end song

Chapter 647 Messenger

"I've met Your Excellency Li Yushuai, and I'm Yelu Youshang, with a small character Boqiang."

"Boqiang doesn't need to be too polite."

Seeing the politeness of the young man in front of him, Li Xia asked politely, "Your surname is Yelu, and you are a descendant of the Liao Dynasty?"

"The tenth grandson of King Dan of Eastern Liaodong, his family ancestor was an official in Dongping when he was in Jin Dynasty, so he taught at Dongping Academy, and later studied under Mr. Lu Zhai."

"Yao Sui and Yan Fu are classmates with you?"

"I used to be classmates with Yan Zijing." Yelu Youshang said, "Zijing died early, it's a pity."

"It's a pity." Li Xia said.

When Yan Fu's body was hung up on the Chongyang Temple in Kaifeng, he hadn't left yet, so he had a look.

I can't say I feel guilty, but it's not easy to cultivate a scholar in Beidi, so I really feel it's a pity.

The two exchanged a few more words.

Yelu Youshang was only 25 years old, although he was a descendant of Khitan, his appearance and speech were elegant, and he was even more polite than ordinary scholars.

Li Xia's tone was casual, and he asked, "You are under the tutelage of Xu Heng, but you came here under the order of Lian Xixian?"

"Yes, Lord Lian often discusses the way of governing the world with his teacher in Jingzhao Mansion. It is precisely Lian Gong who begged his teacher to serve as the son of Jingzhao Mansion to offer wine and promote culture and education."

"It seems that the academic atmosphere on your side is very harmonious?" Li Xia asked casually.

Yelv Youshang hadn't paid attention to this problem before, and asked in doubt, "What do you think is wrong?"

Speaking of this, he was a little anxious, and said: "The mentor said that 'the sound of chanting is like gold and stone outside', and Lian Gong said that 'culture and education are the fundamental plan of the country', so it should be harmonious."

At this point in the conversation, Li Xia squinted and could already feel Yelu Youshang's concern about northern culture and education.

It has been seen in recent years that among northerners, whether they are descendants of Han, Khitan, Jurchen, Shatuo, or Xianbei, regardless of literature and martial arts, as long as they are Confucian scholars, they are all redeeming each other.

As Zhang Wenjing said back then, her father saved great Confucians one by one, Yuan Haowen, Zhao Fu, Hao Jing, Wang E, Jing Xuan... These great Confucians also tried their best to preserve the pitiful context in the flames of war.

This context is too pitiful to tolerate the intrigue of the northerners.

Looking at the relationship between Lian Xixian and Xu Heng, and then looking at the relationship between Jia Sidao and Wu Qian, it has reached the point of no mercy.

"Since Lian Xixian asked you to come, if you want to recruit me, please go back."

"I didn't come here to recruit Your Excellency, but..."

Li Xia didn't give him a chance to be a lobbyist, and interrupted: "Is that to ask me to surrender?"

Yelv Youshang paused a little when he heard the words, and said: "Your Excellency entered Longxi and did not offend the people. You can be called a teacher of benevolence and righteousness. Lord Lian is deeply moved and wants to make three chapters with you."

"War and don't fight, he is too long-winded."

Yelu Youshang acted as if he had never heard of it, and said: "Since the two sides are fighting in Longxi with benevolent and righteous troops, can we make an agreement that if the Mongol rebels from Ganzhou, Tubo and other places invade, we should stop fighting immediately and defeat the foreign invaders together?"

Li Xia asked, "Brother Ali? Is that a 'rebel army' or a 'foreign bandit'?"

"For us, Brother Ali is a rebel. For your Excellency, it is a foreign bandit."

"Lian Xixian has a good plan." Li Xia said indifferently: "I'm afraid that Alibu brother will come down from the Jing River, so that Guanzhong will not be able to fight me with all his strength? But Alibu brother is your great enemy, not mine."

"That's right." Yelu Youshang admitted frankly, and said, "Your Excellency is now taking Longxi, although Lord Lian is worried, he is not angry. The person who is worried is Brother Ali."

"Why should I care about you?"

"In the north of Longxi, the terrain is flat and wide, so you have to take precautions." Yelu Youshang said, "I dare to say one more thing. Your Excellency once said 'Brother Ali sincerely admires the prestige of the Han family', which hurt the hearts of the northerners very much. "

"Why bother to be serious? Since brother Ali is against Kublai Khan, the enemy's enemy may be my friend..."

