By May, Yelu Zongzhen finally couldn't hold back and chose to negotiate peace with the Song State.

It's not that he doesn't want to fight, but reality has given him a hard blow.

Of the thirty-four departments of the Liao State, there were very few who were willing to help, and even in the northwest region, Hou Naiman rebelled, killed the messenger of the Liao State, and established himself as the king.

And according to rumors in the rear, some tribes are also ready to move, such as the perennial rebellion of the Black Bone Division, the Great and Small Yellow Chamber Wei Division, etc.

These tribes were originally conquered by several generations of Ming monarchs such as Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji, Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang and Liao Shengzong Yelu Longxu, and they were slowly pacified by continuous attacks.

Pacification can only prove their submission, but it does not mean that they have integrated into the Liao State and completely become a part of the Liao people.

They were attached to the Liao State because of its abundant military force, and naturally they would have dissent because of the decline of the Liao State, especially after seeing the disastrous defeat of the Liao State in its southward expedition to the Great Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhao Jun really expected it right, if Yelu Zong really recruited soldiers and horses from all tribes, then there would be only one outcome - all the tribes would launch a rebellion.

At this time, if the Song State inserted another lever, such as sending money, food, weapons and equipment to the Jurchen, Bohai, and Xi tribes in the northeast through Bohai Bay, and inviting them to attack the Liao State together, and giving the Liao State a fatal blow, I am afraid that the country will perish.

Therefore, after Yelu Zong's careful consideration, he finally decided to accept Zhang Jian's persuasion and agree to the various requests put forward by Song Guo.

But they also have their own conditions.

First, you can exchange war horses and mineral deposits with the Song State for money and grain, but I hope that it will still be nominally a year coin, so as to save Yeluzong's true face. And every year in the future, the same will be true, exchanging the equivalent for nominal coins.

Second, since the Song State wanted the two countries to be treated equally, it should not ask only the Liao State to open the sale of contraband, and the Song State should do the same, otherwise it would be unfair.

Third, it is required that the land on the south bank of Laishui is not ceded by Liao, but given by Liao.

Fan Zhongyan received Zhang Jian's letter, and after seeing that the Liao State agreed, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly sent someone to send the letter to Bianliang.

At this time, Kaifeng was still in a rather solemn atmosphere.

This has been going on for two or three months.

Ever since their prefect had spoken passionately about fighting the enemy to the death, the enthusiasm of the people of the city had gradually receded.

After all, the first thing to do in the mobilization for war is to continue to collect grain and grass, and then send it to the front.

In this kind of war atmosphere in which the soldiers and horses did not move the grain and grass first, the price of grain in Bianliang rose day by day, making the people miserable.

This is not something that can be changed by any tough measures, and there must be a corresponding supply of capacity.

Otherwise, how can you bring down the price of food if you don't have food?

Therefore, the people of Bianliang were also full of complaints, and in addition, they had to continue to spend money to import sulfur from Japan, so that the treasury spent money like water, and the officials began to be unhappy.

In addition, it is necessary to make grenades and artillery at full power, and in the case of a lack of copper, copper cannons are safer than iron cannons, Zhao Jun believes that copper cannons can be made first, accumulate experience, and then start iron cannon manufacturing.

But a copper cannon costs about 2,000 catties of copper.

Based on the usual weight of four to five catties, it takes about four or five hundred yuan, plus labor, shells, etc., and the total cost must be more than five hundred yuan.

In the Ming Dynasty, the cost of the same iron cannon of more than 2,000 catties only cost 200 taels of silver.

This is necessarily a burden on the finances.

However, Zhao Jun thinks that saving 300,000 yuan of coins and making 600 bronze cannons for his mother is not much better than giving Liao coins every year?

We therefore strongly support the increasing cost of military spending.

It's just that this kind of persistence can't withstand it for too long.

Again, that's the same sentence.

Now the people can rely on Zhao Jun's own prestige and the continuous propaganda of the newspapers to barely appease the people's grievances.

