I studied in modern times

Chapter 827: The Shadow of the Soviet Union in the Middle Ages

May of the second year of Yuanyou (25).

Zhao Xu received the letter from Yang Ji asking for an audience, which was sent by the Tongjiansi.

Along with Yang Ji's memorial tablet, a memorial tablet from Su Shi from Dengzhou was also sent to the palace.

Zhao Xu first read Su Shi's note, and then he pursed his lips and said, "The Koreans may not be able to hold on any longer..."

Su Shi's note only talked about one thing - King Wang Yun of Goryeo sent his minister, Minister of Rites Li Ziyi, to pay homage to the court.

Now, Li Ziyi has arrived in Dengzhou on the Gengwu day (18th) of this month.

And sent the letter from Goryeo to the government office in Dengzhou.

Therefore, Su Shi's notes also included the key parts of the content of his imperial letter.

Very simple.

The Koreans finally bowed their heads.

The mission of Li Ziyi, the envoy this time, was to ask the Song Dynasty to mediate.

So its title is - please and envoy.

"What were you doing so far..." Zhao Xu put down Su Shi's note and shook his head slightly.

As early as last year, he had been calling for peace.

What's good about fighting and killing?
Wouldn't it be nice if we all sat down and talked together to reduce the casualties of innocent soldiers and civilians?
If the Goryeo people had made such a statement at the beginning of the war, asking Zhao Xu to mediate and kneel down to the Liao people.

This matter is probably still worth discussing.

But now...

How long has the Liao army been besieging Kaijing?

Zhao Xu remembered that the enclosure had been going on since the beginning of spring this year, and it had been almost four months.

The army of more than one hundred thousand people eat, drink, defecate and urinate in the Kaifeng area.

I don’t know how much money I have spent and how much benefit I have bestowed.

Zhao Xu even heard that the Liao ruler had already appointed his successor, the Crown Prince and Prince of Liang, Yelü Hongji, as the King of Korea.

Now, the Koreans don’t want to fight anymore, they want to kneel down.

Are the Liao people willing to stop?
Anyway, putting himself in his shoes, Zhao Xu felt that he was unwilling to stop.

Moreover……

Zhao Xu's mouth curled up slightly: "Have you paid the money for buying armor and boats last time?"

Although the armor, weapons and arrows from last time were originally junk in the inventory of the Three Yamen, Zhao Xu did not even ask anyone to repair them. He directly had them taken to Dengzhou, loaded onto a ship and handed over to the Goryeo people waiting in Dengzhou.

However, Yitian did promise to pay with hard currency such as gold, silver and refined copper.

However, these two months have almost passed and the Koreans have remained indifferent.

Not to mention gold and silver, Zhao Xu didn't even see a copper coin!

I can only say that a small country with few people is indeed a smart thinker!
However, they were too smart, so they didn’t know how big an opportunity they had missed!

If they could bring in even half of the money from the last arms sale this time.

Then, Zhao Xu, who was so obsessed with money, would definitely order the three yamen to immediately pick out a batch of usable old armor and crossbows in the inventory and send them to Goryeo at half the price of selling them or giving them away.

The Three Yamen were very positive about this.

Because, this can balance the accounts!

Over the past year, we have been selling armor and weapons to Jiaozhi, as well as providing support to Goryeo with armor and weapons.

How many of the bad debts that had accumulated within the Three Yamen for decades were settled overnight?
One sentence: If the armor is in disrepair, you can report to the Privy Council that they used the armor plates of three sets of armor to repair one set of armor.

Everyone was smiling.

Zhao Xu knew all this, but turned a blind eye.

Because if these bad debts are not settled, they will just lie there and become a book of bad and confusing debts that no one is clear about.

On the contrary, after settling the bad debts, he could start to establish an institutionalized war preparedness inventory system in the Three Yamen.

At that time, the generals of the three yamen who had no bad debts would not have to worry about being discovered.

In this way, even if there are opponents, they will only shout verbally and will not really force people to do anything desperate.

What a pity that the Koreans missed out on such a huge opportunity of wealth!
it's good now!

Although it seemed that they had taken advantage and got Zhao Xu for free.

