Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 737 Wishful thinking (please subscribe!)
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"The Southern Song Dynasty is willing to be a vassal to our Dazhong. They asked the officials to canonize King Song Kang as the Lord of the Song Dynasty. They are willing to send envoys to congratulate the officials on their birthdays and New Year's Day. The area south of Huaishui-Dashanguan is the land of the Song Dynasty. They are willing to cede half of the unoccupied land in the two prefectures of Tang and Deng and the two prefectures of Shang and Qin to Dazhong. Ten thousand horses..."

After listening to Wang Jieru's reply of the Southern Song Dynasty's peace negotiation conditions, Li Yan asked Wen Huanzhang, Zhao Ding, Xu Guanzhong, Zhu Wu, Tang Ke, Sun Jing, Chen Gongfu, Li Guang, Chen Kuutong, Bao Kang and other ministers: "What do you do? Look at the terms of the agreement?"

Sun Jing scoffed: "Wishful thinking!"

Bao Kang also said: "Master Sun's words are correct. If they follow the Southern Song Dynasty's plan, then they will have a chance to breathe. When they quell the civil strife, they will go north to invade our Dazhong border and map our Dazhong territory."

Zhu Wudao: "It's easy to talk about the southern line. If it doesn't work, just send troops to fight it down. At present, the biggest trouble and threat for our Dazhong comes from the Sichuan-Shanxi defense line in the west. Shaanxi has always sent strong troops. The Northern Song Dynasty can have 200 years. The country is mainly supported by soldiers from Shaanxi and Hebei. According to the news from Zhejia in Fuzhou, there should be more than 40 Songxi troops in Shaanxi. It is precisely because of the resistance of these Songxi troops that Xixia has no way to advance eastward , and the land of Shu has always been rich, easy to defend and difficult to attack. As long as the Southern Song Dynasty owns these two lands, it will not be considered dead, and there will be a chance for a comeback. If our Dazhong can occupy these two lands, we can go down the river and wipe out Therefore, in my humble opinion, the goal of this negotiation should be to break the Sichuan-Shaanxi defense line in the Southern Song Dynasty."

Zhao Ding shook his head and said, "This is unrealistic. We know the importance of the Sichuan-Shanxi defense line, and the Southern Song Dynasty naturally also knew the importance of the Sichuan-Shanxi defense line. I dare to conclude that one of the bottom lines of the Southern Song Dynasty is to keep Shaanxi and Shu."

Zhu Wu and Zhao Ding were actually right.

And this kind of time is exactly the time when Li Yan, the monarch, needs to be the master.

Li Yan thought for a while and said: "The Southern Song Dynasty came to beg for surrender, so it is impossible to stick to the bottom line and never let go."

After thinking about it again, Li Yan said to Wang Jieru: "We want Shaanxi from the Southern Song Dynasty. Now, the Southern Song Dynasty has no Central Plains to guard. Shaanxi is not that important to the Southern Song Dynasty. If you negotiate successfully, the Southern Song Dynasty may give up Shaanxi. Yes, at least most of Shaanxi can be given up."

Zhao Ding stopped Li Yan from saying: "Officials, this Shaanxi is currently a weak point compared to our Dazhong. If we get it, we must send a large army to defend Xixia. This is a big burden out of thin air. Why don't we let it go for now and let the Southern Song Dynasty and Xixia continue to fight?" The confrontation in Shaanxi restrained a large number of elite troops from Xixia and Southern Song Dynasty."

To be honest, judging from the current situation, Zhao Ding's choice is more rational than Li Yan's.

If Dazhong takes back Shaanxi now, at least [-] elites will be stationed in the west, and this is still under the condition of peaceful coexistence between China and Xia.

To put it more vividly, if Dazhong takes back Shaanxi, then Dazhong may change from two-front warfare to three-front warfare.

Among them, the difference is not 01:30, especially for the developing Dazhong.

But what Li Yan considered was——

If Shaanxi is not taken back at this time, after the Southern Song Dynasty stabilizes the current situation, it may take ten times or even a hundred times the effort to take back Shaanxi.

In addition, Shaanxi's geographical location is extremely important.

