In a blink of an eye, it’s the middle of the twelfth lunar month.
The Song Dynasty was settled for five years, with only the last half month left.
There were no wars in the south and north of the Yangtze River this year. People everywhere had a relatively stable year and were preparing for the New Year.
But the senior officials and ministers of the three regimes were all paying attention to one thing at the same time.
——The Yuan envoys are coming to Lin'an soon.
It is possible that the Song and Yuan Dynasties could negotiate a peace, ending the war between Song and Mongolia that had lasted for thirty years since Duanping entered Luo.
The world will once again enter peace, just like the Chanyuan Alliance and the Shaoxing Peace Conference.
Mongolia or the Yuan Dynasty, like the Liao and Jin Dynasties, will end its barbaric offensive, like a docile cow, bowing to the north of the Huai River and beginning to age.
This is the expectation of most people in Jiangnan for this peace negotiation.
After one hundred or two hundred years, the main war faction either died, dismissed from office, or defected to Li Xia. The peace negotiators in the Song Dynasty did account for the majority.
Even the common people desperately hope that the war will end, and that Hebian, who has forced them to despair, can also stop...
~~
Lin'an.
"Ping Zhanggong, the envoy from the Yuan Dynasty has crossed the Huaihe River and arrived in Chuzhou."
"Who's coming?"
"The chief envoy is the Minister of Rites of the Yuan Dynasty, the Hague, the central capital; the deputy envoy is Hao Yong, who serves as the privy minister and accompanies the capital."
"Hao Yong?" Jia Sidao was playing with the dice casually and asked: "Who is Hao Jing?"
"Hao Jing's younger brother."
Jia Sidao has been in a bad mood recently. He always has a bad face when no one else is around. He said with a smile: "You guys think, with my bad character, how could Kublai Khan send envoys to negotiate peace?"
What he said was a bit too flattering. After all, Kublai sent people to negotiate peace with the Song Dynasty, rather than just cooperating with him.
No one in the hall reminded Jia Sidao.
On the contrary, Weng Yinglong said: "Mr. Ping Zhang, please don't belittle yourself..."
"I beat up Kublai Khan once in Ezhou, and even played tricks on him. I used yearly coins to trick him into withdrawing his troops, and I imprisoned the envoys he sent for several years. As a result, he rushed to send more envoys. How could he save his face?
?”
Speaking of the words "where is the face?", Jia Sidao leaned back in his chair, looking lazy.
Having been tricked by Dong Wenbing once and humiliated in front of the whole Lin'an City, he was really unhappy and didn't have much favorable impressions of Yuan Ting.
"I dare to imprison Hao Jing because I have never been afraid of Meng Yuan." Jia Sidao slowly said while playing with the dice in his hand: "To be honest, I don't want to negotiate peace with Yuan Ting, but I hope Li Xia can hand over
Chongqing.”
"I'm afraid Li Xia has no such plan."
"Then continue to put pressure." Jia Sidao thought for a while, and gradually regained confidence in his eyes, and said: "The current situation is the most beneficial to us in the past two years. Kublai Khan wants to negotiate peace with us.
Li Xia is afraid that Kublai Khan will negotiate peace with us. If we drag it on, we will get some benefits..."
"Ping Zhanggong." Liao Yingzhong reminded: "Many people in the government and the public can't wait to negotiate peace with Yuan Ting."
"A bunch of idiots! The peace negotiation is a means to deter Li Xia, not the result." Jia Sidao tapped the dice on the back of his chair and emphasized: "I facilitated this, why? Because it is good for the country, good for the country! Once
If the peace negotiation is successful, what is the benefit of paying Sui Yuan to Meng Yuan and forcing Li Xia to rebel?"
"It is beneficial to all the major noble clans. Once the peace negotiation is successful and the trade between the north and the south is opened, everyone will be profitable."
Jia Sidao smiled.
With his intelligence, he certainly knew these truths, so he sneered and cursed.
"Short-sighted."
But it is obvious that Jia Sidao did not expect that the government and the opposition would be so eager to negotiate peace, and some things have begun to escape his control.
~~
Xiangyang.
On the Han River, warships came one after another with their sails sailing, their axes thousands of miles away, and their flags covering the sky.
