People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 290 Just give it a try

In early August, the autumn wind blows in the north of Saibei.

The gentle north wind blew across the Great Plains of Jugans, across Orlang and Lake Baikal, passed through the Northwest Daliao Road, and arrived at Xingqing Mansion in Yinchuan.

On the vast plains, cattle and sheep can be seen on the wind-swept grassland, and groups of party members drive their livestock toward Southeast Xiazhou.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the water and grass are plentiful, which is the season when cattle and sheep gain weight. It is also the time when cattle and sheep are fattest and most valuable.

If in winter, cattle and sheep start to lose weight because there is less food, or if the weather is too cold and the livestock freeze to death, then they are worthless and no one will buy them.

Therefore, the herdsmen of Xingqing Prefecture will gradually start driving their cattle and sheep to the southeast during this month, and they will be able to reach the Song-Xia border by almost September.

Now people from the Song Dynasty are buying them at high prices on the border.

They would drive the live cattle and sheep back to Shaanxi Road, and then transport them to Bianliang by Yellow River boat. They would send the wool to the people of the Song Dynasty as clothing, and put the mutton and beef on the tables of the people of the Song Dynasty.

For the Song Dynasty, this was the best era.

After several years of rest and recuperation, taxes were reduced, corvees were lightened, prices were stable, wages were stable, living conditions became better and better, and the types of goods on the market became more abundant.

For Xixia and Liao people, the current time is also the best time.

Under peaceful development, the two sides trade with each other.

The Xixia and Liao people sold their cattle and sheep, and also purchased a lot of grain, tea, pots and pans, and even books and handicrafts from the Song Dynasty to enrich their lives.

Everything was going in a good direction until one day the building collapsed.

In the Xixia Kingdom of Xingqing Prefecture, Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself king because of his defeat. He wore royal clothes and stood outside the palace looking into the east.

Although he can be shameless and call himself a king externally, while continuing to be an emperor internally.

But everyone has a face.

Li Yuanhao didn't want to be treated as a joke in private because of his unjust reputation and unreasonable remarks.

So he simply became the king of the Xixia people, ruled the land in the name of the king, and led the people to continue to move forward.

Since the defeat, Li Yuanhao was also unwilling to accept the decline of Xixia. While maintaining trade with the Song Dynasty, he also actively attacked the Western Regions, surrendered many Xizhou Uighurs, and connected the Silk Road.

In this way, merchants from the Western Regions would return to the Hexi Corridor if they did not want to take a long way to the Hehuang Corridor. Xixia bought the goods from merchants in the Western Regions and sold them to the Song Dynasty.

In this East Asian trade, the Liao people still needed to produce their own products for export, but they started working as middlemen and also made a lot of money.

Everyone makes money, so who loses?

Except for those in Qingtang who were robbed of some of the interests of Western Region merchants by Xixia, no one actually suffered any loss.

Because Xixia and Liao were also selling their own domestic handicraft manufacturing products to Song, both sides had demand for each other's goods.

The only difference is that the Song Dynasty purchased slightly more raw materials than other countries.

Generally speaking, unless one of the three countries suddenly becomes an industrial country, it will use the strong productivity of the industrial country to engage in a commodity dumping war and empty out the gold, silver and copper mines of the other two countries.

Otherwise, in this era of agricultural country, there would not be overwhelming business competition.

Xixia was a small country with rapid economic development and controlled the Hexi Corridor. It also recovered the fastest under the comprehensive liberalization of mutual trade controls by the Song, Xia and Liao Kingdoms.

In addition, Li Yuanhao continued to develop agriculture in the Yinchuan Plain. During the truce period, he mobilized people and soldiers to dig and build a large number of canals on both sides of the Yellow River, and introduced Champa rice and wheat. In autumn, the fertile fields were thousands of miles away, just like the south of the Yangtze River.

For a time, Xixia made great achievements both in economy and agriculture.

The only thing that lags behind is the military.

In recent years, the Song Dynasty has been developing firearms, the Liao Kingdom is developing firearms, and Xixia is also making progress.

There is no military competition, but the Song and Liao countries had this thing, and they had to live without it, otherwise they would be passive.