The southern part of Shaanxi and the Qinba Mountain area across the Hanjiang River Basin, a tributary of the Yangtze River, and the upper reaches of the Jialing River. It borders Hubei Province and Henan Province in the southeast. Since ancient times, the Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi has been an important channel for east-west traffic in China. The ancient Qinchi Road, Silk Road and Chang'an-Luoyang Avenue are all famous passages connecting East and West via Guanzhong. All in all, Shaanxi plays an important role in the economic and cultural exchanges between the east and west of China and between Asia and Europe.

In addition, Shaanxi's strategic position is also very important because it covers east and west, and also spans north and south.

In history, not only the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties chose Guanzhong, Shaanxi as their capital, making Shaanxi an important place in the capital city, and the national political, economic, and transportation center. Even after the Song Dynasty, when the capital moved eastward, Shaanxi’s strategic position was still highly valued. , not only garrisoned heavy troops, but also sent imperial relatives or powerful generals to guard.

Kaifeng was established as the capital in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Shaanxi was regarded as the west gate of Kyoto. Xixia attacked eastward, and Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty had a thorn in its back.

In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, although Beijing was established as the capital, they still attached great importance to the defense of Shaanxi.

For a long time, there has been a saying that "Shanshan is the backbone of the world, and the leader of the capital. When something happens in Shanshan, it should be responded to, and it should be better than revenge. If you are not prepared, the disaster will be irreversible."

Another point is that Shaanxi has the best source of soldiers in the Southern Song Dynasty. If Dazhong can win Shaanxi, then this best source of soldiers will become Dazhong.

In the end, if Dazhong can win Shaanxi, they will be able to better map the Sichuan-Shaanxi defense line, and then it will be easier to wipe out the Southern Song Dynasty.

Let's put it this way, neither Li Yan nor Zhao Ding was wrong.

It's just that Zhao Ding pays more attention to the gains and losses in front of him, while Li Yan takes a longer view.

In other words, Zhao Ding is more secure, while Li Yan is more adventurous.

This is also the difference between the founding emperor and the ministers who govern the world.

In the end, Zhao Ding still failed to win over Li Yan, and Dazhong's foreign policy was set as: strive for Shaanxi.

And at this time, it showed that Zhao Ding was stronger than Li Gang.

After Zhao Ding lost the battle, he did not choose to give up the pick like Li Gang, but actively picked up the vacancies for Li Yan, and soon proposed two remedial measures-one, actively establish diplomatic relations with Xixia.Second, we must have Chuzhou and Zhao Li.

The former is easy to understand. Stabilizing Xixia can greatly reduce Dazhong's burden, so that Dazhong can free up his hands to concentrate on winning or losing with Dajin and capturing the crucial Yanyun.

In addition, it is also the right time to make friends with Xixia.

Not long ago, Xixia sent a request for envoy to Dazhong.

Moreover, Li Qianshun also said that his queen Yelu Nanxian passed away two years ago, and he hoped to marry one of Li Yan's daughters, who would serve as the queen of Xixia.

If people in later generations hear such a request, they will probably jump up immediately, scolding Li Qianshun for wishful thinking, thinking that the request of his colleague Li Qianshun is a very shameful thing.

But in fact, if this matter is really done in this way, then Xixia will naturally become a vassal state of Dazhong, just like when Xixia became a vassal state of Liao State, the relationship between Li Qianshun and Li Yan will become the original The relationship between Li Qianshun and Yelu Yanxi.

From the perspective of people in this era, exchanging a woman for a vassal state is simply a great thing.

Moreover, this woman may not really be Li Yan's biological daughter. Li Yan can recognize any daughter at will, as long as she is named Li Yan's daughter.

It's a pity that Li Yan doesn't like to marry his own daughter, even if it's just a daughter in name.

When Li Yan became self-willed, no one could do anything about Li Yan.

Zhao Ding and the others had no choice but to make a move and conspired for Li Qianshun to marry two aunts to be Li Yan's concubines.

However, this is all for later, so let's stop for now.

All in all, if Dazhong can regain Shaanxi through peace talks, then it is imperative to improve relations with Xixia.

So, there's not much to say about that.

The key is the latter, what happened to Chu Zhou and Zhao Li?

……

(End of this chapter)