Prime Minister

Chapter 743

Hearing Wen Yanbo's mention, Zhang Yue showed a slightly surprised expression and asked, "Is there such a thing?"

Everyone knew that Zhang Yue had just arrived in the capital and knew nothing about it.

Seeing Zhang Yue's blank expression, Wen Yanbo said: "It's okay, Zhang Jinglue can talk casually."

Wen Yanbo nodded with his hands on an official document beside the case, and the officials at the side immediately presented it to Zhang Yue.

Zhang Yue looked through the official documents but saw that it was a side report, that is, since February of this year (the fifth year of Xining), the Khitan sent cavalry to cross the Juma River many times. In August, the Khitan suddenly gathered 20 soldiers and horses. They sent people to inquire about Khitan's intentions, but the other party said that they took in two Song Dynasty deserters, and reported that the Song Dynasty would send 30 to [-] troops to attack Yanjing, so they prepared to gather troops to defend against the enemy at the border.

Song Chao was shocked and immediately sent someone to explain that he had no such intention at all.But the Khitans expressed their disbelief.

The other one was a secret report, but it was anonymous, and it was copied at first glance. As for which yamen it belonged to, it was not mentioned.

Zhang Yue heard that such secret reports usually come from the Secretary of the Imperial City, but he was not qualified to read them in the past.

It is very likely that the Song Dynasty knew that Khitan was facing an enemy after re-drawing the border, so it activated secret spies in Khitan.

In the secret report, there is another statement that Yelu Hongji, the lord of the Khitan, intends to take advantage of the war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia, and when he has no time to separate himself, he wants to embezzle the land of Wei, Ying, and Shuo.

Seeing this, Zhang Yue remembered that there seemed to be such an incident in history, saying that Wang Anshi advocated a compromise with Khitan, and finally abandoned seven hundred miles of land, but some people said that he only abandoned dozens of miles.

Zhang Yuedao: "I remember that in the first month of the fourth year of Xining, when the Shaanxi Xuanfu Division sent a large army to attack Luowu City, the Khitan sent 30 internal soldiers to patrol the border, and our army had to retreat in embarrassment."

"Since February this year, the Khitan has repeatedly sent scouts to cross the Juma River. In this dynasty, Zengxiong County and Rong County patrolled the horses to repel them. It can be seen that the Khitans are indeed wolfish ambitions, and we should continue to ascertain their intentions. .”

Wen Yanbo said: "The Khitan's intentions are not clear for the time being, let's say that after the Khitan gathers, they will send troops across the river to raid the two households? Or how about attacking Xiongzhou next?"

Zhang Yue listened to Wen Yanbo's words, as if he was leading himself in a certain direction, and immediately knew the opportunity and didn't say anything.

Wang Anshi said: "Nowadays, only a hundred or so horses come and go, and the land is invaded for twenty or thirty miles, and it is still troublesome. When the four barbarians are weak, if a hero is born in the four barbarians, I don't know how to treat him?"

Wen Yanbo asked: "Could it be that Yelu Hongji, Lord Khitan, is not a hero?"

Wang Anshi said: "The mediocre people only hold the foundation and have a great fortune."

Zhang Yue looked at Wen Yanbo and Wang Anshi bickering in the air, and it was amused to fight each other, and the officials on the side also recorded it.Zhang Yue thought to himself that it was a matter of consulting himself, but it became a place where two prime ministers bickered, which saved him a lot of energy.

Wang Anshi's plan is very clear, he now wants to attack Qingtang, and retake Xixia, so he doesn't want to fight with Khitan, so as not to fight on two fronts.

Everyone knows that you can't hit someone with two fists.

And Wen Yanbo immediately accused Wang Anshi, saying why are you so cowardly to Khitan?You're really weak, this is not your usual style.

Zhang Yue didn't say a word, he went to the capital, and he might be left in Beijing, and his military power was stripped from then on.

Wang Anshi can arrange his confidants to carry out the strategy of Qingtang.

