Across the Water Margin: Officials of Ximen

Page 595

Historically, when experienced generals defended the city, they would expel the old, weak, sick, disabled, women and children, etc., out of the city in advance, so as not to waste food after the city was besieged.

If there is a situation where the city runs out of food and starves to death, it will be a great blow to the morale of the defenders.

The new emperor Zhao Huan and Li Gang, the minister of the war faction, did not understand these principles. Today, the millions of people in the city of Bianliang in Tokyo are the biggest weakness in the defense of the city.

Taiyuan City with a small population can hold on, but Bianliang City in Tokyo can't survive by defending the city wall.

If the Jin army cannot be repelled in the field, once the food in the city is exhausted and millions of people riot, Tokyo Bianliang City will collapse without a fight.

Zhao Huan, Li Gang and other monarchs in the Song Dynasty did not understand this truth, but Wanyan Zongwang of the Jin Army looked at the largest city in the world, and he was sure that Bianliang City in Tokyo would not be able to hold on for a long time.

Therefore, Wanyan Zongwang's two siege battles were only to show off his force to the Song Dynasty, and did not invest too much force to smash the tall city wall.Using cavalry to cut off the internal and external transportation of Bianliang City in Tokyo is the truly threatening method of siege.

Wanyan Zongwang believed that the Song Dynasty monarchs and officials trapped in the city would eventually give in to him and accept his terms of peace talks.

Hearing that the Song Dynasty sent envoys to negotiate, Wanyan Zongwang sent Wu Xiaomin from Yan to see the Song envoy Zheng Wangzhi.

After meeting Zheng Wangzhi in front of the army, Wu Xiaomin told him that our commander intercepted your documents on the way and knew that your old emperor of the Song Dynasty had passed the throne to the new emperor.Now that your emperor has changed, we don't plan to care about the treachery you did before.If you can agree to our conditions, we can make peace with you and retreat.

After Zheng Wangzhi heard this, he asked Jin Guo what conditions he had for peace.

Wu Xiaomin said that there are two, one is that the two countries will use the Yellow River as the national border in the future, and the entire north bank of the Yellow River will be owned by the Kingdom of Jin.The other one is to march all the way south, and the Jin army has worked very hard, because this war was caused by the fault of the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty was required to send out silver and two laborers.

After hearing this, Zheng Wangzhi argued with Wu Xiaomin a few words.

Wu Xiaomin said contemptuously, there is no need for the two of us to waste words here, and you must not be able to make the decision, why don't I go to the city with you to meet your new emperor directly, so that I can explain it more clearly.

Jin envoy Wu Xiaomin and Emperor Zhao Huan met Wu Xiaomin in the Chongzheng Palace and asked him if Jin Guo would like to talk about peace.

Wu Xiaomin replied that when I came, the commander-in-chief said that if the Song Dynasty was sincere, please send an envoy to our army.

After Emperor Zhao Huan heard about it, he ordered Zheng Wangzhi to go there again, and told him that during the negotiation, if the Kingdom of Jin wanted the land north of the Yellow River, he would negotiate with them to increase the old currency instead of cutting the land.As long as the land can be kept, it doesn't matter to give them an extra three to five million taels of silver every year.As for laborers' silver taels, they can also be given three to five million taels.

After Zheng Wangzhi got the decree, he was about to resign. Emperor Zhao Huan also said that you can bring them 1 taels of gold, wine, fruit and other things when you go this time, to show my sincerity in negotiating in the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Zheng Wangzhi was ordered by Emperor Zhao Huan to go to the Jin army with 1 taels of gold, wine, fruit and other items that day, and started peace talks with the Jin army between the two countries.

When he was in the army, in order to please Wanyan Zongwang and other Jin army generals, the emperors and ministers of the Song Dynasty proposed to choose one hundred beauties in the city to give to Wanyan Zongwang, in addition to giving gold, wine, fruit and other items.

