Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Four years later, the Xia Kingdom, which was newly created by Li Yuanhao himself, was destroyed under the attack of the Song and Fan allies. As their allies, the Khitan people naturally felt uncomfortable.

Especially Yelu Longxu, the leader of the Liao Kingdom, who boasted of his unique vision, recruited the ambitious Li Yuanhao as his son-in-law, and paid a large sum of "dowry" for military funds, was extremely aggrieved.

The oath of the cheap son-in-law is still in my ears, but in the end, I didn't get any benefits, but I paid out more than one hundred thousand soldiers, three powerful generals, and countless gold, silver and food!

At the moment when the news of Li Yuanhao's death and Xia Jun's complete defeat came, Yelu Longxu was so anxious that he fainted in the court.

He was already suffering from an illness, and after years of simmering, he watched his plan go to waste and suffered heavy losses. It is conceivable that the blow was severe.

So although he woke up quickly, he was bedridden because of the deep depression in his heart, and his eldest son, Yelvzong, was the real supervisor of the country.

Compared with the complaints among the princes and nobles about the lord's reckless bet first, and then "fake sickness" to escape, Yelu Longxu was the most reluctant and had to deal with it urgently. It was to repair the relationship between Song and Tubo relation.

Seeing that the coalition forces have just won the battle and their morale is like a rainbow, if they want to continue to go north in one go, and continue to form an alliance to attack them, what should they do?

Especially when Yelu Longxu learned that the Goryeo people who had always been obedient to them, had changed their past careful concealment, sent envoys to the Song Dynasty openly, paid tribute frequently, and no longer cared about their eagerness to seek the protection of the Song people. Know the urgency of the situation.

Although he didn't think that the Liao Kingdom's foundation was much stronger than that of the Xia Kingdom, which would allow the Song and Fan allies to succeed so easily.

But if they really go all out and fight to the death, they will suffer three losses, and it is determined that the Liao people, who are weak and weak, will suffer more.

Thinking of this, even Yelu Longxu, who was used to having the upper hand in the negotiations with Song, had to admit that it was difficult for the Liao to beat the Song and the Fan.

Even if you have to make some concessions, you need to repair the relationship with those two forces as soon as possible, and then think of a way to provoke the relationship between the two allies, so that you can take advantage of it.

This time, he led the envoys from the Liao Dynasty to Bianjing. One was to give gifts to ease the tense atmosphere, and the other was to open peace talks on behalf of his father. It was Yelu Longxu's sixth son, Liang Wang Yelu Zongyuan.

Yelv Zongyuan was willing to come to the Song Dynasty for the first time, and he was well aware of the heavy responsibility he shouldered.

Therefore, along the way, facing the cultural scenery that is much richer and more beautiful than the Liao Kingdom, he was always full of worries and had no time to appreciate it.

Just when his heart was at its heaviest, the majestic city wall of Bianjing finally appeared before his eyes.

Compared with the many privileges and arrogance of Liao envoys entering Beijing when Song Zhenzong was still in power more than ten years ago, the people of Song Dynasty, who were immersed in the joy of the victory, did not pay much attention to this conspicuous foreign long convoy this time. Marvel, let alone fear.

Most people looked away in disinterest after just casually throwing a few curious glances.

Sensing the contempt of the surrounding gazes, Yeluzong Yuan clenched his fists deeply.

Form is stronger than man, he needs patience.

Yeluzong would like to take a deep breath and restore his usual expression.

Just when he tidied up his uncluttered and heavy clothes, went through the draft in his mind again, and was about to step out of the carriage and talk to the guard who was checking their clearance papers——

Waves of deafening noises suddenly erupted all around, almost overturning their train!

Yeluzong Yuan's Chinese was only superficial, and the sudden shouting made him terrified, and he couldn't tell what he was shouting at all.

After the initial shock, he just stared blankly at the ecstatic Song Min who didn't know what he saw. They dropped their things and ran towards him frantically!

What's happening here?

Yelvzong wished to take two steps back subconsciously, and soon realized that it was impossible for him to really cause the commotion, but the people behind him!

