A few days later, the court's small request for peace talks was also sent to the front.

Zhao Jun told Fan Zhongyan in the letter that he could hint that the Liao State would let them publicize that the Song State was continuing to send New Year's coins, and it didn't matter if it was "offering" or "accepting", but it had to be added!

As for the Song State, it must not be recognized in China, anyway, the Liao State can use any excuse, for example, they can publicize the Song State by themselves to say that the New Year's currency was canceled for the sake of face.

But no matter what, if Liao wants to save face, he has to give money, otherwise don't blame the Great Song Dynasty for beating his Yeluzong in the face.

Who let them lose on the battlefield?

What a soldier can't get back on the battlefield, you diplomats want to get back through negotiation just by a mouth.

Dreaming.

After Fan Zhongyan got the reply from the imperial court, he browsed it and felt that there was no problem, so he immediately sent it to Xijin Mansion.

Soon Yelu Zongzhen also got the conditions proposed by the Song Dynasty, and he felt that adding an extra 50,000 guan was too much, so he pulled with Fan Zhongyan again, hoping to pay a little less.

However, all of these were rejected by Fan Zhongyan.

Joke.

This is a condition put forward by Zhao Jun, that is, it is an ironclad thing, who can change it.

So after more than ten days, Yelu Zongzhen finally agreed to Song Guo's request with difficulty, and chose to use money to settle things.

Because there were several large tribes in the rear who had rebelled, he couldn't hold back.

Yelu Zongzhen is also helpless.

In fact, the situation in Liao at this time was even more severe than he imagined.

In the first battle of Helan Mountain between Yelu Zongzhen and Western Xia in history, the Liao army was defeated, and several tribes rebelled in the rear.

If it weren't for the fact that Li Yuanhao was poor and weak and could not afford to support the rebellion in the rear of the Liao State, but chose to make peace with Yelu Zongzhen immediately, so that Yelu Zongzhen could calmly go back to quell the rebellion, I am afraid that the Liao State would be greatly injured even if he did not die.

The Great Song Dynasty was different from the Western Xia, and some had money to support the rebellion in the rear of the Liao State.

When the time comes, Yelu Zongzhen will go to the grassland to quell the rebellion, and the northeast will rebel. went to the northeast to quell the rebellion, and the grassland rebelled again, exhausted.

Therefore, if Yeluzong is really not convinced now, wait until the second half of this year, when the rear of the Liao State is full of beacon fires and wolf smoke, there will be times when he cries.

In this case, the two sides finally negotiated the terms.

After the Song court negotiated peace with Liao, it immediately announced this great military and diplomatic victory, and spread the news all over the world through newspapers and newspapers.

Hearing this news, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were in disbelief, who would have thought that peace talks with the Liao State could really be realized?

The common people were rejoicing and praised the wisdom of the court.

For a while, the people who were originally full of complaints suddenly boiled again, and the streets and alleys were full of discussions about this matter, and the morale of the people was even higher to the extreme.

It is really that the Great Song Dynasty suffered too much humiliation from the Liao State.

From the Battle of the Gaoliang River to the Alliance of the Yuanyuan, the Great Song Dynasty made a wrong step and was forced to sign a treaty of loss of power and humiliation by the Liao State with a knife on his neck.

But today, the Great Song Dynasty can be described as a shame, not to mention the defeat of the Liao State, but also achieved such a great diplomatic victory, so that the two countries from the unequal status of the past, suddenly have a earth-shaking change.

This made the people of the Great Song Dynasty, who had endured humiliation for many years, naturally excited to the extreme.

The fame of Zhao Zhen, Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan is also rising day by day among the people. All parts of the Great Song Dynasty are praising the wisdom and martial arts of the official family, Zhao Jun's foresight, and Fan Zhongyan's victory in a hundred battles.

Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan can understand, after all, a person who has accumulated popularity during the period of walking the world, coupled with a firm main battle faction, the conditions for this peace talk are also proposed by Zhao Jun, and the tough posture has already resounded in the hearts of the people of Bianliang for several months.