Zhao Huanjun and his ministers didn't know that although Wanyan Zongwang was a commander who was good at fighting and killed countless people on the battlefield, he was also a person who loved the people.Wanyan Zongwang believed in Buddhism. When he led the army to fight, he never allowed his soldiers to kill innocent civilians. He was called "Prince Bodhisattva" by the army.

Therefore, when Wanyan Zongwang heard that the Song Dynasty was going to gift him a hundred beautiful girls, he sternly refused.

Wanyan Zongwang replied to the envoy of the Song Dynasty that the one hundred girls must have parents and family members in the city, and he could not bear to let them be separated from their families, so there is no need to give away the hundred beauties, and the Jin army does not need them.

When rejecting the Song Dynasty's gift of beauties, Wanyan Zongwang couldn't help but sneer at the ministers who handled the matter in the Song Dynasty.However, although he despised the despicableness of the Song people, Wanyan Zongwang still understood that the Song Dynasty's monarchs and officials were eager to seek peace, so he decided to continue negotiations with the Song Dynasty.

On the [-]th day of the first month, Wanyan Zongwang sent Xiao Sanbaonu, Yeluzhong, and Zhang Yuangong to see the Song envoy Zheng Wangzhi.

Xiao Sanbaonu said kindly, our army's dispatch of troops this time was all caused by your recruiting Zhang Jue, but it was all because of your overlord's disloyalty, not your new emperor's fault.If you had sent someone to say that the Supreme Emperor had abdicated, our army would not have come.

Chapter 895 The Golden Army's Peace Negotiation Conditions

After Xiao Sanbaonu finished speaking, Zheng Wangzhi replied that the Supreme Emperor had just abdicated for more than ten days, and before sending envoys to your country, your army arrived here.

Xiao Sanbaonu said that everything seems to be a misunderstanding, but now that the army has arrived here, they cannot return empty-handed.

Zheng Wangzhi asked him what the conditions for the Jin army to withdraw were.

Xiao Sanbaonu said three things. First, in view of the repeated failure of the Song Dynasty, in order to ensure that the Song Dynasty could keep its word and implement the peace treaty, the Song Dynasty asked the Song Dynasty to send a prince to the Kingdom of Jin as a hostage.The second is that the border between the two countries will be bounded by the Yellow River in the future.The third is to labor the army and silver.

Jin Jun's request exceeded the authorization of Emperor Zhao Huan. Zheng Wangzhi dared not agree, so he replied to Xiao Sanbaonu that the prince could not give it; the Yellow River was not enough; the court could give more silver to the Kingdom of Jin.

After hearing this, Xiao Sanbaonu asked Song Dynasty how much silver taels he could give.

Zheng Wangzhi said that the court agreed to give three to five million taels.

When Xiao Sanbaonu heard the words, he said that he gave too little.He also said that there were 30 soldiers in the Eastern Route Army and 20 soldiers in the Western Route Army. The 50 Golden Army soldiers received at least two ingots of silver and one ingot of gold.

The two corps led by Wanyan Zongwang and Wanyan Zonghan did not have 50 people. Is Xiao Sanbaonu exaggerating?Actually not.

Although the two legions of the Jin Army only had more than [-] people each, they were only the main force of the first batch of Jin Army going south.

Behind the armies of Wanyan Zongwang and Wanyan Zonghan, Jin Guo also mobilized many Han armies, Khitan armies, Xi armies, and Bohai armies, and they were following the main armies and continuously heading south.

Just like Wanyan Zonghan's West Route Army, when the main army besieged Taiyuan City in the Song Dynasty, Datong Mansion was still able to organize an army of [-] to crusade against the Xixia Army.

It turned out that when the Jin army went south, it asked the Xixia Kingdom to attack the Sixth Route of Shaanxi in the Song Dynasty and hold back the main force of the Western Army in the Song Dynasty.

