Zhang Yue traveled all the way from Xiangzhou to Damingfu.
Now the judge of Daming Mansion is Wen Yanbo.
Once Han Qi left, only Wen Yanbo and Fu Bi remained among the three ministers of Jiayou, and only Wen Yanbo remained among the old ministers guarding Hebei.
Daming Mansion is the most prosperous place in the North, but the city is tall and crisscrossed with ditches. The first thing that catches the eye is the Drum Tower towering into the sky.
People entering and exiting the city gates were strictly inspected, but they still couldn't help the crowds pouring into Daming Mansion from far away. After entering the city, armored cavalry patrols could be seen everywhere.
It truly deserves to be the most important town in Hebei.
The establishment of this Daming Mansion is related to Lu Yijian. At that time, the Liao Kingdom was going south, and Renzong planned to abandon the capital and move to Luoyang.
Lü Yijian expressed his opposition and believed that the capital should be built instead. He expressed the official's determination to personally conquer the capital and demonstrated to the Liao Kingdom. Now the Liao Kingdom would be afraid. Renzong adopted Lv Yijian's suggestion and upgraded the daimyo to become a companion capital, and guarded it with important ministers.
After the Liao Kingdom learned about it, they really gave up their plan to conquer the south.
This is also the Song Dynasty version of the emperor guarding the country.
Zhang Yue arrived at Daming Mansion and met with Wen Yanbo.
Zhang Yue travels in a simple car, but Wen Yanbo greets him with great grandeur.
Wen Yanbo personally went out to the left-behind residence to meet Zhang Yue, along with his two younger sons Wen Weishen and Wen Zongdao.
Wen Yanbo smiled and said to Zhang Yue: "My son, Liulang, said before Zhang Shuzhu passed the exam that he would not be a thing in the pond. He has seen many people, and there is no one like him in the world."
"Now that the duke is ranked second in the palace, not only has it come true, but today the old man has the audacity to entrust his two younger sons to the duke."
After speaking to Wen Weishen, Wen Zongdao stepped forward and bowed to Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue immediately helped the two of them up, saying that he didn't want to take it seriously, and then said that he would definitely take care of them.
The two gentlemen of the Wen family were very happy. At Zhang Yue's age, he had been in the position of prime minister for less than thirty years, so that they would have a backer in the future.
Wen Yanbo welcomed Zhang Yue into the left-behind residence.
During the dinner, Wen Yanbo chatted and laughed happily. He ate quite lightly and seemed to know how to maintain good health.
Zhang Yue looked carefully at Wen Yanbo, who was now very old, but in good spirits. Emperor Renzong, who was good at recognizing people, said that he looked like Bingji, the minister of the Western Han Dynasty.
Zhang Yue feels that this evaluation is correct. Bingji and Wen Yanbo are the role models for us officials. Among the three figures of Jiayou, Wen Yanbo is the most proficient in being an official. Perhaps this is why he has the longest life span.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, we got down to the main topic, the strategy of Ying Liao.
Although Zhang Yue was the two-way propaganda envoy, he did not expect to be superior to Wen Yanbo, so he still asked Wen Yanbo for advice on how to defeat the Liao Dynasty.
Wen Yanbo replied: "In response to Liao's policy, I think it is impossible to attack without relying on it, but because I am ready to wait for it. If it cannot be attacked without relying on it, it cannot be attacked if it is relied on."
Wen Yanbo's words come from Sun Tzu's Art of War, which sounds quite general, but it is indeed the best way to deal with the Liao Kingdom's military intimidation today.
Zhang Yue asked: "If the Liao people really come, what are the chances of winning?"
Wen Yanbo raised the wine cup and said: "To judge, it is best to drink three cups of this wine. It will give you a feeling of ecstasy, but if you drink too much, it will easily hurt your body. Just like the control of Liao Dynasty, although I have been fully prepared, it is best not to start it.
Once the sword is used, it is over."
Zhang Yue asked: "Is there any room?"
Wen Yanbo said: "Indeed, this dynasty used many rooms, and the Liao people also used many."
"So if I enter Daming Mansion, will the Liao people know about it?"
Wen Yanbo said: "I may not know."