If others didn't know better, seeing this scene, they would think that there was going to be a war between the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but this was just Lu Wende who came to Xiangyang in person.
"Dongdongdongdong..."
There were constant footsteps on the deck, and groups of guards lined up before Lu Wende strode off the deck.
He was already as tall as a giant, and he had not been on the battlefield for several years, so he was still stout.
The water gate of Xiangyang was already wide open. Soon, Lu Wenhuan welcomed his brother into the city, held a banquet, and the two brothers began to talk in detail.
"I'm here just to talk about two words." Lu Wende drank a bottle of wine and spoke without any nonsense, "Let Dong Wenbing talk about it."
"Brother, the imperial court hasn't negotiated peace with Meng Yuan yet, has it? What's the rush?"
"It's just to open up negotiations first and force the court to agree to negotiate a peace, lest this matter doesn't work out in the end."
In two sentences, Lu Wende had already had enough food and wine, took off his belt, took off his boots as big as a boat, lay half in the warm spring room, and talked about his thoughts.
"I have raised so many troops from the Lu family. If the military power is lost one day, I will not be finished. Then I will have to keep raising the troops. Where will the money and food come from? From the court? Sooner or later, the court will not be reliable. Look at what Enxiang has done to us in the past few years.
We are becoming more and more vigilant. We still have to rely on ourselves, trade, and exchange money and food."
Lu Wenhuan said: "Brother, you and I are just generals, but peace negotiation is an important military and state matter, and it should be decided by the governors..."
"It was Enxiang's contact with Yuan Ting that led to this peace negotiation."
"In my opinion, Enxiang may just take this opportunity to put pressure on Li Ni."
"Don't you understand that I have been fighting for so many years? I don't care about this?"
"If Li Ni is forced to openly rebel, he will miss the important matter of favor."
"After we have negotiated peace with the Mongols, will Li Xia still dare to rebel? Can he withstand the combined attack of the Song Dynasty and the Mongols? Even the Jin Kingdom will be destroyed. I tell you, it would be better for Li Xia to rebel. You and I can open up a business and make money.
Grain, raise troops and horses, perform military exploits, and even conquer Sichuan and Shu."
Lu Wenhuan said: "It is too dangerous for the overall situation, and I am afraid that the Mongols will benefit from it."
"The Mongols are ruined." Lu Wende said: "Did you know about the Shaoxing Peace Conference? The Jurchens were so powerful at that time. As a result, Xianggong Zhao took back the three capitals and beat the Jurchens like dogs."
"How about waiting a little longer? I heard that Enxiang sent an envoy to Chang'an to ask Li Xia to hand over Chongqing Mansion..."
~~
Chang'an.
"I have met the king."
Wu Ze walked into the lobby and listened to Li Xia's instructions: "Go out of the city to welcome the envoys from the Song Dynasty."
"yes."
Wu Ze agreed, but did not leave immediately. He hesitated for a moment and said: "May I ask your Majesty, if the alliance between Song Ting and Meng Yuan cannot be prevented..."
"Don't worry, I'm prepared."
"Then I won't ask any more questions."
Li Xia knew that Wu Ze was uneasy, so he put down the official document in his hand and said: "Sit down, why do you think the Mongolians are so unruly and eager to negotiate peace with the Song Dynasty?"
"It can be seen that the events in the Western Regions had a great impact on Kublai Khan, and he was eager to form an alliance with the Song Dynasty."
"Do you think the influence of the Western Region incident has fermented?"
"No." Wu Ze was very sure and said: "The news must not have spread to all parts of Mongolia so quickly. Now, the benefits of the alliance between the king and the kings of the West have not yet begun to appear."
"So why are you panicking? Even if the Song and Yuan Dynasties really formed an alliance, they are still one step behind us. The princes are anxious for me to become emperor, maybe not because they are imminent, but because they are a little greedy. Relax, do our thing, and wait patiently
, the further we go, the greater our advantage will be. As long as I haven’t proclaimed myself emperor publicly, Jia Sidao doesn’t want to quarrel with me.”
"I understand," Wu Zedao said, "When we receive the envoys, we will not agree to their conditions, but we will make a gesture that we are likely to agree..."
