Chapter 338 Li Yuanhao's Melancholy

Zhao Jun made arrangements for the development direction of the Song Dynasty in the next ten years, so the policy of the Political System Council will officially move in this direction.

But for other countries, the New Year's Day of the sixth year of the Qingli period is a nightmare they will never forget.

Almost all the envoys of various countries congratulated Zhao Zhen on the New Year and returned to report the news to the country.

Due to the different relationships with the Song Dynasty, the reactions of various countries are naturally different.

Japan did not send envoys to celebrate this year on the grounds of remoteness, so it didn't even know about it. After all, the Japanese government actually hates the Song Dynasty and doesn't want to have in-depth exchanges with the Song Dynasty.

The reason is that the discovery of the Iwami Silver Mine and the Sado Gold Mine did make Japan quite rich, producing dozens of tons of silver and gold each year, and it can buy as much as it wants in the Song Dynasty.

But the Song Dynasty has to purchase a large amount of raw materials such as copper and sulfur from Japan every year, and export various commodities to take away their gold and silver, and the return is the Song Dynasty's copper coins, which has seriously impacted Japan's own currency.

Now the copper coins of the Song Dynasty have become the hard currency in Japan, just like the US dollar in later generations. Ordinary people use copper coins of the Song Dynasty for transactions.

If this continues, the Japanese currency will become invalid. Although they may not know what this means in feudal society, they will instinctively feel a sense of threat and discomfort.

Therefore, the Japanese government has a sense of boycotting the Song Dynasty.

In fact, during the Southern Song Dynasty, such troubles occurred when the Heian clan of the Heian era and the Minamoto clan of the Kamakura shogunate were in power.

As the exchanges between the Southern Song Dynasty and Japan became more and more frequent, the Japanese currency was almost wiped out by the Southern Song Dynasty currency. Only the Southern Song Dynasty currency was left on the market in Japan, forcing the rulers at that time to find ways to prevent the influx of copper coins from the Song Dynasty.

And now Japan dare not even stop it, because the Song Dynasty has garrisons on Tsushima Island in Japan and Xingdao Island in Goryeo.

Given that Japan is not even unified now, with high autonomy in various places and little real power of the Japanese emperor, it is obviously not a wise choice to offend the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, the Japanese government is now in a state of lying flat and turning a blind eye to the rise of the Song Dynasty. It adopts the principles of ignoring, not contacting, not communicating, shirking responsibility, not seeing, and pretending to be an ostrich, and continues to cultivate its own piece of land.

On the contrary, the exchanges between the Japanese people and the Song Dynasty have increased more than tenfold. In recent years, countless Japanese have gone to the Song Dynasty to do business, and the number of Japanese in Bianliang and Hangzhou City is also increasing rapidly.

On the other hand, Goryeo and Dali naturally have a different attitude.

Goryeo is of course very happy. They have to face the threat of the Liao Kingdom directly. They have to build a Great Wall on the border. The stronger the Song Dynasty is, the safer they are.

Dali is happy with a little sadness. After all, Dali has always had a good relationship with the Song Dynasty, but Dali is too close to the Song Dynasty. Goryeo is still separated by the sea, while Dali is directly connected by land.

However, this worry has no effect in the face of the general trend. Dali must continue to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty to maintain the relationship between the two sides, and finally can only accept the facts helplessly.

In contrast, many envoys from Central Asian Arab countries who came to watch the ceremony were more direct. Many of them have already asked the Ministry of Industry and Commerce whether the Song Dynasty is willing to sell steam locomotives.

As mentioned before, before oil was no longer useful, Central Asia was so poor that Arabs had to do business to make a living.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, there was even an Arab businessman who became an official of the Song Dynasty. That person was called Pu Luoxin. At the same time, there was also a Pu Shougeng in the Pu family. He was once the envoy of Fujian and Guangdong and the commander of the sea, and he had great power in Guangdong and Fujian.

Therefore, many Arab merchants came to the Song Dynasty to do business, mainly in coastal areas such as Guangdong and Fujian, and there were also many in Bianliang. They had close relations with the current nominal Abbasid Dynasty.