In the officialdom, due to the strong support of Zhao Zhen and the Constitutional Yuan, coupled with the support of the Constitutional Yuan to come to power, and the gathering of a group of interest groups, the officials were not allowed to make trouble.

But in the long run, no matter how much people love the country, in the face of the rising firewood, rice, oil and salt, I am afraid they will fall into a dilemma and even resentment against the court.

Therefore, in a sense, the Great Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom are actually tense, just to see who can't hold back first.

But one good thing is that they have been preparing for the Song-Xia War and the possible Song-Liao War for nearly three years, and they can still hold on.

Although the price rise is serious, at most it is the highest point of the grain price increase caused by the war between Qingli and Western Xia in history.

On the other hand, on the Liao side, there was a danger of destroying the country, so Zhao Jun continued to boost morale and let everyone persevere.

Inside the Chongzheng Palace.

Zhao Jun is telling you a story.

"According to our report from the careful work of the exploration horse, the Liao State is bound to be the final loser, and now many Liao tribes in the Bohai Sea, the Jurchen Department of the Five Kingdoms, and the Nuzhi Department of the East China Sea have expressed their goodwill to us, saying that as long as we support them, they will never follow the Liao State to the south."

"This fully illustrates the two sentences that the righteous are more helpful and the unrighteous are less helpful, and the friends do a lot and the enemies do less."

"Then why is the Liao State still there now?"

"I think there are two reasons, one is that they still can't let go of their former status as the boss of East Asia, and they don't want us to be on an equal footing with them. This will seriously affect the majesty of their great Liao, who prides themselves on the upper state of the Heavenly Empire and the coming dynasty of all nations. ”

"The second is that they are reluctant to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, plus the birthday of the Emperor of Liao and the Queen Mother, we all have to give gifts, and those are all spent in vain."

"There is a story in our later generations that there was a beggar on the overpass, and a gentleman passed by every day, and when he saw the beggar pitiful, he gave the beggar a dollar. On this day, the gentleman was in a hurry and forgot to give the beggar money when passing by. As he walked by, the beggar spat at his back. ”

"For a while, the gentleman was on a business trip and was not in the city. When he returned to the city, he crossed the overpass again, saw the beggar, and went up to the beggar and gave him a dollar. The beggar said, "You should give me thirty dollars." Why, the gentleman asked? The beggar said, "You haven't been here for a month, so you should give me thirty dollars." ”

After some time, the gentleman passed by the overpass and did not give the beggar money. The beggar stopped me and asked, "Why didn't you give me the money?" The gentleman said, I am married and have children, and the money is given to my wife. The beggar said angrily, "You actually gave the money you gave me to your wife." ”

"What can we see through this story?"

Zhao Jun looked around at everyone.

Zhao Zhen in the Chongzheng Hall was the first to raise his hand and speak: "Does this refer to the common saying of promoting Mien and fighting Mi Qiu?" ”

"Not bad."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "For the Liao Kingdom, it is like a poor beggar, if you give him a New Year's coin for a long time, he will think that this New Year's coin should be his own." But they forgot that this was originally the benefit that the Song Emperor was stupid brought to them, and once the emperor was not stupid, became smarter, and stopped giving them money, they would think that we had swallowed up the money that belonged to them, and resented us instead. ”

"Great grandson."

Zhao Zhen glanced at Zhao Jun resentfully, although he seemed to praise himself for being smart, but he seemed to have scolded his father for being stupid, so that he didn't know whether to be happy or angry.

"Oh, I'm used to it in front of my own people, and I will definitely be cautious in front of outsiders, don't worry, brother."

Zhao Jun waved his hand and said: "Now who in the Great Song Dynasty doesn't know that the current elder brother is wise, although the first emperor is a little weaker, but giving birth to such a wise and martial brother is comparable to the Han Wu Tang Sect in the future, and may even be more powerful than them, doesn't that prove that the first emperor is weak and weak, and the genes are still good?" ”

"Okay."