Zhang Yue thought to himself that the Song Dynasty did not know much about the Liao Kingdom. This time he promoted Hebei. In order to understand the situation of the Liao Kingdom, the emperor copied to Zhang Yue a copy of the quotations written by the envoys who went to Liao Kingdom every year.
Let him know the national conditions of the Liao Kingdom.
Zhang Yue asked: "So how was the discussion between Han Zhen and the others?"
Wen Yanbo sighed and said: "Let's endure it for the sake of the country!"
After saying that, Wen Yanbo handed Zhang Yue a letter filled with "word check". This word check was similar to a code book. After it was passed to Wen Yanbo, it was later translated.
Zhang Yue read the text and said that the negotiation process between Han Zhen and the Liao State fully demonstrated the arrogance, unreasonableness, and domineering nature of Liao imperialism, and it was full of condescension.
After Zhang Yue read it, he laughed angrily and said: "What are we talking about? If we continue talking like this, there will be no results. It is better to just agree to the Liao people. There is almost no room for bargaining for us."
Wen Yanbo said: "It's not that we can't talk. If this continues, we can still talk at the Huangwei Mountain watershed, but I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on to the other three places."
Zhang Yue immediately looked at the map of the Liao Kingdom, and then said: "Even if we defended Beiwei Mountain during the demarcation dispute, if we lost the other three places, we would have lost six to seven hundred miles. In the future, if word spreads, you and I will fall into the trap of
Talking point."
This is indeed the case in history. After the demarcation, land was ceded to the Liao Kingdom. In the end, Han Zhen and Wang Anshi, who presided over the negotiations, were criticized a lot by the old party.
Wen Yanbo said: "I am old and deaf, not to mention I have been away from the center for a long time. I don't know what the saint wants. It is up to Deputy Zhang Shu to make the decision on this matter."
Wen Yanbo immediately acted wisely to protect himself.
Zhang Yuezao knew that the other party would say this and immediately said: "It is for Han Zhen that Zhang Cheng and the Liao people are negotiating with the border demarcation. The Liao people are pressing down the border with a large army. I have always believed that there is diplomacy when we are strong, and there is no diplomacy when we are powerless. We must let the Liao people
Only when people see our strength can we do it."
"The plan is coming?"
Zhang Yue said: "As far as I know, the Liao Kingdom has no coins, and they are all using our country's copper coins. As long as we can cut off the source of the Liao's copper coins, the Liao people will be in chaos."
"Nowadays, the Liao people are addicted to tea, but they do not produce tea, so they all rely on our tea imports. We can use money to buy tea from the world, and add a tea tax to give the Liao people a disincentive."
Wen Yanbo said: "But what if the Khitan takes revenge? We buy hundreds of thousands of Khitan sheep every year. What if the Khitan bans the sale of sheep to us?"
Zhang Yue said: "This is what Guan Zhong said about fighting against each other. When the two countries are fighting, they spend everything they have on each other with things that are not rare. There is no mutton, but the high-ranking officials in Bianjing spend a few extra dollars every month.
It's just meat for money, but how can the Khitan people endure it without tea?"
Wen Yanbo smiled and said: "As far as I know, the people who love mutton the most are the officials!"
Zhang Yue smiled when he heard this and said, "Since I'm here, I'll let it go."
This trade war is like this. The Liao people like to sell the Northern Pearl to the Song people. The Northern Pearl is a luxury product, just like Hermès, Prada and so on. The monarch of the Liao Kingdom knew that the Song people liked the Northern Pearl and said,
China squanders its treasury to sell useless things. This is to my benefit, and China can be impoverished.
On the contrary, the Liao people strictly prohibited the sale of war horses in China, so that the Song army in Hebei had almost no horses to use.
The Song Dynasty also had its own problems. During the Zhenzong period, the Song Dynasty had 200,000 war horses, and used them to herd horses and guard sheep and horses in various places. Later, after signing the Chanyuan Alliance with the Liao Kingdom, the Song Dynasty really started to "put the horses in Nanshan and store the swords and guns in the treasury."
Well, when Yingzong arrived, there were only 30,000 war horses in the country.
Almost all the land that was once used to herd horses has been used to raise sheep.