But the problem is that the Liao State was able to purchase sulfur in large quantities from the Song merchants, but it was difficult for the Xixia State to do so.

The Liao State had the Bohai Bay. After the Song merchants purchased sulfur from Japan, they could then sail the ship into the Bohai Bay and seamlessly engage in middleman transactions.

Xixia is a landlocked country with no ports. If you want to buy sulfur, you need to cross Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi to transport it.

Although in theory there is direct access to the Yellow River, the problem is that the cost of traveling upstream of the Yellow River is too high, and Xixia cannot afford it.

Therefore, they could only buy a small amount of sulfur excavated from Sichuan and other places at a high price, or buy some raw materials from Liao, a three-way dealer, bought from Japan by Song merchants and sold to Liao.

Even if the Liao Kingdom gave them the gunpowder formula, they could not produce it on a large scale, and there were only a very small amount of reserves at present, which made Li Yuanhao worried and felt a sense of desolation.

At this moment, he stood at the palace at the foot of Helan Mountain and looked east. What he could see was countless cattle and sheep spread out like dense clouds on the vast grassland.

The herdsmen drive them, and the entire grassland is full of vitality.

"My king works hard to govern, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and our country, Daxia, is prosperous, all because of your wise king."

Minister Yang Su said flatteringly.

"There are herds of cattle and sheep at the foot of the mountain. My Daxia scenery has not only been restored to its former glory, but has even been improved to a higher level."

"If things continue like this, the king will dominate the northwest and dominate the world. It will be just around the corner."

"This is all the result of the King's many years of wisdom and prowess."

Several civil servants also boasted.

He wears many clothes but not horses. Li Yuanhao is very jealous, so bragging about him is not a bad thing.

It's also ironic to say.

Historically, Li Yuanhao won, but because the Song Dynasty cut off mutual trade, the people's livelihood in the country was in decline and the people were in dire straits. Even the party members almost rebelled and pulled him down.

As a result, because of the defeat in the war and the signing of a free trade agreement with the Song Dynasty, the national strength has been developed and is stronger than before the war.

This is of course because Xixia straddles the Hexi Corridor and controls the "Land Silk Road", a transportation artery.

But the fundamental reason is that the Song Dynasty did not continue to cut off trade with him because of his defeat?

So sometimes fate is like this, elusive.

But Li Yuanhao was not satisfied with this.

His lifelong dream is to become emperor. Even if the country is strong, how can it compare with his ambition?

So when he heard the praise from everyone, Li Yuanhao just said calmly: "No matter how strong the country is, it is still not as powerful as the Song Dynasty. I am very worried."

"Your Majesty." Zhang Yuan said immediately, "The words of the Liao envoy may not be unreasonable."

Just now they received the Liao envoy in the palace.

However, Li Yuanhao did not express his position at that time. At this time, the Liao envoy had been sent off to rest. The group did not discuss in the palace, but walked outside the palace.

It was already evening, the sun was setting, and the gorgeous fire clouds seemed to cover the entire western sky, creating a colorful sky.

Li Yuanhao put his hands behind his back and looked into the distance and said, "Yelü Zong really wants to use me as a vanguard."

"The Liao State did not dare to easily start a war with the Song State, so it could only find ways to test."

Zhang Yuan analyzed: "Maybe the best way is to give us some benefits and let us attack Qingtang and see Song's reaction."

"hehe."

Li Yuanhao sneered and said: "He is going to test, why not go to Goryeo? Goryeo professed its vassalage to the Liao Dynasty, and then proclaimed its vassalage to the Song Dynasty. Isn't this the best excuse?"

"In the final analysis, it is because the Liao Kingdom is powerful and Daxia cannot compete with it, so it bullies us."

Ye Liyu begged shouted.

Historically, his ashes were cold at this time, but now after the truce, Zhong Shiheng did not try every means to devise counterintuitive plots, and the Yeli brothers were not killed, which can be regarded as changing history again.

"But this is indeed a good way to test the Song Dynasty, and this strategy can be retreated."

Zhang Yuan said: "We have a feud with Qingtang. We signed a Xia-Song contract with the Song Dynasty. This does not include Qingtang. The king's attack on Qingtang is justified. Even if he cannot be defeated afterwards, he can retreat calmly."