Zhao Zhen couldn't cry or laugh, although he said that he was about to become an emperor in Zhao Jun's mouth, he should be happy, but he felt something wrong when he listened to it, and it really didn't make people happy.

"So what if they keep insisting on the New Year's coins?"

Lu Yijian asked.

Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "Then let's beat them, now the Liao State is already unstable, and the clues appear, if Yeluzong is really stupid enough to want to lose the country, then fight with him!" As long as it is us who wins in the end, and the power of Liao is destroyed, even if the domestic turmoil is too bad, we can barely hold on, and in the end we will only be reborn from the ruins. ”

"That's going to kill a lot of people."

Wang Zeng sighed.

"Who wants so many people to die, but it's still that sentence, I don't want Song Liao to start a full-scale war now, leaving our people in dire straits, but if Liao forces us, we can only be ready to shoot and have to send it."

Zhao Jun also sighed and looked out the window.

Everyone's face was solemn.

No one really wants war.

Although they fought, they all thought that the probability of Song Guo winning was very high, at least seventy percent.

The problem is that even so, it was two tigers fighting, one dead and one injured.

The Liao State perished, and the Great Song Dynasty would not be comfortable.

So everyone in this room, including Zhao Jun, hopes for peace.

But the great man said, "We love peace, but if we seek peace through struggle, we will live in peace, and if we seek peace through compromise, we will die peacefully!" ”

This is a wise saying, Zhao Jun remembered it in his heart, and he didn't dare to forget it!

"Knock knock!"

At this moment, three clear sounds sounded outside the door.

This is Wang Shouzhong's knock on the door.

Zhao Zhen hurriedly said: "Come in!" ”

He knew that Wang Shouzhong had always been a rule-abider, and if he could knock on the door while he was talking to everyone in the Constitutional Yuan, it would be an important matter.

Wang Shouzhong came in, bowed to everyone first, and then said: "Official, Xiwen Gong is in a hurry to write for 600 miles. ”

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen hurriedly said: "Submit it." ”

Wang Shouzhong handed over the slasher, Zhao Zhen took it and glanced at it, with a look of great joy on his face: "The Liao people agreed." ”

"What? They promised? ”

"This, this, this!"

"It's great that they would actually say yes."

Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Song Shou, Cai Qi, Sheng Du, Yan Shu and others all showed disbelieving eyes.

Although they were all smart and wise men of the Great Song Dynasty, being able to achieve such a victory was something they couldn't even dream of.

After all, for a long time, the Liao State has always been a mountain pressing on their heads.

One day they found that the mountain was so low that it was at eye level, which naturally made them feel incredible.

Only Zhao Jun had a wisdom bead in his hand and a smiling expression.

In fact, he was calm on the surface, but he was also panicked in his heart.

Although it is certain that the Liao State will most likely agree, what if there are no smart people in the Liao State, all of them are martial artists with muscles in their heads, and they would rather collapse at home than lose both?

So now that he saw that Liao finally made the wisest decision, Zhao Jun was still secretly relieved, and at the same time, he sighed in his heart that there were still wise people in Liao.

"Just."

After Zhao Zhen read the slash, he pondered for a while, and said hesitantly: "They still have a few conditions. ”

"On what terms?"

Zhao Jun asked.

Zhao Zhen said a few requests made by Liao Guo, and finally asked, "Eldest grandson, can you agree?" ”

Everyone looked at Zhao Jun, after all, everyone knew that Zhao Jun was the one who took the idea.

"Yes!"

Zhao Jun nodded seriously.

"Great, it's a big win!"

"I'm afraid this peace talk will go down in history."

"In the old man's lifetime, it is really touching to see the day when Liao has a deflated state."

Several old men over sixty or seventy years old were full of tears.

When they were young, they actually experienced the humiliation of the Yuanyuan Alliance, and they also knew how arrogant the Liao people were.