People in the Song Dynasty were fond of eating mutton, and the official family of the Song Dynasty was the leader. For example, the current official family consumes more than 17,000 sheep a year in the palace. Needless to say, the official salary also includes food for sheep every year.
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As the saying goes, what is good at the top will be bad at the bottom. In the past, the Liao Kingdom often used a ban on the export of mutton to sanction China, and it succeeded every time.
The most important thing is that the Liao State did not have the ability to mint currency. They relied on the inflow of copper coins from the Song Dynasty, and mutton alone brought a large amount of foreign exchange to the Song Dynasty. Otherwise, the Liao people would have degenerated back to the era of barter.
But even so, the economy of the Liao Kingdom was far inferior to that of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty's trade with the Liao Kingdom in border markets could make up for the loss of one-half of the yearly coins.
However, once the Liao Kingdom was in a situation of "entering the Super League", it would use the last resort, which was to use force to intimidate, and use the Song Dynasty's fear of war from top to bottom to gain an advantage in trade and negotiations. This strategy was tried and tested by the Liao people.
In order to strengthen this psychological advantage, the Liao people behaved very arrogantly and rudely in diplomatic negotiations.
Envoys from the Liao State never exchanged names with local officials when they entered the Song Dynasty, even if they stayed behind. As for the envoys from the Song Dynasty, they suffered a lot of grievances when they were on their missions. If they could get some relief, it would be enough to be included in the history books.
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In fact, the hundred years of peace between Song and Liao in the Chanyuan Alliance was due to the Song Dynasty's humiliating diplomacy to compromise.
Zhang Yue returned to the living room and before he could sit down, he saw Tong Guan walking in, carrying a man dressed like a monk and throwing him to the ground.
Tong Guan clasped his fists and said, "I'd like to report to my husband that we've caught a spy! This man dressed up as a monk and was near the camp to find out where our husband was."
When the monk heard this, he immediately explained that he was a wandering monk and could enter and exit the Liao Kingdom and the Song Dynasty without passing through customs. The Liao Kingdom had been buying information from the Song Dynasty. If he got any valuable information, he would go to the Liao Kingdom.
Can be sold at a reasonable price.
Tong Guandao said: "It is useless to kill this man, my husband. It is better to keep him and use him to rebel against traitors."
Zhang Yue glanced at Tong Guan and said: "You are not only smart and strategic, I will leave this matter to you and see if there is any way to spy on the secrets of the Liao Kingdom."
Tong Guan was overjoyed and said, "Thank you so much, Mr. Mang!"
Arrive at the office the next day.
Not only the generals in the Daming Mansion, but also the generals on the Hebei Road, land and water management, horse and infantry generals, and the imperial army and rural troops all came to pay homage to Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue looked at the notebooks presented by the generals one by one, and then checked with the people under his command.
Zhang Yue did not show any prestige, but all the generals were uneasy.
The Song Dynasty focused on border defense in the northwest and Hebei. Everyone knows Zhang Yue's achievements in controlling the northwest route army to regain thousands of miles of land in the Qing and Tang Dynasties and millions of people.
This time the officials asked him to dispatch troops and horses from Hebei and Hedong, which meant that he had controlled three-quarters of the troops and horses in the Song Dynasty.
At this moment, hundreds of generals were in the hall and did not dare to show their anger. They were afraid that Zhang Yue would be unhappy and use their authority to push them out and chop them.
Only Wen Yanbo, who was sitting aside, was relatively calm.
Zhang Yue had read all the manuscripts and said: "In fact, Hebei's elite soldiers were originally the heroes of the world. When the Liao Kingdom invaded, Hebei was able to fight back with all its strength. But after the Chanyuan Alliance, Hebei's soldiers and horses
As a result, I have lacked training and become slack, and I don’t know what the military is about. If there is a war with the Liao Kingdom, I don’t know which of you here would dare to go into battle to serve the king!"
"I am here today to rectify the troops of Hebei and prepare for a decisive battle with the Liao Kingdom!"
After hearing what Zhang Yue said, everyone was shocked. Didn't it mean that Zhang Yue came to negotiate? Why is there going to be a war with the Liao Kingdom?