Fan Zhongyan won the Song-Xia War and the Song-Liao War, and the powerful military talent was engraved in the hearts of the people.

So what does it have to do with Zhao Zhen?

The Emperor.

Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Jun naturally want to attribute all this credit to the wisdom and decisiveness of our Great Song Emperor.

Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Jun wrote articles in the newspaper, both of which blew Zhao Zhen to the sky.

The people didn't know the truth, and they thought that it was really Zhao Zhenli who overrode public opinion, elected Fan Zhongyan to fight, and elected Zhao Jun to govern, and praised the official family for their good use, but they didn't know that this guy had always been a soft bone.

Zhao Zhen heard the people's praise for him and smiled from ear to ear, chose Fu Bi as the envoy, went to the north, and signed a contract with Liao.

So at the end of June of the first year of Kandi, Fu Bi went to Xijin Mansion in Liao State with a mission.

Both parties sign a contract on the surface.

That is, in order to preserve the true face of Yelu Zong, Article 1 stipulates that the Song State will still give the Liao State 300,000 years old coins every year, but it is not the "acceptance" of the Yuanyuan Alliance, but the "gift" of the New Year's coins. In private, the Liao State must exchange the materials for one hand and deliver the goods with the other.

Second, the Liao State gave the seven counties of Fanyang, Laishui, Yixian, Rongcheng, Guiyi, Gu'an, and Yongqing on the south bank of Laishui in the Song State. Originally, the Song State asked for ten counties, and three counties of Feihu (Laiyuan), Anci (Langfang), and Wuqing (Tianjin) should be added.

However, the Liao State sternly rejected this request, after all, the Song army only occupied the seven counties at present. Flying Fox, An Ci and Wuqing are still in the hands of the Liao State, it would be too impolite to be so strong, what is the difference between it and cession?

Although the Liao State completely forgot how they asked the Song State to cede the ten counties in Guannan, Zhao Jun did not dwell on this point. The main reason is that the Liao side will definitely not agree, and if you want to get it, you can only fight, but with the idea of not fighting a decisive battle unless necessary, in the end, there was no tough way to find the Liao State to come back.

But even so, the Liao State also cut a large piece of meat, and the place was equivalent to Yi County, Laishui County, Dingxing County, Zhuozhou City, Gu'an County and Yongqing County in Hebei Province in later generations, and basically completed the encirclement of Nanjing Xijin Mansion of the Liao State, and it can be said that the Song State obtained a large area of strategic land.

Third, the two sides opened a mutual market on the border between the two sides of the Laishui River, allowing all commodities to circulate freely and not to interfere with it, public security and regional affairs were jointly managed by the Liao State and the Song State, and taxes were determined by the nationality of the merchants of the buyer and seller.

If a merchant of the Song State sells things, the income tax on the sale shall be collected by the Song State. Liao merchants sell things, and income tax is collected by Liao.

Fourth, the Song State restored all diplomatic relations that had been severed with the Liao State and maintained contact with the envoys, but all expenses for receiving the envoys would be cancelled, and the expenses on the way to the envoys of both sides could only be paid for at their own expense.

Fifth, the Liao and Song dynasties signed a non-aggression pact, and if one side tore up the treaty, the other side would regard the other side as a hostile state. This time, because of the invasion of Liao, the relationship between Song and Liao should have been completely severed, and Liao should have been asked to compensate for all war losses, but considering that peace is the expectation of the people of the two countries, it is necessary to give Liao another chance, not to say it unexpectedly!

Sixth, Song Liao took Laishui as the boundary, and the two sides withdrew their troops. Thereafter, no one shall hide from one another if there are thieves who have crossed the border. The cities along the border of the two dynasties are not allowed to build city gods, they are not allowed to increase troops on the border without permission, and they are not allowed to rashly send troops across the border to capture thieves and fugitives without notice.

The seventh and final article is to restore the name of the country of the Song and Liao brothers, with Song as the brother and Liao as the brother. In the future, only the birthday of the emperor of the two sides will send envoys to each other to celebrate, and it is stipulated that the congratulatory gifts of the two sides will be unified to 200,000 yuan, and the elder brother will take care of the younger brother as before, and often give more birthday gifts.

