At the end of November in the eighth year of Xining, the Liao envoy team set out from Nanjing (Youzhou).
The chief envoys of the envoy were from Yelupo, Lingya in the north, and Xiao Xi, who had been envoy to the Song Dynasty before.
After the Chongyuan Rebellion, Lord Yelu Hongji of the Liao Dynasty lost trust in both the royal family and descendants. He only maintained trust in a few royal families such as Yelu Polu, and promoted Yelu Yixin, who was from a poor family, to suppress the aristocratic families, and at the same time passed the imperial examination.
And the selection of talents from the Han people in the north caused constant strife within the court, with old and new nobles competing with each other.
At the same time, in order to complete the suppression of the Five Kingdoms in the east, the suppression of Zubu in the west, and ensure the smooth flow of the Eagle Road, too much national power was consumed.
In order to unite the top and bottom, and with the purpose of diverting domestic conflicts, Yelu Po proposed to the Lord of Liao Yelu Hongji a plan to directly divide territory with the Song Dynasty.
Yelu Po told Yelu Hongji that from the southern border of Yingzhou to Tianchi, it is all my land for farming and pasture. During the Qingning period, the border generals were not careful and were invaded by the Song Dynasty. It seemed inappropriate to move the beacon fort inward.
Yelu Hongji was deeply convinced after hearing this, and asked him to be responsible for re-establishing the border with the Song Dynasty as Linya in the north. Of course, Yelu Po's idea was unanimously supported by the Liao Kingdom, whether it was the Han people in the north, the Khitan tribe, or the Yelu Po people.
The support of an upstart like Yi Xin was even more appreciated by Yelu Hongji.
The Liao Kingdom, which had repeatedly experienced the benefits of intimidating the Song Dynasty with force, regarded this as a way to repair internal divisions and improve cohesion.
It was with this expectation that Yelvpo sent the envoy. However, some knowledgeable people in the Liao Kingdom said that the southerners were vigorously fighting for their strength and had great intentions. If they failed to force them to force the war and restarted the war, the Liao Dynasty would lose fifty percent of the Song Dynasty every year.
Ten thousand years of tribute.
However, this statement fell on deaf ears among the majority of the Khitan people who regarded the Southerners as weak.
This time Yelupo personally took action to negotiate with the Song Dynasty, and he was accompanied by more than 500 Khitan troops.
He originally expected to receive a grand reception from the Song Dynasty team, but as soon as he arrived at the Song and Liao border, he learned about the Song Dynasty's reconstruction of Xiongzhou Guancheng and the border fortresses.
Moreover, Yelupo even saw with his own eyes that the Song Dynasty civil servants were busy digging ponds on the border to stop the Liao cavalry from going south.
Seeing this scene, the corner of Yelvpo's mouth raised. How could the Liao cavalry be intercepted by Tangchi?
Yelupo proudly said to his deputy Xiao Xi: "Our Khitan cavalry is like a city, a sword, and a sword. The Song army built so many defensive forests, ponds, gates, watchtowers and infantry on the border.
, but in the field battle, how can we withstand my cavalry for one round, and then we can only let our Khitan cavalry go deep."
Xiao Xi said: "Lin Ya, don't underestimate the Song people's strategy. I think the Song people deliberately built Yingzhou. They really established two strong cities and stationed heavy troops in Daming Mansion. This was a strategy to lure our cavalry into going deep. As long as Yingzhou is
We are sure that we cannot defeat the continent. As long as our army crosses the Yellow River to the south, it will be attacked by the heavy troops of Daming Prefecture."
Yelu Po said: "As long as the Song people have no cavalry, they will not be able to defeat the Khitan cavalry in the field. If the Daming Prefecture dares to send troops to leave the strong city, our cavalry will annihilate them in the field."
Liao people are also very pragmatic.
Yelu Hongji, the leader of the Liao Dynasty, had many times practiced war games or actual battles with his ministers in Nabo, simulating the cavalry versus infantry tactics to practice the decisive battle in the Liao and Song Dynasties. No matter how the deduction was conducted, the consensus among the Khitan monarchs and ministers was that the Song army
Without the cooperation of cavalry, it would be impossible to defeat the Khitan cavalry in a field battle.
