It would be a big deal if this tribute gift was robbed.
Upon hearing the news, the government and the public were immediately filled with indignation. The generals who could not bear it asked to send troops to get an explanation.
It's just an ordinary time. Envoys from various countries are now gathered in Bianjing. If this thing happens at this moment, if we don't deal with it with thunder, it will be a joke to the envoys from other countries.
Luo Youdu was unusually calm about this, with a strange look in his eyes.
If this incident had not happened, Luo Youdu would not have been able to remember the power of the Hengshan Qiang.
When Luo Youdu learned about the war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia, he saw records of the Hengshan Qiang many times.
"Song History of Xia Guo Zhuan" records: "The hard battle relies on the mountains to defeat the Qiang, and the mountains and Qiang are the ones who defeat them, and the Pingxia soldiers cannot catch up."
The Hengshan Qiang troops are powerful and must be the vanguard in every battle.
"History of the Song Dynasty" also records: Bubazi people can go up and down hillsides, enter and exit streams, and are best able to cross high and far distances. They are good at walking with light feet. When encountering enemies in deep and dangerous valleys, they often use Bubazi to attack and cover up attacks.
This Bubazi is also a mountain army composed of Hengshan Qiang people.
To put it bluntly, they are Hengshan Qiang soldiers, brave and good at fighting, and they are the best among all the Xixia armies.
In the Battle of Haoshuichuan, the Battle of Sanchuankou and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai that broke out during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, when the Song army was forced to fight in the valley due to the situation, Bubazi of Xixia began to show his power.
With their strong bows and crossbows, they were active in streams and valleys, and used their super high mobility to quickly move around the battlefield. The Song army, which cooperated with the Hengshan Qiang cavalry, was crying for their fathers and mothers, and all their elite troops were lost.
Historically, because Xixia was too dependent on the Hengshan Qiang, it would send more troops to the Hengshan Qiang whenever there was a war, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the Hengshan Qiang and their intention to submit to the Song Dynasty.
The Western Xia Emperor Li Liangzuo was so frightened that he immediately moved all the ethnic groups in the Hengshan area to Xingzhou to prevent the Hengshan Qiang soldiers from being used by the Song Dynasty.
After Zhong'e, the frontier commander at that time, learned about this situation, he also sent people to recruit the people of Hengshan and formed an extremely powerful Hengshan army.
The Hengshan Qiang were historically the most important source of troops for Xixia and the Dingnan Army. They plundered the Dingnan Army, which was dominated by Dangxiang Qiang?
Is this a brain show?
Luo Youdu was a little confused.
If an ordinary emperor knew that the tribute supplies had been robbed, he would be furious and either launch a crusade or order an army to apprehend the leader of the thief.
However, Luo Youdu knew very well the importance of Hengshan to the disaster-defeating army. Even if one of his own people appeared to rob one of his own, he would not cause trouble to himself and make the generals laugh.
If something goes wrong, there must be a monster.
Luo Youdu suppressed the anger of the generals, and the more he thought about it, the more strange it became, and ordered the Privy Council to get a topographic map of the army that was in trouble.
Looking at the topographic map on the desk and the Hengshan Mountains, he gradually came back to his senses.
The Hengshan Mountains are not a small area, but a mountainous river that stretches for hundreds of miles starting from Linzhou Yulin in the east and extending to the southwest from Tiandu Mountain to Mayan Mountain.
Historically, this mountain range was like the Great Wall of Xixia. The party members could go south to attack the border cities at any time. Even if the battle was unfavorable, they could quickly retreat to defend and remain invincible.
The war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia was a competition centered on the Hengshan Mountains.
Today, the middle section of the Hengshan Mountains is occupied by the Dingnan Army, but the east and west sections from the beginning to the end are under the control of the Central Plains.
The Hengshan Mountains in the western section belong to Dingbian, Yanzhou.
The Dingnan Army was bewitched by the Khitans and sent troops in response to the Northern Han Dynasty. What they wanted to capture was the Hengshan Mountains in the western section. As long as they captured Dingbian, Lingzhou, which was said to be blocked in the south of the Yangtze River, would become the Dingnan Army's bag.