~~
Chang'an City, which was destroyed by war in the late Tang Dynasty and then rebuilt, is indeed too small.
Li Xia set the royal capital here and vigorously built water conservancy projects and promoted trade. As a result, Chang'an's population has increased rapidly in the past two years and it has become quite crowded.
It was snowing that day. Wu Ze led the officials and entourage out of the south city gate, and saw that the queue of people entering the city to buy new year goods had formed a long queue, which was quite inconvenient.
"Xiao Xianggong Wu, do you want the people to step aside first?"
Wu Ze shook his head.
There was someone behind me teaching the little official who was talking.
"For the sake of a few officials from Lin'an, you want to drive your own people aside. What do you think?"
"The villain knows his fault."
"That's the envoy from Lin'an, with a flag on the carriage."
"Come forward to greet us."
Wu Ze braved the snow to face the team.
Soon, both parties exchanged greetings.
"Yu Ming, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, came to visit King Qin in the name of the Emperor..."
As Yu Ming spoke, he looked at the city gate ahead and smiled bitterly.
He did not receive much hospitality along the way.
Wu Ze glanced at the city gate, raised his finger and pointed to a post house, and said with a smile: "It's cold and snowy, how about asking Mr. Yu to take a rest in the post house outside the city first?"
"Thank you."
Yu Ming walked side by side with Wu Ze and said in deep thought: "Let me get straight to the point. The reason why I was ordered to come to see the King of Qin is because I am opposed to negotiating peace with the Mongols."
"Yu Langzhong turns out to be the main fighting faction."
"Yes." Yu Ming said: "In recent years, there have been rumors that the King of Qin had rebellious intentions, but the officials did not believe it. The King of Qin has repeatedly regained the lost territory, and he is the number one hero of the Song Dynasty. He should not be subject to such a estrangement. If the monarch and his ministers are harmonious, the country will be peaceful and the people will be safe.
It is right to fight against foreign invaders together."
He spoke very politely.
If Jia Sidao negotiated peace with the Yuan court envoys to scare Li Xia, Yu Ming came to persuade him with good words.
One plays a bad role and the other plays a bad role.
"That's good." Wu Zedao said: "It's just as it should be that the King of Qin has just taken over the Fuxingqing Mansion and is about to take advantage of the victory to pursue and regain the Hetao. At this time, the court said that it wants to negotiate peace. How many soldiers are heartbroken?"
"That's why it is absolutely impossible to negotiate peace."
"It seems that the King of Qin, the officials, and Duke Jia Pingzhang are at odds with each other."
"It's just that...the reason why there are rumors may be because King Qin will not accept the fate of the foreign king in these years. If it can..."
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Wu Ze asked: "For example, accept the imperial court's deployment of troops and horses to Chongqing Prefecture?"
Yu Ming turned around and looked around, seeing no one around, and then said: "With the current power of King Qin, it is impossible for the court to touch him. It can be said that he is already a very popular minister and extremely prominent, so what else do you want?"
As long as he proves to the court that he has no different intentions, he will be a fellow countryman."
"If the King of Qin does not rebel, the imperial court will not negotiate peace with Meng Yuan?"
"It proves that King Qin does not intend to rebel." Yu Ming said: "This can only be proved by handing over the upper reaches of the Yangtze River."
Wu Ze smiled, no longer answered, and raised his hand to lead Yu Ming into the post house.
"Mr. Yu has come all the way. It's getting late today and it's inconvenient to enter the city. How about resting for the night and getting up early tomorrow to see King Qin again?"
Yu Ming knew that he was dragging her down on purpose, but he had no choice but to agree.
At least from the few words today, it can be seen that both parties do not want to break up, although the conditions cannot be negotiated and it does not seem that they can be negotiated...
~~
After entertaining Yu Ming, Wu Ze returned to the city and ordered his subordinates: "Tell him tomorrow morning that I have something urgent, and we will lead him into the city in the afternoon."
"yes."
However, just that night, Wu Ze came out of the study and was about to go to bed when he suddenly heard a rapid knock on the door outside the courtyard.
"Lang Jun, it's not good! Something happened in the posthouse outside the city, and all the officials from Lin'an were killed..."