"Friend?" Yelu Youshang bowed to the ground and said, "Your Excellency, I'm afraid you don't understand Brother Ali. This man deeply hates the Han system and regards the people in the Central Plains as cattle, sheep and livestock, and slaughters them at will. If you let his soldiers and horses go to Longxi, Today he defeats you and me, tomorrow he will turn around the butcher knife and teach the people of Guanlong that there is no one out of ten."

He stepped forward with sincere and earnest eyes.

"Inner fighting in Mongolia has always been fierce. As early as when the Jin Dynasty was destroyed, there was a dispute over sticking to the Mongolian tradition or learning the law of the Han Dynasty. And what is the Mongolian tradition? It's just a big plunder. Brother Ali thought that the vastness of the world would never be exhausted, and there was no need for governance. He They slaughtered all the people wherever they went, and turned the places they went into grasslands and pastures for Mongolians to graze. Mr. Lian said frankly, Brother Ali will never be your friend..."

Li Xia raised her hand to interrupt, and said, "You don't need to say too much, I understand what you mean."

"I'm afraid your Excellency still thinks that Brother Ali is nothing to be afraid of..."

"Don't worry, I understand."

Li Xia interrupted Yelu Youshang again, saying, "I am far more principled than you."

……

In Li Xia's view, if the battle between Song and Mongolia is roughly divided, it can be roughly divided into three stages: Meng Gong, Yu Jie, and Lu Wende.

Meng Gong defeated the Mongolian army many times, but he still has the ambition to recover.When Yu Jie defended Shu, he could only stick to the mountain city.

What is the difference between Yu Jie and Meng Gong?
Chuanshu's vitality was seriously injured.

Before Yu Jie took office, 200 million of the 1000 million people in Sichuan and Shu had been massacred.

Yu Jie is a god, and he can't achieve the results of Meng Gong's battle.As for Li Xia, he caught up with the great changes in Mongolia, and the timing was different.

Other conditions can be created, only the population, without a hundred years of achievements, it is impossible for Sichuan and Shu to recover.

This is the consequence of allowing the "traditional" Mongolian army to enter.

Looking at the Mongolian internal struggle, Brother Ali is far inferior to Kublai Khan.

But this is not to say that it will be easier for Li Xia to help Brother Ali to defeat Kublai Khan, and then deal with Brother Ali.

On the contrary, if Kublai Khan wins the battle, Li Xia may still have a chance to defeat Kublai Khan; but if Ali does not win, it will be even more difficult for Li Xia to resist Mongolia.

Because, if Kublai Khan wins, it means that the Mongolian iron hoof must stop and conquer while governing.And if you stop, you have to sit on the ground and divide the money, you have to split.

The Han people in the north have spent more than [-] years of painstaking efforts, which just contributed to one-fifth of the Mongol Sinicization faction, fighting with the traditional faction, and further, the huge empire fell apart.

If Ali does not win, it is preventing and delaying this split.

When Mongolia's "tradition" wins, the Mongols continue to think that the vast world will never be exhausted, that is to continue to rob, and the Mongolian iron hooves will not stop.

This reasoning is wrong, but the butcher's knife doesn't ask right or wrong.

Li Xia didn't have the Great Wall and the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun. As long as the Mongolian army commander drove straight in once, the Central Plains would be devastated, and he would lose a hundred years of vitality and the possibility of winning.

He had to make good use of the hard work of the Beiren for more than [-] years, and then snatch the support of the Beiren from Kublai Khan.

Rather than relying on a demented butcher to help.

To put it simply, Li Xia thinks Kublai Khan is bad, but Brother Ali is even worse.

In terms of personal ability, Kublai Khan was able to beat Ali Buge to win the Khan position. Ali Buge's characteristic was that he could destroy Li Xia with massacres. Li Xia could only defeat Kublai Khan by robbing the hearts of the Central Plains.

Strength is not a simple numerical value, the trend of strength is fluid.

Politics and war are very delicate matters, not simply one plus one equals two.

So now, it's not Brother Alibu who is helping to resist Kublai Khan, but Kublai Khan is helping to resist Brother Alibu.

The former is selfishness, the selfishness of being king and emperor; the latter is the publicity, the publicity of preserving the world.

This is not hypocrisy, but a clear understanding of the relationship between the enemy and the enemy in politics and war, who is the real enemy and who is the real target.

……

"I understand what Lian Xixian wants to tell me."