"Your Majesty, I think we still need to be more cautious about this matter. Even the Liao people dare not provoke a war without permission. We are far from the Liao in terms of national strength, and we should not go to war with the Song Dynasty again."

Ye Li Wangrong was relatively rational and advised: "If the Song people use this to invade Daxia, I am afraid that the Liao Kingdom may not come to help."

"Oh, the Song Kingdom is getting stronger and stronger, and the Liao Kingdom is becoming more and more uneasy. How could they not come to save it?"

Zhang Yuan retorted: "What's more, the general said he was going to lose even though there was no fight. This is probably not the responsibility of the general."

"Humph!"

Yeli Wangrong snorted coldly: "You are a cunning Han, do you want to drag us Daxia to death?"

Zhang Yuan said: "Now is the time when the Song people's army is in chaos. Think about it, if we don't take advantage of his chaos now, then when the Song people have put down the civil strife and reorganized the army, will there be any way for us to survive?" "

"you!"

Yeli Wangrong frowned, he couldn't defeat Zhang Yuan.

"All right."

Li Yuanhao glanced at the two of them.

The situation in Xixia and Liao was reversed.

On the Liao side, many Khitan nobles clamored to teach the Song Dynasty a lesson and became the main war faction. The civil servants and Han people were relatively calm, looked at the problem objectively, and advised Yelu Zong to be cautious.

On the Xixia side, Zhang Yuan and other civil servants were leading the battle, and they had always hoped to unite with the Liao Kingdom to launch an attack on the Song Dynasty.

On the contrary, the party nobles below were psychologically shadowed by the Song Dynasty's firearms during the previous Song-Xia war. They have always been anti-war and hope to live in peace with the Song Dynasty.

This is related to the national strength and historical status of the two countries.

The Liao Kingdom had always suppressed the Song Dynasty, and the Khitan nobles were accustomed to flexing their muscles and power over the Song Dynasty. As a result, the Song Dynasty suddenly rose to prominence, which was naturally difficult for them to accept.

Xixia has always been a vassal of the Liao Kingdom and the Song Dynasty. Dangxiang has regarded the Liao and Song Dynasties as its suzerain state for several generations, and has been canonized by both countries at the same time.

Therefore, the Dangxiang nobles are far less arrogant and have a wrong mentality than the Khitan nobles.

That's where the difference appears.

As for Zhang Yuan, he naturally refused to give up. He wanted to take revenge on the Song Dynasty, and he definitely wanted to provoke a war.

So in general, the main war faction in the Liao Kingdom was actually stronger, but they were temporarily intimidated by the calm Yelu Zongzhen.

So what do Li Yuanhao think?

He wants to fight.

I dreamed of defeating the Song Dynasty.

And now, it may indeed be the last chance.

With Xixia's national strength, economy and people's livelihood, they can catch up, but can their firearms catch up?

Once military strength falls behind, it will fall behind step by step.

In the end, Xixia will also be annexed by the Song Dynasty!

Li Yuanhao raised his head and looked at the sky in the distance, muttering to himself: "Yes, if we don't fight again, when the Song people reorganize their army and train a group of elites, I, Daxia, will always be trampled under their feet."

"Your Majesty!"

Yeli Wangrong opened his eyes wide.

"All right."

Li Yuanhao said calmly: "No need to say more, I have made up my mind. Go tell the envoy that I agree to the Liao Emperor's conditions!"

As he spoke, he waved his hand, his cloak fluttering behind him, turned around, and left towards the right side of the hall.

Zhang Yuan was overjoyed and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"

He raised his head and looked towards the distant east, with deep hatred in his eyes.

The people of Song Dynasty bullied him too much, and it would be unworthy of him not to avenge him.

Now is the last chance.

Since the Liao Kingdom has shown goodwill and given them a large number of firearms and other material support, why do they have the courage to fight!

Yelu Zong really asked them to give it a try, so just give it a try!

　I have really been a little sick these past two days. Generally, if I update at night, I have written all day long during the day, and there will only be one chapter. If it is updated in the morning, it means that it was written overtime, so there must be another chapter in the evening. This chapter will be updated during the day and there will be another chapter in the evening.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)