A series of treaties were signed, and Zhao Zhen had already covered the jade seal on the Song side, and Yelu Zongzhen had the jade seal on the Liao side, in duplicate. One is a parchment scroll of the Liao State, and the other is a paper of the Song State, which were exchanged with each other and collected by each other, which became a formal contract.

Soon, after the signing of the treaty, the Liao side exchanged 3,000 war horses for 500,000 "annual coins", and then Yelu Zongzhen announced to the ministers in Nanjing Xijin Mansion that this time a major diplomatic victory had been achieved.

Although the seven counties on the south bank of Laishui have been occupied by the Song State and cannot be taken back, the Song State not only offered hundreds of thousands of yuan to buy land, but also promised to continue to hand over the New Year's coins in exchange for the anger of the Liao State.

Then in August, Yelu Zongzhen sold thousands of war horses to the Song State, and made up a million yuan, which was regarded as a transfer to the ministers.

The ministers of the Liao State are not fools, even if they don't know the deal behind Yelu Zongzhen, but it is also a fact that the south bank of Laishui will not come back, the battle is lost, the land is gone, but they declare a great victory to the outside world, how do you look at it, it looks like the Liao lord is collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country.

But with money it's easy to say.

Yelu Zongzhen gave the army money, and the army finally stabilized its morale, rewarded the ministers, and appeased the main battle faction.

After all, except for those who had not experienced the Battle of Baozhou, most of the other generals who had experienced that battle remained silent.

No one wanted to face the grenades and artillery of the Song army again.

In this case, supporting Yelu Zong's real decision to get the reward given by the Liao lord for selling horses has become a common goal of the army's interests, no matter how loud the rest of the main battle faction is, how can they be tough against the army?

Therefore, in this tacit situation of most people, Yelu Zong really barely calmed down the dissatisfaction of the Liao magnates, and the rest was to appease the various tribes and stabilize the situation in the Liao State.

In early September, both Song and Liao began a large-scale withdrawal of troops.

The Song State stationed officials in the seven counties on the south bank of Laishui that they occupied, set up a field, and redeployed and controlled the army.

Fan Zhongyan still presided over the army on Hebei Road, one was to govern the place, the second was to arrange the defense line, and the third was to continue to contact the Liao State to complete the follow-up trade of the treaty signing.

For example, buying and selling horses and minerals, opening farms, formulating relevant rules and regulations, etc., all take time.

It was not until November that Fan Zhongyan sorted out the entire Hebei Road a little, and on November 24, he was transferred back to the central government by a decree from Zhao Zhen.

At the end of the year, the weather became cold, and it snowed in Bianliang this year, and the snowflakes were flying, but it was not the kind that covered the earth, but it was just snow, and the ground was wet, and the whirring cold wind blew, which could freeze people so that their bones were shivering.

Fan Zhongyan put on a thick military coat and passed by Guoqiao Town, and went south to enter the city from the north gate of Bianliang.

But when he went to Changyuan County, he remembered a serious problem - the Chenqiao Mutiny.

Lao Fan had no choice but to take a long detour and enter the city from the northwest of Kaifeng.

Outside the city, Zhao Jun led hundreds of civil and military officials to greet Zhao Zhen on behalf of Zhao Zhen.

Fan Zhongyan, who was far away, only appeared at the end of the road with a few dozen escorts, and then after seeing the large group of people and horses near the pavilion, he quickened his pace and urged the horses to gallop over.

As soon as the horse ran fast, the cold wind blew whizzing, although there was a military coat to support it, but the snot almost didn't freeze Lao Fan out, and his face hurt, so he had to endure it.

When he finally arrived, he couldn't wait to turn over and dismount and greet Zhao Jun and the others.

"Hanlong!"

"Hahahaha, Old Fan!"

Zhao Jun went up and gave him a bear hug, patted him on the shoulder and said, "You are now famous all over the world." ”

"Xiwen, this term of the Constitutional Yuan is changing, you have to come up."

Lu Yijian came over and said sourly.

"Xiwen, well done!"

