I studied in modern times

Chapter 903: Sacrilegious Alliance
Like Yelu Hongji, after Lin Xi returned to the residence that the Liao people had prepared for the Song envoys, he also ordered people to convey the Liao lord's conditions back to the country by fast horses through the state channel.

The so-called national channel was a channel specially opened for diplomacy in the Middle Ages.

Special national channels were opened between Song and Liao, and between Song and Xia.

However, for security reasons, national roads between countries will avoid each other's sensitive military and strategic locations.

Therefore, some sections of the road require detours.

However, couriers traveling on the international roads are exempt from all official inspections and ignore each other's tax cards.

Therefore, after the rise of the Jiaozi trade between Song and Liao, the Song-Liao State Bridge became a channel for trade between the two countries.

Then, it became a convenient smuggling channel.

The powerful people on both sides began to take advantage of this ready-made duty-free channel to smuggle large quantities of goods.

Even copper coins, silver and gold.

Generally speaking, the copper coins of the Song Dynasty flowed to the Liao Dynasty, while the silver and gold of the Liao Dynasty flowed to the Song Dynasty.

What is more interesting is that the ruling groups on both sides seem to have turned a blind eye to this matter.

As a result, smuggling became more rampant.

It may even have reached one-third of Jiaozi's trade volume.

And it is still rising rapidly.

Therefore, whether it was the messengers sent by Yelu Hongji or the messengers sent by Lin Xi, they spent much more time on the journey than in the past.

This is because there are a large number of business travelers flooding the national highways, and many people are taking advantage of the dry roads before winter to engage in large amounts of smuggling.

As a result, congestion directly occurred on some roads.

Yelu Hongji knew nothing of this. The next day, he met with the envoy from the Western Uighurs in the palace. He lost his way in the flattery of the other party, who called him "uncle", and agreed to send the Zubu cavalry to support the Western Uighurs.

Of course - the main reason for this was the Liao Kingdom's national policy towards the various tribes in the grasslands.

They tried every possible means to reduce the Zhubu population on the grassland and, at all costs, restricted the Zhubu people's access to various technical populations and materials.

This has been the national policy that has been implemented since the founding of the Liao Dynasty.

Every generation of Liao rulers, no matter how foolish or wise, were extremely firm in implementing this national policy.

It was during the generation of Yelu Hongji that the Liao Kingdom exposed its declining strength in the war with Western Xia, and the various Zhubu tribes on the grasslands gradually began to break away from the control of the Liao Kingdom and began to obey orders rather than decrees.

However, the Liao people still firmly restricted the Zhubu people on the grassland, obtaining metals including iron and bronze. At the same time, they strictly restricted the flow of technical talents such as blacksmiths and carpenters to the grassland.

Therefore, it was not so much the flattery and adulation of the Western Uighurs that made Yelu Hongji lose his way.

It is better to say that the Liao Dynasty's strategic thinking towards the various tribes in the grasslands drove Yelu Hongji's behavior.

Over the past few decades, the Zhubu people on the grassland have hardly encountered any wars.

Their population is growing.

The strength of the various tribes also began to expand.

This is not a good thing for the Liao Kingdom!
The Liao people knew very well that they had to reduce the population of Zhubu! Only in this way could they stabilize the north and the grassland.

A good way would be to let the Zubu people go to the Western Regions, intervene in the affairs of the Uighurs, and take part in the war.

It is also a very effective method that has been proven in practice. During the reign of Emperor Shengzong, after the Kara-Khanid Khanate destroyed Khotan, it attacked the Gaochang Uighurs.

At that time, the Liao Kingdom was in a tug of war with the Song court in the Chanzhou area. Faced with the Gaochang Uighurs' request for help, the Liao Kingdom was unable to provide assistance, so it mobilized tens of thousands of tents from the Zubu tribes to support Gaochang.

This meant that the Heihan people encountered great difficulties when they destroyed Gaochang.

After this battle, the Liao people discovered the benefits of this model.