Slowly, slowly, he turned his head away.

In the eyes, there was clearly a row of tall and straight soldiers in Song Army uniforms, with solemn faces, riding tall horses, slightly lifting their jaws, and looking down at him emotionlessly.

The leader is a little older, but physically stronger, and his momentum seems to be calm, but in fact he is so powerful that he can't breathe.

The armor was covered with a thin layer of road dust, and there were several deep or shallow scars on his dark brown, unhandsome face.

He stared at Yelu Zongyuan calmly, without saying a word, as if evaluating something.

Even Yeluzong Yuan, who had never really been on the battlefield, could easily feel that his legs trembled when he looked at him. People momentum.

This person must, must be——

The name that was about to come out rolled in his throat, Yelu Zong wished to breathe fast, his eyes were wide open, and the hairs all over his body seemed to explode.

Just before he could bear it no longer, the other party calmly looked away, turned his attention slightly, and said something in a low voice to his side, and the impressive Song Army squad responded loudly in unison. After saying this, he turned the horse's head slightly, and the angle was almost exactly the same.

He only saw that at the next moment, under the leadership of the Song general who held up a golden square plaque, the team stood upright and walked around the dazed Liao envoy in the crowd of Song people. The team walked towards the city.

It wasn't until their figures completely disappeared from his eyes that the stiff Yelu Zongyuan slowly relaxed and let out a deep breath.

About the rumor about that man just now, although he had heard it from countless people: After being a general, he entered the army since he was not a champion, and kept going to and from the frontier.

When Li Jiqian was at his best, he defended the kingdom of Xia on the western front; after his son Li Deming hibernated, he was transferred to the north to fight against them; country……

But hearing it a thousand times is better than seeing it in person.

Yeluzong wished to be in a daze.

Its demeanor is magnificent, and it is worthy of being Cao Wei, the most brave and resourceful god of war in the Song Dynasty, and the most loyal and fearless barrier.

The agitated Yeluzong wished he had no way of knowing what the famous General Cao said just now: "There is no one in Khitan? Why did you even send out such a young boy? This is so shameless that he blocked the way for a long time. Don't you know how to make way to the side?"

In any case, Cao Wei, who rode his horse and galloped all the way, came much faster than expected, which greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.

Between the envoys of the Liao Kingdom and the most admirable God of War in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Zhen chose the latter without hesitation, and immediately went out of the palace to greet him, and the protagonist of the night banquet was immediately changed from Khitan to Cao Wei.

As for Yeluzong Yuan and others who were left out in the cold, Lu Ci, who kindly did not reveal that the little emperor was using Cao Wei as an excuse to "go out of the palace", offered to let him go to receive them.

He and General Cao Wei established a friendship in the early years, but the two people who were far apart in age were quite sympathetic to each other. Later, because of Di Qing's connection, they often exchanged letters.

Whenever Lu Ci returned to Beijing, he would definitely visit Cao Wei's family with great gifts, and also bring news about Cao Wei, who has a very close relationship with them.

In the past few years, they have been the coaches of the east and west lines respectively, and they have cooperated far away, and they seem to have a tacit understanding.

When countless people were scrambling to make friends with this hot general, Lu Ci naturally didn't have to join in the fun.

And he was so knowledgeable and interesting that he took over the task of receiving the Liao envoy, not only Zhao Zhen felt ironic, but also the courtiers were quite satisfied.

Presumably, with Ji Xianxiang coming to receive him, the Liao envoy whose limelight was 'robbed' by Cao Wei was dissatisfied, and there was no complaint on the surface.

After Lu Ci accepted the mission, he went back to his home to pick up Di Qing.

However, as the deadline for going to Chengdu Road to take up the post approached, Di Qing's mood became more and more depressed.

Although he was convinced of his grandfather in every possible way, but seeing that there were only three days left and there was no shadow yet, he couldn't help feeling a little anxious.

He couldn't open his mouth to ask, so he put all his energy into clinging to his lover at night, making preparations to live such a good life day by day.