But in fact, the Abbasid Dynasty has been torn apart, and its ruling area has been limited to Baghdad and its surrounding areas. The empire exists in name only.

Today, the land within the Abbasid Dynasty is also divided by many kingdoms of varying sizes, such as the Hamdan Dynasty, the Samanid Dynasty, the Buyid Dynasty, the Ghaznavid Dynasty, the Seljuk Empire, and the Ayyubid Dynasty.

Therefore, these Arab envoys are basically the spokespersons of these dynasties.

Since ancient times, Arab merchants have been very interested in the technology of the Central Plains dynasties. The four great inventions were also spread to the Western world by Arab merchants, bringing considerable technological advancement to the West.

The firearms and steam equipment of the Song Dynasty are becoming more and more advanced, which naturally aroused their interest and tried to buy them.

If it were in the past, it might have been leaked.

But now, whether it is firearms or steam engines, they are the top secrets of the Song Dynasty. How can they be sold to foreign countries?

Therefore, these requests were rejected, which made the Arab envoys quite regretful.

In addition, many countries in Southeast Asia and the Western Regions also sent envoys. They were shocked by the prosperity of the Song Dynasty and returned to their countries to report, hoping that the local rulers would attach importance to the relationship with the Song Dynasty.

Basically, these countries also represent the international exchanges with the Song Dynasty.

Those with good relations are excited, those with average relations hope to further develop the relationship, and those with no great friendship but only business exchanges only see benefits.

Only Xixia and Liao were full of worries.

In mid-January, the first to get the news was not Yelu Zongzhen, but Li Yuanhao.

The capital of Western Xia, Xingqing Prefecture, is the later Yinchuan City, about one thousand kilometers away from Bianliang and Kaifeng.

Zhongjing Dadingfu, where Yelu Zongzhen of Liao Dynasty currently lives, is located in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia in the future, which is also one thousand kilometers away from Bianliang.

But what the world does not know is that the Liao people love to play with hawks and like Saker Falcons. The Xixia people like to play with pigeons and often use carrier pigeons to convey information.

This is recorded in "Song History·Volume 485·Biographies of Xia Kingdom" and "Xixia Book Affairs". In the Battle of Haoshuichuan, Li Yuanhao defeated Ren Fu with carrier pigeons.

But the Xixia envoys certainly could not release carrier pigeons in Kaifeng Prefecture.

Carrier pigeons mainly rely on the instinct to return to the nest. After being released, they will definitely fly in the direction of Xixia's home, but the distance is too far and accidents are easy to occur, and the weather in Bianliang was not very good at that time.

For this reason, they could only wait until they returned to Shaanxi to release the carrier pigeons, so that Li Yuanhao got the news more than ten days later.

On January 16, in the palace of the Great Xia in Xingqing Prefecture, Xixia, Li Yuanhao came back from the Helan Mountains. He attacked the Western Region Uighurs in the middle of last year and captured a large number of Uighurs to serve as slaves of Xixia.

At the end of the year, the army returned to the court, and it was the end of the year again. Influenced by Han culture, the Dangxiang people naturally celebrated the New Year, so he rewarded the three armies, took the soldiers to hunt in the Helan Mountains, and distributed the captured slaves and seized supplies to the brave fighters.

Li Yuanhao was in a good mood recently, not only because the military had achieved certain results on the western front, but also because Xixia was expanding its territory and was planning to send troops out of Guazhou and take Yizhou, which was the area of ​​Hami City in the future.

At the same time, Xixia's firearms were supported by the Liao Kingdom, and the number of cannons was growing rapidly. Although there were no muskets, with cannons, dealing with the Western Region Uighurs was as simple as cutting melons and vegetables.

The only thing that worries him is that the number of artillery in the northwest border of the Song Dynasty has not increased rapidly, but has doubled. The dense muzzles in the border cities frightened him.

The weather in the northwest was still very cold on the 16th. Li Yuanhao wore a fur coat and stood outside the palace, overlooking the entire Xingqingfu city from a high place.

