 soldiers and horses in the Hedong region, then the Northwest Army led by Chongshi Dao, Guo Yaoshi's Changsheng Army, followed by the army led by Tong Guan and Cai You, and finally the Hebei and Jinggi soldiers and horses led by Ma Gongzhi. Faced with a ruined city that had been plundered by the Jin, the Great Song Dynasty hyped up the reconquest of Tong Guan and Cai You and celebrated it throughout the country.

So to sum up, Tong Guan's so-called recovery of the four states, the attack on the Western Xia, the pacification of Fangla, and the recovery of Yanjing are just a formality. Coupled with the system problems of the Great Song Dynasty, which emphasized literature and light military force, and the peace strategy of the imperial court, it led to a good hand of military cards being played to the worst ending. And what Tong Guan said about the painstaking work, that is, under the premise of the imperial court and strategy, coupled with the fact that the combat effectiveness of the forbidden army, the main military force of the Great Song Dynasty, is indeed poor, and other reasons, it has been his best efforts to maintain the current situation.

Seeing that Tong Guan was also telling the truth, I also comforted him: This prince understands Tong Taiwei's hard work very well, after all, the people of the Great Song Dynasty are accustomed to a stable and stable situation, and the mainstream opinion of the DPRK and China does not approve of the military meeting, try to take the Tanyuan Alliance as an example, and use the year's coins to buy peace caused Tong Taiwei to dare not rush forward in the military, and he can't let go of his hands and feet. What's more, due to a number of reasons such as the lack of war and the lack of heavy force, the training of the Beijing Division and the surrounding forbidden army was abandoned, and the combat effectiveness of its army was worrisome, which led to the occasional lack of strength and strength of Tong Taiwei.

Tong Guan saw that I had summarized him from the reasons of military, armament, soldier quality, military spending, strategy, public opinion, etc., and really talked about his heart, so he was moved to tears, and hurriedly knelt down and said: The old minister Xie Prince's understanding and support, the one who knows me best is still the Prince. After all, he is also an old man who has served me for a lifetime in the Song Dynasty, but because of the influence of many moderations and the political situation of the court, he has relied on his political wisdom and skills to get to today, although there is a dirty experience during the period, but from another aspect, this is not his fault alone, but the sadness of history.

I said sincerely: Mrs. Tong, please get up, let the past go with the wind, from today onwards, I hope that Mrs. Tong and this prince will work hard together, fight hard, and be ashamed of the snow. Especially at present, there are foreign races eyeing each other, and there are economic troubles inside, as subjects of the Great Song Dynasty, we should establish our hearts for heaven and earth, establish our lives for the people, and continue to learn for the sake of the saints, and take advantage of the gap period when the Jin State has just annexed the Liao State and needs to self-digest, strengthen military armaments, and develop the economy, so as to prepare for future unforeseen needs.

Tong Guan understood what I meant, so he got up and said: What the prince said is very true, according to the experience of the old minister and the Jin people many times and what Ma Kuo has seen and heard, it can be seen that the Jin people's heart will not die, and when he is one day, he will definitely invade my Great Song Dynasty, which is also the unanimous opinion of many generals in the army. It's just that the old minister is also very helpless, after all, the military affairs are not as good as the Jin people, and they can only be beaten everywhere, at present, except for the Northwest Army of Qinfeng Road and Lizhou Road, etc., due to the difficult conditions and occasional battles with the Western Xia, the military discipline and military strength of this army are relatively good, and the combat strength of the other such as the Beijing Division and the surrounding forbidden army and the Northeast Frontier Army are also worried.

Tong Guan is telling the truth about this, after all, there has been no war for so many years, coupled with the conscription system and other reasons, from the emperor to the people, they do not pay enough attention to the cruelty and urgency of the war, so it leads to the discrimination of the whole people against the martial arts, and the good men are not soldiers have formed a consensus in the society, and the low status of the warriors will inevitably lead to the lack of talents, thus falling into a vicious circle of lax armament. In this regard, I recognized: Captain Tong has such a sense of family and country, worried about the country and the people, and the prince is very relieved, but I have not known about military affairs for nearly a hundred years, resulting in long-term abandonment of armaments, and to change this situation, we should start by attaching importance to generals, as the so-called if you want to govern the army, you must first choose generals.

Seeing me say this, Tong Guan knew that I must have a way to deal with it, so he immediately gave up: The old minister, please show the prince! I smiled slightly and said: Since Mrs. Tong is so sincere, then the prince is not polite, because Mrs. Tong has been in charge of the military of our dynasty for nearly 20 years, the prince will trouble Mrs. Tong to help transfer a few soldiers to train the forbidden army of the Beijing Division, the original captain of the Zhending Mansion Dare Soldiers, and now the hometown Tangyin is his father Yue and Yue Fei, who guards filial piety, as well as the Northwest Army Yan'an Mansion Han Shizhong and the deputy head of the Yanyan Road Mabu Army Liu Guangshi and the Northwest Army Xinlang Zhang Jun, Tong Taiwei transferred these four soldiers to the Beijing Division, respectively as the most elite of the forbidden army Tianwu Army, Du Yuhou, who supported the Japanese army, the Divine Guard, and the Dragon Guard, was responsible for training and selecting soldiers, and preparing soldiers for the preparation of the Great Song New Army in the later period of the prince.

Tong Guan silently recited the names of the four people once, then bowed and said: Please rest assured, the old minister will transfer these four people as quickly as possible. In order to further appease Tong Guan, I said to him: Then there is Lao Tong Taiwei, because the current prince is promoted to the Imperial City Division, and the government affairs are relatively busy, if any of the children of Tong Taiwei can be qualified for the affairs of the army, I hope that Tong Taiwei will recommend it to this prince. Tong Guan immediately knelt down and thanked him: The old minister thanked the prince for his kindness, and the old minister went back to choose a dog for the prince to drive. I smiled and said: Mrs. Tong is polite, is the so-called brother who fights the tiger, and goes into battle with father and son, this prince believes in Mrs. Tong.

A political deal was reached, although in the feudal society the emperor has the power of life and death, as the so-called king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die. But whether the killing really has a positive effect on the situation is a question of the opinions of the benevolent and the wise. After all, there is a powerful force behind a major minister in the court, and whether it can be used by me is a philosophical dialectical problem, and the wise monarch is often able to use traitorous ministers, and the later generations boasted of the first emperor Kangxi through the ages, it is the use of Heshen's ability to collect money, the so-called loyal ministers and traitors are relative, but also depends on the historical environment at the time, there is no absolute distinction between loyalty and traitor, only whether it can be fully utilized, and strive for the greatest interests for the country and the people. What's more, many things are solved by these so-called traitors, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Then there was a more in-depth exchange of views on the specific combat capability, soldier quality, stationing, and recruitment system of the current imperial army, during which I also learned a lot about many military issues of the dynasty, and provided military reserves for the next step of preparing for the new army of the Great Song Dynasty.