On the way to the city gate to meet the Liao envoy, Lu Ci didn't seem to see the anxiety in his heart, and asked him with a smile: "Young brother may as well guess, will the Khitan envoy come to the peace talks this time, whether it will be successful?"

Di Qing cheered up a little, and replied, "It should be possible."

After the cessation of this protracted war, it will take time no matter how to share the final victory with Tubo or cultivate the people's peace.

Not to mention that Tubo's ally is not very reliable, but the Liao Kingdom, which is also powerful, is eyeing it. If the three forces continue to fight, they will only be bruised and bruised.

Even if he really wanted to fight, he wouldn't choose this moment.

Lu Ci smiled: "Then you might as well guess again, after General Cao returns to Beijing this time, will he be assigned the important task of guarding the gate again?"

Di Qing pondered for a while, and replied: "The official family has a kind heart, and General Cao is getting older, although he can still be called strong, but he has missed his family for a long time. If this peace negotiation comes to fruition..."

Lu Ci nodded with a smile: "The right time, place and people are in harmony. If there is no mistake, the position of the privy envoy should be settled for General Cao."

Di Qing was taken aback.

This is definitely not because he thinks that Cao Wei is unworthy of his position, on the contrary. In his opinion, he is in charge of military and state affairs, military defense, border preparations, military and military orders, secret orders for cashiers, recruitment of internal and external forbidden troops, inspections...etc. , and Zhongshu hold the two handles of civil and military affairs, known as the second government, and the high-ranking privy envoy, only Cao Wei is competent today.

But it is well known that since Cao Wei's father, Cao Bin, the culture of using literature to suppress martial arts has gradually become more and more popular. Few military officials can take this position, and most of them are appointed by civil servants.

However, if Cao Wei really served as the privy envoy, the courtiers would not be able to say anything about his background, qualifications and achievements.

But it is conceivable that subsequent conflicts will emerge one after another-with Cao Wei's straightforward style, not to mention drastic changes, he will definitely drive out some vegetarians, and wantonly promote those who have made contributions in this battle against Xia. military attache.

As a result, civil and military struggles will intensify, and officials will inevitably be battered.

With the little emperor's increasingly keen sense of smell, most likely he would have predicted this time, so he deliberately avoided this reward and chose to give another reward to avoid subsequent troubles.

Lu Ci, who seemed to see through his thoughts, smiled: "It is an inevitable trend to recruit more warriors. Even if the officials want to avoid trouble, I will try my best to persuade them."

The situation in the north has calmed down temporarily, but there are still dark waves surging in the south.

Lu Ci has always been very concerned about Guangnan Road, which can be called a "wild land" in everyone's eyes.

What he values ​​is naturally not only the sweet and delicious lychees, nor the Cochin Kingdom with hidden ambitions, but its unique geographical location.

Throughout the Song Dynasty, nearly 70 soldiers have been raised. In peacetime, they have become "redundant soldiers" that drag down the economy. In the long run, they will also lose the powerful combat effectiveness they have just trained.

Moreover, after this great victory, whether it was the imperial court, which had always been afraid of wars and avoided wars, the Song army, or ordinary people, they were all full of fighting spirit.

It would be a pity for the aftertaste if everything subsided gradually.

If we can get Cao Wei, the new privy envoy, to reach a consensus with him while everyone is still hotheaded, and agree to send soldiers to open up the road to the south, and then make use of the world's top shipbuilding and navigation technology in Song Dynasty...

Whether it is to carry forward the path of the Southern Song Dynasty in advance and completely penetrate the southern trade route, or to be more daring and ruthless, to take the first step and send troops to colonize overseas, there is a lot to do.