After years of development, the streets of the city under the mountain are crisscrossed, and the trade between the Western Regions is dense. There are not only Tibetans, Uighurs, and Black Khans, but also Seljuks, Shahis, Cinis, Ghis, Oghuz Turks, Khwarezmians, etc.

These people are basically ethnic groups from Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other places in later generations, and even Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan near the Mediterranean Sea are far away.

As a key transit station on the Silk Road, although they all came for the goods of the Song Dynasty and hoped to buy exquisite porcelain, silk and tea, this did not prevent Xixia from prospering.

Li Yuanhao's palace is located in the northwest near the Helan Mountains. The terrain is high and you can see the whole city from here.

So he likes to watch it here.

Watching this city prosper at a visible speed in his hands, and watching the feat that his father and grandfather have not completed for two generations, he feels a strong sense of pride.

Only when he looks to the southeast, will he occasionally reveal a trace of sadness in his eyes-that is the direction of the Song Dynasty.

"My king, it's cold."

The close minister Ye Liwangrong came over to persuade: "Go back to the palace and rest first."

Hunting in the morning was also tiring, but Li Yuanhao was not tired, so he smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, go and call them all to discuss the matter of crossing the West Pass."

"Yes."

Ye Liwangrong agreed and went to call people.

The West Pass is the passage connecting the Hexi Corridor and the Hehuang Corridor. It is probably located in Xuanhua Prefecture of Western Xia, which is west of Zhangye City in later generations, in the area of ​​Sunan Yugu Autonomous County.

Because Xixia cut off the Silk Road in the early years, merchants from the Western Regions changed their route and chose the Hehuang Corridor to communicate with the Song Dynasty instead of the Hexi Corridor.

Although Xixia now opens its borders and welcomes merchants from the Western Regions. However, the Song Dynasty has given greater support to the Hehuang Valley, resulting in many merchants from the Western Regions choosing this side, allowing Zuosiluo to make a lot of money.

Li Yuanhao had long wanted to annex Zuosiluo, but attacking from Lanzhou was not feasible, as it was the border between the Song State and the Zuosiluo Qingtang regime. Once he sent troops from here, the Song Dynasty would inevitably send troops to help, making it difficult for him to resist.

Therefore, Li Yuanhao came up with another treacherous plan, which was to go through the West Pass and cross the Qilian Mountains, and penetrate into the Huangyuan area northwest of the Sun and Moon Mountains, capture the Caotou Tatars living here, and then raid Qingtang from the back of the Hehuang Valley.

This plan is not to be underestimated. Even if it fails, it can at least cut off the Hehuang Corridor, forcing Western merchants to take the Hexi Corridor instead, causing Qingtang's economy to stagnate or even collapse.

But the problem is also obvious.

That is, whether it is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or the surrounding Qilian Mountains, the drop in the Hehuang Valley reaches more than two thousand meters.

In other words, if Xixia wants to accomplish such a feat, it needs to cross the Qilian Mountains and first attack the Caotou Tatar tribe near the Hara Lake, the second largest lake in Qinghai in the future, before it can raid the Hehuang Valley from behind.

Therefore, both logistics and combat difficulties are very high, and it is not easy to achieve such conditions.

But things depend on human efforts.

Li Yuanhao felt that even if Zuo Silu was not eliminated, it would be good to hold the entrance to the Hehuang Corridor in the rear in his hands.

At that moment, he returned to the hall and waited for many ministers to come.

After about a quarter of an hour, most of the confidants had arrived, including Yeli Yuqi, Yeli Wangrong, Yang Su, Weiming Congshun, Fangdang Qiuhu, Fei Ting Guxi, and his younger brother Wei Ge Ningling.

During this period in history, Li Yuanhao had killed the Yeli brothers, occupied Yeli Yuqi's wife, Mo Zang, and promoted Mo Zang's elder brother, Mo Zang Epang, to be the prime minister.

And the next year, in 1048 AD, he was assassinated by his eldest son Ning Lingge in the palace.

Since then, Mo Zang Epang has been in power and has controlled the government of Western Xia.

But now, because he has been defeated repeatedly, the Song Dynasty has not used the counter-espionage plan to get rid of the Yeli brothers through Li Yuanhao, resulting in their still being there. Mo Zang Epang naturally did not enter the historical stage, and naturally would not instigate Ning Lingge to assassinate.