As for the eastern section of the Hengshan Mountains, which is located in Yulin, part of it is under the jurisdiction of Linzhou and is the harvest of this attack on the Northern Han Dynasty.
It shouldn't be a problem here in Yanzhou, the two sides have been getting along for many years.
Due to the complex terrain, it is inevitable that "bandits" who have no eyesight will invade the border.
But since Wang Yansheng was exiled, he developed a habit of eating ears. He liked to rip off the ears of bandits alive and gnaw them alive, which frightened the border residents on both sides to tremble. They had been living in peace for a while.
The only possibility is here in Linzhou and Yulin.
Luo Youdu immediately asked the council to rush to Linzhou to train Yang Chong, and Li Mu learned about the situation.
Mainly, it was Li Mu who brought up Yang Chongxun in his words just to give him face as the governor of Linzhou.
Now the administrative power of Linzhou is in the hands of Lin Governor Shi Limu.
Yang Chongxun was not dissatisfied with this situation.
After all, the Central Plains is not the Northern Han Dynasty, so deep-rooted local tycoons like them can be seized by the military and political power.
Luo Youdu retained his military power and also reused his elder brother Yang Ye to guard Yanmen Pass. This favor was enough and he did not interfere with Linzhou's government affairs at all.
Li Mu was a little confused when he received the urgent letter from the Council of Ministers.
Li Mu was born in Yangwu, Kaifeng Prefecture, and was a Jinshi in his early years. He was a capable minister and official. His most commendable thing was his virtue, and he had extremely high moral requirements for himself.
After taking over the government affairs of Linzhou, it was discovered that 60% of Linzhou's economy came from trade with the Hengshan Qiang.
Compared with Yang Chongxun who was not good at government affairs, Li Mu showed extraordinary ability in this aspect.
He opened a border market in Yulin to encourage mutual trade. He also met and talked with Tuoba Xiong, the leader of the Hengshan Qiang Lynx tribe, in person to open the door to trade.
Li Mude was extremely virtuous and had an absolutely fair attitude towards the trade between the two parties, winning the trust of the Hengshan Qiang.
In just a few short months, the already prosperous border market became a big hit.
Li Mu had no idea what went wrong and could only report it truthfully.
The letter was sent back to the Council Hall.
Which of the prime ministers in the council hall is Yi?
After reading Li Mu's reply, everything became clear.
Outside Bianjing City.
Li Guangrui and Han Junxiong came from Xiazhou with a long journey, and behind them was a long congratulatory gift.
Their congratulatory gifts were indeed lost to the Hengshan Qiang, but in order to show the Dingnan Army's admiration for the Central Plains Dynasty, they prepared a new batch of congratulatory gifts and came to see them.
Seeing that he was about to meet up with the reception officials from the Central Plains, Li Guangrui felt a little uneasy and whispered: "Prime Minister, there really won't be any problems."
Han Junxiong replied: "The Emperor of the Central Plains has always had the best face. At the critical moment of his accession to the throne, in front of all the envoys, if something like this happens, he will be furious. Our gifts are not in short supply, and they have no reason to blame us.
"
In fact, he also knew that they were playing with fire.
But there is no way.
The Hengshan Qiang are the force that the Dingnan Army relies on most. The Hengshan Qiang are all over the Hengshan Mountains and are divided into more than thirty tribes, large and small.
The strongest among them are the several tribes near Yulin, Linzhou.
These tribes also looked up to Tuoba Xiong from the Lynx Tribe.
There is a reason for all this.
Li Yiyin was very ambitious and intended to curb the development of the Central Plains together with the Khitan and the Northern Han Dynasty.
Don't hug the thighs of the Central Plains, but hug the thighs of the Northern Han Dynasty.
Linzhou is the boundary between the Dingnan Army and the Northern Han Dynasty.
The salt, iron and tea produced in Hengshan were all sold to the Northern Han Dynasty and Khitan through Linzhou.