Now it has achieved such a great diplomatic victory, and everyone has brought tears to their eyes.

However, unexpectedly, Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "Don't be too happy too early, these conditions can be agreed, but there is a problem with the first one." ”

"Eldest grandson, be content."

Zhao Zhen knew that this was a nominal insult to the national body, and persuaded: "It's good that they are willing to exchange things for it." ”

"No, I still have to mention two points first, the alliance of the abyss used to be accepted, but now it can't be done, it will be given instead!"

Zhao Jun said: "Second, even if it is a gift, it is not easy to get this reputation, you have to spend money to buy it, then what was originally worth 300,000 yuan, give us 350,000 yuan." 50,000 yuan to buy a name, we will suffer a small loss, not too much. ”

"Can they agree?"

Lu Yijian persuaded: "Hanlong, accept it when you see it, don't make waves again in the hard-won peace talks now." ”

"yes, so be it."

Yan Shu also persuaded.

"You guys are really, what are you afraid of, since they have agreed to the peace talks, it means that this matter has been finalized and it is impossible to change it."

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "What's more, doesn't this indirectly mean that the Liao State can't stand it anymore?" They won't bother much about this little thing. At most, after they returned to China, they advertised that it was "acceptance" or "dedication", and we didn't respond that in China, we only said that we had canceled the New Year's coin, whatever Yelu Zongzhen said in Liao, we just want benefits! ”

In fact, this is still a matter of national character, a difference of one word, a world of difference.

"Dedication" is a word that is offered under the history, and the Liao State asked for "dedication", which was strongly requested by Fubi, so it was changed to a gift.

And "Na" is a neutral word, which has the meaning of payment, contribution, and delivery and payment. The alliance of the abyss was barely treated equally, so it was accepted at that time.

But no matter what, although it is a neutral word, the meaning of the word is not particularly obvious, and there is still a certain suspicion of being served.

It's not the same with gifts.

Equal giving, even a bit of charity.

Therefore, in order not to lose face, the Liao side demanded that the land on the south bank of Laishui that Fan Zhongyan had beaten down was not ceded, but gifted.

Obviously, the behavior of Liao Guo to lose the battle and save face really made Zhao Jun a little dissatisfied.

But it's okay to save face.

Take the money to buy.

Anyway, they themselves will be silent about it.

In this way, the Liao State won face, and the Song State won the Lizi, which is simply Qin Shi Huang playing cloning - a win-win situation.

"Well, maybe that's true."

Yan Shu suddenly wondered: "But why does the Liao State insist on letting go of the forbidden things?" In the past, we didn't allow books to flow into Liao, so they weren't afraid of being invaded by culture? ”

Now they know what a cultural invasion is.

Zhao Jun smiled: "People know better than you, this is where people are smart?" ”

"Why?"

The crowd was puzzled.

Zhao Jun said: "It's very simple, there are many Han people in Liao, and they claim to be the upper state of the Celestial Empire, which is orthodox in the Tang Dynasty, so they also respect Confucian culture, and it is too late to welcome Confucian classics." As for the forbidden items such as copper, nitrate, and sulfur, do you guess they need it? ”

"Firearms!"

Everyone looked at each other and spoke in unison, and it was immediately clear.

Liao Guo is obviously Xiang Zhuang dancing the sword with the intention of Pei Gong, which is a firearm aimed at the Great Song Dynasty.

If you know you can't beat it, you have to do your research.

And research has to have raw materials.

Although the Northeast is rich in natural resources, saltpeter and sulfur mines are very few, and even if they do, they are mostly buried underground.

The Central Plains region is different, the ancient Chinese saltpeter mineral area in the northwest region, there is a saying that "saltpeter out of Longdao, sulfur out of Hanzhong".

However, it was recorded in the Spring and Autumn Period in the "Fan Zi Jiran" that more than 1,000 years away from the Northern Song Dynasty, the sulfur minerals in Hanzhong were gradually depleted, and a large number of imports from Japan were needed.