So now Li Yuanhao is in his prime, if nothing unexpected happens, he is likely to establish a huge Western Xia Empire in his position.

Now he is making plans for this empire.

After everyone came, Li Yuanhao sat on a chair and looked around at everyone and said: "If my Great Xia wants to be strong, it must not be able to just live in peace in one corner. The Western Regions are too far away and desolate. The north is the land of the Liao people, and the southeast is the land of the Song people. Only Qingtang in the southwest is the place we want to capture."

Yang Su understood that Li Yuanhao had begun to plot against Qingtang after a few years of recuperation. If Zhang Yuan was there, he would definitely be excited about Li Yuanhao's move.

Because once Qingtang and the Great Song have an offensive and defensive alliance, once the two sides go to war, the Great Song will be defeated. And Xixia and Liao are arm in arm with each other. If Xixia goes to war with the Great Song, Liao will immediately launch an offensive. This is the prosperity that Zhang Yuan wants to see the most.

It's a pity that the grass on Zhang Yuan's grave is probably three feet high now.

Although Yang Su is not a Han who defected from the Song Dynasty, but a local Han in Gansu, he still feels sorry for Zhang Yuan as a Han.

Thinking of this, Yang Su said: "Qingtang is indeed the only place we can attack now, but once we attack Qingtang, Song will definitely send troops. I'm afraid it won't be easy to take it down."

Li Yuanhao smiled and said: "I naturally don't want to fight with Song directly, so I decided to send troops to Xiguan."

Xiguan?

Everyone was quite surprised.

The Yeli brothers knew his idea a long time ago, so they didn't say anything.

Wei Ge Ningling was Li Yuanhao's younger brother, so he said: "Brother, isn't it too dangerous to go through Xiguan?"

"There is no way, not to mention that those Western Region merchants can cross the Hehuang Valley, can't I?"

Li Yuanhao asked back.

"Uh"

Wei Ge Ningling thought for a while and said: "I'm afraid that the food and grass can't keep up."

This is a more euphemistic statement.

The Western Region merchants are different from them. The Western Region merchants do not go through Gansu when they go through the Hehuang Corridor, but go through Longle and Haixi in Subei.

That is, they go through the Dang River Basin in the future, follow the river to the vicinity of Hala Lake, and arrive at the Tuyuhun Fuqi City in the West Sea.

This is the area of ​​Tianjun County in Qinghai in later generations, which is now under the jurisdiction of the Zuosiluo regime.

So the merchants in the Western Regions actually don’t have to cross mountains and ridges like the Xixia people. Although the journey is longer, there are rivers along the way to supply water, and food can be exchanged with local grass-headed Tatars and yellow-headed Huihe.

And what about them?

The Qilian Mountains are at a relatively high altitude, the weather is cold, and there are fewer tribes around. Sometimes they climbed four or five hundred feet over a mountain, but the mountain was seven or eight hundred feet lower, which was torture.

The food and grass supply was purely driven by people and horses, and the loss was very large. The key is that artillery is not easy to transport, which makes people very worried.

But obviously Li Yuanhao didn’t listen.

Or he understood these reasons, but he had no other way now.

There are enemies on all sides, but the Western Regions are too far away, and Xixia can’t expand its influence there with its national strength.

Neither the Liao Kingdom nor the Song Dynasty can afford to offend anyone.

Not only is Qingtang close at hand, but it is also a fertile land, which naturally makes him salivate.

"Don't worry about food and grass. Find a way to plunder the place. If it doesn't work, let the soldiers carry dry food on their backs, and there will be carriages and horses behind."

Li Yuanhao said in a deep voice: "I have accumulated food and grass for several years in Daxia. I don't believe that I can't cross the Tianshan Mountains."

"Yes."

Wei Gening Ling didn't know what to say.

"Then let me make some arrangements. Yeli Yuqi, you take it first."

Li Yuanhao was planning to make some arrangements.