However, from then on, they lost the possibility of receiving a steady stream of preferential assistance from the Song Dynasty.

Next time, if they want something, Zhao Xu will not ship it unless they send real money and silver first.

To put it bluntly...

What does the life or death of Goryeo have to do with the Song Dynasty?
Around that time, the Liao people had already landed on the Japanese island.

It would take at least 20 to 30 years for the Liao Kingdom to digest Goryeo and Japan, right?

"By the way... the Japanese envoy, the monk named Lai Yuan, has been away from Mingzhou for more than half a month, right?"

"Why haven't you entered Beijing yet?" Zhao Xu was also convinced. It was obvious that both countries were facing the danger of extinction.

But the Koreans were stingy and the Japanese were slow.

East Asia’s face is almost completely lost by this pair of Crouching Dragon and Phoenix!

However, Zhao Xu soon remembered the good brothers Song and Liao in history who were destroyed hand in hand by the Jurchens.

I also recalled the miraculous performances of his good brother Zhao Ji in history.

He lowered his head, feeling a little embarrassed.

All we can say is that, at present, East Asia may have the fertile soil for the birth of talented individuals.

"Alas..." Zhao Xu sighed, "I still have to clean up the mess!"

Just when Zhao Xu was about to put Su Shi's letter aside, he seemed to remember something and picked it up again.

"Yes……"

"Li Ziyi!"

He looked at the Goryeo envoy mentioned in Su Shi's notes, the so-called Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

"He's an acquaintance I met once in my previous life!"

A blurry image flashed through Zhao Xu's mind.

"I, Zi Yigong, the Minister of Finance of Goryeo, wish His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty good health!" The Goryeo scholar, wearing a purple robe, knelt in the Chongzheng Hall.

"That should have happened in the fifth or sixth year of Yuanyou..." Zhao Xu thought.

The reason why Zhao Xu remembered this incident and had some impression of it was that a few years later, Goryeo sent envoys to the court again to inform him of something - the traitor Li Ziyi colluded with Hanshan Hou to rebel and attempted to usurp the country. The Goryeo king's uncle, Jilin Gong, resolutely raised an army to protect the country and has killed the rebel leader. Now he has come to inform His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty!
At that time, it was Shaosheng, and Zhao Xu had already taken power. When he summoned the Goryeo envoy, he was surprised to learn about this matter.

A few months later, the Goryeo people sent envoys again to report that our king had abdicated and the king's uncle, Duke Jilin, was the son of the upright and wise King Zhangsheng Renxiao (Koryo Munjong), King Seonhye (Koryo Heonjong), and King Sahyo (Wang Yun)!

He is both civil and military, and his nature is benevolence and righteousness... He is blessed by Heaven and the Buddha, and respected by the people of Goryeo... He has ascended the throne, and I would like to inform His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song!
When Zhao Xu found out, he was so frightened that he called Zhang Dun to the palace to discuss the matter.

After listening to Zhao Xu's introduction, Zhang Dun laughed and analyzed the affairs of Goryeo with Zhao Xu.

According to Zhang Dun, Li Ziyi's rebellion was probably not true.

On the contrary, he should be a royalist!

The reason was that Li Ziyi was the uncle of the young king of Goryeo who was in power at that time!

He was also the regent left by the old king.

He already holds great power, so why would he rebel and collude with Hanshan Hou?
I'm afraid that the young king's confidants, seeing the uncle king's relentless advance, felt a sense of crisis and wanted to launch a palace coup and kill the uncle king.

As a result, he was killed!
The evidence is that after suppressing the rebellion, the Duke of Jilin could not wait to force the young king to abdicate and ascended the throne himself.

"Interesting..." Zhao Xu recalled the past events and looked at Li Ziyi's name.

However, this information from the previous life is of no help to the current situation.

Because Goryeo was on the brink of national destruction.

Therefore, Li Ziyi, the Royalist Party or Jilin Gong have all lost their meaning.

The building is about to collapse, and the spiders and mice living in the house have lost their value of existence.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xu called Feng Jing and ordered Feng Jing to bring the map of Goryeo that Xing Shu and his men had inquired about and drawn some time ago by bribing Yi Tian's entourage.

