Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 271 Hot Potato! (3k)

Sifang Pavilion.

The Song and Xia negotiation teams sat opposite each other.

The chief envoy of Western Xia was a member of the Dangxiang royal family named Li Binglin, who was also the cousin of the Western Xia king Li Bingchang. The deputy envoy was a Han Chinese named Zhang Erbai, and the rest were followers.

The Song Dynasty's team was much bigger, led by Vice-Minister Zhang Dun, with Secretary Cai Jing as his deputy, and the heads of the six ministries in attendance.

The atmosphere was not pleasant when both parties sat down. The people from Sifang Pavilion introduced themselves to each other, and then the negotiations began.

The first person to stand up from the Western Xia side was Zhang Erbai. Zhang Erbai said, "You Song people are immoral. The world was originally peaceful, but you, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, insisted on stirring up trouble. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, you raised hundreds of thousands of troops for no reason and invaded Daxia, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties among Daxia's soldiers and civilians.

My Great Xia Queen Mother Liang could not bear the humiliation, so she raised an army to oppose the invasion and finally drove you out of Xia territory. Instead of reflecting on yourself, you built Yongle City west of Mizhi to threaten my Great Xia. Fortunately, my Great Xia had a famous general who destroyed Yongle City.

But you still refused to give up, and this time you invaded Yinzhou City, Xiazhou City, and Youzhou City without authorization, killing and injuring more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians, causing great pain to our people of Daxia!"

Zhang Erbai was filled with grief and indignation, and then he proposed Xixia's conditions:
"...Since the war launched by your Song Dynasty was unjust, all the damage and losses caused to our Great Xia must be borne by you. Therefore, the peace talks should be discussed on the basis of the Qingli Peace Talks...."

Zhang Dun, Cai Jing and others all frowned.

The Xixia envoy laid so much groundwork, but finally the real purpose was revealed.

The Qingli Peace Agreement seemed good for the Song Dynasty in terms of appearance, but in reality it was of no substance at all.

Let's look at the specific content. The three most important ones are:

① The leader of Western Xia, Yuan Hao, agreed to give up his imperial title and be canonized as the ruler of Xia by the Song Dynasty;

② Song Dynasty gave Xixia 130,000 pieces of silk, 50,000 taels of silver, and 20,000 catties of tea every year. There were also other annual rewards, totaling 150,000 pieces of silk, 70,000 taels of silver, and 30,000 catties of tea;
③ Reopen trade in border markets such as Baoanjun and Gaopingzhai.

The first one was the face of the Song Dynasty, and the second one was the loss of substance. As for the third one, although the Song Dynasty made money from it, it was also because of these trades that Western Xia became increasingly powerful.

Now the Western Xia envoys directly proposed to negotiate on the basis of the Qingli Peace Agreement, which means that their interests must also be protected!
Zhang Erbai said: "First, in order to save face for both countries, especially for you Song people, we can not take the title of emperor, but let the Song Dynasty enthrone you as the ruler of Xia.

Secondly, the Song Dynasty doubled the amount of money and silk it gave to Xixia every year, that is, 260,000 rolls of silk, 100,000 taels of silver, and 40,000 catties of tea. There were also other annual rewards, totaling 300,000 rolls of silk, 140,000 taels of silver, and 60,000 catties of tea.
Don't think it's too much. You have provoked us without reason and invaded our territory, causing losses of more than tens of millions of strings of coins to Daxia. This amount of compensation is nothing.

Third, we must reopen trade at the border markets such as Baoanjun and Gaopingzhai;
Fourth, release all soldiers of Xixia captured by the Song Dynasty, including generals such as Ye Beima;

Fifth, all areas north of the four villages of Mizhi, Futu, Jialu and Anjiang were returned to Xixia;
Sixth, severely punish the Song army that entered Xia territory without permission and burned, killed, and looted, especially Su Yun, the governor of Fuyan Road (they learned that he was the governor of Fuyan Road from the notice posted by Su Yun);
......"

Zhang Erbai read out more than a dozen conditions one after another.

The more Zhang Dun, Cai Jing and others listened, the darker their faces became. After hearing the last part, even Zhang Dun was so angry that he laughed.

Did the Xixia people win or lose the battle? Judging from these conditions, they won another great victory in Yongle City, right?
Among these six most important conditions, the first and third are still reasonable, but the others are simply incomprehensible.

Xixia was beaten so badly by Ju Zheng this time, and they still dare to come out and speak nonsense?
Now that the Western Xia can no longer fight, they still dare to come and ask for a doubling of the annual tribute, the unconditional release of prisoners, and even the courage to ask the Song Dynasty to punish Ju Zheng?

What made Zhang Dun even more angry was that the Xixia people actually dared to demand that the Song Dynasty return all the areas north of the four villages of Mizhi, Futu, Jialu and Anjiang to Xixia!
What does this mean? It means that the Song Dynasty had spent tens of millions of strings of cash and hundreds of thousands of troops to fight against the Xia Dynasty from five directions, and all the fruits of their efforts had to be handed back!

Zhang Dun resisted the urge to beat up the arrogant Xixia envoy. Not long ago, he had hit a colleague with a sword and made him bleed, for which he was fined five kilograms of copper. If he beat the Xixia envoy again, he would be fined more than just copper.

After listening to Zhang Erbai's words, Zhang Dun smiled and asked, "Who is Zhang Yuan to you?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Cai Jing and others all looked at Zhang Erbai.

Zhang Yuannai was a well-known traitor. He was originally from Huayin, Shaanxi. His original surname was Zhang and his original name is no longer traceable.

When he was young, he was both civil and military, "arrogant and talented", but he had bad luck in the imperial examinations, and failed in several palace examinations, and stopped at the level of "tribute scholar" who could not directly enter the government.