The world is so vast, before the time is really ripe, there is really no need to stare at the two hard bones of Liao, which is strong and powerful, or Tubo, which is loose but not scattered, and there are more ways to escape.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. Guangnan Road: After the Song Dynasty eliminated the Southern Han Dynasty and unified Lingnan, Guangnan Road was set up, which was divided into Guangnan East Road and West Road, which are probably today's Guangdong and Guangxi.Guangnan West Road, as the border administrative area of ​​the Northern Song Dynasty, is adjacent to the Jiaozhi State in the southeast, and the Dali minority regime exists in the southwest.However, due to inconvenient transportation, disparity in climate, and relatively backwardness in all aspects, the imperial court has always been very careless in the management of Guangnan Road, treating it as a barren land.Especially in places where there are a lot of ethnic minorities, it is more laissez-faire (later there was Nong Zhigao's rebellion). ("Di Qing Biography")

2. Regarding the advanced level of shipbuilding in the Song Dynasty, there are notes in the early chapters. I feel that you probably forgot, so I will note it again

Song people's shipbuilding technology is also far ahead of the world.The shipyard in the Song Dynasty had already mastered the very mature technology of watertight cabin, balanced rudder and sleepable mast.Watertight cabin technology is very critical in navigation, and it can ensure that the entire ship will not sink due to water ingress in several cabin areas.The balanced rudder invented in the Song Dynasty can be raised and lowered to adapt to deep sea navigation and berthing in shallow bays. Europe only learned about ship rudders from the Arabs in the [-]th century, and it was not until the [-]th century that balanced rudders were used.The multi-masted ships manufactured by the Song people have a mast equipped with a rotating shaft, which can be lowered and erected freely. This is the sleepable mast technology.During the Jiayou period of the Northern Song Dynasty, a foreign ship was blown off by the wind and drifted to Kunshan County, Suzhou. The county magistrate Han Zhengyan called shipbuilders in Kunshan to help them repair the ship. Fa", the Fan people were overjoyed.

The Song people used large ships for ocean-going trade. "The boat is like a giant room, the sails are like clouds hanging from the sky, the length is several feet, and there are hundreds of people in the boat. They store food for a year, and they feed hogs to make wine." The cabin can be raised. Pigs; there are even bigger giant boats, "a boat can accommodate a thousand people, and there are bamboos and market wells on the boat, or if there is no wind, it will take a few years to arrive. It is not a huge boat, and it is impossible to arrive."

Ocean sailing is inseparable from the compass technology. "When the wind and rain are dark and dark, you can only walk with the needle dial, which is the palm of the fire. You dare not make a slight error, and your life depends on the boat."The "needle disk" here is the compass. Through the pointer of the compass, the people of Song Dynasty can accurately adjust the heading angle to 7.5 degrees.After the compass was produced, there was a record of the route, which is called the "compass needle book". A route recorded by Zhou Daguan at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty: "Open the ocean from Wenzhou, travel through the ports of Fujian, Guangzhou, and overseas states, cross the Qizhou Ocean, and pass through the Jiaozhi Ocean", you can reach Champa from Wenzhou Port.Nautical maps that record the geographical and hydrological conditions of the sea also appeared at this time. Song people called them "sea maps". Judging from the description in Liu Kezhuang's poem "Mo Yi's palace gate thanked Shifu, the sea map can still mend cold clothes". , nautical charts made of cloth are obviously very common and readily available. ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")

3. About the overseas trade of the Great Song Dynasty (mainly the Southern Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty went south, and more valued overseas trade):

In the fourth year of Yongxi in the Northern Song Dynasty (987), Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty "condemned eight servants in the house and divided them into four outlines, and each went to the various countries in Hainan to recruit and offer them, and bought fragrant medicines, rhinoceros teeth, pearls, and borneols; The imperial edict is named after the empty space, and it is bestowed wherever it goes."The emperors of the Song Dynasty in the tenth century, like the kings of England in the eighteenth century, sent envoys overseas to solicit trade.In the Southern Song Dynasty, Song Gaozong also said: "The benefits of the city ship (maritime trade) are quite helpful to the country. It is appropriate to follow the old law to attract people from afar and bribe them with goods." It was the "old law" of the Song Dynasty to start maritime trade with other countries.During the Shaoxing period, an Arab businessman named Pu Yali married a Chinese lady and settled down in Guangzhou. Emperor Gaozong asked the local government to "coax Yali to return to the country".Is it because the Song Dynasty did not welcome Arab merchants?no.It was because Pu Yali no longer engaged in foreign trade after he settled in China, and the Song government hoped that he would return to China to solicit foreign businessmen, "traveling and transporting incense".However, Western Europe at that time was under the rule of the "barbarians" and returned to the natural economic state of bartering. Otherwise, it is hard to say that the Sino-British trade would not have started 800 years earlier.