So he was unwilling to fight for his own considerations, but Zhang Yue was also unwilling to waste the hard work and early investment in pioneering Qingtang.

If Wang Anshi wants his own people to attack Qingtang, let him go, but the national policy of making Xia should not be abandoned halfway.

Wang Anshi and Wen Yanbo pinched for a while, and Zhang Yue said: "According to what I see, the Khitan's mobilization of troops did not have the intention of attacking the Song Dynasty, but their intention was to claim land..."

Every word Zhang Yue said was recorded by officials.

As for Yelu Hongji, anyone who has seen Tianlong Babu knows this person. At this time, he has quelled the chaos of the emperor's younger brother Yelu Chongyuan, but it does not mean that his position is stable.

Zhang Yuedao: "Although Khitan studied Sinicization and established a two-campus system, various ethnic groups in Khitan are mixed, such as Khitan, Han, Xi, Bohai, Uighur, and Jurchen. They were originally suppressed by force..."

Many people in history considered Yelu Hongji to be a mediocre master, but he was not.

Yelu Hongji only did two things in his life, one was to suppress civil strife, and the other was to cohere a unified ideology.

"...The stability of the king's foundation depends entirely on force, not virtue. Although Yelu Hongji admired Confucianism, he wanted to learn from the current dynasty to rule the world with propriety, but he couldn't learn the essence, so he still couldn't learn it in the end. I heard that In Khitan territory, there was a man named Xi who lived for the third time, yet Yelu Hongji actually bestowed upon him an official, but it is the most common thing for the third king to live in this dynasty..."

Speaking of this, all the officials laughed, and a sense of superiority in the first-class cultural system emerged spontaneously.

The biggest problem in Khitan is that the various ethnic groups in the country are mixed, and the cultural customs and daily habits of each ethnic group are different, so this has led to the country's disunity.However, forcible suppression cannot completely eliminate conflicts, and the country explodes like a gunpowder keg.

In the past, when the Khitan was strong, it could be suppressed by force, but now the contradictions are getting more and more intense.

Second-rate monarchs only know how to fight and kill, and kill those who refuse to obey, but Yelu Hongji realized that this cannot be done. He learned the advantages of Confucianism from his neighbor Song Dynasty, and wanted to use Confucianism as a unified ideology. to resolve domestic conflicts.

For example, it is an example to give officials to Xiren III for cohabitation.What are the traditions of the steppe peoples?Once the children reach adulthood, they go out and live separately from their parents.

And as the emperor, he set an example. He looked like he was fond of Confucianism. He planned to change the rule of martial arts into the rule of culture, study the imperial examinations of the Song Dynasty to obtain scholars, and at the same time compete with the Song Dynasty ideologically.

Confucianism is one tool of ideology, Buddhism is another.

In order to promote Buddhism, Yelu Hongji even "36 rice monks at the age of one year" and "[-] hair per day", which shocked the Song Dynasty.

It can be seen from this that the grassland peoples who came to dominate the Central Plains turned towards the Sinicization of Confucianism in the end without exception, so it was not that they abandoned their martial arts and turned to worship Confucianism, but that their military power had declined and they had to worship Confucianism.

So at this step, they basically lost the courage of their ancestors to forge ahead, and instead wanted to live a first-class stable life.

It's like a person travels all over the world when he is young, and after he has a certain amount of savings, he wants to live a stable life in middle age, so there is the theory that the end of the universe is a system.

So why the Liao Kingdom claimed the land of the Song Dynasty at this time is also a question that is easy to explain.

Because Xixia is a vassal of the Liao Kingdom, the people of insight in the Liao Kingdom would never sit back and watch the Song Dynasty take the summer to control the summer. Zhang Yue's victory in the northwest deepened their sense of crisis, so they proposed to Yelu Hongji to attack the Song Dynasty.

But Yelu Hongji knew about his own affairs.

Today, the Liao Kingdom still relies on force to suppress the differences among the various ministries. Once there is a failure in force, it will inevitably lead to the collapse of the entire country.