Feng Jing quickly took out the map and hung it on the screen in front of Zhao Xu.

Zhao Xu walked to the screen and looked at the roughly marked states and counties of the Goryeo Kingdom on the map.

Now, Pyongyang, the western capital of Goryeo, has been lost, and its capital Kaesong is under siege.

If Kaesong is lost, the entire northern Korean region will fall into the hands of the Liao Kingdom.

The Liao army’s next target must be Hanyang (Seoul).

Zhao Xu looked at the map and saw that Kaesong and Hanyang were almost within reach.

He felt it looked familiar and thought about it carefully.

“Isn’t this the modern Kaesong and Seoul?”

Even if Zhao Xu was not familiar with the geography of North Korea, he would know it when he saw this.

As long as Kaesong fell, the fall of Hanyang was inevitable.

Because the distance is too close!
The Liao Kingdom could almost reach the city of Hanyang with one charge.

If Hanyang fell, the Goryeo people would have no choice but to retreat to Tokyo Gyeongju.

Once retreating to Gyeongju, the Goryeo Kingdom would meet its end.

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Because, the current Liao navy is said to be very strong!
They all went to fight Japan!

Therefore, it was impossible for the Koreans to hide on the sea again and continue to resist.

Therefore, under such circumstances, their king and his ministers were lucky to be allowed to surrender naked and obtain a guest status in the Liao Kingdom similar to that of the Bohai royal family in the past.

Maybe Yelu Hongji is unhappy and sends them to the icy Outer Northeast to see the Siberian tigers baring their teeth.

Looking at the map, Zhao Xu shook his head.

He knew that unless the Goryeo people could win the Battle to Defend Kaesong, they would be in trouble due to the Liao people's overwhelming military advantage and the sudden emergence of their naval advantage.

It will be difficult for the Koreans to turn the tables this time.

Zhao Xu shook his head and returned to his seat: "If the Liao people destroy Goryeo and then surrender to Japan..."

Zhao Xu closed his eyes, and a huge monster emerged in his mind, spanning mountains and seas, standing high in the north and overlooking the Song Dynasty.

He shuddered all over: "What medieval Soviet Union?"

This was the only terrible enemy he could think of in the past and future that had brought similar strategic suffocation to the Central Plains.

……

I rested in the chair for a while to calm myself down.

Zhao Xu opened his eyes, looked at Feng Jing, and ordered: "Feng Jing, go and inform the scholar of the law, and ask him to find out from the Liao envoys as soon as possible about the attitude of the Liao ruler towards Goryeo..."

What if Yelu Hongji got kicked in the head by a donkey, and the Koreans just knelt down and admitted their mistakes, paid some compensation, and ceded some land?

We can't rule out this possibility 100%! Right!?
After sending Feng Jing away, Zhao Xu continued to work.

He picked up Yang Ji's note and started reading it. After only a while, Zhao Xu laughed.

"These clerks are really bold!"

"They have already dared to blatantly set up checkpoints on the river and extort passing ships!"

"Next, they will become even more rampant!"

"Cai Jing, I'm afraid you're just waiting for the moment when they go crazy!"

Zhao Xu could probably guess what Cai Jing was thinking.

It's nothing more than luring the snake out of its hole and then using its force to counter it.

But Zhao Xu's heart is much darker than Cai Jing's.

Cai Jing just wanted to clean up the clerks in the government and make them obedient from then on.

This is still within the normal method used by the Song Dynasty bureaucrats to deal with clerks.

Zhao Xu is different!

He never thought of keeping those termites.

Let it continue to inherit from its father, and live happily parasitically on the body of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, after reading Yang Ji's note, Zhao Xu ordered someone to call Shi Deyi and had a secret conversation with Shi Deyi for an hour in the quiet room in the east hall of Funing Palace.

……

In the second year of Da'an in the Liao Dynasty, May Dingchou (26).

The palace tent of Liao ruler Yelu Hongji had returned to Liaoyang Prefecture at this time.

Today, Yelu Hongji took his men out of the gate of Liaoyang City and came to a storage camp built outside the city.