Yan Shu came up to help him dust off the wind and snow on his shoulder, and said with a smile: "Yang my great Song Guowei." ”

Wang Zeng said: "It's so cold outside, let's go back to the palace first." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty is waiting."

The old man Sheng Du also came, also wearing a military coat, but his snot was about to freeze out.

Although cotton has been promoted in Guangdong, after all, it is the ancestor of high-yield cotton in later generations, and the yield and quality will definitely not come up without careful cultivation and optimal selection.

There is no way to do it, but to force it to be promoted, and then it is sifted from generation to generation to cultivate Better Cotton.

Therefore, although cotton has taken root and sprouted in Guangdong for several years, cotton has not yet become the main warm clothing in China for the time being, and now the warm military coat invented by Zhao Jun, a powerful person in the imperial court, was given to the ministers by Zhao Zhen.

However, Zhao Jun ordered that cotton be included in Guangdong's tax system two years ago, and that it should be purchased at market price. You must know that cotton was produced in the Song Dynasty, and the price was quite high, and the farmers made a lot of money at the market price.

Therefore, under such a promotion, the enthusiasm of the people to plant cotton is very high, even if it is a cold winter, the temperature in Guangdong is still 178 degrees, which is very suitable for the growth of cotton.

Zhao Jun's next goal is not to defeat Southeast Asia, but to send people to establish trade routes with several Southeast Asian countries such as Da Viet Cham (Vietnam), Bagan (Burma), and Angkor (Cambodia, Thailand, Laos) to promote cotton there.

In this way, the cost of production directly became that of Southeast Asian countries, and the Song Dynasty could import grain, cotton, wood, spices, minerals and other resources from Southeast Asia and transport them to Guangdong, and then transport them to the interior by canals and waterways to form a trading chain.

In fact, there was already such a maritime trade as early as the Tang Dynasty, known as the Maritime Silk Road. However, due to the abundance of products in the Tang and Song dynasties, imports from Southeast Asia were mainly wood and spices.

Grain, cotton, and minerals were commodities that Zhao Jun thought could be added, and because of the Song State's long-term trade surplus, there would be no loss at all.

The most interesting thing is that according to historical records, the Song State imported a large number of foreign copper ores at low prices, and then processed them into copper coins by their own country, and then spent the copper coins of the Song Kingdom to buy foreign resources, which is no different from robbing money.

On the way, Zhao Jun invited Fan Zhongyan to get into the carriage.

The carriage was much warmer, because there was a small stove in the carriage, and Lao Fan's hands were pressed on the stove excitedly.

"It's been too cold lately."

Fan Zhongyan complained: "If there is a war this year, I am afraid that I will not be able to withstand it." ”

"Huh."

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "Don't worry, we can't stand it, the colder it is in the north, the more unbearable it is, guess why Yelu Sect really sold so many livestock to us so easily?" ”

"If you don't sell it, you'll freeze to death."

Fan Zhongyan laughed, then shook his head and said: "Even the current horse price is too expensive, it was only forty or fifty guan during the first emperor's period, and now it has risen to one or two hundred, which makes Liao Guo pick up a big bargain." ”

"There is no way, the Liao State and the Western Xia have blocked our horse source for a long time, and our only channel is to buy it from Qingtang, and the supply is not proportional, so the price is naturally expensive. However, the Liao State admitted it, and Li Yuanhao's side also admitted it, and the table was lowered, and after their mutual market allowed the sale of horses, the price would also fall. ”

Zhao Jun shook his head, and then smiled: "So now let Liao Guo pick up a cheap one." But we have another 10,000 elite cavalry, trained for two years, and are good helpers against the Liao State. ”

War horses still have to be bought, and this thing is the same as not having a sword in your hand, and not having a sword. At least until World War I, cavalry was still the main force, and it was not a bad thing to have a lot of war horses in reserve until tanks and cars appeared.

So although most of the things that Liao Guo took this time were exchanged for war horses, Song Guo also gritted his teeth and endured it.