As long as the Song army's field troops leave the strong city, the Khitan cavalry can surround them halfway and annihilate them in the wild.
Therefore, Yelupo was very confident in going south this time and wanted to take a big bite out of the Song Dynasty.
Seeing the scene of numerous civil service and large-scale construction projects, Yelupo was not angry but happy. When the time comes, he can use this to criticize the Song Dynasty for violating the covenant and blackmail him severely.
When they arrived in Xiongzhou, the county officials of the Song Dynasty greeted them by the roadside, and the state officials went out to the suburbs to greet them. Everywhere they went, the Song Dynasty officials would raise their glasses to persuade the Liao envoys to drink.
However, Yelvpo seemed very displeased. He immediately stopped drinking and said to the Song Dynasty official who was responsible for welcoming him: "What is the purpose of rebuilding Xiongzhou Guancheng? Doesn't this violate the covenant between me, the Emperor of Liao, and your officials of Song Dynasty?"
"
An official from the Song Dynasty said: "We follow the orders of Prime Minister Zhang Xuan!"
"Could it be that the words of Prime Minister Zhang Xuan are greater than those of your Song Dynasty officials?"
An official of the Song Dynasty said: "Xuan Xiang has the emperor's order, so he can act expediently."
Yelupo was very dissatisfied when he heard this and immediately refused the official's advice to drink.
As Yelupo traveled south, he saw people from the Song Dynasty training or being drafted along the way.
Yelupo's inquiries with his companions in the Song Dynasty revealed that this situation was not directed at the Liao Kingdom.
It is the content of the Baojia Law implemented in the Song Dynasty. Starting from the eighth year of Xining, the Song Dynasty implemented farm leisure drills for the people of Hebei. Every November to the first month of the next year, the volunteers must go to prefectures and counties to participate in teaching exercises in batches. Each period of teaching and training
moon.
Yelu Po looked thoughtful when he saw the Song Dynasty's large-scale deployment of soldiers and civilians for drills, and his arrogance was slightly reduced.
Yelu Po had doubts in his heart that this kind of civilian service training would not be of practical help to the decisive battle between Song and Liao. But the reason why the Song people trained like this was that they really planned to abandon the peace treaty and start a war with the Liao Kingdom in Hebei?
After arriving in Dingzhou, the local civil and military officials of the Song Dynasty held a grand banquet to entertain Yelupo.
Just the candles and oil lamps spent on the banquet are a huge sum.
Yelvpo took a sip of the wine and found it tasteless. He threw the jug on the ground in anger and cursed: "Do you deserve me to eat this bad wine mixed with water?"
The wine pot was spinning several times on the ground. The Song generals and officials at the table were all shocked and angry at Yelupo's performance.
Yelvpo used such testing methods to see the attitude of the Song people. In the past, Song officials had behaved submissively, for fear of angering the Liao envoys.
But I saw a tall Song general under the banquet lifting up the remaining wine in the jug on the ground and drinking it happily, and then replaced Yelupo's with a new jug of wine.
Yelupo could see that the Song people in his tent seemed to be calm, or that their panic was suppressed at once.
Yelupo sat down again, looked at the new pot of wine on the table and said to himself, there is something weird about this! The people of the Song Dynasty seemed to really want to fight! But didn't they know their chances of winning?
A few days later, Yelupo arrived at Zhending Mansion, which was also the location of this negotiation.
But in Zhending Mansion, which is an important town in Hebei Province, the elite soldiers and horses of the Song Army were gathered here. Thousands of Song troops were returning from the school grounds for inspection, and they were passing by the team of the Liao Kingdom.
The three armies shouted: "General, the world will be determined with three arrows!"
As soon as the voice fell, countless people raised their arms and shouted.
"The strong man sings into Hanguan!"
This powerful sound stimulated the Khitan horses of the Liao envoy to neigh unaccustomedly. Yelvpo tried his best to control the strong horses under his crotch, thinking that the morale of the Song army looked very high, or was he doing it deliberately to show me?
Yelupo looked at the towering Zhending City in front of him, and his previous momentum had been reduced by two.