It can not only reduce the population of Zhubu, but also intervene in the affairs of the Western Regions.

Simply awesome!
From then on, the Liao Kingdom frequently relied on the power of Zubu to interfere in the affairs of the Western Regions and Western Xia.

Let the Zubu people continue to bleed in these places in order to maintain Liao's control over the grasslands, the Western Regions, and Western Xia.

Therefore, when Yelu Hongji met with the leaders of the Zubu tribes, he directly used the excuse that his nephew (Western Uighur) had encountered an invasion by the Turks, and that the Liao, Zubu, and Uighurs were all one family and should help each other.

Therefore, all the leaders should send troops to support the Western Uighurs, the nephew of the Liao Dynasty, to save them from being destroyed by the Turks.
Of course, Yelu Hongji also knew that the Zubu people would never work for the Khitans for free.

Therefore, he copied the work of his grandfather, Emperor Shengzong of Liao, and directly offered a huge reward to those who tried to stop him.

For every cavalryman sent out by the Zubu tribe, the Liao Kingdom would give rewards based on the number of heads.

Every knight can get a reward of a piece of silk cloth and a bucket of salt every month!
Although the leaders of the various Zubu tribes were reluctant, they traveled thousands of miles to the Western Regions to help the Uighurs resist the invasion of the Turks.

Because they knew very well that the Liao people were taking this opportunity to reduce the population.

Let the warriors of their tribe go to the Uighurs thousands of miles away to shed blood.

However, facing the pressure from the Liao people, they had no good solution!

Because, from Zhubu's perspective, the current Liao Kingdom is very powerful!

The Eastern Expedition to Goryeo was victorious all the way, and even crossed the sea to Japan, forcing the Japanese to send envoys to ask for peace.

When faced with the Liao Kingdom, the various Zubu tribes were psychologically afraid to refuse.

You must know that the Liao Kingdom had heavy troops stationed on the grassland.

The Northwest Recruiting Envoy's camp had a large number of cavalry stationed in Daotaling, Tamucheng and other places.

At the same time, the Liao Kingdom also had four strongholds on the grassland, namely Zhenzhou, Fangzhou, Weizhou and Zhaozhou (all located at strategic passes of the grassland, blocking important pastures and water sources of the Zhubu tribes, and Zhaozhou was even within the territory of today's Mongolia).

It can be said that they can intervene in the Zhubu tribes anytime and anywhere.

The various Zubu tribes were originally a loose group and were hostile to each other.

It is obvious that the Mogus and Basmu tribes (Naiman tribes) are not on the same page.

The so-called eight enemy tribes, including Uguza and Daridi, had a deep hatred with the Yedugua tribe in the northern desert.

The Liao people only needed to pull one faction against another faction, and that was enough to make all the tribes suffer. Moreover, among the Zubu tribes at that time, there was a Liao leader known to everyone - Mogusi, who was supported by the Liao ruler Yelu Hongji.

This person was Yelu Hongji's confidant, a loyal dog recommended to Yelu Hongji by Yelu Dabuye, the Liaoxi North Route Recruiting Envoy.

He was supported by the Liao people all the way, and was promoted from an ordinary leader of the Zubu tribe to the governor of the Zubu tribe and the great chief of the Zubu tribes (probably the ancestor of Wang Han, the leader of the Kerait tribe).

Over the years, Mogus has been working loyally for the Liao people.

With the support of the Liao people, the Mogus tribe continued to grow stronger and is now the most powerful among the Zubu tribes.

Therefore, although reluctant, the leaders of various tribes had no choice but to agree to Yelu Hongji's request.

Of course, they were not stupid and directly asked Yelu Hongji to pay part of the reward first.

In response to this, Yelu Hongji naturally agreed generously.

At the same time, in order to commend the leaders of various tribes for their "knowledge of righteousness", they were given precious Southern Dynasty goods such as icing sugar and cotton cloth on the spot.