The main thing is not to look at the fact that there are more than 200,000 cavalry on the face of Song Guoming, in fact, there are about 100,000 horses, and there are no more than 50,000 or 60,000 elite cavalry with good war horses, and the rest of the cavalry are either old and weak horses, or thin horses, compared with those strong and good horses in the Western Xia of Liao, it is too far behind.

Who makes horses expensive?

Even if they traded with Qingtang, firstly, they did not have so many war horses, and secondly, they themselves also needed war horses to form cavalry to resist Li Yuanhao, which led to the lack of horses in the Song Kingdom.

Fan Zhongyan nodded, and then the carriage slowly drove into the city, he opened the curtain curiously and looked out, "I haven't been back to Bianliang for almost four years, I really don't know what Bianliang has developed now." ”

He saw that there were no pedestrians on the streets, and the city roads had not changed much, and they seemed to be the same.

"In the winter, what can you see, it is usually very lively, the streets and alleys are full of people, in August and the Liao State signed a peace negotiation contract, after the newspaper published the news, the people spontaneously went to the streets to celebrate, lively for several days."

Zhao Jun said with a smile.

"That's it, I mean you've been in Bianliang for so long, and there are no other changes?"

Fan Zhongyan was a little disappointed.

Why does it feel the same as before?

"Who said that there has been no change, large-scale reform has not been moved for the time being, but there are still some small institutional changes, such as business innovation, and now Bianliang's business growth is at least 30% higher than before. The official system was reformed, which greatly improved the efficiency of the government. ”

Zhao Jun snapped his fingers and said: "There are also textile factories, schools, waterwheel factories, and even steel mills, I have run one, what do you think." ”

"Steelworks?"

Fan Zhongyan was shocked: "Can you do it now?" ”

"It's just a small steel mill."

Zhao Jun said: "This kind of thing is actually a name, just like the ironmaking workshop in the city, it does not mean that full mechanization is a steelmaking plant, where did the first industrial revolution come from, it is pure steelmaking." ”

Fan Zhongyan was puzzled: "What's the use of that being the same as an ironmaking workshop?" ”

"Let's test steelmaking technology."

Zhao Jun pointed to himself and said: "I study history, and I have to practice the Bessewell air steelmaking method and the Bessemer converter steelmaking method." ”

"These steelmaking methods are the mechanical technology of the future?"

Fan Zhongyan asked tentatively.

"No, at most it's a production technique, because the steelmaking process of the first industrial revolution was actually similar to that of ancient times, the difference was the efficiency of steelmaking, and these steelmaking laws were the way to increase efficiency. If you want to achieve mechanical production, you have to continue to work hard. ”

Zhao Jun explained: "For example, the steam engine is a product of increasing efficiency, so now it is time to find the best way to increase the production of steel to meet the production demand. ”

"I see, this is similar to the steel frying method that appeared in the Han Dynasty and the steel filling method that appeared in the Tang Dynasty."

Fan Zhongyan suddenly realized.

"Hmm."

Zhao Jun nodded: "In the era of large-scale steelmaking, efficiency will inevitably be born, not to mention that I still understand the principle of steam engines, so I can directly promote social change, and there is no need to wait for decades for the emergence of steam engines." ”

The first industrial revolution was in the 60s of the 18th century, when there was a steam engine, but it was not used until the end of the 18th century.

So at the end of the day, the first industrial revolution didn't need steam engines, oil, rubber, and so on.

Zhao Jun only talked about this concept in general terms in the early days, when he knew that he had traveled to ancient times, so at that time he was describing the conditions and later development of the industrial revolution.

"It would be great if that were the case."

Fan Zhongyan said with a smile.

"Everything is ready now, only the east wind is owed."

"Dongfeng, what do you owe?"

"You, it's Dongfeng!"

The carriage slowly stopped, Zhao Jun stepped out of the carriage, looked at the Xuanwu Gate at the north gate of the majestic and tall Bianliang Palace outside, and said with a smile: "Let's go, everyone is waiting for you!" ”

Breaking through the Western Xia and defeating the prestige of the Liao State, Fan Zhongyan can finally return to China and start the New Deal reform!

(End of chapter)