Therefore, most of the powerful Hengshan Qiang tribes gathered near Hengshan in Yulin.
The Northern Han Dynasty suddenly perished, and the Dingnan army was completely caught off guard.
Li Mu was also an official, and the demand for salt and iron in the Central Plains was far greater than that of the Khitan in the Northern Han Dynasty, thus seizing the key point of the Hengshan Qiang.
Li Yiyin was naturally panicked by this sudden change.
If the Hengshan Qiang fell to the Central Plains, the Dingnan Army would be unable to fight back and would have to survive.
The Hengshan Qiang, a tribal group located in the Hengshan Mountains, have never had any national concept. For the tribe, whoever has milk is the mother.
Li Yiyin, the military commander of the army, did not have much binding force on them.
He couldn't make Tuoba Xiong cut off trade with the Central Plains. If he really wanted to force Tuoba Xiong, he might even force him to defect to the Central Plains.
At this moment, the Hengshan Qiang led by Tuoba Xiong were in closer contact with Linzhou.
In the long run, Li Yiyin could only resort to this strategy to create conflicts and cut off the exchanges between the Hengshan Qiang and the Central Plains.
Let the Central Plains bully the Hengshan Qiang, while they randomly select a few small tribes to answer to the Central Plains, and then protect the powerful Hengshan Qiang to evacuate Yulin.
"Xue Juzheng has seen two envoys!"
Xue Juzheng greeted me with a gentle greeting.
His reassuring attitude was like a reassurance, which made Li Guangrui feel at ease. He said: "Envoy Lei Xue has been waiting for a long time. On the way, he was robbed by Hengshan Qiang bandits and lost half of the gifts. In order to raise them again, I was delayed a little.
Please forgive me for the time."
Xue Juzheng returned the greeting and said: "My envoy has had a hard journey, but this Hengshan Qiang dared to rob my imperial gift, which is really audacious. Don't worry, your Majesty will not just sit back and ignore this matter."
He didn't know the inside story, but he also knew that the Dingnan army was restless, so he invited the Dingnan army into the city with some pretentious remarks.
Li Guangrui said: "I don't know when I will be able to meet Your Majesty. The Hengshan Qiang are too arrogant. When my father learned that the tributes had been robbed, he was furious. He had ordered all his troops to go south. He must give an explanation to Your Majesty. I would like to personally present this matter to Your Majesty...
"
Xue Juzheng said: "The envoy will rest in the Sifang Pavilion first, and I will report to His Majesty. The envoy can wait for the good news."
Li Guangrui couldn't see anything strange and felt a little more secure.
But this wait lasted only three days.
Just before the enthronement ceremony, Luo Youdu sent someone to invite Li Guangrui and Han Junxiong to visit him.
Li Guangrui and Han Junxiong entered the palace with some anxiety.
All the way to Zichen Hall, Li Guangrui and Han Junxiong felt relieved when they saw this.
This Zichen Palace was the former dynasty of the imperial palace. It was used for court meetings every month, congratulations on completion of suburban temple ceremonies, and reception of foreign envoys.
Luo Youdu used the Purple Chen Hall to receive them, which shows that he attaches great importance to them. It is probably because they made remedial measures in time that they did not anger Tianwei.
The two of them squatted all the way up the stairs to enter the hall, but they saw that three people were already seated in the hall.
In an instant, a feeling of humiliation surged into my heart.
While he was meeting himself, he was also meeting another wave of people, so he obviously didn't take them to heart.
But when he saw the person clearly, his hands and feet suddenly became cold again.
The person sitting at the front is actually Tuoba Xiong, the leader of the Lynx Clan, and the two people who follow him also look very familiar. One is the leader of the Wild Wolf Clan, and the other is the leader of the Falcon Clan. They are both the leader of the Hengshan Qiang Tribe near Yulin.
Luo Youdu originally had a pleasant conversation with the three Hengshan Qiang tribe chiefs. When he saw Li Guangrui and Han Junxiong entering the palace, he put on a sneer on his face and said, "I don't need to introduce you to them. I wonder what you have to say now."