After the promise of the Jin Kingdom was fulfilled, it gave the Xixia Kingdom the Tiande Army and other lands that were adjacent to the Xixia Kingdom in the Xijing Road of the Liao Kingdom.

Xia Chongzong and Li Ganshun had an extra mind to strike a balance between the two countries of Jin and send troops to take advantage of the opportunity of the Jin-Song war.

After the Xixia Army sent troops to regain the territory occupied by the Song Army, they did not invade the Song State on a large scale and clashed with the Song Army. Instead, they sent troops to occupy the Tiande Army and other places promised by the Jin State.

Seeing that Xixia Guoyang was violating Yin Yin, did not attack the Song Dynasty with all its strength, but occupied the land of the Jin Kingdom before the Jin Kingdom was handed over, Wanyan Zonghan was furious, and ordered Wanyan Xiyin to crusade against the Xixia Army and regain the lost land.

Wanyan Xiyin summoned an army of [-] in Datong Mansion, defeated the invading Xixia army, and recovered the Tiande army and other places.

If it weren't for the Jin and Song Dynasties fighting, the Jin army might have taken advantage of the situation and entered the Xixia Kingdom.

Although the Jin army temporarily spared the Xixia Kingdom, Wan Yan Zonghan had already moved to kill the Xixia Kingdom. After preparing to solve the Song Dynasty, he launched an army to attack the Xixia Kingdom.

Although the war between Jin and Xia ended briefly, it fully proved the powerful war potential of the Jin army after the Jin Kingdom annexed the Liao Kingdom.

If a satisfactory peace treaty cannot be reached with the Song Dynasty, the successor troops of the Jin Army will go south one after another, capturing every city in Hebei and Hedong, until they capture Bianliang City in Tokyo and destroy the Song Dynasty.

Faced with the conditions proposed by Xiao Sanbaonu on behalf of Jin Jun, Zheng Wangzhi believed that Jin Jun had asked for too much, and the Song court was really unable to pay.Zheng Wangzhi said that for the sake of the friendship between the two countries for generations, he hoped that the Jin army could also understand the Song Dynasty and make some concessions in the negotiations.

When Xiao Sanbaonu and others saw what the Song envoy said, they returned to the camp of the Jin army and conveyed the Song envoy's opinion to Wanyan Zongwang.

After discussing with the generals around him, Wanyan Zongwang decided to make some concessions.

After all, what the Kingdom of Jin launched this time was a punitive war, the purpose of which was to take back the land of Yan given to the Song Dynasty, let Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty Zhao Ji step down, and force the Song Dynasty to cede several cities as compensation for the surrender of Pingzhou of the Kingdom of Jin.

At this time, the Kingdom of Jin was strengthening its rule over the land and people of the Liao Kingdom, committed to internal affairs, and had no intention of destroying the Song Dynasty.

Jin Jun himself did not expect that he would be able to reach the city of Bianliang in Tokyo so quickly, so the proposal to draw the river to rule is just a negotiation skill, not the real bottom line of the Jin Kingdom.

After some trials, Wanyan Zongwang decided to make a slight concession in the negotiations in exchange for a new peace treaty between the two countries.

After the discussion, Wanyan Zongwang ordered Zheng Wangzhi, Li Yue and other Song Dynasty envoys to attend.The Jin army was fully armed outside the large tent of the Chinese army, in order to create pressure on Zheng Wangzhi and other Song envoys.

Sure enough, when Zheng Wangzhi and others saw Jin Jun's murderous aura, they were frightened out of their wits.

As soon as Zheng Wangzhi and the others entered the big tent and saw Wanyan Zongwang, their feet softened immediately, and they fell down and bowed, so nervous that they didn't dare to breathe.

Wanyan Zongwang said to Zheng Wangzhi and others, now that our army has arrived outside your capital city and is not attacking, we just want to leave incense for your Zongmiao Sheji surnamed Zhao.