This is the attitude of the Song Dynasty towards overseas trade.The entire coastline of the Song Dynasty, from Jiaozhou Bay in the north, through Hangzhou Bay and the Golden Triangle of Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou in the middle, to Guangzhou Bay in the south, and then to the Qiongzhou Strait, is open to the outside world and develops trade with Western and Southeast Asian countries.The Song government set up a "Shi Ship Department" (equivalent to customs) in the large coastal ports, and a secondary agency "Shi Ship Affairs" in smaller ports, which was responsible for managing the order of the foreign trade market and collecting taxes.The Shibo Department collected nearly 200 million taels of tax from maritime trade every year (after the "Longqing switch" in the Ming Dynasty, the customs paid only tens of thousands of taels a year), the total import and export trade exceeded 2300 million taels at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and nearly 3800 taels in the late years of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty. Wan Guan.

The Song government took a pragmatic approach to overseas trade, strictly limiting tributary trade.For example, Song Gaozong ordered merchant ships not to "carry foreign tribute without authorization", otherwise they would be punished with "two years of incarceration, and the property will be confiscated". The Emperor Taishang is so modest and unresponsive, but how can I be so embarrassing? From now on, if there are people in all countries who want to pay tribute, they will order the army of the state where they are located to send them with rational orders, and they will not hear about it."

Obviously, if overseas countries were able to trade in China in the name of tribute, it would inevitably impact the total trade volume of the private market, which in turn would affect the court's tax collection.This is what the Song Dynasty did not want to see.Therefore, while restricting tribute trade, the Song government also actively encouraged non-governmental overseas trade. As long as maritime merchants registered with the government agency and received a "public certificate", they could ship goods to sea.The government also encouraged maritime merchants to attract foreign merchants to come to China for trade.The Song government also granted official positions to maritime merchants who had made great contributions to overseas investment.

Driven by overseas commerce and trade, smuggling has emerged along the coast—obviously, smuggling can evade taxes imposed by the Song government.Some ministers suggested that the government introduce measures to severely crack down on smuggling, but after repeated consideration, the imperial court acquiesced in the existence of smuggling activities.Because smuggling is just a way of making a living for small coastal traders, it is better to turn a blind eye; if it is severely cracked down, it may damage the entire overseas trade environment and dampen the enthusiasm of businessmen: Small merchants use dried fish as their goods. The big merchants take the sea route from Suzhou and Hangzhou to Huai and Chu with the wind, and the goods are abundant, and the taxes are multiplied. If they try to ban the small merchants, the big merchants will not be able to."

The Song government severely cracked down on pirates that endangered maritime trade and the safety of merchants. For this reason, the government set up "Watch Ship Inspection Departments" in Guangzhou, Quanzhou and other ports, and sent soldiers to escort them on the sea.This should be the world's earliest maritime escort to protect commerce.On Wuzhou Island off the coast of Guangdong, there are guards sentry and guarded. Every time merchant ships sail to the waters near Wuzhou Island, they "congratulate each other."Why?Because this means safety, because at this time "the soldiers in the village have the rewards of wine and meat, and they are protected from going to Guangzhou."Every year, when merchant ships coming to China for trade were about to leave Hong Kong and return to China, the Shipbuilding Department of the Song Dynasty would allocate a huge sum of money (about [-] guan) and hold a banquet to invite them to continue to trade in China next year.The banquet was very grand, "the head of the Han Dynasty (equivalent to the captain), the head of the boat, the boatman, etc., each ordered and sat down, and they all liked it." ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")