The production of saltpeter has not decreased, because there are many production areas, in addition to Gansu in the northwest, there are Sichuan, Shandong and Shanxi are famous nitrate-producing areas in ancient times, and the storage capacity is still very large.

In addition, although the Liao State has trade and commerce, it is completely incomparable with the Song Dynasty in terms of scale and influence.

At least the Liao State has established a reluctant tributary system with Japan at most, and Japan has paid tribute to the Liao State, but only occasionally on tribute, and the two sides have almost no economic, military and other exchanges.

Therefore, this led to the fact that the Liao State did not have saltpeter and sulfur, the two raw materials of gunpowder, so naturally there was no way to study gunpowder.

It's not the same if you open up the contraband.

The Liao State was able to purchase a large amount of sulfur and saltpeter for experiments, so as to carry out the research of firearms.

Hearing Zhao Jun's analysis, Wang Zeng frowned and said: "Then we can't agree to this request, if we let the Liao State develop gunpowder, won't our advantage be lost?" ”

"No, sell it to them! Not only to sell, but also to sell hard, sell more and earn more! ”

Zhao Jun said with a smile.

The crowd was shocked.

Lu Yijian said bitterly: "Confused, Hanlong, how can you sell such a thing to the Liao Kingdom?" ”

"I know it's a strategic resource, but have you heard of the first-mover advantage?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"I haven't heard of it."

The crowd shook their heads.

"First-mover advantage refers to the lasting competitive advantage brought by leading technology and products!"

Zhao Jun analyzed: "Gunpowder has been invented since the Tang Dynasty, but why has I only made pure granular black powder today?" This is the technical reason, unless Zeng Gongliang and I are the only one in the Firearms Division who knows the secret recipe as a traitor, otherwise it is impossible for the Liao State to cross such a big technical barrier and complete the gunpowder upgrade in just a few years. ”

"Hmm"

Zhao Zhen felt that it made sense, nodded and said, "Then do we have to strictly control Zeng Gongliang and that stall leader?" ”

"Not really, the two of them now live in the Firearms Division, surrounded by troops, heavily defended, and no one knows they know the secret recipe for gunpowder except a few of us. I've given them a death order not to spread the word, and I've even given a gag order to let them know the secret recipe for gunpowder. ”

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "The Firearms Division should be safe and sound, even if the Liao people sneak in and catch a few craftsmen, they can't get out, because each of these craftsmen knows different processes, even if they have all the craftsmen, they don't even know the order and proportion, what to study?" ”

"That's fine."

Everyone put their minds at ease, as long as the Liao people can't get the gunpowder formula.

But in the next second, everyone's hearts were lifted again.

Because Zhao Jun said: "Sell the raw materials first, and when they can't get it, we will sell the complete firearm formula to Liao in a few years." ”

"Even the firearm formula was sold to Liao?"

Everyone looked at each other.

Zhao Jun explained: "It is still a first-mover advantage, in a few years, we can find a way to carry out a small-scale industrial revolution first, explore better steel, make better artillery, guns and ammunition, and then sell gunpowder to Liao, they are still at a firearms disadvantage, and it is difficult to catch up with us!" ”

The biggest advantage of the Great Song Dynasty is that Zhao Jun knows the future development, so unless there is a prophet on the Liao side, he will always be slow to the Great Song Dynasty in research and development. Then why couldn't the Great Song Dynasty sell backward technology to Liao? Not only can you make a lot of money, but you can also sell all kinds of materials.

For example, saltpeter and sulfur were imported from Japan and sold to Liao. In the future, when firearms develop better, not to mention raw materials, gunpowder can be sold to the other side, just like the situation of the first-mover countries and the late-mover disadvantaged countries in later generations.

At that time, the Liao State will be held to the death, at most it will be a raw material exporter, and when the Great Song Dynasty becomes strong, it will be easy to destroy and annex the Liao State by virtue of the technical advantages of the crushing level.

(End of chapter)