At this time, a new batch of supplies purchased from the Song Dynasty were arriving here one after another.

Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of old and inferior tea from Chengdu Fu Road and Zizhou Road filled the camp’s treasury to the brim.

Hundreds of thousands of pieces of silk cloth filled the boxes - although they were all old cloth.

The arrival of tens of thousands of kilograms of brown sugar and thousands of kilograms of icing sugar caused cheers from the powerful.

Whether it is the Khitans, Bohai people, Jurchens, or Koreans, they have all fallen in love with sugar.

The Liao ruler Yelu Hongji needed to add sugar to his meals every day in order to be able to eat.

In addition to these supplies, there were also large quantities of various commercial goods from the Southern Dynasties.

Including thread ends, linen, lacquerware, spices... and even a large amount of ironware!

Although the Liao Dynasty's iron smelting technology was relatively advanced.

But the iron produced in the Southern Dynasties is not only of good quality, but also cheap!
Therefore, this time, more than 100,000 kilograms of iron ingots were purchased.

Yelu Hongji looked at the commercial goods purchased from the Southern Dynasty and smiled with satisfaction.

"Yelü Ju and Yelü Yongchang are still capable!" he commented, "It's just that they spend too much money..."

"The two hundred thousand taels of silver I managed to collect and exchange for Jiaozi were all spent in a flash!"

Yelu Hongji shook his head: "If we can't capture Kaifeng as soon as possible and seize Goryeo's wealth, it will be difficult to support the army with only the income of three to five thousand taels per month from Xiao Budaya on Da'an Island!"

As for the wealth that Xiao Budaya plundered in Kyushu, and the tributes that the Japanese from all over Kyushu paid as tribute?
That was his personal property as an emperor, and Yelu Hongji planned to use it to build a mausoleum for himself so that he could enjoy his current life underground a hundred years later.

Yelu Hongji was sighing with emotion when his uncle, Lanling County Prince Xiao Chouwo, came up to him and whispered, "Your Majesty... I heard that the King of Goryeo sent an envoy to beg for peace some time ago... He said he was willing to cede land and pay compensation..."

Yelu Hongji looked at him and frowned: "What do you want to say?"

The envoys sent by Goryeo to beg for peace were ordered to leave without even seeing him.

In Yelu Hongji's mind, this is easy to understand - I can destroy you, why should I negotiate with you?

"What I mean is..." Xiao Chouwo lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty may pretend to agree..."

"But we offer a condition to Goryeo that it must scrape the land three feet deep and give up everything it has..."

"Once we get the money, and once the Koreans think they can relax their guard..."

"The king's army will suddenly attack again and destroy Goryeo in one fell swoop!"

Yelu Hongji was stunned after hearing this.

"Isn't this bad?" He still had some dignity left.

If this kind of treacherous behavior were to spread to the Southern Dynasties, I'm afraid the people of the Southern Dynasties would laugh at him for being shameless!
And the international impact is too bad!

From now on, who would still believe in him and the Liao Dynasty?
Xiao Chouwo whispered, "Your Majesty, you can let the Koreans break the contract on their own initiative!"

Yelu Hongji looked at him as if he were a fool.

If a peace agreement could really be reached, how could the Koreans take the initiative to break the agreement?

At that time, if he hadn't asked the Koreans to kneel, they would not have dared to stand.

Xiao Chouwo had no choice but to explain: "What I mean is..."

"Your Majesty can order people to humiliate the ruler and his ministers of Goryeo and force them to break the agreement voluntarily..."

"I read the history books of the Han and Tang dynasties and saw all kinds of stories, which are recorded in history books!"

Yelu Hongji was shaken. He asked, "Is it true?"

"How dare I deceive you? Your Majesty, please ask the two scholars Wang and Zhao, and they will know the answer!"

"Then let me ask..." Yelu Hongji's heart beat rapidly.

If the emperors of the Han and Tang dynasties had indeed done similar things as Xiao Chouwo said,

Then it wouldn't be wrong for him to learn and imitate.

This is called admiring the actions of the previous kings!

(End of this chapter)