Mogus, who was established as a model and benchmark for the Liao people in preventing divination, was rewarded with 100 kilograms of icing sugar and 500 pieces of cotton cloth.

There is a small problem here, though.

That is, when the envoys of the Eastern and Western Black Khans subsequently communicated with these Zubu leaders.

They were embarrassed to find that the Arab religion they believed in seemed to have a slight difference from the opposing Zubu tribes.

In particular, the Mogus, Uguza and other tribes seemed to believe in the Christian religion that was hostile to them (actually it was Nestorian Christianity).

But, only a little.

Because what the Western Black Khan is facing now is an invasion from his own brothers.

The Seljuk Turks and the Eastern and Western Karakoram Khans were nominally part of the Abbasid Caliphate.

They all respected the Caliph of Baghdad as their common leader.

But the Seljuks have never been gentle to their own people.

Over the past few decades, how many dynasties of the same clan have been destroyed by the Seljuks?

How many more emirs and sultans have had their heads chopped off?

A few years ago, there was even a legend that the bastard Malik Shah led his troops into the sacred Baghdad, coerced the great caliph, established him as the co-leader, and placed his blasphemous name on par with the great caliph!
Simply unforgivable!

So, they don’t care.

Unite with the pagans!

Anyway, the Heihan people have long been accustomed to it.

The most urgent task is to thwart Malik Shah’s evil attempt to destroy the Black Khan!

Therefore, both the Western Black Khanate and the Eastern Black Khanate agreed to the Liao people's demands and accepted the conditions for the entry of the Zubu tribes.

And just like that, a strange alliance was born.

Interestingly, during the negotiations between the Liao people and the Heihan people and the Zubu people, the Liao people tentatively asked the two nephews to bear the military expenses of the Liao army's support.

The result was something the Liao people didn’t expect—the Black Khans agreed!
There are many reasons for this.

Given the unfavorable war situation, the Kara Khans, especially the Western Kara Khans, were eager to grasp at any life-saving straws they could.

At the same time, they were still very uneasy, fearing that it would be easier to invite the gods than to send them away - what if those pagans who opposed divination came and refused to leave?
Compared to this, spending money is much more comfortable.

Mercenaries!

They are very familiar with this!
You take the money to do the job, and leave when the job is done. The payment and goods are exchanged, and there is no deception. And with my uncle from the Liao Dynasty acting as a middleman, there is no need to worry that the fortune-teller will refuse to leave when the time comes!

So, I agreed immediately!

As the unavoidable middlemen on the Silk Road, the Heihan people are extremely wealthy.

It is no exaggeration to say that they are the big white hat dog owners in the Middle Ages.

Therefore, the wealthy Heihan people directly proposed to use gold and silver to pay the Liao people for hiring the Zubu cavalry on their behalf.

Moreover, payment is made at the [market price]!
Well, that is the market price of silk they imported from Liao, Xixia, and Tubo.

This made Yelu Hongji ecstatic.

Because he discovered that there was huge profit margin here!
How much did a piece of old cloth and inferior cloth from the Southern Dynasty cost?

Four hundred Wen, or Jiaozi!

However, what the Black Khans paid was gold and silver!

Moreover, the payment is based on the price of the finest silk and is the market price!

The price of each piece of silk is more than five strings of cash!

Then their value was converted into gold and silver, which were then sent to the Southern Dynasty to be printed into coins.

How many times the profit is this?

Yelu Hongji felt like his brain was short-circuiting and he couldn't figure it out.

During the negotiation process, some minor incidents occurred - the Black Khans came into contact with cotton cloth through Mogus.

They were immediately stunned by her beauty.

Then, out of a businessman's instinct, they tentatively made a purchasing request to the Liao uncle.

Of course, since it was their first purchase, they only bought a few hundred horses symbolically.

Yelu Hongji had no objection to this and agreed immediately.

He did not even ask for money from his nephews, but directly gave each of the Eastern and Western Khans 500 pieces of cotton cloth.

(End of this chapter)