First send Yeli Yuqi to Suzhou to station troops and investigate the local situation. He will prepare food and grass and supplies. When the weather warms up in March or April this year, the plan can be implemented.

But at this moment, a trusted attendant of Li Yuanhao suddenly came in hurriedly from outside and reported to him: "My king, the envoy sent a letter."

"Messenger? Is it an envoy sent to the Song Dynasty?"

Li Yuanhao frowned.

If there is no big thing, how could the envoy send a letter by carrier pigeon?

"Yes."

"Show me."

"Yes."

The attendant quickly handed over the letter.

Li Yuanhao opened the rolled-up piece of paper. There were not many words on it, but they were all key information.

Everyone watched Li Yuanhao's expression change from solemn to frowning.

They looked at each other, not knowing what had happened.

After a while, Yeli Wangrong boldly asked, "My lord, what happened?"

"The Song people invented a powerful tool called a steam locomotive, which can carry people a thousand miles a day. It only takes one day to travel from Bianliang to Shaanxi."

Li Yuanhao tore the paper in his hand into pieces, sat on the chair, and let out a long breath.

Everyone opened their eyes wide.

Because the meaning of this sentence is very clear. Once the Song and Xia go to war again, the reinforcements of the Song Dynasty will arrive within a day.

This is too scary.

Yang Su hurriedly asked: "I wonder how many people this thing can carry?"

"I haven't known yet."

Li Yuanhao shook his head: "But since Song dared to take it out, it will not be less than 10,000 people."

Everyone took a breath.

Something that can allow tens of thousands of people to walk a thousand miles a day is simply subverting people's three views at this time.

And if it is used for military purposes, then Xixia will be in danger.

This means that they can send hundreds of thousands of troops to appear on the border between Song and Xia at any time, and they even have to consider whether they have time to deploy defenses.

"Then what should we do?"

"Originally, we thought that if we took Qingtang by detour, the Song people would not have time to react, but if so, can we still capture Qingtang?"

"This"

Everyone looked at each other.

Li Yuanhao said in a deep voice: "There is no need to be so frightened. This thing requires the construction of something called a railway track. It has not been built between Bianliang and Shaanxi, and they can't do it now. But I'm afraid that Song will be able to accomplish it in the next few years."

This means that they only have a few years left.

Wei Ge Ning Ling asked tentatively: "Then will we still attack Qingtang?"

"."

Li Yuanhao was silent for a long time.

The atmosphere in the field became quite depressing.

If Zhang Yuan was here, he would definitely be able to think of a way.

Even the Yeli brothers were only good at tactics.

But Zhang Yuan was dead, and when it came to strategy on the Xixia side, perhaps only Li Yuanhao was smart.

After a moment of silence, he let out a long sigh and said: "Fight! But I'm afraid I have to contact the Liao Kingdom immediately."

Originally, he thought that even if he couldn't take Qingtang, he could first cut off the Hehuang Corridor, causing Qingtang's development to stagnate, and then gradually nibble at Qingtang.

In that case, it would be difficult for the Song Dynasty to send troops to attack, unless the Song Dynasty wanted to start the Three Kingdoms War.

But now it's troublesome.

Even if he could cut off the Hehuang Corridor, if the railway was built, it would be very likely that Xixia would be in a counter-encirclement trend, which would be very disadvantageous to Xixia.

Therefore, Li Yuanhao must consider taking this opportunity to join hands with Liao to destroy Qingtang directly.

The Song Dynasty is developing too fast, and they can no longer keep up. If they don't think of a way, when the Song Dynasty leaves them further and further behind, it will be the time for Song Dynasty to easily destroy Xixia and Liao.

So for Xixia and Liao, he and Yelu Zongzhen must make a decision as soon as possible.

Is to sit and wait for death.

Or in the next few years, before the railways of the Song Dynasty are built everywhere, complete the plan to completely destroy the Song Dynasty.

And based on his understanding of Yelu Zongzhen, the other party will never wash his neck and wait for destruction.

Therefore, perhaps in the next few years, they will be forced to fight a decisive battle with the Song Dynasty to truly decide the survival of the three countries.

Li Yuanhao looked outside the palace, his eyes full of melancholy.