Zhang Yuan, who failed the imperial examinations many times, felt that he had no luck in the imperial examinations, so he went to the border between Song and Xia with a good friend who also failed the imperial examinations, ready to join the army in order to make military achievements.

But the two soon hit a wall again. The generals stationed in the northwest did not think they had military talent.

So he later surrendered to Li Yuanhao and planned the Battle of Haoshuichuan. Li Yuanhao adopted Zhang Yuan's suggestion of setting an ambush, feigning defeat to lure the Song army into the encirclement, and finally annihilating them. In the end, the Song army was defeated and more than 10,000 people were killed. After the battle, looking at the mountains of corpses and the sea of ​​blood, Zhang Yuan wrote a poem on the wall of Jieshang Temple: "Xia Song has never been so tall, Han Qi is not surprising enough. The river is full of dragon and tiger chariots, and they are still talking about military strategies."

He also signed his name as "Grand Tutor, Minister of the Chancellery, and concurrently Minister of the Central Secretariat Zhang Yuan accompanied the emperor here," venting his depression at that time.

This person made the people of Song Dynasty hate him to death.

Zhang Erbai immediately said angrily: "That's my father, how dare you be so rude?"

Zhang Dun snorted coldly upon hearing this, and stopped looking at Zhang Erbai. He said to the envoy Li Binglin: "Our plan is:
1. Cancel the annual tribute of the Qingli Peace Agreement;
2. The two sides exchanged prisoners (in the defeat of Yongle City, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were not killed, but captured);
3. Both sides shall redefine the border according to the currently occupied areas;
As for whether to trade with each other, our dynasty will naturally discuss it, and if the discussion comes to a conclusion, we will naturally inform you."

As soon as these words were spoken, the Western Xia envoy became furious.

Li Binglin was furious and said, "It has been more than 40 years since the Qingli Peace Agreement was signed. This is the foundation of peace between the Xia and Song dynasties. You dare to abolish the Qingli Peace Agreement. It seems that you want to continue the war, right?"

Zhang Dun sighed in his heart. He originally did not agree to this condition, but since Wang Gui, Zhang Xu and even Cai Que insisted on it, he was helpless.

Su Yun had written him a special letter before, saying that if negotiations were to take place, the three states of Yinzhou, Xiazhou and Youzhou must be included in the negotiation conditions. Whether the deal could be concluded was another matter, but room must be left for negotiations.

But when he raised this matter to many ministers and others, he was rejected by everyone. Zhang Dun was outnumbered. Even Cai Que did not support him. What could he do?
Unexpectedly, Li Binglin jumped up as if his tail was stepped on. This negotiation will become difficult.

Zhang Dun said calmly: "This is a different time. You and I know what the current situation is. If you are not convinced, then just keep fighting."

The demands of both parties were so different that it was naturally difficult to reach an agreement. The two sides exchanged sharp words, but still ended up parting on bad terms.

On the second day, envoys from the Liao Kingdom also joined in and pressured the Song Dynasty to surrender.

The Liao envoys were not on the same side as the Western Xia, but stood on the side of the Western Xia for their own demands. Sure enough, during the discussion, the Liao envoys actually proposed to increase the annual tribute and demanded that the Song Dynasty cede several important forts at the junction of Hedong Road, Hebei East and West Road and the Liao Kingdom.

This made Zhang Dun particularly angry.

It would have been fine to be blackmailed after losing the battle, but after winning such a great victory, the Western Xia and Liao Kingdoms actually dared to join forces to oppress the Song Dynasty. How could he tolerate this? He immediately became furious.

However, the Xixia and Liao envoys left the table directly, and before leaving, they threatened Zhang Dun: "If we can't reach an agreement, you Song Dynasty should prepare to face the joint attack of Liao and Xia!"

Zhang Dun couldn't stand this kind of humiliation, so he went straight to Zhao Xu and resigned from the assignment.

Zhao Xu was naturally extremely angry, but he had no choice but to send new personnel to participate in the negotiations. This time, the person he sent was the Chief Censor Li Ding.

Li Ding went to negotiate for two days, and then went to report to Zhao Xu in a dejected state. Zhao Xu became even more angry because the conditions of Western Xia and Liao had become higher. The annual tribute had doubled, and Western Xia also demanded that some important forts in the Hehuang area be ceded to them.

The Liao Kingdom also had a big appetite and demanded some territory, and the annual tribute was doubled.

Zhao Xu was so angry that the blood vessels in his head were throbbing, but it was obvious that Li Ding could not be negotiated either, so he wanted to send someone else to negotiate, but this time no one was willing to take over this mess.

Zhao Xu designated several people, but they all refused.

Zhao Xu was helpless, but he couldn't go and negotiate on his own, so he was suddenly stuck in a deadlock.

Zhao Xu went to Wang Gui to discuss countermeasures. Then Wang Gui, whether to solve the problem or to deliberately pass the buck, said: "This battle was won by Su Jinglie. How should we negotiate? Perhaps he is more qualified. Why not let him negotiate?"

Zhao Xu was a little hesitant about Wang Gui's suggestion. This negotiation would be difficult. If it didn't go well, not only would he lose the credit for winning the battle, but he would even have to take the blame. Out of consideration for protecting Su Yun, Zhao Xu wanted to refuse. However, when Zhang Dun heard about this, he took the initiative to come to him.

Zhang Dun said, "Your Majesty, you can let Ju Zheng discuss this matter. He should be quite happy about it. He has mentioned this to me in a letter."

Zhao Xu was a little surprised when he heard this and said, "This is a hot potato. Does Ju Zheng really want to discuss it?"

Zhang Dun nodded and said, "This is true."

Zhao Xu thought about it for a while before agreeing.

(End of this chapter)