Li Xia looked at Yelu Youshang, saw the anxiety in his eyes, and spoke unhurriedly.

"I have fought against you many times, fought many battles, and made many personal grievances, as if we are enemies. And I have never been in contact with Brother Ali. Hun Duhai once invited me to fight Wang Liangchen, They were like my friends."

Yelu Youshang said urgently: "Hunduhai is definitely not sincere with Your Excellency..."

"Don't worry, listen to me." Li Xia said: "Whether it's an enemy or a friend, it doesn't depend on how many personal grievances there are, but on...the cultural form. People who only burn, kill and loot will never be my friend, I know. On the contrary. It is you who will support me one day."

"Support your Excellency?" Yelu Youshang was slightly taken aback, and said: "Your Excellency may not be able to guarantee the stability of the world."

After finishing speaking, he realized that he lost his composure because of Li Xia's wild words, and said again: "The Liangong sent me down to tell Your Excellency that at this point in time, Your Majesty is blocking Brother Ali's brutal army and is in dire straits. Your Excellency is on fire If you add oil, you may burn yourself and be lost forever."

"Don't worry, I understand." Li Xia said: "I said before, I want to do better than Kublai Khan, not worse than him. Kublai Khan dared to betray the Mongolian tradition. If I still ally Alibu, it would be too much." It hurt the hearts of the northerners."

"That's the reason." Yelu Youshang was overjoyed, bowed to the ground, and said: "Your Excellency has not joined forces with Hunduhai, and Lord Lian admires you very much."

"He doesn't deserve it."

Yelu Youshang was taken aback for a moment, and lost his senses again.

Li Xia said: "He succumbs to the Mongolian butcher's knife while talking about admiring Hanhua, so he is not worthy of respecting me for this matter. But I hope that one day, he can truly practice Han law. At that time, I will admire him."

"Your Excellency...it's too..."

"Because I'm not guilty." Li Xia said.

Yelu Youshang couldn't grasp the direction of the conversation for a while, so he said bluntly: "Your Excellency agreed to the invitation of Mr. Lian?"

"I'm just saying that I understand what he means. But I think Kublai Khan can still be forced. I won Guanzhong, and Kublai Khan was just barely able to beat Brother Alibu."

Yelu Youshang hesitated for a moment, thought for a while, and replied: "Well, Mr. Lian is willing to use your strengths to see if you have the ability to win Guanzhong."

"Okay. If the Mongolian army comes from Tubo and Ganzhou to invade Longxi, you must have a truce with me; if the Mongolian army comes from Jingyuan to attack key points, I will not take advantage of others' danger."

"Thank you Shuai Li!"

Yelu Youshang saluted again, then raised his head to look at Li Xia, as if carefully observing his expression, and said something slowly.

"Since the teachers of benevolence and righteousness are fighting, if your Excellency chooses Guanzhong, please continue to do nothing wrong; and if we choose Hanzhong, the same is true."

Li Xia's expression remained unchanged.

~~
It wasn't until after sending Yelu Youshang away that Li Xia found out the map of Hanzhong, frowning and thinking.

He would rather bring only 8000 people to Longxi than deploy more troops from central Shu, for the sake of stability in the rear.

Indeed, Lin Zi once led 3000 troops from Hanzhong to block Liu Heima with Xu Kui's troops at Dasan Pass, but it only took ten days. Now the [-] troops have returned to Hanzhong, and the garrisons at various passes are also there.

Lian Xixian takes Hanzhong?

where to go
You don't have to worry about the Qishan Road that must pass through Longxi, there are four other roads——

Chencang Road is the best way to go, but Xu Kui led [-] troops to garrison Dasan Pass;
Baoxie Road is dilapidated. Although it has been repaired since Tang and Song Dynasties, it is no longer easy to walk, and there is Xiegu Pass, where Song He led [-] troops to garrison;
The Tangluo Road is the most dangerous and almost impassable. However, considering that Wan Yanliang sent troops out of the Tangluo Road when he split the road to attack the Song Dynasty, he also deployed a thousand defenders at Luogu Pass.

Ziwu Road is the longest, and it is also difficult and dangerous. Yang Ben led 2000 people to garrison at Ziwu Pass.

After Li Xia thought about it, it was too risky for Lian Xixian to send troops no matter what.

"What are you taking for Hanzhong? Is this a test? Is it a threat? Or is it to mess with my mind?"

(End of this chapter)