Attacking the Song Dynasty can win for a while, but the difficulty is how to win all the time... Once the determination of the Song people to fight against the Liao Dynasty is aroused like the Battle of Chanyuan, the gain will not be worth the loss. The loss is worth it.

Therefore, it was Yelu Hongji's wisest plan to use force to intimidate and collect real profits.

Now that Khitan is gathering in Yanjing, it is an act to appease the main war faction in the country. It is absolutely impossible for Yelu Hongji to send troops in a large scale at this time.

Zhang Yue talked eloquently in the palace, and the officials wrote quickly. After hearing Zhang Yue's analysis, everyone felt that they could see the sun behind the clouds.

When the Khitan army gathered 30 to [-] soldiers and horses to press down on the border, only Zhang Yue dared to say categorically in the hall that the Khitans were only using force to intimidate them, and they would never send troops.

But Wu Chong was sweating faintly, Zhang Yue dared to say this, if Khitan really sent troops to attack Song, Zhang Yue relied on the palace to guarantee this, then no one could save him.

This is the responsibility of saying a word as a sentence.

For example, on this occasion, Zhang directly said that the Khitan would never attack the Song Dynasty. If everyone has heard it, forget it, but Zhang Yue is different.So the ministers can talk freely, but Zhang Yue can't.

But even with this risk, Zhang Yue still speaks frankly.

Wang Anshi couldn't help but nodded when he heard Zhang Yue's words. His judgment was that Yelu Hongji was the master of mediocrity, but he didn't specify how mediocre it was. It's better to analyze the current situation of Khitan from the three aspects of military, politics, and system like Zhang Yue did. Internal and external troubles.

And Cai Ting also nodded frequently, Zhang Yue said that the situation of Khitan was like looking at the pattern with the palm of his hand, completely sweeping away the haze that the Khitan army gathered in the hearts of the chief executives.

Once news of the gathering of the Khitan army is known, what kind of turmoil will it cause to the entire Song Dynasty.The prime ministers kept the matter under wraps.

From the top to the ordinary soldiers, they tried their best to avoid fighting against Khitan, so as to avoid the dilemma of being attacked on both sides. Even if they knew that Khitan might be a big mouth, they would fully agree to all Khitan's demands.

For example, increase the annual coins to 300 million and so on.

Cai Ting admired Zhang Yue's outspokenness from the bottom of his heart, but at this time, he would not dare to guarantee it.

"This son's daring to do things is not under Mr. Kou Zhongmin."

At the beginning, Kou Zhun forced Song Zhenzong to conquest himself. This was a first-class political adventure, and at the same time he dared to do things.

When a high-ranking official dares to guarantee his own political future, what else can everyone say?The general idea is that if something happens in the future, I will take the blame.

Wen Yanbo didn't understand why Zhang Yue took the initiative to resist the thunder. Could it be that at this time he still naively thought that Wang Anshi would let him go back to the northwest to take charge of the army?
He had already arranged for Wang Shao, Cai Yanqing and others to replace him.

Wen Yanbo said: "Then according to Zhang Jinglue, how should this dynasty respond? What if the Khitan continues to invade the land?"

Zhang Yue said: "Since Khitan is Suodi, then let's talk, talk to him about anything, you can talk to him about anything, but you can't promise anything to the other party, dragging him down."

"Furthermore, since His Majesty ascended the throne in this dynasty, there has been no place to belittle the Khitan. I have treated the Khitan with the utmost benevolence, but the other party has made unreasonable words. This kind of morality does not belong to the other party."

"How useful is morality?" Cai Ting questioned.

Zhang Yue said: "If the Liao Lord really has a general plan, morality is useless. If there is no general plan, then morality is useful. The Liao Lord has been on the throne for 20 years. How can you know his temperament? This man makes sense, and he is not as strong as Li Yuanhao. I Fang Yiroujing is just like Khitan."

The Liao Kingdom is now like a wealthy person, and will not easily choose to fight with your life.Only those who have nothing are not afraid of wearing shoes on bare feet.

(End of this chapter)